From the editor-in-chief

Method of the North limit determination is suggested. It based on natural factors complex with domination of climatic ones. To the Russian North belong areas in Polar regions, where natural factors are worse than their threshold values along their south borders and became more worse in direction of high latitudes. The set of factors at their thresholds values forms the south border of the North. The thresholds are determined according conditions in unfavorable life landscapes as classifi ed by A.G. Isachenko. In the Russian North we differ the regions absolutely discomfort, extremely discomfort and discomfort.

Results of the retrospective analysis of changes of the health of population from the end of the 19th century till the beginning of the 21th century are discussed in the article. The aim of the study was more detailed and profound evaluation of modern medical-geographical situation in the Moscow region (beginning of the 21th century).

This article deals with the problem of transport vulnerability of the population of Russia. The role of natural and public factors in formation of transport vulnerability is shown. Results of the analysis of emergency situations on example of the Tatarstan Republic are presented. Costs of transport vulnerability of the population for Russian regions are shown.

The article raises the question about the essence of the concepts of investment and business climates and major problems of their evaluation. On the example of the USA, the author examines the relationship between the assessment of the regional business climate and the level of entrepreneurial activity.

Main regularities of the development of soils of dry and desert steppes of drained landscapes on southeast Russian plain have been established basing on studies of under-kurgan pedochronosequences (6000– 3000 years ago). During IV–III mil. BC soil evolution occurred on the subtype level with shifts of soil subzones boundaries towards the north. Each of natural regions studied (Srednerusskaya, Yergeninskaya uplands, Cis-Caspian lowland) clearly demonstrated strengthening of climate aridization in the second half of III mil. BC. It had led to convergence of soil cover with transformation of dark-chestnut, chestnut, and light-chestnut soils into chestnut-like semidesert ones, which dominated in the region within the time-window 4200–3900 years ago. In the fi rst half of II mil. BC the next change of conditions of soil formation provoked by an increase of the rate of atmospheric humidity had started. It had conditioned the divergence of soil cover with secondary formation of areas of zonal chestnut soils and solonetzes on the places of chestnut-like ones by the middle of II mil. BC. The data obtained allow us to consider that the age of modern chestnut solonetz complexes in the region does not exceed 3500 years.

The human-environment interaction is one of the critical issues in modern geography. Using methodology of Russian geography and ethnology, the review of economics in the Paleolithic and Neolithic complexes (ca. 40 000–3000 years ago) of temperate zone of East Asia is given. The principal stages of human-environment interaction in prehistory are revealed; the problems of interrelation and interdependence between cultural and natural processes are discussed.

Spatial-temporal specifi c features in formation of rainfall fl oods on the rivers of Belarus have been revealed. Long-term numbers of supervision over the maximum expenses of water of rainfall floods are analyzed, the estimation of their transformation is given. The map of distribution of the maximum modules of a drain of rainfall floods of the security of 5 % on territory of Belarus is constructed. The role of various types of circulation of atmosphere in formation of rainfall floods on the rivers of Belarus was investigated. It is revealed, that on the different rivers the greatest high waters are formed during various epoch.

Complex study of rivers and lakes of the Valdai national park watershed was carried out at the end of January – early February, 2010. Modern hydroecological condition of water objects with special conditions of nature and water management was estimated. Obtained data has given an opportunity to characterize water regime and runoff of dissolved substances within the protected area.

Systematized set of cartographic materials contributes to the effective organization of national park activities. However there is no approved list of maps for protected areas in Russia as well as the legal defenition of a «national park cartographic support». Therefore cartographic materials of Russian national parks are rather segmental.

The analysis of cartographic materials available for national parks in Russia shows that all maps can be divided into four groups according to the national parks goals and objectives: recreational, scientifi c and administrative. However, the quality of these maps is not always adequate that sometimes makes them nearly uncompatible.

The review of literary and archival materials on historical geography of the hunting of pearls is carried out, and also the list of the rivers of Southern White Sea coast where pearls were hunting in XVII–XX centuries is composed. The most signifi cant resources of pearls have been concentrated in the Solza (with infl ow by Kazanka) and the Kozha rivers (with infl ow by Syvtuga) where the hunting of pearls had been regular and profi table for a long time. The populations of pearl mussel, with enough high density in some areas have remained up till now.

The article describes in details the history of Russian researches in Brazil in the 10th – 30th years of the XIX century. They were realized thanks to the scientifi c activity of the naturalist and ethnographer academician G.I.Langsdorff (1774–1852). At present the name of Langsdorff is respected as “the father of Brazil ecology”, and is the symbol of Russian-Brazil relations. The scientist was also the forerunner of the idea of the foundation of the group BRICS. His life and heritage gave the beginning of the international culture-ecological project “Langsdorff – the XXI century” which foresees the reiteration of the routes of the traveler with the aim of the comparison of materials which were gathered by him and his fellowtravelers with the modern facts. This will favor the measures of the development of the environment.

The XX century differed by ideal geologo-climatic stability. Under it high technologies of our time have been built. However, if you extrapolate many of the events of the past, even from the XVIII–XIX centuries, on our modernity looks as a global catastrophe appears. If the movements of the ocean floor at some 10–20 m involve devastating tsunami, the faults and failures at depths of several hundred meters on large areas of ocean bottom should be accompanied by a huge splash of waves with a huge carrying capacity. Modern geological science which has rejected representations of neptunism, disregard the serious control of earth’s land surface by deformation and eustatic sea level fluctuations. Reinterpretation of the facts in the mainstream of new hypotheses (in particular, neocatastrophic model) can serve as a new, more “wellforgotten old”, a compass not only practical, but also scientifically-philosophical search.

Analyses of the reports’ themes presented on the four conferences on historical geography (19991, 2002, 2007, 2011) are given. Perspectives of the science popularization and applied use of results of regional history-geographical studies are discussed.

С 5 по 8 апреля 2011 г. на базе Национального парка “Валдайский” (г. Валдай, Новгородской обл.) проходила конференция “Географические основы форми- рования экологических сетей в России и Восточной Европе”. Организацию конференции взяли на себя Институт географии РАН, а также программа “Эмеральд” (Изумрудная сеть) Совета Европы и Европейского Союза, Санкт-Петербургское общество “Биологи за охрану природы”, Минприроды России, Степной проект ПРООН/ГЭФ, Российский фонд фундаментальных исследований и Отделение наук о Земле РАН. Конференция объединила российский национальный и восточноевропейский субрегиональный семинары Совместной программы “Эмеральд” с обсуждением методологии и перспектив выявления территорий особого природоохранного значения (ТОПЗ) и формирования Панъевропейской экологической сети (ПЕЭС) в Восточной Европе и России.

Вышедшие в свет два выпуска научных статей “География мирового развития” – редкий пример широкого обзора новейших процессов социально- экономического развития, охватывающего различные уровни пространственной иерархии. За последние годы, пожалуй, только в периодических изданиях и материалах конференций можно было получить сведения о современных тенденциях в развитии отдельных отраслей, стран или мирового хозяйства в целом, а также в области демографии, географии населения или ресурсопотребления. Ни комплексных монографий, ни тем более качественных учебников такого плана давно не выходило. В этой связи значение подобных изданий для исследований и преподавательской деятельности в сферах социально-экономической географии и мировой экономики сложно переоценить.

На 52 году жизни после непродолжительной болезни умер наш близкий друг и коллега НИКОЛАЙ НИКОЛАЕВИЧ КОМЕДЧИКОВ – замечательный картограф, автор и редактор выдающихся картографических произведений и атласов, инициатор многих проектов в области истории картографии, член редколлегий журналов “Геодезия и картография” и “Экологическое планирование и управление”, председатель комиссии картографии и аэрокосмических методов и член Ученого совета Русского географического общества, заместитель председателя Национального комитета картографов, член комиссии Международной картографической ассоциации по истории картографии и по теории картографии, эксперт ООН по географическим названиям Межгосударственного совета по геодезии, картографии, кадастру и дистанционному зондированию Земли СНГ.