From the editor-in-chief

It is well known that science is international in essence. Combining the words “new geography” and “Ukrainian realities,” the authors emphasize the difficulties of development of geographical science under the fundamental change of social objectives and principles of economic management. The weakness of geography is manifested in the lack of geographical knowledge adequate to laws of natural sciences. In Ukraine, under the specific conditions of development (resource constraints, environmental, demographic, and fi nancial problems), geography formed its own vectors and trends on the development, providing real results, positively valued by society. Attention is drawn to the existence of a large gap between the scientific and educational geography. Possible options for its reduction are presented.

The article considers the innovative approaches to the management of agriculture and its innovative branches that have emerged in the rural areas of the Non-Black Soil Zone in the context of its continuous depopulation and polarization of its utilized space. Various factors of agricultural innovation are examined for municipalities of Vologda, Kostroma, and Tver oblasts. These municipalities occupy different positions in the regional and macro-regional Core-Periphery systems. The conditions examined include environment, human resources, transport accessibility and a set of specific competitive advantages (based on tacit knowledge and intangible assets). The mechanics of innovative development is particularly scrutinized in the cases of several key municipalities where the field studies were carried out by the author.

The article covers geographical and technological factors which determine localization and development of Russia’s timber processing complex in market economy environment. Dynamics of the spatial structure of the timber processing complex’s goods export in 2000–2010 is analyzed. Structure of the production of timber and pulp-and-paper goods is scrutinized for the largest Russia’s inter-regional timber industry holdings. Post-soviet shifts in geographies of timber resources and demand for them are evaluated. The synthesis of the three sets of factors lead to formulating the long-term forecast of the future spatial shifts in timber industry enterprises localization. The foci of development will be the regions adjacent to Irkutsk oblast having common border with China, the largest importer of Russian timber and pulp-and-paper goods, and combining significant timber resources with relatively dense population and infrastructure.

The concept of regional ecological prediction is presented with regard to mountainous countries. The concept is based on the empirical-statistical modeling of ecosystems and the new methods of geomorphometry. The analytical prediction model of transformations of mountainous landscapes for the middle and the end of the 21st century is based on the given climate change scenario of forthcoming global warming. The methods of cartographic predictive modeling are presents. A predictive landscape map has been created for northern slope of the mountain range.

Data on Caspian Sea level fluctuation, added up to April 2010 is examined in the article. Statistic analyses of these observations and in particular empiric histogram permits to consider that in sea level fluctuation the third stable condition appears at the level of –27 m. In previous works in sea level fluctuations up to 1995 two stable and one unstable condition were fi xed. Supplemented data shows that early developed models, based on polynomial regression are modeling level fluctuations with the transition of two defined conditions. A new improved model, based on exponential regression is proposed in the article, the solution of which demonstrates the transition of the sea level between three stable conditions.

The results of the investigation of three permafrost cores from 3.6 Myr old Lake Elgygytgyn impact crater are presented here. Paleobotanical reconstructions are based on palinological studies and involve mostly late glacial time and Holocene. Our results are more detailed in comparison to the data based on lake sediments studies due to very low sedimentation rate in Lake Elgygytgyn. The age models rely on radiocarbon dates and also on correlations between our results with previously published data.

It has been considering a preparing technique in due to distinguish the mountain topography layers in regions of high geodynamic activity of the Earth’s crust on the base of analysis of the digital relief models and on the set (composition) of characteristic dendrofl ora species as exemplified to Western Prebaikal Region (model polygon in Preolkhon Region). It is used the original technique of constructing digital relief models, basing on the principles of the method of relief plastic. The digital relief model can accurately provide the spatial boundaries of topography layers. With the above technique, four topography layers of relief of Preolkhon Region (West Prebaikal Region) have been determined: the watershed, slope, valley and aquatic. The character of dendroflora allows supplying the genetic connection layers. It is propose to divide some heterogeneous on the stretching topography layers on the elongated segments. It was established that typical set (composition) of dendroflora species (trees, bush, and small bush) is characteristic for each specific topography layer and its segment in study area of Preolkhon Region. This composition has been used for additional indication of topography layers subsequently. The proposed technique is more precise in comparison with traditional techniques in due to distinguish the topography layers.

Ростислав Сергеевич Ильин (1891–1937 гг.) – выдающийся землевед-эволюционист, ученый-прогнозист, приблизившийся к пониманию системы мироздания [8, 9, 21, 23]. Масштаб его личности, диапазон творческих идей и разработанных теорий был понят при жизни многими коллегами, в том числе В.И. Вернадским, но его наследие еще не в полной мере оценено современной научной общественностью.

The article analyzes the specifics of geographical approach to the process of landscape planning, landscape architecture and landscape design. Landscape planning is understood as a hierarchical system of spatial solutions for environmentally secure, economically effi cient and socially conflict-free adaptation of multifunctional land use to the landscape structure of the area. A number of the rules of landscape planning and the examples of their use at different hierarchical levels of ecosystems are presented. As a mandatory components of the geographic approach to landscape planning we should do the following: create the landscape map, analyze the location and functional role of geographical landscape in the hierarchy of ecosystems; predict the chain reactions between the components of the landscape; identify potentially multifunctional use of the landscape, choose optimal spatial relationships and location of the elements of the landscape, optimize substance and energy fl ows in the landscape, regulate the use of landscape over time, and forecast the changes in the landscape under the infl uence of natural and anthropogenic processes.

Рецензия на книгу: Anderson J. Understanding cultural geography: places and traces. – London & New York: Routledge, 2010. – 212 pp.

Молодые географы, делающие первые шаги в профессии, во второй половине 1950-х и в 1960-е годы, к ряду классических трудов Л.С. Берга, А.А. Григорьева, С.В. Калесника, не задумываясь, причисляли и штудируемые всеми книги Анатолия Григорьевича. Едва ли кто-либо из них предполагал, что фундаментальную теоретическую монографию “Основные вопросы физической географии” (1953) и трехтомную монографию “Физико-географическое картирование” (1958–1961) написал, по сути дела, их современник, человек, ставший классиком в тридцать лет. Обе эти книги Анатолия Григорьевича воплощают проявившиеся с самого начала характерные, органично сочетающиеся друг с другом грани его творчества. Это приверженность конкретным эмпирическим исследованиям и их глубокое теоретическое осмысление. Обе эти грани смогли ощущать в совместной работе московские географы, когда, например, редколлегия мирового атласа “ПСЕРМ” (Природная среда и естественные ресурсы Мира) продуктивно сотрудничала с Анатолием Григорьевичем при подготовке физико-географических карт. Составлявшиеся им оригинальные карты динамики ландшафтов заключали в себе богатейшую фактическую информацию и концептуальные физико-географические построения.

26 августа 2011 г. на 90-м году жизни скончался Николай Николаевич Казанский – видный советский и российский экономист и экономико-географ, известный своими трудами в области географии транспорта, экономического районирования, планирования развития и размещения производительных сил, ТПК.