War not only affects people but also the environment
Kharkiv is a land of golden dome-topped churches, is the second largest city in
Ukraine. It was founded in 1654 as a fortress. It grew as the major trade center in
the Russian Empire. It used to be the biggest scientific and technological hub of Ukraine before the war.
According to a report released by Ukraine Digital Net, over 22,000 IT professionals worked for 300 small and medium scaled IT enterprises in Kharkiv. The average salary for software developers was estimated to be 2000$ per month according to a report by DOU.ua.
SMART GOVERNANCE IN KHARKIV
In 1998, Oleksandr Popov, the director of the City Information Centre of Kharkiv City Council started improving the city’s connectivity services by implementing all the city services into a single system via the web after being inspired by the example of the French city of Lille. Popov said that –
“All the smart city projects have been developed here [in Kharkiv], with 90% of them being financed thanks to the reinvestment of funds earned by the utility [itself]. Nearly 20 of our professionals have been involved in the project.”
One of the most important aspects of this digitization project was making all information on municipal property and the Information System of City Planning Cadaster publicly available. This approach increased the transparency and accountability of the government.
To foster more citizen engagement, a local IT company, Artjoker, designed a mobile app named ‘An Active Kharkiv Citizen’. This was designed for the residents to file petitions, give votes and provide feedbacks on all aspects of life in the city.
| Administrative Services | Urban Infrastructure | ||
| A one-stop-shop center was launched for entrepreneurs called as the Administration Service Directorate in 2011. Documents such as residence registration, entrepreneurship registration certificate could be applied for and received within a day using these services. | OpenStreetMap, an open source roadmap designed by openstreetmap.org, allows you to find your way around the city. In addition, the map is used by the city council to keep track of and contractors who work on the city roads. As part of the “Safe City” project (2016-2020), the main sightseeing attractions will be equipped with a video surveillance system. Documented violations will be reported to law-enforcement authorities. |
| Transportation | Healthcare |
| A single electronic ticket which would be valid for all means of public transportation was introduced to replace tokens. In cooperation with the city council a local mobile agency, Itomych Studio, has designed a free app named Marshrutki, which provides citizens with real-time data on the city’s buses and minibuses. | To prevent citizens from queuing for hours at the city health care institutions, a pilot online appointment booking system was developed at one of the city hospitals. Once registered, a patient can choose the most suitable time for an appointment and get a text reminder beforehand. |
24th February, 2022, the day when Russia launched an all out attack on major parts of Ukraine. Vastly affected by this war was the green heart of Europe – Kharkiv, Ukraine. This war, like every other war caused boundless human suffering. With the extreme violence still going on, there is little or no assessment of the environmental damage induced. The ecological consequences include direct impacts on habitats and species; but also indirect ones in terms of air, land, and water pollution.
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Rescuers are looking for explosive devices in lake Blakytne in the village of Gorenka, which was at the epicenter of fires by the occupiers in Kyiv region
Climate change and its effects on Kharkiv before the war
Before the war started, Kharkiv, like other cities in the world – was facing significant crisis of climate change and biodiversity losses. The country had already become warmer by 1.5°C over the past 30 years and it was estimated to reach 3°C by middle of this century. One of the major evidence of this impact was the decreased harvest yields.
Climate change is not globally uniform and affects some regions more than others. On the following diagrams, you can see how climate change has already affected the region of Kharkiv during the past 40 years. The data source used is ERA5, the fifth generation ECMWF atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate, covering the time range from 1979 to 2021, with a spatial resolution of 30 km.
The graph above shows
an estimate of the mean annual temperature for the larger region of Kharkiv. The dashed blue line is the linear climate change trend. If the trend line is going up from left to right, the temperature trend is positive and it is getting warmer in Kharkiv due to climate change. If it is horizontal, no clear trend is seen, and if it is going down, conditions in Kharkiv are becoming colder over time. In the lower part the graph shows the so called warming stripes. Each coloured stripe represents the average temperature for a year – blue for colder and red for warmer years.
Climate change in Kharkiv has led to heat stress, flooding, reduced areas and disturbance of biodiversity in urban green areas. It has also increased cases of diseases caused by infections and allergies because of the reduced quality of potable water. The risks of urban heat stress have occurred because of increase in air temperature and constant heat waves. (Shevchenko)
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