No 4 (2024)

The article presents the results of a comprehensive study of the development conditions and features of water erosion manifestation in various natural and economic settings as an important condition of the formation of engineering geological features of the territory. The authors have established that the development, forms of manifestation and intensity of water erosion processes in the territory of Belarus, with all the diversity of natural and economic situations, are controlled by the energy potential of the relief, the basin structure of the territory and human economic activity. Engineering geological conditions were typified for the development of water erosion processes. The most complex engineering geological situations are observed within the marginal glacial uplands, which have a high energy potential of the topography, a two-rock type of ground massif, and a complex basin structure; as well as in areas of active economic development.

Routine distinguishing of morphostructures upon neotectonical studies in the Chara rift area is supplemented by the orotectonic method. This combination permitted us to characterize the phases and unevenness of orogenesis and faulting along the regional normal fault. The instability of Mesozoic and recent structure formation is revealed, as well as the Neo-Pleistocene activation of the structures known in Alpine orogens. It is shown that the structurally dependent features of the relief control the specifics of exogenous geohazards manifestation. Using the tectonic method, the established patterns may also be valid for other rifts in the Baikal Rift Zone.

Fluvial processes are highly variable and their dynamics under the influence of modern climate change are of both scientific and practical interest. The present work is an attempt to assess the impact of the modern climate change on the morphological pattern development in cryolithozone flood plains using modelling based on the methods of mathematical morphology of landscapes. The flood plains are territories of free channel meandering with topography formed by fluvial processes at different stages of development; so they represent a complex “patchwork” landscape morphological pattern occurring in the dynamic balance state. Our research involves fragments of the flood plains, for which there were two survey dates with a fairly large interval between them (about 50 years). As a climate change characteristic, the trends of surface air temperature anomalies for the same period (1956—2019) were calculated. An analysis of the calculated trends in surface temperature anomalies showed their heterogeneity both by seasons and by location, with a steady increase in surface temperature in general over the studied period. For all key sites, the mathematical model of the landscape morphological pattern of alluvial plains was tested. The analysis shows the correspondence of empirical data to theoretical ones, which allows us to obtain the model parameters to assess the change in the morphological pattern under the influence of climate change. It was suggested that climate change may lead to a change of the parameters of the corresponding distribution for the model variables due to the violation of dynamic balance. This statement was tested using the Smirnov test for two independent samples. The study of the relationship between distribution parameters and temperature trends includes assessing the correlation between them. Our analysis showed that the influence of modern temperature changes on the development of the morphological pattern of the flood plains over the past 40–50 years is manifested in a change of the distribution parameters for the forming flood plain segments, but it is not significant enough to change greatly the statistical distributions in the mathematical model of the morphological pattern of floodplains in general.

Data are presented on the discrepancy between theoretical calculations and experimental results on assessing the strength of fine dispersed bodies including clay soils. Physicochemical processes operating on the surface of dispersed particles are considered upon interaction of latter with water and the formation of adsorbed water films producing disjoining pressure. The presence of films exerting the disjoining effect controls the development of various types of contacts between soil particles in the course of lithogenesis, i. e., coagulational, transitional, and phase contacts. These contacts are the most important factors influencing the behavior of clay soils. The study dwells on the effect of contact types on the state, deformability and stability of clay soils under external impact. It is concluded that the assessment of clay behavior should be based on physicochemical mechanics, patterns of contact interactions in fine-grained soils, and statistical analysis of experimentally obtained parameters of the mechanical properties of clays.

Microelements Hg, Cd, Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, Co, Ni, Fe, Mn, As are the most hazardous contaminants for water bodies. The study of bottom deposits in water reservoirs permits the authors us to reveal the endangered sites and determine the contamination sources. The estimation of the bottom sediment contamination by the above-listed microelements is given for a number of the Upper Volga regions, from the Upper Volga lakes to the Ivan’kovskoe water reservoir on the basis of comparing them with the background values for the deposits in the Upper Volga lakes. The results of bottom deposit contamination study have been assessed according to igeo-classes, i. e., the sorbing fraction (<0.020 mm) contamination. The comparative analysis of the background microelement values is performed for the Upper Volga water bodies and the values adopted in Europe. The changes of these background values for the latest 20 years are assessed. As a result, it has been found out that for each major water system and for each geographical region, it is necessary to determine the regional background values of their own and to update data recurrently according to a common procedure. The results obtained permit the authors to conclude that despite numerous contamination sources, the technogenic load at the studied objects cannot be considered hazardous.

The current trends in the municipal waste management development are considered and the problems in using spatial geological data are shown, which consist in the complexity of combining geological information with other data in the waste management system. A methodological approach is proposed to take into account the geological environment specifics in the territorial scheme of waste management on the basis of digital mapping by the example of the Moscow region. An assessment zoning of a representative key site was carried out in the QGIS program according to its suitability for the municipal solid waste disposal depending on the presence of low-permeable soils and rocks in the geological section.