Morphoindication of Physicogeographical Regions of Orenburg Oblast

Abstract

One of the main directions of the modern study of landscape structure is the timely updating of the structural and dynamic features of geosystems, taking into account the degree of anthropogenic load. This article examines the historical prerequisites for the development of ideas about the physical and geographical division of Orenburg oblast. A geoinformation analysis of remote sensing data has been carried out using neural network algorithms based on self-organizing Kohonen maps in order to compare the structure of natural boundaries with the actual structure of natural–anthropogenic complexes. For this purpose, we have calculated quantitative indicators (namely, the area of the physical-geographical region, the number of classes (types of tracts), the number of landscape contours, the average number of contours in a class, the average area of one contour, the density of contours in the physical-geographical region, the coefficient of complexity, the maximum possible complexity of a landscape, the absolute organization of a landscape (a measure of imbalance), the relative organization of a landscape, and the coefficient of landscape fragmentation) and indices of differentiation of the landscape structure (coefficients of entropic complexity and Shannon diversity and Ivashutina–Nikolaev, Odum, Gleason–Margalef, and Simpson indices of heterogeneity). Moreover, schematic maps of the region’s territory have been compiled, reflecting their spatial distribution over landscape areas. Based on the results of the study, tendencies of changes in the landscape structure of Orenburg oblast have been determined. They include changes in the degree of contouring of geosystems, dynamics of the severity of interlandscape boundaries, anthropogenic dispersion of geosystems, and the degree of dominance of individual elements of the landscape. Differences in the tendencies of changes in the landscape structure of forest-steppe, petromorphic, and hydromorphic geosystems, in comparison with the arid steppe landscapes prevailing in the region, have been identified depending on the degree of agrogenic and technogenic transformation.