Geomorphological Structure of the Kremenets Mountains: Morphological Features, Relief Types and Problems of Regionalisation

The Kremenets Mountains are among the characteristic areas of the Podolian Upland (Ukraine), which remains insufficiently studied. The study area was characterised using the main methods of automatic classification of landforms, namely the geomorphon method and the topographic position index (TPI). The obtained results were correlated with the geological maps of a bedrock and superficial Quaternary sediments, scale 1:200,000, to identify relief types within the Kremenets Mountains. The main types of relief of the Kremenets Mountains were categorised, and their regionalisation was carried out according to the reference landforms. Structural and denudational, denudational and fluvial types of relief were identified. Gravitational, karst, biogenic and technogenic landforms were also specified, including a field research. Morphometric maps of the study territory were constructed, and its main indicators were characterised according to equal-sized (1×1 km) squares, namely slope gradient, vertical and horizontal relief dissection. Analysis of these maps allowed us to identify regions with high, mean and minimum values of indices, which formed the foundations for separation of the geomorphological subregions within the Kremenets Mountains, namely Kremenets steeply sloping highly dissected subdistrict, Zalistsi moderately sloping meanly dissected subdistrict, and Kutianka gently sloping slightly dissected subdistrict.