The First All-Russian Youth Field School "Digital Technologies in Landscape and Ecological Research" Was Held in Russia

The event was organized on the base of the Faculty of Geology and Geography of Tomsk State University in Khakassia (Malaya Syya, Shirinsky district). The co-organizers were the Department of Geography of TSU, the Russian chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecology (IALE-Russia), GC "Geoscan" and JSC "Tomskgiprozem", the Tomsk Branch of the Russian Geographical Society and the International Laboratory of Landscape Ecology of the Higher School of Economics.

Participants of the School on the excursion to the museum-reserve "Sunduki"

Robert Sandlersky

The main purpose of the event was to introduce students and postgraduates with current methods of collecting and analyzing geographical data. The lecture part was attended by: Vitaly Linnik, (chief researcher, Vernadsky Institute of Geochemistry and Analytical Chemistry RAS); Igor Florinsky (leading researcher, Institute of Mathematical Problems of Biology RAS (FITZ Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics RAS); Alexander Khoroshev (professor, Lomonosov Moscow State University, chairman of the Executive Committee of IALE-Russia); Robert Sandlerskiy (head of the HSE International Laboratory of Landscape Ecology); Vadim Khromykh (head of the Department of Geography of the Faculty of Geology and Geography of TSU), Alexander Yerofeyev (associate professor of the Department of Geography TSU).

In the practical part, the participants acquired the skills of controlling and working with UAVs, including planning of the mission, launching, shooting and processing remote information. During the eventful five-day program, the head of the Department of Geography of TSU Vadim Khromykh organized a series of excursions, during which the students of the school were acquainted with the objects of research in the Shirinsky district of the Republic of Khakassia.

More than 30 students and young scientists from TSU, MSU, HSE (Moscow), NEFU (Yakutsk), PGI FEB RAS (Vladivostok), Institute of Water and Environmental Problems SB RAS (Barnaul) and other leading scientific centers of the country took part in the School. The Head of the MLLE, Robert Sandlersky, delivered a lecture at the School on "Modern approaches and methods of working with space images in landscape and environmental studies". Alexander Khoroshev spoke about the main directions of modern landscape and environmental research, Vitaly Linnik gave a series of lectures on geoinformation modeling and spatial analysis of geographical data, including on the example of mapping the consequences of the Chernobyl accident. Igor Florinsky's lectures were devoted to geomorphometry and geomorphometric mapping of Antarctic oases, Vadim Khromykh spoke about some aspects of digital terrain modeling in landscape and environmental studies, Alexander Yerofeyev – about the use of digital technologies in the study of the evolution, dynamics and functioning of the landscapes of the Altai highlands.