Regionalization of the Russian Arctic according to the types of anthropogenic development and associated relief transformation by applying the cluster analysis

Information about the occurrence of different types of anthropogenic objects, such as settlements, transport infrastructure, mining areas, etc., in the Arctic zone of Russia was collected and systematized. Information about anthropogenic objects was taken from the Internet open sources: cartographic projects, databases, projects and schemes for further development of the subjects of the Russian Federation. It has been established that only a fifth of the Russian Arctic territory is under economic development, while the rest of its territory practically lacks the anthropogenic objects. The degree of economic development of the Arctic territories gradually decreases eastward. The Republic of Karelia is characterized by the highest level of economic development (only 13,1% of its area is currently unaffected by economic activities), while the least developed subjects are the Krasnoyarsk Krai (95,2%) and the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) (87,2%). Data on the presence, location, and types of anthropogenic objects underwent the k-means method of cluster analysis in order to identify characteristic combinations of objects corresponding to the different types of development. Six main types of development have been identified within the Arctic zone of Russia, each of them is characterized by the dominance of a certain type of anthropogenic objects (residential objects, roads of various categories, mining facilities, fossil fuel transportation objects, and logging infrastructure). A specific type of development, namely integrated development, was also identified, which is characterized by a combination of three to five types of objects within a limited area. Each type of development is characterized by a certain combination of trends and the degree of relief transformation. In particular, the greatest transformation of relief and geomorphologicl processes is typical of the opencast mining areas (525 quarries with a total area of 605 km²). A large variety of anthropogenic forms of different sizes are forming and the natural course of relief-forming processes (permafrost, fluvial, slope, etc.) is totally disrupted there for long. The least significant impact on relief development is that of some linear transport structures, in particular, unpaved roads and underground gas pipelines. Depending on the types of development, the subjects of the Russian Federation which are the part of the Arctic zone are characterized by various forms of the influence of economic activities on relief development. For regions with the leading role of transport infrastructure (e. g. the Arkhangelsk region, Karelia, the Republic of Sakha), a more significant indirect human influence on relief development is characteristic, in comparison with the direct one (the areas with negative consequences along the pathways of infrastructure objects exceed the area of anthropogenic forms themselves). On the contrary, the most pronounced transformation of relief in mining areas (e. g. the Murmansk region) is associated with direct impact, primarily, the large-scale creation of anthropogenic forms. In general, the economic activity in the Arctic zone of Russia is rather weak: the transformation of relief and natural geomorphologic processes affects a total area of about 667 thousand square km, which is about 18% of the total area of the Russian Arctic.

Arctic zone of Russia, anthropogenic relief, land development in the Arctic, multidimensional statistics

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