Socio-economic Consequences of the Chernobyl Catastrophe and Regional Development in Ukraine

Abstract

At present, environmental issues are given insufficient attention by society and occupy lower stages in the hierarchy of values than economic issues. Few people are cognisant of the fact that humankind, as any other variety of species, has its own ecological niche, i.e. its own system of relations with the physical environment, the laws of which should be considered in planning human activities.

‘Chernobyl’ is the transliteration of the name of this Ukrainian city from Russian. It is used in the title of the contribution because it is the most commonly acknowledged form. Nonetheless, in the body of the text names of cities, regions, and rivers in the Ukraine are transcribed from Ukrainian (e.g. Chornobyl as opposed to Chernobyl, Kyiv as opposed to Kiev).

The present article is based on research conducted at the Institute of Geography in the National Academy of Sciences of the Ukraine and submitted for a Candidate’s Degree. The object of research was the socio-ecological situation as a combination of processes emerging in society after the sharp decline in the environmental situation. The topic of research was ‘Theory and methodology of an analysis of the socio-ecological situation in the zone of the Chornobyl disaster, and corroboration of its findings’.