Settlement dynamics and development of transport communications in Southern Yakutia in late the XX – early XXI centuries

Abstract

This article examines the settlement dynamics in relation to the development of transport communications using the statistical, comparative geographical, and cartographic methods. A brief characteristics is given to the system of displacement of population of Southern Yakutia in the late XX – early XXI centuries. The analysis employs the materials of the population censuses of 1959, 1970, 1979, 1989, 2002, and 2010, which allows compiling the population maps that reveal the peculiarities of settlement network, their population density and structure. Spatial representation of the data is presented on the example of population displacement maps and development of transport communications in Southern Yakutia as of 1959 and 2010. Comparative analysis maps of different periods demonstrates a three-fold decrease in the number of settlements in Southern Yakutia during the intercensal period (1959–2010) due to liquidation of unpromising villages and change of nomadic lifestyle of the indigenous population to sedentary life in larger rural settlements during the period of Soviet administrative reforms of the late XX century. The emergence of new transport communications is associated with active industrial development of Southern Yakutia; however the territories were affected unevenly. It is established that spatial peculiarities of population displacement in Southern Yakutia in the late XX – early XXI centuries have remained, although the settlement areas of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North- the Evenks – have decreased. The study of transport communications on the maps of different periods revealed the dynamics of their development in different historical periods, determining the historical roads, abandoned transport routes, emergence of new types and categories of communication lines, including the network of technological roads of industrial companies used for infrastructure maintenance.