Effective use of “clean” lands of Ukraine under conditions of sustainable development

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to investigate the effective consumption of “clean” land in the process of urban (cities, villages, towns) development as one of the aspects of combating land degradation in Ukraine under conditions of sustainable development by conserving land for future generations. Methodology / approach. The methodological approach involves the study of international practice of land management and land use. The assessment of effective use of land was based on a study of the rate of “clean” land consumption by urban agglomerations and other settlements to the growth/decline rate of the existing population of Ukraine over the period 2000–2018. Results. It has been found that the lands of cities in the structure of the country’s land fund make 12 %. The rate of “clean” land consumption in Ukraine has been established as 48.8 km2 or 0.01 % per year in cities and 266 km2 or 0.04 % per year in villages and towns (for the period from 2000 to 2018). At the same time, the area of land allocated for construction increased by 0.008 ha/person per 1 inhabitant of the city and by 0.11 ha/person per 1 rural resident. It was found that notwithstanding the decrease in the total population during the study period, including urban residents, there was a 2.1 % increase in an intra-regional migration due to both job search and resettlement from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea, which led to unjustified increases in the rate of land use in the settlements of some regions. However, the rate of population decline over time was still much higher than the rate of decline in the consumption of “clean” land, which characterizes land use as inefficient. The rate of consumption of “clean” land in Ukraine was 315 km2 per year which is one of the lowest compared to EU countries, but the key benchmark should be achieving zero consumption of “clean” land by 2050, following the example of developed countries. Originality / scientific novelty. For the first time, the effective use of “clean” lands was studied, with their main purpose being to ensure the conservation and functioning of natural ecosystems for their inexhaustible, long-term, and efficient use, and it was proved the influence of intra-regional migration of the population (internally displaced persons from the occupied territories in particular) on the rate of land consumption in Ukraine. Practical value / implications. The results of the study can be as a guide for comparing the rate of “clean” land consumption in Ukraine in the future to reduce the rate of loss of fertile lands and semi-natural or natural areas, as well as to assess the progress of sustainable land management in general.