Modeling in marine ice engineering

In the modern world, it is already difficult to imagine the creation of a significant engineering structure without modeling its external and internal appearance, the operation modeling of the main mechanisms, operating conditions and many other design features and emerging phenomena at the design stage. The paper interprets modeling and simulation as one of the computational methods that allow us to obtain quantitative results when studying ice impact on marine structures, for e.g. icebreakers and transport vessels, platform substructures, hydro-technical installations. In connection with the above, from the existing classification of modeling methods, the authors consider the physical and mathematical ones in the work. They present comparative advantages of both methods in their application in the problems of marine ice engineering, as well as the prospects for their development for solving a wide range of scientific problems aimed at the development of Arctic shipbuilding.

Geoinformation analysis of soil cover protection in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation

The representativeness of the soil diversity in the network of nature protected areas of the Russian Arctic was calculated on the basis of the Soil Map of the Russian Federation, 1:2.5 M scale by using geoinformation analysis. The authors estimated soil cover composition and soil contours areas using the ArcView GIS system. They have identified 90 different soils and soil complexes in the Arctic zone of Russia, 30 of them belong to the Arctic and tundra soils and occupy 47% of total Russian Arctic zone area. In the nature reserves and national parks territory, 48 different soils and soil complexes have been identified, 15 of them belong to the group of arctic and tundra soils, which occupy 60% of the area of protected areas. The investigation shows that currently the existing system of the Arctic protected areas is characterized by high representation of the taxonomic soil diversity (the representativeness indicator is 94%). The only soil type, Arctic Gleezem (Turbic Criosols), is not territorial protected within its typical distribution areas. To optimize the system of Arctic protected areas, the authors propose to adjust the boundaries of the existing nature protected areas in the Anadyr River basin, as well as to consider the possibility of organizing a protected area in the southern part of the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago.

Economic consequences of the COVID-19 impact on the tourism development in Arctic regions of Russia

The authors assess the economic impact of the restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the components of tourism and recreation system in the Arctic regions of Russia. They propose the estimation method, which includes indicators of changes in the sale volume and structure of the tourism industry services, changes in the revenue volume and share of tour operators, changes in the monopolization level and the distribution structure of market shares of tour operators in the Arctic regions. The study results can be used to adjust policy and strategic documents for tourism development in the Arctic regions of Russia.

Natural resources, settlement system and the role of single-industry towns in the spatial organization development of the Arctic Karelia regional economy

The article examines the Karelian Arctic region, formed due to the inclusion of a number of territories into the Russian Arctic. It provides a description of its geographical position and analyzes the dynamics of spatial development, the settlement system and mineral resource base, tourist, biological resource and fishery potential. The authors outline significant differentiation of the economic space of the region. They note that the natural resource and socio-economic potential is used extremely unevenly within the Arctic Karelia region. The authors reveal the decisive role of single-industry towns in the formation of trends in the spatial development of the region under study. Under existing conditions, they act as poles of economic growth and maintaining the population of the northern territories, with general trends of degradation of the settlement system and the aggravation of the sparseness of the economic space. The researchers analyze spatial localization of ongoing and planned investment projects in the region, determine and explain its regularities. The paper identifies the prerequisites for enhancing the economic development of the Belomorsk part of the Karelian Arctic, represented by two vectors: internal (from the existing economic centers within the region of the Karelian Arctic) and external (from the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions). The existing economic ties between the enterprises of the Belomorsk part of the Karelian Arctic, the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, as well as a number of projects in the mining, fishery, tourism and logistics spheres represent a significant potential for the interdependent development of the Arctic regions. For a more complete use of the existing development potential in these conditions, it is necessary to transform the role of single-industry towns in the formation of the regional economic space by improving the special economic regime and introducing institutional innovations. Improving the special economic regime of the Russian Arctic is one of the priority mechanisms for diversifying mono-profile economies, transitioning to innovative growth models and involving depressed territories in economic development processes.

Features ensuring food security for the population of the North and Arctic of Russia

The article reveals the northern and Arctic specifics of food security, including unfavorable conditions for agriculture, low provision of biological resources, a decrease in the level of self-sufficiency of the population in agricultural products, and a high dependence of food on imports. The author considers risks and threats to food security and measures to overcome them. The main directions of ensuring food security related to the availability of domestic and imported food products, improving the quality of life, and reducing the poverty of citizens are proposed.

Assessment of energy-related environmental impacts during the implementation of promising projects for the development of deposits in the Arctic territories of the Russian eastern regions

The ecological aspects of the functioning of energy facilities in the Arctic zones of the eastern regions of Russia are of increasing importance for the strategic interests of the country, on the one hand, and due to the specific features of territories with a weak ability to restore the natural environment, on the other hand. The studies carried out at the Energy Systems Institute of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences revealed the fact that the current environmental situation in the eastern regions of the Arctic is unfavorable. Promising projects for the development of mineral deposits are associated with an increase in the consumption of all types of energy resources. In addition, this will require intensive development of the energy sector: from the expansion of existing power facilities to the construction of new ones using associated petroleum gas, and possibly LNG. In general, the implementation of projects will lead to the following distribution of the total emission of pollutants from the energy sector: 47% — the Taimyr-Turukhan zone, 30% — the North Yakutsk zone with a predominant contribution from coal-fired boilers, and, accordingly, 23% of all emissions will enter the atmosphere of the Chukotka zone, where coal-fired boiler houses also prevail. With the implementation of advanced development projects, CO2 emissions will also increase from 7 to 16.6 million tons with their predominance in the Taimyr-Turukhan zone (11,9 million tons). Thus, the assessment of the environmental impact from the development of promising deposits in the Arctic territories of the eastern regions of Russia has shown that the emissions of pollutants will increase by 1.6-1.8 times, and those of carbon dioxide by 2.2-2.3 times. Given that the particulate matter will remain the main impurity in the composition of pollutants (up to 35-37%) due to the existing power facilities, coal-fired thermal power plants and boiler houses need a large-scale modernization of the collection equipment. Sulfur dioxides are becoming another predominant impurity, mainly due to newly commissioned facilities running on associated petroleum gas. Therefore, it is necessary to envisage measures to reduce them.

Role of FSUE “Atomflot” in the implementation of programs for the rehabilitation of nuclear legacy facilities and in the system of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste management in the Murmansk region

The article provides an overview of the FSUE Atomflot activities aimed at improving the infrastructure and production facilities for the management of spent nuclear fuel and radioactive waste at FSUE Atomflot and ensuring nuclear, radiation and environmental safety, both in the Murmansk region and throughout the northwestern region of Russia. Carrying out work within the Federal Target Program “Ensuring nuclear and radiation safety for 2016—2020 and for the period up to 2030” in cooperation with production structures of both Rosatom and other federal and regional departments responsible for the ecological situation in the region also takes an important place.

The Pizhemskoye titanium deposit is a new object of the nearest development in the Arctic zone of Russia

The Pizhemskoye titanium deposit (Middle Timan) has become one of the most attractive deposits for the industrial development in Russia as a result of the successful protection and approval of reserves at the State Reserves Committee (November 2020). 60 years have passed since the first finds of titanium mineralization in the basin of the Pechora Pizhma and Umba rivers by the thematic teams of the Ukhta Geological Exploration Department and the Komi branch of the Academy of Sciences, and now the deposit is considered one of the largest in Russia and the World. Together with the Yarega oil-titanium deposit, they contain up to 80% of the reserves and predicted resources of titanium in Russia. Timan becomes the largest raw material base of titanium in the world, the intensive development of which is possible for several hundred years. The article highlights the geological structure of the Pizhemskoye deposit (revealed a cellular, bowl-like structure of ore bodies); material and complex polymineral composition of ores; the Neoproterozoic age. The author proves the hydrothermal-metamorphogenic genesis of the ores, considers the sources of the mineral matter and solution of the technological scheme for processing refractory ores. The Pizhemskoye deposit is classified as a new pseudorutile-leucoxene-quartz subtype of primary metamorphogenic deposits.

Implementation of the “green growth” concept in the Russian Arctic (on the example of the Murmansk region)

The article presents the results of studying the possibilities for reconciling environmental and social sustainability with economic growth in the Russian Arctic in the context of the “green growth” concept. Analyzing the practices of municipal solid waste and mining waste management in the Murmansk region, the researchers have identified the following: aspects of the existing policy that will contribute to “green growth” in the future; the potential for creating new green jobs; the degree of awareness of the “green growth” concept among specialists. The study shows that national and regional waste management legislation generally contributes to the creation of conditions for “green growth”. The next step in enhancing a green growth policy should be measures to stimulate investment in the creation of markets of secondary resources. It is also necessary to simplify the procedure for access to the processing of mining waste for small and medium enterprises, they are more mobile and may be economically interested in processing small volumes of waste. The analysis of investments in waste management industry shows that in the case of municipal solid waste, legislation has stimulated the creation of new capacities and a significant number of “green jobs”. In the case of mining waste, investments directly in waste processing are sporadic, but investments are made to reduce the negative impact on the environment and to increase resource and energy efficiency. There is very little awareness of the “green growth” concept among all the actors involved in waste management. This creates a fragmented space for the “green growth” policy implementation, which prevents a more complete involvement of intellectual resources in the “green growth” process.

The development of a holistic image of the cryosphere

For the 20th century, during which cryology took shape, there was a typical situation of a gap between the natural sciences and philosophy. At the beginning of the 21st century, the rapid knowledge accumulation and the growing intra-subject differentiation in natural sciences led to the need of combining disparate ideas about reality and recreate a holistic scientific picture of the world on a new basis. The discovery of a variety of extraterrestrial cryogenic objects, as well as a large range of scales and rates of cryogenic processes, expands the understanding of cold. The establishment in 1991 in Tyumen of the Earth Cryosphere Institute, SB RAS can be considered the key to the development of holism in the study of the world of cold. Over the past 30 years, in the process of forming the Institute scientific team, the researchers were following the main task of implementing an interdisciplinary approach to the object of study. The realization of the principle was intented to build a holistic scientific picture of the world of cold, in the way of a specific form of the scientific knowledge systematization, which includes the construction of ontological models of systems of some objects, processes and phenomena, as well as the analysis of their connections. The application of a holistic approach to the study of the cryosphere contributed to the generation in the scientific picture of the World of new contexts of understanding the role of cold in the variety of physical phenomena on Earth and in space. These include such new concepts as cryogenic resources, cryologic time, cryodiversity, cryodeterminism, as well as the latest areas of cryology — cryotrasology, cryoheterotopy, etc.