FORESTRY IDEAS, 2020, vol. 26, No 1 (59): 165–176 ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS OF THE BALANCE OF THE TERRITORIES OF SMALL TOWNS IN KYIV REGION Vasyl Yukhnovskyi* and Olha Zibtseva Department of Landscape Architecture and Phytodesign, Forest Institute, National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, 03041. E-mails: [email protected]*, [email protected] Received: 10 December 2019 Accepted: 30 April 2020 Abstract Based on the data of the StateGeoCadastre of Ukraine and the General development plans of towns, a comparative analysis of the structure of the land fund of small towns of Kyiv region has been carried out with the following ecological indicators: ratio of different types of land use, level of greening, population/green plantings ratio. Data analysis of the level of greening of towns and the availability of green public landscapes for general population has been conducted and it revealed that the current state of land use of small towns, as well as other urbanized territories, does not meet the requirements of environment management. Results of the analysis suggest that small towns are characterized by an excessive proportion of property development areas and suboptimal areas of natural territories, as well as insufficient greenery plantings, which require further balancing. In most of the studied small towns ecological situation can be considered sat- isfactory. Due to the extraordinary diversity of ecological and geographical conditions, individual approach to the development and improvement of greenery systems of small towns has been deemed feasible. Key words: built-up land, green space provision, greening level, urban landscape. Introduction fects of land use. Towns need scientifical- ly-based solutions to urban development, Historical human development of the ter- such as the creation of green spaces ritories, growth of the built-uparea caused (Eionet 2017). A European Environment the violation of natural systems in such Agency report published today says that limits, which made the world community the continent’s land use increasingly sees to develop a concept of sustainable devel- striking changes and conflicts over land opment of the territories for the possibility demand, which will require reconciling of preserving it for descendants (Gera- place-based management and macro pol- simchuk 2009). Land use in the world will icies to foster responsible land use. undergo dramatic changes and will be ac- Landscape-ecological optimization companied by conflicts of land demand, of the territory assumes to reach optimal which will require a coherent integrated relations between economic and natural policy on the ground to promote respon- lands (Pozniak and Tsaryk 2013). Accord- sible land use and limit the negative ef- ing to the UN recommendations, forests in 166 V. Yukhnovskyi and O. Zibtseva the land should occupy 50 %, agricultural thermal sources, climate change, and the land – 45 %, built-up land – 5 %. More provision of ecosystem and aesthetic ser- than 42 % of the territory of Europe are vices (Ramos-Gonzalez 2014). Optimi- covered with forests, which makes the zation of the ecological situation of urban continent one of the world’s regions rich- areas presupposes, first of all, an analy- est in forests (Cvejić et al. 2015). The op- sis of their condition, including planting of timal correlation between land use types greenery. Environmental indicators of sus- in Ukraine includes forests 25–30 %, ara- tainable development of territories charac- ble land 30–35 %, hayfields and pastures terize the quality of life of people, the state 20 %, about 6 % of built-up land, over of the environment, and the impact of hu- 10 % of protected areas. Currently, an- man activities on natural ecosystems. As thropogenic landscapes in the territory of indicators of sustainable urban develop- Ukraine occupy 58 %, anthropogenic-nat- ment, it was proposed to consider quanti- ural – 35 %, natural – only 7 % (Shashu- tative indices of the existing areas of pro- la 2009), and anthropogenic load on the tected and nature-recreational territories environment exceeds several times the and forest lands, the level of greening of corresponding indicators of developed cities and the provision of population with countries of the world. landscape and recreational areas (Vale- Urban ecosystems can play a positive tov and Ulasik 2013). According to Vagin role in providing sustainable development et al. (2015), one of the disadvantages of despite the fact that towns worsen the the existing basic system of indicators of natural environment (McHale et al. 2015). sustainable development is that it does The review and improvement of the meth- not take into account the percentage of odology of urban planning in the condi- greenery in urban areas, the proportion of tions of decentralization of investment ac- urban and natural areas and other impor- tivity, changes in land use, the character tant aspects of the ecological state of the of the urban development process, and town. It is believed that the best correla- the strengthening of the role of the eco- tion in urban practice is between 60 % and logical component in urban development 40 % of natural areas, which are stabiliz- in Ukraine are relevant (Yegorov 2010). ing the potential of the urban landscape The unprecedented rate of residential (Barmin and Nikulina 2011). According to development makes the study of green Gerasimchuk (2009), a favourable ratio plantations against the background of a of built-up area and greenery, which, ac- rapidly changing urban environment ex- cording to urban planning requirements, tremely relevant. The results of research should be 50:50, is currently not met even on a single town cannot currently be in- in most regional centres of Ukraine, where terpreted to characterize another one the share of the territory under buildings (Narbut and Mirzekhanova 2016). The varies from 36.1 % (Chernivtsi) to 95.6 % conceptual framework for comparative (Vinnytsya), and agricultural land develop- research in different towns must be devel- ment exceeds the ecologically acceptable oped (McPhearson et al. 2016). level in most regions. The trend towards Green spaces, known as green infra- the development of free areas by reduc- structure or urban vegetation, are vital to ing the green area of towns leads to the urban dwellers, as they play an important loss of land, ecologically important urban role in eliminating the effects of urban reserves and environmental priority in the Environmental Indicators of the Balance of the Territories of Small Towns in Kyiv ... 167 process of urban development. ed link in the urban process. At the same According to the norms, the level of time, a small city can be considered a psy- greening of settlements in Belarus should chologically comfortable stereotype of an be at least 40 %, and within the limits of urbanized environment (Petryshyn 2008). development – not less than 25 % (Vale- Compared to large cities, small towns are tov and Ulasik 2013). According to the characterized by a simplified system of data of the Department of Ecology and landscaping, often lacking or neglecting Natural Resources of the Kyiv Regional out-of-town landscaping, lower normative State Administration (Regional report ... indicators. Currently, the study of the envi- 2014), green areas in Ukrainian towns ronmental situation of the urban environ- occupy 38.4 % of urban areas (at least ment concerned, as a rule, large cities. 40 % of the norm), with general use only This precisely led to the consideration of 13.4 %. In the city of Berlin, the cover of the situation in small towns and, first of all, green space is 46 % of the city (Cvejić in the Kyiv agglomeration, where small et al. 2015), the city of San Juan (Puerto towns can serve as a recreation area for Rico), Boston and Miami (United States) – the capital’s inhabitants. Intensive urban- over 42 %. One resident of San Juan has ization (especially in the metropolitan re- 122.2 m2 of green space (Ramos-Gon- gion) and the strategic course on sustain- zalez 2014), while a resident of Ukraine able eco-balanced development make re- has 16.3 m2 of greenery (Regional report search on the current state of small towns ... 2014). At the same time, EU standards extremely relevant. require 26 m2 of green space per inhab- Kyiv region is one of the leading re- itant, and according to the requirements gions of Ukraine, the area of which (ex- of the World Health Organization – 50 m2/ cluding Kyiv) is 4.7 % of the territory of capita (Chiriac et al. 2009). Naturally, the Ukraine, and the population is 4.1 % of minimum standards depend on the geo- the total population of the country, 61.8 % graphical location of the cities. According of which is urban. Kiev region is one of to Khalil (2014) and Thaiutsa et al. (2008), the most developed industrial and agrar- the standards of living in green spaces for ian regions of Ukraine. For the period USA and UN include 18 and 30 m2/capita, from 2008 to 2014, the area of agricultural respectively. WHO recommends at least 9 land in the region decreased by 7600 ha m2/capita to provide environmental stabili- (up to 63.6 % of the total), forests – by ty and other benefits. 300 ha (up to 23.0 %), areas with surface This research is carried out in the water – by 300 ha (up to 6.2 %). Instead, framework of the development of concep- built-up land increased by 12,600 ha (up tual foundations of the system of green to 4.8 %). The reduction of land potential plantations in small towns of Kyiv region of the region adversely affects the qual- in the context of ecologically balanced ity and quantity of other natural resourc- development. Small towns are the most es, including water, forest, and vegetation widespread category of Ukrainian cities, (Shevchenko 2015). and their number is over 75 % of the total.