ASSESSMENT OF THE AIR BASIN STATE OF THE WESTERN UKRAINE REGIONS IN CONDITIONS OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

Assessing the technogenic load on the air basin is an important task that has become even more urgent since the outbreak of full-scale military operations in Ukraine. As a result, over the last 3 years, a significant amount of pollutants has been emitted into the air and significant environmental damage has been caused. The territory of Western Ukraine, compared to other regions of Ukraine, is not characterized by high indicators of technogenic impact on the air basin. Most scientific publications are focused on assessing the transport load on the atmospheric air in the western regions. The aim of the study is to assess the state of the air basin using the parameters of sustainable development. For the assessment, the parameters for calculating the environmental dimension index of the metric for measuring sustainable development processes were used. The calculations were made for two categories of environmental policy – Environmental Systems and Environmental Load. It was determined that the territory of Western Ukraine in 2019–2023 was characterized by moderate indicators of the air basin load. In the category “Environmental Systems”, the worst performance in terms of sustainable development is recorded for sulfur dioxide. Ternopil and Khmelnytsky regions are the most pressured regions in pollution levels. The worst situation in the category “Environmental Load” was registered in Lviv, Rivne and Ternopil regions. The best indicators were registered in Volyn and Chernivtsi regions. It has been suggested that Ivano-Frankivsk region may be among the regions with the worst conditions. In terms of transport emissions and emission density, the worst indicators were registered in Rivne, Ternopil, and Lviv regions, and the best in Chernivtsi. In terms of emissions of certain pollutants, the worst conditions were registered in Lviv region, and the best in Zakarpattia region. The parameters of the “Environmental Systems” category are characterized by the worst indicators in terms of sustainable development.