The project was implemented in the form of a system of digital maps that includes:
- A map of the protection zone4, skeleton maps of shallow groundwater protectability from neutral pollutants, strontium-90 and caesium-137, and skeleton map of shallow groundwater vulnerability to caesium-137 pollution for the Russian Dnipro River basin.
- A skeleton map of the protection zone, skeleton maps of shallow groundwater protectability from neutral pollutants, strontium-90 and caesium-137, and skeleton map of shallow groundwater vulnerability to caesium-137 pollution for the Russian Dnipro basin within Bryansk and Kaluga oblasts (pollutant-dependent parametric).

Basin assessment results were used in the project to work out preliminary rehabilitation recommendations and provide the basis for planning larger-scale studies for some highly polluted regions and areas. The maps may be used as a basis for further planning and creating a system of integrated environmental monitoring in the Dnipro basin outside of the framework of this project.

Regional assessment results were used to work out preliminary recommendations on hydrogeological, hydrogeochemical, technological and social environmental protection measures the development and implementation of which are not provided for in this project but which may be recommended for the Strategic and National Action Plans.

Project research was prompted by the present unsatisfactory environmental condition of shallow groundwater and pressure groundwater5 and potential sources of their pollution in the Russian Dnipro River basin. Virtually throughout Russia’s part of the basin, shallow groundwater is an object of pollution while also being a diffuse source of pressure groundwater pollution.

The role of shallow groundwater, including groundwater, as a major life-support system in the Dnipro basin will become ever more important with the increase of environmental pollution (pollution of the atmospheric air, soils and rocks, and surface water – potential source of groundwater pollution). Despite the fact that groundwater is more protected than shallow groundwater, it will also have a tendency to pollution and depletion, which is evidenced by the processes through which groundwater and especially shallow groundwater are going in Bryansk and Kaluga oblasts. With time, shallow groundwater will also be polluted with radionuclids that are now in the soils. Although their concentrations will not reach the maximal permissible concentrations (MPCs) and maximal permissible levels (MPLs), they will exceed the background concentrations by several times – a situation seen now in Bryansk and other oblasts affected by the accident on the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station.

Moreover, the Russian part of the Dnipro basin is at the periphery of the basin, on the left side of the upper and middle Dnipro. This is also where the feeding area of the Dnipro’s artesian basin is located. The pollution and depletion of the feeding area adversely affect the condition of artesian aquifers used for drinking water supply throughout the left bank of the basin, as well as in its northern part where the Dnipro has its source from. The Dnipro is a valley river, and shallow groundwater and pressure groundwater play an important part in its feeding, which makes their quality an important factor.

The processes of depletion and pollution of shallow groundwater and pressure groundwater are not controlled by administrative and state boundaries. They are determined by the borders of the Dnipro’s catchment basin, which consists of the catchment basins of medium-sized and small rivers that also may cross administrative and state boundaries. The processes of movement of groundwater flows and pollutants transport in them are transboundary in nature and require an integrated approach to dealing with the problems of sustainable development of the Dnipro basin’s groundwater at the international level that would ensure that the interests of individual states and their territories are taken into account.

As can be seen from the aforesaid, it is important in the Dnipro basin to study the processes of transformation of the quality of shallow groundwater as an important element of the environment that ensures and affects the functioning of its other elements and human health. This is why shallow groundwater is the object of study in this project.

In view of the above, there are several tasks for further Dnipro basin rehabilitation research that may be of interest. They include basin and regional assessments of shallow groundwater protectability from and vulnerability to pollution, assessments of the development of its pollution processes at different technogenical loads, forecast of changes in the ecological situation, assessments of the degree of groundwater’s resistance to adverse developments and processes, risks for and damage to groundwater from pollution and depletion, development of an integrated transboundary monitoring system and groundwater management methods allowing them to achieve a stable ecological condition. These studies and assessments should use the same methods throughout the basin, which calls for unifying research methods used in the three partner states (Russia, Ukraine and Belarus).

The studies were performed within the project “Assessment of Natural Groundwater Protection from Pollutants, Including Radionuclides, in the Russian Dnipro River Basin” using the grant # 10032105-156 from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada and funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The project’s goal is to perform basin and regional assessments and mapping of shallow groundwater protectability from and vulnerability to priority pollutants, including radionuclides, in the Russian Dnipro River basin.

The basin assessment and mapping of shallow groundwater protectability from pollutants were performed on the 1:1,000,000 scale for the entire Russian Dnipro River basin in order to obtain a preliminary assessment of the ecological condition of shallow groundwater and reveal main tendencies in the adverse processes of pollution.

The regional assessment of shallow groundwater protectability from and vulnerability to pollutants was performed on the 1:200,000 scale for Bryansk and Kaluga oblasts within the Dnipro basin in order to obtain a more detailed assessment of the condition of shallow groundwater on territories with the highest radioactive contamination as a result of the Chernobyl accident to quantitatively assess the existing level of contamination and forecast its change.

The basin (1:1,000,000 scale) studies used only qualitative assessments and a very simple calculation of pollutant migration time characterizing the natural potential of the protection zone and shallow groundwater. Such assessments may be used only for survey purposes. Regional (1:200,000 scale) studies have a qualitative and quantitative frame based on the use of simple model-cartographic methods for characterizing protectability from and vulnerability to pollutants of only shallow groundwater. These assessments are needed to make preliminary decisions aimed at environmental rehabilitation and serve as a basis for planning and grounding larger-scale efforts and schematizing natural conditions in order to aid in forecasting.

In Bryansk, Kaluga, Kursk and Orel oblasts that have radioactive contamination, shallow groundwater has a marked tendency to pollution, and the protection zone is also polluted. This calls for large-scale studies that include experimental study of filtration, migration, physical-chemical processes and their parameters as well as modeling and forecasting the change in the degree of radioactive contamination of the protection zone and shallow groundwater in these regions using shallow groundwater vulnerability to pollution by caesium-137 as the guide.