THE FORMATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEMS
AND SITUATIONS IN THE CITY OF GOMEL AND THEIR REFLECTION ON THE COMPLEX GEOECOLOGICAL MAP

Sokolov Aleksandr Sergeevich, Assistant lecturer, sub-department of ecology, Gomel State University named after Franzisk Skarina (Belarus, Gomel, 104 Sovetskaya str.), alsokol@tut.by
Khlebin Roman Fedorovich, Methodologist, Gomel State Regional Ecological and Biological Center of Children and Youth (Belarus, Gomel, 18a Irininskaya str.), kh-rom-off@tut.by

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Background. The city of Gomel, being a large industrial center, is the second most populous city of Belarus. The aim of the research is the regional analysis of geoecological situations in Gomel, identifying the most critical areas from the viewpoint of ecological violation and creating a comprehensive environmental map of the city based on this research.
Materials and methods. The data for mapping included the maps of the environmental states of the city districts, statistics and fund data, literature sources. On the basis of territorial synthesis of ecological information under analysis experts defined certain areas of environmental situations differing in the degree of their pollution within the city.
Results. The territory was divided into four classes according to the level of the natural environment violation: the territo-ries with the critical level are represented by three local areas in the west of the city, including the territory and surroundings of the MSW landfill, a working sand quarry «Osovtsy» and the territory of Gomel chemical plant together with industrial phosphogypsum dumps; the territories with a high pollution level mainly occupy the functional center of the city, its northern, northwestern and western parts, as well as the south of Novobelitsky district; the territories with an average level of pollution include mainly the private sector zones in the central and north-eastern parts of the city, the main part of the territory of Novobelitsky district and much of the south-western part of the city; territories with a low pollution level cover annually flooded areas of the Sozh floodplain, as well as the urban areas on the eastern outskirts of the city.
Conclusions. In the city of Gomel there can be found areas with very different environmental violation level ranging from relatively satisfactory to critical. The main factor for forming the areas with the critical and high level of environment violation is the presence of large industrial enterprises in the north and particularly in the west of the city that has a devastating impact on the formation of ecological environment taking into account the dominant Western transfer of air masses.

ecological map, ecological information, environment violation, pollution.

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