Monitoring of the Kakhovka reservoir area based on remote sensing materials

The destruction by the Russian invaders of the dam of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station led to the uncontrolled emptying of the Kakhovka reservoir, which was the largest in Ukraine and provided about 40% of the water management needs of the southern part of its territory. Due to the fact that this region is currently inaccessible for ground observations, remote monitoring appears to be relevant for the performance of various tasks of a research nature. The purpose of this work is to perform a comparative analysis of changes in the area of the Kakhovka reservoir based on remote sensing data of recent years. Output data. Landsat 8-9 satellite images with a spatial resolution of 30 m were used as source data, which were taken on the Earth Explorer satellite data processing platform. The image processing procedure was performed using QGIS software. The results. The areas of the water surface of the territory of the Kakhovka reservoir were determined, which as of different dates were: 14.11.2022 – 2099,508 km2, 06.09.2023 – 256,748 km2, 09.04.2024 – 868,496 km2. So, after the criminal undermining of the Kakhovka HPP dam and the uncontrolled emptying of the reservoir, the total area of water locations as of September 6, 2023 was only 12.2% of its original area. After that, a gradual filling of the considered territory with water is observed, and as of April 9, 2024, the total area of water bodies reached 41.4% of the former water area. It was found that the territory of the reservoir has become heavily swamped and actively overgrown with shrub and tree vegetation. A comparative analysis of the map-scheme of the Great Meadow of Zaporizhia and the materials of remote sensing proved that the general configuration of the current channel of the Dnieper took on the form it was before the beginning of the construction of the reservoir. Scientific novelty and practical significance. The obtained results made it possible to enrich the information and obtain a more complete picture of the state of the territory of the Kakhovka reservoir for the specified period. Such information can be included in the current and future comprehensive studies of this geosystem, which is an important prerequisite for making informed decisions about its use. Currently, there are active scientific discussions about this.