iCLEAR: “Planning the Future of Land Abandoned after the Chernobyl Accident”

UK Natural Environment Research Council; University of Portsmouth

2019-2021

University of Portsmouth (UK);

State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management;

Ukrainian Institute of Agricultural Radiology;

Ukrainian Hydrometeorological Institute;

Danube-Carpathian Programme;

UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology;

University of Salford (UK);

Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

The Chornobyl disaster is the first global large scale nuclear non-military disaster, which affected millions of people. The consequences and effect of the disaster on landscape, biodiversity and human together with 33 years timing provide a unique opportunity to get future humanity survival data. The 4600 km2 Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) is the largest land area in Europe ever to have been abandoned and is the ideal site to transform our understanding of landscape development and ecosystem recovery about human-wildlife coexistence.

The CEZ, where radioactive contamination is highest and public access is restricted, has been declared a Biosphere Reserve. The area includes forests, meadows, abandoned settlements, former agricultural land, and wetlands previously drained for agriculture/forestry. The State Agency of Ukraine for Exclusion Zone Management (SAUEZM) is now developing strategies for the CEZ to benefit the environment, people and economy of Ukraine. There are huge potential economic benefits of official re-use of currently abandoned lands, as well as ecosystem benefits of careful management of what represents one of the largest wilderness areas in Europe. 

The iCLEAR project is helping move forward the slow process of long term recovery from the accident. The purpose of the UK-funded iCLEAR project is to support government agencies of Ukraine in developing a new strategy for the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) and Zone of Obligatory Resettlement (ZoR). The questions of water, radioactive pollution, wildlife and habitats management for the selected areas of the Exclusion Zone are also a subject of project considerations.