Vol 39, No 2 (2018)

The ecological functions and features of the geologic environment are investigated in terms of environmental geology. The current status of the geologic medium is characterized as a crisis, and the issues of its protection and rehabilitation are not appropriately addressed in environmental protection activity of the state and businesses. The most critical ecological-geologic risks include destruction and deformation of geologic strata, huge amounts of industrial waste, oil spills, landscape and soil degradation, air and surface water pollution, seismic and mudflow phenomena, etc. Mining operations have the greatest negative influence on the environmental parameters of the geologic medium. Inadequate attention to issues related to the present state and protection of the geologic medium leads to accidents and crises in industrial installations. Ecological-geologic hazard hotspots have emerged in areas of intense extraction and processing of mineral raw materials. On the other hand, the environmental component of active mineral resource use is neglected when formulating the prospects for a further development of resource regions. The country’s major mining companies, active participants of the world market of mineral resources, are the most proficient in sustainable mineral resource use. In recent years, Russia saw a large-scale improvement of environmental legislation. Many legal innovations focusing on the preservation of the geologic medium are scattered among different laws. The legal and financial preconditions for the ecologization of mineral resource use are examined. The state plays a key role to stimulate the sustainable mining, processing and transportation of useful minerals. It has to change significantly the system to support the geologic medium protection.

This paper considers the results of geomorphological field experiments in Siberia conducted at the permanent stations operated by the V.B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS for a 60-year period and describes the observation methods. A unique database of quantitative data on the modern relief dynamics is provided. The rates of slow mass motions of soils on slopes, and also of the deluvial, aeolian and channel processes are presented. Observations for long-term time series are summarized. Much attention is paid to the results from investigating the slope processes. The contribution of stationary investigations to the solution of fundamental problems in geomorphology is shown. The role of field experiments in understanding the temporal organization of geomorphological systems is emphasized. Dynamic phases of the intrasecular cycles of exogenous relief formation are investigated. Models of the contemporary functioning of denudation systems that cover all possible variety of dynamic phases and morphological and climatic conditions of denudation in semi-arid conditions of southern Siberia are obtained. It was found that the spatial ordering of exogenous relief formation in the south of Siberia is manifested in the form of a regional series of correlative denudational systems whose structure and functioning mode naturally vary along the aridity and continentality vectors of climate. The spatial ordering of aeolian lithostreams is shown, which are involved in a common cycle of matter spinning clockwise and moving aeolian fine material along the northern subarid foothills areas of the mountain belt of Southern Siberia. An important role of the observation results on the relief dynamics for solving ecological problems is pointed out. Prospects for a further development of experimental geomorphological research in Siberia using high-precision instruments, GIS technologies and other modern methods are outlined.

A comprehensive characterization of the flood hazard on the rivers of the Baikal region is presented, which was obtained by investigating the streams within the basins of the Angara, Upper Lena (with the Vitim and Olekma), Lower Tunguska (headwaters), Upper Amur and Lake Baikal (including the entire Selenga basin). The main flood indicators for the period 1985–2017 are estimated: the genesis, recurrence, duration, flooded area and the force of impact. The influence of changes in the river runoff characteristics on the flood risk is shown by results of correlation analysis and analysis of integro-differential curves. An assessment is made of the changes in the flood frequency at gauging stations during the period of pronounced climatic changes (from 1981 to 2014), compared with the earlier period. The flood hazard within the spatial context for municipalities in the rank of administrative districts is determined on the basis of the dual (socio-economic and natural) nature of floods. It has been confirmed that the most dangerous in the Baikal region are rainfall floods in the southern areas of Irkutsk oblast, the Republic of Buryatia and Zabaikalskii krai. They have the highest frequency, and the largest flooding areas and force of impact and are characterized by the greatest damage and by the largest number of victims and evacuated people. At the same time, the frequency of floods at gauging stations in recent years has decreased compared to the earlier period against the background of the observed low-water period, which is most pronounced on the rivers of South Baikal and in the Selenga river basin.

Results from investigating the geosystems of Cisbaikalia in its western and eastern parts (Primorskii Range and Barguzin Range, respectively) are presented. For studying three macroslopes of these mountain ranges (having an easterly aspect for the Primorskii Range and a westerly and south-easterly aspect for the Barguzin Range), the regional background and the main factors of the landscape differentiation of the study areas were analyzed. Structural features of topological geosystems are revealed, and large-scale maps of key areas are compiled (at a scale of 1:50 000). Maps of the landscape-typological structure were created on the basis of the structural-dynamic and facies analysis of landscapes. It is established that the main factors influencing the landscape diversity are the aspect and steepness of the slopes, the composition and structure of rocks, the absolute height, the amount of atmospheric precipitation, and anthropogenic impacts. It is determined that the influence of the lithomorphic factor is widespread throughout the study areas, the hydromorphic factor is also important, the cryomorphic factor occurs additionally in the goletz zone, and the xeromorphic factor is only observed on the Baikal Range and on the coastal plain in some areas of Priolkhonie. The dynamic aspect of the landscape structure and the relationships between geosystems are displayed in map legends.

A quantitative assessment is made of suspended sediment load, including particulate organic matter and organic carbon, in 2014 for the small streams of the Northern Yenisei region, in the taiga–tundra transition zone (near the city of Igarka, Krasnoyarsk krai). It was found that the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) of the streams under investigation fluctuated between 2 and 18 mg/L during the summer–autumn low-water period of 2014. The proportion of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in the total sediment yield varied from 16.4% to 74.1%, depending on landscape-geomorphological conditions for suspended sediment formation: it is higher for streams with tundra catchments and lower on forest watersheds underlain by sandy and clayey loams. The DOM content varies from catchment to catchment from 1.63 to 2.42 mg/L, and the mean concentration of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is estimated at 0.73 to 1.09 mg C/L. It is shown that the local channel transformations serve as the main source of POM and DOC input to the water of two out of three streams under study. Surface runoff or fast subsurface flow in the organic soil horizon is the external source of DOM input to the water of the third stream during flooding. Regional empirical dependencies were obtained, which correlate the water discharge, total SSC and the proportion of DOM are obtained. The long-term proportion of DOM in the annual suspended sediment flow of the Graviika river makes up 25% and DOC, 11%, or, in absolute values, 406 and 183 t/year, and in units of layer 1.26 and 0.57 t/km², respectively.

The spatial distribution patterns of climatic changes in Yakutia are considered. For 26 meteorological stations of Yakutia we calculated the linear trend coefficients of climatic characteristics: air temperature (mean annual, January and July temperatures) and the mean annual amount of atmospheric precipitation from 1966 to 2016. Maps of climate change trends were compiled from linear trend coefficients. A spatial analysis of the zonal (regional) peculiarities of the climate of Yakutia has been carried out. An increase in air temperature was established for the 50-year period under consideration. It was found that the annual values of the air temperature trend are positive and, on average, a characteristic trend change interval is 0.3 to 0.6 °C/10 yr. Most of the meteorological stations recorded trends of air temperature with maximum values in winter and minimum values in summer. It was determined that the values of the trends in annual precipitation show different directions, and positive trends occur on more than 70% of the territory of Yakutia. Their maximum corresponds to the mountain-taiga regions of Southern Yakutia. Negative trends in precipitation with values of up to–15 mm/10 yr. are observed in tundra landscapes. The findings show that different regions of Yakutia respond differently to climate change. The trend of an increase in mean annual temperature is largely due to the rise in temperatures during the winter months. The rise in air temperature in Yakutia may be part of global warming. Over the last 50 years there has been an increase in the amount of precipitation in Yakutia as a whole.

This article presents the rationale for the need to take into account and assess natural capital as an important factor for viable managerial decision-making concerning the study, use and reproduction of natural resources in the interests of sustainable development. The activity of authorities in Tomsk oblast was used as an example in examining the issues related to integration of accounting and assessing natural capital and ecosystem services in the system of managerial decision-making. We used strategic and normative documents of Tomsk oblast, departmental information and material from previous research into assessments of natural capital. A rationale is given for the need to improve the institutional conditions for proper inventory and assessment of all functions of natural capital and ecosystems in managerial decision-making, namely the development of the monitoring system for economic value in the sphere of environmental management which is based on the system of ecological-economic accounting and constitutes a set of coherent statistical indicators reflecting the status of natural capital. The mechanism is suggested for generation of the information-methodological base of economic assessment of natural capital. It is determined that a qualitatively new information basis integrated into the system of regional management. Qualitatively new information basis integrated into the regional government system will make it possible not to simply obtain information on the flows of expenditures and benefits in the sphere of environmental management but also to ensure interaction between state and municipal authorities and with organizations and the population. The monitoring system for economic value of natural capital and ecosystem services integrated into the region’s executive bodies will permit adaptive governance of environmental management of the region in the face of changes and uncertainty.

Presented are the technique and results of studying the landscape structure of the north-west of Western Siberia on the basis of the Hansen mosaic dataset consisting of elements covering the entire territory of the Earth. To study this area used a synthesis of classical methods of thematic system mapping as described in the doctrine of geosystems of V. B. Sochava, and automated interpretation of remote sensing data and mapping using GIS technologies. The method of geoinformational mapping of the landscape structure with the use of MultiSpec and Quantum GIS software programs for the purpose of drawing up real-time raster landscape maps is shown. In drawing up the map and the legend, the principle of geomic system-hierarchical representation of the territory as a complex multi-level “bottom-up” structure from topological-level geosystems (groups and classes of landscape facies) to regional-level geosystems (geoms, groups and classes of geoms) was used. Compilation of operational raster landscape maps of the north-west of Western Siberia involved multilevel automated interpretation of the Hansen mosaic dataset and mapping of areas (clusters) on images with different brightness characteristics, with the landscape structure of key areas and stationary physical and geographical profiles. A characteristic of this approach also implies using a dynamic classification of geosystems based on the study of their variable states. Such an approach permits a monitoring of changes in landscape structure and its areas and the intensity of anthropogenic impacts on forest and marsh landscapes, and determination of permissible pressure on geosystems in areas with high technogenic pressure of the oil and gas complex represented by the north-west of Siberia. An automated processing of data based on a supervised classification of territorial objects allows for the elimination of inaccuracies arising in visual image interpretation. Raster landscape maps can be used both for a further generation of vector maps and as a real-time information base for purposes of environmental management and protection.

A study was made of the influence of extraction of lead and zinc ores in the northern part of Vietnam (the Red river basin, Chodon district of Bac Can Province, and the basins of the Dai, Ban Thi, Ta Dieng and Cau rivers). Background concentrations of macro- and microelements and biogenic elements are determined in the river waters and water extracts from bottom sediments of small streams of the study area. A significance exceedance of background concentrations was revealed in stretches of the headwaters of the Ban Thi and Dai rivers caused by a combination of natural and anthropogenic factors. It is established that the river waters near the pollution sources contain increased (compared with the geochemical background) concentrations of Zn, Pb, Fe, Ni, Co, As, Bi, Cd, Cs, Sb, Ag,NO₂⁻ and SO₄²⁻. The waters are estimated as moderately and heavily polluted, and at the other points as minimally polluted. It is determined that the level of accumulation of matter in water extracts from bottom sediments with respect to the geochemical background in the vicinity of the ore dressing factories corresponds to weakly and heavily polluted bottom sediments, and further downstream, to thy minimum level of pollution. It is shown that the influence of extraction of lead and zinc ores on the state of small streams is observed in stretches as long as 11–12 km (with a maximum in stretches of up to 4.5 km). The mathematical model of Pb and Zn distribution in the river waters of the study area has been developed and tested.