GEOECOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF POLDER LANDS IN THE KALININGRAD REGION

Abstract

Sustainable development of the Kaliningrad region in the period of modern challenges can be considered a fundamental direction in the region’s development strategy. In this matter, special attention should be paid to the unique natural landscape objects common to the area – polder lands. The purpose of the work is to formulate and study the geoecological aspects of sustainable development of polder lands in the Kaliningrad region. The main research method was conjugated analysis of hydrological, hydrochemical, and geoecological information. The paper provides description of polder lands as complex natural and economic systems. The key hydrological parameters were calculated; the regularities and features of changes in the water regime of the main watercourses of the Slavsky district were revealed. Based on field studies, new sets of hydrochemical characteristics were obtained for four hydrological seasons over 2020–2021 at the control and background monitoring points; the chemical composition and the level of pollution of small watercourses were found. Spatial differentiation of the geoecological state of the basins of small watercourses in the Slavsky district was determined according to 13 criteria, divided into interrelated groups: anthropogenic load, water quality, the territory’s ability to self-purify, and transit capacity. A system of measures was developed to improve the geoecological state of polder lands based on closed biogeochemical cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds in agricultural production and the system of spatially distributed biological treatment of watercourses by higher aquatic and woody vegetation.