On February 25, 2022, in order to prevent the enemy from breaking through to Kyiv, bridges across the Irpin River in Hostomel, Demydiv, on the Novoirpinska highway and a dam near Kozarovychi were blown up. The water quickly flooded fields and roads, and russian tanks rushing to the capital stopped on the outskirts of the city. Some got stuck in the soaked black soil.
But back on February 23, officials of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine asked researchers of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine about the environmental consequences of blowing up the dam in Demydiv in case it was necessary to stop the enemy. The director of the institute, corresponding member of the NAS of Ukraine Serhii Afanasiev answered that there would certainly be consequences, but the issue price was not comparable.
A few days later, the river did indeed become a barrier that stopped the enemy.
Today, two years later, researchers at the Institute of Hydrobiology are investigating the state of the Irpin River. How is its biota doing? And most importantly, what needs to be done to help the river recover?
With grant funding from the National Research Foundation of Ukraine, the researchers are implementing the project ‘The development of technologies and measures for the revitalization of river systems affected by russian aggression as a component of Section 8 of River Basin Management Plans’. We asked the PI Serhii Afanasiev about the objective, tasks, and first results of the project.
We begin the conversation with looking at the photos from the team’s expeditions in September and December to the Irpin River and its tributaries. One of the photos shows the researchers in fishermen’s clothing taking samples in icy water, while another shows Serhii Afanasiev on a snowy bank setting up an underwater drone for launch. I asked about the working days of the expeditions. The researcher smiled and replied that the team members worked on the expeditions, but he couldn’t stand it and drove his own car to see how his colleagues were doing. He added that the fishermen’s clothing and drone (and other things and devices absolutely necessary for the research) were purchased by the institute at the expense of grant support from the NRFU. “The photos show ‘field biologists’, a rare ‘species’ of researchers in Ukraine,” he said. “Our researchers are ready to selflessly go on an expedition in any weather in autumn or winter. They are the ones who stay to work at the Institute. For people who are distant from science, such work may seem terrifying, because the researcher not only goes into the mud, but also brings these samples to the laboratory and studies them under a microscope with enthusiasm”.
However, the PI immediately emphasized that the team had started the research not with expeditions, but with the typology and identification of surface water bodies in the river basin.
The main idea of the project is to find out what condition the river is in after intense hostilities, how water quality has changed, which species of animals and plants were most heavily affected, and so on. Based on the results of the study, a system of measures will be developed to revitalize the river and its tributaries.
The researchers are also studying the condition of hydraulic structures, and the impact of bridges blowing, shelling, etc. on these structures. “The river is not only a natural system, it is also a water conservancy that needs to be restored. This should be done on the basis of new approaches. For instance, an old hydraulic structure or bridge could prevent fish from passing. As a result of the project, we will propose solutions that will ensure fish migration and support natural biodiversity,” continued the PI.
Areas where it was difficult for both people and the river to survive
The Irpin River basin is quite large, over three thousand km², and the settlements of Stoyanka, Moshchun, and Irpin which suffered in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion are located on the banks of the river. It is not easy to analyze the situation in such an area and provide recommendations in the short time of the project, but the team has experience and a clear plan. For instance, a few years ago, the researchers helped revitalize the Skorodnyi Stream in the Carpathians and restore the natural flow of the Yahorlyk Bay in Odesa region.
The project funded at the expense of the NRFU involves several stages. The first stage is to study the impact of the war on the river and the threats to these impacts, the state of hydraulic structures, etc. The second stage is to analyze how these structures functioned before the war and to recommend what needs to be done to ensure that as Serhii Afanasiev said “the river is doing well”. “You may ask: what does ‘doing well’ mean? The EU Water Framework Directive puts biological indicators in the first place. That is, if the fish (as well as invertebrates, algae, and higher aquatic vegetation) are doing well, then the river is doing well. We study all this”.
The researchers identify river types in the Irpin basin and develop reference (benchmark) conditions for each type. They ‘catch’ these reference conditions in a region where the river of the corresponding type is not disturbed. They also analyze old data (for example, from the 1930s) to understand what kind of fish and vegetation were in the river basin. These data allow us to draw a picture of what the ideal Irpin River (in a particular area) could be like. Again, experience helps to do this quickly and efficiently: the researchers of the Institute have already developed reference conditions for rivers of various types in the Prypiat, Vistula (Western Bug and Syan rivers), Tisza, Southern Bug, and Dniester basins.
Life hack for implementation
In order to implement the project results and recommendations, the researchers came up with a special plan. “We plan to provide recommendations to the central executive authorities responsible for river restoration. We understand how decisions are made and how to act to get results”, explained the PI. “For example, there is a decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine that obliges public authorities, including the State Agency of Water Resources of Ukraine, to develop River Basin Management Plans. These plans have a separate section 8 which is included in the title of our project. That is a program of measures to be implemented to achieve good ecological status of the rivers in the basin”.
The researchers write their recommendations in the format of the relevant section. They can be easily transferred to the plan and put into action.
Drone beneath the ice
The PI spoke about the expeditions as well (there will be four of them in total). He noted that in the places where fierce hostilities took place, the river and its banks make a depressing impression. There are many fragments of shells and military equipment on the bottom, and many hydraulic structures have been destroyed.
In fact, the drone helped the researchers take samples during the winter expedition. Near the bank the researchers made a special hole in the ice and launched the drone into it.
During the expeditions in the Irpin river basin, the researchers recorded both vulnerable Red Data Book species and species listed in the resolution and Appendix III of the Bern Convention on the Conservation of European Wildlife and Natural Habitats. At the same time, the number of invasive species has increased significantly in the lower course of the Irpin River where the hostilities took place.
Finally, we asked Serhii Afanasiev what he expected the Irpin River to look like in a few years?
“It will be a wonderful river, passable for fish and invertebrate migration”, the PI replied with confidence. “In particular, the issues of damming will be solved and impassable areas under bridges will be eliminated. Unfortunately, for many decades, instead of restoring the riverbed, pipes were laid in problematic areas that fish could not pass through. I hope that these crazy pipes will not be there in the future. Instead of concrete on which only slippery mold grows one can put stones of the appropriate size that will create niches for fish and crayfish. This system will work for the river. In fact, we plan to restore the floodplain as well. If the enemy once again wants to ‘take Kyiv in three days’, these impassable wetlands will become an additional ‘shield’ for the capital.”
Interviewed by Svitlana Galata
