Vol 25, No 3 (2025)

The article discusses the history of the concept of human co-creation with nature, the main approaches to determining the possibilities of its implementation within the framework of the doctrine of geosystems by V. B. Sochava and the experience of landscape planning based on knowledge of the landscape organization of various regions of Siberia. The main content of modern Russian physical geography is the study of the organization of geosystems and landscape and environmental conditions for differentiating environmental management. The methodology, methodological apparatus for their identification and subsequent interpretation of data are based on the doctrine of geosystems. Among his most important social tasks, V. B. Sochava attributed the scientific justification for the creation of “geosystems of the co-creation of man with nature.” Their creation as one of the types of purposeful anthropogenic transformation of geosystems in accordance with their inherent development trends should be aimed at identifying potential forces of nature, promoting the development of positive and inhibiting undesirable processes. One of the ways of this co-creation is landscape planning aimed at justifying ways to optimize land use, providing for the avoidance or at least minimization of environmental management risks, which can be implemented as a constructive development of modeling the organization of geosystems.

The article examines the application of topological concepts for analysing the structure and assessing the compactness of a regional settlement system. A methodology is proposed that adapts classical topological invariants to evaluate real transport-planning networks using OpenStreetMap data, taking into account physical-geographical and legislative constraints. Instead of abstract node connectivity indices in the settlement system graph, a new operational indicator – the “exit index” – is introduced. This index represents the number of physical, nondead-end road exits from a settlement and is used to identify structural vulnerabilities by analysing “articulation points”(i.e., critical nodes whose removal would disconnect the network). The proposed methodology was tested on the case of Saratov Oblast to assess settlement compactness and calculate new optimal connections within the settlement system, incorporating existing data on terrain, specially protected natural areas, and zones with special conditions for land use.

The study presents the testing and results of simulation modeling of surface flows caused by the results of volcanic activity. An analysis of various rheological models was carried out, with a justification for the effectiveness of the Herschel-Bulkley generalized fluid model as applied to geodynamic processes (lahars, mudflows, rockfalls, etc.). The proposed hypothesis was tested and confirmed its viability based on information about a real event – the eruption of the Chaiten volcano. The results of the study can become an effective tool in predicting and assessing the consequences of other geodynamic processes of both endogenous and exogenous origin.

The record of a mandibular tooth plate of the chimaeroid fish Ischyodus sp. from the Lower Cretaceous deposits of the north of the Saratov Volga River Right Bank is described. The presumed age of the find is the Lower Aptian. This is the first recorded occurrence of chimaeroid remains in the Lower Cretaceous (pre-Albian) deposits of the Middle and Lower Volga regions, and the fourth record in deposits of this age in Eastern Europe. The composition of the global Early Cretaceous (pre-Albian) chimaeroid assemblage, including 3-4 genera of “edaphodontids” and 1-2 genera of rhinochimaerids, and the possible migration path of Ischyodus thurmanni to the southern hemisphere (Australia) in the Early Cretaceous are discussed.