A GIS tool for early spatial assessment of radioactive contamination of agricultural crops and soil

The issue of radioactive contamination of crops and handling of radioactive materials in agriculture is intensively discussed mainly for the purposes of further use of produce and soils and a possible reduction in potential radioactive contamination of agricultural landscape. The presented tool, 'BiomasaKontaminace' (BiomassContamination), was developed as a module of the ESRI ArcMap 9.2 ArcInfo Geographical Information System. The module makes it possible to produce approximate calculations of parameters of crop production (the amount of live biomass and dry matter in a particular area, relative content of water in biomass, the Leaf Area Index) further used to estimate specific radioactive deposition on the crop and soil surface in an early deposition phase of a nuclear accident in case of both dry and wet deposition. A calculation is made for a whole area of interest, with a spatial character expressed in a particular geographic coordinate system and related to a specific point in time. The module divides surfaces of a particular area of interest into classes according to their level of specific radionuclide deposition in view of their further management and enables approximate estimates of the level of costs required to remove biomass from agricultural areas. It is therefore a complex tool which can be used in decision processes in the event of radiation accidents and for subsequent measures to be adopted for agricultural areas in order to reduce their radioactive contamination. (orig.)