Geographical Reconstruction Research Articles

Changes in the Baltic Sea levels during the Late Pleistocene the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition

The article discusses the Pre-Baltic Sea history during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene periods. Despite a long history of research on this topic, there are still gaps in our knowledge that prevent us from creating an accurate and comprehensive paleo geographic reconstruction of the region during this time period. A table that provides information on the dates of bottom sediment samples from lakes, peat bogs, and archaeological sites that mark the earliest stages of Baltic Sea evolution, is included. The article identifies problems with the limited research on the Baltic Glacial Lake and Ioldium Sea sediments, as well as the maximum extent of the Ancylian transgression. A brief chronology of changes in water levels during the earliest stages of the Baltic is presented.

Integrating full and partial genome sequences to decipher the global spread of canine rabies virus

Despite the rapid growth in viral genome sequencing, statistical methods face challenges in handling historical viral endemic diseases with large amounts of underutilized partial sequence data. We propose a phylogenetic pipeline that harnesses both full and partial viral genome sequences to investigate historical pathogen spread between countries. Its application to rabies virus (RABV) yields precise dating and confident estimates of its geographic dispersal. By using full genomes and partial sequences, we reduce both geographic and genetic biases that often hinder studies that focus on specific genes. Our pipeline reveals an emergence of the present canine-mediated RABV between years 1301 and 1403 and reveals regional introductions over a 700-year period. This geographic reconstruction enables us to locate episodes of human-mediated introductions of RABV and examine the role that European colonization played in its spread. Our approach enables phylogeographic analysis of large and genetically diverse data sets for many viral pathogens.

Treatise “Discourses on the Migration of Barbarians” as a Source of Information on the Migration Crisis of the Western Jin Era (265–317 AD)

The relevance of the issues raised in the article is due to the fact that the analysis of the content of the treatise of the dignitary Jiang Tong (unknown – 310 AD) will allow us to reconstruct the features of the early stages of the evolution of the approaches of the Chinese bureaucracy to the problem of the overgrown “barbarian” enclaves. The novelty of the study is in in-depth analysis of the cause-and-effect relationships of the general historical events of the Western Jin era in the context of studying the migration policy of the central and regional Jin authorities in relation to barbarian peoples. The purpose of the article is to identify the peculiarities of the approach to the problem of the overgrown “barbarian enclaves” in the all-Chinese Western Jin empire, reflected in the work of the dignitary Jiang Tong “Xi rong lun” (“Discourses on the resettlement of barbarians”). This treatise has survived to this day as part of the official dynastic history of the Jin Shu (collective biographical chapter 56). Three complex, important and little-studied problems related to the Jin migration crisis and the historical and political process of the Troubled Western Jin era are briefly reviewed and analyzed. First, it is a problem of the fragmentation of the historical and cultural aspects of the general outline of the historical events of the Western Jin era, which is characteristic of the troubled periods of history. Second, it is a problem of the historical and geographical reconstruction of the area of residence of ethnical minorities of the Northern China. Third, it is a problem of reconstructing the Jin methods of weakening and Sinification of the ethnical minorities of the Northern China and adjacent territories. We draw a conclusion that the view on the problem of ethnic enclaves presented in the treatise was distinguished by a detailed analysis of the history of the issue, as well as detailed calculations of the proposed resettlement of “barbarian” peoples.

Antenna-Shaped Biomimetic Tactile Sensor Using Elastomers and Conductive Liquid

The antenna of an insect has inspired researchers to develop various types of antenna-mimicking tactile sensors. We suggest a conductive liquid-based biomimetic tactile covered with elastomers, focusing on imitating its anatomical features. The polyethylene glycol (PEG) and silver nitrate composite proved its compatibility with elastomers and its reliability as a conductive material. The working mechanism of the sensor established from the conductive liquid and wires was investigated. A three-dimensional (3D) printer-driven fabrication process facilitated the applicability of the sensor to an integrated biomimetic robot for military purposes. Wall scanning tests using multiple sensors and walls with various geographical features showed a linear relationship between bending angles and resistance with outstanding coefficients of determination up to 0.9889. Especially, wall scanning experiments at a fixed distance led to their geographical reconstruction with high accuracy. Our antenna-shaped tactile sensor was made with alternative elements, a simple fabrication process, and an alternative working mechanism. It also demonstrated high repeatability on the basis of bending angles and showed the possibility to be used for 3D image reconstruction.

A comprehensive phylogeography of the widespread pond snail genus Radix revealed restricted colonization due to niche conservatism.

To clarify the effect of niche conservatism on evolutionary history, we focused on freshwater snails, which have different ecological and phylogenetic properties from previously tested taxa. We conducted a phylogenetic analysis using 750 lymnaeid individuals from 357 sites of eleven Radix species. Then, we estimated the ancestral distribution using the geographic coordinates and colonization routes. In addition, a statistical test of the colonization distances in the latitudinal and longitudinal directions was performed. We also conducted ecological niche modeling for two widely distributed species using climatic data. Ancestral geographic reconstruction estimated the origin of the genus to be around the Indian subcontinental region and showed that latitudinal immigration distances were shorter than longitudinal immigration distances in the diversification process. Ecological niche models suggested that the current distribution was restricted by climate, with annual mean temperature and precipitation of the driest month as particularly strong factors. Niche conservatism to the climate can affect the diversification of freshwater snails.

Cluster settlement structure in Toropetsky Uyezd according to the cadastre of 1540

The article is dedicated to the peculiarities of settlement structure in Toropetsky Uyezd of the XVI century. In the XIV – XV centuries Toropets land was the eastern outskirts of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and in 1503 joined the Moscow state. The cadastre of 1540 describes the structure of Toropetsky Uyezd as the clusters of settlements, characterized by commonness of names and detected both in state (58 clusters) and local (79 clusters) lands. They differ in size, i.e. the number of settlements and court indicators. Mapping of the clusters of settlements reveals their location in the territory of uyezd, land area, and population density. Geographical reconstruction is carried out via geoinformation technologies. It is demonstrated that most developed part of the uyezd is Toropets Volost and the adjacent territories, such as eastern districts of the uyezd in the basin of the Western Dvina River, developed in the pre-Mongol period, and the basin of tributaries of the Kunya River. The model of settlement structure in Toropetsky Uyezd most likely corresponds to the type of land relations inherent to Syabry community, in which peasants jointly owned land, agricultural and fishery areas. Such settlement structure retained due to the peripheral position of Toropets and its relative autonomy. Common names served as a means for identification of the object of taxation. This settlement model gradually diminishes after Toropets has joined the Moscow State, first and foremost it pertains to the local lands. Common names are preserved as the geographical landmarks; while the individual names are widely used within such clusters, as the court indicators increase.

Novel watermass reconstruction in the Early Mississippian Appalachian Seaway based on integrated proxy records of redox and salinity

Redox state and salinity are fundamental properties of watermasses, and in modern environments, detailed analysis of spatial variability in redox and salinity is possible through direct measurement. Watermass reconstruction is difficult in deep-time systems, however, because the sedimentary record of ancient watermasses is often incomplete or difficult to access on spatial scales large enough to permit basin-scale reconstruction. During the Middle Devonian to Early Mississippian periods, the Appalachian Basin of eastern North America was characterized by a variably restricted watermass, leading to extensive deposition of organic-rich black shale associated with the regional development of bottom-water anoxia. Watermass reconstruction during deposition of these units has previously been attempted, but only on small spatial scales, with most studies focused on trace element proxies applied to individual study sections. Here, we focus instead on a broader geographic reconstruction of watermasses in the Lower Mississippian (Tournaisian) Sunbury Shale and present a new geochemical dataset that spans five drill cores across a basin transect from northeastern Ohio to southern Kentucky (USA). Iron speciation and trace metal abundances reveal a strong paleoredox gradient that can be related to water depth and basin hydrography. In the northeastern-most core of Ohio, iron speciation reveals largely ambiguous redox conditions; however, oxic conditions are potentially indicated by very low total organic carbon and trace metal contents. These oxygenated conditions were likely related to proximity to the Catskill deltaic wedge complex that fed freshwater into the basin and lowered the position of the regional pycnocline. In contrast, in central and southern Ohio, paleoredox indicators reveal the development of ferruginous conditions associated with rapid deepening to the south into the central axis of the Appalachian Basin. Further to the south in Kentucky, our data reveal dominantly euxinic conditions, which developed as environments shoaled towards the basin-bounding Cumberland Sill. We also investigated paleosalinity across the Appalachian Basin using strontium/barium (Sr/Ba) ratios. Our data reveal a subtle paleosalinity gradient from low-brackish (i.e., close to freshwater) conditions close to the Catskill Delta complex to increasingly brackish conditions to the southwest. This trend was disrupted by large paleosalinity variation across a shallow mixing zone in the southwestern-most core. Lastly, strong enrichments of redox-sensitive trace metals in both ferruginous and euxinic environments are parsimoniously attributed to the operation of an iron-manganese particulate shuttle that continuously supplied oxide-sensitive metals to the Appalachian Basin. Ultimately, this study is among the first to present detailed watermass reconstruction in an ancient epeiric sea using both redox and salinity proxies applied over a large lateral transect. We suggest that a similar approach may be useful in other deep-time systems of geobiological, paleoclimatic, and paleoceanographic significance.

Geographical reconstruction of the SARS‐CoV‐2 outbreak in Lombardy (Italy) during the early phase

The first identification of autochthonous transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 in Italy was documented by the Laboratory of Clinical Microbiology, Virology and Bioemergencies of L. Sacco Hospital (Milano, Italy) on 20th February 2020 in a 38 years old male patient, who was found positive for pneumonia at the Codogno Hospital. Thereafter Lombardy has reported the highest prevalence of COVID‐19 cases in the country, especially in Milano, Brescia and Bergamo provinces. The aim of this study was to assess the potential presence of different viral clusters belonging to the six main provinces involved in Lombardy COVID‐19 cases in order to highlight peculiar province‐dependent viral characteristics. A phylogenetic analysis was conducted on 20 full length genomes obtained from patients addressing to several Lombard hospitals from February 20th to April 4th, 2020, aligned with 41 Italian viral genome assemblies available on GISAID database as of 30th March, 2020: two main monophyletic clades, containing 8 and 53 isolates, respectively, were identified. Noteworthy, Bergamo isolates mapped inside the small clade harbouring M gene D3G mutation. The molecular clock analysis estimated a cluster divergence approximately one month before the first patient identification, supporting the hypothesis that different SARS‐CoV‐2 strains had spread worldwide at different times, but their presence became evident only in late February along with Italian epidemic emergence. Therefore, this epidemiological reconstruction suggests that virus initial circulation in Lombardy was ascribable to multiple introduction. The phylogenetic reconstruction robustness, however, will be improved when more genomic sequences are available, in order to guarantee a complete epidemiological surveillance.

Global Spread of the B5 Subgenotype EV-A71 and the Phylogeographical Analysis of Chinese Migration Events.

The subgenotype B5 of EV-A71 is a widely circulating subgenotype that frequently spreads across the globe. Several outbreaks have occurred in nations, such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, and Japan. Appearing first in Taiwan, China, the subgenotype has been frequently reported in mainland of China even though no outbreaks have been reported so far. The current study reconstructed the migration of the B5 subgenotype of EV-A71 in China via phylogeographical analysis. Furthermore, we investigated its population dynamics in order to draw more credible inferences. Following a dataset cleanup of B5 subgenotype of EV-A71, we detected earlier B5 subgenotypes of EV-A71 sequences that had been circulating in Malaysia and Singapore since the year 2000, which was before the 2003 outbreak that occurred in Sarawak. The Bayesian inference indicated that the most recent common ancestor of B5 subgenotype EV-A71 appeared in September, 1994 (1994.75). With respect to the overall prevalence, geographical reconstruction revealed that the B5 subgenotype EV-A71 originated singly from single-source cluster and subsequently developed several active lineages. Based on a large amount of data that was accumulated, we conclude that the appearance of the B5 subgenotype of EV-A71 in mainland of China was mainly due to multiple migrations from different origins.

Un análisis histórico y geográfico de la articulación de actores sociales en la apertura de escuelas de alternancia

Realizamos una reconstrucción histórica y geográfica del surgimiento y desarrollo de la pedagogía de la alternancia tal como se fue generando en diferentes continentes, centrándonos en las experiencias de Francia, Brasil y Canadá. Interpretamos la forma en que diversos actores sociales se han auto organizado en distintos países para abrir y sostener en el tiempo escuelas rurales de alternancia. Nos hemos preguntado: ¿en qué momentos y lugares se configuran procesos de auto organización comunitaria para abrir escuelas que permitan a los jóvenes de ámbitos rurales continuar con sus estudios luego de la educación primaria? ¿Qué actores sociales participan en cada caso y a qué tipos de demandas responden? Nuestros resultados muestran que la expansión de la pedagogía de la alternancia en el mundo se fue realizando a partir de contactos entre grupos que comparten una orientación similar en diferentes lugares geográficos (respeto por las formas culturales de la ruralidad, interés en construir instituciones educativas que permitan la participación de diferentes actores sociales, generación de herramientas pedagógicas distintivas). Así, esta pedagogía puede considerarse, tal como algunos de sus antecedentes lo indican, como un movimiento (inclusive de carácter internacional) conservando sin embargo el carácter singular de cada experiencia en cada historia y geografía particular.

Reconstructing the man-made Yellow River flood of Kaifeng City in 1642 AD using documentary sources

The Yellow River flood of September 1642 AD was one of the most extreme events inflicted on Kaifeng city which also had ramifications across the wider Yellow River region. Using all the available and predominantly non-instrumental data, this paper presents a geographical reconstruction of the 1642 AD flood. Through this reconstruction of the 1642 AD flood, a flood that resulted in the worst urban disaster in Yellow River history, reveals the series disaster spatial processes associated with the actual flood event. After introducing the disaster scene, this paper then goes on to help develop an understanding of the relationships between the geographical situation, climate factors, military purposes, people and the Yellow River at that time. The results show that reconstructing flood processes, is a very effective method for improving our understanding of major flood events, including natural and humanity effects of such events. Furthermore, the analysis of historical documents and archaeological findings may significantly contribute to a better and more detailed understanding of the space and time relationships involved in flood processes and the consequential impact of such floods.

The historical topography of the Battle of Hastings: A geographical reconstruction

AbstractIn 1066, English and Norman forces engaged in a decisive battle near Hastings. The battlefield itself provides an example of the way in which physical geography can contribute to our understanding of historical events. According to historical accounts, the rolling landscape of the Hastings battle site was unquestionably an important factor in understanding the conflict. Yet surprisingly few analyses of the local terrain exist to test this proposition. In part, this is because historians of the battle have largely affirmed that the current battle site bears little or no physical resemblance to that present in 1066, and thus is unsuitable for contemporary analysis that might shed light on the outcome of the battle itself. By applying advanced geographical analysis using the RUSLE model, this study demonstrates that there is in fact considerable evidence to suggest that a limited amount of sediment was removed, hence the battlefield has in fact changed very little since the battle. This finding is significant, insofar as it opens the door to new research on the Battle of Hastings which may shed additional light on the events that occurred there and the factors that influenced the outcome of this key conflict in British history.

Geographic, geometrical and semantic reconstruction of urban scene from high resolution oblique aerial images

An effective approach is proposed for 3D urban scene reconstruction in the form of point cloud with semantic labeling. Starting from high resolution oblique aerial images, our approach proceeds through three main stages: geographic reconstruction, geometrical reconstruction and semantic reconstruction. The absolute position and orientation of all the cameras relative to the real world are recovered in the geographic reconstruction stage. Then, in the geometrical reconstruction stage, an improved multi-view stereo matching method is employed to produce 3D dense points with color and normal information by taking into account the prior knowledge of aerial imagery. Finally the point cloud is classified into three classes &#x0028 building, vegetation, and ground &#x0029 by a rule-based hierarchical approach in the semantic reconstruction step. Experiments on complex urban scene show that our proposed 3-stage approach could generate reasonable reconstruction result robustly and efficiently. By comparing our final semantic reconstruction result with the manually labeled ground truth, classification accuracies from 86.75&#x25 to 93.02&#x25 are obtained.

Geographic reconstruction of a Central-West Brazilian landscape devastated during the first half of the 20th century: Mato Grosso de Goiás

In the history of humanity, there are various accounts of ecosystems that were devastated to the detriment of scientific knowledge. In Brazil, the Atlantic Forest and Cerrado biomes are emblematic of this phenomenon. Specifically, within the latter, an environment consisting predominantly of savanna, a large tropical forest enclave existed, known as Mato Grosso de Goiás. This ecosystem was almost devastated by the Brazilian land expansion policies during the first half of the 20th century. The objective of this study is to estimate the extent of the original area of the Mato Grosso de Goiás ecosystem through integration of historical and cartographic data using geoprocessing techniques. The original area was estimated around 26,391 km². These data can aid in the planning of conservation policies for the Cerrado biome. In addition, the used methodology can be adapted to similar studies, especially in the field of environmental science.

RUSSIAN RESEARCH IN LATE IMPERIAL CHINA: THE CASE OF VLADIMIR OBRUCHEV'S EXPEDITION TO WEST CHINA, 1892–1894

ABSTRACT Following the growth of Russian political interests in Inner Asia in the mid-19th century, the Russian Imperial Geographical Society (RGS) initiated a series of extensive multi-disciplinary field studies of the region, including areas which now are part of the People's Republic of China. These expeditions aimed to provide the Russian government and academia with detailed information on the region's ethnographic, geological, botanical and other features and also to promote Russian science on an international level. One of the longest expeditions, in terms of both time and distance, was that of Vladimir Obruchev, the future renowned novelist and Soviet academician, who at that time was a young Siberian geologist. In the span of two years beginning in September 1892, he covered a distance of more than 15,000 kilometers inside China. He was inspired by the studies of Ferdinand von Richthofen on loess soils that are found only on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Utilizing the route description from Obruchev's memoir “From Kyakhta to Kuldzha” (1940), the original copies of his field report to the Russian Imperial Geographical Society (1900), and various materials from the archive of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the library of the Institute of Geography, and the archive of the Russian Imperial Geographical Society, as well as Chinese databases and maps, the author made a detailed geographical and chronological reconstruction of the expedition route and itinerary on the modern map of China. More than 100 places have been identified and those points are available online as an interactive presentation. This contribution also presents a novel approach for studying the history of geographical exploration with all its complexity.

Tectonic implications of Mesozoic magmatism to initiation of Cenozoic basin development within the passive South China Sea margin

The South China Sea (SCS) is one of the classical example of a non-volcanic passive margin situated within three tectonic plates of the Eurasian, Indo-Australian and Philippine Sea plate. The development of SCS resulted from interaction of various types of plate boundaries, and complex tectonic assemblage of micro blocks and accretionary prisms. Numerous models were proposed for the formation of SCS, yet none can fully satisfy different aspects of tectonic forces. Temporal and geographical reconstruction of Cretaceous and Cenozoic magmatism with the isochrones of major basins was conducted. Our reconstruction indicated the SE margin of Asia had gone through two crustal thinning events. The sites for rifting development are controlled by localized thermal weakening of magmatism. NW–SE extension setting during Late Cretaceous revealed by magmatism distribution and sedimentary basins allow us to allocate the retreated subduction of Pacific plate to the cause of first crustal thinning event. A magmatic gap between 75 and 65 Ma prior to the initiation of first basin rifting suggested a significant modification of geodynamic setting occurred. The Tainan basin, Pearl River Mouth basin, and Liyue basins started to develop since 65 Ma where the youngest Late Cretaceous magmatism concentrated. Sporadic bimodal volcanism between 65 and 40 Ma indicates further continental extension prior to the opening of SCS. The E–W extension of Malay basin and West Natuna began since late Eocene followed by N–S rifting of SCS as Neotethys subducted. The SCS ridge developed between Pearl River Mouth basin and Liyue basin where 40 Ma volcanic activities concentrated. The interaction of two continental stretching events by Pacific followed by Neotethys subduction with localized magmatic thermal weakening is the cause for the non-volcanic nature of SCS.

Multi-sensor based high-precision direct georeferencing of medium-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle images

ABSTRACTA high-precision direct georeferencing method based on multi-sensor information for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing is proposed in this research. The method makes contributions in three areas. First, the direct georeferencing model for the most popular system structure of fixed wing UAV loading of a camera with two degrees of freedom is established by using multi-sensor parameters. Second, based on this model, it performs image geographical reconstruction under complex motion and ultimate imaging conditions, which constructs the resulting image from the image frame, geographical frame and image pixels, and provides real geometric and geographic information. Third, in order to improve the accuracy of the georeferencing of the corrected image, a method of error prediction and compensation is presented. It converts the six factors affecting the accuracy of image georeferencing, to three factors for reducing the complexity. Then, the error prediction model is constructed, the parameters of which could be determined by supervised machine learning method. A medium-altitude UAV is employed to collect large amount of images and other sensor data. The experiments show quite encouraging results.

Reconstructing geographical boundary conditions for palaeoclimate modelling during the Cenozoic

Abstract. Studies on the palaeoclimate and palaeoceanography using numerical model simulations may be considerably dependent on the implemented geographical reconstruction. Because building the palaeogeographic datasets for these models is often a time-consuming and elaborate exercise, palaeoclimate models frequently use reconstructions in which the latest state-of-the-art plate tectonic reconstructions, palaeotopography and -bathymetry, or vegetation have not yet been incorporated. In this paper, we therefore provide a new method to efficiently generate a global geographical reconstruction for the middle-late Eocene. The generalised procedure is also reusable to create reconstructions for other time slices within the Cenozoic, suitable for palaeoclimate modelling. We use a plate-tectonic model to make global masks containing the distribution of land, continental shelves, shallow basins and deep ocean. The use of depth-age relationships for oceanic crust together with adjusted present-day topography gives a first estimate of the global geography at a chosen time frame. This estimate subsequently needs manual editing of areas where existing geological data indicate that the altimetry has changed significantly over time. Certain generic changes (e.g. lowering mountain ranges) can be made relatively easily by defining a set of masks while other features may require a more specific treatment. Since the discussion regarding many of these regions is still ongoing, it is crucial to make it easy for changes to be incorporated without having to redo the entire procedure. In this manner, a complete reconstruction can be made that suffices as a boundary condition for numerical models with a limited effort. This facilitates the interaction between experts in geology and palaeoclimate modelling, keeping reconstructions up to date and improving the consistency between different studies. Moreover, it facilitates model inter-comparison studies and sensitivity tests regarding certain geographical features as newly generated boundary conditions can more easily be incorporated in different model simulations. The workflow is presented covering a middle-late Eocene reconstruction (38 Ma), using a MatLab script and a complete set of source files that are provided in the supplementary material.

Modelling the Spread of Farming in the Bantu-Speaking Regions of Africa: An Archaeology-Based Phylogeography

We use archaeological data and spatial methods to reconstruct the dispersal of farming into areas of sub-Saharan Africa now occupied by Bantu language speakers, and introduce a new large-scale radiocarbon database and a new suite of spatial modelling techniques. We also introduce a method of estimating phylogeographic relationships from archaeologically-modelled dispersal maps, with results produced in a format that enables comparison with linguistic and genetic phylogenies. Several hypotheses are explored. The ‘deep split’ hypothesis suggests that an early-branching eastern Bantu stream spread around the northern boundary of the equatorial rainforest, but recent linguistic and genetic work tends not to support this. An alternative riverine/littoral hypothesis suggests that rivers and coastlines facilitated the migration of the first farmers/horticulturalists, with some extending this to include rivers through the rainforest as conduits to East Africa. More recently, research has shown that a grassland corridor opened through the rainforest at around 3000–2500 BP, and the possible effect of this on migrating populations is also explored. Our results indicate that rivers and coasts were important dispersal corridors, but do not resolve the debate about a ‘Deep Split’. Future work should focus on improving the size, quality and geographical coverage of the archaeological 14C database; on augmenting the information base to establish descent relationships between archaeological sites and regions based on shared material cultural traits; and on refining the associated physical geographical reconstructions of changing land cover.

Genesis of the Cultural Landscape of Urals and Siberia

This article presents the author's approach to the study of cultural landscape genesis. Historical and geographical reconstruction of Urals and Siberia served as the empirical basis of the study. A hypothesis that highlights some of the basic morphological components of the cultural landscape on the scale of a given region is set forth based on that reconstruction. Communications and cultural values have been classified as the primary morphological components. The article compares the cultural landscape's communicative structure and two main forms of communication. The first form includes land communication routes and regional settlement patterns, which establish a kind of communicative framework for the cultural landscape of the region. The second form is the circle of social and cultural interactions that directly or indirectly affect the economic development and life activities of regional communities. Each of these forms of communication reflects a certain pattern of cultural values that is specific to a given form of economic development in a geographical region or to a particular historical era. Using this approach, the article studies the spatial organization of the cultural landscape of the Urals and Siberia in an attempt to explain the cultural diversity of various parts of present-day Russia.