A project to improve the digital system for monitoring environmental protection measures and soil protection is being implemented in the Belgorod Region

Specialists of the department of agro-industrial complex and environmental reproduction of the region, who control the implementation of environmental measures within the framework of projects of the adaptive landscape system of agriculture (ALSZ) and soil protection, since the end of 2020, have been implementing the regional project "Improving the digital system for monitoring the implementation of environmental measures of ALSZ projects and soil protection" .

Its goal is to increase the effectiveness of control by improving the work of the Geographic Information System "Situation Center of the Agroindustrial Complex of the Belgorod Region" (GIS), a twelvefold increase in the coverage of environmental measures and expanding the area of ​​arable land to be monitored.

Digital technologies, which are increasingly being used in various fields of activity and are becoming one of the most important tools for improving its efficiency, are being actively introduced into the public administration of the region both in the social sphere and in the real sector of the economy, including the agricultural sector.

Thus, the Department of Agro-industrial Complex and Environmental Reproduction of the region has been using the Geographic Information System for about 10 years, which provides the collection and analysis of a large amount of data, which allows you to quickly obtain reliable information, assess the current situation and make management decisions in various areas of the department's activities. GIS is constantly being transformed and filled with new features in accordance with the requirements and tasks of the day.

The need to create ALSZ projects is due to the intensification of agricultural production and high anthropogenic pressure, accelerating the processes of soil degradation, reducing their fertility and, in general, deteriorating the environmental situation. The design of landscape-based farming systems is based on the principles that provide conditions for expanded reproduction of soil fertility and sustainable management of the industry: a systematic approach that takes into account zonality, adaptability of crops and technologies for their cultivation to specific conditions of the agricultural landscape, socio-economic feasibility, and environmental sustainability.

Almost every land user of the region within the framework of the ALSZ project, developed by the design organization, taking into account the direction of the farm and the relief of the fields being cultivated, is obliged to carry out a significant list of measures aimed at preserving soil fertility on time and in full. Monitoring the implementation of these activities covers most of the area of ​​arable land in the region, including hard-to-reach places. it is difficult and inefficient to travel to the field regularly, work in the field with dozens of paper maps of ALSZ projects, as well as keep a large number of events in memory. In this regard, all the requirements of the ALSZ projects have been digitized and transferred to the geoportal, which provides the connection of satellite images of a week and a month ago, allowing to remotely determine the fulfillment of one or another requirement of the ALSZ project at each specific site. For example, the presence of perennial grasses in hollows, on slopes and unproductive arable land at the reporting date.

As a result of the project implementation, the digital monitoring system covered a total of 13,374 environmental protection measures (objects) on arable land with a total area of ​​1.2 million hectares, or approximately 83% of the arable land in the region, which allows for more effective operational control of their implementation.

Thanks to this, it can be said that economic entities generally take a responsible approach to the implementation of most environmental protection measures. Thus, plans for grassing watercourses have been completed within 70-80%, the transfer of arable land to fallow land - 60-70%, planting of forest belts - 20-30%.

In March 2021, specialists from the Soil Protection Inspectorate of the State Budgetary Institution "Belgorod Land Fund", taking into account GIS data, identified more than 100 of the most erosion-prone hollows and examined them. Tinned watercourses provided high protection against soil erosion. On 14 untinned hollows, soil washout with the formation of gullies on arable land was revealed. According to the identified violations, acts were drawn up and transferred to the ROSSELKHOZNADZOR for the Belgorod Region, the violators were brought to administrative responsibility.

At the same time, three business entities - Istochnik LLC (Prokhorovsky District), Agrotech-Garant LLC Shcherbakovskoye and Agrotech-Garant LLC Alekseevsky (Alekseevsky City District), which have the highest performance indicators for environmental protection measures - over 90% of the plan, for the achieved indicators and in connection with the professional holiday in October of this year were awarded the departmental award of the department.