Olena Stepaniv Contribution to the Development of Transport Geography and Geologistics in Ukraine

Abstract

Peculiarities of life, military, the diplomatic activity of Doctor of Sciences in Geography, O. I. Stepaniv, as well as her scientific achievements as a Ukrainian geographer and geologist, are revealed. Olena Stepanov was the first woman in Ukraine and the world – a military officer in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen (Ukrainski Sichovi Striltsi, USS) and the Ukrainian Galician Army (Ukrainska Halytska Armiia, UHA) during the First World War and the Ukrainian Liberation War of 1917–1921, a diplomatic official of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic and the Ukrainian People’s Republic. Having a doctorate in geography and history, she made a significant contribution to the development of Ukrainian geographical science, including economic and social geography, as well as transport geography and modern understanding of geologistics. The last two areas of geographical science are most fully disclosed in her work “Modern Lviv”, which provides a comprehensive description of the transport infrastructure of Lviv and Lviv region and its importance in the transport system of Ukraine, in particular, emphasizes the central position of Lviv as a transport and logistics hub on the trans-European way connecting the Baltic and Black Seas; identified the main transport routes of Lviv region, important on a national scale; in addition to the main roads, regional and local ones were identified and characterized. The characteristics of transport routes were combined with the indication of the most significant industrial enterprises of Lviv region; tourist and recreational areas and centres which were located on the ways of transport routes were indicated, as well as the tourist specialization of these centres (in textbooks on the geography of transport of the Soviet era, it was not mentioned at all); such transport and logistics indicators as road congestion, traffic intensity on them were used, as well as their historical names were given and their significance in the past was revealed. O. I. Stepaniv’s scientific works remain relevant today. This applies not only to the problems of the geography of transport communication in modern Lviv but also to current issues of international logistics, in particular, Ukraine’s participation in the Baltic-Black Sea transport and logistics integration system. O.I. Stepaniv’s scientific works on transport geography are of direct importance to the most modern EU project in the field of transport and logistics – the Three Seas Initiative (TSI). The recent TSI Summit in Tallinn (October 19–20, 2020) highlighted the impact of the TSI on the entire Baltic-Adriatic Black Sea region. TSI is open to countries – strategic partners of the EU, including Ukraine. Although the latter is not a member of the EU, it was invited to the first TSI summit in 2016 andis currently an active participant in many projects under this Initiative, without having formal membership in the TSI. Ukraine should continue to cooperate with TSI, especially with Poland, in such important infrastructure projects as the Gdansk-Odesa highway, the railway Viking project, the development of gas infrastructure within the North-South corridor (involving Ukrainian underground storage facilities of “blue fuel”), etc.