ESTIMATION OF HEAVY METAL AND RADIONUCLIDE CONTAMINATION OF SOILS AND VEGETATION WITHIN
THE CHERNOBYL DANGER ZONE USING REMOTE SENSING DATA
V. I. Lyalko, V. Yu. Djary, A. I. Sakhatsky, A. J. Hodorovsky, L. D. Woolfson, Z. B. Shportjuk, O. N. Sibirtseva
Center of Aerospace Research of the Earth (ZAKIZ), National Academy of Sciences, Kiev, Ukraine
G. L. Gimel'farb
Institute of Cybernetics, National Academy of Sciences,
Kiev, Ukraine
K.-H. Marek, S. Oppitz
uve Remote Sensing Centre Potsdam, Germany
V. llieva
N. Poushkarov Institute of Soil Science and Yield Programming, Sofia, Bulgaria
Kommission VII, Working Group VII
KEY WORDS: Remote Sensing, GIS, Environment, Pollution, Vegetation, Chernobyl
ABSTRACT
The investigations carried out demonstrate the efficiency of airborne spectrometry and multispectral spaceborne
remote sensing data in combination with ground truth measurements to assess heavy metal and radionuclide
contamination of soils and vegetation polluted after the Chernobyl accident. According to practical experiences plants
are sensitive indicators of pollutions which induce changes of their spectral properties. These changes can be assessed
by means of remote sensing. The software complex used for processing the remotely sensed data allows to determine
polynomial regression dependencies between the remote sensing data and the pollution content in soils and vegetation
These dependencies give indications for polluted vegetation areas affected by toxicants.
KURZFASSUNG
Die vorgestellten Untersuchungen demonstrieren die Effizienz, mit der Flugzeug-spektrometrische und multispektrale
Weltraum-Fernerkundungsdaten zusammen mit Bodenmefsdaten zur Bewertung der radioaktiven Kontamination des
Bodens und der Vegetation infolge der Tschernobyl-Katastrophe eingesetzt werden. Experimentell wurde
nachgewiesen, daf$ die Veránderung der spektralen Eigenschaften der Vegetation, die mit Hilfe der Erdfernerkundung
gemessen werden kann, ein signifikanter Indikator für diese Kontaminationen ist. Zur Auswertung der
Fernerkundungsdaten wird ein Software-Paket benutzt, das die Feststellung von polynomialen Abhängigkeiten
zwischen den spektralen Signaturen aus Fernerkundungsdaten und dem Kontaminationsgrad von Vegetation und
Bóden und damit die Abgrenzung belasteter Areale erlaubt.
1. INTRODUCTION e to analyze canopy composition and its changes as wel
as vegetation spectral features under stress conditions
The Chernobyl accident in 1986 has caused extensive induced by heavy metals as a basis to apply remotely
contaminations in greater areas of the Ukraine and other sensed data for the identification of such pollutions
European countries. In addition to the long-lived e to verifiy the methods to localize heavy metal soi
radionuclides (Cs-137, Sr-90 etc.) thrown out into the pollution by remote spectrometric sounding of vegetation
atmosphere during the accident the rejection composition e to prove the usefulness of multispectral satellite imag
included Mn, Ni, Co, Ci, V, Mu, Cu, Pb, Zn, Sn, Y, B and facilities for mapping areas contaminated by
other chemical elements. Their distribution patterns after air radionuclides.
transfer still need to be estimated. As vegetation responses
on pollution remote sensing methods such as airborne
spectrometry and multispectral spaceborne imaging are 2. ESTIMATION OF SOIL AND VEGETATION
most operational and commercially efficient tools to obtain POLLUTION BY HEAVY METALS FROM AIRBORNE
quickly the distribution patterns of the above mentioned SPECTROMETRY AND GROUND TRUTH DATA
pollutants for large areas. The paper presents the results
obtained by a group of scientists from the Center of : blue
; Collins, Goetz, Chang et al. (1983, a-c) detected the ,0U
Aerospace Research of the Earth (Ukraine) and the N. shift“ for the red m of Ner Y a od spectra due to
Poushkarov Institute of Soil Science and Yield Programming higher heavy metal content on sulphide deposit areas. The
(Bulgaria) The Siudies have been caried out for tne authors investigated this effect on agricultural crops in the
following purposes: industrial region of the Western Donbas (Ukraine), which äé
exposed to high technogenic load from numerous hay
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International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B7. Vienna 1996
