Kyiv Oblast and Kyiv Forestry and Hunting Management
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State Agency of Forestry
Kiev Oblast and the Kyiv City Administration of LMG

Problems of forest water management

At the present stage of development of the world community there is no more important problem, in its importance and scaling, than the problem of saving and multiplication of a forest cover of the planet. Therefore, it is necessary to make a revaluation of views on relations between man and forest – an important resource and environmental component of the biosphere. Forestry ecosystem needs to be considered as a major component that can stabilize and restore the natural balance of the biosphere. The ecological role of forests is most definitely evident in the mountain conditions, where the action of natural factors is most expressed. Forest plantations are a major stabilizing element, an ecological skeleton of a natural environment that minimizes adverse natural processes and phenomena in the mountains.

The water security and water-preserving role of forests as the main factor of providing the full hydrological mode of all natural ecosystems is especially important. Precipitation is delayed by moles and trunks of trees. Moisture gradually comes under the canopy and is absorbed by small volume in the moss, the forest litter and the soil that hold it, gradually paying in the river system. In the process of life of forest plants moisture is spent on physical and physiologic evaporation and nutrition. But the real moisture distribution begins in the spring when the snow is actively melting and spring-summer precipitation begins. Thanks to Lissam there is a continuous filling of rivers with water, filtered layers of soil and forest bedding. In dry times, the source of water in the mountains are forests, which accumulated its considerable volume. Forest vegetation by physical evaporation and transpiration turns into an atmosphere a significant amount of moisture that is transferred to air on neighboring territories.

Photograph from state agency of forest resources of Ukraine.

Given the above problem, the relationship between forest and water resources is given to a high priority. Forests and water resources are currently one of the most important political issues in Europe. The Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe at the level of ministers and the UN ECE Convention on the Protection and use of cross-border watercourses and international Lakes became a significant step in this direction. The documents adopted by them underlined the importance of development, improvement and coordination of policies in the field of forest and water resources management, especially in the context of climate change, and the task of strengthening national measures on protection and Ecologically rational management of cross-border and surface waters.

Ukrdigirlis conducts active activities aimed at improving the hydrological role of the forest. In the first place it relates to the organization of research, which aims to have a profound understanding of the mechanisms of interaction between forests and water, as well as raising awareness and capacity building in the field of hydrology of forests and the reflection of these knowledge and research findings in Legislative acts. In the research forestry of Ukrdihirlis There is a hydrological hospital, where active experiments on the establishment of influence of the Rubok on the hydrological mode of mountain forest territories are conducted.

The obtained results testify that the more coverage of the area of water collection of solid cuts and the more intense felling of trees at the insignificant felling, the stronger the total flow of water, especially its inclined pleat. Holding a solid ore on the dominant area of water collection changes its hydrological mode due to intensification of the prone water runoff almost 10 times more than after the selective felling and 2.5 times more than the gradual. Along with the sample chopping weakly affect the flow of water and small in the area of solid felling, preserving the forest cover on the prevailing part of the water collection.

The results of scientific research on the study of hydrological role of forests are realized through the inclusion of reasonable requirements to branch or state normative and legal acts, and also used in the work of state commissions, which consider Causes and consequences of catastrophic flooding. For example, in the current "rules of main use in the mountain forests of the Carpathians", on the initiative of the Institute included requirements regarding hydrological aspects of forestry. These aspects are also taken into account in the "State target program of complex anti-flood protection in the Dniester, Prut and Sirettu basins, which took part in the development of the Ukrdihirlis. The Institute has been developing recommendations on transformation of forest vegetation in the zone of temporary flooding of flood-water vessels, which are projected by JSC Ukrvodproekt to reduce the level of high waters in Zakarpatska Oblast from the time of historical Floods. Implementation of such recommendations will allow to ensure the vitality of forest vegetation and to prevent the emergence of crisis phenomena in the wood when filling the bowl of the fire-flood capacity and high water ascent.

Taking into account the importance of the Ukrniirlis problem continuing research is aimed at improving the hydrological role of forests. More than one third of the volume of financing, provided by the plan of Scientific-Research works of the Institute for 2015-2019 years, falls on scientific themes, which are connected with solving the problem of effective management of forest waters. During these researches the methods of forestry activity planning in different types of forest water gatherings are being processed and recommendations for introduction into the practice of forestry activity features of landscape-catchment principle are prepared.

The main causes of recent historical floods in the Carpathians 

 As much as the occurrence of floods and other dangerous natural phenomena arise as a result of interaction of natural and anthropogenic factors, they should be evaluated comprehensively, without artificial selection or idealizing of one of influence factors. On the basis of their own research and conclusions of scientists and European states, which analyzed the causes of flood-threatening nature in Germany, Switzerland, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, France, Slovakia, Ukraine and other countries, you can assert that natural factors are fundamental and are worn both global and regional.

Natural global causes. The repeatability of floods is subordinated to certain laws, which are manifested in alternating periods of low and high water, which in accordance with cyclic fluctuations occurs in 11, 33 and 100 years.  The study of domestic and foreign scientists point to the disconformity of forecasts and for the future, due to the increase of 10% in the atmosphere of carbon dioxide, and in the next 50 years, the warming at 1.50 C in the ground layers of the atmosphere. On the natural global causes are the anthropogenic factors that touched the structural elements of the biosphere (troposphere, lithosphere and biotin).

Natural regional reasons. The Ukrainian Carpathians belong to the poverty-threatening regions of Ukraine. There is always a threat of catastrophic floods, through mountain relief, large river density, and a considerable amount of precipitation.

Concerning the implementation of the forests of water-regulating functions and influence on them of anthropogenic factors, it is possible to emphasize that the main stabilizing element, ecological skeleton of natural environment, minimizing adverse natural processes and phenomena in the mountains is Forest plantations. The anti-flood value of them is quite significant, as evidenced by this fact-the optimal regulation of the flood flow is indicated on Vodozborah, which have a wooded 65-70%.

The anthropogenic factors, which violated the natural functioning and intensified floods in the mountains are historical transformation of the plant's vegetable cover. All this resulted in a decrease in the wooded in the mountains on average up to 55%, the foothills – 15-20%, lowering the upper border of the forest to 150-200 m. Intensive use of forests in the past led to the change of their species. In 2.5 times the area of fir-trees was increased due to decrease of fir-tree, beech and oak forests, especially mixed spruce-beech and beech-spruce forests.

The scale of the flooding affects the ways of the main tubes. Negative hydrological processes are strengthened at the continuous rumen, due to the increase of the surface of the prone drain, development of erosion and shear processes. With the use of such a movement the large part of the forestry fund is mastered. Activate the erosion processes and influence the hydrological mode of the territory and used in the Carpathian technological processes of harvesting, which are based mainly on the use of track tractors.  The most dangerous in this regard is the bashing hairs.

Conclusions

  1. The wooded mountain water assembly is 65-70% and is optimal from the position of watersetting in the mountain conditions. Over 70% of mountainous territories, the average age of the plantings is over 50 years, which has a positive impact on the hydrological regime.
  2. The volumes of forest restoration exceed 10% of the area of the log cabins. The area of annual log in the region is only 0.5% of the total forest area. Such a percentage of not covered forest area can not significantly affect the hydrological regime. In addition, almost half of the forests of the Carpathians are excluded from the use and they do not carry the chopping of the main use by classifying them to natural, protective and recreational forests.
  3. The decisive value for the formation of floods has a steep slope, the condition of the soil cover, the degree of moisture in front of the hazardous period and the season of the year.
  4. In the conditions of pre-wetting and excessive stormwater rainfall the role of the forest in regulating the flood runoff is much less than the existing expectations. The main causes of historical floods of recent years were an excessive amount of precipitation and the overlapping peaks of the floods, which intensified anthropogenic factors.

V. I. Parpan, Doctor of Sciences, professor, academician of the Lisiany Academy of Science of Ukraine

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