FACTORS OF INTERREGIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASYMMETRY IN THE SOUTH OF RUSSIA

Background. The importance of studying spatial environmental asymmetry determines not only the prospects for the placement of "nature-dependent" activities, but also the need for balanced spatial development of the country's regions, taking into account the uneven allocation of ecosystem benefits. Goal. Substantiation of the critical influence of the space factor on the environmental parameters of the development of the regions of Southern Russia. Methods. The study is based on a systematic methodology and a spatial approach that constitute the South of Russia as a meso-level environmental management formation within the borders of adjacent subjects of the Southern and North Caucasian Federal Districts. Results. The complex orography of the terrain, the diversity of climatic factors and the variety of landscape characteristics in the South of Russia form the natural prerequisites for a high fragmentation and mosaic of the natural space. Thus, the difference in the provision of ecosystem goods between the southern regions is 18.1 times in the share of protected areas, 23 times in the density of the river network, 56.9 times in the number of deposits and mineral manifestations, 111.2 and 162.1 times in the availability of water resources and agricultural land, respectively, 183.5 times in the forested area, 329.4 times in the density of watercourses. Equally, the reasons for the high environmental interregional asymmetry are sectoral specialization and the architectonics of economic activity, concentrated in the most developed regions of the South of the Russian Federation, such as Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, Volgograd and Rostov regions, which account for 71.1% of emissions and 79.0% of discharges of pollutants, 75.9% of production and consumption waste, 50.3% of sampling, 66.6% use and 50.0% of water losses, 80.4% of production and 69.5% of electricity consumption, 60.6% of farmland, 81.9% of arable land. Conclusions. The main factors of high fragmentation, interregional asymmetry of the natural resource space of the South of Russia are the mosaic of landscape characteristics that affect the spatial distribution and typological polymorphism of ecosystem goods, as well as the industry specifics of the economy and the explication of the economic landscape on the southern borders of the country, which determine the parameters of regional nature management.