The coasts we live in: can there be a single definition for a coastal zone?
Throughout the history of humankind, people have settled along seashores. The gradual accumulation of population and industrial activity in coastal areas has created preconditions for coastalisation — the movement of people and socio-economic activity to marine coasts. To date, coastal areas have a higher rate of economic development, fostering migration and an influx of capital across ...
Comparative analysis of the territorial support frame of settlement in coastal areas: the case of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad regions
As a scientific method, comparative studies respond to the needs of society. However, the logic of globalisation has reduced the demand for comparative analysis in international and national (regional) studies. Nevertheless, old, settled coastal areas — which European urban science considers as evidence of the decisive effect of coastal position on spatial development and urbanisation — remain valid research objects. Achieving corresponding theoretical and practical goals requires ...
The sea factor in the federal regulation of Russia’s spatial development: post-Soviet experience and current priorities
... increasingly focusing on the factors and priorities of its internal dynamics [3], including the socio-geographical situation. A prominent element of the latter is the so-called ‘sea factor’ [4], an umbrella term for the conditions shaped by Russia’s coastal (or near-oceanic) location, its jurisdiction over the section of the World Ocean surrounding its coast and its strategic goals and interests conveyed in the national Maritime Doctrine<1> — all these factors have been recently discussed ...
The geopolitical effect of the maritime factor on the spatial development of post-Soviet Russia: the Baltic case
... maritime geopolitics [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14] are gaining substance and recognition despite remaining few. This equally applies to the infrequent attempts to provide an informed rationale for geopolitical factors in the development of coastal regions [15], [16]. At the same time, classical geopolitical approaches are coming to the fore in research. Characterised by a focus on the dualism and even contrariety between land and sea [17], close attention to the maritime strength of the ...
The influence of the sea on the economic development and settlement structure in the Baltic Sea region
Earliest studies into the influence of the sea on the economy and settlement structure date back to the mid-19th century. They became common in the 20th century. Researchers have come to a general understanding that a coastal position has a beneficial effect on the development of regions. Such areas have a denser population and develop more rapidly than inland regions. At the same time, the effect of environmental, socioeconomic, demographic, and political factors ...
Russia’s Coastal Zone as a Social and Geographic Phenomenon: Conceptualisation and Delimitation
This article defines coastal zones as a priority subject of studies in social geography and interprets coastalisation of population and economy as a key indicator of the development of a coastal zone. The author stresses the inverted coastalisation in Russia at the macro- ...
Migration attractiveness of the coastal zone of Russia’s North-West: local gradients
A well-acknowledged driver of change, population movement intensifies the development of coastal territories. The Russian North-West holds a vast coastal zone. Granting access to the Baltic, the White, and the Barents Seas, it is an area of geostrategic importance where much of the country’s coastal economy — one of the national priorities ...
The Coastal Regions of Europe: Economic Development at the Turn of the 20th Century
This article explores the current condition and spatial dynamics of the key socioeconomic processes in the coastal zone of the European subcontinent at the turn of the 20th century. Europe is a region where the “coastal component” of socioeconomic development plays a major role and is therefore one of the most interesting objects for research in this field....
Strategic opportunities for economic development of the Baltic Sea coastal zones and sea industrial and port complexes
Nowadays, one of the principal dimensions in attraction of the world economy structures is coastal territories as spaces where marine potential of a state is most pronounced. In this respect, it is vital to set the priorities of development of coastal zones taking into account the changes in the strategic situation in order to maintain the ...
The coastalisation of population in today’s Russia: A sociogeographical explication
... of balance between the potential of leading cities, economic and settlement projections of global geoecological, geo-economic, and geopolitical processes, the scale and effect of transnational and transboundary contracts, and the changing images of coastal areas. This article analyses the trend towards the ‘drift’ of the demographic potential from the inland territories to the coastal periphery, which has been observed in Russia for centuries. A vast body of empirical data and statistics is ...
Saint Petersburg as a Global Coastal City: Positioning in the Baltic Region
The Baltic region consists of coastal areas of nine countries — Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. The region’s hubs are the port cities located along the Baltic Sea coast. However, Peter Taylor and Saskia Sassen’s classification ...
Efficiency analysis of seaports in Russia’s Baltic basin: performance evaluation
... long been recognized. As mentioned in the study [10], the “maritime factor,” traditionally considered in the context of various aspects, is an important component of continuity in the development experience and comprehensive exploitation of the coastal territory. It includes characteristics such as economic and infrastructural facilities, the maturity of port structures and their significance at the national level, the rational use of maritime resources, their accessibility, and others.
Therefore,...
The marine component of human geography studies in Post-Soviet Russia: key trends and development priorities
... studies revived only in the early 2000s, gaining momentum after a decade of desolation. The renaissance was due to new transboundary marine research, analyses of the geopolitical and geoeconomic aspects of the marine economy and close attention given to coastal border areas (particularly the prospects and risks of their socio-economic development within the continent-ocean dichotomy). The marine focus of Russia’s geostrategy will generate steady demand for national human geography of the world ocean,...
Typology of migration processes of Russian coastal regions
The coastal area of Russia is a dynamically developing region of the country, the geopolitical and geostrategic importance of which has grown significantly in recent decades due to changes in the external conditions of development. The differences in ...
Geopolitical regionalisation of the Baltic area: the essence and historical dynamics
... regions of Germany.
During the Middle Ages, maritime and river routes served as crucial and irreplaceable means of communication over long distances. But as eras changed, so did the role of modes of transport. Maritime and river transport, particularly in coastal shipping, have diminished in significance since the advent of railways, motor vehicles and air transport. Recent studies into the transport connectivity of the Baltic region tend to focus on land and air transport, often within the framework of ...
Innovative development priorities of the major coastal agglomerations of the European part of Russia
The innovation development dynamics of coastal regions is under the growing influence of the agglomeration factor and the coastalization factor, which results in polarizing the innovation space around large cities and urban agglomerations in the coastal zone. Coastal agglomerations act as ...
Sustainable development of coastal territories as a basis for integrated management of coastal zones
This article provides a detailed definition of the concept of ‘territory capacity’ and its role in the integral management of coastal zones. The term ‘coastal territory’ and its management are considered from the perspective of the Russian and several foreign legislations. Special attention is paid to the concept of sustainable development and the need to apply its key provisions ...
Attractiveness of the Kaliningrad region: pull factors and reasons for disappointments of migrants from Russian regions
... development priorities. This lends urgency to a selective regional migration policy aimed at prospective internal migrants. Yet, the picture of pull, push and hindering factors remains incomplete, being limited to generally accepted drivers such as coastal location and proximity to EU countries. This article aims at a detailed analysis of reasons to migrate to the region, an assessment of the restrictions and difficulties faced by relocatees and migrants’ satisfaction with the new place of residence....
The coastal factor in spatial development programmes for the municipalities of the Kaliningrad region
The geographical location of the Kaliningrad region calls for the coastal factor to play a greater role in the development of the region. Created in the Soviet period, the backbone of local maritime activities is highly polarized along the coastline of the region. Similarly polarized along the coastline is the settlement ...
Transboundary Clusters in the Coastal Zones of the European Part of Russia: Inventory, Typology, Factors, and Prospects
This article presents an inventory and a typology of the existing and emerging economic clusters in the coastal zone of the European part of Russia. The authors hold that transboundary clustering takes priority in the Baltic coastal region — nine of the 56 clusters identified are located in the Kaliningrad region and another eight in Saint Petersburg ...
Vulnerability assessment of coastal systems in the Kaliningrad region using the coast vulnerability index (CVI)
... constituent entity of the Russian Federation. In recent years, due to the global political and epidemiological situation, the recreational attractiveness of the Kaliningrad region has significantly increased, thereby placing greater pressure on the coastal zone. However, there is a lack of research dedicated to assessing the vulnerability of the coastal area. The practical significance of this study lies in the potential for further utilization of its results to evaluate and analyze the vulnerability ...
Typoligocal diversity of the strongholds of Russian coastal borderlands: (theoretical and conceptual aspect)
... attempts to comprehend and conceptualize the effects of the spatial concentration of the national "marine" economy, as well as its complex formation and clusterization in the framework of the conceptual development of the "strongholds of coastal borderlands", understood as a special socio-geographical (economic-geographical and, at the same time, geo-economic, geopolitical) compact formation in the structure of the coastal zone. The essential features of the "strongholds" ...
Coastal agglomerations and the transformation of national innovation spaces
In this article, I discuss the role of coastal agglomerations in the territorial heterogeneity of the world economy and the global innovation space. I pay particular attention to how proximity to the sea and ocean coasts influences the dynamics of innovation processes. I analyse coastalisation ...
Center-peripheral dimension of innovative security in the Western border regions of Russia (the case of the Rostov region)
... entrepreneurial infrastructure and infrastructure of e-commerce. The focus is made on identifying differences between urban and rural settlements in terms of involvement in the innovation process. An assessment of the impact of agglomeration and coastal factors on the diffusion of innovations at the inter-municipal level is given: from the agglomeration center to the periphery and from coastal and conditionally coastal municipalities inland. The center-peripheral trends in the distribution ...
Coastal and western border centers in the system of large cities of modern Russia: socio-economic and innovation development.
The article reflects the results of a study of large Russian cities (with a population of more than 100 thousand people, as well as smaller cities with the status of regional capitals), emphasizing two strategically important groups: coastal centers and cities of the Western borderlands of Russia. Having applied economic-statistical analysis for 6 indicators (average salaries and per capita measures of the number of organizations and enterprises, retail trade turnover and public ...
Innovative development of Russian coastal regions: north–south divergence
Coastal regions are territorial social systems whose socio-economic and innovative development is strongly influenced by the factor of coastalisation. The effect of movement to the sea determines the dynamics of settlement systems as well as their economic ...
Information metabolism and innovation dynamics in the Rostov agglomeration: the role of the coastal factor and economic clustering
The article focuses on the issues of innovative development of coastal agglomerations, as advancement drivers for the regions of Southern Russia, which experience a reduction in contact potential in modern geo-economic conditions that complicates international economic and technological cooperation. The aim of ...
Localization of large business in coastal zones as a factor of transboundary clustering (on the example of the European part of Russia)
The factors and features of localization of large business interests in 14 European coastal regions of Russia are analyzed. It is shown that the interest of large business in the coastal zones is commonly associated with the concentration of large oil and gas fields (on the shelf and in the coastal zone), with the logistics tasks (export-import ...
Opportunities for sustainable economic development of the coastal territories of the Baltic Sea Region in the context of digital transformation
The article explores opportunities for the sustainable economic development of coastal territories in the Baltic Sea region (BSR) arising in blue economy sectors in the framework of digital transformation. The study argues that a more active commercialisation of territorial resources can facilitate the sustainable economic development ...
Large business in the coastal zones of Russia: features and factors of localisation
... projects of large businesses. This change manifests itself in the development of port and logistics complexes, the port industry, the construction of offshore pipelines, more active offshore oil and gas production, the growing demographic potential of coastal cities, etc. This article aims to explore the localisation of large businesses in Russian coastal zones and to analyse the ‘coastalisation’ of the country’s largest companies. It is shown that ‘coastalisation’ has taken place in forty-two ...
Approaches to the Definition of the Baltic Sea Region
... each serving a different purpose and being characterised by a different density of internal connections. According to the narrow definition, the region comprises the whole territories of Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia and the coastal parts of Russia, Germany, and Poland. The extended definition adds the remaining part of Poland, most Russian and German regions, and Belarus and Norway. The broad definition of the Baltic region incorporates Iceland, some territories of Russia,...
The strongholds of Russian coastal borderlands: economic dynamics amid geopolitical turbulence
... The Russian Federation, whose economy, infrastructure, and settlement system have been gravitating towards the sea since the late 1990s, is no exception. This article aims to identify and provide a conceptual framework for the phenomenon of Russia’s coastal borderlands and their constituent ‘strongholds’. It also explores the factors and features of the economic dynamics of the coastal borderlands amid the post-2014 geopolitical turbulence. Economic and statistical methods are used to highlight ...
Some features of external migration processes in the coastal regions of the Western borderlands of Russia
The combination of two major economic and geographical factors — the presence of the border and access to the sea — largely determine the features of socio-economic development of the coastal regions of the Western borderlands of Russia and, as a consequence, the migration processes here. The purpose of the article is to identify the importance of these factors for migration in the coastal regions of the Western borderlands of Russia....
The Kaliningrad Region as a coastal border region of Russia
The article studies the sectoral structure of employment and the gross regional product, the similarities and differences of the region from other bordering coastal regions of Russia through the economic and statistical analysis of indicators of population dynamics. The benefits of the coastal and borderline positions are not fully exploited by the region, that is, those types of economic activity and production ...
A study into the passive tracer and Lagrangian particles propagation in the coastal area of South-East Baltic
This paper studies the passive tracer and Lagrange particle propagation in the coastal area of South-East Baltic using hydrodynamic numerical modelling. The inclusion of an additional parameter, which describes the variation of the passive tracer concentration as well as its connection with the Lagrange particle random walk model,...
Modern understanding of ‘geoeconomic position’ and the Saint Petersburg agglomeration
This article presents a modern interpretation of the concept of ‘geoeconomic situation’ as applied to one of the most important centers of the Baltic region — the St. Petersburg agglomeration. The coastal location of the agglomeration and close connections with the Leningrad region make it possible to consider the Saint Petersburg coastal region (Baltic Area) as a whole. The article sets out not only to verify, confirm, and explain the features ...
Socioeconomic typology of Russia’s coastal regions
The relevance of this study stems from the importance of Russia’s coastal regions for the development of the national economy and foreign economic ties. There are significant differences between coastal regions, which should be taken into account when devising a regional development policy. The article aims to identify ...
Population change and the settlement system transformation in Poland, as revealed by the 2021 census
... However, it has become so commonplace, just like in Russia, that only its extreme cases get attention. For instance, in November 2022, wide media coverage was given to a story about a mother with a two-year-old daughter found living in a tent in the coastal forest belt near Gdansk.<5>
According to Fedorov, “the geodemographic characteristics of regions affect the direction and rate of their socioeconomic development, whereas the emerging disparities between the actual living standards and ...
Sustainable development of coastal regions: geographical and geopolitical factors and limitations
... considering regional development factors, such as geographical and economic-geographical position, environmental conditions and their geographical diversity, natural resource and their location, spatial features of the economy and the settlement structure. Coastal regions are affected by sundry other factors, such as the presence of a seacoast, viewed as a special resource, access to maritime transport and the availability of marine resources, including renewable ones, which are essential for sustainable ...
Geological conditions for submarine groundwater discharge in the South-Eastern Baltic
... of various factors that potentially contribute to submarine discharge (fault tectonics, seismic activity, rock permeability, paleo-incisions, pockmarks) made it possible to identify areas of the bottom that are promising for further research. In the coastal zone, this is an area of bedrock outcrops on the northern underwater slope of the Kaliningrad Peninsula, forming a Paleocene-Eocene aquifer. On the rest of the bottom area of the Southeast Baltic, aquifers are overlain by a thick layer of Quaternary ...
Typological differences between the coastal regions of Russia's Western borderlands
... Azov-Black Sea basins. The regions under study vary from each other, but each of them plays a vital role in the country's economy. The author aims to identify their typological differences in order to improve federal and regional policy towards to the coastal regions of the Western Borderlands. To attain the goal, first, the types of regions under study were identified (according to the selected typological features reflecting the main natural and socio-economic characteristics of the regions) ...
Coastal location as a development factor of the cities in the Baltic region
... of the key categories of socio-economic development of territories. Cities, as the main carriers of innovative potential, need constant influx of human resources. The purpose of this article is to identify the nature of the influence of the cities’ coastal position on the dynamics of their population by the example of the Baltic region countries. The dependence of the popultaion dynamics on the coastal location of the city is studied with the reference to the methods of statistical and cartographic ...
The use and environmental state of the Curonian Lagoon and its coastal zones
The waters of the Curonian Lagoon and the contiguous coastal area are linked together by both the environment and economic activities. Regional planning considers water and coastal areas as separate phenomena that lack a common management system. However, this approach is poorly applicable to the Curonian ...
Shore ground monitoring methodology
... network of reference benchmarks. The greatest amount of information is given by the data of the transverse shore leveling. The combination of a number of different profiles allows one to obtain speed and direction quantitative characteristics of the coastal processes at a particular morphodynamic site over a specific time interval. It is important to have a reasonable choice of a marker, i. e. an element of the relief, the change in position of which makes it possible to obtain the magnitude of deformations ...
Сoastal exclaves among enclosed territories of the world
The article studies coastal exclaves as a special type of enclave territories of the world. They are understood as territories separated from the territory of the mother country by a foreign state (states) but having access to the sea. A complete list of coastal exclaves ...
Suspended Particulate Matter Distribution Along the Northern Coast of the Kaliningrad Peninsula
... impact and by the natural features of the Baltic Sea, namely, the high levels of eutrophication and complicated sedimentation conditions. The study area is human-occupied, which contributes to the significance of the findings for sustainable nature, and coastal zone, management. The main aim of this research is to study the spatial distribution variability of suspended particulate matter north of the Kaliningrad Peninsula — in the southeastern Baltic Sea — to gain a better understanding of sedimentation ...
Contribution of German, Soviet, and Russian researchers to the study of the Sambia peninsula coast
The level of economic activities in the coastal zone of the Sambia Peninsula once again necessitates a comprehensive study of its coastal zone transformation. This problem, alongside those of relief formation in the coastal and nearshore zones, has been addressed by several generations of German,...
Sustainable tourism as an alternative development path for coastal towns: The case of the Kaliningrad region
... authors present a function-based typology of towns located on the coast of the Kaliningrad/Vistula Lagoon. It is shown that the recreational function of these towns is either poorly developed or absent, which complicates the sustainable development of coastal territories. Grade-based assessment makes it possible to identify factors both facilitating and hindering the recreational development of coastal towns. Towns with the highest recreational potential are identified.
1. Актуальные проблемы ...
The economy of Russian Baltic regions: development level and dynamics, structure and international trade partners
... constituents located on the coast of the Baltic Sea. These are the federal city of St. Petersburg, the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions. Their development is closely connected with the blue economy: maritime transport, fishing and fish processing, coastal tourism and recreation, shipbuilding and other regional industries exporting goods by sea or using seaborne raw materials and semi-finished products. The three study regions performed these functions in the Soviet period as well.
Although the ...
Marine Spatial Planning: Theoretical Aspects
... as a complex of analyses, calculations, and evaluations aimed to prove feasibility of economic activities and contribute to their development in a certain part of a sea or an ocean. A most likely comprehensive MSP object is an integrated segment of coastal/marine area. Consisting of a marine part and a coastal area, such segments are a product of zoning. In this article, I explore the key MSP stages — from identifying the panning object to evaluating the natural resource potential and performing ...