SALINIZATION IN UZBEKISTAN

As the amount of agricultural lands has increased over the years in Uzbekistan, problems associated with the impacts of irrigation water use have occurred. The most serious and widespread of the effects may be the secondary salinization of soils. Serious salinization problems along the lower courses of the Syr Dar'ya and Amu Dar'ya basins are a contrast to milder problems along their upper courses. This paper illustrates the extent of the soil salinization problem in Uzbekistan, identifies key problem areas, and demonstrates the need for an adequate response.     

THE NATURE OF THE MANPOWER PROBLEM IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF SIBERIA

The traditional picture of the economic development in Siberia presents a formidable obstacle in the form of a manpower deficit and high labor turnover. The official policy to combat this problem has been to give priority to the development of social and cultural amenities. Substantial changes in wage differentials and other economic and non-economic benefits seem to be a measure of the past. This article presents an overview of the situation and suggests that if any public policy is to be effective, it has to combine accelerated development in the social and cultural spheres and economic and noneconomic benefits as well. Furthermore, these measures have to be more differentiated regionally and among worker categories. Any such policy would require massive investment. The question is whether Soviet society can bear this huge burden in view of more immediate needs. Another question is whether the additional investment required would be compensated by a comparable increase in the productivity of labor. In view of substantial cost increases, capital productivity is likely to decline if not compensated by a change in the calculated prices on Siberian products, especially oil and gas, which seems doubtful in view of the present international situation.     

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION PROBLEMS AND THE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERRITORIAL PRODUCTION COMPLEXES IN DEVELOPED REGIONS: THE KMA

Present and anticipated future environmental problems associated with past and projected development of the iron ore resources of the Kursk Magnetic Anomaly (KMA) (the most rapidly expanding production basin in the USSR) are outlined. The area's environmental problems recently have become a major concern, as a result of a heavy emphasis on accelerating production from surface mines in the basin, with few resources being allocated for land reclamation and pollution control activities (see Soviet Geography, November 1986, pp. 679-682 and May 1988, p. 537). Major attention is given to identifying development strategies mitigating further environmental disruption and experimentation with promising land reclamation and pollution control measures (translated by Andrew R. Bond).     

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).     

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.     

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).     

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.     

PROBLEMS OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT IN THEIR GLOBAL ASPECT

The dean of Moscow University's Geography Faculty, a physical geographer, takes issue with alarmist predictions of an environmental deterioration and contends that modern technology will find ways of protecting the environment against pollution. Modern cities, which are among the principal sources of pollution, are taking steps to preserve the urban environment by the increased planting of greenery and the systematic installation of waste treatment facilities for noxious industries. Natural processes are found to have a surprising ability to adapt themselves to new conditions and thus play a more important role than generally assumed in restoring the chemical equilibrium of the natural environment. The cost of environmental protection is undoubtedly rising, and an effort at arms limitation is urged to make the necessary money available. The threat of an exhaustion of energy sources is discounted on the ground that new nonpolluting sources of energy are likely to be developed as fossil fuels approach depletion.     

THE CENTENNIAL OF THE FOUNDING OF THE ASKANIYA-NOVA NATURE RESERVE

This article traces the history of the creation and early precarious existence of the oldest Soviet nature reserve, Askaniya-Nova in the Ukraine, and represents part of the ongoing Soviet re-assessment of environmental history in that country (for a Western view, see [60]). It describes the protracted conflict between preservationist and utilitarian perspectives on land use in the reserve, the latter gaining ascendancy during the 1930s under Lysenko and Stalin. Of special interest is coverage of post-war “restoration” at the reserve, or more specifically, the continuation of less than ideal conditions up to the present (translated by Elliott B. Urdang, Providence, RI 02906).     

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.     

PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL NONFARM PLACES IN THE USSR

According to the 1970 census, the Soviet Union had 37,800 rural nonfarm places with a combined population of 6.1 million, or 5.8 percent of the rural population. The census data are believed to understate the number and population of nonfarm places because they assigned rural places to the nonfarm category purely on the basis of their generic designation. Many multifunctional nonfarm places and rural places that serve as administrative centers and have little relation to agriculture were not categorized as nonfarm in the census. Although many of the smaller nonfarm places are likely to be eliminated over time, others will continue to perform clearly defined functions in industry, construction, transportation, and services. The situation is illustrated with particular reference to Novosibirsk Oblast.     

SOCIAL-GEOGRAPHIC PROBLEMS IN THE REGULATION OF SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS IN A DEVELOPED SOCIALIST SOCIETY

An analysis of the impact of social development on forms of settlement and of the reverse impact of settlement forms on social processes. The author challenges the view that spatial forms have no bearing on social processes. The point is made by tabulating types of social contacts at various spatial levels and for different forms of settlement, from household to large urban agglomeration. The significance of information flows at different spatial levels is discussed. Large cities are found to have potential for the development of material and spiritual benefits that are lacking in smaller places. But since an integrated economy also requires smaller forms of settlement, ways must be found to provide a minimum set of material and cultural services at the lower level as well. Recommendations for raising the level of living in smaller Soviet populated places are offered.