Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2024 number 5S

The article highlights the results of the Complex Expedition to Study Historical Waterways of Russia, organized by the S.I. Vavilov Institute for the History of Natural Science and Technology of the RAS with the participation of the staff members of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. The purpose of the expedition was to conduct a comprehensive historical and geographical study, which helped to identify previously unknown data on the history of the development and study of the territory of waterways and individual natural objects, clarify some facts of the construction of the water system, and compile retrospective reconstructions of changes in the natural environment. A special role in the scientific research of the expedition, in the development of methodology, preparation and implementation of field work, with the further publication of articles and monographs belonged to V.A. Snytko, who actively participated not only in the scientific, but also in the field part of the expedition work. Using the results of many years of research, the creation of a unified geoinformation system was initiated, including certified hydraulic engineering facilities and structures, interesting natural formations and a complex of landscape, environmental and hydrochemical characteristics of the waterways themselves. The common dominant uniting these elements into a system is no longer only the waterway itself, but a cultural and historical landscape complex that takes into account all aspects of human activity and natural formations. The geoinformation base on the historical waterways of the European part of the territory of Russia, including hydrological and hydrochemical, landscape, archival and cartographic sources on the history of water systems, served as the basis for the creation of an appropriate website and for the beginning of the formation of the virtual museum “Historical Waterways”.