This paper aims to identify details of interaction and mutual influence of tourism and transport infrastructure development using a combination of sociological and statistical methods. For the analysis, five key sites were selected in several parts of Siberia, differing in natural, socio-economic, and ethnocultural quality, but possessing the presence of compact indigenous communities that reproduce traditional forms of both cultural life and economic activity. While each community has its own unique culture and resources for development, several similar characteristics were revealed. It has been revealed that tourists themselves and workers of the tourism sector, including local residents, are unequivocal supporters of transportation system development. A significant part of the population, recognizing the need and advantages of having a well-functioning transport infrastructure, expresses a negative attitude towards easy accessibility of the territory for outsiders who violate the rules and regime for usage of natural resources and augment economic and cultural competition for the local population. Understanding key processes of interrelations, both explicit and hidden, concomitant to socioeconomic development of remote indigenous communities, with the simultaneous development of tourism and transport, allows the authors to propose a model outline of attitudes of local communities towards tourist and transport perspectives in the territory of their residence.

The paper reveals opportunities and limitations of tourism development in one of the most inaccessible areas in the mountains of Southern Siberia: Todzhinsky kozhuun, Republic of Tyva, RF. Taking into account key indicators that reflect the natural, historical, cultural, and socio-economic characteristics of the territory, using GIS technologies, a comprehensive assessment and mapping of the tourism and recreational potential (TRP) of the territory was carried out. The method of multicomponent scoring was used in this work. Consequentially, the study area was divided by means of a regular hexagonal network into many operational territorial cells; for each of those, the sum of scores was calculated according to the conditions and objects that are localized within its boundaries. The set of operational territorial cells filled with visual information made it possible to create an assessment map of the tourism and recreational potential of the Todzhinsky kozhuun territory. This map highlights the areas of the five value ranks, from the highest to the lowest. The areas with the highest scores are obviously the most suitable for the development of tourism industry. In general, the basis of the region’s TRP is picturesque virgin natural landscapes with many large lakes, unique traditional ethnocultural landscapes of the mountain–taiga reindeer herders, biological resources for hunting and fishing, and healing mineral springs (arzhany). The key limiting factor in the development of tourism is the underdeveloped transportation system and the insufficiency of special tourism infrastructure facilities. Such an assessment made it possible to identify territories favorable for the creation of three specialized tourist clusters: ethnocultural tourism, “Reindeer herders of Todzhi”; water, ecological, and fishing tourism, “Todzha Lakes”; and mountain and sports tourism, “Big Sayan”.

The paper is devoted to ethno-cultural landscapes of the Republic of Tuva. Ethnocultural landscapes (ECLs) are specific socio-environmental systems that developed as a result of the interaction of ethnic groups with their natural and social environments and are in a constant process of transformation. An attempt is made to identify the mechanisms of the formation, functioning and dynamics of ethnocultural landscapes in the specific conditions of the intracontinental cross-border mountain region, as well as to establish the main factors-catalysts of their modern changes. For the first time an attempt is made to delimit and map the ethnocultural landscapes of Tuva. For this, literary sources, statistical data and thematic maps of different times are analyzed using geoinformation methods. The results of 2014-2018 field studies are also used, during which interviews with representatives of different ethno-territorial, gender, age and social groups were taken. It is revealed that the key factors of Tuva’s ethnocultural landscape genesis are the natural isolation of its territory; the features of its landscape structure; the role of government; population migrations from other regions and the cultural diffusion provoked by them. 13 ethnocultural landscapes are identified at the regional level. Their modern transformation is determined by the shift of climatic cycles, aridisation, globalisation of sociocultural processes, changes in economic specialisation and ethnopsychological stereotypes.

The Altai Republic is a representative region for studying climate change in the mountain areas of Northern Eurasia. Altai has a full set of high-altitude belts and significant landscape diversity, a large center of modern glaciation is located on its territory, it is an important water and climate divide separating the Arctic Ocean basin from the basin of internal runoff. In addition, there is a fairly long series of climatic observations in Altai. All this creates prerequisites for using the territory of the Altai Mountains as a model region to identify spatial patterns of climate change in mountainous countries. Monitoring and studying climate change in the Altai Mountains is an important and urgent task for Russia and the World, because in this region are located the largest glaciation areas. In the paper trends of air temperatures and precipitations in the Altai Republic are examined during three post-Soviet climatic decades: from 1992 to 2001, from 2002 to 2011 and from 2012 to 2021 used weather station data sets and two atmospheric reanalyses (NCEP/NCAR & ERA5). For the analysis, GIS technologies were used in Matlab using Mapping Toolbox. The magnitude of the linear trend in changes in average monthly air temperature for three periods in the Altai Republic demonstrates that from 1991 to 2001 and from 2012 to 2021 warming is recorded, the average rate of which in the post-Soviet decade is 1.7°C/10 years, and in the last decade—1.2°C/10 years. However, from 2002 to 2011, almost all weather stations in the Altai Republic observed negative values of linear trend coefficients, and the average cooling rate in this decade was -0.9°C/10 years. Climatic analysis of changes in the amount of precipitation in the Altai Republic on average over the past two decades shows a decreasing trend. The average rate of precipitation declines from 2002 to 2011 is -2.2 mm/10 years, and from 2012 to 2021— -11.0 mm/10 years. It is important to note that the reduction in liquid and solid precipitation is typical specifically for the western part of the Altai Republic.

The article is devoted to the study of geographical images of the administrative regions of Western Siberia, which have formed in the public consciousness of the population of Russia. The analysis of geographical images as group mental models of territories (which reflect both real and fictional, stereotypical and fantasy characteristics of them) has important practical significance, since they form the general everyday idea of this space and attitude to it. At the same time, administrative-managerial and personal decisions based on these mental representations are made in real space. The article reflects the results of a sociological study in which 685 people from 29 regions of Russia participated as respondents. Based on their surveys, the analyzed database of geographical images of administrative entities, the West Siberian Economic Region was formed. In the course of the study, not only the main geographical images of each of the 9 subjects of the Russian Federation studied were identified (for them, in particular, imaginal maps were compiled using the word cloud method, taking into account the significance of each image), but also erroneous ideas, stereotypical and even mythological images present in the philistine consciousness were identified. Also, in the course of the work, it was possible to identify patterns of differentiation of the mental space of Western Siberia, differences in information capacity and reliability of geographical images of different regions. The factors and mechanisms of forming people's ideas about different territories and the geographical picture of the world as a whole are determined. In particular, the phenomena of "privatization of images" and "inertia of image change" are characterized. Based on the genesis of geographical images, their classification is carried out with the allocation of 6 main types of geographical images. For each studied region, an analysis of the ratio of images of different types was carried out, which was graphically reflected using lip-stick diagrams, the configurations of which quite clearly reflect the degree of formation and typological orientation of the mental space of each region. An assessment of the formation, images, and their reliability was carried out, which showed significant regional differences. Analysis of the level of positivity and compliance with the goals of regional development of geographical images, which provides incentives for improving the media policy of the respective regions.

В статье выявляются закономерности социальных процессов во взаимосвязях и взаимовлиянии развития туризма, транспортной инфраструктуры и местного сообщества в Тоджинском кожууне Республики Тыва. Интерес к данной территории обусловлен значительными переменами в ней, связанными с введением в эксплуатацию дороги Кызыл — Тоора-Хем (2009 г.) и недавним (2022 г.) открытием моста, связавшим берега Большого Енисея Также в ходе обследования зафиксировано отношение социума к происходящим изменениям в рассматриваемой сфере. Актуальная проблема заключается в том, что в реализации территориальных и отраслевых планов развития, часто возникают противоречия между участниками, вовлеченными в этот процесс. Возможные расхождения обусловлены разнонаправленными интересами (индивидуальными и групповыми) множественных представителей различных сторон. Характерные противоречия проявляются в отношениях коренного населения к развитию туризма. Авторы выделили ряд групп населения с разноплановыми интересами, демонстрирующих различное отношение к освещаемой проблеме: представители администрации — как с оптимизмом и перспективой экономического развития, так и с проведением дополнительной профилактической работы; представители учреждений бюджетной сферы и пенсионеры — с осторожностью, но пониманием большей доступности к медицинским и образовательным услугам; представители организаций, прямо или косвенно связанных с обслуживанием туристов — с возможностью получения дополнительного дохода; представители организаций, не связанных с туризмом — нейтрально без конкуренции население; не связанных с туризмом — двоякое, противоречивое, с пониманием как плюсов в развитии транспортного сообщения и минусов от воздействия на культурную и природную среду.