Settlement Network Research Articles

HUMAN-GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF FUNCTIONING OF THE BASIC NETWORK OF CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS OF TERNOPIL CITY TERRITORIAL COMMUNITY

The article is devoted to the human-geographical study of the basic network of cultural institutions of the Ternopil city territorial community. The parameters of the territory and settlement network of the community are considered, which are the determining conditions during the structuring of geospace. The legislative principles of creating a basic network of cultural institutions of the local level are analyzed. The modern basic network of cultural institutions of the Ternopil territorial community is a consequence of the reform of the cultural sphere and the implementation of the decentralization reform. It went through three stages of its organizational formation.
 The basic network of culture of the local level of the Ternopil territorial community includes 39 institutions. More than 56% of the network's facilities are located in the city of Ternopil. According to the form of ownership and organizational and legal form, they are divided into 9 communal institutions, 1 communal enterprise and 29 establishments that are directly in communal ownership.
 The component structure of the sphere of culture and art of the community is formed by the following types of institutions: club-type cultural institutions, libraries, art schools, orchestras and cinemas. Primary socio-cultural services of the basic network are provided by 13 club-type cultural institutions. They are represented by the palace of culture, houses of culture and clubs (branches). Library institutions are the most numerous in the system of the basic network, the share of which reaches 51%. Among all 20 institutions of the community, the main role in this area is given to the Ternopil city centralized library system. Primary art education is represented by 2 music schools and 1 art school. The only municipal enterprise in the field of cinematography is the Ternopil Film Commission. A special feature of the basic network of cultural institutions of the Ternopil community is the presence of two orchestras. A significant addition to the basic network of community cultural institutions are communal institutions engaged in similar or related activities. Governing bodies ensure the systematic functioning of institutions and the implementation of measures to implement a consistent cultural policy.
 The territorial organization of cultural institutions of the local level of the Ternopil city community is an orderly network, where the connections between them are manifested in the formation of various combinations. Within the community, the functioning of 6 cultural and artistic systems was identified, which are combined into three types of different hierarchical levels (1 urban, 5 basic and 5 primary). The geospatial specifics of the location of the elements of the basic network result in the indicators of providing the city and basic administrative-territorial units of the community with cultural and art institutions. They are sufficient to ensure the sustainable functioning of the network and the provision of socio-cultural services.
 In the context of the spread of innovation diffusion, the rural area of the community is cascaded into three suburban zones: near (up to 6 km), medium (7-17 km), remote (over 18 km). The first zone meets the criteria of the village of Kurivtsi, the second – Malashivtsi, Glyadky, Chernykhiv, Ivankivtsi, Pleskivtsi, Kobzarivka, the third – Horodyshche, Nosivts, Vertelka.
 Problems of the organization of rendering of cultural services are revealed: outdated material and technical base; outflow of highly qualified creative specialists; insufficient funding from the budget; conservative forms and methods of providing cultural services; the initial level of development of cultural and creative industries. An important feature of the network of institutions of the Ternopil community is the real prospects for its expansion and improvement of functioning through the opening of new modern institutions. An important area of constant activation of socio-cultural activities is the constant increase of various forms of cultural mobility and touring activities.
 Key words: institution, network, community, culture, art, city, geocultural space, decentralization.

The Economic and Ecological Contexts of Urbanization in the Great Hungarian Plain during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries

There is abundant research on the history of urbanization in the Carpathian Basin with a special focus on the history of urbanization in the Great Hungarian Plain. Over the past years, there have been investigations concerning climate and historical ecology issues, as well as economic and social history, the results of which enable us to obtain an overview of the complex processes in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.It has been confirmed that prior to the Industrial Age (1850), climate change had made a profound impact on the conversion of the settlement network in the terrain and on the expansion of livestock farming. The climate in the seventeenth century seems to have been cooler and more humid, thus in the Great Hungarian Plain there were large areas covered with water. This significantly restricted the possibilities of crop cultivation as well as population growth. The warming-up period in the eighteenth century resulted in the shrinking of areas covered in water, the transition to flood plain farming and the extension of plough land crop cultivation, ultimately leading to population growth. There is evidence that by the turn of the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries, grain trade in the Carpathian Basin had been integrated into the Central European continental crop trading system, however, livestock farming was unique to the Great Hungarian Plain. From the mid-nineteenth century, due to the construction of the railway system in the Great Hungarian Plain, which revolutionized cargo transport, plus due to river regulations and drainage works, the economic structure of the area saw profound changes. In the meanwhile, the population and labor force supply were also increasing at a rapid rate. Marshlands and meadows were replaced by arable land and an increasingly growing crop production, which provided the foundations for the grain trade. Thus, new market centers emerged in the Great Hungarian Plain. Between 1828 and 1925, the number of market centers went up by 293, which represents an elevenfold rise. The growing density of the market center system significantly defined not only various aspects of urbanization, but also the general modernization of the Great Hungarian Plain.The purpose of my research is to analyze how changes in the climate influenced the settlement network, and the social and economic profile of the Great Hungarian Plain in the period concerned. Why was the favorable picture of a dynamically improving and modernizing Great Hungarian Plain at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries conceptualized by the public as an underdeveloped area characterized by a series of economic and social tensions? How do all these factors contribute to the revision of the emerging historiographic picture of the economic and social consequences of the Trianon Peace Treaty?

Central Sites and the Development of Rural Settlements from the Middle to Late La Tène Period in Central Moravia

At a certain point in time, there were two central places in central Moravia: an older unfortified central agglomeration near the present-day village of Němčice nad Hanou and a younger oppidum at Staré Hradisko. Each of this centres had its own approach to raw materials, orientation of the socio-economic contacts, and possibly political focus as well. Němčice, being located at one of the main branches of the Amber Road, connected the Middle Danube area from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic; Staré Hradisko eventually expanded these contacts into a systematic trade network, being under the strong influence of the Bohemian region with links to Bavaria. During the LT C2, in addition to the location of the central place, changes took place in terms of material culture and settlement strategies in the region. This was further accentuated in LT D1 by the shift of settlements towards the west, to the vicinity of the oppidum and, at the same time, vacation of the corridor around the Morava River. In an attempt to chronologically assess the settlement pattern, it became evident how important it is to define, as precisely as possible, the dating of individual sites. This was only possible thanks to the detailed and extensive study of the material available (Čižmář 2018). Thanks to precise dating of settlements and classification based on the new chronology, the seemingly illogical group of settlements in central Moravia revealed a distinct settlement network which, in particular during the period contemporary with the oppidum, allows us to see the significant changes in the number of sites and in the orientation of long-distance contacts that were possibly associated with historical events.

Urbanistyka komunistyczna – kluczowe elementy

The aim of the article is to present key elements of communist urban planning and urban design, in particular those whose patterns developed in the USSR, and then implemented into urbanization in other Eastern Bloc states. Additionally, the article presents changes of urban structures and architecture which occurred under the influence of diverse political, social and economic factors. The author analyzed the structure of the settlement network, the functional structure of the city, its composition and architecture, and proposed a periodization of the discussed phenomena.

The Importance of Coastal Cities and Regions in Selected European Countries

Purpose: The article aims to verify the common claim about the location of coastal regions and related historical conditions as a factor bringing above-average socio-economic benefits. Design/Methodology/Approach: The analyses in the paper are based on data from Eurostat and European Commission reports. They take into account the state of knowledge of urbanisation processes in Europe and their historical background. Data analysis and synthesis methods were used. Findings: The article brings confirmation of the thesis made on the basis of basic development indicators, as well as comparative data on the elements of the settlement network structure of selected European countries. The regularities observed reveal the role and position of coastal cities, their importance for building the potential of individual countries in relation to the coast and the sea, but also the specificity depending on the size of the country or its location on the continent. Practical implications: regions will be identified, and therefore countries, for which the potential threat of climate change and its consequences, in confrontation with the socio-economic potential of the location indicated in the title, may result in the greatest difficulties and the need to remodel the settlement structure. Originality/value: The concept of coastal cities as a separate object of study is rarely present in the source literature. In addition, the authors seek to introduce the development of research and analysis of basic indicators based on a developed perception of coastal regions including so-called low-lying coastal regions. This will form the basis for further extended research into these areas. In addition, an analysis of the demographic and economic consequences was also carried out in the light of the potential risks in these areas and the feasibility of their functioning in the form known to date. This provides some methodological structuring that can serve as a starting point for verification based on further and more recent data, as well as an in-depth analysis of the links between urbanisation, development in coastal areas and the risks posed by climate change.

The cultural and historical landscape of the Izborsko-Malskaya valley as a unique monument of nature and history in Pskov region

A cultural-historical landscape is understood as a compound historical-cultural and natural formation that developed in a specific territory possessing certain homogeneous natural (landscape) properties as a result of long-term interaction between the man and the landscape that occurred in the course of their coherent development. The Izborsko-Malskaya valley is a single, coherent cultural and historical landscape, with the unique nature of which modern villages and an archaeological monument – Truvorovo gorodische of the VII-VIII centuries, the Izborsk city fortress of the XIV century, the remains of the Malskaya fortress-monastery, churches and chapels, ‘Truvorov’ stone cross – blend in. Already in the X century, an agricultural district with a dense network of settlements was formed around the city. The Malsky cross stands as a witness to one of the branches of the historical path From the Varangians to the Greeks, since it served as a special indicator of the route’s direction. The specific nature of the Izborsko-Malskaya valley is due to its geological features and the history of its relief evolution. The dissected topography, with outlets of picturesque karst springs – the Slovenian springs – and the mosaic nature of the local landscape complexes predetermined the great variety and variegation of vegetation and fauna. The natural basis for the morphological structure of the Izborsk-Malsky cultural-historical landscape is formed by four physical and geographical areas belonging to three interfluvial plains: undulating end-moraine, glaciolacustrine and abrasion-depositional, dissected by dells formed by streams of melt glacial water, with inherited river valleys. The cultural and historical landscape of the Izborsko-Malskaya valley is characterized by a balanced combination of the natural and anthropogenic components, aesthetic appeal and economic feasibility, which all together created the cultural and historical image of a national landscape, formed by the culture of many generations.

Nothing But Depopulation? Lateral Rural Migration In The Old-Developed Forest Non-Chernozem Territories

—In the article, the author poses the question of what migration processes took place in the post-Soviet period at the intraregional level against depopulation and spatial polarization inherent to areas of the old-developed Non-Chernozem Region, and how this influenced the current state of populated areas and the overall rural settlement pattern. Totemsky district of Vologda Oblast was chosen as the research site for the study. Field research materials and analysis of local-level statistics made it possible to trace the rural population dynamics and identify the resettlement of rural residents within the district. The territorial units considered by the author were administrative rural units (sel’sovets) within the old borders, before the municipal reform and consolidation of the 2010s, which corresponded to individual rural clusters or large logging centers. Territories with different geographic positions and economic conditions were selected. Depopulation in the post-Soviet period proceeded unevenly, but its territorial projection did not just obey the center–periphery logic. The rural population grew in size both in district center and village near gas compressor stations, as well as in a number of other settlements with different characteristics. The post-Soviet dynamics of population numbers and transformation of the economy of the settlements were influenced by the peculiarities of their microlocation, buildings development, neighborhoods, and other local and almost nonparameterizable factors. They also often affect the attractiveness of rural settlements for the seasonal population, which fosters temporary support of the historical settlement network and generates some small potential for the redevelopment of certain territories.

Online Communication of Local Governments During COVID-19 Pandemic in Hungary

Local governments had key and prominent roles in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Their task was to take short-term measures quickly and to organize protection and care for those in need. The main objective of our paper is to present how local governments communicated with their inhabitants on various online interfaces in this crisis situation. Our analysis covers 54 settlements representing all the different levels of the settlement network from large cities to small villages. We examined the webpages and Facebook pages of local governments and mayors, first during the first wave and then during the second and third waves of the pandemic. Recognizing their responsibility, local governments clearly tried to provide information to the inhabitants as quickly as possible. They considered the online interfaces the most effective, but the online communication had typically been complemented by information published on more traditional channels as well. There were no significant differences in terms of the way and characteristics of communication among the different types of settlements, although local governments of different sizes obviously had to face different challenges in terms of the amount of tasks they had to tackle. The communication process was a very difficult task because of the lack of information and the not-transparent data provision. Even on the Facebook pages especially suitable for this purpose, interactivity rumbled, and in many cases the questions and suggestions of the inhabitants remained unanswered. It is instructive that, with few exceptions, settlements do not place emphasis on surveying local needs and opinions.

Вибір моделі аграрного устрою України як основи всебічного сталого сільського розвитку

The purpose of the article is to analyze the models of the agrarian system formed in Ukraine since independence. Identify a model of the agrarian system that will provide the most effective way to ensure the comprehensive sustainable development of rural areas and the preservation of the rural settlement network. Research methods. The following scientific methods were used for the research: dialectical knowledge of processes and phenomena; empirical (observation, comparison, description); comparative analysis; abstract-logical (theoretical generalizations and formulation of conclusions). Research results. In the process of analyzing the models of the agrarian system, which were formed in Ukraine since independence, it was found that the most effective way to ensure comprehensive sustainable development of rural areas, preservation of rural settlement network will provide a model of the agrarian system, based on individual, farming medium agricultural enterprises (farming). Scientific novelty. The influence of the choice of the model of agrarian system on the possibility of ensuring comprehensive sustainable development of rural areas and preservation of the rural settlement network is determined. Practical significance. The model of the agrarian system, which will give the chance to provide the most effective comprehensive development of rural territories and preservation of a rural settlement network, is defined. It is proposed to amend the legislation of Ukraine, which will promote the development of the model of the agrarian system of Ukraine, which is based on individual farming, family farms, small and medium-sized agricultural enterprises (farming). Refs.: 33.

Scenarios for development of the settlement systems of Siberia and Russian Far East until 2030

The subject of the study is the settlement systems of the Siberian and the Far East Federal Districts. This article considers the settlement system not only in the context of the spatial organization of society and the territorial organization of productive forces, but also as a derivative of the economic model of the State. Data on the dynamics of population size and density, migration indicators for the subjects of macroregions are presented, and regional types of settlement systems are structured. The importance of a qualitative change in the system of population placement in Siberia and the Far East for creating an internationally competitive network of settlements is emphasized. Within the frame of the main prospects for transformation of the Russian settlement system and its ordering there are considered perspective scenarios: "Priority" (active State regulation of settlement), "Progressive" (free self-organization of settlement) and "Inertial" (mixed transformation of settlement systems). In view of this, the typology of the "second" and "third" cities in the Siberian and Far East regions is given as a complex basis for spatial or supporting frameworks of settlement systems.

Agricultural-Heritage-Oriented Rural Revitalization: Experiences from the Ancient Tea Town of Xiping

The Anxi Tieguanyin Tea Culture System, as the proposed location of a globally important agricultural heritage system (GIAHS), has demonstrated the great significance of a network of heritage settlements and landscapes and supported rural revitalization and the participation and empowerment of women, based on agricultural heritage. Through fieldwork, participant observation, and in-depth interviews, this study attempts to analyze the experience of rural revitalization in Xiping. Firstly, the unique cultural heritage found within the agricultural landscape, formed by the multi-party linkage and dynamic adaptation of the surrounding natural environment by local residents, has shaped the Anxi Tieguanyin tea culture system of Xiping. Secondly, local residents actively participate in tea competitions and tea associations, so that the implementation process of agricultural cultural heritage preservation and development can be from the perspective of a shared experience. Thirdly, intangible cultural heritage features, such as the Female Tea Master Training Institute, have played a vital role in the development of tea towns and have proved conducive to women’s participation and empowerment. The results show that the agricultural heritage of the area, based on the Tea Manor and its multi-functional resources, has helped Xiping to move toward a more sustainable future, while eventually supporting a local society with a more distinctive rural landscape of which people can be proud. This system meets the need for local socio-economic and cultural development, and the promotion of the sustainable development of the entire region.

How Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Affects the Settlement Experiences Among Yazidi Refugee Women in Canada

Gender and sexual violence is historically used as a weapon of war. Yazidi women resettled in Canada directly from northern Iraq after the 2014 Daesh-led attacks in the Sinjar region. This direct resettlement experience makes the Yazidi refugees a very distinct group from a resettlement perspective. The severe human rights violations and sexual and gender-based violence they have experienced has affected both their physical and mental health. However, research on pre-arrival trauma and its impact on resettlement has been limited to individual post-arrival psychological interventions without considering how pre-arrival trauma experiences may affect their overall settlement experience. Our paper focuses on the settlement challenges and needs of 21 Yazidi women resettled in the four Canadian cities with the largest Yazidi communities. Because the resettlement of the Yazidi often happened within weeks after their release from captivity, the structural deficiencies within the Canadian settlement network revealed challenges for resettlement organizations in terms of how they assist those with acute trauma. We argue that although the Canadian resettlement program is generous in many ways, it falls short of adequately addressing trauma at the acute stage, especially sexual and gender-based violence as experienced by the Yazidi women and children. Our analysis reveals that single-female-headed families, particularly those with young children, have a difficult time navigating the resettlement system in Canada. We have identified the resettlement experiences of Yazidi women and recommend resettlement to happen in three stages, to account for the acute level of trauma this particular group faces. The first stage lasts between six weeks and three months as many women require more dedicated support from settlement providers for housing, language, and health. The second stage is a period of adjustment which occurs within the next eighteen months, depending on the available support these refugee women have to navigate the different settlement services. The third stage begins sometime after the second year when many women can start navigating the social support, education and health systems independently. Thinking of how SGBV may influence the resettlement process in these three stages is a good way for us to consider the additional assistance that may be needed and how they may better access resettlement services.

Geological Approach for Landfill Site Selection: A Case Study of Vršac Municipality, Serbia

One of the biggest problems of environmental protection in Serbia is landfills. It is often a case that the economic interests are predominant in the landfill sitting; thus, most landfills are not located according to standards. This study shows that detailed geological data assets combined with geographical modeling represents a reliable way to define and locate the landfill site. Geological evaluation is discussed in detail with regard to bedrock lithology, quaternary geology, geological structure, hydrogeology, surface runoff patterns, and topography. An approach combining geographical modeling and geology is presented for determining the sites suitable for landfill selection with respect to their geologic favorability. As opposed to numerous research papers on this topic, in the methodological procedure, special importance is devoted to the analysis of the geological criteria. In this way, it is significantly easier to determine the landfill area with the best characteristics due to geological structure and lithology which unequivocally and precisely indicates inadequate territories for candidate sites. The multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) is based on geological criteria upgraded with road (primary, residential, secondary, and tertiary), settlements network, railway, airport, infrastructure, land use, hypsometry aquifer, wetland, and surface water. The score values are divided into four classes, i.e., restricted areas, suitable but avoid, suitable, and most suitable. Combining geographical modeling with geology led to the recognition of two locations to be most favorable for landfill site located in the most suitable area, which represents 25.3% of the study area.

Unidirectional pedestrian circulation: physical distancing in informal settlements

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a wide range of spatial interventions to slow the spread of the virus. The spatial limitations of narrow public circulation spaces within informal settlements, which house over 1 billion people around the world, make it impossible for pedestrians to practice physical distancing (or social distancing). A flexible mathematical method, the Cluster Lane Method, is proposed for turning a planar circulation network of any size or complexity into a network of unidirectional lanes. This makes physical distancing possible in narrow circulation spaces by limiting face-to-face interactions. The opportunities and challenges are discussed for the implementation of this cost-efficient, low-tech solution. New notions and theorems are introduced for oriented graphs in graph theory. <em><strong>Policy relevance</strong></em> A new approach based on graph theory is used to address the problem of COVID-19 contagion in the narrow public circulation networks of informal settlements. The Cluster Lane Method shows how to convert a planar circulation network of any size or complexity into a network of unidirectional lanes. This makes physical distancing possible in narrow circulation spaces by limiting face-to-face interactions between pedestrians. By involving the inhabitants of the informal settlement throughout the process, more adequate orientations of the lanes can be found.

Technical ceramics for salt production in Western Sahara

ABSTRACT This paper presents evidence of ceramic technology in western Tiris (Western Sahara), dated by thermoluminescence to the third millennium cal. BP. Western Tiris is an arid region mostly covered by desert where recent archaeological fieldwork has nevertheless revealed a significant network of settlements from the Neolithic period inhabited by nomadic people. Domestic pottery and lithic materials are common in the archaeological register of these sites, but three sherds found in the Lejuad XVII rockshelter present features typical of technical ceramics. Laboratory analyses reveal that abundant mineral and organic temper was added to the natural clay which, in addition to the presence of thicker walls than those usually found in domestic pottery, is interpreted as an attempt to increase resistance to thermal shocks. However, the fragments present only mild signals of exposure to high temperatures, up to a maximum of 900 °C. Discussion of these contradictory data leads to the conclusion that the sherds may have been part of a briquetage mould to extract salt by evaporation, a pyrotechnical industry previously unknown in Western Sahara. Its appearance in an arid environment far from production centres is explained as result of sporadic economic activity rather than cross-cultural mobility and trading, which seems to have been intense in the area from Neolithic times. In addition, this paper introduces the use of micro-computed tomography (µ-CT) as a technique for measuring large porosity derived from burned organic materials.

Preliminary Report on the Survey of Hajjiabad-Varamin, a Site of the Konar Sandal Settlement Network (Jiroft, Kerman, Iran)

ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to introduce the large prehistoric site of Hajjiabad-Varamin, its changes in time and the first discoveries made there, in the specific literature on the early Bronze Age of the south-eastern Iranian Plateau. The first part of the article describes the site, its present damaged conditions, the periodisation we adopted and the complex topographic shifts and changes of functions through time. The second part focuses on the settlement of the 3rd millennium BC and discusses a major craft activity area found east of the main elevation of the site, in which were manufactured vessels in various stones (white alabaster, grey limestones with white fossil inclusions, and probably chlorite). Collections include large drill-heads in volcanic rocks used on the interior of the stone pots, and standardised beads of a green and red-banded calcite broken while being drilled. While the stone vessels find abundant comparisons and were certainly in demand for long-distance trade, the beads type is not known in other contexts and were presumably made for a local demand. We also present the unusual find of a hoard of copper objects which helps framing the 3rd millennium BC centre in terms of cultural links and chronology.

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

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 &amp;ndash; 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&amp;ndash;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 &amp;ndash; early XXI centuries have remained, although the settlement areas of the indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North- the Evenks &amp;ndash; 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.

REFLECTION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS OF TOMSK UYEZD ON CARTOGRAPHIC MATERIALS OF THE SECOND HALF OF THE XIX - FIRST QUARTER OF THE XX CENTURY

The article presents information about the reflection on cartographic materials of the socio-economic development of the territory of the Tomsk district (uyezd) in the second half of the XIX - first quarter of the XX century, as well as their use in the study of the problem of the development of the rural settlement network.

Геоинформационное картографирование субурбанизации Иркутской городской агломерации

The research is devoted to the process of suburbanization on the example the Irkutsk city agglomeration. The suburbanization is one of the stages of agglomeration development. Mapping and geoinformation methods are particularly important in the our study. They provide extensive opportunities for complex operational mapping and analysis of the suburbanization, in determining its current boundaries and development directions in the Irkutsk agglomeration. We have created a series of maps showing various aspects of the study area (population change, transport accessibility, development dynamics of buildings, air pollution, soil contamination, maps of accessibility of socio-economic infrastructure, etc.). Many of them are not presented in the article due to limited volume. As a result of the study, the specifics of the development of the Irkutsk suburb were noted and the main factors of its development were determined. Transport accessibility is one of the main factors in the formation of a network of suburban settlements. This research has a great scientific and practical significance for science and management structures.

Ushkiani-Project: Preliminary archaeological investigations in the Lake Sevan Region/Armenia

Abstract The enclosed landscape around the Artanish Peninsula (Lake Sevan/Armenia) can be seen as a prehistoric terra incognita due to the wholesale lack of archaeological investigations to date. Initial approaches in 2019 – funded by the Gerda-Henkel-Foundation – revealed outlines of the prehistoric settlement patterns which could be placed in relation to gold mining in a clearly delineated natural corridor along this line of superregional communication and trade routes. The intention of the following project is to implement an intensive, holistic-archaeological investigation of the settlement network in the surroundings of the gold mining area and an interdisciplinary attempt to embed these structures within the larger ecological and anthropogenic environment.