BL Neman structure: geosystems, sustainability and nature management

Gennadi Klimchik, PhD (Agriculture), assistant professor, WP5 expert

Belarusian State Technological University (Minsk, Belarus)

Information about natural resources, social and economic conditions and site-specific legal regulations was used to analyze BL Neman current uses.The basic information included:• maps• fieldwork results• planning documents, legal regulations

Review and analysis of the soil and vegetation covers (soil combinations or geosystems) are shown in Table 1

 The results of the study made it possible to elaborate the legend and composition of general cartographic data presenting the boundaries of geosystems with the characteristics of their actual ecological state and anthropogenic (primarily thermal and chemical) impact resistance allowing for dangerous geomorphological processes.The current state of the area is shown in landscape map (fig. 1)According to the landscape map of the geosystems distribution in the Neman basin there are 36 geosystems, each of them containing data on their area, relief, geomorphological characteristics, parent rock lithology, soil types and their proportion in soil combinations.

All BL Neman geosystems are divided into five resistance groups.

• Group I (resistant) making up 60% of the area with 11 geosystems contains mainly high

broken and high arching watersheds.

• Group II (resistant above-average) with 14.2% of the area comprises 15 geosystems.

• Group III (medium-resistant) comprises 6 geosystems with 10.4% of the area.

• Group IV (resistant below-average) comprises 14 landscape types with 10.7% of the area.

• Group V comprises nonresistant geosystems with their share in the area being low (4.3%).

They are represented by 8 landscapes with only two landscapes making up 85%.

To sum up the above information it can be said that farming uses involve mainly

nonresistant geosystems (63% of group V) with only 5% of the total area. Geosystems of

group IV are least used for farming (39%) with maximum forested landscapes (52%) whereas

group V has the minimum share of forests (26%). Group III is the most supplied with water

with rivers and lakes making up 7% of its area, the least water-supplied if group I (1%).

Group I has the largest percentage of buildings, roads and communication networks (8%),

group V has the smallest share (2%), i.e. 52% of buildings, roads and communication

networks are in group I, only 65 of them are in group V.

Карта устойчивости геосистем/Map geosystems stability I - наиболееустойчивыеI –most resistant

II – устойчивыеII - resistant

III - среднеустойчивыеIII - medium resistant

IV – неустойчивыеIV - nonresistant

V - очень неустойчивыеV – highly nonresistant

Fig. 2 – Current uses of BL Neman area

Local population was interviewed during discussion meetings in Novogrudok where prospective landscape uses based on the elaborated coordinating map were discussed.

The least resistant geosystems are located in the north-eastern and north-western parts of the Baltic Landscape Neman and primarily comprise transitional and upland bogs, waterlogged parts of the Neman central floodplain, high flat watersheds with soft parent rocks without aquaclude characterized by slow water runoff and low cation exchange capacity.

The results of the analysis of land use and forestry inventory data, social and economic situation and current land use trends in the study area make it possible to develop the following landscape expectations:

• no imbalance between forestry and forest protective (incl. forest regenerative, sanitary) activities, in particular, in the areas with low anthropogenic load resistance.

Forest road (original state)

Temporary after-rain flooding of depressions in a forest road

Forest road destruction caused by logging activities (initial stage of destruction)

Forest road destruction caused by logging activities (subsequent stage of destruction)

Forest road destruction caused by logging activities (impassability stage)

Restoration of forest roads

Restored forest road