Scientific Reports of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine

Conceptual model of post-war restoration of agricultural land with integration of bioenergy technologies

Tetiana Chaika, Mykola Shevnikov, Arsenii Stetsenko, Viktor Liashenko
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Abstract

Russia’s full-scale military actions against Ukraine led to large-scale degradation of agricultural land, which was accompanied by mechanical destruction of soil cover, chemical pollution, and loss of productive potential. The lack of an integrated system of post-war reconstruction led to the need to form a comprehensive model of reclamation, combining environmental and economic tools within a single management approach. The purpose of the study was to develop a conceptual model of post-war restoration of agricultural land based on the integration of engineering, chemical, biotechnological, and economic approaches within the circular land use system. Analytical, comparative, and system structural methods, and conceptual modelling were used. As a result of the study, the scale of physical degradation of soil cover on de-occupied agricultural land was determined and a conceptual model of their agrobiological restoration using phytoremediation crops was proposed. A multi-level recovery model was formed, which included stages of humanitarian demining, technical preparation of the territory, pollution assessment, mechanical reclamation, chemical detoxification, biotechnological regeneration, and long-term phytoremediation with the integration of bioenergy technologies. The expediency of a 15-year phytoremediation cycle in the structure of reclamation with a gradual transition to an economically viable land use system was substantiated. A circular model of biomass processing was proposed, which provides for energy valorisation of phytomass and the return of stabilised products to the soil, ensuring partial or complete self-sufficiency of the recovery process. The practical viability of the model was demonstrated using the example of damaged agricultural land in the Snihurivka urban territorial community of Mykolaiv Oblast, where the bioenergy component was shown to generate a stable cash flow for partial compensation of engineering reclamation costs. The proposed model can be adapted to various types of belligerent agricultural landscapes and creates prerequisites for the development of financially stable reclamation mechanisms. It has the potential for practical application in Ukraine and other countries affected by military operations, and can become the basis for the development of national policies in the field of land restoration and sustainable development of the agricultural sector

Keywords

agrolandscapes; bioenergy crops; circular economy; ecological stabilisation; soil reclamation; phytoremediation; land detoxification

Suggested citation
Chaika, T., Shevnikov, M., Stetsenko, A., & Liashenko, V. (2026). Conceptual model of post-war restoration of agricultural land with integration of bioenergy technologies. Scientific Reports of the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine, 22(2),65-89. https://doi.org/10.31548/dopovidi/2.2026.65
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