Settlement structure of the Tyumen Region in the area of the main oil and gas pipelines: spatial layout and sociocultural dynamics  

Ganopolsky M.G., Markova L.M. (Tyumen, Russian Federation)

              page 186–194

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The article analyses the settlement of the Tyumen Region from the perspective of the interaction between the traditional settlement scheme that has developed over the last four centuries, and a group of settlements, where oil pumping and/or gas compressor stations of main oil and gas pipelines are located and maintained. The genesis of this interaction revealed two main directions: eastern and northern. In the first case, the junction points of the Trans-Siberian Railway, which served as administrative outposts, initiated the process of forming agricultural, commercial and then industrial zones (and, accordingly, new settlements); the north direction reflects the main stages of Russia's advancement to the North, including the massive industrial development of a unique West-Siberian oil-and-gas province. The homogeneity of the considered settlements in terms the production, territorial and social aspects allows us to interpret them as a territorial and production cluster. The organising role of the pipeline transport network in the further development of this cluster is shown. Firstly, it contributed to the emergence of new settlements, and secondly, former small settlements turned into the nodal points of the transformed settlement scheme. The result of the cluster formation is correlated with the dynamics of the urbanisation process and is presented in the form of a framework for the development and settlement of the Tyumen Region and its scheme. The consideration of the subject matter is multidisciplinary in nature due to its complex and multi-aspect character. In this study, elements of various methods and approaches were employed: historical-geographical and economic-geographical when studying the genesis of the settlement structure; ethno-demographic when considering the processes of natural and forced migration; socio-cultural and economic-organisational when trying to create a sociocultural scheme of a territorial community.

Key words: Tyumen Region, West Siberian oil and gas province, new industrial development, resettlement support frame, nodal and linear support frame elements, trunk pipeline, oil pumping stations, gas compressor stations, territorial production cluster, colonization vectors.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.