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A case study was made of the municipalities of Irkutsk oblast for 2000-2019 with a diagnostics of social security which is considered within the framework of economic security. At the first stage of the study, key indicators of the standard of living of the population were identified. The method of indicative analysis was used to assess destructive processes in the sphere of living standards. At the second stage, integral indices of social security were calculated in dynamics for the periods of administration by the oblast governors. To determine the degree of compliance of the city/municipal district with social security, a gradation of risk zones was used, on the basis of which a territorial ranking was carried out. In each risk zone, characteristic destructive processes in the sphere of living standards were identified. They are especially pronounced in the crisis zone. The lowest index of social security during the period under review is characterized by rural areas that are part of the crisis zone of catastrophic and critical risk. A “game of statistics” was noted, namely an automatic increase indicators of the standard of living in the rural population living in the areas of oil and gas production. It has been established that in the municipalities of the pre-crisis zone of moderate risk and the zone of stability, there is a tendency to equalize the level of wages relative to the average for the Russian Federation. The population of the entire region belongs to the categories of “low-income” and “below average”. It is shown that the imbalance of demand and supply of labor force in the professional and territorial sections remains, especially in cities and districts with a single-industry structure of the economy and oil and gas production areas. It is concluded that the greatest response of all the measures taken at the regional and federal levels fell on the policy to improve the investment and business climate. This is reflected in the dynamic transition of oil and gas production areas and the timber industry complex from the crisis zone to the zone of stability.

This paper presents for the first time the results of practice-oriented investigations for determining the magnitude of socio-economic damage to coastal areas of Lake Baikal as a result of the highest rise of its level (457,85 m according to the Pacific Reference Frame). The study area includes the coastal areas of Baikal, and some areas of the Irkutsk reservoir of Irkutsk oblast within the Slyudyanskii, Irkutskii and Olkhonskii administrative districts. When compiling the list of sites falling within the zone of potential submergence, use was made of the open public database of the Unified State Register of Immovable Property, and a package of working large-scale cartographic products and images. Expeditions made it possible to update, correct and complement the working register. The list of economic facilities and infrastructure (about 200), falling within the zone of potential submergence, includes line structures, enterprises of social services, and households. A calculation of economic damage to facilities of socio-economic activity is presented within the framework of the recommended technique of assessing the probable damage from the harmful effect of water, and assessing the effectiveness of preventive hydroeconomic measures (as of the year 2006). The amount of damage (for facilities and main sectoral groups) is corrected by using the deflator index (as of 2022 in the “construction” position on the territory of Irkutsk oblast)). Potential losses (lost profit) are illustrated by an example of recreational activity on the coast of Baikal within the boundaries of Irkutsk oblast. The possible considerable losses have been revealed in the recreational sphere as a result of direct damage to the facilities and infrastructure as well as lost profits due to a loss of attractiveness of coastal areas, including beach zones. A preliminary quantitative assessment of socio-economic damage to coastal administrative districts of Irkutsk oblast as a result of water level fluctuations in Lake Baikal and in the Irkutsk reservoir may well provide a basis for developing program-strategic directions and measures and for seeking managerial decisions of a preventive nature for minimizing negative impacts.

The purpose of the study is to analyze the transformation of the sectoral and territorial structure of international labor migrants in the Far East in the post-Soviet period. The subject for study is represented by international labor migration in the Far Eastern regions. Unlike earlier studies on similar topics, this paper analyzes the change in the structure of migration both at the district level and at the level of individual regions of the Far East. It is shown that changes in the structure of labor migration in the Russian Far East correspond to the all-Russian trends with a time lag of 10 years. While in general throughout Russia a steady excess of labor migrants from neighboring countries with visa-free regime has been observed since the mid-2000s, in general throughout the Far East - since the mid-2010s. It was found that by the beginning of the 2020s, a sectoral specialization of labor migrants from the non-CIS and CIS countries has been formed in the labor market of the Far Eastern regions. It was established that the ratio of migrants’ categories differs in individual regions. It was determined that a list of source countries and the sectoral structure of foreign workers’ employment for countries with visa regime has formed from countries with visa regime in structure of labor migration of the Far East; however, the ratio of the countries is changed. China remains the leader, and citizens of Turkey, Vietnam, and Serbia also occupy a stable position in the Far East labor market. In the labor market of the Far East, among citizens of the CIS countries, citizens of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan are in the lead. It is shown that the regions of the Far East are characterized by the process of deconcentration of skilled and highly skilled labor migrants and their distribution in a larger number of regions than before.

A technique is suggested for assessing the attractiveness of beaches as a tool for monitoring their state in controlling the coastal areas. This approach was developed and is being used for assessing the beaches of seas and oceans in popular tourist destinations, such as Spain, Malta, Cuba, Turkey, and others. A calculation of attractiveness is based on an expert assessment of 26 beach parameters (18 natural and 8 anthropogenic). This technique for assessing the aesthetic attractiveness of the beaches along the Lake Baikal coast has been applied for the first time. It was tested in popular recreation areas of local residents and tourists; the assessment was carried out for 21 beaches. According to the assessment results, the beaches were divided into five attractiveness classes. It was revealed that protected areas (national parks) have a positive impact on the attractiveness assessment; most of the first class beaches are located in national parks. Anthropogenic load, on the contrary, has a negative impact; beaches of classes 4 and 5, for example, are located within urban areas. Urban development, car traffic and noise reduce the beach attractiveness. Anthropogenic parameters, unlike natural parameters, are the most easily changed; their monitoring makes it possible to control the beach attractiveness. The results of the assessment showed a high potential of natural landscapes of Lake Baikal which is associated with natural environment features, such as the mountains surrounding the lake, mature woody vegetation, transparent water, existence of geological monuments, dune complexes, sandy beaches as well as low anthropogenic pressure.

Changes in land use and land cover (LULC) resulting from human activities have significant impacts on the surrounding environment and ecosystems. Detecting and mapping changes in LULC in the Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, Vietnam, is critical for sustainable development, planning, and management. This study applied the maximum likelihood classifier algorithm of supervised classification in ArcGIS 10.8 software to detect observed LULC changes in the study area during the period of 2000-2020 using multi-temporal satellite images. For each satellite image, the study applied spectral indices (NDVI - Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, and NDWI - Normalized Difference Water Index) and a supervised classification to classify and assess LULC changes. The study performed an accuracy assessment of the classification maps derived from Landsat 5-TM for 2000 and 2010 and Landsat 8-OLI for 2020 using kappa coefficients of 0,882, 0,891, and 0,915, respectively. The area was classified into five main LULC classes including agriculture, water bodies, forest, settlement, and bare soil/rock. The LULC status and change maps created in ArcGIS 10.8 show a significant change in LULC. The settlement class has increased continuously over 20 years from 128,09 km² (2000) to 300,30 km² (2020); the agricultural land class has increased by 124,96 km² in the period 2000-2020. The remaining three classes, forest, water bodies, and bare soil/rock, all decreased in area during this period. These LULC changes pose a serious threat, impacting and disturbing the environment. The results of this study can be used in the management and planning of future land use in the area.

The landscape structure of the equatorial Merkele Ridge composed of limestones, on which the highest peak of the Maluku Islands, Mount Binaya, is located, has been studied. As a result, landscapes taxa spectrum, which is not characteristic in extratropical-latitude mountains, has been identified. The main factors determining the modern landscape structure of the Merkele Ridge are the formation of limestone by coral polyps, which was subsequently raised up to three thousand meters above the level of the World Ocean by tectonic movements, and also the hypsometric factor and the humid equatorial climate. The influence of the relief-substrate basis on the landscapes taxa differentiation is shown. Seven landscape taxa were identified. An analysis of the spatial distribution of soil types and plant formations made it possible to single out, among them, 15 smaller landscape taxa. Their vertical differentiation was caused by a decrease in temperatures and a change in moisture with increasing height. The taxonomic composition of vegetation becomes simpler in this case. Representatives of the flora of higher latitudes appear in it. The anthropogenic factor has had a strong impact on landscape taxa in the lower belt of the ridge. Below the isohypse of 300 m there emerged landscape taxa with a predominance of plant communities of cultivated plants, as well as those devoid of natural vegetation and soil cover, as a result of cutting down low-mountain rain forests on gentle and moderately steep slopes. Landscape taxa above the isohypse of 300 m have mostly preserved their natural state.

It is suggested that a new term “singularity” should be introduced into geography and biology implying the final and transforming process of states of natural systems equal in importance to the concept of “equifinality”. An analysis of interdependence of the equipotential and singular states in a single cycle of natural and natural-economic processes of local, regional and global scales was carried out. The term “singularity” is widely used in astrophysics, where it denotes the formation of the limiting, final state of cosmos systems, which provides the transition to a different, subsequent state (kind) during a mass-energy burst. In this connection, it is necessary to specify from geographical positions the definition and the relation of the singularity concept with equifinality, and to substantiate the connection and consistency of its interpretation with the provisions of the geosystem theory. The place of singularity in the organization of geosystems was revealed. The significance of interdependence of equifinal and singular states of processes and phenomena in the spatial and temporal scales of the landscape geosphere was established. The equifinal-singular model of geosystems is substantiated as a single form of integral natural systems of geography and biology, based on the concept of optimum physical-geographical process and the Shelford-Liebig universal law. A minor geosystem cycle which forms the subsequent sections, blocks, and a major cycle of matter and energy of the planet as a whole are revealed.

The year 2023 marks the 85^th anniversary of the birth of two outstanding researchers and developers of methods for cartographic study of the nature of Siberia: Dr. Sci. (Geogr.) A.V. Belov (1938-2017) and Dr. Sci. (Biol.) V.F. Lyamkin (1938-2019). Their life careers were intimately linked with V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS. They played the main role in devising methodological approaches and specific techniques for mapping natural systems as developed within the framework of the ideas of Academician V.B. Sochava. The article discusses the stages of formation of biota mapping as a special area of cartographic work on the study of the main components of natural complexes: flora and fauna. These areas have been pursued within the framework of the Siberian (Irkutsk) school of regional mapping since the 1960s and were related to the scientific support of active development of Siberian territories. Particular emphasis was placed on the study of vegetation in the regions as the source of various resources and as a critical component of natural complexes which determines many modes of their functioning. In those studies, A.V. Belov and his colleagues were responsible for the direction of the cartographic study of vegetation of geosystems, and V.F. Lyamkin headed the team that dealt with the problems of mapping faunas and faunistic complexes. Under their leadership, a large number of geobotanical and zoogeographic maps of the Baikal region and its individual territories were compiled in the form of survey small-scale versions and large-scale products for key areas. A.V. Belov and V.F. Lyamkin often acted as co-authors. The total number of their publications amounts to more than 300 scientific papers which implied the vector of development of geobotanical and faunistic mapping in V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS.

This article presents results from reconstructing vegetation in the south of Eastern Siberia along the meridional profile passing through paleogeographically poorly studied subregions: Khandinskaya depression, the south of the Angara-Lena plateau, and the middle mountain taiga belt of the Oka plateau (Eastern Sayan). Patterns and features of subregional and local vegetation development in the Mid- to Late Holocene have been established. The metachronism of maximum development of taiga vegetation, which underlines the determining role of subregional climatic factors in the transformation of the regional climate of the Holocene, has been revealed in the subregions under study. It is suggested that the depth of penetration of permafrost may be one of the determining factors limiting the synchronous spread of arboreal plants, delaying it for several centuries compared to subregions lying outside the permafrost zone. It is shown that in the subregions under study, the regularity in the reconstructed biome dynamics is a gradual expansion of the forest biome and a reduction of the tundra biome. The role of the steppe biome in the low-mountain subregions turned out to be insignificant, while in the middle-mountain subregions of the Oka plateau it is becoming more significant. Pollen records show the formation of secondary birch forests both in the Khandinskaya depression and in the south of the Angara-Lena plateau during the last millennium, which should be regarded as the onset of the anthropogenic influence of forest fires or deforestation on subregional vegetation. No distinct indicators of human activity within the watershed of Lake Sagan-Nur (Oka plateau) have been detected. A comparison of the reconstructed dynamics of the forest biome from the subregions under study with the climatic records of the northern hemisphere during the Mid- to Late Holocene showed that a gradual expansion of the forest biome followed a decrease in the continentality of the climate in the northern hemisphere, which is evidenced by a decrease in summer and an increase in winter insolation.

It is suggested that thematic maps with zoological contents should all be differentiated into zoogeographical and geozoological by the essence of the objects to which the maps are devoted. A review of the creation of such maps is made. On zoogeographical maps, parts of the earth’s surface are the main objects, and animal assembly parameters are features of objects. To create such maps, a thematic base map (drawing base) is first prepared on the basis of an administrative, landscape or plant map. This base map initially does not depend on the parameters of animal populations. Zoological characteristics will be given to each unit of the legend of the base map upon its creation. As a result of certain generalizations of this legend, the prepared zoogeographic maps reflect the similarity and differences in the territorial divisions of the base map according to their zoological features. An analysis is made of the structure and contents of legends of such maps. The most common cases of their incorrect reading were considered. The objects of geozoological maps are animal species or their populations. In this case, the features of a species (a population) are represented by individual areas of the earth’s surface with the characteristics of the species on them. These maps generate ideas of the spatial heterogeneity of the density of a species, its morphology or vital activity. When creating geozoological maps, a preliminary division of the territory into the elementary spatial units under consideration is carried out in many instances. These units should be of equal magnitude for the most objective image of the phenomenon. The smaller are the elementary spatial units, the more fully can the uniqueness of the spatial distribution of the species and the changes in its vital activity be reflected. The inexpediency of using landscape or plant maps as the basis for creating geozoological maps has been demonstrated.