METHODOLOGY FOR ASSESSING THE SCALE AND NATURE OF LO-CAL ANTHROPOGENIC ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE: THE COMPAR-ATIVE LEGAL ASPECT AND PROBLEMS OF APPLICATION IN THE RUSSIAN SYSTEM

Abstract

This article provides a comparative legal analysis of methods for assessing the scale and nature of local environmental damage and identifies problems with their application in the Russian legal system. The study focuses on Russian methods for calculating harm to individual environmental components, as well as foreign and international approaches. The primary objective of the study is to justify the need to transition from a purely cost-based model to a hybrid methodology that combines standard rates, monitoring data, restoration costs, and a proportional distribution of contributions in the case of multiple pollution sources. It is demonstrated that current Russian methods provide regulatory certainty and facilitate the calculation of environmental damage in court. However, they insufficiently take into account local characteristics of territories, cumulative impacts, secondary consequences, and the problem of proving causality. Particular attention is paid to cases of multiple sources of negative impact, which require individualization of the contribution of each. It has been demonstrated that the most promising model for assessing environmental damage is an integrated one using digital environmental monitoring, GIS maps, IoT sensors, and pollutant tracing methods. The research results can be used to improve environmental legal regulation, judicial practice, environmental damage calculation methods, and environmental monitoring systems.