In regional development it is offered to single out two spatial levels: a regional level – with big generalization of the characteristics of development to macroeconomic indicators, and also – a territorial level where regional development is presented as qualitative-quantitative changes of territorial socioeconomic systems of different types. The approach to allocation of such systems on the basis of choice of a separate settlement as “a reference point” of the structure and allocation for this settlement of all other settlements directly connected with it, as the structural links of the 1st order, is offered. Territorial structures of nature management are also included in such systems. The typology of the territorial socioeconomic systems existing in Pacific Russia, and also the examples of allocation of such systems of different types is adduced.

The article is devoted to modeling of spatial distribution of new product on the case of cellular communication. The paper provides an overview of the main models of diffusion of innovation. Depending on the mechanism of transfer of information about a new product, two consumer groups are allocated in the community: innovators and imitators. It is shown that the first stage of the spatial diffusion is characterized by the localization process in regions with a high proportion of innovators, in particular in large agglomerations; on the later stages imitation mechanisms predominate. Analysis of data on the penetration of cellular communication in Russia in the 2000s confirms the main theoretical conclusions. The paper describes a method of modeling, based on an evaluation of the parameters of the modified Bass model. The criteria of selection of the model parameters on the example of Russian regions were developed. With the technique, types of regions were identified according to ratio of innovators and imitators in regional communities. Most of innovators are concentrated in the largest metropolitan areas of the country; Moscow, Saint Petersburg and its nearby regions holds more than 50% of primary mobile phone users in 1999. Coastal and border regions (about 7% of primary users) are also highly innovative. Lagging regions have a small number of innovators and they are mainly the least developed regions with agricultural specialization and high communication barriers. The proposed method can be used to study and predict the processes of the spread of other innovations, and developed typology can be useful for the assessment of regional policy on the introduction of new technologies, legislation, etc.

Increasing by 2.5 times the number of portions in preliminary division of the territory in accordance with the faunistic classification has resulted in lower correspondence between the defined latitudinal belts and zonal boundaries. This affected the area of Central (temperate) region due to its expansion farther north and inclusion of East Siberian mountain enclaves, parts of forest-tundra and true tundra landscapes with addition of the entire Chukotka Peninsula in northeast. Expansion of a similar scale takes place in the south of the region at the expense of the territories adjacent to Black and Caspian seas as well as Caucasus area and most of the forest-steppe zone. With finer division of the initial regional grid, the classification algorithm used in the study results in concepts, which are more generalized on a regional scale. The consequent division would detail the result of classification. Finally, we conclude that increased number of portions of relatively equal area better shows the continuality and provincial specifics of fauna, whereas the decreased number of portions of bigger area better reflects zonal differences.

The article reviews data on different phytomass fractions and aboveground (ANP) and belowground (BNP) net primary production in steppe ecosystems between LE65° and 117° and NL 50° and 56°. The data were obtained by different researchers, employing the same methods. The differences between steppes in the aboveground layer were quite distinct: the average maximum green phytomass content varied from 70 g/m2 (deserted steppe) to 310 g/m2 (meadow steppe). Green phytomass decreased eastward. The average values of ANP were in the range from 160 to 540 g/m2 per year. In contrast to the aboveground phytomass, living and dead belowground plant parts and belowground production was found to be close to the ones in other steppe ecosystems, i.e. meadow, true and dry steppes. The living aboveground phytomass was shown to vary between 800–1400 g/m2 , while belowground production ranged 1060–2300 g/m2 per year. Thus the drier the steppes, the greater the phytomass portion concentrates in soils. Before winter steppe ecosystems store and save significant amount (nearly 1000 g/m2 ) of living belowground plants organs. Due to living roots, rhizomes, tillering nodes that remain in soil, plants survive over the periods unfavorable for green phytomass development, such as frosts, droughts and heavy grazing pressure. The belowground layer safe keeps the biodiversity in steppes.

This paper presents the world historical experience of bioengineering measures and the modern practices. Methodological principles of the territorial organization of bioengineering measures, their ecological functions, the main landscape-ecological regulations in the territorial organization, including differentiated selection, analysis of the relationships between biotic and abiotic components of the landscape, understanding the role of the stows or their combination in the functioning of large geosystems (catenas type and river basins), are formulated. Analysis of ecological state of a territory and its degree of development is given on a case of study of the South of the Amur-Zeya interfluve (Amur oblast). Five landscapes are marked out and specific coefficients of their development are calculated: the Zeya-Bureya landscape – 0.79, the lower Zeya floodplain landscape – 0.67, the Blagoveshchensk landscape – 0.47, the Korsakov landscape – 0.39 and the Amur-Zeya landscape – 0.37. Five categories of environmental situations are marked out: crisis, critical, tense, conflict and satisfactory. On the basis of a series of thematic maps and analysis of natural conditions, as well as the degree of development and the ecological state of the territory, the key environmental priorities in the strategic planning of bioengineering measures are recommended. For the Korsakov landscape this is preservation of the floristic diversity. For the Amur-Zeya landscape these are reduction of risks of devastating exogenous geological processes, alignment of the water regime in watersheds, bioprotective functions for hunting, maintenance of the landscape mosaicity, and protection against forest fires. For the Blagoveshchensk landscape these are water conservation, reduction of risks of devastating exogenous geological processes (antideflationary measures and soil protection), and maintenance of the landscape mosaicity. For the Zeya-Bureya landscape these are anti-deflationary measures, soil protection, and maintenance of the landscape mosaicity. For the lower Zeya floodplain landscape these are maintenance and recovery of water regulating function, conservation of zonal and azonal species of flora and fauna against the backdrop of the highly disturbed landscape, anti-deflationary measures, soil protection, and maintenance of the landscape mosaicity.

Assessment of change of the number, intensity and duration of heat waves during summer (June−August) on the territory of Russia for various periods from 1951 to 2010 was carried out according to the meteorological network. Defining the criteria of extreme events depends on the choice of thresholds. In this paper the thresholds for determining the heat waves are considered as the values of 95th percentile of maximum daily temperature distribution. The choice of criterion is associated with its versatility, because a significant length of Russia from North to South does not permit to select the only critical value of temperature that determines the onset of the heat wave for the whole territory. Analysis of the results shows an increase in the number of days with abnormally high temperatures, since the 1990s. The most significant increase is seen in the European part of Russia and the Far East. Heat waves were classified by the level of discomfort. The adverse impact of this factor on human increased nowadays. The increase in heat load in the period of contemporary climate warming to the absolutely and extremely unfavorable values mainly due to the increase in the number of days with extremely high temperatures are shown. These changes are characteristic for areas located in the Northeast and in the European part of Russia.

In the article the author justifies using the actor-network approach in geographical studies in difficult to access areas. The basic notions used in actor-network approach: actants, socio-technological networks, unchangeable mobilities and socio-natural networks are presented. Their application to cultural-geographical studies in difficult to access and sparsely populated areas of Siberia are justified. Based on the analysis of transport routes as mediators of social relations, their more detailed classification is developed and the main social actors in difficult to access areas is highlighted. The author comes to the conclusion about more rapid formation and development of new social relations in sparsely populated areas than in densely populated urban areas, where this process is inhibited by existing infrastructure. As a result, the area of sparsely populated regions is expanding, while the populated territories are shrinking along the transport routes. The practical significance of actor-network studies to assess the impact on the environment and social environment of industrial projects is shown.

On the case study of Khabarovsk krai, the results of the landscape diversity assessment at the regional level are presented, based on the landscape maps of Khabarovsk krai (on a scale of 1:2000000) and the Northern Sikhote-Alin (on a scale of 1:250000). The high degree of the krai’s landscape diversity is predetermined by the presence of a large number of natural boundaries of the highest hierarchical rank. It indicates the importance of the geosystems of the investigated territory for the conservation of landscape diversity of Russia. For each municipal district of the krai, the total landscape diversity index is obtained on the basis of indices of typological and horological diversity, relative wealth, and mosaicity. More in detail landscape diversity was analyzed for a large natural object – the Northern Sikhote-Alin. Calculations of indices of relative wealth and complexity of landscape plots were carried out in the municipal districts located within this mountain system. A high degree of mosaicity, an increase in number of small structures of landscapes is associated with increased anthropogenic impact (fires and logging). It is shown that when developing programs for regional sustainable development, the landscape diversity conservation criterion should be taken into account in territorial environmental planning and regulating economic activity. For poorly developed regions, the significance of such an assessment increases many times, primarily in the view of preserving the natural heritage of the state and providing global ecosystem services.

Two major phases of the development of landscapes of the foothills of the Western macroslope of the Sikhote-Alin recovered on the basis of a complex study of the section of the deposits in the outer part of the Sakhalin bog, the most extensive bog massif in the lower reaches of the Bikin River. A significant difference in the development of biotic components of landscapes of low mountains during the warming before the last ice age, as well as in the late Holocene, is determined. In the late Pleistocene in the Nizhnebikin depression there was a large shallow lake that has passed several stages of development. For the first time in the upper Pleistocene sediments of Primorye plant macroremains of Schreber’s brasenia were found. The development path of the marsh landscape framing the lake was restored. In the last ice age the stratum of clays with traces of cryogenic processing had been formed. The lake had degraded, and the upper parts of the clayey stratum were formed mainly due to gain of aeolian material. At that time, in spurs of the Sikhote-Alin coniferous taiga with dominance of spruce had been represented. In the last 1300 years, on erosion surfaces developed in clays, peatland had being formed. In forest vegetation of low mountains the leading role for the ending of the bog is played by the Korean cedar. Cedar and spruce-cedar forests with participation of broad-leaved species were the most widespread in the Medieval Climatic Optimum. In the little ice age vegetation of the mountain slopes varied a little, while marsh landscapes responded to climate changes more sensitively. In the last 150 years, the bog has entered to transitive to mesotrophic and then mesotrophic stages of development; the role of atmospheric feed has increased; the sphagnum mosses have begun to play a large role in the composition of the peat-forming plants. The role of the pyrogenic factor in the development of local bog vegetation was analyzed.

Based on the methodology developed by the author, the comparative analysis of the used toponyms of the region of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov has been provided on the basis of available portolan charts by Benincasa Grazióso of period 1463–1482, copy of portolan chart of 1489 and portolan chart from anonymous atlas of 15th century stored in Rotterdam (attributed to this author) and charts of his son Benincasa Andrea of 1490 and 1508. The regularities of applying place names in the framework of offered classification of toponyms, namely, “identical”, “similar” and “different” were defined. The study was performed for checking of in the framework of the developed method for the signed and dated charts. The degree of charts similarity and identity in figures was identified. Based on retrieved data the original sources for the list of toponyms of charts by Benincasa Andrea were specified and the illegality of attributing the anonymous atlas from Rotterdam to this author was confirmed. The identified general regularities allow applying the developed methodology in future studies for the charts of other wellknown authors, as well as anonymous ones in order to identify their creation date, original sources and authors.

The development of mass international and domestic tourism and the Internet involved the broad layers of population in the process of geographic knowing, contributing to its “geographisation”. At least a billion people in the world became the “accidental” geographers. Tourism draws in the verification processes of scientific knowledge and the constant consumption of geographic information the broad segments of population. The article discusses the challenges of spontaneous “geographisation” of population for geographical science and the understanding of a new phenomenology. The demarcation line between touristic and recreational geography is drawn. The origin and development of the touristic geography associated with the philosophical and substantive extension of the field of geographical science that fits within the paradigm of postmodernism and can be a leader of the new postdisciplinary integrative knowledge. With the emergence of touristic geography in the science, new cognitive, value-based, and educational resources arise, which must be understood and systematized.