Characteristic Of Azov Sea And Black Sea Coastal Zone In Ukraine As Object Of Management
Characteristic of Azov Sea and Black Sea coastal zone in Ukraine as object of management
A. Tkachov
Central Board for National Nature Parks and Reserve Affairs, Kyiv, Ukraine
The coastal zone, as object of management, is the area in contact of the land and the sea. It includes some part of coastal aquatory and coastal land. The coastal aquatory and coastal land intensively influence each other in natural and economic aspects, interact and mutually stipulate their respective development.
The components of this specific natural economic system are: river deltas, sea coastal aquatories (under intensive land influence), coastal valleys, hills, swamps, beaches, dunes, forests, meadows, rocks, lagoons, lakes, bays, channels, spits of land, submarine valleys, sand-banks, shoals, and other components of sea coastal landscapes.
The Sea coastal borders of Ukraine are determined on the base of administrative requirements.
For the ICZM definite coastal zone area is determined. In these borders the specific problems of natural resources use management exist. In this area the introduction of suitable law is reasonable. This area has natural phenomena as factors of system establishment. Under these conditions this area must be object management decision-making in branches of economy, social sphere, environment protection activity. Thus, requirements, established by relations in the process of management decision-making, caused delimitation of the CZ borders.
The internal and territorial sea waters, whose borders are defined by acting laws, belong to the sea (aquatic) part of the coastal zone. The territories of basic administrative units (city’s, settlement’s, country’s communities), bordering the sea coast or its geographic elements of internal and territorial sea waters, belong to the land (territorial) part of the sea coastal zone. The coastal administrative units of lower levels exercise the decision-making for some elements of coastal zone management. In such a way, they can have suitable centres of management in their administrative structures. They can have components of their budget, used for financial support of adopted decisions.
The borders of the coastal zone of Ukraine include 246 administrative units of basic level. They form the land (continental) part of the coastal zone and are included in the structure of 48 administrative districts or cities of regional subordination and 7 administrative units of regional level (Crimean Autonomous Republic, Odesa, Mikolaiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk oblasts and Sevastopol).
Table 1. Area of inland and territorial sea waters in Ukraine (square km)
Administrative unit
Black Sea
Azov sea
Ukraine
1
2
3
1
2
3
1
2
3
Odesa oblast
660
5598
6258
–
–
–
660
5598
6258
Mykolayiv oblast
585
572
1157
–
–
–
585
572
1157
Kherson oblast
2200
3000
5200
1515
1370
2885
3715
4370
8085
Zaporizhzhya oblast
–
–
–
1320
3488
4808
1320
3488
4808
Donetsk oblast
–
–
–
360
1765
2125
360
1765
2125
AR Crimea
1980
8325
10305
2045
3182
5227
4025
11507
15532
Sevastopol town
216
2154
2370
–
–
–
216
2154
2370
Total
5641
19649
25290
5240
9805
15045
10881
29454
40335
*) 1 – inland waters;
2 – territorial sea;
3 – Total.
The total length of Ukraine coastline is 2705 km, including the natural subregions; the length of the Northern-Western Black Sea Coastline is 1080km; the length of the Crimean Black Sea Coastline is 801 km; the Azov Coastline is 824 km. The Ukrainian part of the Black Sea Coastline equals more than 1/3 of its total length.
The coastal zone of Ukraine is situated mainly in the steppe natural zone. Only the landscape country (the Mountain Crimea) occupies the south of the Crimean Peninsula.
In the Black and Azov Sea Coastal Zone the population is 7 millions. In summers the quantity of the population of this area doubles.
The most part of Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson oblasts and Crimean Autonomous Republic population lives in the Black Sea CZ. The concentration of population caused the forming of coastal agglomerations here. The Sea of Azov CZ cities and settling systems are the regional settling systems periphery as a result of traditional economic lag of coastal regions.
Coastal zone of Azov and Black Seas is marked in reach landscape diversity and includes such landscape provinces: Priazov high-steppe; Proazov low-steppe; Beyond-Dnister low-steppe; Dnister-Bug low-steppe; Bug-Dnieper low-steppe; Dnieper-Molochan low-steppe; South-West Steppe slopes of Priazov high-land; Primorie low-steppe; Low-Dnieper terrace-delta steppe, Prisivashie-Priazov low-steppe; Crimea-Priazov low-steppe; Tarkhankut high-steppe; Central-Crimea flat-steppe; Kerch hunch-steppe; Foothill forest-steppe; Central mountain-meadow- forest bed; Crimea aouth-shore sub-Mediterranean.
At the coast zone of Black and Azov Sea relevant density of the objects of nature-protected fund is more high then those in whole in Ukraine (8% at the coast versus 4% in Ukraine).
Wetlands are paid particular attention, coastal wetlands occupy some 760000 ha. Researchers have revealed last years this territory to play very important ecological and social-economic role. They play six functions: important regional role as filters, protecting seas from contamination; global role as breeding places and wintering places for water birds, resource role – at national and local level to support fishery, hunting, raising productivity in agricultural. They are places of excavation of mineral ores (salt, curing mire) and last – they protect sea shore from wave destruction and flooding at windblown. The most important wetlands are: Danube, Dnister, Dnieper deltas, Sivash gulf, Tendra and Dzharylgach bays. All of them require immediate restoration.In Azov and Black seas inland marine waters comprise 10881 square km, territorial waters – 29454 square km, shelf area up to isobate 200 m – 55750 square km that include 57% of entire Black sea shelf.
In the Ukrainian boundaries 14 sea firths and estuaries totaling 1952 square km are located with sea water salinity of 0.3 – 296.0%; 8 sea bays totaling 1770 square km and salinity of 3.0-18.5%. Area of north-west sea shelf from the line Tarkhankut – Snake island consists of 48600 square km, water volume – 1150 cubic km, average depth – 23.7 m.
Related articles::