Vol 89, No 5 (2025)

The network revolution has breathed new life into the study of spatial nodal structures. While data on the centers and their characteristics are often available, data on connections are still relatively rare, especially when it is necessary to consider network dynamics over a long period of time. This makes it relevant to consider various approaches to modeling connections between points with known attributes. Such approaches can be grouped into three: nearest neighbor, gravity, and radiation models. The first two have become quite widespread in human geography, spatial economics and regional studies, while radiation models were proposed just over a decade ago and remain little known. We understand the volume of connections in urban networks as the potential volume of diverse flows between them. We model the US urban network for 2010 in three variants. Then we focus on geographical and structural differences and provide some quantitative comparisons. The nearest neighbor method makes it easy to identify the main dividing lines in the urban network and show the main urbanization gradients, but does not allow one to evaluate the strength of connections and misses their multiplicity. The gravity model depends on the calibration of the distance decay parameter and prioritizes links between nearby large cities as well as upward links between medium-sized cities and their nearest large neighbor, emphasizing the hierarchy of urban networks. The radiation model gives more weight to links between nearby cities of similar sizes and shows a smaller range of link strengths, emphasizing the “flat” nature of the network ontology.

The article is dedicated to an analysis of changes in location factors of aluminium and alumina factories in Europe (including Russia and other former Soviet Union countries) from the point emergence of the industry in the end of the 19th century. The considered period is divided into four stages according to timeline of opening and closure of the factories. The location factors are analyzed by estimation of production capacities’ share that is located according to one or another factor. Dynamics of aluminium production in the European countries is also taken into account. The paper shows that before 1918 a consumption location factor played a major role, as well as a hydropower factor for aluminium production and a raw material factor for alumina production. In 1919–1945 role of the consumption factor increased (as well as significance of the raw material factor for aluminium production). On the other hand, role of the raw material factor for alumina and hydropower factor for aluminium decreased. These changes show an emergence of integrated works in some large European countries. During the post-WWII economic growth (by 1974) only one factor increased its significance—the transportation factor. This process depicts a migration of the production capacities to marine ports with constant supply of import bauxites. Since 1975 role of the raw material and consumption factors falls down even more, but the transportation factor becomes more significant. For the first time the hydropower factor regains its role. In the first stage (by 1918) the industry concentrated mainly in the Alpine regions, in the Interbellum stage—in large countries, during the post-WWII economic growth—in the ports. During the last stage the industry migrated to the North-Western Europe. A center-periphery migration of the aluminium industry in the world, driven by the lifecycle of the product, was found out by previous researchers. This article confirms this migration on the lower (regional) spatial level.

The article is based on field research conducted in the Krasnodar, Kaliningrad and Orenburg regions in 2022–2024, its goal is to comprehend to what extent narratives about “one’s own land” are able to produce a separate historical and cultural space and entail the fragmentation the national territory, which is connected by a common language, settlement system, and shared history. As a theoretical framework for the analysis, the concept of narrative identity is used, focusing on the meaning of culture with its extensive repertoire of texts, images and symbols for personal and collective self-identification. Regional and municipal museums’ exhibits, interviews with their directors and guides, as well as with journalists, experts, and local government representatives served as the primary information sources. In conducting a comparative analysis of narratives, the authors limited themselves to the three most representative examples in each region. A detailed analysis of the storytelling about “one’s own land” made it possible to highlight the general principles of structuring and presenting information, as well as to determine the storylines of the narratives that perform integrating functions. The authors come to the conclusion about the retroactive, rather than proactive, nature of the narratives of regional distinctiveness, their orientation towards the restoration of the lost order, continuity and heritage, while linking local historical memory with the historical time of the country. The reconstruction of the positive connection between the past, present and future significantly limits the disintegrating tendencies embedded in the idea of “one’s own” and the narratives of the regional distinctiveness, ensuring the unity of the Russian cultural space.

The article presents the results of long-term monitoring of net ecosystem exchange and carbon dioxide emissions from soil and dead wood in a forest ecosystem undergoing drying and spruce stand dieback at the footprint of the “Log Tayozhny” eco-climatic field station (Valdai National Park, Novgorod oblast, Russia). The death and decay of overmature even-aged spruce stands caused by periodic droughts, the impact of bark beetle and wood-destroying fungi, and windfalls result in reduction of primary production and increase of the respiration component of the CO₂ balance and its long-term shift to the region of a pronounced carbon source for the atmosphere, whereas the direct impact of rising temperatures does not lead to such an effect.

Landfills for solid municipal waste are considerable sources of methane, which is one of the principal greenhouse gases. Due to the continuous formation of significant amounts of municipal waste, primarily related to the life of the population of megacities, estimates of methane emissions from the territory of large urban landfills remain relevant. In this paper, the problem is solved based on the coupling of the results of direct measurements of methane concentration with model calculations. The results of mobile measurements carried out near the “Novosyolki” municipal solid waste landfill (St. Petersburg, Russia) in April 2021 and 2024 are presented. The measurement data reveal local maxima of methane concentration in the route sections downwind of the landfill. The maximum values of CH4 concentrations recorded from a vehicle in this observation area reached ~9 ppmv, which significantly exceeds the background ground-level of ~2 ppmv. Average night and morning peak concentrations (5.0 ppmv) are noticeably higher than day and evening ones (2.3 ppmv). Numerical modeling of landfill gas aerial distribution, performed using a dispersion model taking into account the characteristics of atmospheric stability during the observation period, demonstrated qualitative agreement between the calculated ground-level methane concentrations and experimental data. Based on a comparison of the measurement results with the modeling data of the air pollution plume from the landfill territory, methane emission estimates were obtained amounting to 640 ± 190 kg CH4/hr in April 2021 and 200 ± 50 kg CH4/hr in April 2024. The observed significant decrease in emissions from 2021 to 2024 is consistent with the official information on the closure of the landfill in 2018 and the start of landfill cover and reclamation work, which continues to this day. Emissions from the territory of “Novosyolki” landfill can amount up to ~7% of the total anthropogenic methane emissions from the territory of St. Petersburg.

The forestry complex is one of the leading and promising in the economy of the Near North regions of European Russia, including Kostroma oblast. Transformation processes associated with modernization, institutional and macroeconomic transformations, changed geopolitical situation have had a significant impact on it. The purpose of this study is to identify promising strategic opportunities to improve the socioeconomic situation in the Near North of European Russia, taking into account modern realities and potential vectors of development of the region’s forestry complex of Kostroma oblast. Statistical and literary sources, forest planning documents were analysed, and a number of interviews with forest users of Kostroma oblast were conducted. The main trends and problems the forestry industry complex of the region is currently facing have been identified, and recommendations for further development of the forestry industry in the region have been proposed. Possible transformations in the forestry complex of the region have been discussed, such as the transition from extensive to intensive model of forest use and reproduction, revision of the relationship between the state as the owner of the forest fund and tenants, allowing private forestry and forest management on abandoned overgrown agricultural lands.

The article considers the soil-ecological properties of post-technogenic landscapes of treatment facilities—filtration fields of a sugar factory, the chemical composition of technogenic sugar wastewater and the features of accumulation of chemical elements in post-technogenic soils; agroecological indicators of the soils that are significant for their potential use in agriculture and their differences from background Chernozems of the forest-steppe territory are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the soils formed in the bottoms of the settling ponds (checks) abandoned and drained from 1 year to 45 years ago, and on the surrounding them earth walls. Depending on the duration of abandonment of the checks and the degree of hydromorphism, organic-humic and dark humus stratified soils and dark humus zooturbated soils are distinguished; on the earth walls on the mixed material of Chernozems and loess-like loams dark humus soils are developed. It was revealed that the main agroecological indicators of newly formed soils of post-technogenic landscapes of the filtration fields are close to those of background soils, while their increase or decrease is associated with the duration of period of abandonments. The physical parameters of studied soils are similar to those of background Chernozems and do not limit their possible use in agriculture. In terms of organic matter content, the properties of soils of long-abandoned locations are within the range of parameters characteristic of background soils; in waterlogged positions of checks recently taken out of operation, enrichment of the organic soil matter with nitrogen is noted. Limiting factors for use for certain crops may be the alkalinity of post-technogenic soils and excess content of mobile phosphorus and exchangeable potassium in them, caused by the input of wastewater substances. From the point of view of environmental safety, the content of all the studied microelements in the soils of post-technogenic landscapes does not exceed the approximately permissible concentrations.

Abandoned buildings (“abandonments”) as elements of the cultural landscape are the objects with a special semantic status that carry traces of memory of their former functionality, and of the social changes that shaped these “frozen” places. “Abandonments” act as markers of social problems and transformations. They become places of collective nostalgia and alternative historicity, opposed to the official narrative. The article examines the meanings of abandoned buildings in the existence and structure of the cultural landscape, due to new cultural practices that arise around abandoned buildings spontaneously or in an organized manner. Their study allows for a deeper understanding of the role of “dangerous” spaces in culture and the possibility of their legal re-integration into society. An analysis of the types of cultural practices in abandoned buildings allows us to identify several key areas reflecting trends and drifts in the structure of the modern cultural landscape. Informal ways of interacting with abandoned spaces are considered: from the urban explorers’ movement (Urbex), mystical cults, street art to temporary cultural initiatives (festivals, performances). Abandoned buildings are dynamic objects in which the memory of their former functionality, the creative self–organization of cultural groups and social conflicts intersect. They have an ontological duality—the meanings of dying and oblivion, and a growth point for the formation of specific subcultures.