Ecological state of natural environment is an object-subject phenomenon differentiated in space and time and characterized by concrete scientific and practical problems and by different degree of their acuteness and impact upon the conditions of the population’s vital functions. All countries in the process of their development happened to disregard this ecological constituent and as a result, industrial waste degraded the components of nature. It is known that the conservation of landscapes’ ecology is possible only provided that the speed of biological synthesis and of dissimilation of matter are in balance, i. e. if the biochemical cycle of matter is complete. The world economies are undergoing a stressful period due to the deterioration of human environment and habitats of other living organisms. This problem concerns Ukraine as well.

Ukraine was settled in the olden times. Such factors as beneficial ecoclimate, predominance of plains (mountains occupy about 5% of the territory), presence of waterways, productive soils and mineral resources create favorable conditions for the population. Farming emerged here in the days of Trypillia Culture (from 4 000 to 2 000 BC). The economy began to develop rapidly since the advance of its active capitalization. Socialist system of management in Ukraine created highly developed farming with specialized regional production, powerful agribusiness structured according to the available natural and labor resources. The development of economy was aimed at profit maximization while using the available natural resources; the ecological constituent was disregarded. As a result of resource misallocation and deterioration of environment the process reversibility is slow to set in.

An ecosystem is a result of interdependence of society and nature. Human economic activity has been the main factor influencing nature in the course of the previous century. Thence the need to dedicate a part of the book to this problem arose. It is intended to inform the reader about the current state of the natural environment, to show the impact of society on selected components of nature and landscapes as a whole, to give estimates of the living conditions of the population and the main directions of the state ecological policy oriented towards harmonization of human habitat, ecological training, education, and culture.

The structure of the section reflects many aspects of interrelation of society and nature. The first section characterizes the ecological state of natural environment: the levels of pollution and the estimation of the state of all components of nature and the anthropogenic impact. It contains about 90% of the section’s information and maps. The second part of the section is devoted to the main trends of the state ecological policy intended to prevent the deterioration of natural environment.

In accordance with the territorial organization of production, the peculiarities of settlement and nature management in Ukraine, the ecological state of natural components is examined on the state, regional-and-state, inter-regional and regional local levels. Ecological problems are integral for every level, as far as they are based on the summation of local relations between the society and nature and result in the synergy of territorial technological environmental impact.

Atmosphere. The level of air pollution in this state has a tendency to drop; nevertheless it depends on the dynamics of industrial activity. After a few years of reduction in the volumes of air pollutants discharged, harmful atmospheric emission grew again at the end of the last century and reached 4.15 mln tons in 2004, though it was twice lower than in 1990. The emission is the highest in Donets’k, Dnipropetrovs’k, Luhans’k and Zaporizhzhia Oblast’s. In succeeding years the stationary pollution went on increasing, though at lower rates than the growth of industrial output. Therefore certain minimal improvement of production technologies and more effective emission control should be noted.

The main pollutants are sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitric oxide, benzo-phenanthrene etc. In the above-mentioned regions many of them exceed allowable standards.

The stationary and mobile pollution sources together with the influx of external (transgene) matters are responsible for the permanent air pollution. At the regional level it becomes apparent as the increase of atmospheric moisture acidity, acid rains, ground-based ozone concentration and higher level of hazardous pollutants.

The Atlas shows the volume and structure of man-made emissions (carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide etc.).

Section Hydrosphere contains maps characterizing the state and quality of soil and ground water, as well as man-made water pollution and the measures taken with the aim of water purification. Cartographic analysis of spatial information showed that one third of industrial and communal liquid discharges is polluted. Certainly, the ecology of surface water deteriorated. In Ukraine water of satisfactory quality prevails.

Section Soils characterizes their modern ecological state. The economic crisis in Ukraine decreased financing of land conservation and soil degradation set in. During the last 40 years the content of humus in soil diminished from 0.3 to 0.4% and the downtrend increases. The overplowing and lower farming standards ruin the structure of soil and lower its crop capacity. The most dangerous factors are water and wind erosions. Unfortunately, there are also increasing swamping, salinization, acidification of soils and their compression.

The mapping of ecological state of soils includes (in the contours of species and subspecies of soils) natural ecological factors, intensity of development of the negative natural and man-made processes, chemical contamination of soil as a result of economic activity, integral characteristics of soil ecology. The separate maps show the areas of especially valuable soil and areas of exhausted needing conservation or change of land-use pattern.

The section Flora and Fauna contains maps characterizing the state of flora and fauna in Ukraine. The most hazardous influences include overplowing of forest-steppe and steppe areas with 90% of plowing land in some regions; the state of biota suffered from the large-scale hydrotechnical and reclamative transformation of landscapes resulting in the Dnipro natural riverside meadows inundation. The river network regime modified as a result of bog reclamation. During the last decades over 20 ths small rivers disappeared. All the above-mentioned factors substantially influenced the state of autochthonous flora and fauna, impoverished population biodiversity in continental ecosystems and in those of the Azov and Black seas. The existing nature reserves, dendrological parks, botanical gardens, and the emerging ecological network are the factors opposing further biota degradation in Ukraine.

The maps show the spread of species of plants and animals to be protected under international conventions and registered in the Red Book of Ukraine. The location of the main species of the Red-Book-registered vertebral and invertebrate animals is also shown.

Anthropogenic environmental impact disequilibrates biocenoses. The adventive and foreign species use favorable conditions to penetrate in a rapid and aggressive way all physiographical areas of Ukraine endangering local biota. Therefore several maps deal with the spread of the most harmful adventive plants.

Maps also show routes of seasonal birds migrations through the territory of Ukraine.

The 1986 Chornobyl’ Disaster with its uranium release considerably damaged the natural environment in the first place of Ukraine. Radioactive fallout contaminated vast territories.

At the instance of the incident the total activity of the exploded reactor exceeded 210•10¹⁸ Bq (Bq – a unit of radioactivity, equal to the activity resulting from the decay of one nucleus of radioactive matter in one second). The total of about 13•10¹⁸ Bq affected the environment. During the first moments of the incident up to 200 radionuclides in different phases and chemical forms traveled in the atmosphere to the distance of many thousand kilometers. An essential part of the radionuclides emitted into the atmosphere had comparatively short half-life. Therefore as time goes by radionuclides with longer half-life, such as transuranium series (isotopes of plutonium, 241Am resulting from the radioactive decay of 241Pu), and also 137Cs and 90Sr, the half-life of which is about 30 years, are registered.

The worst radionuclide contamination after the Chornobyl’ Disaster was registered in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. The main contaminating radionuclides traveled in the troposphere (at the altitude up to 2 000 m); the pollution transport was aggravated by rains and elements of landscapes determining the direction and altitude of contaminated air mass. In Ukraine the higher radioactive contamination level of 134Cs and, 137Cs was registered in a number of regions in Zhytomyr and Kyiv Oblast’s, in Cherkasy Oblast’, Podillia and Prykarpattia (Forecarpathians). Radioactive contamination level in several regions of these oblast’s exceeded 1 480 kBq/m² (40 curie/km²). The worst 137Cs (over 1 MBq/m²) contamination occurred in Kyiv and Zhytomyr Oblast’s. In Ukraine the 137Cs – contaminated territory was the largest (density over 10 Bq/m² / 0.27 curie/km²) in 1986 and made 211ths km²; in 2006 due to disintegration this area shrinked to 153 km². The territories contaminated with radionuclide 90Sr, plutonium and americium are smaller. High values of surface contamination with 90Sr (here and there up to 1 500 kBq/m²) are observed in Kyiv Oblast’. The isotopes of (238+239+240Pu) and 241Am contaminated mainly Kyiv and Zhytomyr Oblast’s. The highest degrees of contamination with these radionuclides are found in the Chornobyl’ Exclusion Zone.

Among the short-lived wide spread radionuclides the most dangerous were (131+132+133+135I) which affected the thyroid gland in many people.

The amount of rural settlements and urban villages in Ukraine with the density of fallout of radioactive cesium exceeding 37 kBq/m² made 1 867 with 1 446ths inhabitants.

The most damaging for human health are exposure to radiation and consumption of food containing radionuclides. From such foodstuff the radionuclides reach different organs and cause internal irradiation. Internal irradiation is responsible for the major part of the summary radiation dose received by a person. The main foodstuffs containing radionuclides include meat, milk and especially forest mushrooms, which are able to accumulate 137Cs, and berries. Consequently, the doses of irradiation of the people, living on the contaminated territories, are determined not only by the density of surface contamination but also by the speed of transition of radionuclides from soil to fodder or field crops and via the food chain to man. The transfer-factor characterizes the speed of transfer of radionuclides from soil to plant and biological availability of this matter. These coefficients are the highest for the peat bogs and grey sandy podzolized soils. That is why the doses of irradiation of people determined by radionuclide contamination of forests, natural pastures, and meadows were the highest in some districts of Rivne and Volyn’ Oblast’s, although the surface density of radionuclide contamination here was lower than in Kyiv and Zhytomyr Oblast’s. Due to high biological availability of radionuclides forests may be critical for the vital functions of man even at surface contamination making 40 kBq/m². The forests in eighteen oblast’s of Ukraine became contaminated. The excess surface radionuclide contamination of 40 kBq/m² is observed in Vinnytsia, Volyn’, Donets’k, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivs’k, Kyiv, Kirovohrad, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil’, Khmelnyts’kyi, Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, and Chernihiv Oblast’s.

In order to protect cultivated plants and farm animals from radionuclides they resort to such effective agrochemical and agricultural measures as the improvement of natural pastures and hayfields, liming of acid soils, fertilization, and modification of nature management, for example, replacing of food cultures by technical, limitation of meat and milk production and other forms of stock-raising etc.

In due course the radionuclides migrate from the surface down to the deeper horizons that influences their biological availability for plants: when they reach the level of rootage them intensity of their consumption by plants increases.
The surface water transports great amount of radionuclides. During 1986–2005 only Prypiat’ River transported over 123•10¹² Bq of 137Cs and 148•10¹² Bq of 90Sr. The basins of the Prypiat’ and the Dnipro accumulated 19.6•10¹⁵ and 2.3•10¹⁵  Bq of 137Cs and 90Sr respectively. The Dnipro Cascade brings these radionuclides down to the Black Sea; a part of radioactivity finds its way to the farmland during irrigation intake.

The appearance of dispersed radionuclides in the ecosystems of forests and farmlands urges us to take measures and bring down the doses of irradiation of population and prevent the development of long-term negative consequences of surplus ionized irradiation of people as well as flora and fauna.

The final maps of this part show the main measures of the government in the field of environmental control: ecological and economical, compensatory, ecological stability measures; they are designed to harmonize the vital functions of society in the natural environment. Despite the current economic crisis in the state, the Ministries and departments assign means to preserve natural environment, form and expand the structure of preserves, and support the network of environmental monitoring.