ASSESSMENT OF THE STATE OF FOREST BELTS OF DONETSK REGION IN THE COMBAT ZONE USING SENTINEL-2 SATELLITE IMAGES

Abstract

Military operations in the practically treeless steppe zone of Ukraine somehow affect forest belts. Itis in the forest belts that defence lines with trenches, dugouts, and tunnels are built, for the constructionof which wood from forest belts is used. Defence lines in forest belts are exposed to the most intenseartillery and rocket fire and are the object of assault operations, which probably leads to varying degreesof degradation of forest belt plantations. The purpose of the research was to assess the condition of forestbelts directly in the combat zone, in particular, by studying the intra-annual distribution of the NDVIindicator in 2021 and 2023, using remote sensing methods, in particular, in the Donetsk region. For thispurpose, multispectral cloudless Sentinel-2 satellite images were used, which were processed in the BOSentinel Hub browser. According to the research, the period “February – early May” is characterized bythe absence of a significant difference in NDVI values between the pre-war and war years. This is dueto the fact that the main trees (oaks and robins) in the forest belts were partially destroyed as a resultof military operations. Degraded secondary tree species and shrubs, together with the grass cover, donot significantly reduce the NDVI value at the beginning of the growing season in April and early Maycompared to pre-war conditions. However, during the period when the maximum photosynthetic activityof forest belt vegetation is observed (June-July), the NDVI was significantly lower in 2023 comparedto 2021. Most likely, such a decrease in NDVI indicates a partial degradation of the main woody andsecondary vegetation in the forest belts as a result of military activities. Thus, the process of gradual destruction of the forest belt network is underway in the combat zones in Donetsk region, which worsenstheir soil and field protection functions and loss of ecological capacity.