A Social-Ecological Approach to Studying Variation in Urban Trees and Ecosystem Services in the National Municipal District of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

Maintaining a diverse urban forest that provides ecosystem services can promote urban sustainability and resilience to environmental change. Around the world, cities have taken to inventorying their urban trees and quantifying their ecosystem services but more so in industrialized counties than in Latin America. Here we describe the results of an i-Tree inventory that established 206 survey plots in the National Municipal District of Santo Domingo (NMDSD). We used social-ecological theory to evaluate potential factors that may influence urban forest structure, composition, and ecosystem services diversity across three wards with distinct social and urban characteristics. Rarefaction curves showed a diverse urban forest dominated by non-native trees that have ornamental and medicinal uses. Wards differed in species composition with palms being particularly dominant in Wards 1 and 2 where the proportion of low-income houses is smaller. Ward 1 supports high-income residential areas and Ward 3 is the area with higher population and housing densities and lower income residents. On average, we found no significant differences among wards in tree species richness, average dbh, leaf area, and percent tree cover per plot. Trees in Ward 2 were taller, on average, than those in Ward 1 but were comparable to those in Ward 3. Likewise, tree density per plot was highest in Ward 2, followed by Ward 1 and Ward 3. Despite these significant differences in stem densities, average values in four ecosystem services involving measures of carbon, rainfall, and contaminants (C-sequestration, C-storage, avoided runoff, and removal of air pollutants) were non-significant across wards. We found disproportionately more street trees in Ward 1 relative to Wards 2 and 3 and more trees in public spaces in Wards 1 and 2 relative to Ward 3. Evidence for the luxury effect on tree distribution in the NMDSD was subtle and manifested mostly through differences in species composition and tree distribution across public and private domains as well as the amount of planting space. Overall results point to inequalities in the potential of reforestation among NMDS wards and an overabundance of non-native species, which should guide urban forest management with ecosystem services and conservation goals.

Economic security of municipality: evaluation and using results in territory administration

The level of economic security of an individual municipality determines the level of regional and national economic security. To be sufficient it should have an effective management system for the municipality as a whole and its economic security in particular. Assessment of the level of economic security and measures to improve it are appointed as mandatory elements, includes. The need to research the approaches to assessing the level of economic security of a municipality, approbation of individual methods on the example of specific municipalities and using the results obtained to develop solutions for the management of the corresponding territory have been stated. There have been analyzed the practical approaches to defining the essence of the economic security of a municipality and assessing its level. A grate disadvantage of Yu.V. Fartygina and A.V. Ivanov’s methods is their focus on the region’s economy. There was applied the methodology of Zh.A. Mingaleva, which revealed the greatest number of advantages: the availability of the information base, taking into account the peculiarities of the economy of the municipality, the use of differentiated threshold values that allow to draw the conclusions. There was evaluated the Spassky municipal district of Primorsky Kray. The assessment was carried out over the period of 2018-2020, which revealed a low level of economic security of the studied municipality and a negative trend of its change. In order to correlate the results of the assessment of the economic security of the Spassky municipal district with the level of Primorsky Kray, a corresponding comparison was made according to the data over 2020, which proved lagging from the regional average values. The threats to the economic security of the Spassky municipal district were formulated and a system of measures was proposed to increase the level of economic security. The studied system takes into account the factors of the competitiveness of the municipality and modern approaches to the management of the municipality in the Russian Federation.

Fishing capacity of South Baikal in terms of tourism development and limitations on fishing industry

The article considers eco-economic aspects of using the fishing capacity of the basin of South Baikal in the framework of the development of tourism of the coastal territory within Slyudyansky Municipal District of Irkutsk Oblast and within the entire southern Baikal Region. The article proposes to more strongly focus on developing sport and recreational fishing in this most developed area of Lake Baikal. The eco-economic and legal analysis carried out by the authors allows them to conclude that the traditional regulation of the stock of omul in Baikal by determining the total allowable catches and quotas is not effective enough, since it has led to the prohibition of not only industrial but also limitation of sport and recreational fishing for omul. At the same time, there is no reliable data that recreational fishing along the southern coast of Baikal is the reason for the decrease in the total stocks of omul in Baikal. On the contrary, the South Baikal fishing area can become the basis for a more dynamic development of the tourism industry in the region, including such types of it as cognitive tourism, ecological tourism and sports and recreational one. Moreover, it is the South Baikal fishing area and the coastal territory of Slyudyansky Municipal District that can become a testing site for developing more optimal (considering the specifics of various areas of Lake Baikal) ecological approaches to the regulation, rational use and reproduction of the stock of omul in Baikal for the purposes of sport and recreational fishing at Lake Baikal, as well as development of an environmentally friendly tourism industry in the region. The authors propose to review the strategy of fishery development of the stocks of omul at Lake Baikal and remove restrictions on recreational fishing, accompanying this with organizational and legal measures that allow obtaining reliable statistical data on catches. Precisely in this most economically developed area of Lake Baikal it is advisable to practice the organizational and legal mechanisms for the environmentally friendly development of tourist and recreational activities based on the available water bioresources of the unique lake.

Floristic findings on the Putorana Plateau

A list of new floristic findings in the north-west of the Putorana Plateau (Taimyr Municipal District of Krasnoyarsk Territory – TSR) discovered in 2018–2020 is presented. A brief description of the surveyed areas is given. The annotated lists of plants are given: 1) new species for the entire territory of the TSR (8 species: Poa vivipara (L.) Willd., Carex buxbaumii Wahlenb., Juncus stygius L., Astragalus gulemiensis Sytin et Pospelov, Vicia sepium L., Hackelia deflexa (Wahlenb.) Opiz, Galium trifidum L., Saussurea purpurata (Fisch. ex Herder) Lipsch.; 2) species new to the Putorana Plateau (29 species, of which the most interesting are the findings of species included in the Red Data Book of the Krasnoyarsk Territory: Carex spaniocarpa Steud., Rumex aureostigmaticus Kom., Oxytropis czekanowskiiJurtz., O. tichomirovii Jurtz., Taraxacum byrrangicum Ju. Kozhevn.); 3) new localities of the species rarely found in the TSR (24 species, including extremely rare Dactylorhiza maculata (L.) Soó, Drosera × obovata Mert. et W. D. J. Koch,Potentilla drymeja Soják, Eritrichium sericeum (Lehm.) DC.).

Inspection of hydraulic structures of the Akhmato-Lavrovsky reservoir of the Krasnokutsk municipal district of the Saratov region in the assessment of their safety

A survey of the hydraulic structures of the Akhmato-Lavrovsky reservoir of the Krasnokutsk municipal district of the Saratov region was carried out in assessing their safety. Defects of structures and recommendations for their elimination are considered.

Dynamics of urological morbidity and medical provision of patients at the level of the municipal district (on the example of the Pavlovsky municipal district of the Nizhny Novgorod Region)

Based on the materials of official statistical data on primary morbidity and prevalence for 2014–2019, the article analyzes the trends characteristic of urological morbidity in the adult population of the Nizhny Novgorod Region and Pavlovsky municipal district of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. In addition, the statistical data of medical provision of patients suffering from diseases of the genitourinary system were analyzed. The obtained data will allow the most effective planning of scientific research in the field of organizing urological care, as well as initiate timely decision-making at all levels of healthcare organization.

STATE AND USE OF AGRICULTURAL LAND IN THE SYSTEM OF MODERN LAND RELATIONS IN THE SVERDLOVSK REGION

The rational organization of land use is one of the main tasks in modern so-ciety. The article in the framework of the study was devoted to the determi-nation of the state and use of agricultural land in the Sverdlovsk region in the post-reform period, an analysis of the current organization for the use of agricultural land. According to the authors' planned development of the in-formation and analytical system "State and use of agricultural land of the municipal district", the authors proposed key provisions for rationalizing the use of rural land at the level of the municipal district.