The current state and features of the transformation of the reclamation system within the Oster River basin

The peculiarities of carrying out reclamation works and their influence on the nature of the surface and the formation of landscapes within the territory of the Oster River basin were analyzed. Based on the data from our own field research and having processed the necessary materials of scientists who were engaged in this matter, the morphological and morphometric features of individual components of the reclamation system were analyzed. During the field research carried out by us during 2022-2024, the method of field route observations, surveys, photography, morphological and morphometric analyses were used. As a result of the research which was conducted, it was established that the territory of the Oster River basin belongs to those regions of our country where drainage works have long been carried out for the purpose of increasing the arable land area, setting construction sites and other economic needs. An extensive system of reclamation canals gradually formed here and it reached its greatest extent in the 1960s. Due to the fact that since the 1990s the work on maintaining the state of the reclamation system objects within the project parameters has almost completely stopped, most of the reclamation canals in the studied territory significantly changed their morphological and morphometric characteristics, and some of them even their function. The surface of the slopes and the bottom of the canals, the adjacent territory as well as other elements of the reclamation system undergo the most significant changes as a result of anthropogenic influence, planar washing, groundwater activity, gravitational, wind, and relief-forming processes. Gallery forests and shrubs have formed on the canals with a low level or short-term presence of water. In addition, a significant part of the canals within the territory of the Oster River basin is characterized by the phenomenon of waterlogging.

Філоненко Ю. Сучасний стан та особливості трансформації меліоративної системи у межах басейну річки Остер. Фізична географія та геоморфологія. 2024. Т. 47, вип. 3–4 (125–126). С. 21-27.