Industrial pollution in the Kol'skiy Poluostrov, Russia

Rees, Gareth; Kapitsa, A. P.

doi:10.1017/s0032247400024232

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…This area is heavily, though discontinuously, industrialised (e.g., Strelkov and Freidin 1973), and levels of SO 2 emissions, in particular, are exceptionally high. The mountainous local topography, however, causes a heterogeneous distribution of pollution e ects ( Rees and Kapitsa 1994). Within the space of 50 km one ® nds areas that are, on the evidence of the distribution and state of health of lichen species, completely una ected, and areas that are so badly a ected as to have been designated`technogenic barrens'.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring changes in land cover induced by atmospheric pollution in the Kola Peninsula, Russia, using Landsat-MSS data

Rees¹,

Williams²

1997

International Journal of Remote Sensing

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We present the results of hybrid unsupervised-supervised classi® cation of a series of Landsat-MSS images, spanning the period from 1978 to 1992, to study the impact of SO 2 emissions from the nickel smelter at Monchegorsk (67ß 55¾ N, 32ß 50¾ E) in the Kola Peninsula, Russia, on adjacent boreal forest and upland ( lichen-dominated) tundra vegetation. Ground truth data were collected from a 2500 km 2 area during airborne and surface ® eld campaigns in 1994 and 1995, and used to classify the 1992 image into 56 di erent surface types, including a characterisation of the level of vegetation damage. The pre-1992 images could not be classi® ed by transferring the spectral signatures from the 1992 image, mainly as a result of phenological di erences. Instead, they were classi® ed using spatial context and a set of observationally-derived botanical rules governing the types of allowable land-cover change.A comparison of the classi® ed images was performed by further combining the land-cover classes into groups representing forest areas with varying proportions of canopy damage, and upland tundra areas with varying degrees of lichen cover and damage level. Quantitative comparative results were obtained for a 22 225 km 2 area common to all images after 1978. Although damage levels were already signi® cant by 1980, our results show that most of the increase in vegetation damage since 1980 has in fact occurred since 1989. We attribute this to a change in the local meteorological conditions. The method developed in this paper has the merit of revealing areas of upland tundra vegetation showing early e ects of SO 2 -induced damage. It should thus have widespread applicability to the delineation and monitoring of areas of industrially a ected arctic vegetation, especially in the former Soviet Union, where many such areas occur, often in regions where access is severely limited. However, it is likely that ® eld validation will continue to be required, since the mechanism by which increasing damage levels are depicted in MSS images of lichen tundra areas remains unclear.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring changes in land cover induced by atmospheric pollution in the Kola Peninsula, Russia, using Landsat-MSS data

Rees¹,

Williams²

1997

International Journal of Remote Sensing

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“…Prevailing winds are from the north in summer, from the south in winter. The mean temperature in the coldest months (January and February) is around -9 • C and in the warmest month (August) +12 • C; the average annual precipitation is around 500-600 mm (Rees and Kapitsa 1994). Local vegetation is strongly dependent on altitude.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Automated spaceborne detection of degraded vegetation around Monchegorsk, Kola Peninsula, Russia

Rees

2011

Polar Record

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This paper develops a simple method for the detection of ‘vegetation anomalies’, locations where the amount of vegetation, estimated through the use of the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), is significantly lower than expected on the basis of topographic factors alone. The method is developed and tested using satellite imagery from the area around the town of Monchegorsk on the Kola Peninsula, Russia. This area has been subject to heavy levels of airborne industrial pollution for many years and the intended purpose of the method is to allow the extent of pollution damaged vegetation to be estimated with as few operational decisions as possible by the data analyst, thus suiting it for automation and for the analysis of time-series of satellite images. While the work described in this paper is to some extent preliminary, it does establish that spatial variations in the NDVI of undisturbed vegetation can, at least in the study area, be modelled satisfactorily using topographic variables, and that negative departures from this modelled variation are very strongly associated with industrially mediated damage.

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“…with heavy metals is the region's non-ferrous smelters (Rees and Kapitsa 1994). Their discharges penetrate via the Niva River into Kandalakshskiy Zaliv.…”

Section: Kandalakshskiymentioning

confidence: 99%

Protected nature areas in the Russian Arctic

Volkov¹,

Korte

1994

Polar Record

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The protected nature area system in Russia is well developed in general, although not as well in the Arctic. On 1 January 1994 the total area of all types of Arctic reserves covered about 19.7 million ha, comprising about 10.2% of the area of the Russian Arctic. There are five categories of protected nature areas: strict nature reserwes (zapovedniki), national nature parks (natsional'nyye parki), nature monuments (pamyatniki prirody), special purpose reserves (zakazniki), and nature-ethnic parks (prirodno-etnicheskiye parki). The system of the zapovednik is unique. The oldest strict nature reserve in the Arctic is Kandalakshskiy (1939). Other major nature reserves include Ostrov Vrangelya (created in 1976), Taymyrskiy (1979), Ust-Lenskiy (1985), and Bol'shoy Arkticheskiy (1993). The first nature-ethnic park in the Arctic, Beringiya, was established in 1993. Because of the unstable economic and political situation in Russia, the nature protection system has a difficult time. Furthermore, the legal structure that defines the purpose of and responsibility for these areas is sometimes not completely clear, and a great deal is dependent on presidential decrees that, through time, have limited validity. The cooperation of Russian, western European, and North American scientists who study birds breeding in the Russian Arctic and migration patterns to temperate regions could give major support to the nature re-serves in the Russian Arctic.

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Industrial pollution in the Kol'skiy Poluostrov, Russia

Cited by 12 publications

References 3 publications

Monitoring changes in land cover induced by atmospheric pollution in the Kola Peninsula, Russia, using Landsat-MSS data

Monitoring changes in land cover induced by atmospheric pollution in the Kola Peninsula, Russia, using Landsat-MSS data

Automated spaceborne detection of degraded vegetation around Monchegorsk, Kola Peninsula, Russia

Protected nature areas in the Russian Arctic

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