Medical-Geographic Forecasting in New Development Areas

The author outlines a methodology for drawing up medical-geographic forecasts of the possible effect on public health of environmental changes produced by new area development. Special attention is devoted to the problem of tick-borne encephalitis. From a theoretical point of view, medical geography is regarded as a bridge between nature and man, tending to promote an integrated geography concerned with the system: nature—man—population—production.     

Basic Problems of Industrial Location in the CEMA Countries of Eastern Europe

Four aspects of industrial location are discussed: reconstruction and expansion of old industrial districts; development of new industrial areas and centers based on newly discovered raw-material and energy resources; industrialization of predominantly agricultural regions to absorb idle manpower, and the location of industry in frontier zones, which is regarded as a new type of industrial location in the socialist system.     

The Significance and Role of Sectoral-Production Complexes in the Formation and Evolution of Economic Regions

Soviet economic regionalization has traditionally focused on the concept of the areal-production complex (or territorial-production complex), representing the aggregate of economic activities within a particular area. These complexes may range in scale from a local group of interrelated activities all the way to the national economic complex of the USSR. A Soviet economic geographer specializing in the Northern Caucasus now introduces the concept of the “sectoral-production complex” as a subdivision of the areal complex. The sectoral complex contains one or more sectors of production that are linked by a common resource base and common economic relations; for example, the agricultural complex, comprising farming and agricultural processing, rests on agricultural resources; the metallurgy and machine-building complex, combining metallurgy and metal fabrication, rests on a common ore-resource base. According to the author, the concept of a sectoral-production complex must be differentiated from N. N. Kolosovskiy's concept of “energy-and-production cycles” [see Journal of Regional Science, 3 (1961), pp. 1–25] on the ground that Kolosovskiy's cycles are based on a common basic technology, while the sectoral complex involves common resources and economic relations.     

The Present State and Future Tasks in the Theory and Method of an Evaluation of the Natural Environment and Resources

The needs of optimal resource development policy in the Soviet Union have given rise to a new interdisciplinary research discipline concerned with the evaluation of the physical environment and natural resources. Evaluations are made of particular environments or resources or an integrated natural complex as a whole (the “object” of the evaluation) from the point of view of particular elements of society or society as a whole (the “subject” of the evaluation). Evaluations may be in terms of social utility, economic cost, technological feasibility, or medical-biological requirements. A number of methodological problems remain to be solved in evaluative research: (1) comparability between evaluations of particular elements and of integrated environments or resource complexes, (2) commensurability of various categories of evaluation (social, economic, technological) of a particular type of environment or resource, (3) the problem of weighting individual elements in integrated evaluations; and (4) the question of converting physical measurements into evaluations on a point scale.     

Geographical Aspects of Biological Productivity

Annual plant production and total plant mass are calculated for 106 types of soil and plant formations of the world, grouped in turn by major thermal belts and bioclimatic regions (humid, semiarid, arid) within these thermal belts. Aggregate magnitudes of annual growth and total plant mass by thermal belts and their bioclimatic regions follow a sequence of alternating high values in humid regions and low values in arid regions that bears a similarity to the periodic law of geographical zonality. Maximum plant production is associated with the Tropical belt, where combinations of heat and moisture favor maximum intensity of the physical-geographic process. A related paper, by Bazilevich and Rodin, appeared in Soviet Geography, January 1971.     

The Landscape Levels of Continents and Geographical Zonality

The traditional two-dimensional concept of latitudinal natural geographical zones is challenged on the ground that it ignores the altitude factor and differences in the character of the surface environment. An alternative three-dimensional model of zonal systems is proposed, in which so-called landscape levels corresponding to particular geomorphic levels are distinguished in terms of radiation balance and elevation. The zonal systems are combined into four worldwide groupings: (1) an inner terrestrial group corresponding to a rocky surface environment; (2) an outer terrestrial group corresponding to a cryogenic rocky environment; (3) an outer ice group, corresponding to ice-covered segments of the earth's surface, and (4) an oceanic group. The paper is devoted to the first three continental groups of zonal systems. The traditional zonality is found to be well expressed in the inner terrestrial group, but the outer groups reflect mainly Markov's law of polar asymmetry (see Soviet Geography, February 1964).     

Placers of the Urals,Their Formation,Distribution and Elements of Geomorphic Prediction

The gold, platinum and titanium placers are analyzed from the geomorphic point of view to establish future prospects as the Quaternary placers now being worked become depleted. The key to placer prospecting is seen in the historical sequence of deposition and redeposition in which older placers in turn became source areas for younger placers. The main metallogenetic epoch is associated with the Middle and Late Jurassic as well as a substantial part of the Cretaceous when intensive weathering of the regolith yielded rich placer accumulations in Mesozoic erosional-structural depressions that represent segments of the drainage net of the period. These depressions subsequently were the source areas for new placers as the drainage pattern was reoriented. In some areas crustal movements played a role as renewed erosion induced by uplifting resulted in the redeposition of metal in new placers. As the Quaternary placers become depleted, an effort is therefore recommended to focus prospecting and exploration in the source areas associated with the Mesozoic depressions.     

NATURAL CAUSE-AND-EFFECT RELATIONSHIPS AND THE PREDICTION OF ENDEMIC GOITER

The incidence of endemic goiter in southeast Kazakhstan, a highly goitrogenic province of the Soviet Union, is related to the geochemical setting of the region's natural areal complexes. The occurrence of endemic goiter is usually attributed simply to iodine deficiency. However other chemical elements also tend to reduce or enhance the goitrogenic properties of a particular environment. A detailed analysis of the various environments in southeast Kazakhstan shows that not all parts of the region are equally goitrogenic and that high, medium and low risk areas may be distinguished. The various natural areal complexes of different levels of goitrogenicity are mapped together with actually observed incidence of the disease. It is recommended that public health activities, such as the provision of iodized salt, be directed in particular at the high and medium risk areas.     

COMMUTING AS AN ELEMENT OF LOCAL POPULATION MOBILITY

Commuting is defined as journeys to work or study that cross the administrative boundaries of minor civil divisions. This poses problems in the statistical analysis of some metropolitan areas, such as Baku, where large suburban territories are administratively under the jurisdiction of the central city government. Time series on commuting exist for trips from rural to urban areas, and help distinguish oblasts and major economic regions of varying levels of rural population mobility. This mobility is highest around large cities that exert a strong pull (Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Khar'kov, L'vov). Rural population mobility is low in Siberia and Kazakhstan, which have a sparse network of industrial centers and low rural population density, and in Central Asia, where the indigenous population is distinguished by low social mobility. Census data for commuting in 1970 yield a typology of cities in terms of the character of commuting. Commuting distances and means of transportation are analyzed for different city size classes.