Assessment of Damage from Technogenic Land Pollution Based on Analysis of Soil Magnetic Susceptibility (Case Study of the Educational and Experimental Soil and Ecological Center of Lomonosov Moscow State University “Chashnikovo”)

It is shown that a significant amount of soil and environmental studies necessary for the economic assessment of damage/harm from pollution, degradation, and littering can be reduced through the use of express methods for assessing the ecological state of soils. Such methods include the determination of the volumetric magnetic susceptibility (MS) of soils, which characterizes the degree of anthropogenic load on the territory (the so-called level of anthropogenic land pollution). For the territory of the Educational and Experimental Soil and Ecological Center of Lomonosov Moscow State University “Chashnikovo,” the area with the highest soil moisture index and amount of damage due to “man-made” pollution is the “roadside strip” (the area directly adjacent to the Leningradskoe Highway). The values of magnetic susceptibility and soil damage decrease in the “ditch” zone compared to the “roadside strip”; however, they still have significant values. Soil moisture levels significantly decrease in the “forest belt” area compared to the “roadside strip” and “ditch” areas and the amount of damage due to “man-made” pollution is equal to zero here, just as for the “arable land/fallow land” area. The resulting maximum amount of damage due to technogenic pollution in the “roadside strip,” 17.37 rubles/m2 (at a cadastral value of 6.03 rubles/m2), makes it possible to roughly estimate the damage to lands due to man-made load.