THE POPULATION AND PRODUCTION FRAMEWORK IN THE BAIKAL REGION WITHIN THE TRANS-SIBERIAN TRANSPORT CORRIDOR

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the spatial relationship between the population and production inthe territories of the Trans-Siberian strip in the south of the Baikal region (Irkutsk Oblast, the Republic of Buryatia, andTrans-Baikal Krai). The research was conducted using statistical, cartographic, and comparative geographical methods;upper-level municipalities were taken as the units of statistical observation. As a result, we have identified the main urbanized areas and transport corridors in places of maximum population concentration. The demographic potential ofthe Irkutsk part of the Trans-Siberian transport corridor accounts for more than half of the region’s population. The municipalities of the region were ranked based on the volume of industrial production, their industrial specialization wasidentified. The paper assesses the influence of the level of development, industrial specialization, and location of productive forces on the demographic situation and the transformation of settlement systems. Geographical aspects of spatialdevelopment are expressed in the strengthening of two partially overlapping gradients of the population and productionconcentration: mainline-peripheral and central-peripheral. Currently, agglomeration effects predominate over mainlineones, but urban agglomerations operate exclusively on the main lines. Modern market conditions affect the demographicand production situation through the strengthening of economic and economic-geographical contrasts, enhancing of therole of the most important elements of the region’s framework in the form of main lines and agglomerations, which takesplace against the background of the degradation of local infrastructure.