Cartographic interpretation of chemical and radiation contamination of Russian soils

Abstract

At the end of the 20th century, a geoinformation database on soil degradation in Russia, relied on the soil map of Russia at a scale of 1 : 5 million, was developed under the leadership of V.S. Stolbovoy. As part of the development of this problem and in the course of obtaining new information on soil degradation, an attempt was made to refine and supplement this database, that relies on the soil map of the Russian Federation 1 : 2.5 million scale. Soil degradation resulted from the impact of various types of pollution was taken into account, including industrial emissions, leakage of oil products, excessive application of pesticides, the impact of vehicles and radiation pollution. Each soil polygon of the soil map exposed to the pollution was characterized by the degree and area of pollution in accordance with the developed scales. The results of the analysis were used to construct cartograms illustrating the spatial distribution of chemical and radiation degradation of the country soils. According to the data obtained, in the zone of pollution derived from industrial enterprises and oil pollution, 20% of the soil-geographic polygons of the map are characterized by a strong degree of pollution, and 30% and 50% – by weak and medium, respectively. Agricultural pollution due to excessive use of plant protection products in Russia does not exceed 10% of the area of polygons and is characterized by a low degree. About 10% of the soil polygons of the basic soil map are heavily contaminated with radioactive contamination, while 40% and 50% of the polygons are moderately and weakly contaminated, respectively. Pollution from vehicles is weak and generally has low level. At the same time, megacities and highways with heavy traffic are distinguished by relatively high level of pollution.