Andrey V. Semichaevsky
UNEP/GRID-Arendal (1995)
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
FOREWORD
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
1.EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
2.BACKGROUND
2.1 Country profile
2.2 Environmental issues and environmental decision-making
3.STATUS OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION NETWORK
3.1 National-level environmental information network
3.2 Sub-national environmental information network
3.3 International networking
3.4 Analysis of legal framework
3.5 Economic considerations regarding the implementation
of environmental information systems and the dissemination
of environmental information
3.6 Status in environmental data management
3.7 Telecommunications in Ukraine
3.8 Information use in decision-making, education and the media
4.GENERAL NEEDS ASSESSMENT
4.1 Priority needs for information of decision-makers
4.2 Legislation regarding the management and accessibility
of environmental information
4.3 Financial support of environmental information management
4.4 Improvement of the institutional network
4.5 Cooperation with international (global and regional) environ-
nmental programs, including UNEP and UN-wide environmental databases
4.6 Methodologies for integration of data and information between
the sectorial agencies and between the sub-national and
national entities
4.7 Priority information technology needs
4.8 Priority needs for database and metadatabase development
4.9 Training needs
4.10 Conclusions
5.PROPOSED ACTIONS
6.APPENDICES
A-1 Existing State of the Environment reports
A-2 Ukrainian environmental legislation
A-3 Conventions and international treaties signed by Ukraine
A-4 Some environmental databases and hardcopy sources
A-5 Selected contact addresses
A-6 Organizational setup of the Ministry
A-7 References
Last updated 10 April, 1996 by Lorant Czaran /
In 1994, UNEP initiated a program to support environment assessment, reporting and data management capacities in countries with economies in transition in Central and Eastern Europe. This includes identification of needs and the formulation of project proposals to meet these needs. With partner agencies and other donors, UNEP seeks to leverage finances to correct any imbalances. This activity is a part of UNEP's global ENRIN (Environment and Natural Resources Networking) Program, which is a direct follow-up of Agenda 21, chapter 40 on information for decision-making. This chapter underlines that there is a need for easily accessible environmental information at all levels, from that of senior environmental decision-makers to the grass-roots. An agreement has been made with the GRID-Arendal centre in Norway for implementation of the ENRIN Program in Central and Eastern Europe.
In response to the invitation from UNEP's Regional Director for Europe, Hans Alders, the Georgian Minister of Environment and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine, Mr. Yuri Kostenko stated in a letter Ukraine's interest in taking part in UNEP's ENRIN Program. He expressed that Ukraine would be pleased in contributing to efficient international environmental assessments and to the production of relevant information for decision-making.
This report is the result of the initial analyses in Ukraine. It is intended to distill and present promising avenues of cooperation, stimulate discussion and promote international consensus on the way ahead. It also seeks to attract other partners to this important venture of ensuring true international cooperation in stimulating cooperative action on issues affecting our shared resources.
Nairobi, 31. August 1995
Assistant Executive Director Harvey Croze, UNEP
Arendal, 31. August 1995
Director Svein Tveitdal, GRID-Arendal
Last updated 10 April, 1996 by Lorant Czaran /
This report has been compiled at GRID-Arendal under UNEP's ENRIN programme.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those persons responsible for contributions to this publication, in particular:
For writing the report, Andrey V. Semichaevsky from the Information Systems Division, Monitoring Department, Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine and for supporting the cooperative activities; Vasyl Vasylchenko and Anatol Shmurak also from the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine.
For coordinating the publication and maintaining communication between the authors, the editors, the lay-out persons and others, Dawn Freund of GRID-Arendal. For making the publication fully UNEP compatible and providing us with practical input, Danielle Mitchell of UNEP/DEA Nairobi.
The report was edited by Susan Gut of Zürich, Switzerland; Per Harald Stabell of Litangen & Kuvaas (Arendal, Norway) was responsible for the lay-out; the front cover map was designed by Philippe Rekacewicz of Le Monde Diplomatique in Paris.
Constructive advice and practical support was provided by various individuals within the UNEP system, namely ENRIN coordinator Dan Claasen of UNEP/DEA in Nairobi, Andrea Matte-Baker of UNEP/ROE in Geneva and GRID-Arendal Director Svein Tveitdal.
Arendal, 9. September 1995
Otto Simonett, Programme Manager Eastern
European and Developing Countries
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Last updated 10 April, 1996 by Lorant Czaran /
This report has been prepared under a contract with UNEP/GRID-Arendal in the frame of the Environmental and Natural Resources Information Program (ENRIN) for Central and Eastern Europe, implemented by the UNEP/Environmental Assessment Program. The report is devoted to the current status of environmental information networks in Ukraine and the priority needs for their development and improvement. The information presented in the report was collected as a result of comprehensive research conducted between February and April 1995.
The elaboration of this report would have been impossible without the help of Dr. Otto G. Simonett from GRID-Arendal, who kindly provided methodological support and useful consultations, and many other people from the Ministry for Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine and other institutions. The data presented in this report are collated from official Ukrainian statistics.
The results and conclusions given in this report are preliminary. More consultations with the involvement of highly specialized experts are required in order to amend them and to make the conclusions more accurate.
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Last updated 10 April, 1996 by Lorant Czaran /
Ukraine is a presidential parliamentary republic, its capital - Kyiv (or Kiev). It consists of 24 oblasts and the autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Ukraine in 1994
2.1 Country profile
Geography
Ukraine is situated between 52°22'54'' and 44°23'18'' northern latitude and between 22°08'42'' and 40°13'05'' eastern longitude. Its area makes up 603.7 thousand sq.km. Ukraine covers the south-west of the East-European plain, the Ukrainian Carpathians and Crimean mountains. In the south, its coasts are washed by the Black and Azov Sea. Ukraine has common borders with Byelorus, Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Russia and, through the Black Sea, with Turkey and Caucasian countries. Through the Danube river, Ukraine has access to West-European countries, and through the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits to the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, Southern Europe and Northern Africa. About 95% of Ukraine's territory consists of plains, and 5% pertains to the mountains of Carpathians and Crimea. The average absolute height of the plain part is 170 m. The highest peak of Ukraine is Mount Goverla (2061 m), located in the Ukrainian Carpathians. The climate in Ukraine is moderately continental with only the southern coast of Crimea belonging to the subtropical climate zone. Overall solar radiation density varies from 4022 in the North to 5237.5 MJ/sq.m in the South. The highest average temperature is observed at the end of July (+20° ... +25°C), the lowest one at the end of January (-3° ... -10°C). Precipitation varies from 1500 mm per year (in the Carpathians) to 300 mm per year (coastal zones of the Black and Azov Sea); in the forest-steppe zone - about 550-760 mm per year. There are more than 22 thousand rivers with a total length of more than 170000 km in Ukraine. They belong to the catchment areas of the Black, Azov and the Baltic Sea. The largest river is Dnipro with the catchment area covering almost half of the country's area and an average annual flow of 53.5 cub. km. The Danube, Dnister, Pivdenny Boug, Siversky Donets rivers are also large Ukrainian rivers. Over three thousand lakes cover 0.3% of Ukraine's territory. The length of the coast line of the Black and Azov Sea is about 1050 km. About 8000 deposits of mineral resources are discovered; these deposits contain nearly 90 types of mineral resources, 20 of which being of great importance to industry and agriculture. Fuel mineral resources are represented by deposits of coal (the overall reserves are 150290 million tons) and brown coal (9000 million tons), prospective resources of oil make up 125 million tons, gas - 4100 billion cub.m, oil shale - 2 billion tons and peat - 3.5 billion tons. Ore resources consist of iron ore (reserves are 25 billion tons) and manganese ore (2 billion tones, about 66% of the world reserves), as well as chromate, silicates, uranium, nickel, titanium ores, mercury and tin. Ukraine has the greatest graphite deposits in Europe, as well as deposits of phosphorites, salts, dolomites, fire-resistant clays, building materials, granites of the highest quality worldwide, marble and some precious stones. Fertile soils are the important resource for agriculture. Black soils, containing 3% to 7% of humus and having a humus layer of 130 to 150 cm thickness cover more than 10% of the country's territory. Forests cover 14.3% of Ukraine's territory. The overall resources of wood are estimated to 1 billion cub.m.
History
The first traces of human settlements are reported to have appeared on the territory of Ukraine 150 thousand years ago. In the 7th century, this territory became populated by Slavic tribes. From 882 to 1240, one of the most remarkable ancient states, Kyivska Rus existed here. In the 14th century, Ukraine was colonized by the Great Lithuanian Kingdom, and in the 15-16th centuries by Poland. In the end of the 16th century, a military state, Zaporizska Sich, appeared in southern Ukraine. This state had to fight against three main forces: Turkey, Poland and Russia, in order to defend its independence. In 1654, a temporary military union was concluded with Russia. This event gave rise to a steady advance of the frontiers of the Russian Empire to the West. By the end of the 18th century all the attributes of Ukrainian self-government had been eliminated. The usage of the Ukrainian language was prohibited by the Czar's law. In the 19th century, Ukraine was divided between the Russian Empire and Austro-Hungary. After the Revolution in 1917, the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian People's Republic were proclaimed as independent states. However, their independence was suppressed soon by the Bolshevik's Red Army.
During the Soviet era, the Ukrainian SSR was one of the constituent republics of the USSR. In 1945, it was one of the founders of UN, though the Ukrainian representative always voted the same way as the representative of the USSR. On 24 August 1991, after the failure of the coup d'etat in Moscow, Ukraine announced its independence, and is now recognized by the world community as an independent state. Ukraine is a member of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Economy
The Ukrainian economy is famous for the production of steel, machine-building, chemical industry products and intensive diversified agriculture. Ukraine has a developed transportation network.
Ukrainian economy indicators
For several years, the Ukrainian economy has been undergoing a difficult transition period from centrally-planned to the market based system. Combined with outdated technologies inherited from the times of the Soviet Union and the lack of well qualified industrial managers and planners, this has resulted in a high inflation rate (the national currency unit - karbovanets - has devaluated against the US dollar 1500 times since its introduction on 1 January, 1992), in a low average salary (about 30 US dollars per month in the state sector), the growth of unemployment (including high latent unemployment): estimates in [11] give 8.4% in rural areas and 26% in industrial cities; and the outflow of qualified specialists to neighboring countries with higher incomes.
2.2 Environmental Issues and
Environmental Decision-Making
Environmental problems in Ukraine vary from region to region. The most polluted cities are Donetsk, Mariupol, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Odessa. The regions with the most vulnerable environment are: Ukrainian Polissia, the Carpathians and the coastal zones of the Azov and the Black Sea.
The most pressing environmental problems vary depending on the specific region of Ukraine. A brief overview of these is
given below:
Industry and energy-production
- the main sources of environmental pollution
Despite the overall decline in industrial production, industry and energy-production remain the main sources of environmental pollution in Ukraine, emitting correspondingly 32% and 38% of the total emissions from stationary sources. Most of the industrial enterprises use outdated technologies, especially from the point of view of waste treatment and recycling. For instance, about 1 million cub.m of waste water is dumped into the environment annually, without any treatment.
Air pollution
In 18 out of 52 cities of Ukraine which were surveyed in 1993, violations of the air quality regulation were reported. Mainly, exceedings are attributed to nitrogen oxides and dust, along with benz (a)piren, formaldehyde, and heavy metals.
Emissions to the atmosphere in 1993
Surface water pollution
According to the data of the State Committee on Hydrometeorology, the main rivers of Ukraine and their tributaries are heavily polluted with nitrate fertilizers, phenols, oil products, and heavy metals. For instance, average data for 1993 show concentrations 18 times over the maximum permissible level for nitrites in Zakhidny Boug, and 12 times for phenols in Siversky Donets.
Discharges of wastewater in 1993
Agricultural land quality deterioration
Agricultural land occupies 70% of the total area of Ukraine. It is constantly under high anthropogenic pressure. Negative impacts are often facilitated by inadequate amelioration measures, improper storage and misuse of fertilizers and pesticides. Each hectare of arable land in 1992 was treated by 2.2 kg of pesticides. About 34% of arable land in 1993 were reported to undergo soil erosion. About 200000 hectares of arable land are depleted annually, the rate of recultivation being insufficient.
Waste
Every year, the Ukrainian economy consumes 1.3-1.5 billion tons of natural materials. Most of them are returned to the environment as waste, including 13.9 million tons of ashes and slag from power plants and industry, about 100 million tons of waste from coal mines and coal treatment plants. A vast amount of waste is coming from ore-dressing plants, chemical works and the military industry. So far, the problem of treatment and storage of highly toxic waste has not been solved. For instance, 2.7 million tons of such waste is dumped in the Donetsk region and 3.2 million tons in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
Storage of radioactive waste is still a pressing problem in Ukraine. It consists of enormous amounts of waste resulting from the Chernobyl accident, more than 1000 sources of radiation used in industry, agriculture and medicine, and more than 70 million cub.m of radioactive waste stored and dumped by the industry. The later ones pose substantial threat to the environment.
Consequences of the Chernobyl NPP accident
As a consequence of the Chernobyl NPP accident, the contaminated area with a density over 1 Ci/sq.km (excluding the restricted zone around NPP) covers 41 thousand sq.km (or about 15% of total country's area). 2215 settlements are located there, populated by 2.42 million inhabitants. The total amount of radionuclides in the cooling pond of Chernobyl NPP is now assessed as 770 Ci of Sr-90, 4600 Ci of Cs-137. Approximately 20 million Ci are buried under the entombment built in 1986 over the destroyed Unit 4 of Chernobyl NPP.
Biodiversity
The problems of conservation of biodiversity concern mostly the Ukrainian Carpathians and wetlands in coastal areas of the Black Sea. Covering only 4% of Ukrainian territory, the Carpathians concentrate one third of the country's forest resources. 2110 plant species are met there (about 50% of all species growing in Ukraine). Nowadays, Carpathian forests are severely endangered by timber-cutting, soil erosion, over-grazing of livestock in alpine meadows, chemical contamination and acid rain.
Ukrainian wetlands are important areas for migrating birds. However, they suffer from water pollution with pesticides, remnants of inorganic fertilizers, oil products and salinization.
Use of environmental information
At present, users of environmental information in Ukraine may be defined as follows:
- Administration of the President
- Commission on Ecology of Supreme Rada (Soviet)
- Commissions on Ecology of oblast and district Radas of Peoples Deputies
- Environmental Departments of
oblast administrations
- Ministries and State Committees
- National Academy of Science
- Research Institutions
- Universities, schools
- Newspapers, magazines
- Radio and TV
- NGOs [Table of Contents][Order copies of this Report][Index of documents]
Last updated 16 September, 1996 by Lorant Czaran /