From the editor-in-chief

Some specific features of historical-geographical approach to zoning of Russia have been shown. Natural and ethno-cultural indications of historical-geographic zoning have been under consideration. A historical-geographical hierarchy has been proposed, the one which takes into account the difference in taxonomy of physical-geographical and cultural zoning. A variant of historical-geographical zoning of Russia at macro-level has been presented and the contents and brief description of the highlighted historical-geographic countries and regions has been given.

The location of the polar front and its possible change in European Russia during a summer season in the middle of the 21 century is investigated based on the results of climate modeling on a regional climate model of Main Geophysical Observatory. The simplest method to identify the location of the polar front on the map using the areas of high temperature gradients is examined. The polar front orientation will become more meridional according to model data in comparison with climatological polar front identifi ed by Khromov in the 20 century. The stability of the polar front during the various climatological periods is revealed. It is possible to expect a shift of the area of largest temperature gradients to the south in the middle of the 21 century on one degree of latitude compared with the last decade of the 20 century

Theoretical typology of cultural landscapes of Russia and cycle of trips allow to reveal a new zone of the cultural landscape that is different from the usual (long-distance) periphery, because the inner periphery is located in the developed areas. Inner periphery is characterized by rapid territorial growth, socioeconomic depression, spontaneous renaturalisation of landscape. Schematic map model (kartoid) of the inner periphery is created, and the boundaries of the zone for the Central area of the Russian Federation are identifi ed.

The article deals with changes of employment in industry and construction in respects of space and time in NUTS-2 regions of the Visegrad Group countries during transitional period of the 1990–2000s. The infl uence of foreign direct investments on industry employment, particularly on automotive industry employment, is examined.

It has been obtained many years data on productivity of meadow-steppe communities within the range of steppe growing. It has been studied the effect of hydrothermal conditions on the productivity of steppe communities in various vegetation seasons (according to the cycles of solar activity). It has been shown that the past warmer 12 years period was marked with increasing productivity by 30,0% that depended by the more early approach of plants vegetation.

The results of evaluation of hydrological and hydro-ecological effects of the observed and potential changes in air temperature in the cold and warm periods in the territory of the Russian Plain are shown, taking into account the vertical inhomogeneity of the river fl ow.

The authors propose a new approach to creating high-resolution paleoclimatic reconstructions based on lithological and geochemical study of lake sediments. Scanning X-ray analysis on synchrotron radiation with 100 micron spatial resolution is used to obtain the time series. Transfer function relating the variation of the geochemical composition of sediments with the climatic parameters is calibrated according to the instrumental meteorological observations (data for the last 100–150 years) and approximated by the all depth of core. Quantitative paleoreconstruction on a timeline with annual steps is used to search for natural climatic cycles of various periods ranging from several years to a few thousand years. Found climatic cycles are used to create a forecast function, which allows to carry out the interpolation in the future. The proposed method may be considered as analytical microstratigraphy of lacustrine sediments and is tested on a model object – Lake Teletskoye (Altai Mountains) and allows to obtain paleoclimatic information of high quality.

Anthropogenous evolution of phytobiota of steppe and forest-steepe are considered in the article. The researches conducted have allowed to reveal the basic stages of fl orae formation at various anthropogenous impact, to classify different types of fl orae depending on degree of their anthropogenous transformation, intensity and specifi city of acting anthropogenous factors. The formation of various classes and types of anthropotolerant fl orae in technogenic ecotopes determined by force and originality of edaphytic, in particular, geochemical conditions, which do not have natural analogs. It leads to fl orae development forming in these conditions.

The features of the flash flood in Krymsk (Krasnodar krai) that caused large number of casualties are analyzed. Along with the main cause of the accident – an extreme rainfall, other factors had played a signifi cant role, including mudfl ows and landslides, sporadically blocking river channels, as well as anthropogenic factors, such as construction of the fl oodplain of Adagum River, insufficient ability of bridges’ spans for the passage of fl ood waters and garbaged river channels.

The quantitative data on dynamics of areas in main forest types (pine, birch, hornbeam, beech and oak forests) of Kabardino-Balkaria for 20 years since 1986 are obtained from the analysis of hyper spectral Landsat 5 TM space images. To calculate forest areas, the digital terrain model built on SRTM-fi le and two-dimensional Landsat 5 TM cosmic images is used. The signifi cant reduction of beech cenosis (23.4%) and birch cenosis (21.9%) is revealed. Reafforestation has resulted from increasing area of oak and hornbeam stands. Researches show that it is necessary to consider the gradient of slopes to calculate the area. Estimations of the areas calculated on three-dimensional terrain model and two-dimensional cosmic images for coniferous and parvifoliate forests of Kabardino-Balkaria, most of which are located on the slopes with 20–40º gradients and at the altitudes up to 2500 m, differ by 15–20%. For oak forests the difference isn’t so signifi cant (2.2%) as most of them are located on gentle slopes. The obtained data on total forest area as well as on areas of particular forest types differ essentially from literary and official information

Dasimetric maps are a variety of settlement maps, aimed at adequate accounting and demonstration of population density in certain territory in such a way as it is distributed in reality. Historically this term was coined by outstanding Russian geographer Veniamin Petrovich Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky (1870– 1942), who suggested respective methodology in 1911. Dasimetric method was widely used in the geographic literature and mapping practice in 1920-s: 47 sheets of “Dasimetric map of European Russia” were published in 1923–1927. Currently the progress of GIS-technologies, noticeable relief of secrecy requirements and development of free global databases of geographic data allow not only simplification of mapping following methods of Semyonov-Tyan-Shansky, but also improvement of his method. This opens new prospects and opportunities, benefi cial first of all for settlement geographers and architects, planning districts and settlements.

The article is devoted to defining the role of confessional factor in the development of modern civilizations. The influence of the principal religions on the interaction between civilizations is considered in detail. Particular attention is paid to the quantitative analysis of the religious composition of the changing world.

26 октября этого года исполняется 75 лет со дня рождения выдающегося географа, крупного специалиста в области экономической и социальной географии, доктора географических наук, профессора, академика Национальной академии наук Украины, ректора Таврического национального университета имени В.И. Вернадского, Героя Украины Николая Васильевича Багрова.