Scientific publications

The aim of the study was to identify key environmental problems and threats, as well as features of environmental and economic development of Murmansk Region territories as basic conditions for the implementation of the national project (NP) Environmental Wellbeing. Methodologically, the study was based on the sustainable development concept. The methods of analysis, generalization, synthesis, and the dialectical approach were used. The more specific scientific methods included sociological methods of collecting information (public questionnaire survey) and statistical analysis. The study revealed that the most significant environmental threats typical for most territories were illegal dumping of household wastes and accumulation of industrial wastes, as well as point source emissions of pollutants. The severity of the problem of untreated wastewater discharges has decreased; drinking water is of good quality in all territories except for the Olenegorsk Municipal Okrug. The general downward trend in pollutant emissions and polluted wastewater discharges in the region is aligned with a decline in economic activity in a number of territories, making sustainable development claims irrelevant in the general case. Based on how the population assessed their satisfaction with environmental components and on a summary of statistical data, the environmental well-being was the highest in the Polyarnye Zori and Kolsky municipalities, and the lowest in the Monchegorsk, Apatity, and Kirovsk Municipal Okrugs and the City of Murmansk. The results of this study provide an analytical background for regulating environmental and economic processes in the Murmansk Region territories, and for substantiating the measures to be taken in specific territories for the implementation of the Environmental Well-being NP