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2.Soil related concernsWhen thinking about city soils soil pollution with waste is often the first thought. Indeed people are also concerned about radioactivity or heavy metals from automobile traffic. Less known is industrial soil pollution that in some cases is also a heritage from Soviet times. The mercury that has spoiled the environment around the firm "Radical" (today closed) more than 16 years ago is still there and makes its way through the food chain. Today, it is assumed that dioxins from the waste incineration plant can also load the city soils but exact figures are not spread or even missing. Traffic related soil pollution is still increasing and includes enrichment of soils with road salts leading to soil degradation and damage of street trees.
example of asphalt covered parking place (extent of utilisation near zero) By far the biggest problem of the city soils is the lost of intact soils. More and more soil areas are covered with buildings, and asphalt to satisfy the needs of an uncontrolled traffic development. This leads to decreased rain water infiltration rates. Unprotected soils are exposed to rain and suffer from erosion. The storm water canalisation is overtaxed and leads the freight to the small rivers (view the related map). The consequence is the damage of the river ecosystems. We also provide a longer article (in Ukrainian) that describes the econet of the city and an associated map. You can select the version with English legend or the associated map with Ukrainian legend. These are only a few thoughts to start with. We can not deliver updated information to all problems in several languages. The web portal needs further inputs and you are invited to come in and make your own contributions. Overview on the content of the "soil" directory:
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