Water Chemistry of Seven Lakes Near Chernobyl, 2014-2016

Water chemistry measurements from the Environmental Information Data Centre were recorded over two years at seven lakes in Belarus and Ukraine at distances from 1.5 to 225 km from the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The dataset includes major alkali and alkali-earth element concentrations and trace element concentrations. Lakes are categorized by contamination level: high, medium, and low.

Use Cases

• Analyzing spatial gradients of contamination based on distance from the Chernobyl plant.
• Comparing water chemistry between lakes categorized by high, medium, and low contamination levels.
• Studying temporal changes in major and trace element concentrations over a two-year period.
• Modeling the environmental mobility and fate of radioactive contaminants in lake ecosystems.

Strengths

• Provides a two-year time series of measurements, enabling temporal analysis.
• Covers a clear spatial gradient with sampling distances ranging from 1.5 to 225 km from the contamination source.
• Includes seven distinct lakes explicitly categorized by contamination level (high, medium, low).

Limitations

• Specific column names, row counts, and file sizes are not provided by any source, limiting understanding of the data structure.
• Conflicting metadata exists: one platform lists a last update date in 2026, which is a future date and may be an error.
• License and author information are not specified, creating uncertainty for reuse.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre

Collection Method

Field measurements of lake water chemistry.

Time Range

2014 to 2016

Freshness

2026-04-02 08:36:23.769753

Geography

Seven lakes in Belarus and Ukraine near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.