Researchers from the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism have created a medical and environmental atlas of Voronezh. The atlas is a part of the research project “Geoinformation support of medico-ecological monitoring of large industrial centres” supported by the Russian Geographical Society and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research. It was developed using geoinformation mapping technology.
The creation of the atlas is one of the stages of a years-long joint research project on the assessment of population health risks associated with the state of the environment, performed by scientists from VSU and the Voronezh Regional Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology. The project employs official statistics provided by the Sanitary and Epidemiological Service as well as the results of the experiments carried out by the authors.
The project is supervised by professor Semen Kurolap, Dean of the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism. The research team includes associate professors Tatiana Prozhorina, Marina Klevtsova, and Sergey Eprintsev, senior lecturer Pavel Vinogradov, and professors of the Voronezh Regional Centre for Hygiene and Epidemiology, Oleg Klepikov, Yury Stepkin, and Nikolay Mamchik.
The first edition of the atlas includes 35 maps demonstrating the state of the environment in the city (air, soil, and water quality), ecological and geochemical background, industrial and transport influence, reaction of woody plants to technogenic pollution, public health (regarding the most socially relevant diseases), as well as maps of ecological risks associated with the state of the environment. Each map is followed by a brief description of the situation.
It is planned that the atlas will be further extended in the future, and will include new materials and maps. The new project developed jointly by VSU’s researchers and experienced ecologists will definitely be of great interest to experts from various conservation and health care institutions, as well as researchers and university students specialising in the environmental problems of urban areas.
Full version of the atlas is available on the website of the Faculty of Geography, Geoecology, and Tourism.
