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The inventory of implemented investment projects was used as the basis for compiling a small-scale map to display the main features of industrial and transport development of the territory of post-Soviet Russia. An exceptional territorial differentiation of industrial construction is revealed, which implies primarily its overconcentration in Moscow oblast as well as in the north-west (St. Petersburg and Leningrad oblast). The northern and eastern regions of the country are characterized by focal industrial development and the dominance of mining enterprises. In Asian Russia, large-scale industrial construction is allocated to Kuzbass, and Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrugs, but the “density” of development is small. In many areas, new enterprises are similar in their specialization to the economic profile of a given area. Signs of territorial-production integration of enterprises in the specific conditions of the Russian market are identified. The new economic conditions saw the emergence of new sectors and production facilities: development of oil and gas resources on the shelf of the Sea of Okhotsk and the Caspian, Baltic, Pechora and Black Seas; gas liquefaction plants, and automobile assembly enterprises. Only a quarter of the new industrial enterprises are located in regional capitals. The dispersion of industries within separate regions is determined by the high proportion of extractive enterprises, the formation of special economic zones outside the regional centers, and by the low cost of land and labor in small towns and villages. The new “village” industry has a broad spectrum of specialization and is not limited to processing agricultural raw materials. Analysis of the structure of the new industrial construction did not reveal any signs of its ecologization. Two thirds of the new facilities refer to basic, environmentally “aggressive” sectors. Most of the newly built transport infrastructure facilities are specialized in satisfying the export requirements of the country’s economy, rather than in enhancing connectivity of its territory. Intensive construction of ports and pipelines leads to the concentration of anthropogenic pressure on the water areas and the coasts, in particular the Baltic, Black and Azov Seas. The resulting map reveals new foci and areas of change in the natural environment and its large-scale transformation.

We examine the approach to studying and forecasting promising markets of rational nature management. The relationships between higher educational institutions-centers of scientific research competences with other organizations are determined. It is found that knowledge spillovers from universities must generate stable regional networks (innovation clusters) to concentrate a significant part of markets. It is established that the most advanced innovation clusters emerged in regions with centers of potential inter-regional clusters in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Novosibirsk and Tomsk as well as in Perm krai and Tyumen, Belgorod and Kaliningrad oblasts. Largely on the basis of data on funding of state programs, we estimated the total potential volume of the market until 2020. For estimating the proportion of the regions in it, it is assumed that it will be higher if the organizations of relevant regional cluster show a higher publication and patent activity with a large number of interactions. Moscow will concentrate more than 20 % and St. Petersburg about 10 % of the market of rational environmental management. The total volume of national products and services will make up from 0.2 to 2 % of the world market of the sphere under investigation by the year 2020; therefore, it is necessary to enhance the interactions of innovation organizations within the framework of cluster initiatives. But the main problem involves the absence of international cooperation. In fact, these efforts constitute one of the first attempts to study the sector associated with applied research of Earth sciences in Russia.

This article was prepared on the basis of on a number of Bayesian probabilistic forecasts according to the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the UN Secretariat. The aim of the research is to forecast the population dynamics in Russia, Asian countries of the CIS, now referred to Central Asia, and East Asian countries from 2015 to 2095. The main research method is multifactorial simulation modeling. Consideration is given the changes in the population size of Russia as a result of the accession of Crimea and the growth of the migration inflow from the Territory of Ukraine. The forecast relies on demographic statistics (birthrates, mortality and migration exchange) in the region’s countries from 1950 to 2015. A brief review is provided for the dynamics of the dynamics of birthrate, mortality and pure migrations for separate countries of the region from the mid-20 ^th century to 2015, and the forecast of these indicators (according to an average scenario) into 2095. Within the entire region, six forecast scenarios are considered, including the main (average) scenario. The first scenario implies the preservation (at the level of the year 2015) of the number of births in the age cohorts of females, the second scenario includes the preservation of mortality unchanged in the age cohorts of females and males, the third scenario involves a balance of migrations at the zero level, and the fourth and fifth scenarios provide a change in the number of pure migrations, with the birthrates and mortality remaining unchanged. The sixth scenario is treated as an average scenario. The population size by the end of the forecast period varies considerably with a particular scenario, but irrespective of the forecast scenario, a significant decrease in the population size is expected in Japan, China, South Korea and Russia. The largest increase in population by 2095 is forecasted for Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Kazakhstan.

The landscape-basin approach based on the sequential operation algorithm developed for determining potential and actual water supply of Western Siberia territories is proposed to adjust the existing assessments of water availability. The technique for estimating the water availability at the regional and sub-regional level is presented. The assessment of potential water avail ability is carried out within the boundaries of landscape provinces, whereas actual water availability is assessed for separate river basins and water management sites. Future water consumption is estimated with due regard for the current peculiarities of water use in Western Siberia regions and trends in water use efficiency, including water capacity of industrial and agricultural production as well as strategic plans for territorial development. Superposition of natural and administrative-territorial boundar ies has been achieved through the use of GIS technologies. Assessment results on the potential water availability in 83 landscape provinces of Western Siberia from 12 federal subjects of Russia are presented. Future water consumption has been assessed for the Western Barabinsk landscape province of Omsk oblast where the city of Omsk and the Omskii municipal district are lo cated. The actual water availability has been estimated for a water management site in the Tom river basin, Kemerovo oblast. The size of the Western Siberia population living in conditions of extremely low, very low and low potential water availability has been calculated. The assessment results are given in tabular form and as geoinformation-cartographic models.

The method of identifying potential areas of protected plant species with the use of geoinformation analyses is discussed in the example of one mountain territory (Tanzybei management polygon, 168 000 ha) within the Altai-Sayan ecoregion. Four altitudinal belt complexes (ABC) form the spectrum of barrier-rain mountain landscapes on the windward macroslope of Western Sayan - from mixed pine-birch forest with Pinus sylvestris and Betula pendula (light-coniferous subtaiga, 300-500 m) and chern mixed forest with Abies sibirica, Pinus sibirica and Populus tremula (350-900 m) to middle-mountain perhumid taiga with Abies sibirica (900-1350 m) and subalpine sparse woodlands with Pinus sibirica and Abies sibirica (1350-1600 m). The current importance of this research is dictated by a particular significance of a specific class of barrier-rain specific ecosystems for a classification of mountain landscapes of Siberia. Field route and station-based investigations made during 1960-2015, and also materials on forest inventory were systematized in the form of regional databases on the typological composition of forests, vegetation and flora and combined with the regional geoinformation system of the Tanzybei district forestry. This provided the initial ecological-geographical basis for subsequent efforts on the compilation of analytic maps. Results were tested and verified during subsequent field route investigations. Examples of analytic maps are given. The method developed for identifying potential areas of species by using the authors’ databases on flora and vegetation, ecological-geographical approach and geoinformation analyses serves to obtain new knowledge of geographical content.

Presented are the results of hydrochemical work on the Amur river done during the freeze-up period in 2006, 2008 and 2011-2015 at the city of Khabarovsk and the villages of Leninskoe and Amurzet. The source of information used was represented by data of a joint Russian-Chinese monitoring of the water quality of the transboundary water bodies. We examine changes in the chemical composition of the Middle Amur water after transboundary pollution in November 2005 caused by the incident in the Jilin chemical plant (Songhua river basin). Emphasis is placed on the large role played by environmental measures in China (construction of pollution control facilities and hydraulic structures, shutdown of separate enterprises, etc.) in an improvement of the Songhua water quality. The influence of the regulation of the Zeya and Bureya rivers on the hydrochemical regime of the Middle Amur is shown. A characteristic is provided for the concentration distribution of dissolved matter along the length and width of the Amur in the section from Amurzet and Khabarovsk (400 km). The study revealed a smoothing of the differences in contents of the chemical composition components in the Amur waters along the width downstream of the inflow of Songhua. It is established that the Middle Amur water quality has improved in recent years: an increase in content of dissolved oxygen in the water, no pollution by nitrite nitrogen, and an abrupt decrease in ammonium nitrogen concentration. A predominance of the oxygenated form over the reduced form in the discharge was observed in the Middle Amur waters after 2012. A characteristic is given to the chemical composition of the Middle Amur waters during the freeze-up period after the historical flood of 2013.

A high-resolution bathymetric survey of the entire underwater slope in South Baikal was carried out for the first time by means of the multibeam echosounder. New elements were revealed in the underwater relief of the southern slope of the basin from the Kultuchnaya river to the Mysovka river, and a relevant regionalization was carried out into three areas according to the presence of ancient landforms and the intensity of the processes of their reworking, with the boundaries along the delta-front and the river fan of the Utulik and Pereemnaya. We reconstructed the formation process of the modern relief of this area of the underwater slope and determined a dominant role of the underwater-erosion processes in the formation of the modern relief, with the tectonic movements served as the “trigger” for them. The study revealed a direct correlation between the reworking of the ancient geomorphological surfaces and the occurrence of separate large underwater elevations or group ridges (remnants), canyons and linear depressions. It is determined that the pivotal role in the appearance of the modern relief of the underwater slope in the second area of extensive plano-convex (in section) and fan-shaped (in plan) delta-fronts of large rivers and debris fans enveloping the remnants. The existence of a steep underwater slope from the mouth of the Pereemnaya to the mouth of the Bol’shaya Tel’naya and of two large benches, and also the proximity of the maximum depths of the southern basin at the foot of this slope are explained by a more intense step-like lowering of this part of the lake when compared with the western part of the basin. This also accounts for the absence of large remnants in this part of the slope. The area of occurrence of lacustrine-fluvial and lacustrine-delta deposits of the Tankhoi paleobasin within the southern basin of Baikal is reconstructed. Four new hydrate-bearing structures associated with these deposits and morphologically pronounced in the vertex parts of the remnants were discovered. The morphological exploration indicators of the presence of new accumulations of gas hydrates on the under water slopes of Baikal have been expanded.

We explore the possibility of using space images in the study of the distribution of suspended sediments transported by the sediment runoff of the Selenga river, in the southern part of Lake Baikal. The relative concentration of suspended particles was identified on Landsat images without using ground-based turbidity measurements. The effect of different depths of solar radiation penetration was used to separate suspended matter in the surface layer and in deeper layers. On the basis of satellite image interpretation and using data on the constant currents in the lake, the bottom topography, runoff and prevailing winds for the day before the images were taken, we constructed the maps of suspended sediment distribution in the lake. The maps were used to indirectly estimate the sediment runoff distribution in the by-channels of the Selenga river delta depending on the time and phase of the water regime. A number of factors influencing the sediment runoff distribution were identified: the volume of transported material, longshore and deep-water currents, surface currents caused by short-lasting wind effects, and bottom topography. The effect of each factor on the sediment runoff distribution was analyzed. Analysis of the maps confirmed that the main factor in calm weather conditions is represented by constant currents in the lake. However, in the case of significant unidirectional wind effects, the sediment runoff distribution changes drastically. It is established that the pattern of sediment runoff distribution has remained unchanged for at least the last forty years.

Presented are the results of the winter 2014 radiophysical expedition, within the framework of which the Baikal ice cover was investigated by electromagnetic methods. The primary objectives the expedition were to detect irregularities in the ice cover, such as cracks and thawing steamed holes in the ice, and to determine the ice thickness and structure in the area of the thawing holes by the GPR sounding method. We used in the experiments the “OKO-2” GPR of the decimeter band and the nanosecond radar with the wavelength of 3 cm. The measurements were made carried out from the Khivus hovercraft and from the UAZ automobile. The ice thickness of Lake Baikal was determined by non-contact electromagnetic measurement methods. Radargrams of reflected signals from the ice cover are presented. Radar patterns of reflected signals from artificial irregularities of the ice cover were obtained by the short-pulse radar method. The concept of radiophysical monitoring is suggested, which provides a means of determining the ice cover parameters of a water body with high spatial resolution. We present an integral approach to investigating the state of ice cover in order to integrate different physicochemical methods for diagnosing the objects studied. A further development of the concept of integrated ice cover research, and the creation of the monitoring network involves solving a number of scientific and engineering tasks that include developing physical models and information and measurement systems as well as the rationale for an integrated monitoring network.

For the first time, a detailed analysis is made of the occurrence and different morphodynamical type-channel formation conditions on the Middle Ob within Tomsk oblast, from the mouth of the Tom river to the boundary with Khanty-Mansi Au tonomous Okrug-Yugra. We emphasize the role of a broad floodplain and of its inundation conditions during snowmelt floods, the occurrence conditions for channel-forming water discharges and channel stability in the predominant development of river meandering, including of the branches of floodplain-channel forks. Braided and straight unbraided channels occupy a subordi nate position separating sinuous reaches. It is shown that floodplain-channel forks with meandering branches occur largely at long transitions of the river from one valley side to the other, diagonally across the floodplain flow direction. The parameters of the bends in the forks of this type correspond to their hydraulicity, but no clear-cut hydrological-morphological relationships are determined because of intermittent runoff redistributions between branches. Modal (for the sections of the river between the main tributaries) values of the parameters of the bends depend inversely on the river hydraulicity (order). By introducing a correction coefficient for floodplain dissection by a floodplain fork as the indicator of the degree of diversion of water flow from the channel to the floodplain, it was possible to determine a “normal” relationship between parameters of the bends and hydraulicity of the channel flow during floods. Furthermore, we ascertained the relationships between the degree of development and the coefficient of the form of bends and determined their manifestations. For all the bends, we determined changes in parameters for the time interval 1986-2011 and the transition of some of them from one category to another, and ascertained the causes for runoff re distribution and the development of branches of the floodplain-channel forks.