Socio-economic impact of Trans-Siberian railway after the collapse of Soviet Union by integrated spatial data analysis

Abstract

How Russian cities have stood up again after the collapse of Soviet Union will be discussed in this paper. In order to know how the cities has managed the difficult period after the change of social system, transition of urban area, population, and nighttime light is searched. Although Far East will not stop as one of the most important area with abundant resources, overpopulation in towns and depopulation in countryside is going on. By searching the present situation, this research also aims to predict the future of Far East and Russia. First of all, Landsat data from 1987 to 2015 is collected over Moscow, Vladivostok, Novosibirsk, Tynda, and Blagoveshchensk and urban area is calculated by land cover classification. Secondly, population and retail turnover data are collected from year books in Russia. Thirdly, gross regional product (GRP) is estimated by nighttime light images from DMSP-OLS and VIIRS DNB dataset. In addition, these data are compared and difference of development stage after the collapse of Soviet Union between the unstable era (1990s-2000) and development era (2000-) will be discussed. It is expected that these analysis will give us useful information about Russian strategy for the future.