THE USE OF CORRECTION COEFFICIENTS TO ASSESS THE LEVEL OF ANTHROPOGENIC TRANSFORMATION OF WATER BODY BASINS

Abstract

The consequences of the influence of economic activity in the river basins have various negative manifestations, in some cases catastrophic – through the joint action of hydrometeorological factors and the imbalance of natural buffer subsystems. They were manifested by floods, a deterioration in the quality of surface waters and a decrease in fish productivity, the formation of mudflows and landslides in mountainous areas and waterlogging in lowland areas. Modern approaches to assessing the ecological situation in river basins give rather inadequate results. An example can be a decrease in fish productivity with a supposedly high water quality, frequent catastrophic floods in the mountainous regions of the Carpathians, flooding and creeping swamping of the territory in the lowland regions of Polesie. To assess the environmental situation, statistical data from past years are often used. At the same time, the actual state of the subsystems has long been changed and it is necessary to introduce correction factors for: deforestation and their degradation due to a decrease in the level of groundwater below the root feeding system; plowing of floodplain meadows; drainage of swamps and waterlogged areas; plowing the surface of watercourses; discharge of contaminated municipal wastewater from obsolete treatment facilities; straightening of river beds. The self-healing function of the environment has crossed the border of return, and society must take urgent compensatory measures for rehabilitation to preserve life on the planet, and create a regulation of behavior.