Assessing ecological environment quality at the administrative-unit scale is important for understanding regional landscape differentiation and ecological dynamics in temperate regions. This study used the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI), derived from Landsat 8/9 growing-season imagery processed in Google Earth Engine, to examine district-level spatiotemporal patterns and ecological heterogeneity in the Minsk Region, Belarus, during 2016–2025. Annual RSEI maps were generated to characterize spatial patterns, intra-district variability, and temporal tendencies. Mean district-level RSEI values ranged from 0.539 to 0.682, showing clear spatial differentiation among districts. Higher values were generally associated with forest-dominated and semi-natural landscapes, whereas agriculturally transformed and urbanized districts showed lower values and greater internal heterogeneity. Temporal trends were predominantly negative but weak. The results indicate that average ecological conditions alone are insufficient for characterizing district-level ecological environment quality and confirm the usefulness of RSEI for detecting subtle ecological contrasts in temperate Eastern European landscapes.
The prediction of emergency situations arising from water breakthroughs during the development of solid mineral deposits or during the construction of large underground structures is very difficult due to the high heterogeneity of filtration properties of the rock mass and the uncertainty of hydrogeological characteristics of fault zones, which are the main pathways for fluid flow. This paper studies several mechanisms of changes in the hydraulic characteristics of fault zones under the influence of seismic vibrations. We use observational data obtained during large underground explosions in rock masses as an experimental basis. The study analyzed unique archival materials obtained at the Institute of Geosphere Dynamics of the Russian Academy of Sciences during the preparation and execution of large-scale underground explosions conducted by the USSR at the Semipalatinsk Test Site (now the Republic of Kazakhstan) and at several mining enterprises in Russia. As a result, cases of predominance of different mechanisms of permeability change have been distinguished across a wide range of dynamic loads. The analysis performed has led to the conclusion that even relatively weak dynamic impacts can cause a noticeable hydrogeological response. Moreover, this occurs not due to the formation of new filtration pathways, but due to “clearing” the already existing fracture-pore space.
Floating ice cover determines dynamic interaction between the ocean and the atmosphere, influencing the dynamics of the sea surface and subsurface waters, as the ice cover and the entire mass of water beneath it participate in the overall vertical motion. This paper examines the amplitude-phase structure of wave fields arising at the interface between ice and homogeneous water of finite thickness, generated by moving and stationary localized disturbance sources. The ice cover is modeled as a thin elastic plate with small deformations, while the plate is physically linear. Integral representations of the solution are obtained in the linear approximation, and the results of dispersion relations and phase patterns are presented for various wave generation parameters. It is shown that the main parameters determining the characteristics of the amplitude-phase structure of wave disturbances on the ice surface are ice thickness, velocity of the wave source, and oscillation frequency. Numerical calculations demonstrate that changes in source velocity, ice thickness, and oscillation frequency lead to a noticeable qualitative restructuring of the phase patterns of the excited far-field wave fields at the ice–water interface. The wave pattern of disturbances far from the appearing source of disturbances is a wave system of long- and short-wave packets, with shorter waves traveling at higher velocities and longer wave trains propagating at slower velocities. The spatial and temporal evolution of wave packets of ice surface disturbances propagating from the appearing source of disturbances is investigated.
The paper presents the findings of characteristics of atmospheric circulation and extreme floods in the Baikal region in July 2001. During the flood in July 2001, precipitation at the meteorological stations of the study area was significantly higher than normal. In July, the Inga station reported an impressive maximum precipitation of 311 mm, a remarkable 278% of the long-term average for the month. Historical maximums of daily precipitation were recorded at four meteorological stations. A comprehensive synoptic analysis was conducted to identify the main causes of the extremely high precipitation values that caused a rise in water levels on the left-bank tributaries of the Angara, the upper Lena, and on the rivers of South Baikal in July 2001. Synoptic processes were classified according to the Jenkinson and Collison weather types. For July 2001, eight weather types were identified, two of which – cyclonic and advective types with northern components – emerged prominently during the flood period. The directions of air mass transfer were determined based on the analysis of five-day backward trajectories of HYSPLIT. The following were found to be the primary determinants of the devastating flood’s intensity: (1) active process of southern cyclogenesis; (2) development of blocking processes; (3) high content of precipitable water content over the study area.
Based on the analytical model of the magnetized parallelepiped magnetic field, a model of the pillar magnetic field was created. Comparison of the model with the magnetic survey at the Kurchatov station variational pavilion made it possible to determine the pillar magnetic susceptibility. The anomalous field distribution of the pit near the Paratunka observatory was studied. It was shown that the field distribution is consistent with the two-layer soil magnetic properties model with a magnetic susceptibility of 0.0066 for the upper layer with a thickness of 70 cm and 0.0087 for the lower layer. Models of the magnetic field distribution at the dIdD and POS-4 pavilions at Paratunka geophysical observatory have been created. The anomalous field amplitude in the dIdD pavilion can reach 30 nT at the height of 40 cm. Compensation of the pit magnetic moment and the base plate one in the POS-4 pavilion leads to a relative uniformity of the model field, which is – not more than 0.5 nT at the magnetometer installation height.
