Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 9.20 The main units of the simulation system The Sea of Azov (Gorstko 1979; Gorstko
and Ougolnitsky 1990)
Unit
Function of the unit
External factors
Precipitation, change of the wind situation, river run-off,
motion of soils, outflow of nutrient elements and pollutants,
shery management
Water dynamics
Change of the water-table slope, water mixing, water
exchange with the Black sea, re-distribution of ingredients
between sea sectors
Nutrient elements
Out
ow with abrasive
materials and precipitation, physico-chemical transformation
of the compounds
fl
ow of nutrient compounds, their in
fl
Oxygen
Aeration, consumption of oxygen in biochemical processes
Water quality
Sea self-cleaning, propagation of pollutants over the water
body
Phytoplankton
Photosynthesis, growth, dying-off, consumption of nutrients,
oxygen release
Zooplankton
Nutrition, growth, dying-off, age transitions
Benthos
Nutrition, growth, metabolism, dying-off, change of the
spatial structure
Nekton (goby, pike persch,
bream, roach, etc.)
Nutrition, growth, dying-off, fishing-out, migration
It is of great importance the fact that in the beginning of the 21st century, most of the
key indicators of the living beings
'
habitat (especially those characterizing the
humans
'
safety), are close to a critical state, and in some regions to a threatening
state.
The risk of the occurrence of unfavourable environmental conditions for people
is mainly connected with the probability of a natural or technogenic catastrophe
resulting from the decision made earlier. Catastrophes in general and natural
disasters in particular, threaten the human life and therefore their prediction aimed
at prevention is a useful element of science on the processes taking place in NSS.
The risk evaluation of the occurrence of a natural disaster and its subsequent
damage requires an interdisciplinary analysis of a huge information volume about
various aspects of NSS functioning. First of all, the ecological safety, taking a broad
view of this aspect of NSS, is closely connected with the socio-economic level of
the development of society on a given territory. According to Vladimirov et al.
(2000), for instance, for conditions in Russia, many indicators of the society
development are in a critical state. So, compared to Germany, Russia spends about
50 times less
finance to secure the ecological safety. Other indicators, such as nature
protection expenditure and ecological losses on the territory of Russia deviate from
the rated values towards degradation by factors 2.5 and 3.5, respectively. Moreover,
most of the indicators of NSS development on the territory of Russia testify to a
negative trend in preparedness of the Russian society to prevent natural disasters
and to meet their consequences. While on the territory of many developed countries
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