Vol 87, No 1 (2023)

The article deals with the problems of the relationship between the agglomeration effects of localization and urbanization. As an indicator of these processes, the relationship between the population of cities and the number of enterprises and organizations in them is used. It is assumed that the number of enterprises indirectly reflects the diversity of places of employment, although not weighted by industry structure. As a result of the study, a statistically significant relationship between these two indicators was established both for the subjects of the federation and for cities with a population of more than 100 thousand people. The main focus is on the study and explanation of deviations from the general pattern of the rank of the city/the number of enterprises in it. On this basis, the typology of cities is carried out on several grounds: administrative status, economic and geographical location, the presence of large city-forming enterprises. According to the results of the study, specific parametric characteristics were identified that allow us to distinguish single-industry cities. Using the example of the key, the study was continued for settlements with less population, as a result, it was found that for them, geographical location and specialization are more important than population.

For the first time on Russian data for 2011–2020 the flow of population between 7 levels of the settlement hierarchy is estimated. Levels of the settlement hierarchy are represented by cities of different population sizes and their suburbs, other urban and rural settlements. Indicators of migration icrease (decrease) of the population and indicators of demographic efficiency in the form of matrices are calculated for the hierarchy levels. It is shown that the scale of this flow is affected by changes in the system of migration registration in Russia in the 2010s, namely, the automatic return of migrants to their place of permanent residence after the end of the period of registration at the place of residence. The beneficiaries of the population “vertical migration” are cities with over 250 thous. inhabitants, the biggest winners are the urban agglomerations of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Each next settlement hierarchy level gives the population “up” and receives replenishment from the lower “layers.” In contrast to countries where similar studies were conducted (USA, Canada, the Netherlands, etc.), there is no population flow from top to bottom in Russia, and upward flows have a very high efficiency; it is especially high for Moscow, St. Petersburg, and their suburbs. Despite the population movement between neighboring settlement hierarchy levels, its demographic effect is not as great as in irregular migrations. The research calculations are based on the migrants’ individual depersonalized data, which allow detailing migration flows to individual settlements in Russia. Spatial data referencing was carried out based on 15-digit Rosstat codes unique for each settlement. This made it possible to analyze migration not between administrative units, but between settlements grouped by population size. It was also possible to identify the influence of the features of accounting for migration on the population flow between the selected groups of settlements in the 2010s.

The sedimentation rates of five lakes in the Western and Central Caucasus in the late Holocene were studied on the basis of radioisotope dating (¹³⁷Cs of global and Chernobyl origin, ²¹⁰Pb_ex, ¹⁴C). The lakes are located in different landscape zones and has different origin. The selection of bottom sediment cores was carried out after a reservoir map of the depths моnitoring based in areas with average maximum depths. The studied lakes catchments are minimally affected by anthropogenic impact; therefore, the reservoir influx of sediments, the sedimentation rate and their changes over time are mainly controlled by natural factors. It has been established that for two lakes in the mid-mountains with tinned and forested catchments, the current sediment accumulation rate is 0.05–0.07 cm/year, and half of it consist organic matter. Sedimentation rates in the high-mountain Donguz-Orun Lake increases and have been equal to 0.32 cm/year in the last 30 years without taking into account the significant amount of sediment that is redeposited in the front of the reservoir delta. The opposite trend of sedimentation rates was revealed for the high-mountain Garabashi Lake, the distinctive feature of which is the absence of glaciers at present and a rather high projective cover of vegetation catchment. Sedimentation rates in the coastal Sukhoi Liman Lake, located in the low-mountain zone, are 0.1 cm/year with a slight growth trend due to some increase in anthropogenic load associated with local clearcuts and an increase in recreational load.

Using the case of factoral-dynamic analysis of mountain-taiga geosystems (landscapes) of the Maly Hamar-Daban ridge section (Western Transbaikalia), the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method is implemented. These logical and mathematical tools of a system-hierarchical approach to complex decision-making problems consist in determining the priorities of alternatives (landscape-forming factors) to achieve the goal (zonal norm), their pairwise comparison and choosing the best alternative with the maximum priority value relatively to the main goal. The combination of the AHP algorithm with factoral-dynamic analysis of the hierarchy of geosystems–geomes (facies, groups, and classes of facies)–is shown on the case of assessing the effect of factor influence on the landscape by the criterion of territorial manifestation of facies of different factor series (subhydrolithomorphic, sublithomorphic, xerolithomorphic, and subhydromorphic). Based on the calculation of an indicator, that considers the priorities of all the compared particular criteria of different levels of hierarchy and the criterion of seriality of geosystems, a measure of deviation of the state of individual facies from the zonal norm was determined and a map of landscape variability of the studied territory was made in generalized indicators showing the influence of factors of different hierarchical levels.

At the beginning of the Late Pleistocene within the modern Azov-Black Sea basin the Karangat transgression developed synchronously with the interglacial transgression of the world ocean. Based on the analysis of faunal complexes, the basin was characterized as the warmest and deepest basin of the Late Pleistocene with water salinity much higher than the salinity of the modern Black Sea. The most complete sequence of transgression sediments was found in the Eltigen section, located on the western coast of the Kerch Strait. The section has been examined several times. However, due to the large extent, facies variability of the section and the lack of geochronological data, there is still no consensus on how the deposits in the section correlate, to what number of phases of the Karangat transgression they correspond to, and what their age is. The aim of this work is to obtain the chronology of sedimentation of the southern (Tobechik) part of the Eltigen stratotype section, which is considered by most researchers to be the deposits of the first phase of the Karangat transgression. Seventeen luminescence dates were obtained for quartz (OSL) and feldspar (pIRIR₂₉₀): nine from lagoon-marine and coastal-marine deposits and eight from the overlying loess-soil layer. Biostratigraphic analysis of the malacofauna confirmed the belonging of the marine deposits of the Karangat transgression of the Black Sea discovered in the section. The results of OSL dating showed that in the southern part of the Eltigen section, three cycles of lagoon-coastal-marine sedimentation are distinguished in the intervals of 135–130 ka years ago (MIS 6–MIS5e), 130–115 ka years ago (MIS 5e) and 115–95 ka years ago (MIS 5d-c). The accumulation of the upper subaerial strata began no earlier than 95 ka years ago.

Structural changes in the industry of the Russian regions for 2005–2019 are assessed from an ecological perspective. The decrease in the share of mining and the share of hazardous activities in industry was considered as an ecologicaly progressive change in the regional industrial structure (its greening), and the opposite change was assessed as de-ecologization. The absolute majority of the main mining regions of the country have increased the extraction of mineral resources, while in half of them it has increased by more than 1.5 times, and in a quarter–more than by half. The north-eastern vector of the development of the country’s mining industry has been clearly identified, which determines the relative shift of large-scale impacts on nature to Eastern Siberia, the Far East, the European North–to ecologically significant and easily vulnerable landscapes of the cryolithozone, as well as to shelf areas. The number of regions where the share of the extractive industry in industrial output exceeds 50% has increased from 9 to 14. In 2/5 of Russian regions, the share of environmentally hazardous industries in the manufacturing sector has noticeably increased. In regions where nature-intensive production is significantly reduced (the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Republic of Tatarstan), industries of primary processing of raw materials appear, which are also not environmentally friendly. Only in Belgorod, Kaliningrad, and Murmansk oblasts industrial structures in general and their processing sectors have become more environmentally friendly. Interregional differences in the level of environmental friendliness of industrial structures have intensified. Difficulties of a methodological and informational nature did not make it possible to establish the relationship between structural changes in the regional industry and the dynamics of impacts on natural components.

The article proves the necessity to change approaches to the development of water output system in rural settlements by improving the quality of forecast of expected changes in rural water use. The study is based on the evolution of behavioral preferences of rural households on the case of the pilot Semlovsky rural settlement of Danilovsky district of Yaroslavl oblast. This research was inspired by the logic and beauty of the methodology of studying rural water use by the outstanding geographer Gilbert White which is based on the approaches of behavioral and evolutionary geography. Through interviews and semi-structured surveys from 1976 to 2019, the study examined how rural residents provide water for themselves, choose their source of water output, and how they really value water as an economic good. The perceptions of managers in the sphere of domestic water output were also investigated and planning documents were analyzed. The study of the evolution of rural domestic water use for more than 40 years revealed the peculiarities of source selection depending on water quality, economic and technical capabilities of residents, and socio-cultural traditions. It has been established that focusing on centralized water supply, to comply with water quality standards for the population, can have the adverse effect, when the users choose a cheaper water source which is reliable and has a poorer water quality. In practical terms, the article shows it’s reasonable to apply an integrated approach to developing rural water output strategies, taking into account the adaptability of water users to different geographical conditions. It also reveals ways of including behavioral features of water use in rural areas in project and planning documents.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the spatial structure of the tourist economy in the Tyumen region. The theoretical and methodological basis of this analysis is the concept of “center–periphery.” The study uses the method of cluster analysis (using the rules of single and full connection, weighted pairwise average, weighted centroid methods and the Ward method) to isolate groups of municipalities with a similar set of variables reflecting the infrastructure security and cultural and historical potential of the territory, which guarantees an adequate segmentation of the tourist space of the region into a regional center that consolidates record tourist resources and the most diverse types of tourist activity; the second centers are fixed by increased indicators of tourist potential with clearly distinguished branches of specialization. Peripheral areas are extremely poorly equipped with infrastructure components, characterized by internal heterogeneity of tourist manifestations with single destinations and transport isolation, while tourism for them is a means of overcoming economic backwardness, but is located in the zone of risky entrepreneurship. The results of the study allow us to improve the scientific and practical content of tourist zoning and territorial planning of the tourist industry of the Tyumen region.

To determine the rate of decline in the drainage areas of the Karelian Coast, in the 2005–2017 period year-round observations of watercourses flowing into the Chupa, Medvezhya, Keret and Letnaya bays of the White Sea were carried out. In rivers and streams, seasonal and annual changes in water discharge and suspended matter concentrations were studied. It was revealed that the river water runoff does not exceed 2.5 km³, and the stream runoff does not exceed 45 mln m³ per year. The annual water runoff is distributed as follows: on average, 40 ± 2% is carried out during the spring flood, 33 ± 1% during the autumn flood, and 23 ± 1% during the summer low water. Despite the length of the winter period, the winter water runoff never exceeds 8% of the annual runoff. According to the suspended matter concentration, the watercourses of the Karelian Coast are classified as watercourses with a pure water mass, since the long-term average concentration of suspended matter in them is 3.30 ± 0.95 mg/L. It was revealed that the total river runoff of suspended matter is 6.5 thous. t per year; streams carry out less than 500 t of suspended matter per year. Based on the data obtained, an assessment was made of the module of suspended matter runoff and the rate of erosion of watersheds. The mean long-term modulus of suspended matter runoff averages 1.98 ± 0.31 t km^–2 per year, the erosion rate is 1.1 ± 0.17 µm per year (n = 382). The low runoff modulus and the slow rate of decline in the catchment areas are due to the geographical location and geological and geomorphologic structure of the Karelian Coast.

The article aims to show the modern state of pattern recognition techniques for automatic and semi-automatic geomorphological mapping. There is opinion among the geomorphometrists about the expert rules for traditional landform mapping can be quantitated. The general unsolved tasks of automatic landform mapping are: recognition of origin for morphologically similar Earth’s surface forms; criteria development for transfer from morphological to genetic and age landform’s characteristics; preventive choosing the optimal resolution of the remote sensing data; the choosing and rationale of predictor’s weights in statistical modeling procedures. Some cases of the pattern recognition techniques using in geomorphology and landform mapping are given: generalized linear models; classification trees; random forest; artificial neural networks; and computer vision methods. The overall accuracy of the different models according to planar continuous landform recognition (and recognition of lithology types too) is about 50–70% and more. At the same time, specific landform type’s (craters, volcanic cones and others) recognition can reach 90–100%.

Leonid Grigoriev and Alexandra Morozkina book is extremely relevant, because now, as in 1880–1913, there is a rapid increase in inequality. An important conclusion is that a revolutionary explosion was not inevitable and would not have occurred if there had not been a world war. Growth rates were limited by the insufficient breadth of domestic markets and slow growth in labor productivity due to a lack of human capital. Marxism, according to the authors, reflected the nature of society in the middle of the 19th century, but from about the 1870s. inequality and absolute poverty began to become different problems. Industrialization at the expense of the peasantry, which took place in Russia, which developed contrary to theories, should not be interpreted as an unequivocal evil, especially since similar phenomena were observed in other countries. The prevailing ideas about Germany’s motives in unleashing the First World War are called into question on the base of economic analysis (“steel doesn’t lie”). The Germany was extremely concerned about the change in the balance of power in favor of the United States and Russia. The authors concluded that there was no convergence in the development of the countries under consideration in 1880–1913. In their opinion, successful catch-up development is a rather rare success. At the same time, the recipe for success has always turned out to be individual and unsuitable for replication. The separation of the colonies from the former mother countries has not diminished in the last century. Reflections on the book lead to the conclusion that Russia in the 21st century has an opportunity for longer than other countries to maintain the dynamism of development in a world that has passed to stationarity thanks to the development of Siberia.