Izvestiâ Rossijskoj akademii nauk. Seriâ geografičeskaâ

The description of the spatial structure of a landscape usually comes down to listing the types of morphological units and their area ratios. However, based on a systemic understanding of the landscape, the spatial structure can be considered perfectly described only when the lateral relationships between spatial elements are explained in detail. We provide rationales for the necessity of the transition of landscape science from a simple explanation of spatial differences and relationships to a functional-chorological analysis, which will make it possible to occupy a specific niche among the sciences of natural systems. Based on the materials from the landscape conferences of 2006, 2017, and 2018, priority research topics in spatial organization were established. Their assessment was given in terms of their compliance with the requirements of a systemic approach. We propose a classification of chorological aspects in landscape research. The classification is expected to provide full-fledged systemic content and practical significance for the purposes of territorial planning. The functions of a geocomplex in a higher-rank-order geosystem may differ depending on its size, shape, and spatial context. It is proposed to distinguish 28 functions of geocomplexes or their combinations, which form four groups: function in the flow (relations of the geocomplex with incoming and outgoing abiotic and biotic flows); shape function (relations of a geocomplex with neighboring geocomplexes or surrounding matrix); dominance function (the role of a geocomplex in the enclosing geosystem, depending on its occurrence); and emergence function (the contribution of a group of geocomplexes to the formation of the emergent property of the higher-rank-order geosystem). Identification of socially significant effects of the relative position of natural complexes and selection of optimal positions; neighborhoods of lands is believed to become a privileged contribution of landscape science to the spatial organization of land use and ecological infrastructure.

According to existing forecasts, after 2030, an intelligent, three-dimensional, ultra-dense, integrated, terabyte, terahertz, tactile, and touch-scanning wireless communication system of the sixth generation (6G) will be deployed. Spatial features will be very significant for it, which necessitates geographical research. Therefore, an attempt has been made to determine the future directions of the geographical study of 6G networks based on a comparison of network parameters with the existing experience of knowing the spatial and temporal features of the deployment of information and communication networks. The main attention is paid to the infrastructure and the telecommunication services. The infrastructure includes cloud data centers, stationary and mobile base stations, subscriber and robotic devices, radiating surfaces, sensors, and other network elements. Future services will be represented by ubiquitously connected artificial intelligence, sensory scanning of the environment, holographic telepresence, augmented reality, tactile communication, three-dimensional positioning, and other services. It is proposed to develop geographical research in the following areas: deployment of a spatially distributed network; info-communication-network development of space; identification of “smart” agglomerations and regions; spatial diffusion of telecommunications services; center-peripheral digital inequality; and artificial intelligence specialization of regions. Applied work is proposed to be carried out on the geographical expertise of network projects, optimization of the linear-node structure and recommendations of the 7G network parameters. For each of the nine directions, general characteristics and possible division into particular directions are given. Within the framework of the selected directions, the proposed periodization of the main research tasks is shown from the development of a methodology for geographical cognition of 6G networks in the 2020s to obtaining empirical results in the 2030s and their subsequent discussion for the transition to 7G in the 2040s.

The article sheds light to the transformations that took place in the spatial structure of the Nizhny Novgorod urban agglomeration in 2019–2021 during the coronavirus pandemic. The identified changes are analyzed in the context of two concepts: urban shrinkage and spatial resilience. Particular attention is paid to micro-level changes in the spatial distribution of the day and night population aggregated by anonymized data from cellular operators. According to the results, spatial structure of the Nizhny Novgorod urban agglomeration is characterized by a relatively high level of resilience to the negative effects of the pandemic, which can be explained by the complex nature of its structure as a system and the potential ability to redistribute negative effects. One of the key reactions of the spatial structure of both daytime and nighttime population was the significant increase in microlevel polarization. It has especially strongly affected public and business and mixed zones, as well as large housing estates. An increase in polarization was observed in the central zones of cities (including in the core of the urban agglomeration). There is a trend towards differentiation of low-density residential suburbs. As a result, it is postulated that the changes that have taken place in the urban spatial structure can be named a special form of “agglomerational shrinkage,” which is not accompanied by a decrease in the population of the agglomeration, but severely increases internal spatial disproportions.

The urban environment of Moscow is considered through the concept of the political landscape as a complex of environment-shaping, representative objects. The image of the capital is not only the political history of the state, captured in buildings and monuments, but also a mirror of the representations of the national elite about its social support, development prospects, the outside world, and diverse social ideas about space. Official buildings as the focus of the political and administrative functions of the capital and city monuments are shown in the study as the dominant categories of place, a matrix of new representations that determine the evolution of the urban political and symbolic landscape. The objective of the study is to trace the stages of evolution of the most important material elements of the Moscow political landscape: the location, the construction time, the origin, and other features of the buildings of state institutions and monuments. The features of the modern spatial distribution of government buildings and monuments are studied. The historical hyperconcentration of government buildings in the capital center has been confirmed. Two large areas of high concentration of government buildings are identified: around Lubyanka, Kitai-Gorod, Staraya and Novaya squares and within the Moscow City business complex, as well as the relationship between the significance of a government agency and proximity to the Presidential Administration and the Kremlin as the main centers of decision-making. Despite the transfer of several federal agencies outside the center, there has not yet been a noticeable spatial decentralization of the administrative functions of the capital. In turn, the geography of the monuments repeats the general patterns of the capital plan. Their location reveals the radial-ring and sectoral structures of the city, as well as the specialization of districts. The absolute dominants of the landscape are the monuments dedicated to the heroes and events of the Great Patriotic War (more than 40% of the total number of monuments), which is one of the basics of modern Russian identity. The importance and significance of many capital monuments as an element of the political landscape is based on a strong long-term discourse. Despite some changes (the installation of monuments to rehabilitated public and political figures, victims of new wars and terrorist acts, as well as orthodox monuments), the monumental landscape of the capital is quite stable.

Sustainable management of forest resources in mountainous areas requires the development of regional databases and a modern ecological and geographical basis for forecasting the near future of mountain forests. In the Priyenisei part of the Sayans, the authors carried out multidisciplinary studies on mountain profiles in various regions. Based on geoinformation systems for the three key mountain territories (Stolby, Sayano-Shushensky, Tanzybey) the series of landscape-typological maps with numerous parameters of basic climatic conditions (heat, moisture supply, degree of continentality, etc.) in each altitudinal belt were created. The conception and results of studies that have direct access to the regional forecast and forest management planning in the context of global climate changes is present. The concept of forest forecast, developed by the authors, leads to their past, modern state, the degree of damage caused by fires and cuttings, as well as to the ambiguous character of climate change in mountain landscapes. At this stage, the task includes the studying of space-temporal changes in dark coniferous ecosystems in the mountains of the Priyenisei Siberia. Materials of information systems of various scales were used from the AIS “Biom” for Siberia to regional geographic information systems of the Priyenisei Siberia. The databases include blocks of information on biodiversity, climate, stationary observations for a 60-year period, satellite images and cartographic materials of various scales, ecological characteristics of coniferous forest-forming species: Siberian pine, fir, spruce, Scotch pine, larch, and others. The methods of paleogeography, climatic ordination, information analysis, geoinformation-based mapping, and others were used. The most probable reaction of dark coniferous species, including Siberian pine, to the warming of the climate, predicted by climatic models, is shown. The measures are suggested to preserve valuable coniferous stands in the mountains and restoration of their areal.

The discovery of the Bayraki site in Transnistria showed how far from the ancestral homeland—the African continent—and how early (more than a million years ago) the ancestors of fossil man appeared in this region—in the basin of the lower Dniester. Six layers of Early Paleolithic artifacts were found in the section of the parking lot, both in the alluvial and the cover complex of the VII terrace of the Dniester. In the structure of the upper loess-soil strata, three paleosols of the lower and Middle Pleistocene and several levels of paleovresis are distinguished. The age-varying buried small erosive forms made it possible to clarify the number and stratigraphic position of the horizons of finds and paleosols. The two upper horizons of the Acheulian finds are associated with the medium reddish-brown paleosol and its pedosediment. The four lower horizons—the most ancient—are Oldovan, associated with different facies of the alluvial complex. People began to inhabit the floodplain of the Dniester River about 1 million years ago, repeatedly returning to almost the same place for a long time.

The chemical composition of the waters of 31 springs located in the basins of the Mzymta and Sochi rivers on the southern slope of the Caucasus Range was studied. Both water-bearing fractured carbonate rocks and water-resistant mudstones and igneous rocks are developed here. In addition, the region is characterized by the development of mineralization zones and deposits of thermal hydrogen sulfide waters. Four types of waters have been identified: I) hydrocarbonate calcium, II) hydrocarbonate-sulfate calcium-magnesium, III) hydrocarbonate-sulfate calcium-sodium, IV) hydrocarbonate-chloride-sulfate calcium waters. Due to the geochemical features of regional rocks, all types of waters are characterized by high contents of Se and rare earth elements (REE) and low concentrations of Tl, Zr, Th, and Fe. The first type of waters is associated with fractured carbonate rocks, and due to their good solubility and water permeability, it differs from other types of waters by increased concentrations of Se and REE by factors of 2.3 and 2.6, respectively. The second type, distributed mainly in argillites, is distinguished by relatively low contents of Se, REE and other elements, which is due to the lower water permeability and solubility of argillites compared to carbonate rocks. The third type is characterized by the additional presence of excess elements Ba, Li, Rb and B in the composition, which is associated with the influence of a deposit of hydrothermal mineral waters. Igneous rocks, being the least permeable and less rich in chemical elements than mudstones, influence the formation of groundwater with the lowest concentrations of elements. The low permeability of igneous rocks is confirmed by the analysis performed using the hydrogeochemical Gibbs diagram, indicating that the precipitation factor is superimposed on the formation of these waters. REE for all types of waters are characterized by similar fractionation inherited from the rocks of the region (medium REE > heavy REE > light REE). The total amount of rare earth elements and their fractionation patterns can be used as a reliable criterion for the interpretation and typification of fresh groundwater.

The process and the results of Russian colonization traditionally attract the attention of specialists in various scientific fields. The development of the settlement system is both an important part and an indicator of this process. Based on data from various static and literary sources, genetic types of Kamchatka rural settlements. Although most of the more than 320 rural settlements in Kamchatka currently no longer have a population, their composition and geography are of interest for analyzing the logic of development and prospects for further settlement pattern transformation. In recent decades, it has been largely associated with the adaptation of the initial functions of rural settlements to modern conditions. During the Soviet period, the most important from the point of view of settlement development, there were multidirectional processes in Kamchatka: extensive quantitative growth associated with the development of local fish resources and agricultural areas has been replaced by several stages of “optimization” of the settlement network. Compared with other regions of Asian Russia, settlements associated with mining development were relatively poorly represented here. In the northern part of the region, after the elimination of most seasonally inhabited settlements of indigenous residents, a rare and not very stable network of stationary settlements was formed. All these processes have led to the formation of a fairly wide set of genetic types of rural settlements on the peninsula for territories with focal settlement pattern—from commercial and forestry to agricultural, related to agricultural development, and suburban. The further evolution of the region’s rural settlement pattern will depend on the preservation of viable elements of the original functions of settlements, the preservation of the social core of residents, and the maintenance of the housing stock and infrastructure created at previous stages.

The current geopolitical and economic situation in the world makes it necessary to rethink the strategic plans of the country and its regions in a new way. It is forming the political and economic center of the “new world order” in the East. It will entail the correction of regional strategies, including those in the field of environmental well-being. That is why it is important to analyze the current situation, the measures taken to protect the environment, and the common regional environmental policy. The plan for its implementation in the form of specific tasks and methods (options) for their solution is presented in regional environmental programs developed in each subject. It is important to determine the current priorities of the environmental policy targets for the Far Eastern regions to demonstrate how the targets will be achieved. This is the purpose of this article. It was carried out an analysis of more than 150 indicators/indicators proposed in the regional programs to rank them according to the most typical tasks set; their differentiation in the context of regional differences, and the possibility of using them to evaluate the effectiveness of the implementation. It was identified that the main flaws were in the selection of used indicators. It is shown that the resource specificity of the Far Eastern Federal District economy also affects environmental programs. For example, in the environmental programs of four subjects, a significant number of indicators (up to 25%) are focused on resource industries and are not directly related to environmental protection. It was found that a significant part of the indicators is not correct in content and do not have clear quantitative guidelines, which makes it impossible to assess the achievement of goals. It requires a significant refinement of the structure and a more careful selection of target indicators for most of the environmental programs of the subjects of the Far Eastern Federal District.

The article is an overview of the history of development and the current state of geographical science in China. The relevance of the work relates to the ongoing reorientation of Russia’s international scientific relations under the influence of the geopolitical crisis. Over the past decades, Chinese geography as a branch of knowledge has gone through a significant transformation, closely related to the dynamics of the country’s development. China’s outstripping economic growth in recent decades has been accompanied by significant government investments in strengthening the national scientific and educational system. This made it possible to strengthen the material and technical base and create a personnel and organizational reserve for internationalization. In modern China, there are such sections of geography as complex, physical, social, and informational. Topics related to climate, human settlement, the study of loess, mountainous and arid regions, urbanization, urban and regional planning, and industrial clusters are popular. The main feature of Chinese geographical research is the widespread use of quantitative and remote research methods, including in the study of social and international problems. Chinese geographers have made significant progress in studying the evolution of the environment in the Quaternary period using loess and glacial data, studying the East Asian atmospheric circulation, and zoning the territory, including carrying out functional zoning. However, local experts are alarmed by the growing divergence of various branches of geography, the lack of comprehensive and theoretical research. The article also provides background information about the main geographical organizations, journals, and scientists. The center of geographical science is Beijing, where the head institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) is located, as well as two leading geographical faculties. In addition to the capital, the cities of Nanjing, Lanzhou, Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. stand out. Geographical specialties are taught at 44 universities in China. There are 12 geographical research institutes operating in the country, seven of them are part of the CAS system. A unified network of field stations has also been created. Number of geographical journals more than 20, including several English-language ones. The department of earth sciences of the CAS includes 138 academicians, of which 10+ are geographers. The Geographical Society of China plays a major role with 30+ subdivisions and regional-level commissions at every Chinese province.