High-Impact Hot Spots of Land Cover Land Use Change in Ukraine

The past several decades has seen considerable land cover and land use change (LCLUC) in Ukraine. These changes are a result from unprecedented environmental and climate disturbances as well as highly sensitive political and economic disruption, most recently the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The impacts of these disturbances must be properly monitored and documented so that land resources can be managed effectively and sustainably. Here, we report our ongoing activities to identify, map, and characterize LCLUC occurred in Ukraine within the past 20 years. Using satellite data, we demonstrate highly characteristic human-environment relationships to identify LCLUC hotspots of regional, national, and global importance. Furthermore, we examine occupation of territories that include protected areas (Emerald network) and demonstrate impacts of policy abandonment leading to degradation of 25% of forest cover, a reversal of 20 years of sustainable development progress in the region. Lastly, we illustrate impacts of the ongoing war to sunflower production, a resource for which Ukraine is a top world producer and exporter.