Generation of integral maps using the territory of a municipal district as an example

Abstract

This paper further develops the ideas of V. B. Sochava’s Siberian school of thematic mapping concerning an integral approach in generating synthesis and assessment maps of the habitat on objective grounds confirmed by quantitative calculations. Maps of the natural environment display the invariant structure of the sites of a territory and their variable states. Integral indicators of the state of environment combine differentquality spatial information on the geographical location of the sites having regard to the scientific principles of qualimetry. An unbiased calculation of integral indicators is ensured through the use of the method of principal component analysis. The first principal component characterizes a maximum of variation in information on the geosystem, and the second component refers to a stable environment background. Their difference for each location corresponds to the potential of geosystem variability. The resulting integral indicators are displayed on assessment cartograms. The entire array of independent principal components is used for a classification of geosystems using the method of k-means clustering to create the typological map of the territory. Calculations are based on data for forest management of the Slyudyanka Leskhoz within the boundaries of the Slyudyanka municipal district of Irkutsk oblast. The territorial norm of the geographical environment corresponds to geosystems of the mountain-taiga belt of the Siberian stone pine and larch taiga on different-aspect slopes. Negative deviations from the norm are induced by high-mountain goletz and subgoletz geosystems on steep slopes, and positive deviations correspond to flat interfluves and gentle slopes.