Reports on Environment and Urban Development for Alaverdy

GEO ALAVERDI: ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

The threats to biodiversity in the northern part of Armenia are related to the anthropogenic activity. The main endangering processes are the changes in the natural habitat or losses thereof, depleting uses of natural resources, pollution, climate change, hard social conditions of the population, social polarization, poverty, lack of stable alternative sources of income, demographic changes in the population, as a result of which decrease in the number of plant species and population thereof, depletion of ecosystems, loss of groups of fauna and fl ora species occur. Because of non-planned, random and mass destruction of forests, the natural reproduction processes have been terminated in the forests. You can fi nd more detailed and complete data on the current conditions of ecosystems of Alaverdi in the Z. Vardanyan 2008 scienti fi c research report on “Bio-ecological assessment of the main fl ora ecosystems in the northern Armenia”. 10 According to this report, the main impact on the environment comes from the activity of the copper processing plant, managed by ACP company. Moreover, accumulations of mobile and other types of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn) in the soil and the plants, in the result of discharges from the ACP, have brought to several times exceedances of indicators in the territory of the plant and around it. The composition of heavy metals and the proliferation thereof depend on the distance from the source of pollution, the main directions of winds, the landscape of the area and vegetation. The following pollution zones are de fi ned by levels of pollution: maximally polluted (1-1,5km), excessive pollution (2-3km), heavy pollution (3-3,5km and 4-5km), medium pollution (6-10km), weak pollution (11- 15km, 16-20km), minimal pollution (21-24km, 25-30km).

10 Zaruhi Vardanyan: “Bio-ecological assessment of the main vegetative ecosystems of the Northern Armenia”, C.00.05 – brie fi ng of DPhil thesis on “Phytology”, Yerevan, 2009.

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CHAPTER 4. IMPACT OF THE STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Knowledge for Change