Atlas of Sustainable Development of North Asia in the context of the project “One Belt, One Road”

Abstract

The article presents the project of creating the Atlas of Sustainable Development of North Asia as a fundamental cartographic work that provides integrated mapping of the territory to increase the efficiency of socio-economic development processes and the region’s competitiveness in the global economic system. The main geopolitical aspect of the Atlas is a reflection of the China’s “One Belt, One Road” initiative. A system of territorial-administrative levels and a large-scale series for mapping the natural, social and economic processes of the studied territory, including state, administrative, municipal and local spatial levels, have been developed. The technological basis of the Atlas is the problem-oriented GIS of sustainable development of North Asia. The spatial base of the GIS is the topographic base on a scale of 1 : 1 000 000, created on the basis of digital and analog materials of Roscartography, cartographic services of Mongolia and China. The thematic basis of GIS and Atlas maps is the vector layer “territorial-administrative division of North Asia”. The informational basis of GIS is the Bank of socio-economic data, which includes databases on economics, demography and agriculture. Databases are formed on the basis of state statistics of the three countries according to the developed system of unified indicators of natural, social and economic dynamics. The GIS telecommunication module is a cartographic service on the open “Geonode” platform, through which access to GIS materials is organized. The structure of the Atlas is proposed from 7 blocks — introductory and 6 thematic: the natural conditions of sustainable development; resource factors of sustainable development; socio-economic factors of sustainable development; environmental transformation; medical and environmental situation; environmental protection.