METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO DIAGNOSTIC AND MONITORING OF SOIL POLLUTION IN URBANIZED TERRITORIES
Authors:   V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine, Krainiukov Oleksii , Kryvytska Ivetta ,   V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine
Published: April 2024

Observation of the content of heavy metals in herbaceous vegetation growing on monitoring sites confirms the expediency of conducting regular bioindication for the purpose of prompt forecasting of trends in the development of man-made soil pollution processes. The combination of soil and plant diagnostics of pollution will contribute to greater objectivity of land monitoring in urbanized areas and the adoption of timely preventive measures. The purpose is to scientifically substantiate the improvement of monitoring of heavy metal contamination of soils of urban areas using a complex of chemical-analytical and biodiagnostic methods. Methodology of the study is based on spatio-temporal analysis of man-made soil pollution indicators within urbanized areas. The following methods were used to solve the problems: field research, chemical-analytical, biotesting, mathematical-statistical. Results. For the soils of urban urban landscapes, which are under the cumulative effect of various pollutants, it is not enough to assess the level of pollution only by the excess of the content of heavy metals, and it is necessary to supplement the methods of chemical and analytical research with biodiagnostic methods, in particular phytotoxicity. This increases the objectivity of diagnosing pollution, provides an integral assessment of its impact on plants, and increases the level of reliability of soil monitoring in urban landscapes. It is necessary to implement the latest methodical approaches to the organization of soil monitoring in urbanized areas, which will include: taking into account the local geochemical background, functional purpose of land, different buffering properties of soils, multicomponent nature of pollution and its phytotoxic effect, assessment of the degree of geomorphological and lithological homogeneity, priority selection of observation sites in geochemical subordinate elements of the landscape in places with open ground cover, differentiated periodicity of indicator measurements, combining data of chemical-analytical control and biodiagnostics. Practical implications. Methodical approaches to the monitoring of soil pollution in populated areas have been implemented in the work of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine to ensure the proper functioning and improvement of the land and soil monitoring system within the framework of the National Action Plan to Combat Land Degradation and Desertification, approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated 30.03. 2016 No. 271-r (letter No. 5/4.1-16/9645-19 dated August 29, 2019). The results of research on the improvement of biotesting methods have been implemented in the work practice of the laboratory of biological research and biotesting of the National State University "Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Environmental Problems" and the communal enterprise "Regional Center of Natural Resources and Ecology" of the Kharkiv Regional Council in determining the phytotoxicity of soils in urbanized areas. Value/originality. The obtained factual materials on the assessment of man-made soil pollution and the developed methods of their biotesting are included in the educational process of teaching environmental disciplines at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, and G. S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.