Vol 40, No 2 (2019)

This article deals with the geographical aspects of international trade and foreign investment at the turn of the 20^th century. These issues of historical geography of the world economy are poorly explored in national science. It is shown that the widely held views of the critical importance of the colonies in foreign economic relations of the parent states are unsubstantiated and are not statistically sound. Neither in trade nor in capital investment did the colonies play the role that is often attributed to them. It is established that it is Europe rather than the colonial empires became the main structural element of the world economic system resulting from the industrial and transport-communication revolution. The world economic ties of those times are, in essence, the interrelations between European countries or with the participation of European countries. It is found that the colonial empires were economically open systems rather than closed systems, as is sometimes suggested. The characteristics of the internal structure of the world economic relations are identified. It is shown that raw materials and food products were dominant in the commodity composition of international trade, whereas the structure of foreign investment was dominated by capital investment in the infrastructure. As far as direct foreign investments are concerned, however (which constituted a relatively small part of capital exports), they were made mainly in the primary sector of the economy. Furthermore, the counter flows of capital, that is, mutual investments of industrially developed countries, were uncommon. It is pointed out that the statement that capital was exported solely to poor and backward countries is misleading. On the contrary, as is established, most foreign investments were made in developed countries, according to the standards of those times.

The geo-ontology principles of identifying the functional connectivity of all components of the socio-biological system have been used as the basis for developing a unified and scientifically rigorous methodology of preprocessing epidemiological information and its preparation for further use. The specific features in epidemiological information are highlighted as well as the need for territorial linkage of the objects and situations under study in order to ensure the adequacy of management decisions. According to the principles of designing relational databases, an integrated epidemiological database has been generated, which includes the geographical coordinates of the objects and situations under study. Such a territorial linkage when implemented using GIS technologies provides a means of solving regional problems of estimating the probability of disease with due regard for the specific features of the location, which ensures competent and targeted work of the system of medical and environmental monitoring. The continually updated databases have been created and patented, which are compatible with ArcGIS and contain basic epidemiological data on the incidence of tick-borne encephalitis and tick-borne borreliosis, based on information received from hospitals in Irkutsk. For updating the integrated database with information on the occurrence of infections across landscapes, annual (since 2005) expeditions have been conducted in several key areas of Irkutsk oblast which are distinguished by landscape diversity, vector size, attendance and morbidity of the population. Ticks and their hosts are collected and analyzed for the presence of pathogens of natural focal infections. More than 25 thousand ticks were caught, whose infection with tick-borne encephalitis virus averaged 1.5%. Visualization of epidemiological information used the methods of end-to-end geographical mapping of the territory, the logic of which formulates the principles of geoinformation mapping and naturally includes a natural territorial component.

This article outlines an original approach to analyzing the development of the system of spatial nature conservation, and the system itself is shown as a distinctive phenomenon of natural, socio-cultural and economic genesis. Emphasis is placed on institutional, structural and material changes within systems characterized by a set of factors, actors, trajectories and vectors. The factors include the conditions that ensure the availability of resources for the emergence and existence of protected ecosystems. They also determine the current state and trends of the nature protection system determining the current status and tendencies for change of the nature conservation system. Especially protected natural areas, their networks and environmental legislations were used as active agents of the transformations. It is suggested that the elementary changes should be described by means of trajectories which are generalized into transformation vectors, which indicate the possible changes in nature conservation systems. Application of these authors’ hypothesis is illustrated by the example of 540 nature conservation sites, nature conservation systems and legislation of nine regions of Western Siberia. The analysis revealed signs of a crisis situation in the national system of nature conservation. It is established that the regional systems constitute a key element in the structure of the country’s environmental organization, and the direction and synchronicity of the development vectors within and between them determine the prospects for higher-rank environmental networks. It is concluded that there is a need for the synchronization of regional legislative processes in line with the traditional national foundations of the national traditions of reserve management and studies.

With a view to conducting a comprehensive assessment of pollution of the water bodies within the Lake Baikal drainage basin using dimensionless indicators of the water chemical composition, the problems of identifying and testing the indicators were dealt with, which are necessary for determining the sources and levels of pollution and assessing the contributions of the tributaries to lake pollution and the self-cleaning ability of the waters. The methodology of geoecological monitoring as suggested by these authors is based on identifying correlations between polluters and environmental sites by examining technogenic material of from the sites as mixtures, and material from the sources as their components. Identification of the spatio-temporal structure of pollution involves analyzing the landscape organization of the lake drainage basin and the distribution patterns of pollutants. Substantiation of the observation and monitoring network, extrapolation of monitoring results and display of real-time data used landscape mapping methods. An analysis was made of the landscape and geochemical differentiation of the Lake Baikal drainage basin, and the unified indicators of water composition relating water pollution to natural conditions were ranked. The study revealed areas of geosystems with different rates of organic matter decomposition, i. e. the water areas of the lake with a different self-cleaning ability of the waters, and the areas of the drainage basin, the soils of which are responsible for the formation of waters of different types. The resulting contours were generalized in accordance with the scale of the map for the spatial differentiation of biogeochemical parameters of the landscape organization of the drainage basin. The highest decomposition rate of organic matter is characteristic for taiga dark-coniferous geosystems of optimal development, submontane and intermontane depressions and valleys of Khamar-Daban Range, and the lowest rate is typical for goletz and subgoletz geosystems as well as for taiga forests along the western coast of Lake Baikal.

A study is made of the present-day levels of global ¹³⁷Cs deposition in permafrost soils of the tundra and taiga zones of Yakutia. It is shown that the reserves of ¹³⁷Cs in the soils of Yakutia vary over a significant range according to the landscape and climatic features of the territory. The largest amount of ¹³⁷Cs is contained in soils of the mountain areas (Aldan Highlands and Ulakhan-Chistai Range) located in the zone with maximum average annual precipitation amount, and the smallest amount occurs in the soils of the tundra zone. It is found that the average density of soil pollution by ¹³⁷Cs in the flat study areas of the territory of Yakutia has now decreased by a factor of 3 to 4 in general when compared with data of airborne gamma-ray spectrometric surveys conducted during 1968–1974 on the territory of the Yakut ASSR, due to its radioactive decay, burial, removal from the surface waters and accumulation by vegetation. It is shown that in the surveyed areas of the plains and mountains of Yakutia, the global deposition of ¹³⁷Cs in soils is, on average, by a factor of 2–4 less than in the soils of Ural, Western and Southern Siberia and other territories of Russia. A correlation between the density of soil pollution by ¹³⁷Cs and the atmospheric precipitation amount was revealed. The main regularities of ¹³⁷Cs migration and redistribution were established in different types of soils of the areas of cryogenic landscapes associated by the runoff. In the harsh climatic conditions of Yakutia, vertical and lateral migration of ¹³⁷Cs is weaker in frozen soils than in soils of the European part of Russia contaminated by radioactive cesium after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

We examine the issues concerning the perception and transformation of transport accessibility in interrelatedness and interdependency with the different ways of life: nomadic, rural and urban. The analysis used data of field investigations obtained by these authors in 2017 in Yakutsk, and during 2009–2017 in Aldan and in the Verkhnekolymskii, Nizhnekolymskii, Neryungrinskii, Olenekskii and Srednekolymskii uluses (districts). The study revealed transformations of transport accessibility caused by socio-economic and climatic changes: in spite of an intense development of the transport infrastructure, the duration of the winter roads is becoming shorter and less predictable, and the conditions of the water and air transport infrastructure remain critical. The characteristics of perception and transformation of transport accessibility are illustrated by the example of hunters and reindeer herders, residents of the village of Berezovka and of the city of Yakutsk. It is pointed out that representatives of the nomadic population are less vulnerable to socio-economic changes but more are dependent on natural conditions. It is found that the main problems in Berezovka are associated with periodic floods which are aggravated by limited transport accessibility. Yakutsk has lower transport accessibility compared to the other regional centers but higher accessibility than the other settlements within the region and in the perception of local residents. As a result, it is concluded that, depending on the way of life and experience of the interaction of the local communities with the outside world, the problems of limited transport accessibility are perceived and experienced differently. Thus the relativity of the concept of transport accessibility and the need for further research into its perception and relationship with the way of life of the population is demonstrated.

The redistribution of sediments in the Kuda river basin as a result of erosion-accumulation processes is investigated from the systems perspective. The current geodynamic position of the basin associated with the transition zone from the Siberian platform to the Baikal rift is emphasized. The contribution of cryogenic, karst and aeolian processes to the mobilization of matter in the system is considered. A quantitative assessment of the amount of transported material in the upper (slope), middle (ravine) and lower (riverbed) lithodynamic zones of the basin was made. Time series of the main hydroclimatic indicators were used to determine the long-term dynamics of the functioning of the basin. Using the satellite images, we identified changes in the economic activities within the basin over the past 30 years. They imply a reduction in croplands and an expansion of grasslands. Calculations show that the annual volume of sediments transported within the basin reaches 3 184 430 tons. Most of them (89%) are involved in the movement by the runoff of storm water, and only 364 405 tons are transported with the runoff of melt water. The role of gully erosion in ablation and sediment transportation is insignificant, because most of the gullies are inactive with a reduction in agriculture; the average growth rate of the heads of gullies does not exceed 0.5 m/year. Channel processes contribute primarily to the redistribution of sediments between adjacent sections of the channel, and their transport to large distances is limited by karst processes and by a significant anthropogenic transformation of the bottoms of the valleys. The annual flow of suspended and transported sediments is a mere 31 000 tons, and the main ablation of material from the system occurs in a dissolved form. In general, the mechanical volume of sediment yield from the system makes up 1%. The rest of material is redistributed in the basin and causes an enhanced accumulation. It is shown that almost half of the sediments is intercepted by large ponds; the rest is accumulated in the bottoms of the valleys in areas with active karst development, on floodplains as well as in talus and proluvial trains. The study determined a general trend in the transformation of the relief as a result of the functioning of the basin implying its planation.

The unique landscape features of the Kingdom of Bhutan, associated with contrasting topography, abrupt height differences at short distances and with large amounts of monsoon precipitation in the summer time, are considered. The main feature in the landscapes of this region is determined: exceptional diversity of vegetation cover and animals. An analysis is made of the subtropical, temperate and alpine landscape-ecofloristic zones. In each of the zones, subtropical, temperate, subarctic (alpine type) and nival altitudinal belts are identified. A brief description of high-altitude belts and types of vegetation and animals is given. It is established that the largest space here is occupied by subtropical, broad-leaved and coniferous forests (80.9%) which stretch from the foot of the mountains to almost 3500 m above the sea level. The zones and belts are characterized by exceptional biodiversity with a large number of endemic fauna and flora. The system of protected areas of Bhutan is described, and a brief account of its national parks, and biological corridors is given. Attention is focused on the rational and careful attitude of the royal government toward nature, implying the establishment of national parks, nature preserves and wildlife sanctuaries which occupy half of the entire area of the State.