Regional policy depends on efficient administrative systems for designing and implementing strategies, and places considerable demands on Member States’ public administrations in terms of e.g. financial management and monitoring; project selection procedures; ex ante environmental impact assessments and cost-benefit analyses; and the monitoring and evaluation of outputs, results and impacts. EU member states have taken a range of different approaches to the administration of regional policy.
The construction of regions in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe became one of the important debate topics for preparation for EU membership. Despite the numerous similarities in the changes that have taken place in the territorial structures of the Eastern and Central European countries, the differences in the responses individual countries gave to the challenges of regional development and the varied results of their development efforts demonstrate that the “Eastern European Bloc” is at least as heterogeneous as the former member states of the European Union. EU accession opened up a Pandora’s Box in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe. The fundamental issue of how unitarily structured states can be set on a decentralised path became the centre of debate. The paper introduces the Central and Eastern European achievements of region building processes and searches for an explanation of the reasons for the difficulties of Eastern and Central Europe in regional construction; it summarises the administrative and political development pre-requisites of the transition to a regional outline of the possible advantages of a regional institutional system in the creation of the Cohesion Policy ensuring a decrease in regional differences.

The hydraulic mission of the Soviet Union has transformed Central Asia’s Syr Darya River into a governable entity. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the river system disintegrated and conflict arose over the operation of the main dam and reservoir of the river: the Toktogul. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have widely different and diverging sanctioned discourses on how the dam should be operated and on the nature of the water itself. These discourses have had a significant impact on the hydro-politics of the river basin and the operation of the dam. The central argument of this paper is that both the decline of the Aral Sea, and the potential conflict between the states are driven by the same modernist governmentality of the river.

Conditions of formation and development of landslides and debris flows in the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and on Sakhalin Island were considered. They are formed under the influence of heavy rainfall under the influence of the Mediterranean cyclones outlet in the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and of the Pacific cyclones outlet on Sakhalin Island in the same macro-circulation processes. Activity of landslides and debris flows in these regions has been shown to be connected with certain types of atmospheric circulation during the XX—the beginning of the XXI century. Based on these results, possible increase in the activity of landslides and debris flows, in the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and Sakhalin Island, is suggested.

Change in agricultural land use in Samara Oblast is analyzed on the basis of agricultural statistics, field observations, and satellite imagery. Besides the general decline in animal husbandry, three drivers of spatial change are uncovered—accessibility to the major urban areas, natural setting, and ethnic mix. Land surface phenology metrics are in line with these drivers. In particular, satellite imagery confirms the large amount of fallowed land in Samara. Overall, land abandonment reached its peak in the late 1990s, and was subsequently reversed but the amount of land used in crop farming has not reached the 1990 level. Spatial differentiation is also analyzed across three types of farms—former collective and state farms, household farms, and registered family businesses.

ALL-RUSSIAN SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL CONFERENCE “LANDSCAPE PLANNING”

IGU REGIONAL CONFERENCE IN SANTIAGO