Socially-Oriented Monitoring of the Sustainability of Territorial Systems of the North (A Case Study of the Katangsky District of Irkutsk Oblast)

This article considers basic concepts and presents a theoretical overview of approaches and methods for the socially-oriented monitoring of sustainability of socio-ecological territorial systems of the North and the Arctic. It presents the results of the practical application of data collection and analysis for assessing the sustainability of socio-ecological territorial systems in the context of new industrial development using the example of the northernmost municipality of Irkutsk oblast (the Katangsky district), the only area in the region that is in the Far North. The industrial development of natural resources in this region was long held back by its remoteness from developed centers and a lack of infrastructure. After the construction of the Eastern Siberia–Pacific Ocean oil pipeline, hydrocarbon deposits discovered in Soviet times were developed and the search for new ones began. As a result of geological exploration, the reserves of raw materials have increased, and the immediate prospects for the development of the region are inextricably linked with the industrial development of natural resources. The socially-oriented monitoring of sustainability of socio-ecological territorial systems using multiscale, interdisciplinary, and problem-oriented strategic approaches made it possible to identify the problems of creating sustainable socio-ecological territorial systems of the Katangsky district and determine ways to solve them. The industrial development of natural resources of the territory has a significant impact on all components of the socio-ecological system of the territory under study. It has been revealed that a comprehensive solution is required for problems in all three spheres of life of the population of the region: natural–ecological, socioeconomic, and sociocultural, as well as administrative–managerial. The documents of strategic development of the Katangsky district contain a number of tasks to increase the sustainability of socio-ecological territorial systems; at the same time, the results of sociological studies to identify the opinion of the local population make it possible to formulate these tasks to a fuller extent.