Reports on Environment and Urban Development for Alaverdy

GEO ALAVERDI: ENVIRONMENT AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

It should be mentioned that the forest cover results in less spread of technogenic wastes, which is also related to the phyto- fi ltering capacity of the forest. The impact of the split landscape and the forest on the proliferation of the heavy metals is especially noticeable in eastern, southeastern, western, northeastern and southwestern directions, where the annual regularity of winds is low. Figure 4.3: Proliferation of pollution through ground winds

Source: ArmStateHydromet Service of Armenia, Yerevan, 2006 According to Dr. Z. Vardanyan, the spread of technogenic wastes is possible only through air fl ows, which pass into the gorge. The inside and outsidemovement of the ground winds is possible in two directions through the gorge: north-eastern and south-western. The mentioned is approved by the fact that there is a “technogenic desert” formed at a distance of 4,5km from the plant, in the north-eastern direction. There are no stem plants in the polluted areas, rarely multi-year breadfruit trees happen, the main vegetation is low grass. The studies of the absorption capacity of the chemical elements in tree-type bushes showed that in the pollution from theACP copper processing accumulates in signi fi cant quantities in the leaves. Plants located at a distance of 1-3km from the technogenic pollution sources were also subjected to anatomic-structural deformations. Such deformations include small leaves, wrinkles, wrenched leaves, shortening of junctions, changes in the shape of the fl ower, etc. All the plants studied for background pollution mostly accumulated zinc, copper (in the second place), and then lead. By the way, the composition of copper at a distance of 1–1.5km from the source of pollution, exceeded the background level 22-27,6 times, zinc: 7-9,9 times, and lead: 26,4-39 times 11 . Besides the heavy metals, the sulfur gases also have signi fi cant impact on trees and bushes. The impact of sulfur gas is observed by changes in the color of the leaves in a number of plants, turning it into dark yellow or dark red. The 11 At the same place, p. 34:

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CHAPTER 4. IMPACT OF THE STATE OF THE ENVIRONMENT

Environmental Knowledge for Change