Methodology for assessing economic damage caused by the disposal of municipal solid waste on agricultural land

The article presents an original methodology for the economic assessment of agricultural land use losses resulting from the disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW) on agricultural land. The relevance of developing such a methodology is due to the steady trend towards an increase in agricultural land areas that are violated by MSW management, as well as the lack of a unified approach to quantifying the damage caused in the current regulatory framework. The developed methodological approach, unlike existing analogues, allows for a comprehensive and systematic assessment of the main types of losses of agricultural land use. In particular, the methodology includes: quantification of direct damage from the disposal of land from economic turnover; calculation of indirect losses from reduced productivity of adjacent territories due to migration of pollutants and deterioration of the ecological condition of adjacent lands.; determination of the costs of reclamation of disturbed lands with correction factors that take into account the degree of degradation and the type of waste disposed; as well as assessment of environmental and economic losses associated with deterioration of soil quality and loss of ecosystem services. The key element of the methodology is the classification of lands according to the degree of degradation during the placement of MSW, which includes four levels (weak, medium, high and critical degrees). For each degree, the characteristic signs of land disturbance, recommended recovery periods (from 1-3 to 15-25 years) and the coefficients of complexity of reclamation work are determined. The methodology has been tested on a representative sample of 25 land plots located in three regions of the Russian Federation with different soil and climatic conditions and levels of economic development. The results obtained and the developed methodological tools can be used in the practical activities of public authorities and local governments, land management and environmental organizations, as well as judicial authorities in solving a wide range of tasks.