Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Security

Department staff:

	Liudmyla Volodymyrivna Levkovska, Head of Department, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor
	Mykhailo Artemovych Khvesyk, Chief Research Fellow, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor
	Hanna Oleksandrivna Obykhod, Chief Research Fellow, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Senior Research Fellow, Associate Professor
	Yuliia Borysivna Shpylova, Leading Research Fellow, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Senior Research Fellow
	Valerii Mykolaiovych Mandzyk, Chief Research Fellow, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Senior Research Fellow
	Alla Anatoliivna Omelchenko, Leading Research Fellow, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Academic Secretary of the Department
	Volodymyr Volodymyrovych Boiko, Senior Research Fellow, Candidate of Economic Sciences
	Kateryna Ivanivna Ryzhova, Senior Research Fellow, Candidate of Economic Sciences, Senior Research Fellow
	Yuliia Hryhorivna Cherednichenko, Leading Research Fellow, Candidate of Economic Sciences
	Vadym Mykolaiovych Anisimov, Junior Research Fellow
	Vira Yevheniivna Shchulipenko, Junior Research Fellow
	Olha Mykolaivna Mytrofanova, Leading Economist

Main areas of the Department’s research

Development of the theory and methodology of environmental economics and of the institutional environment for the economic development of natural-resource potential;
Development and substantiation of conceptual foundations for the formation and structuring of an environmentally safe natural-resource management system under conditions of transformation and global instability, with regard to security and the improvement of the population’s quality of life;
Development of methodological foundations for the environmentally balanced use, protection, and reproduction of natural resources, as well as for the economic assessment of the national economic complex and anthropogenic impacts on ecosystems;
Improvement of an integrative system of indicators for identifying, assessing, and forecasting environmental risks and threats within the system of sustainable use, conservation, and restoration of natural resources;
Applied research on ensuring overall socio-ecological and economic equilibrium, and recommendations for improving the effectiveness of environmental security management in the context of Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic integration;
Development of recommendations and an algorithm for forming innovative environmentally safe mechanisms in the field of conservation and balanced use of natural resources and their implementation in economic practice;
Forecasting environmental challenges and threats in the context of geopolitical issues of the modern globalized world and the formation of a new international legal order;
Forecasting and prevention of the consequences of natural and technogenic emergencies under conditions of structural transformations and institutional change;
Development of scientific foundations and principles of waste management in the context of the green/circular economy, recycling, and secondary resource use;
Assessment of the main trends in water use and forecasting the impact of climate change on water availability and the population’s quality of life;
Development of integrated and adaptive water-resources management under conditions of increasing risks and threats;
Innovative technologies for the conservation and balanced use of natural resources, including mineral raw materials, land, soil, water, and biotic resources;
Development of mechanisms for investment support for innovative projects aimed at improving water security, availability, and quality;
Formation of a corporate governance system for natural resources based on sustainable development principles;
Development of methods for harmonizing interests and organizing cooperation among government, business, and society in the use of natural resources within the concept of resilient spatial development;
Formation of a strategy for the national and regional development of Ukraine’s natural-resource management complex and its regions.

Scientific results of the Department’s activities

Within the research project “Scenario-Synergetic Dominants of Environmentally Safe Natural-Resource Management”:

A new approach was proposed and substantiated for forming a system of scenario-synergetic dominants of environmentally safe natural-resource management. The approach is based on mechanisms for preventing classical threats, related to irregular functioning of technical systems of the economy and its infrastructure, and synergetic threats, determined by synergetic laws governing the interaction of the social and natural universes, the violation of which is accompanied by implicit but real changes in organic systems;
Methodological approaches were developed for assessing the significance of the influence of dominants on the level of environmental safety in natural-resource management by constructing an indicative matrix with an optimal number of indicators and reducing them to an integral assessment. This makes it possible to achieve invariance, comparability of indicators, substantive targeting, and dynamic comparability over time;
A model-synergetic approach to achieving security in natural-resource management was substantiated. It provides for a gradual and staged process of permanent change through two groups of instruments: first, instruments based on understanding a territorial entity as a system-conglomerate object; and second, instruments based on the results of analysis and assessment of the relationship between organization and self-organization in the process of achieving security in natural-resource management. The model-synergetic approach includes regulatory tools for specific areas of natural-resource use, programme-planning tools, and analytical-forecasting tools.

Within the research project “Environmental Security of Urbo-Rural Agglomerations under Conditions of Formation of the Market for Natural-Resource Assets”:

Basic scientific provisions were formulated for organizing the space of urbo-rural agglomeration formations in the context of environmentally safe development of the market for natural-resource assets. Unlike existing approaches, these provisions take into account the complexity of interrelations between internal, systemic factors and external, extra-systemic factors;
Basic classification features of the space of urbo-rural agglomerations were identified and substantiated. On this basis, matrices of urbo-rural agglomeration formations were constructed according to electricity consumption and generation capacities, energy use, emissions of pollutants, agglomeration complexity, and other indicators;
An algorithm for the institutional structuring of the space of an urbo-rural agglomeration was proposed. It organizes the activities of actors depending on their economic, administrative, organizational, or informational role, and defines their status and purpose in forming and implementing the goal of ensuring environmentally safe sustainable development.

Within the research project “Natural-Technogenic and Environmental Security under Conditions of Economic Transformations in Ukraine”:

A new approach was proposed and substantiated for studying the evolution of environmental and natural-technogenic security under conditions of economic transformation;
A methodology was developed for assessing the impact of economic transformations on the state of the natural environment in the context of the development of the Fourth Industrial Revolution;
A model and decision-making methods for managing natural-technogenic and environmental security under conditions of economic transformation were substantiated;
The development of convergent industries in Ukraine was examined as a means of addressing the need to improve the level of natural-technogenic and environmental security.

Within the research project “Economic Mechanisms for the Revitalization of Small Rivers” (state registration No. 0122U000048):

A comprehensive model of the institutional environment for activating mechanisms for the revitalization of small rivers in Ukraine was developed. The model is based on the harmonization of diverse interests among water-management actors in order to ensure sustainable development and preserve the biodiversity of small river ecosystems.
An algorithm for the step-by-step implementation of small-river revitalization projects was developed. It provides for a set of measures to identify key water-use problems in small-river basins, determine sources of investment support for water-management projects, develop mechanisms for their implementation in water-management activities, and emphasize the need for broad involvement of local communities and the application of adaptive management principles for effective decision-making.
A mechanism was proposed for increasing investment support for re-engineering water-management and water-protection infrastructure to revitalize small rivers. To attract additional financial resources, distribute risks, and encourage the use of modern technologies, the mechanism provides for the use of innovative instruments such as green bonds, crowdfunding, and emissions trading.
A structure of hierarchical territorial linkages among different public policies directly affecting the restoration and conservation of rivers was constructed. This makes it possible to coordinate actions at all levels of governance and ensure a holistic and balanced approach to the revitalization of water bodies.

Within the research project “Development of the Institutional Environment for Financial and Economic Regulation of Water Use” (state registration No. 0119U002515):

A theoretical concept was developed for the transformation of water resources as a factor of production into an economic asset of territorial water-management complexes. Within this concept, the main principles for organizing a system of financial support for the expanded reproduction of water capital were defined, based on the fundamental provisions of institutional theory and the concept of value-oriented management while taking into account key sustainable-development dominants;
A methodology was proposed for forming and calculating a system of indicators for assessing the efficiency of water use in industry, housing and communal services, and the reclamation sector. The methodology makes it possible to assess water availability in key sectors of the economy, the level of food security, the implementation of integrated water-resources management plans, and the possible socio-economic and environmental consequences of different water-policy scenarios;
The format and basic structure of a system for assessing the economic efficiency of groundwater use in Ukraine were developed. The necessary components of the information array, the procedure and stages for developing the algorithm, and the criteria for economic assessment of groundwater-use efficiency were also defined;
Methodological approaches were developed for implementing the principles of value-oriented managerial decision-making in order to provide economic justification and financial support for the implementation of river basin management plans and the provision of water-management and water-environmental services;
Modern mechanisms of financial and economic regulation of water-management activities under environmental constraints were structured. These mechanisms are capable of ensuring a fundamentally new system of relations between owners of water and water-management facilities and entrepreneurial entities, as well as increasing the capitalization of water-resource use by expanding the range of services provided on a paid basis, collecting payments from temporary users of infrastructure facilities, and co-financing water-management and water-protection projects;
Methodological approaches were proposed for forming a spectrum of directions and levers of national and regional water policy for integrated water-resources management in the context of decentralization reform. These approaches substantiate the general scheme, main stages, and algorithm of interaction among stakeholders and expert groups in the process of developing strategic documents for the water-management sector.

Within the research project “Public-Private Forms of Ensuring Sustainable Spatial Development of Ukraine” (state registration No. 0118U006487):

Taking into account the specific nature of environmental and natural-technogenic security, it was determined that the effective development of public-private partnership requires certain institutional conditions, including an evidence base demonstrating the operator’s capacity to implement the project effectively; the substantiation of decisions by local self-government bodies concerning the choice of PPP format and their control over private operators; public involvement in decision-making; and the introduction of a mechanism of responsibility for the parties. It was established that, in the field of waste management, the effective development of PPP relations requires at minimum a unified methodology for assessing partnership investment projects, with clearly defined criteria and procedures for substantiating their feasibility, as well as the environmental, financial, fiscal, and other risks associated with them, in order to increase the motivation and credibility of PPP projects.
It was established that public-private forms of ensuring sustainable water management in Ukraine are characterized by the unity of governmental and ownership functions. However, domestic legislation contains contradictions and inconsistencies that currently significantly complicate the development of such cooperation configurations and limit the possibilities for developing public-private relations almost exclusively to contractual configurations, dominated mainly by lease agreements and, to a lesser extent, concessions. This is caused by the monopolistic character of production organization, the absence of institutional infrastructure, weak financial institutions, imperfect current legislation, and limited forms for implementing public-private cooperation projects.
The expediency of applying the PPP mechanism in the field of municipal solid waste management on the basis of a cluster approach was substantiated. This would provide advantages both for local authorities, which would attract financial resources from private business entities, households, and non-profit organizations, and for business representatives. As a result of decentralization, part of the functions, including organization of the municipal solid waste management system, collection of payments from the population for services provided, accounting and control of the volume and composition of waste flows, and ensuring uninterrupted waste supply to enterprises, would be assigned to local authorities.

Most significant implementations of development results

Environmentally Safe Natural-Resource Management in the Post-War Recovery Period of Ukraine (analytical note) — Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Zakarpattia Regional Military Administration — sent by e-mail on 3 June 2024; implementation confirmation letter No. 1008/01 dated 5 June 2024.
System of Environmentally Safe Natural-Resource Management in the Post-War Period (memorandum) — Semenivskyi Agroservice LLC, outgoing No. 01-8/142 dated 7 November 2023; implementation confirmation letter No. 01/145 dated 9 November 2023.
Strategic Vectors for Achieving Sustainability in Waste Management (memorandum) — Dnipro State Technical University, outgoing No. 01-8/146 dated 9 November 2023; implementation confirmation letter No. 104-08.14/18 dated 14 November 2023.
Environmentally Safe Natural-Resource Management under Conditions of Ukraine’s Post-War Recovery (memorandum) — Dnipro State Technical University, outgoing No. 01-8/147 dated 9 November 2023; implementation confirmation letter No. 104-08.14/19 dated 14 November 2023.
Economic Mechanisms for the Revitalization of Small Rivers (scientific proposals based on the results of the research work) — Oberih PJSC, implementation confirmation letter No. 96/1 dated 15 August 2022.
Formation of a Mechanism for Ensuring Social Security as an Important Factor of Economic Growth in Ukraine and Its Regions (analytical note) — Lviv Regional State Administration, outgoing No. 01-8/20 dated 25 January 2022; implementation confirmation letter No. 5/6-5204/0/2-22/7-31.1.3 dated 31 May 2022.
Formation of a Mechanism for Ensuring Social Security as an Important Factor of Economic Growth in Ukraine and Its Regions (analytical note) — Ternopil Regional State Administration, outgoing No. 01-8/25 dated 25 January 2022; implementation confirmation letter No. 03-2310/15 dated 18 March 2022.
Social Dominants as a Centre for the Development of Territorial Communities on an Innovative Basis: A Synergetic Aspect (memorandum) — Vinnytsia Regional State Administration, outgoing No. 01-8/159 dated 25 May 2021; implementation confirmation letter No. 01-15-01/4581 dated 24 December 2021.
Information and analytical materials on the economic assessment of Ukraine’s water-resource availability and the formation of a strategy for the development of the national water-management complex — State Agency of Water Resources of Ukraine, outgoing No. 01-05/241 dated 25 November 2020; electronic implementation confirmation letter dated 25 January 2021.
Development of the Institutional Environment for Financial and Economic Regulation of Water Use (scientific results on the topic) — Department of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, electronic letter dated 11 February 2020; implementation confirmation letter No. 01-18/227 dated 25 February 2020.

Key scientific works and publications

Economic Mechanisms for the Revitalization of Small Rivers / edited by Academician of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine M. A. Khvesyk. Kyiv: Public Institution “Institute of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the NAS of Ukraine”, 2023. 319 p. [Electronic edition].
Scenario-Synergetic Dominants of Environmentally Safe Natural-Resource Management / M. A. Khvesyk, H. O. Obykhod, A. V. Stepanenko, V. I. Kutsenko et al. Kyiv: Public Institution “Institute of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the NAS of Ukraine”, 2022. 304 p. [Electronic edition].
The Innovative Component of Social Security as a Priority for Ukraine’s Development / O. V. Harashchuk, V. I. Kutsenko / Public Institution “Institute of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”. Chernihiv: PJSC PVK Desna, 2022. 160 p.
Institutional Support for Financial and Economic Regulation of Water Use / edited by Academician of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor M. A. Khvesyk. Kyiv: Public Institution “Institute of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the NAS of Ukraine”, 2021. 349 p. [Electronic edition].
The Social Component in the Formation of a Sustainable Innovative Economy and Technological Society / scientific editor V. I. Kutsenko. Chernihiv: PJSC PVK Desna, 2021. 304 p.
Integrated Water Resources Management in Ukraine: monograph / edited by Academician of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine M. A. Khvesyk. Kyiv: Public Institution “Institute of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the NAS of Ukraine”, 2019. 419 p.
Ukraine’s Sustainable Development Trajectory to 2030: Problems and Prospects. National Report / editorial board: M. A. Khvesyk, A. O. Kovalenko, O. I. Amosha et al. Kyiv: Public Institution “Institute of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the NAS of Ukraine”, 2021. 1091 p.
Public-Private Forms of Ensuring Sustainable Spatial Development of Ukraine: monograph / edited by Academician of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, Doctor of Economic Sciences, Professor M. A. Khvesyk. Kyiv: Public Institution “Institute of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the NAS of Ukraine”, 2021. 248 p.
The National Paradigm of Sustainable Development of Ukraine / edited by Academician B. Ye. Paton. 2nd edition, revised and supplemented. Kyiv: Public Institution “Institute of Environmental Economics and Sustainable Development of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine”, 2016. 72 p.
State Governance Tools for Environmental Management and Agrarian Business in the Digital Age / Hanna Obykhod, Yosyp Dorosh, Tetiana Kharchenko, Nadiya Stovolos, Yevhenii Levkivskyi, Tetiana Samoilenko // Sustainable Economics, 2021. Vol. 39(3). DOI: 10.25115/eea.v39i3.4715. Scopus.
Prospects for Environmentally Safe Mechanical Biological Treatment of Municipal Solid Waste in Ukraine / Yuliia Makovetska, Tetiana Omelianenko, Alla Omelchenko // International Conference on Sustainable, Circular Management and Environmental Engineering (ISCMEE 2021), 2021. Vol. 255. DOI: 10.1051/e3sconf/202125501002. Scopus.
Sustainable Economic Development of Ukraine through the Agro-Sector Growth / Alona Tiurina, Iryna Kapelista, Alla Omelchenko, Hanna Obykhod, Svitlana Pavliuk // Scientific Horizons, 2021. Vol. 24, No. 12. P. 92–101. DOI: 10.48077/scihor.24(12).2021.92-101. Scopus.
Management of the Economy in the Field of Environmental Management and Energy Security as Components of Sustainable Development / Olena Sadchenko, Hanna Obykhod, Ivan Yaroshenko, Ludmyla Levkovska, Oleksandr Deineha, Tetiana Dombrovska // Journal of Sustainability Research, 2022. Vol. 4(2): e220008. DOI: 10.20900/jsr20220008. Scopus.
Ensuring Economic Security of the State in the Context of Geopolitical Challenges and Threats / Lyudmila Levkovska, Volodymyr Sarioglo, Oleg Dobryanskyy, Tetiana Kotenko, Alla Omelchenko, Anastasia Zubko // AD ALTA: Journal of Interdisciplinary Research, 2022. Issue 12/02-XXIX. P. 92–96. Web of Science.
Economic Mechanisms for the Revitalization of Small Rivers (state registration No. 0122U000048).
Scenario-Synergetic Dominants of Environmentally Safe Natural-Resource Management (state registration No. 0121U100129).
Environmental Security of Urbo-Rural Agglomerations under Conditions of Formation of the Market for Natural-Resource Assets (state registration No. 0118U005129).
Development of the Institutional Environment for Financial and Economic Regulation of Water Use (state registration No. 0119U002515).
Natural-Technogenic and Environmental Security under Conditions of Economic Transformations in Ukraine (state registration No. 0116U007938).