After 1997, when the first Saint-Petersburg strategic plan was approved, other Russian cities started to develop their plans of socio-economic development. In the article the history of long-term strategic planning in big cities, biggest cities and million-strong cities, is presented and analyzed. The research is based on the data of 130 documents.

One of the important directions of studying the development of morphological structures is the study of conditions for the state of dynamical equilibrium. The article shows that one of the mechanics of occurrence of dynamical equilibrium in the development of a landscape's morphological structure might be concerned with the progression of quasi-periodical landscape-forming processes. The relations of dynamic and static parameters of morphological structures were derived for such landscapes; these relations allow prediction of the time of nearest activation of the concerned processes. For the landscapes with spread of quasi-periodical landscape-forming processes the possibility of deriving the information on its dynamics by the short series of observation is shown.

Shiveluch volcano is the most northern, very large, one of the most active volcanoes of Kamchatka. Powerful and occasionally giant (by the output volume) eruptions have a strong, and at times catastrophic influence on the ecosystems of the surrounding area. To a great degree the destructive action impacts on the vegetation cover, the most sensitive component of the ecosystems. The article analyzes the main forms of influence on the vegetation cover by the example of three major eruptions that occurred in recent semicentenary, and also the range of damage and prospects of vegetation recovery. The data was received during the field works held on the volcano during the period of 1978—2012. The vegetation of the southern slope of the volcano was studied, since due to the structure of the volcano, the most intensive influence on the vegetation takes place exactly here. The analysis of the air and space imagery of various years allowed the study of widespread changes of the vegetation and landscapes occurring as a result of the eruptions.

We made the areal multibeam bathymetric survey for all guyots of Magellanic Mountains during the eight cruises of RV Gelendzhik from 2000 to 2010. The result revealed a number of peculiarities of the geomorphological structure of Magellanic Mountains. In the chain of the mountains according to the structural-morphological features we detect two units: the Eastern and the Western. Guyots of the Western part are characterized by a simple morphology, guyots of the Eastern part have a more complex morphology, in particular, the high degree of complications by the satellite buildings. The surfaces of guyots of the Magellanic Mountains are complicated by diverse mesoforms, including areal (satellite buildings, volcanic structures, terraces) and linear (spurs, ridges, ravines, cliffs). Surfaces of guyot slopes are generally characterized by denudation genesis, but some parts of the slopes clearly are of tectonic genesis and are possibly related to the tectonic activity that caused the collapse in those areas.

The attempts of the Russian state administration in the XIX century to improve the climate of the southern steppe provinces through artificial afforestation are discussed. The efforts made in a government of Veliko-Anadol steppe forestry (now the Don region, Ukraine) are closely intertwined with the discussions on the climate impact of deforestation — a debate that took place in Europe since the XVIII century and are evaluated by historians as crucial for the emergence of the modern environmental consciousness. The main focus is made on changing the nature of observations of the habitat-forming influence of forests, produced in Veliko-Anadol forestry, reflecting the broader transformation of standard geographic and biological research in the XIX century.

Assessment of the natural removal of nutrients from the Gulf of Finland catchment was made in two different ways: according to field observations at the catchments with minimal anthropogenic impact and according to the results of calculations with the use of deterministic model of nutrient loading. Received complementary results do not contradict each other.