Methodical aspects and results of the assessment of the ecological risk of pollution of soils of the Ukrainian Danube region

The paper deals with assessment of the ecological risks of pollution of soil of the Ukrainian Danube region. The results are presented on the basis of the conducted field and laboratory studies. It was concluded that the condition of land resources of the Danube region of Ukraine is “unsatisfactory”. The risk of the soil ecosystem instability in the majority of the region areas is assessed as “high”. The monitoring data pertaining to the sites where useless plant protection chemicals are stored indicate that the maximum permissible concentrations of certain pollutants surpass the standards by 5–32 times. The ecological condition of soils is assessed as “medium” – “bad” while the risks are on the level varying between “considerable” to “high”. For the first time ever for the Ukrainian Danube region a comprehensive assessment of the ecological risk of soil pollution, which included assessment of the risk of instability of the soil ecosystem resulting from storage of useless plant protection chemicals, was performed. Analysis of the existing methodologies for assessment of the ecological risk of soil pollution enabled to develop and apply recommendations how to use indicator values describing the ecological condition with due account of the physical degradation and pollution criteria.