Among the environmental consequences of the illegal production of amber, the experts single out the degradation of zonal soils and underlying bed rocks, destruction of fertile humus and eluvial horizons of podzolic soils, root systems of trees, swamp formation, change in groundwater levels, destruction of forest resources, and change in the migration processes of the region’s fauna. The most serious ecological and economic problems are caused by the unauthorized production of amber in Rivne, Volyn and Zhytomyr oblasts, where the illegal production of amber is carried out by open-pit and hydromechanical methods.
The main tasks set forth in the article are: to analyze the places and conditions of amber production, to define its influence on the environment components, to identify the objects of natural resources use by means of Earth remote sensing methods.
The article deals with the development of modern information technology for identifying the places and consequences of amber production in the western regions of Polissia based on the methods of satellite environmental monitoring and tools of geoinformation systems. The production technologies and the manifestation of their ecological impacts are described. The environmental impact assessment of amber production is not possible without defining the potential operational risks, identifying the locations and extent of environmental damage. Due to local peculiarities of amber production management, it is rather difficult to fix the topographic and geodetic parameters of the manifestations of these effects, which complicates the planning of prevention and elimination measures. The methods of Earth remote sensing (ERS) from space and geoinformation systems (GIS) can define these parameters with high accuracy, reliability and efficiency, which will enable the efficient monitoring of the environmental components degradation.
Preliminary Application of Space-based Remote Sensing and Geospatial Technology for Investigation on the Geo-environmental Consequences of Cyclone Aila 2009 in the SW Bangladesh
