THE WATER ASPECT OF THE GEOGRAPHY OF AGRICULTURE IN THE USSR

The long-term grain requirements of the growing Soviet population are calculated. On the basis of the relationship between water use and grain yields by natural soil zones of the USSR, the authors show that the amount of water needed per unit of output declines with a growth of productivity, especially in the non-chernozem zone of the Soviet Union. It is therefore concluded that greater water savings might be assured by expanding grain production in zones with an adequate supply of natural moisture rather than by the use of artificial irrigation of arid lands.     

THE OVERALL EFFECT OF AUTOMOBILE TRANSPORTATION ON THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The aggregate effects of a variety of impacts generated by motor transport on the natural environment in the Upper Oka River basin are examined (through factor analysis) and maps of roadside pollution intensity are generated. The two factors identified, representing the effects of higher-order and local roads, respectively, provide a basis for regionalization of the Upper Oka basin according to the impacts generated by automobile traffic. The pattern of regional impacts identified, in turn, provides the basis for policy recommendations on how to reduce the level of roadside pollution and minimize other negative environmental impacts of road transport (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

PROBLEMS IN THE SPATIAL REDISTRIBUTION OF STREAMFLOW

A report on a 1974 conference on interbasin transfers from Siberia to Central Asia compares the alternative stream-diversion projects west and east of the Urals and finds that north-south interbasin transfers in the European part of the country have a better chance for early implementation than the diversion from Siberia to Central Asia. The author urges consideration of a unified water-management system within the European part of the Soviet Union that would make it possible to dispatch streamflow from one basin to another much as electric power is transmitted through interconnections between power grids. Such an interconnected water-management system would be based on the premise that runoff volumes tend to be nonconcurrent in the various drainage basins of the Russian plain so that surplus runoff from “donor rivers” (Pechora, Northern Dvina, Onega and the lakes Onega and Ladoga) might be channeled southward to “consumer rivers” (Volga, Don, Dnieper and Ural).     

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS OF SETTLEMENT IN THE KMA

A paper devoted to demographic and labor-related issues in the development of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly focuses on the need to improve labor productivity and services provision (particularly health care) in emerging industrial nodes of the complex. Such measures are expected both to promote labor retention and reduce labor inputs necessary to achieve the same amount of work. A key element of future labor strategy, given current low levels of natural increase within the region, is the recruitment and retention of labor from outside the region and the planned development of settlement to reduce negative environmental impacts (translated by Andrew R. Bond).     

METHODOLOGICAL PROBLEMS IN THE GEOGRAPHY OF LABOR RESOURCES

Soviet population geographers have tended to study labor-resource problems at the level of major civil divisions, such as republics, krays and oblasts. There is a real need for investigating such problems at a more detailed regional level, down to particular rayons and urban places in which people live and are employed. Various types of economic-geographic investigations of labor-resource problems are suggested and a research strategy is proposed. The author notes that if population cannot be redistributed regionally in keeping with a given economic objective, economic plans may have to be revised on the basis of the actual labor resource situation.     

BASIC PROBLEMS IN THE STAGE-BY-STAGE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRANSPORT NET IN THE ZONE OF THE BAIKAL-AMUR MAINLINE

The evolution of the transport net within the BAM zone is examined in terms of three development stages. The first stage will involve the construction of the initial framework of the future transport net; aside from the BAM itself, it is recommended that consideration be given to the construction of a permanent motor road instead of the temporary construction road now envisaged. The second stage, in the author's view, should include the start of an extension of the Little BAM northward toward Yakutsk, as well as an oil pipeline (the author does not agree with the view that the BAM would replace earlier plans for a Trans-Siberian pipeline). The third stage would include a gas pipeline from the Yakutian fields to the coast; it is recommended that the gas line follow the alignment of the new railroads. No specific time frame is attached to the proposed three development stages.     

URBANIZATION IN THE USSR: PROBLEMS OF SPATIAL DIFFERENTIATION

The process of formation of settlement systems “in the USSR is conceptualized as proceeding at eight levels of a hierarchy corresponding to the system of economic regions, from a national system down to rayon-level systems. An important element in the present process of urbanization is the formation of urban agglomerations. The fact that these urban entities still lack juridical or even statistical status deprives urban and economic planners of a valuable data base for planning purposes so that the agglomerations often evolve in undesirable, uncoordinated ways. Greater attention needs to be given to the study of the internal structure of urban entities, a field neglected by Soviet population geographers. An undesirable tendency in Soviet agglomerations is to aim at continuously built-up territory, thus converting agglomerations into traditional compact cities, instead of making provision for open spaces for use in agriculture and forestry, recreation and communications.     

CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS IN THE CONSTRUCTIVE GEOGRAPHY OF LARGE CITIES

The increasing impact of urbanization on the natural environment and physical constraints on city planning in the various natural zones of the USSR call for a program of research that would bring to bear the tools of the various geographical disciplines on the problem and might give rise to a distinctive geography of city planning. Geomorphology might be concerned with a variety of caving and slumping processes typical of large cities; climatology with the impact of cities on the microclimate of an area; hydrology with watertable changes and water-management problems, and biogeography with the distinctive plant and animal life of large cities and urban agglomerations. More complex, integrated research in both physical and economic geography would deal with the choice of suitable sites for new cities, particularly in extreme types of environment; with predictive aspects of the impact of urbanization, and the functional structure of cities. A number of cities and parts of cities with different layouts and different environmental settings should be designated as experimental study areas for geographical research of a more systematic character.     

CURRENT NATURE PROTECTION PROBLEMS IN THE DESERTS OF UZBEKISTAN

A brief survey article outlines basic environmental problems currently confronting local authorities in desert regions of the Uzbek SSR accompanying urban development, irrigation, and oil and gas production in that republic. It then describes mitigating measures which have been introduced to address these problems. The focus of attention should be on increasing the efficiency of irrigation, acceleration of efforts at revegetating areas of drifting sand, and expansion of the network of protected natural areas (translated by Jay K. Mitchell, PlanEcon, Inc., Washington, DC 20005).     

GEOGRAPHICAL PROBLEMS IN THE ORGANIZATION OF TOURISM AND RECREATION IN THE SAYAN TERRITORIAL-PRODUCTION COMPLEX

The Sayan hydroelectric station, now under construction, will give rise to a new industrial district in southern Siberia that is expected to attract a population of one million to the area by the year 2000. This development, together with the attractiveness of the region, is likely to spur the development of one of the Soviet Union's most important recreation zones in the southern portion of Krasnoyarsk Kray and adjoining Tuva ASSR. Careful planning of recreational uses of the region is urged within the framework of the regional geo-engineering system, which involves the interplay between the natural environment and the engineering structures generated by the impending economic development of the area.