Geographical Preplanning Studies of Economic Complexes in the South of Krasnoyarsk Kray

The planning of the Sayan economic complex, a major development region in the South of Krasnoyarsk Kray, is found to have focused mainly on the use of local resources without adequately considering the complex interplay of man-nature relationships. In particular, little work has been done on problems of landscape ecology, including a determination of landscape budgets and of the ecological functioning of geosystems. The results of relevant investigations are presented, focusing on the present distribution of production and settlement within the study region, the natural landscape and forest use, land and agroclimatic resources, types of farming and levels of farm equipment, and some aspects of human ecology. The study region is found to suffer from excessive concentration of production and settlement in the center of the Minusinsk Basin, a net out-migration exceeding natural increase of population, and an extensive type of farming that is less economical than the dairy economy and truck produce required for a growing urban population.     

Economic-Geographic Prediction Of The Process Of Economic Development Of An Area (with particular reference to Irkutsk Oblast)

The present stage of economic development of Irkutsk Oblast is evaluated with a view to predicting future trends. The present stage is evaluated in terms of the economic structure of three intra-oblast regions (using Kolosovskiy's technique of energy-and-production cycles) and in terms of historical development axes reflected in settlement field potentials (see the author's paper in Soviet Geography, September 1970). Future development of the oblast is expected to be based on fuel and energy, forest, and nonferrous metal resources. The development process is said to operate both “in depth” (intensification) and “in breadth” (opening up of new areas). Development in depth, involving additional settling of high-density areas, produces pollution problems and involves the need for allocating recreation zones. Future development “in breadth” is expected in the northwest, northeast and south of the oblast, particularly along the border of Krasnoyarsk Kray, where a revision of administrative-political boundaries seems to be required. A reorientation toward the east of the oblast's predominantly westward orientation is advocated.     

Methods Of Evaluating The Natural Environment For Transport Development (with reference to the north of Tyumen' Oblast)

A landscape map of northern Tyumen' Oblast, an area of intensive oil and gas development, is used as the base for compilation of an applied landscape map evaluating the environment in terms of suitability for various means of transportation. In terms of such criteria as the carrying capacity of the ground, dissection of terrain and slope angles, climate, distances between trees, bog and lake cover, 16 regions offering distinctive conditions for transport development are delimited and mapped. The technique is offered as an aid in estimating transport-development costs and may be applied for similar purposes in other regions of USSR.     

Historical-Geographic Aspects Of The Development And Settlement Of The Black Sea Coast Of The Caucasus (within the boundaries of Krasnodar Kray)

The northeast coast of the Black Sea, extending from the present boundary of the Georgian SSR northwest through Sochi and Novorossiysk to the Taman Peninsula, was settled by Circassian tribes until the Russian conquest of the 1860s. The tribes practiced stockherding and fruitgrowing in the mountains and avoided the malarial swamps along the coast. The Russian settlement pattern that followed was exactly reversed, with population concentrated along the drained shore belt, with a new resort industry, and a virtually unpopulated mountainous hinterland. The rapid expansion of recreational activities along the coast tends to reduce the land available for farming and will ultimately require population movement into the lower and middle elevations of the mountain belt. The construction of access roads will be needed to foster settling of the mountains.     

THE PROCESS OF SPATIAL CONCENTRATION OF POPULATION (with particular reference to the RSFSR)

A network of 484 economic microregions designed by the Central Urban Planning Institute is used as units of analysis to determine trends in the concentration of population in some parts of the Russian Republic. The analysis is carried out over time and on two levels: the area that contains 50 percent of the total population of the RSFSR, and the area that contains 75 percent of the population. In 1973, at the end of the study period, 50 percent of the population was accommodated in 4.3 percent of the area of the RSFSR, and 75 percent of the population was settled in 11 percent of the area. At the same time, one-fourth of the area of the RSFSR was found to be losing population.     

Some Aspects of the Influence of Scientific and Technical Progress on the Formation of Economic Regions (with particular reference to the United States)

The concentration of research and development in the San Francisco Bay area is found to have attracted related aerospace and electronics industries, thus giving rise to a new type of economic region focused on research activities. The atomic and aerospace industry of New Mexico arose because of the need of having manufacturing facilities near testing grounds and missile ranges in desert areas, but is virtually unrelated to the rest of the New Mexico economy. Industries not dominated by any particular locational factor are being attracted to the dry subtropics of the United States, where the provision of water supplies and refrigeration and air-conditioning produces attractive living conditions for a skilled labor force. Advances in computer technology and electrical communications facilitate centralized industrial management and thus affect plant location.     

On Economic-Geographic Approaches to an Evaluation of the Use of Natural Resources(With particular reference to Magadan and Kamchatka Oblasts)

A resource-oriented approach to the economic development of new pioneering regions is recommended. In some regional designs, the resource base is given exaggerated importance as a developmental factor, not commensurate with the significance of the resources in the national division of labor. In the particular case of the Northeast of the ussr (Magadan and Kamchatka oblasts), the key resources on which development should be focused are nonferrous and rare metals (gold, tin, mercury, tungsten) and fisheries. Local coal and timber resources should be developed to the extent necessary to support the basic resource-oriented activities.     

SOVIET POLICIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MOUNTAIN REGIONS (with particular reference to the Caucasus)

Mountain regions represent a substantial part of Soviet territory, a total of 652 million hectares, which is 29.5 percent of the total area, or 21 percent of the usable agricultural area (including livestock range), but only 3.8 percent of the arable land. Soviet policy toward mountain development has varied over time. At first, mountain areas were considered a symbol of backwardness, and were not allocated a role in the Soviet modernization program. In recent decades, attitudes have been changing, but solutions have differed. The author, focusing on the eastern portion of the Greater Caucasus, shows on the basis of the literature and personal observations how the policy in Dagestan and in Azerbaijan, by allocating lowland activities to mountain populations, differs from Georgian policy, which since 1976 has actively sought to foster a revival of mountain economies.     

Regional and Local Settlement Areas (with particular reference to the Leningrad regional and Pskov local settlement areas)

Past Soviet attempts to define settlement areas have focused either on urban or on rural population areas. An attempt is made here to define combined urban and rural settlement areas, with particular reference to the Northwest Region, centered on Leningrad. A regional settlement area (centered on Leningrad) and a number of local settlement areas, centered on major cities, are differentiated, with so-called zones of disseminated settlement situated outside the limits of the local areas. The local settlement area of Pskov is discussed in detail, with a breakdown into three concentric zones based on the intensity of linkages with the central city.     

On the Linkage Between the Demographic Processes and Economy of a Region: (with particular reference to Pskov Oblast)

A low rate of natural increase, deriving from a disrupted age-sex structure, and net out-migration combine to account for a steady depopulation of Pskov Oblast. The introduction of industries providing additional male employment is recommended in the two principal cities—Pskov and Velikiye Luki—to correct the present predominance of women in industrial towns. Several measures (modernization of the countryside, promotion of truck-produce farming around the major urban centers) are suggested to keep more young people in rural areas and thus correct the lop-sided age structure there. Economic decision-making is viewed as a key factor in improving the demographic situation of a region.     

On the Formation of Population in Regions of the Far North of USSR (with particular reference to the Aldan mining district)

The distinctive aspects of settlement of the Far Northern regions of the Soviet Union are reviewed with particular reference to the Aldan district, a gold and mica mining area in southern Yakutia. The main source of population has been net in-migration, with two-thirds of the labor force consisting of persons who move to the area temporarily, usually for one to three years. The permanent segment of the population represents only about one-third of the total. Working ages predominate among the migrants, and there has been traditionally a predominance of males, especially in the early stages of area development. However the sex ratio tends to become balanced as an area matures and the economy becomes more diversified. Indigneous ethnic groups represent only 9 percent of the Aldan population, with Russians predominating among the migrants and representing 78 percent of the population.     

Landscape Methods Abroad (with reference to land resource studies of the United States and Australia)

Although landscape research has not been set apart formally as a distinctive branch of geography in the West, the methods used in certain research programs in the United States and in Australia come close to the integrated areal approach to the study of the physical environment characteristic of Soviet landscape science. In the United States, landscape-like methods are used by the Soil Survey staff of the Department of Agriculture in its soil surveys of counties. In Australia, the landscape approach is used by the Division of Land Research of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization in its reports on Australia's land systems.     

The technology Of the yamnaya (pit grave) ceramic production And its relevance to the population history Of the volga-ural region in the early bronze age

Based on ceramic assemblages from the Yamnaya (Pit Grave) culture burials, the technology of pottery manufacture practiced by the Early Bronze Age people of the Middle Volga–Southern Ural region is described. The analysis follows the methodology developed by A.A. Bobrinsky. The results are used for reconstructing the origin and evolution of the Pit Grave culture. The role of ceramics in Early Bronze Age funerary ritualism is discussed.     

Geographical Aspects of the Organization of Social Production and its Control (with Special Reference to Agriculture)

A systems approach to the study of the geographical aspects of production and the management of production is proposed. Areal (geographic) systems are viewed as a form of organization of production and an object of control. The areal system may range in scale from a microsystem (an individual large farm) to a global system. Geographical information plays an important role in the organization and control of areal systems. Geographic models, particularly maps, are a useful tool in the analysis and design of systems. The systems approach to areal complexes is not intended to replace the regional method, but supplements the regional approach by providing a better understanding of the region as a complex dynamic system. Further research in the geography of the control of production from the systems standpoint is recommended.     

The Colonization of the Russian Barents Sea Coast (Mid-19th to Early 20th Century): Two Approaches to the Economic Development of the Area

This article deals with the early colonization of the Russian Barents Sea Coast (the so-called Murman Coast) in the middle of the 19th and early 20th century. It focuses mainly on the household economy and economic adaptation in the area by groups of Finnish, Russian, Karelian, Norwegian and Sami colonists. The opening up of the new territory by the colonists resulted partly in the employment of traditional methods of using natural resources and partly in the culture of these groups being transformed. Based on this, two different patterns of using natural resources were singled out within the ethnic groups that settled on the Murman Coast (western and eastern). These patterns were more suited to the new living conditions in each of the respective areas, and became the basis for different trends in the economic development of the Murman Coast.     

Absorbing External Shocks: The Gulf Crisis,International Migration Linkages and the Indian Economy, 1990 (with special reference to the impact on Kerala)

The paper analyses the impact of the Gulf crisis on the Indian economy as a whole, on the state of Kerala which was the origin of the majority of the Indian migrants in Kuwait and Iraq, and on the returning migrants them- selves. The scale of the disturbances is estimated both with respect to the labour market, as well as the flow of remittances. Alternative policy responses are discussed, especially in the context of the Kerala economy, and the problem is viewed separately from the vantage point of the returning migrants, as well as that of the State Government. The effects of the crisis become more acute as the focus shifts from the level of the macroeconomy, to the state of Kerala, to the migrants themselves.     

The Response of International Organizations to the Environmental Challenge: The Case of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

This article examines the effectiveness of UNIDO in addressing the challenges of environmental degradation and in helping developing countries promote sustainable development paths. The analysis suggests that the slow process of integrating environmental concerns in UNIDO's activities was affected both by internal organizational factors, such as the shared professional values in UNIDO's institutional culture and its organizational flexibility and responsiveness, and by factors relating to the external context, including financial constraints and interagency conflicts. In contrast to studies of successful persuasion of ‘epistemic communities’ in international negotiations, this article looks at the factors which have impeded the process of persuasion. At the theoretical level, it seeks to analyse the difficulties of changing the policy agenda in a specific international organization.