Spatial aspects of illegal dumping sites of municipal wastes in the Stankowizna Forest Range

Abstract

Both natural environment and green areas should be treated as a real value and properly protected. It is strictly connected with adequately constructed legal system. In practice, the condition and appearance of the landscape depends on the human factor. One of the reasons of inferior environmental situation is poorly educated society and incompetently managed local economy. These factors contribute to the problem of illegal waste dumping in the forests, which is closely related to waste management in the community. Forests are valuable in terms of economy (timber harvesting and other forest resources), social (tourism and recreation) and above all natural environment (various plant species, wildlife and production of oxygen).
The paper presents the causes of illegal waste dumping, its location and suggests methods of prevention. Additionally, the paper demonstrates the impact of illegal refuse dumps on rivers, streams, wells and groundwater resources. The range of concentration of waste dumps coincides to much extent with concentration of population. Nearly 13% of forest area is under direct influence of toxic gases from the dumps. The potential area of dumps occurrence, which weigh more than 100 kg, covers 43% of the forest area. The spatial analysis presents relations between the location of illegal refuse dumps in the forests, the communication network, and the location of densely populated areas. The analysis of concentration and density of illegal waste dumping was carried out. It has been observed that an effective way of preventing illegal dumps migration is to block roads into the forest by barriers. All researches and analysis were carried out based on inventory in Stankowizna forest range (Forest District Mińsk Mazowiecki, Regional Directorate of the State Forests in Warsaw).