Land resource

3.1.2  Land resource

Historically, the land resource of the Dnipro Basin has been intensively used for a number of different purposes (Figure 3.2). Three fifths of the Basin area have lost their original natural landscape features as a result of highly intensive land use. About 50% of the territory is occupied by agriculture, the majority of which is arable farmland occupying an area of 38,500,000 hectares. Of that, 20.8% is in Russia, 18.5% in Belarus, and 60.7% in Ukraine, the major agricultural land user in the Basin.

Table 3.2    River flow distribution pattern in the Dnipro Basin

Table 3.3  River water resource distribution pattern in the Dnipro Basin

Approximately 10% of the Basin area has been designated for land reclamation purposes, 4% is occupied by urban centres and about 1-4% has been lost due to construction of reservoirs and impoundments.

The Russian part of the Upper Dnipro Basin occupies the central, western and south-western parts of the Central Russian Upland, mainly consisting of extensive areas of hills and plains intersected by lowland rivers, gorges and valleys. Soil cover in this part of the Basin is represented by fertile loamy soils lying in the north, dark-grey and grey forest soils in the western part of the Central Russian Upland, and very fertile black-earth soils in the south-west.

Figure 3.2 Land use in the Dnipro Basin

Of the total area of the Russian part of the Dnipro Basin, 52% (or 5.3 million hectares) is used for agricultural purposes (of that, 4.3 million hectares is used for arable agriculture). In Russia, the area of agricultural land has reduced over recent years. This is due to a number of factors including land conversion to non-agricultural uses, loss of cultivatable land due to an increase in shrubs, and mineral resource and peat extraction operations. As much as 600,000 hectares of farmland have been affected by water erosion and over 400,000 hectares have been classified as areas susceptible to erosion.

The Belorussian section of the Dnipro Basin (116,400 km²) is occupied by 44.7%, or 5.2 million hectares of agricultural land. Of this, 3.4 million hectares is used for arable agriculture, 0.8 million hectares is designated as grassland, and 0.9 million hectares is used as pastures.

The Belorussian Polessie, extending into the southern part of Belarus mainly consists of lowland wetlands and marshes and represents one of the major wetland resources in Europe. Between the mid-1960s to 1980s, a major land drainage scheme was implemented in this part of the Basin to provide over 2 million hectares of land for agriculture, which has led to a loss of over 50% of the natural wetland area. Currently, former peat bog soils in this area have become depleted, leading to a continuous reduction of crop productivity. Land drainage activities have had a profound impact on the environment, manifested in large-scale soil erosion, land degradation and a higher susceptibility to flooding effects resulting in the contamination of water resources.

Radioactive contamination is considered to be the major environmental problem in the Belorussian part of the Dnipro Basin. Extensive areas of agricultural land were contaminated by ¹³⁷CS as a result of the Chernobyl accident and 265,400 hectares were withdrawn from agricultural use for this reason. Approximately 1.2 million hectares of Belorussian agricultural land contaminated by ¹³⁷CS (>1 Cu/km²) is located in the Dnipro Basin (Figure 3.3).

Figure 3.3 Belorussian agricultural land contaminated by ¹³⁷CS in the Dnipro Basin

The land resource of the Ukrainian part of the Dnipro Basin is 29.14 million hectares, or 48.6% of the country territory. Of that, 32.8% lies in the Ukrainian Polessie zone, 39.9% in the Forest Steppe zone and 26.6% in the Steppe zone. Generally, the land resource within the Forest Steppe and Steppe zones has been intensively used for arable agriculture, urban and industrial development purposes.

Intensive agricultural and industrial activities, transport network development, urbanisation and industrialisation have all led to a degradation of the land resource. This has resulted in the progressive deterioration of the environment due to increasing anthropogenic pressures and has had a profound effect not only on this resource, but also on the state of the Dnipro River itself.

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