Assessment of the resistance of landscapes of the Altai Republic
 to anthropogenic impacts

Abstract

Currently, there are many points of view on assessing the resistance of landscapes to anthropogenic impact, but there are no generally accepted methods for quantitative assessment of the emergent properties of geosystems. Various methods and approaches have been developed that are based on indices of sustainability and well-being, as well as classification models, the vast majority of which are based on a score-index approach. The work provides an integral assessment of the environmental sustainability of the landscapes of the Altai Republic, which is based on a number of physical and geographical factors that influence the stability of the existing geosystems. The most important among them are: relief (especially the steepness of slopes), vegetation cover, soils, density of the river network, water balance and land types. As a result, it was established that there is a general pattern - with increasing altitude above sea level, the ecological sustainability of landscapes decreases. Against the background of this pattern, flattened areas of intermountain basins stand out, where stability increases somewhat. Thus, in the north-west of the republic, landscapes of high environmental sustainability predominate, which are succeded by less stable landscapes of the central regions, and on the slopes of the North and South Chuysky, Katunsky ridges, the Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola massif, the ecological sustainability of landscapes is noticeably reduced.