Mongolia Russia Economic Corridor Research Articles

China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor: Building Infrastructure Connectivity in the Face of Global Challenges

China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor: Building Infrastructure Connectivity in the Face of Global Challenges

Assessing the Competitiveness of the Ski Resources around Lake Baikal (Russia) and Measures for Their Further Development

Russia has considerable experience in the development of winter sports and ski resorts. The region around Lake Baikal possesses unique landscapes and cultural unity, making it a hot spot for winter tourism in Russia. The ski resorts around Lake Baikal are among the most attractive tourist destinations during the winter season, attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists. Based on the experience of the Northeast Asia Sustainable Development Research Centre, this study includes a survey of experts from China and Russia. The study focuses on five major ski resorts near Lake Baikal. A comprehensive competitiveness assessment index system and a quantitative evaluation model for winter tourism resorts have been established, which enable a scientific evaluation of the level of comprehensive competitiveness of winter tourism regions near Lake Baikal. The study showed that the Sobolinaya ski resort has excellent competitiveness among the resorts studied, while Bychya and Istland have average competitiveness and Davan and Mamai have low competitiveness. Local natural resources and the level of infrastructure development make the most significant contributions to the overall competitiveness of a resort. The study proposes development measures, such as the creation of a winter tourism complex with the Sobolinaya resort as its core and the establishment of an international special zone for winter tourism along the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor. The research results can serve as a basis for decision making to improve the overall competitiveness of the winter tourism industry around Lake Baikal and provide scientific and technical support for cross-border international cooperation in the winter tourism industry between China and Russia.

Terrestrial transect study on pattern and driving mechanism of ecosystem services in the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor

This study quantified the gradient characteristics, trade-off/synergy relationships, and spatiotemporal changes in five key ecosystem services on the meridional (east-west transect of the Siberian Railway (EWTSR) and zonal (north-south transect of Northeast Asia (NSTNEA)) transects of the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor from 1992 to 2020. The results showed significant regional differentiation of ecosystem services. The improvement in ecosystem services in the EWTSR was significantly greater than in the NSTNEA, and the synergy between water yield and food production in the EWTSR improved the most from 1992 to 2020. The relationship between ecosystem services and different levels of dominant factors was significant, and population expansion had the greatest impact on the trade-off between habitat quality and food production. The leading drivers of ecosystem services in the NSTNEA were normalized vegetation index, population density, and precipitation. This study helps reveal regional differentiation characteristics and drive factors of ecosystem services in Eurasia.

Evaluation and prediction of engineering construction suitability in the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor

It is proposed to build a high-speed railway through the China‒Mongolia‒Russia economic corridor (CMREC) which runs from Beijing to Moscow via Mongolia. However, the frozen ground in this corridor has great impacts on the infrastructure stability, especially under the background of climate warming and permafrost degradation. Based on the Bayesian Network Model (BNM), this study evaluates the suitability for engineering construction in the CMREC, by using 21 factors in five aspects of terrain, climate, ecology, soil, and frozen-ground thermal stability. The results showed that the corridor of Mongolia's Gobi and Inner Mongolia in China is suitable for engineering construction, and the corridor in Amur, Russia near the northern part of Northeast China is also suitable due to cold and stable permafrost overlaying by a thin active layer. However, the corridor near Petropavlovsk in Kazakhstan and Omsk in Russia is not suitable for engineering construction because of low freezing index and ecological vulnerability. Furthermore, the sensitivity analysis of influence factors indicates that the thermal stability of frozen ground has the greatest impact on the suitability of engineering construction. These conclusions can provide a reference basis for the future engineering planning, construction and risk assessment.

Pattern of Grain Production Potential and Development Potential in China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor

The China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC) region is part of the Silk Road Economic Belt and is critical to world food grain safety, and thus, developing its potential grain production will help counter any global food crisis. In this study, a grain production potential measurement system for the CMREC was designed and developed using spatial data to progressively correct environmental factor functions. The potential yield per unit area and potential area of four grain crops in 48 provinces were scientifically and systematically evaluated, and the grain production potential, development potential, and development potential range were calculated. The results show that the grain production potential and development potential of the corridor are significant. The yield of wheat and maize is mainly distributed in Siberia and the south of the Russian Far East. The development potential of soybean is very large and is mainly concentrated in the Russian Far East and northeast region of Mongolia. However, there is little room for paddy yield improvement, and its potential is mainly concentrated in northeast China. The grain production potential forms a high-value region with a low value from north to south, high value in the middle, extending from northwest to southeast. Grain and cereals in the whole region amounted to 8.45 × 108 t (4.25 × 108 t in Russia, 4.03 × 108 t in China, and 0.12 × 108 t in Mongolia). In terms of grain type, maize has the highest productivity potential with 1.96 × 108 t, followed by wheat at 1.45 × 108 t. The potential for paddy is 0.58 × 104 t, whereas soybean has the lowest potential of 0.40 × 108 t. The results of this study provide evidential support in the form of data for the development of the complementary advantages of agricultural resources, construction of the CMREC, and joint development of a food resource free trade zone. The CMREC will strengthen the development of modern, green, high-yield, high-quality, and efficient grain production zones for soybean and maize, and promote the diversification of grain resource cooperation.

Effects of land use change on ecosystem services in the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor

Understanding the spatiotemporal characteristics of land use, ecosystem services, and their relationship provides a basis for the sustainable development of ecosystems. However, the effect of land use change on multiple ecosystem services has not been widely quantified, especially in transnational areas. This study analysed the spatiotemporal characteristics of land use change in the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor using the ESA-Global Land Cover product from 1992 to 2019. We used the InVEST model to evaluate the changes in carbon storage, habitat quality, water yield, and soil retention and quantified the contribution of land use to the changes in ecosystem services by calculating the ecosystem service contribution index (ESCI). The results showed that from 1992 to 2019, the urban/built-up environment and croplands increased by 22,010 km 2 and 32,946 km 2 , respectively, which led to the continuous decline of forests. The implementation of ecological projects significantly decreased the barren environment. The value of four ecosystem services gradually decreased depending on the distance from the coastline and improved overall from 1992 to 2019. Land use conversion significantly affected ecosystem services. The expansion of croplands, urbanisation, and desertification had a significant negative impact on ecosystem services and the conversion to grasslands. Forests had a significant positive impact on ecosystem services. The findings will enrich our understanding of ecosystem services in transnational areas and help balance the relationship between ecological conservation and social-economic development in the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor. • Land-use change had significant spatiotemporal differences from 1992 to 2019. • Quantitative assessment to the contributions of land use conversion on changes in ecosystem services. • Ecosystem services improved in the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor. • Land-use conversion was significantly correlated with ecosystem services.

Precipitation and Anthropogenic Activities Jointly Green the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor

Climate change and anthropogenic activities are widely considered the main factors affecting vegetation growth. However, their relative contributions are under debate. Within the non-climatic impact, detailed human activities, particularly government policy adjustments, are less investigated. In this study, we develop a fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) extraction method based on MODIS-EVI satellite data to analyze the spatiotemporal variation of vegetation and its attributions in the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC). The average FVC has improved, with a general increase of 0.02/10a from 2000 to 2020. We construct a driving factor identification system for FVC change, based on partial and multiple correlation coefficients, and we divide the driving forces of FVC changes into seven climate-driven types and one non-climate-driven type. The results reveal that FVC changes caused by climatic factors account for 28.2% of CMREC. The most prominent greening (19.5%) is precipitation-driven, and is extensively distributed in Khentii Aimag, Mongolia; southeast Inner Mongolia; west Jilin Province; and southwest Heilongjiang Province, China. Moreover, we quantify the relative contribution of climatic and non-climatic factors to significant FVC change using the first-difference multivariate regression method. The results indicate that the effects of non-climatic factors on vegetation change outweigh those of climatic factors in most areas. According to the land cover change and regional policy adjustment, anthropogenic activities such as afforestation, reclamation, and planting structure adjustment explain most vegetation improvement in the Northeast Plain; eastern Inner Mongolia; and the Hetao Irrigation District, China. Meanwhile, both vegetation improvement and degradation disperse concurrently in the Mongolian and Russian parts of CMREC, where climate change and anthropogenic activities positively and negatively affect vegetation change, respectively. Despite the greening in most CMREC, it must be noted that human-induced greening is unsustainable to some degree. The overdevelopment of black soil area and sandy land, adverse effects of afforestation projects, and natural hazards related to weather and climate extremes altogether threaten the local ecological security in the long run. Therefore, governments should develop new desertification countermeasures in accordance with the laws of nature, and enhance international cooperation to guarantee the ecological safety of CMREC.

Explicitly Identifying the Desertification Change in CMREC Area Based on Multisource Remote Data

Explicitly identifying the desertification changes and causes has been a hot issue of eco-environment sustainable development in the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC) area. In this paper, the desertification change patterns between 2000 and 2015 were identified by operating the classification and regression tree (CART) method with multisource remote sensing datasets on Google Earth Engine (GEE), which has the higher overall accuracy (85%) than three other methods, namely support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF) and Albedo-normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) models. A contribution index of climate change and human activities on desertification was introduced to quantitatively explicate the driving mechanisms of desertification change based on the temporal datasets and net primary productivity (NPP). The results show that the area of slight desertification land had increased from 719,700 km2 to 948,000 km2 between 2000 and 2015. The area of severe desertification land decreased from 82,400 km2 to 71,200 km2. The area of desertification increased by 9.68%, in which 69.68% was mainly caused by human activities. Climate change and human activities accounted for 68.8% and 27.36%, respectively, in the area of desertification restoration. In general, the degree of desertification showed a decreasing trend, and climate change was the major driving factor in the CMREC area between 2000 and 2015.

How Should the Geographical Space of Asian Russia Be Saved?

ABSTRACT The article examines Russia’s geographical space in the context of recent political and socioeconomic processes. The author focuses on the geographical aspects of the spatial development of Asian Russia, which in the north is bounded by the Arctic, and in the south is bounded by Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China. It is noted that the existing strategic documents of the Russian Federation have insufficiently assessed the risks of climate change, as well as the changing political and economic trajectories of Russia’s southern neighbors. The key advantages and disadvantages of the Greater Eurasia: Trans-Eurasian Belt Development megaproject are considered. Individual aspects of the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor are analyzed. Conceptual proposals for the preservation of the geographic space of Asian Russia are formulated.

Comprehensive Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Travel Climate Comfort Degree and Rainstorm-Flood Disaster Risk in the China–Russia Border Region

Infrastructure and tourism is gradually increasing along the China–Russia border with the development of the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor. Facing the issues of thermal comfort and rainstorm-flood risk in the neighborhood area between China and Russia, we constructed homologous evaluation models to analyze spatial regularity and internal variations of their effect. Among the results, approximately 55% of the area was classified into the categories of “comfort” and “high comfort” in summer. Oppositely, the situation of most areas in winter corresponds to physical discomfort. On the other hand, the high-risk area of rainstorm-flood in spring and summer is principally located in the northern and southern regions, respectively, while this is further expanded in autumn. After that, the risk level turns to medium and low. Subsequently, a comprehensive assessment coordinate system of the two results was constructed to identify the distribution pattern of a seasonal suitable area for traveling in binary ways. The evaluation shows that Great Khingan Range in the north-western Heilongjiang province is the preferable place among most of seasons, especially in summer. While on the Russian side, the corresponding area is mainly spread over its southern coastal cities. The study is expected to provide recommendations for reasonable year-round travel time, space selection, and risk decision support for millions of people traveling between China and Russia.

Ecological Aspects of Mining Enterprises in the Areas of the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor

Presented are the results from investigating the environmental impact of the mining industry in the Baikal region and Mongolia where in accordance with the tripartite international agreements it is planned to create the China−Mongolia−Russia transport economic corridors. The investigation was made for the areas traversed by the sections of the transport and economic corridors: the Trans-Siberian Railroad, Ulan-Ude−Ulaanbaatar railroad to the border with China, and the Karymskoe−Zabaikalsk railroad. The algorithm of the study implies a model in which the mining complex is considered as an intricately shaped natural-technogenic system. Elements of this system are production sites for the extraction of mineral raw materials and the environment in the field of technological impact, including natural and socio-economic components. The cartographic method is used as a key technique. Maps serve as a systematic methodology for research and are the result of a component-wise and integral assessment of the technogenic impact of mining on the environment and population. A system of indicators is suggested, which was used in assessing and mapping the technogenic impact at the local (areas of development of deposits) and areal (administrative districts) levels. Methods for compiling maps and their contents are outlined. The problems and prospects of research are identified.

Ecological aspects of mining enterprises in the areas of the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor.

Ecological aspects of mining enterprises in the areas of the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor.

Desertification Information Extraction Along the China–Mongolia Railway Supported by Multisource Feature Space and Geographical Zoning Modeling

The China–Mongolia railway is the core foundation for the construction of traffic connection in the China–Mongolia–Russia economic corridor. Long-term desertification has brought significant ecological risks to the railway area. Owing to the large variety of vegetation cover in this region, desertification information is easily confused with other weak vegetation cover information. This article proposes a refined desertification information extraction method based on multisource feature spaces and geographical zoning modeling. First, based on the geographical zoning, land cover, and vegetation coverage data for Mongolia, the railway area is divided into the Central provinces and their northern region, the Eastern Mongolian Plateau, and the Southern Gobi region. According to the vegetation coverage characteristics and the applicability of various feature space models to different geographical regions, Albedo–normalized difference vegetation index, Albedo–modified soil adjusted vegetation index, and Albedo–topsoil grain size index feature space models were constructed for three geographical regions. Faced with new challenges presented by global warming and the impact of monsoons on the classification and extraction of desertification information, we established a desertification classification system with six levels (severe desertification, high desertification, medium desertification, low desertification, withered grassland, and nondesertification) and complete desertification information extraction. The results show that the overall classification accuracy of the method selected in this article is 85.21%. We further analyzed the mechanism of this method, compared it with previous studies, and thereby proved that this method is feasible to extract the fine information of desertification in large areas and complex geographical environments.

Spatial and Temporal Variations in Grassland Production from 2006 to 2015 in Mongolia Along the China–Mongolia Railway

Grassland biomass is the embodiment of grassland productivity, and the material basis for the maintenance of the grassland ecosystem. Grassland is the main vegetation type in the Mongolian Plateau. Grassland changes in the core region of the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor of the Belt and Road Initiative have an important impact on regional ecology, environmental conservation, and sustainable development. This study established three types of models for estimating grassland production through statistical analysis methods using NDVI, EVI, MSAVI, and PsnNet remote sensing indices retrieved from a Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) dataset. This was combined with ground-measured grassland data and meteorological data. Based on model evaluation, the spatial and temporal distribution and variation characteristics of grassland along the Mongolia part of the China–Mongolia Railway were obtained through inversion for the period from 2006 to 2015. The results showed that all the models had good simulation effects. The optimal model was an exponential model based on MSAVI—with its simulation accuracy reaching 78%. Grassland production in the study area has increased slightly in the past ten years, with little change in the first five years and a fluctuating increase in the next five years. The average grassland production (per unit production) in the past ten years was 3400.39 kg/ha and the average total production was 9707.88 × 104 t. Grassland production increased slightly in most areas along the railway, and in some areas it continued to decline. The regional spatial distribution of increased and decreased grassland production was significantly different. With better grassland resources in the northeastern part of the study area—the area around Chinggis City and the capital of Hentiy Province—had the most significant growth. However, the southern Gobi area—with its trend towards land degradation in the area where the southern Gobi and desert steppe transitions to steppe and dry steppe—had a significant decrease. This meant that the risk of grassland degradation still existed. There were also quantitative and spatial differences in the areas where grassland production decreased on both sides of the railway. The decrease in grassland production on the western side of the railway was more obvious than on the eastern side, and the reduction area was dispersed on the western side and relatively concentrated on the eastern side. In future research, the identification of key areas of grassland degradation along the China–Mongolia Railway as well as its driving forces should be investigated further.

Analysis of the Heilongjiang Province and Russia Financial Cooperation under the Construction of China-Mongolia, Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor

Under the background of the China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, despite the degree of Heilongjiang Province and Russia regional financial cooperation has intensified, the scale and level of bilateral cooperation between the banks has significantly improved. But there still have some problems, such as the financial settlement tool is rare; the relatively small number of bilateral currency settlement and so on. This paper is in close connection with the actual economic development of Heilongjiang, put forward the countermeasures of Heilongjiang Province and Russia should make efforts to improve the financial environment; increase the types of financial settlement and to improve the proportion of the RMB and the ruble settlement.

Agricultural trade pattern and potential in China and Russia

It makes use of the trade complementarity index, trade integration index and export concentration index to conduct an in-depth analysis of trade development process and the import and export structure of agricultural products between China with Russia from 2006 to 2017. The results show that degree of integration of China’s agricultural trade with Russia continues to increase, and its trade structure is highly complementary. At the same time, the types of agricultural trade between them have increased significantly. The trade pattern of agricultural products is dominated by medium- and low-end primary agricultural products in China and Russia. The share of deep-processed agricultural products is relatively small, and the trade structure of agricultural products is monotonous, the bilateral trade potential has not yet been fully realized between China with Russia. Under the background of the “One Belt and One Road” initiative and the construction of China- Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor, the trade potential between China and Russia will increase rapidly and the trade space will further expand.

Development patterns and cooperation paths of tourism industry within the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor

Strengthening tourism cooperation in border areas along the China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor (CMREC) are important and challenging, under “Belt and Road” (B&R) initiative. Research has constructed a tourism competitiveness evaluation model including three dimensions and based on six factors: natural resources, cultural resources, tourism market, social economy, traffic facilities, and policy support. The results show the spatial characteristics of tourism competitiveness ordered as Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei of China, Northeast China, Northwest China, Russian Siberia Federal District, Mongolia, Russian Far East Federal District, and Russian Ural Federal District. Data show that the average tourism competitiveness of the three areas in Northern China are 2.69 times those of the three Russian areas, and 1.74 times those of Mongolia; at the same time, the average tourism competitiveness of Mongolia is 1.54 times that of the three areas of Russia. Based on the evaluation result, this study proposes a theoretical framework for a competition–cooperation model for tourism within the CMREC. Cluster analysis shows that the seven areas are comprise of absolutely dominant regions, comparatively dominant regions and comparatively weak regions. Tourism strategies are proposed in this study, based on the theoretical framework for a competition–cooperation model.

Russian–Eurasian Transit in the Economic Zone of the Great Silk Road

This article is dedicated to the integration and harmonization of the projects Eurasian Economic Union and Economic Zone of the Great Silk Road. It provides an expert characterization of the program China–Mongolia–Russia Economic Corridor for the Great Silk Road. It also reviews the project’s regional projection onto Russia’s Baikal Natural Area from the perspective of the region’s preparedness for the program’s implementation.

(Development Potential of China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor and Korea's Linkage Plan)

(Development Potential of China-Mongolia-Russia Economic Corridor and Korea's Linkage Plan)