Economic evaluation of the consequences of soil pollution in the system of sustainable land management

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the results of the economic evaluation of the consequences of soil pollution with heavy metals (on the example of mobile forms of lead and cadmium) in the system of sustainable land management in the agricultural sector of Ukraine. Methodology / approach. The study used the following methods: bibliometric, cluster, graphical (to determine the state of research on soil pollution in the world based on the Scopus database and visual presentation of the results); grouping (to determine the influence of indicators by the share of contamination of the area of agricultural land with mobile forms of lead and cadmium on the efficiency of land use); econometric modeling (for the construction of stochastic models of the impact of soil pollution with heavy metals on the normative monetary value of arable land and the efficiency of land use (estimated by the production of gross agricultural products, including crop production per 1 ha of agricultural land) in the context of regions of Ukraine); monographic and abstract-logical (to summarize the results of the study). The information base is data on soil pollution on agricultural land in the regions of Ukraine based on the results of the X round of agrochemical survey of land and data from the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Data on publication activity were processed using the “VOSviewer” program, construction and statistical evaluation of econometric models was carried out using the STATISTICA program and the R programming language. Results. Econometric modeling of economic reserves and assessment of the consequences (losses) of soil contamination with heavy metals (using the example of mobile forms of lead and cadmium) in the regions of Ukraine was carried out, which made it possible to develop 14 stochastic models. It is established that the reduction of lead contamination of the soils of Ukraine to acceptable norms will allow increasing the normative monetary value of arable land by 3.2 % from the average level, and the reserve for increasing the gross agricultural products and crop production in constant prices of 2016 per 1 ha of agricultural land is 23.4 and 20.9 %, respectively. In the case of overcoming cadmium pollution, the expected increase in the normative monetary value of arable land is 5.7 %, and the reserve of gross production of agriculture and crop production per 1 ha of agricultural land is 27.6 and 21.2 %, respectively. Originality / scientific novelty. For the first time, econometric models were developed, which made it possible to carry out a quantitative assessment of the impact of soil contamination with mobile forms of lead and cadmium on the formation of the efficiency of land use and the normative monetary assessment of arable land. The provision on the formation of a system of sustainable land management in the agricultural sector was further developed, taking into account the results of the economic assessment of the consequences of soil pollution. This study fills the gaps identified as a result of bibliometric and cluster analysis, and also contributes to a better understanding of the economic reserves of sustainable land management in the agricultural sector of Ukraine. Practical value / implications. The key results of the research can be used for (i) improvement of the soil protection policy of the state in terms of sustainable management of contaminated soils in the agricultural sector; (ii) assessment and forecasting of the impact of soil pollution with heavy metals on the efficiency of land use at the regional level; (iii) evaluation of the efficiency of remediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals at the macro level, taking into account the prevention/minimization of possible losses.