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Presented are the results from studying the underground runoff of the Oka river basin, including 23 single catchments. Most of the basin of the Oka (a large left tributary of the Angara river) is located within the mountain-folding region and scarcely covered by data of routine observations of the river runoff. The underground runoff for the rivers within the Oka basin was determined by an integrated hydrological-hydrogeological method of genetic separation of river hydrographs having regard to the withdrawal of a part of the runoff for aufeis formation, considering different drainage schemes of water-bearing material by riv ers. Most river basins of the Eastern Sayan are characterized by the absence of bank stream flow control, because even in small river basins the depth of erosional incision exceeds considerably the thickness of the drainage zone which is determined by the occurrence depth of effective crevassing. Under these conditions, almost complete drainage of the massifs by rivers occurs. For the unexplored rivers, the underground runoff was determined by the method of transition coefficients from single water dis charges obtained during the hydrometric survey of the winter low-level water. Within the mountain-folding region, the specific groundwater runoff varies over a wide range from 0.5 to 9.2 L/s/km ² and depends on the landscape-climatic conditions, primar ily on the atmospheric precipitation amount as well as on hydrogeological conditions of particular catchments associated with the occurrence of permafrost and with differences in tectonic activity in different parts of the study area.

An analysis is made of the cyclone trajectories for 2003-2013 in order to gain insight into the influence of their genesis on the generation of the flow of wet depositions of acid-forming substances over the territory of Primorsky krai and a part of the water area of the Sea of Japan. All the cyclones crossing the region of interest during the period under investigation have been considered. Seven types of cyclones have been identified according the location of their genesis and trajectories. Annual and seasonal variability of their number of occurrence as well as variability in pressure at the cyclone center has been shown for each of them. Using precipitation data from EANET monitoring station Primorskaya, concentrations and deposition fluxes of sulfates and nitrates have been calculated for each cyclone type. It is shown that more than half of all sulfates and nitrates deposited at the stations with precipitation caused by the cyclones originating outside the territory of the Russian Federation. A significant correlation of variability in mean annual deposition fluxes of sulfates and nitrates in precipitation of these cyclones is indicative of the common sources of input of acid-forming substances into precipitation of the five cyclone types.

The permafrost and climate conditions of the Anadyr lowland (Chukotka) for the late 20 ^th - early 21 ^st centuries are ex amined. A statistical estimate is made of the trends for an increase in air temperature and precipitation amounts. We summarized the monitoring results on the layer of seasonal thawing in typical permafrost landscapes of the Anadyr lowland in 100 × 100 m areas within the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) program. The dynamics of active layer thickness and tempera ture is considered in correlation with weather and climate during 1994-2017. With an increase of the mean long-term values of mean annual air temperature by 1.1 ° C (14 %) and of the annual precipitation amount by 102 mm (31 %), the temperature and precipitation variations reached 17 and 27 %, respectively. This corresponds to a medium and significant degree of disper sion of data. An increase in the length of a warm period of a year was by 4 days (3 %), with a variation of the values making up 7 %. It is pointed out that interannual fluctuations are responsible for short fluctuations (3-5 years) in temperature and thickness of the seasonally thawed layer. An increase in the length of a warm period of a year has influence on long-term changes in seasonal thawing. It is concluded that changes in permafrost and climate conditions of the Anadyr lowland do not exceed critical values of secular cycles of temperature fluctuations and the thickness of the seasonally thawed layer in coastal subarctic tundras. Hazardous are the Decadal fluctuations in the depth of seasonal thawing are recognized as hazardous and as causing exogenous cryogenic processes. The amplitude of these fluctuations reaches 15-25 % of the mean long-term values of the thickness of the seasonally thawed layer. Monitoring results confirm predictions of soviet geocryologists concerning secular climatic fluctuations and warming in the Eastern Subarctic from 1980-1990 to 2030-2040.

Contrary to a widely held view of transitional (intermediate) objects as being “noise” in a research process, the idea that transitional objects are essential elements of classifications, regionalizations, periodizations and other structural schemes is sub stantiated. The methodological basis for these propositions is provided by the concepts of descriptive and fuzzy sets and its un derlying multi-valued logic. It is shown that there are several variants for the representation of transitional classes, regions and periods, and some of them allow avoiding “fragmentation” and an excessive increase in the number of transitional elements. It is emphasized that any variants of representation of transitional classes, regions or periods are only the formal (methodological) techniques which serve as a tool that allows more appropriately reflecting the structure of a single object or a set of objects. It is this principle that should determine selection of a particular variant of separation of transitional elements in structural schemes. It is noted that the concepts of the transitional class and the structure of the class lie at the intersection of classification and ordination approaches and allow developing ordination-classification schemes that combine the features of hierarchical classifi cation and ordination. The concepts of transitional elements allowed suggesting new solutions to a number of problems. Com munities of dwarf pine (Pinus pumila) are referred to a special class of formations: “hypoarctic krummholz”. Three separate class formations of open woodland communities (woodland-tundra, woodland-meadow and woodland-bog) are identified. Mac rocomplexes that include the mountain tundra, subgoletz (subalpine) and, partially, boreal-forest belts of vegetation were referred to a separate “goletz (alpine) boreal-forest” class. For the subgoletz belt, on the one hand, its independence as the belt of rank II, and, on the other, its transitional nature between goletz and boreal-forest belts of rank I are confirmed. Such solutions allow representing not only the transitional nature of the objects in question but also their uniqueness at a certain taxonomic level.

Based on the automated classification technique for artificial neural networks, an integrated cartographic model of the genetic types of topography and structural and functional zoning of the city of Orenburg was constructed using geomorphometric data to identify spatially homogeneous sections of landscape structures of the urbogeosystem. The spectral classification method without a teacher allows spatial differentiation of the urban technical systems and reliable information that is necessary to improve the environmental components and comfort of urban space. Data on the topography and properties of the underlying surface are inhomogeneous values that are brought into a single discrete form. To do this, at the processing stage, modern effective GIS tools are involved, creating high-precision analytical and cartographic material that is processed and presented in the form of grid structures. Based on the Self-Organizing Map method, a typological generalization of operational-territorial units, a thematic interpretation of classes, and a cartographic model of the urban landscape differentiation of the territory were compiled. The selected sections of the floodplain (high and low) and the terraces are concentrated in the same ordination plane of the Kohonen neural network but are different in terms of the characteristics of the relief (height, slope, exposure, and other morphometric indicators). The identification of the 1 ^st and 2 ^nd floodplain river terraces became possible with the use of field research data and medium-scale geomorphological maps. The verified model of the landscape base is superimposed on the modern scheme of the ecological and functional zoning of the urbogeosystem. The final map reveals the spatial structure of the development of the urban technological system. The suggested method of artificial neural networks makes it possible to update data obtained accord ing to the purpose of typological mapping. A comprehensive landscape classification of urbogeosystems is a reflection of the features of the geographical environment and shows the patterns of anthropogenic impacts, and the development of processes of changing the states of natural and anthropogenic geosystems.

The level of contamination of the surface layer of the atmospheric air in the places of disposal and long-term storage of metallurgical slags has been investigated. It is found that accumulated waste is the source of permanent input of pollutants, heavy metals in particular, into the environment. A calculation of the emission intensity during processing and static storage of ferroal loy slag made by PJSC Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant (Nikopol, Ukraine) thus enabling identification of the magnitude of local dust pollution of the environment and determination of the potential hazard of contamination with heavy metals forming part of dump slag. The intensity of dust discharge during processing (pouring, handling and moving) of manganese-containing waste slag, obtained by calculations, is 0,122 g/s, and the rate of dust discharge during static storage of material on the slag dump is 280 g/s. Among the heavy metals making up the slag, manganese has the highest emission intensity, followed by nickel and cobalt. The lowest value of the emission was obtained for zinc. Data on the intensity of heavy metals discharge when slag is moved correlate with calculations for static slag storage. The content of manganese at the boundary of the sanitary protection zone of the enterprise during static storage of slags on a dump occupying an area of 13,8 hectares is 3 times higher than the normative values, which poses a threat to human health. It is found that the surface layer of the atmosphere receives 0,92 g of manganese from only one dump every second. The data obtained indicate a significant contribution of industrial dumps to the level of atmospheric air contamination in the urban environment.

A general analysis is made of the system of subject headings and the authors of the journal «Geografiya i Prirodnye Resursy» which has published about 4.5 thousand of articles and communications over the past 40 years. The thematic diversity of the journal is represented by publications in nine leading and five additional subject headings. Each issue begins with papers dealing with new theoretical ideas or having broad spatial coverage: Siberia, Russia, and the planet. The heading «Regional problems of environmental studies and natural resources utilization» has the largest contents. The composition of authors in the journal (including more than 500 authors) is considered. The publications are most frequently authored by researchers of V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS as well as of Lomonosov Moscow State University and Limnological Institute SB RAS. The journal publishes contributions of all leading geographers of Russia and many foreign scientists.

An analysis is made of the topics of physical-geographical contributions published in the journal «Geografiya i Prirodnye Resursy» over the last 40 years. They were devoted to the theoretical and methodological questions of physical geography, a further development of V.B. Sochava’s theory of geosystems, regional characteristics of the landscape geosphere, the structure, dynamics, evolution and anthropogenic transformation of geosystems, agrolandscapes, urban landscapes and recreation, assess ments of geosystems and their natural-resource potential, landscape regionalization and forecasting, the issues concerning the securing and optimization nature management, and territorial and landscape planning.

We examine the main development paths of academic landscape-geochemical and soil-geographical research reflected in contributions published in the journal «Geografiya i Prirodnye Resursy». Emphasis is placed on the areas of landscape-geochem ical and soil-geographical research on a comprehensive study into the structure of geosystems of the main types of geographical environment and their natural regimes in expedition-based and station-based investigations. An attempt is made to generalize the areas of research and determine the vector of its changes. The development prospects of the landscape-geochemical direction of modern geography imply a better understanding of the patterns of an integral physical-geographical process and the solution of practical problems having largely an ecological-assessment and forecasting character.

This paper provides a brief overview of the contributions published in the journal during the past forty years, dealing with hydrological and climatological investigations. The publications have presented results from assessing the water-resource potential and hydroclimatic characteristics; the issues related to water use and conform of the climate were considered; results from study ing regional and global climatic changes were provided; attention was given to the specific character of channel processes, and the research on Lake Baikal was presented in a multifaceted manner. Pivotal among them are the theoretical and method ological issues in hydroclimatology, approaches in forecasting and modeling hydroclimatic characteristics, and the problems of air and water pollution and avoiding and preventing adverse hydroclimatic phenomena.