Development of the Territory of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug: A Geoinformation Analysis at the Settlement Level

The subject of the study is the spatiotemporal dynamics of land use intensity in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug from 1959 to 2021. The object of the study is the settlement system of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug as a key Arctic region of Russia, which underwent sharp demographic and socio-economic transformations in the 20th and early 21st centuries. The aim of the work is to assess changes in the development of the Arctic region's territory at the level of individual populated places using digital cartography methods. The results of the analysis of the territory development of the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug revealed three key stages during the period under review: a phase of extensive industrial growth and dispersed settlement (1959–1989), a stage of sharp demographic and economic contraction (1989–2010), and a modern stage of stabilization with population concentration in a limited number of centers. The methodology is based on the creation of a geodatabase for 160 populated places linked to data on their population size from the population censuses from 1959 to 2021. The analysis involved calculating population density, social density, and a territorial concentration index, as well as data visualization using heat maps. The novelty of the work lies in the application of geoinformatics and digital cartography methods for a detailed analysis of the territory development in an Arctic region over a period of more than sixty years, which revealed spatial shifts not always apparent when analyzing at the district level. It was found that by 2021, the settlement network had shrunk by 2.5 times compared to 1970, and the territorial population concentration index, after a decrease in the 1980s and 1990s, returned to the level of the 1970s. The obtained results may have practical significance for developing strategies for spatial development and adapting settlement systems in the Arctic regions of Russia. The conclusions confirm the high effectiveness of cartographic methods for the retrospective analysis of territory development in the extreme conditions of the Arctic.