Central-North-Caucasian Cities in the Field of Attraction between Uplands and Lowlands [Alexander...
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Transcript of Central-North-Caucasian Cities in the Field of Attraction between Uplands and Lowlands [Alexander...
Central-North-Caucasian
Cities in the Field of
Attraction between
Uplands and Lowlands
Alexander Drozdov and Olga Glezer
Institute of Geography
of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Main points
1. Territory and objects, origin of the cities
2. Two types of the cities: resorts and
capitals - history and economy
3. Changes in urban-rural linkages
4. Tourism: before the 1990s, nowadays,
plans for future
5. What will be reasonable?
The Main Caucasian Ridge is
more than 1000 km long
The central part of North
Caucasus
Cities under consideration
City Status Population
Cherkessk
Nal’chik
Vladikavkaz
Capital
Capital
Capital
~ 117 000
~ 270 000
~ 310 000
Pyatigorsk
Yessentuki
Kislovodsk
Resort
Resort
Resort
> 200 000
~ 81 000
~ 130 000
Active period of the conquest of
North Caucasus, 1842-1849
Evidence of resorts history.
Kislovodsk as a fortification, 1803
Resorts, more evidence
Kislovodsk, some other evidence,
left – 1920, right - 2009
Resorts, structure of economy
Holiday-makers in sanatoria,
thousands of people
Years
Resorts
1960 1990 2000 2005
Kislovodsk
Yessentuki
Pyatigorsk
Zhelezno-
vodsk
163,3
106,6
57,9
42,8
283,0
245,6
210,5
121,2
61,2
28,1
33,2
31,3
106,4
65,3
49,6
56,8
Total 370,5 860,3 153,8 278,1
Evidence of capitals history.
Nal’chik, XIX, XX, XXI centures
Nal’chik (left) and Republic in total,
branches of industry (%), 1992
Republic in total,
economy structure (%), 2009
Metallurgy - 6
Electric energy – 17
Light industry – 4
Food production – 40
Agriculture and others – 33
There is no reliable data about tourism – only approximate estimations: for example, the
annual number of visitors in El’brus area coming from the cities can turn 150 000 people
Evidence of Vladikavkaz history,
XIX and XXI centures
Changes after the 1990s
General:
decay of agriculture and industry,
aggravation of ethnic problems,
complicated migratory processes
Specific for:
resorts – variation in number of clients but
conservation of main function
capitals – decrease of heavy industry,
generation of conflicts, search of investors
Typical streams caused
uplands-lowlands tension,
before and nowadays
Many thousands of sheep
on the way to lowlands
The area of tourism
development in 1970-1980
Three zones, number
of tourists
Zones 1999 2003
Nortern piedmont
836 000 485 000
(spa-resorts)
Montainous 212 000 ?
Black sea coast 2 285 000 6 100 000
The mountainous zone now -
chaotic development
There are ambitious plans
for 2020: to construct mountain
hotels for ~150 000 visitors
They can bring
to many
conflicts with
nature conservation,
traditional land use
etc
They can be dangerous due to
avalanches, mudflows etc
However new plans are developed…
It will be reasonable to try
to adapt new plans to
contemporary social-
economical-ecological situation
and:
1. To understand that in the next 10 years
agriculture and heavy industry can’t
developed significant
2. To do something in the field of tourism
(it is probably possible)
In the field of tourism
1. To continue the main function of spa-resorts, but to expand one-day excursions from there in the mountains to 3-5 days;
2. To develop mountain tourism and also recreation of inhabitants of regional capitals and big cities, but:
to use landscape planning to reduce conflicts;
to organize ecological and social expertise
of new development plans;
to defend nature reserves from aggressive business;
to improve quality of service etc
Thank you !