georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 41-44 blizzard cases in georgia from 2014 to 2018 mikheil pipia1*, nazibrola beglarashvili2, lizi ezieshvili3 abstract according to the national environment agency data, the cases of blizzards in the period of 2014-2018 on the territory of georgia are discussed. the existing data on blizzards are analysed, and the distribution of climatic characteristics of blizzards on the territory of georgia is determined. in particular, the distribution of blizzards cases, wind speed, areas, as well as the type of synoptic processes causing blizzards according to the respective regions and municipalities. based on the studied data, a geo-information map showing the distribution of blizzards by regions on the territory of georgia was compiled, which covers the period 2014-2018. examples of blizzard damage in 2014-2018 on the territory of georgia are given, which illustrates the scale of the damage caused by the snowstorm and the negative consequences. keywords: blizzard, wind speed, synoptic processes, geo-information map introduction a blizzard is one of the most dangerous meteorological phenomena that cause significant damage to the country's economy and endanger human life. blizzard is not uncommon in the territory of georgia. dominated by weak and medium strength blizzards [1-3]. blizzards are a rare occurrence. however, the damage caused by them is pretty extensive. blizzards on the territory of georgia are especially typical for highland areas [4-6], frequent on the passes, whereas a result of limited visibility and the formation of sediments, it threatens the movement of transport. there are frequent cases of being stuck in the disaster zone during a blizzard, posing a significant danger to human health and life. because of the limitation of horizontal vision, the blizzard creates great aviation difficulties. it disrupts the uniform bedding of snow and causes the formation of cornices, snowdrifts and other forms of snow accumulation. snowdrifts on the windward slopes can serve as a reason for equilibrium disruption between the layers of snow cover, contributing to the sliding down of snowy avalanches. in the mountain regions of georgia, blizzards are possible from november through april. they are observed only in the highest parts from october through may, and it is scarce in september. the direction of dangerous winds is determined by the atmospheric processes, during which are conceived the blizzards. for georgia, such flows are mainly winds with the western and eastern components. however, depending on area relief, the direction of dangerous winds can enormously change. the significant part of the blizzards in the territory being investigated is connected with the western processes. wind speeds with an eastern component in most are below, which decreases their danger. 65% of the territory of georgia occupies a mountain landscape, and the development of mountain regions has high value for our country. for the development of mountain health resorts, it is crucial to liquidate the negative consequences of different dangerous weather phenomena, including a blizzard, and conduct preliminary measures to reduce damage to a minimum. also, introducing effective measures for control of blizzard for a trouble-free operation of the georgia as regional transport hub. therefore, the study of the climatic characteristics of the blizzard is on the agenda, especially the study of the areas of the blizzards and their dynamics that have developed recently, which will allow us to mitigate the consequences caused by the blizzard and implement preventive measures. methods and materials the article summarizes the cases of a blizzard in the period 2014-2018 on the territory of georgia. the study of the five-year data allows us to identify blizzard-hazardous areas, to analyse blizzardcovered trends. data provided by the national environment agency. the article is carried out using probability theory and mathematical statistics [7, 8]. results and discussion 1 1 gtu, institute of hydrometeorology, d. agmashenebeli ave. 150c, 0112. tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: m.pipia@gtu.ge pipia et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) as a result of the study of blizzard cases, we have compiled a table (table 1), which shows the number of days of a blizzard in 2014-2018 by regions and relevant municipalities in georgia. the table also shows the wind speed (m/s) during the blizzard and the synoptic processes type during which a blizzard was formed in different parts of georgia. table 1. blizzard indicators in the period 2014-2018 by regions on the territory of georgia region municipality number of days wind speed (m/s) type of synoptic process abkhazia adjara kobuleti, khulo, batumi, shuakhevi 4 24 western process kakheti sagarejo 1 shida kartli kvemo kartli imareti guria samegrelo zemo svaneti samtskhejavakheti ninotsminda, akhaltsikhe, akhalkalaki 6 western process raja-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti mtskhetamtianeti dusheti (mleta-gudauri), village. mukhrani, stepantsminda 3 20 western process tbilisi tbilisi 1 24 western process as table 1. shows, a blizzard in most regions of georgia during the five-year study period (20142018) was not observed. blizzards cases (even one case) were observed in only five regions of georgia, including the capital of georgia tbilisi (1 day). as table 1 shows, most cases are recorded in the samtskhe-javakheti region and are six days. the maximum wind speed of 24 m / s was observed in the adjara region and tbilisi city. adjara region, after samtskhe-javakheti, is also characterized by a high number of blizzard cases (4 days). as for the type of synoptic processes that caused blizzards, it is especially noteworthy that the origin and development of all cases of blizzards during 2014-2018 were due to western synoptic processes. based on table 1. we compiled a geo-information map showing the distribution of blizzards by regions of georgia during 2014-2018 (fig. 1.). pipia et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 1. a number of the blizzards cases on the territory of georgia by regions in 2014-2018 blizzards cause significant damage, as evidenced by the description of cases related to blizzards that developed in 2014-2018. for example: 05.01.2015 in ninotsminda municipality, 200 people were saved from a snow-covered place by a rescue squad due to a blizzard. 06.01.2015 one person froze due to a blizzard in the town of ninotsminda. 01.04.2016 in kazbegi municipality, an extreme situation was created after the closure of the kobigudauri road. approximately 150 cars were framed in a 17-degree frost and blizzard. 21.11.2016 in batumi and akhaltsikhe municipalities, all types of traffic were banned on the 106123 km section of the batumi-akhaltsikhe highway. the ban was snow, blizzard, and limited visibility on this section of the road. 02.02.2017 in sagarejo municipality in village udabno the road was closed due to blizzard and snowdrift. such cases show that to avoid undesirable consequences, it is necessary to take various preventive measures in dangerous areas of a blizzard. we believe that similar studies will facilitate such measures. conclusion the studied five-year period on blizzards shows that the number of blizzard cases in the territory of georgia is exceptionally high in the samtskhe-javakheti region and the mountainous regions of adjara. 100% of the blizzard, developed on the territory of georgia during the study period (2014-2018), are due to western synoptic processes. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the chief of the atmospheric physics department of m. nodia institute of geophysics a. amiranashvili for assistance in the fulfilment of this work. references [1] elizbarashvili e., elizbarashvili m, kartvelishvili l, pipia m, elizbarashvili sh. (2018). blizzards on the pipia et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) territory of georgia. european geographical studies, 5(1), pp.50-60. doi: 10.13187/egs.2018.1.50 [2] pipia m., beglarashvili n. (2018). number of days with a blizzard in georgia according to statistics from 1966-2017. tansactions of the institute of hydrometeorology et the georgian technical university. vol.125, pp 63-66. (in. georgian). [3] pipia m., beglarashvili n. jincharadze g. (2018). the importance of distribution of blizzard days in the mountain landscape of georgia. // international scientific conference „modern problems of ecology“ proceedings, pp. 201-203 (in georgian). [4] elizbarashvili e., elizbarashvili m., elizbarashvili sh., pipia m., kartvelishvili l. (2020). blizzards in mountain regions of georgia. russian meteorology & hydrology, vol.45, pp. 58-62. [5] pipia m., elizbarashvili e., amiranashvili a., beglarashvili n. (2019). dangerous regions of blizzard in georgia. annals of agrarian science, vol. 17 (2019) pp.403 – 408. [6] pipia m., beglarashvili n., diasamidze l., jincharadze g. (2019). some features of blizzard in samtskhe-javakheti region. international scientific conference „natural disasters in georgia: monitoring, prevention, mitigation “, proceedings, 2019, pp. 110-113. (in georgian). [7] agekyan, t. (1972). fundamentals of the theory of errors. m.: nauka. 1972, p. 170. (in russian) [8] kobisheva n.v. (1989). narovlyansky. climatological processing of meteorological information. l., gidrometeoizdat, (in russian) georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 73-74 vazha neidze-geographer, chess composer and international referee (1937-2020) mzia tutberidze1*, marina bokeria dr vazha neidze (fig. 1, 2) belongs to that rare kind of people who have been doing what they like most their whole lives, all the more so because he had two passions equally dear to his heart: geography and chess. having graduated from the tbilisi state university in 1960, he started his career at the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia, to which he had devoted most of his scientific life. starting as a lab assistant, he worked up to become the head of the human geography department. he remained devoted to the institute for his whole life, having enriched the science of geography by more than two hundred scholarly works that include twenty-three monographs and six textbooks, some of them intended for schoolchildren and some for university students. figure 1. vazha neidze on an expedition, the 1960s after successfully defending in 1970 a ph. d. dissertation, "economic-geographical problems of the new industrial cities of georgia", he continued research on georgia's urban and rural settlement systems. he was the first to develop the structural-functional analysis of the factors that defined the foundation of new cities and rural settlements. he also studied issues of political geography, in particular, the problem of administrative-territorial arrangement of georgia and military conflicts on the georgian territory. later, his interests engulfed other fields of geography such as geographical aspects of tourism, protected natural areas' maintenance, economical and ecological development of regions. he published in 1986 an article "geography of sport: subject and objectives", thus laying the foundation for a new direction in social geography geography of sport. among his works (published in georgian in collaboration with his colleagues) are tbilisi (economicgeographical research) (1989), khevi (1998), national parks and tourism (1990); samegrelo: nature, population, economy (geographical aspects); borjomi-kharagauli national park (2001); geography 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tsu, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: mziatutberidze@gmail.com tutberidze m. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) (support guide) (2002); geography of georgia, vol. 2, socio-economic geography (2003); socioeconomic geography of the world (a handbook for higher education students) (2004); geography of georgia (2013); school textbooks in geography (for v, vi, vii, viii, ix grades), numerous articles in the multi-volume encyclopedia of georgia, etc. his cartographic works deserve separate mentioning, as he compiled up to twenty maps for the national atlas of georgia (2012) and its renovated edition in english (published in germany, 2018). in this atlas, a map of the geography of sports compiled by dr neidze had been published for the first time. the atlas as a whole was highly praised in georgia and abroad, and dr neidze was justly proud of that. unfortunately, he has not seen the publication of his last work in the collective monograph "physical geography of georgia" published in english (springer, in print). vazha neidze's works are remarkable for their deep content and refined literary style, characterized by laconism and simplicity. his perfect knowledge of the georgian language was why he was asked to carry out editorial work on the national atlas and all the essential papers published by the department of human geography during the last four decades. the most meticulous among the professional editors would gladly accept his corrections and recommendations concerning the linguistic aspects of the presented text. together with his colleagues, vazha neidze received in 1993 the vakhushti bagrationi prize for the collective monograph "tbilisi: an economic-geographical research". under the leadership and active participation of dr neidze, the department of human geography worked on current economic-geographic issues of georgia: geographical problems of the development of its regions, touristic potential, demographic problems, etc. the members of the department actively participated in several grant projects under his guidance. figure 2. vazha neidze, 2017 vazha neidze remained loyal to the institute of geography and did not seek a permanent job elsewhere. however, he was a part-time associate professor at the department of human geography and a part-time professor at the department of environmental management tbilisi state university (2002-2006). his courses included introduction to economic geography, methods of research in economic geography, history of geographical science, geography of population and cities, tutberidze m. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) geography of tourism, local studies and excursion, general social geography. despite his overloaded schedule, he took a keen interest in his students' work. he was ready to give a helping hand or a good piece of advice to put them on the right path. concerned with the younger generation's education, he devoted significant time to school textbooks. vazha neidze was an active science organizer. he was a member of the scientific council of the institute of geography, one of the founders of the alexandre javakhishvili geographical society of georgia, and a member of its scientific council, its commission of geographical place-names. he was a member of the scientific advisory board of different standing committees of the parliament of georgia (sectoral economic, environment and natural resources). he was a member of the union of georgian journalists. dr neidze actively participated in the local and international seminars and conferences. his highly professional, exciting presentations always drew audiences. however, he loved fieldwork with endless after-work conversations with younger colleagues. these precious hours are unforgettable for us. highly principled and demanding of himself, dr neidze never shied away from expressing his critical opinion about a student's work or an authoritative scholar. figure 3. vazha neidze with the family vazha neidze never lost sight of his beloved chess despite his intensive involvement in scientific work. "chess is a kind of indicator of a nation's intellectual and cultural level. this creation of humankind's genius is very beneficial for humans," he used to say. more than 60 years in the chess world have earned him great recognition as a chess composer and an international referee. the first great success of the author of many engaging, beautiful chess etudes was the champion of the ussr in 1984 and the international master in chess composition in 1989. david gurgenidze, an international grand master in chess composition, two-time world champion in composition of chess studies, wrote: "vazha neidze was the first referee who had elaborated and brought into practice the system of assessing chess etudes composition, the system which allowed to assess many different aspects of composition". vazha neidze was invited to judge on the "fide album" and the director of the etudes section of the same album. in 1980, the permanent commission of chess composition fide awarded vazha neidze with international arbitrator in chess composition. until 2006 he refereed many international competitions. simultaneously, he kept working in chess composition and continued popularizing the field by publishing an article in national and international chess magazines. vazha neidze a geographer, a high-ranking scientist, international master and international arbiter in chess composition was also a great lover of classical music, an excellent connoisseur of the geography tutberidze m. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) and history of his hometown bibliophile. dr neidze was always supported by his wife (fig. 3), dr zhanna zonenashvili, who was by his side at home and work. dr neidze had far-sighted, well-argued views on the future of the institute of geography, the development of geography as a science, and the fundamental spatial problems of the country. his friends and colleagues will greatly miss his kindness, support, humorous appraisals, and optimism. many of his ideas and scientific discoveries remain unpublished. he readily shared them with his peers and colleagues who consider implementing his ideas their moral obligation and honour of his memory. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) management of the health and safety of medical personnel considering geographic characteristics nino ratiani1, sophio gugeshashvili2* abstract health geography is the application of geographical information, perspectives, and methods to the study of health, disease, and health care. medical geography, a subdiscipline of or sister field of health geography, focuses on understanding spatial patterns of health and disease as related to the natural and social environment. conventionally, there are two primary areas of research within medical geography: the first deals with the spatial distribution and determinants of morbidity and mortality, while the second deals with health planning, help-seeking behaviour, and the provision of health services. occupational health and safety specialists collect and analyse data about work environments and procedures. they inspect and evaluate workplace environments to judge safety standards based on policy. specialists prepare reports, evaluate health and safety, and educate employers on best practices. they take samples and observe a workplace to determine health, safety, comfort, and performance. a specialist will lead a team of technicians and employees in making necessary changes to the work environment. part of their job is to examine the work environment. the purpose of the article is an analysis of laboratory studies in the seven regions of georgia, which reveals the variations in the health status of the populations in different regions. to protect the lives and health of employees and fulfil the requirements of medical and occupational safety, it is necessary for medical regulations and guidelines to ensure the safest and healthiest working conditions in every workplace. specifically, these regulations should aim to connect the safety and health of employees with the geographic characteristics of the workplace to prevent geographic disparities in health and be proactive in addressing emergencies. keywords: health geography, laboratory health and safety introduction medical geography, as a branch of integral geography, explores the impact of various components of the environment on human health and diseases. the health status of an individual is closely related to various factors, including their workplace environment. in many cases, the right to life and health is considered a fundamental human right, and employers are obligated to create a safe working environment to ensure the well-being and health of their employees. specifically, it is essential to minimise risks to the life and health of employees working in the most hazardous and vulnerable work environments. as a result, it is crucial to consider and address workplace-related factors that affect an individual's health and safety. for instance, significant factors associated with workplace risks to an individual's health and wellbeing include hazardous air quality, noise, water quality, occupational hazards, and other related factors. ensuring a safe and healthy workplace is a fundamental responsibility, and it is essential to consider all potential risks and factors associated with an individual's health and well-being in the workplace. the geography of health services is concerned with spatial aspects of access to health care, health care delivery, and the planning of health services. it spans the biological, environmental, and social sciences and uses both quantitative and qualitative methodologies [1]. in the context of medical-geographical research, we can analyse the impact of geographical factors on public health conditions and correspondingly develop preventive measures. it would be interesting to provide an example of medical-geographical analysis regarding the population's health status based on the geographical location. the term "medical geography" as a distinct field of study was established in 1949 during the 16th international geographical congress in the city of lisbon. the purpose of this congress was to define new methods and objectives for geographical research in the context of medicine and science [2]. 1 department of labor safety and emergency management/mining and geology faculty, georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia, n.ratiani@gtu.ge 2 department of labor safety and emergency management/mining and geology faculty, georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia, * corresponding author: gugeshashvili.sopio22@gtu.ge ratiani and gugeshashvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) as a subdiscipline of human geography, medical geography addresses human-environment interactions and the influence these interactions have on public health. geography and health are intrinsically linked. health geographers use modern spatial analysis tools to map the dispersion of health [3]. spatial location plays a major role in shaping environmental risks as well as many other health effects. environmental health is a branch of public health that addresses all aspects of the broader environment that can affect human health. the world health organisation has defined environmental health as aspects of human health and diseases that are dependent on environmental factors. environmental health also refers to the assessment and control of environmental factors that can potentially affect health [4]. for the effective development of public health policies, we need to consider not only factors related to disease risks but also their interconnectedness with the broader societal context. the world health organisation (who) estimates that 24% of the entire global disease burden and 23% of all deaths are attributable to environmental factors [5]. health geography views health from a holistic perspective encompassing society and space, and it conceptualises the role of place, location, and geography in health, well-being, and disease [6–8]. spatial scale, globalisation, and urbanisation concern with scales of organisation is crucial to health service provision and public health implementation [9]. place and geographic context are recognised as important influences on health. current developments in health geography include a stronger focus on health inequalities and the impact of spatial and social marginalisation on health, as well as a more explicit exploration of the nature of health change [10]. environmental factors had an impact on the occurrence and spread of diseases and infections, according to a report by the world health organisation in 2015. medical geography primarily serves to analyse the cause-and-effect relationships between the environment and health within a given region. methods and materials literary source analysis, statistical analysis, and sociological methods were used in the research. the materials were presented with the statistical data from the "medical centre cito” and the relevant literature on medical geography. in addition, meetings were held with healthcare professionals working in various regions, whose opinions were reflected in the article. results “medical center cito” is a leading laboratory in the country, encompassing clinical chemistry and immunology, clinical diagnostics, clinical microbiology, and pcr laboratories. the laboratory certification guarantees the quality and safety of operations, which must be regularly conducted by professionals in the respective field. “medical center cito” has successfully completed the process of accreditation by the "anab" for international accreditation. “cito” has received the national accreditation certificate iso 15189, issued by the accreditation center, gac georgia, which is the only national body for accreditation in georgia. it has also obtained the international certificate iso 9001 for quality management and, in 2015, the iso 15189 certification for medical laboratory quality. “cito” has been undergoing successful audits since 2005, with recertification taking place every two years and constantly evaluating risks and safety measures. “medical center cito” has medical centers and lab express services in 7 regions of georgia: batumi, kutaisi, zugdidi, senaki, gori, samtredia and telavi. table 1. medical centre batumi analysis quantity 1 complete blood count 1366 2 coagulogram 443 3 general analysis of urine 552 4 tsh thyroid-stimulating hormone blood test 775 5 vitamin d (25 oh) 777 6 fe iron blood test 350 7 gluc glucose blood test, both fasting and postmeal 304 8 lipid profile (chol, hdl, vldl, tg, ldl) 362 9 ft4 free thyroxine blood test 361 10 ferritin blood test 301 ratiani and gugeshashvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) table 2. lab express kutaisi analysis quantity 1 complete blood count 380 2 determination of ca calcium in the blood 114 3 general analysis of urine 122 4 tsh thyroid-stimulating hormone blood test 194 5 vitamin d (25 oh) 217 6 lipid profile (chol, hdl, vldl, tg, ldl) 84 7 coagulogram 95 8 ft4 determination of free thyroxine in the blood 93 9 ferritin determination of ferritin in blood serum 80 10 examination of urine for sterility aerobic and facultative anaerobic microorganisms 88 table 3. lab express zugdidi analysis quantity 1 complete blood count 842 2 coagulogram 198 3 general analysis of urine 296 4 tsh thyroid-stimulating hormone blood test 359 5 vitamin d (25 oh) 186 6 crea determination of creatinine in blood serum 164 7 crp determination of c-reactive protein in blood serum 106 8 lipid profile (chol, hdl, vldl, tg, ldl) 108 9 determination of pt prothrombin (thromboplastin) time in blood or plasma 112 10 ft4 determination of free thyroxine in the blood 144 table 4. lab express senaki analysis quantity 1 complete blood count 311 2 coagulogram 120 3 general analysis of urine 132 4 tsh thyroid-stimulating hormone blood test 154 5 vitamin d (25 oh) 184 6 determination of ca calcium in the blood 96 7 crea determination of creatinine in blood serum 83 8 lipid profile (chol, hdl, vldl, tg, ldl) 110 9 international normalised ratio (inr) 82 10 determination of d-dimer (fibrin degradation products) 91 table 5. lab express gori analysis quantity 1 complete blood count 231 2 coagulogram 83 3 general analysis of urine 75 4 tsh thyroid-stimulating hormone blood test 89 5 vitamin d (25 oh) 80 6 determination of ca calcium in the blood 41 7 crea determination of creatinine in blood serum 55 8 gluc determination of glucose in blood and blood serum 51 9 lipid profile (chol, hdl, vldl, tg, ldl) 41 10 crp determination of c-reactive protein in blood serum 33 table 6. lab express samtredia analysis quantity 1 complete blood count 409 ratiani and gugeshashvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) 2 coagulogram 98 3 general analysis of urine 129 4 tsh thyroid-stimulating hormone blood test 98 5 vitamin d (25 oh) 94 6 determination of ca calcium in the blood 76 7 crea determination of creatinine in blood serum 60 8 crp determination of c-reactive protein in blood serum 57 9 fe iron blood test 54 10 ft4 determination of free thyroxine in the blood 53 table 7. lab express telavi analysis quantity 1 complete blood count 165 2 coagulogram 49 3 general analysis of urine 41 4 tsh thyroid-stimulating hormone blood test 96 5 vitamin d (25 oh) 79 6 determination of ca calcium in the blood 34 7 crea determination of creatinine in blood serum 30 8 fe iron blood test 38 9 ft4 determination of free thyroxine in the blood 31 10 ferritin blood test 30 conclusion managing the health and safety of medical personnel in different geographic settings requires careful planning, risk assessment, and adaptation to local conditions. some key considerations for managing health and safety in various geographic characteristics should be considered: assessment of geographic characteristics: understand the specific geographic characteristics of the area where medical personnel will be working. consider factors such as terrain, climate, altitude, and accessibility. risk assessment: conduct a comprehensive risk assessment to identify potential hazards and risks associated with geographic characteristics. this should include natural disasters, weather and local disease patterns. provide medical personnel with training and education specific to the geographic area. collaborate with local authorities, healthcare facilities, and organisations to gain local knowledge and support. they can provide valuable insights into regional health and safety challenges. implement measures to protect medical personnel from local health risks, such as vaccination programs and others. continuously collect and analyse data on health and safety incidents in the specific geographic area to inform ongoing improvements in protocols and procedures. it is important to implement a system for documenting incidents, near misses and safety issues and then review them regularly. managing the health and safety of medical personnel in diverse geographic characteristics requires a proactive and context-specific approach. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution n.r. and s. g. conceived of the presented idea. n.r. and s. g. performed the analytic calculations. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. references [1] j. winston, m. emch. (2013). medical geography. oxford university press, 1(2). doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199874002-0034 [2] the geographical journal (1949). international geographical congress, lisbon, 1949. the geographical ratiani and gugeshashvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) journal, 76-82. doi.org/10.2307/1789991 [3] murray, emily t.; shelton, nicola; norman, paul; head, jenny (2022)., measuring the health of people in places: a scoping review of oecd member countries, health & place, 73. doi.org/10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102731 [4] morand s., lajaunie c. (2017). biodiversity and health linking life, ecosystems, societies (1-14) [5] mbuligwe s.e. (2019). environmental health engineering: rationale, technologies and practices for various needs. /encyclopedia of environmental health (second edition) biodiversity and health linking life, ecosystems, societies (486-495) [6] meade m, earickson r. medical geography. new york: guilford press; 2000 [7] mayer jd. geography, ecology and emerging infectious diseases. soc sci med 2000; 50:937-52. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(99)00346-9 [8] lanchava o, gugeshashvili s (2023), occupational health and safety risk management in the field of laboratory medicine, https://5wwwww.easychair.org/publications/preprint/zf2l [9] trevor j.b. dummer (2008) health geography: supporting public health policy and planning. cmaj 178(9). doi: 10.1503/cmaj.071783 [10] asthana s, curtis s, duncan c, et al. (2002) themes in british health geography at the end of the century: a review of published research 1998–2000. soc sci med. doi: 10.1016/s0277-9536(01)00211-8 georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 45-50 impact of short-term geomagnetic activity on the variability of meteorological parameters marika tatishvili1, nana bolashvili2, ana palavandishvili1* abstract the paper deals with space weather prediction problem. the investigation of the possible effect of powerful magnetospheric storms on the evolving character of meteorological processes in the atmosphere to identify the correlation between magnetospheric disturbances and meteorological variations is presented in the paper. the investigation is preconditioned by the fact that georgia is prone to hydrometeorological hazards, and it is essential to investigate their causing physical processes. meteorological effects resulting from fluctuations in the solar wind are poorly represented in weather and climate models. a geomagnetic storm is a significant disturbance of earth's magnetosphere exchanging energy from the solar wind into earth's space environment. these storms result from solar wind variations that significantly change the currents, plasmas, and fields in earth's magnetosphere. geomagnetic indices measure geomagnetic activity occurring over short periods. they have been constructed to study the response of the earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere to changes in solar activity. the correlation between geomagnetic storms and meteorological elements (temperature, precipitation, wind) has been carried out for the georgian region using meteorological observation and nasa's solar dynamics observatory and noaa space weather prediction centre data. the results show that there exists dependence between meteorological parameters and geomagnetic disturbances. keywords: meteorological parameters, space weather prediction, geo-magnetic index, correlation analysis introduction the nasa earth observing system (eos) program was launched in the early 1990s. eos is comprised of a series of coordinated polar-orbiting and mid-inclination satellites for long-term monitoring of the earth as an integrated system, including observations of the land surface, biosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere and oceans to understand functioning of the earth as an integrated system[1]. the earth weather is influenced by several phenomena that occur in near space. those are solar eul irradiance, galactic cosmic rays, total electron content and solar cycles. the research of solar cycle influence on weather parameters is presented in the article. the sun is the source of the energy that causes the atmosphere's motion and thereby controls weather and climate. any change in the energy from the sun received at the surface will affect earth climate. during stable conditions, there has to be a balance between the energy received from the sun and the energy that the earth radiates back into space [1]. this energy is mainly radiated in longwave radiation corresponding to the earth's mean temperature. solar transients; solar flares, coronal mass ejections (cmes), solar energetic particles (seps) are the drivers of the space weather effect in geo-space. when the gigantic cloud of plasma released through transient solar phenomena interacts with the earth's magnetic environment, it leads to geomagnetic storms. geomagnetic storms can be characterized by depression in the h component of the geomagnetic field. this depression in the h component of earth's magnetic field is caused by the ring current encircling the earth westward. earth's ionosphere responds to varying solar and magnetospheric conditions. during geomagnetic storms due to the compression of earth's magnetosphere by the solar wind, electric fields have been observed along the geomagnetic field lines to the high latitude ionosphere. sometimes this electric field penetrates to low latitudes, and energetic particles precipitate into the lower thermosphere and below, increasing ionosphere conductivity and expanding the aurora zone [2]. these intense electric currents are responsible for coupling the high latitude ionosphere with the magnetosphere, and the enhanced energy input leads to considerable heating of the ionized and neutral gases. there are two types of effects, in time scale, on the earth produced by solar transients; prompt and delayed. geomagnetic storm effects are delayed effects due to a cloud of particles ejected from the sun. 1 institute of hydrometeorology, georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia, m.tatishvili@gtu.ge 2 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, state university, nana.bolashvili@tsu.ge * corresponding author: palavandishvili.ana21@gtu.ge tatishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) the sun undergoes a cyclical (~22 years) pattern of magnetic pole reversals observable in the frequency of sunspot activity. this pattern is comprised of two ~11-year solar cycles phases. in the first phase, the sun's magnetic poles reverse polarity. the sun reverses the magnetic polarity in the second phase, returning the poles to their original polarity. solar storm activity is strongly phase-dependent. accordingly, earth magnetic field is influenced by this reverse. solar flares are magnetically driven explosions on the surface of the sun. approximately 8 minutes after solar flare occurs on the surface of the sun, a powerful burst of electromagnetic radiation in the form of x-ray, extreme ultraviolet rays, gamma-ray radiation and radio burst arrive at earth. the ultraviolet rays heat the upper atmosphere, which causes the outer atmospheric shell to expand. the xrays strip electrons from the atom in the ionosphere producing a sudden increase in total electron content. solar flares produce satellite communications interference, radar interference, shortwave radio fades, blackout, and atmospheric drag on satellite, producing an unplanned change in the orbit and other disturbances in the upper atmosphere. cmes are vast clouds of seething gas, charged plasma of low to medium energy particles with the embedded magnetic field, blasted into interplanetary space from the sun. when a cme strikes earth, the compressed magnetic fields and plasma in their leading-edge smash into the geomagnetic field, this produces a temporary disturbance of the earth's magnetosphere called a geomagnetic storm and the equatorial ring of currents, differential gradient and curvature drift of electrons and protons in the nearearth region. the birthplaces of cmes are often seen to originate near the site of solar flares [2]. the severity of a geomagnetic storm depends on the orientation of earth's magnetic field concerning the solar storm magnetic orientation. if the particle cloud has a southward directed magnetic field, it will be severe, while the effects are minimized northward. a cme can produce the following effects: electrostatic spacecraft charging, shifting of the van allen radiation belt, space track errors, launch trajectory errors, spacecraft payload deployment problems, surveillance radar errors, radio propagation anomalies, compass alignment errors, electrical power blackouts, oil and gas pipeline corrosion, communication landline & equipment damage, electrical shock hazard, electrical fires, heart attacks, strokes, and traffic accidents. the magnetospheric storm is a 1–3-day phenomenon spanning all the magnetosphere regions, and it features sharp depressions in the magnetic field. during storms and sub storms, the ionosphere undergoes a rather significant joule heating with great power of precipitating energetic particles. enormous energy increases the ionosphere temperature and causes large-scale ion drifts and neutral winds [3]. the sun continuously provides solar radiation to the earth, and there is considerable variation in the spectral density. this radiation is sporadically modified by flare events that affect the magnetosphere, thermosphere, and ionosphere. the quasi-steady flow of the solar wind is also modified by coronal mass ejections (cmes), which accelerate energetic particles and cause geomagnetic storms during subsequent impacts on earth. observations have suggested that energetic particle forcing may affect wave propagation, zonal mean temperatures, and zonal winds in the northern hemisphere winter stratosphere. however, the mechanisms by which these changes occur are still not known. as changes in the earth's atmosphere occur, whether due to changes in solar forcing or response to enhanced anthropogenic activity and increased greenhouse gas (ghg) concentrations, the energy balance of the earth's atmosphere is altered, affecting its dynamics. changes can occur in the propagation of atmospheric gravity waves, planetary waves, and tides, which play essential roles in driving the general circulation of the middle atmosphere. the thermosphere-ionosphere system is known to vary substantially with altitude, latitude, longitude, universal time, season, solar cycle and geomagnetic activity due to mechanisms inherent to the system and a result of space weather. the primary driving mechanism is solar radiation (euv and uv), but precipitation of charged magnetospheric particles and magnetospheric electric fields also have significant effects on the ionosphere-thermosphere system. the driving processes determine the density, composition, and temperature of the ionized and neutral constituents of the upper atmosphere. the solar wind conditions that are effective for creating geomagnetic storms are sustained (for several to many hours) periods of the high-speed solar wind, and most importantly, a southward directed solar wind magnetic field (opposite the direction of earth's field) at the dayside of the magnetosphere. this condition effectively transfers energy from the solar wind into earth's magnetosphere. the most significant storms that result from these conditions are associated with solar coronal mass ejections (cmes), where a billion tons or so of plasma from the sun, with its embedded magnetic field, tatishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) arrives at earth. cmes typically take several days to arrive at earth but have been observed to arrive in as short as 18 hours for some of the most intense storms. another solar wind disturbance that creates conditions favourable to geomagnetic storms is a high-speed solar wind stream (hss). hsss plough into the slower solar wind in front and create co-rotating interaction regions or cirs. these regions are often related to geomagnetic storms that, while less intense than cme storms, can deposit more energy in earth's magnetosphere over a longer interval. methods and materials to understand variability character of meteorological parameters such as temperature, pressure, wind speed and precipitation the impact of short-term geo-magnetic activity on those characters is investigated in presented aticle. the study area is the georgian region. the relief of georgia is mountainous, sharply billowy, where significant orographic raisings alternate with intermountain troughs. on the northern part of the territory, from north-west to south-east main caucasus ridge is stretching. its separate tops are above 5000m. the south georgian plateau stretches in the south part of the territory. between main caucasus ridge and south georgian plateau, the intermountain depression is located, presented by lowlands, plains and plateaus. complex orographic conditions and the influence of the black sea preconditioned the formation of a great variety of climates and landscapes. here exist most of earth's climatic types, from marine wet subtropical climate of west georgia and steppe continental climate of east georgia up to eternal snow and glaciers of high mountain zone of great caucasus, and approximately 40% of observed landscapes. thus, those climatic zones condition formation of different dangerous hydrometeorological phenomena, namely: hailstone, heavy showers, flooding, thunderstorm, draughts, and sea storms [5]. the aim is to investigate the possible effect of magnetospheric storms on the evolving character of meteorological processes in the atmosphere, to study the correlation between magnetospheric disturbances and meteorological background variations. the sun and the earth's motion along its orbit govern changes in the solar-terrestrial environment on time scales ranging from minutes to glacial cycles. changes in earth's climate have been the focal point of recent research in solar-terrestrial physics (stp), and a particular emphasis has been placed on the coupling between the troposphere (below 10– 15 km altitude), middle atmosphere (10–100 km altitude), and near-earth geo-space (mesosphere, thermosphere, ionosphere, and magnetosphere), and solar activity. the kp index is probably the most widely used of all magnetic indices. it is intended to express the degree of "geomagnetic activity," or disturbance for the whole earth, for intervals of three hours in universal time [6]. time sequences of circulation patterns and solar activity parameters are also subject to investigations. intrusions into the atlantic and europe were observed nearby geomagnetic-disturbance days. it was found that increasing geomagnetic activity leads to the change of meridional flow into the zonal one of the atmospheric circulations in the mid-latitudes on the northern hemisphere. it was also depicted that short-term and long-term changes in solar activity, the geomagnetic field and weather demonstrate very similar quasi-periodic variations to establish the influence of geomagnetic activity on the formation of weather pattern geomagnetic indices achieved from the following open sources [6,7,8, 9,10] and meteorological observation database for 2014-18 have been analysed. the meteorological database was extracted from the georgian national environmental agency archive. the 4 locations were chosen: tbilisi (kartli region), batumiadjara region, telavi-kakheti region and the last one in high mountain zone-mta-sabueti. the results showed that constantly weather patterns change: increased wind velocity; temperature change (decrease); precipitation amount increase follows the geomagnetic activity. the tbilisi data is used to present dependence of precipitation, temperature and wind speed on geo-magnetic kp index. results and discussion to identify the connection between geomagnetic activity and meteorological processes, 2014-17 period precipitation, wind, temperature observation data and geomagnetic kp index daily data have been used for georgian conditions. the charts below show the correlation between meteorological parameters and geomagnetic activity expressed in planetary kp index. tatishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) (a) (b) (c) figure 1. (a,b,c). precipitation and geo-index correlation for tbilisi point in 2017 the analysis has been conducted for current, pre and aftershock 3 and 5 days. for meteorological parameters current day is crucial, and a 3,5-day time-lapse is reliable for circulation processes. it is ascertained that during all magnetic storms, southwest or southeast wave processes have been formed, and strong storms create high-pressure areas. depending on the synoptic situation, wave processes lead to thunderstorms and heavy showers. in addition, the direction of circulation processes may drastically change through geomagnetic storms. tatishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 2. wind speed and geo-index (kp) correlation for tbilisi point in 2017 (i-iii) the vere river tragedy on 13 june 2015 clearly shows how meteorological disasters triggered geohazard. on this day, flash-flood on the vere river flooded part of tbilisi city, destroyed buildings, infrastructure, zoo, many zoo habitats, and 18 casualties. after analysing satellite data and the synoptical situation, what happened became clear. during several days from 9 to 14 june, 2 mev, high energy electrons penetrate the atmosphere (noaa/swpc, boulder, co, usa. spaceweatherlive.com; earthdata.nasa.gov). the abundant electrons create stable clusters in the lower atmosphere resisting precipitation infall. after they became so massive that they could not resist gravitation, a significant amount of rainwater fell out from clouds, causing flooding [11]. it is not fully clear the physical mechanism of this correlation and the issue needs further investigation applying quantum field theory that is more suitable for description of photon-photon or photon-charged particle interaction as during geomagnetic activity significant number of charged particles and photons to penetrate atmosphere [12, 13]. most water properties are preconditioned because three-component atoms aren’t placed on one line. negative charge prevailed on oxygen atoms part and positive on hydrogen. thus, water molecule is electrically polarized. among atoms and molecules, acts force that always has attractive character. it is intermolecular dispersive or van-deer-vaalse force [14, 15,16]. it is only one of the expressions of electromagnetic force. it acts among electrically neutral systems such as dipole or quadruple. in dipoles, force reduces by r4 inverse proportional and in quadruple by r-6. it is not temperature-dependent, and its nature is quantum. by increasing dipole numbers, their interaction increases [14]. conclusion this correlation became obvious from analysing historical meteorological observations and geomagnetic activity records. this activity has driven many dangerous hydrometeorological events (flood, landslide) over georgian territory due to the intensification of precipitation. even hail processes intensification results from increasing atmosphere electricity and thunderstorm activity, produced by high energy charged particles intrusion into the upper atmosphere. these kinds of studies are essential in understanding earth magnetism and the sun-earth environment. it may be assumed that only existing numerical weather models are insufficient, and magnetic models must be enhanced to make forecasting more precise. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.t. data processing, paper preparation, n. b. data processing, paper preparation, a. p. literature analysis. references [1] spaceweatherlive.com [2] solar physics and terrestrial effects. space environment center. 2012 tatishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) [3] toshitaka tsuda, marianna shepherd and nat gopalswamy. advancing the understanding of the sun–earth interaction—the climate and weather of the sun–earth system (cawses) ii program. progress in earth and planetary science (2015) 2:28 doi 10.1186/s40645-015-0059-0 [4] m.tatishvili, n.bolashvili, i.mkurnalidze. climate and causes of its variability. //transactions of institute of hydrometeorology, tbilisi, georgia, 2013, v. 119, pp. 38-43. [5] m.tatishvili, e.elizbarashvili, r. meskhia, sh.elizbarashvili.natural hydrometeorological disasters, their causes and prevention measures . the macrotheme review. a multidisciplinary journal of global macro trends, 148-154,a macrotheme capital management, llc academic publication, volume 2, issue 1, winter 2013 (january). issn 1848-4735, france [6] www.spaceweather.gov [7] sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov [8] http://sunspotwatch.com [9] earthdata.nasa.gov [10] http://sunspotwatch.com [11] tatishvili m., mkurnalidze i., samkharadze i., tsintsadze n. impact of solar coronal mass ejections (cme) on formation of earth climate and weather pattern. international scientific journal. journal of environmental science. v.7. issue 1. pp1-5. 2018. isbn -13:978-1721539185 [12] tatishvili m., khvedelidze z., mkurnalidze i., samkharadze i., kokosadze kh. the connection of geomagnetic activity and weather formation in georgian region. international scientific conference „modern problems of ecology“ proceedings, issn 1512-1976, v. 6, kutaisi, georgia. 2018 [13] tatishvili m. developing weather forecasting system in georgia. ecology & environmental sciences 2 (7) doi:10.15406/mojes. 2017.02.00046. [14] tatishvili m. energy transformation in clouds according quantum principles. // international scientific journal. journal of environmental science. vol 3. isbn13: 978-1499721980; isbn -10: 1499721986, vienna, austria 2014. pp. 7-9. [15] tatishvili m. on the water quantum properties in meteorology international scientific conference „natural disasters in the 21st century:monitoring, prevention, mitigation“ proceedings, isbn 978-9941-491-52-8, tbilisi, georgia, december 20-22, 2021 [16] tatishvili m. on some considerations of cloud particles and photons interaction journal of the georgian geophysical society, e-issn: 2667-9973, p-issn: 1512-1127physics of solid earth, atmosphere, ocean and space plasma, v. 24(2), 2021 http://www.spaceweather.gov/ georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) 3d model and structural-kinematic evolution of the pre-jurassic crystalline basement of the western georgia levan basheleishvili1, giorgi beridze1* abstract the modern structure of western georgia is determined mainly by the meridional (sub-meridional) and latitudinal systems of faults covering different depths of the earth's crust. the noted faults are often-sided boundaries of the blocks of the crystalline basement of the earth's crust, creating a picture of its mosaic-block structure. the analysis of the lithofacies and thicknesses of the sedimentary cover developed within their limits, in several cases, indicating their autonomous and inversion nature of development. the comparison of geophysical and drilling data and applying the system analysis method of disjunctive structures made it possible to clarify some issues of the structural-kinematic evolution and morphogenetic of individual blocks and faults of the pre-jurassic crystalline basement within the limits of the southern caucasus. a 3d physical model of the surface of the crystalline basement constructed by us within western georgia shows the spatial arrangement and the character of the inversion nature of individual blocks, indicating the manifestations of the alpine and late alpine orogeneses. analysis of the actual material, geophysical, and geological data for the intra-caucasian intermountain area allows us to draw the following conclusions: the georgian block (a fragment of the transcaucasian median massif, microplates, and terranes), with a pre-jurassic crystalline basement exposed in its central part, is divided into the western and eastern subsidence zones, which in turn disintegrate into separate blocks. from the central zone of the uplift of the georgian block to the east and west, a gradual "stepwise" subsidence and tilting of the blocks of the crystalline basement is outlined. similar structures are known in the literature as the so-called tilt blocks. keywords: georgia, crystalline basement, structural geology, 3d model introduction figure 1. scheme of the fault tectonics of the crystalline basement of western georgia. scale 1: 100 000. 1 al. janelidze institute of geology, iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, * corresponding author: giorgi.beridzegeolinst@gmail.com basheishvili and beridze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) the modern structure of western georgia is primarily determined by the meridional (submeridional) and latitudinal systems of faults covering different depths of the earth's crust. the noted faults are often the siding boundaries of the blocks of the crystalline basement of the earth's crust, creating a picture of its mosaic-block structure [1-6]. the analysis of the lithofacies and thicknesses of the sedimentary cover developed within their limits, in several cases, indicating their autonomous and inversion nature of development. at the early-middle jurassic stage, within the colkheti depression, a clearly expressed colkheti trough opened towards the eastern part of the black sea. at this time, two faults of the general caucasian strike formed in the north. in the south of the basin, the northern adjara-trialeti fault also manifested a latitudinal strike. the only meridional structure at that time was the tkibuli-zestaphoni fault, from which the thickness of the lower-middle jurassic formations sharply decreased to the east, apparently connected to the washout of the dzirula land. at that time, the greatest sagging occurred in samegrelo, where the thickness of the lower-middle jurassic was 3000–3500 m (fig. 1). results the samegrelo trough continued to develop in the early cretaceous. at the same time, the rionichaladidi trough was isolated distinctly for the first time. the entire western part of the colkheti depression was cut off from the eastern one by the sub-meridional fault. here, the eastern block is relatively elevated, where the thickness of the lower cretaceous is 2000 m. thus, at that time, five uplifts and four troughs were isolated, and all these structures had a latitudinal and near latitudinal strike. in the late cretaceous, the paleotectonic plan of the colkheti depression changed. the central samegrelo depression takes on a sub-meridional strike; to the west and north of the indicated trough, the meridionally spreading, narrow so-called salkhino uplift and the sub-latitudinal anaklia-jvari fault were formed. in the pliocene-eocene time, the central samegrelo trough and the salkhinokvaloni uplift acquire a distinctly meridional outline. at the same time, the lessa and dzirula uplifts of latitudinal strikes formed. the maikopian time (oligocene–early miocene) in the caucasus is characterised by the onset of the early orogenic stage of development, at which the central samegrelo trough retains its meridional strike with the accumulation of up to 1000 m of maikop deposits. at the same time, two meridional satanjo and tsaishi uplifts that represent the area of erosion were isolated. in the middle-late miocene, the meridional central samegrelo trough continues to develop, where the thickness of the miocene reaches 2000 m. at the same time, the axial line of the trough migrates to the northeast compared to the maikopian. the paleocene stage of the development of the colkheti depression, compared with the previous one, was characterised by a change in the paleotectonic plan, and the inversion stage of development started. this is visible in the central samegrelo trough; after the accumulation of 200–300 m (pontian) deposits, uplifting took place, transforming the area into the erosion area. at that time, the submeridional trough turned into a latitudinal one. in the quaternary period, the final relief from the colkheti depression takes place. first, the broad central samegrelo uplift reappears and again acquires a meridional direction. the thickness of the deposits reaches 200 m. the meridional saberio-tsaishi uplift also formed, where quaternary deposits are missing. this narrow uplift in the east takes a northeasterly direction and thus almost entirely isolates the central samegrelo trough from the rest of the colkheti depression. thus, the initiation and development of meridional structures in the colkheti depression show that the structural plan was rearranged at least twice, and this was associated with the region's main tectonic phases of deformation. such data analysis makes it possible to comprehend the mechanism of the formation of meridional (anti-caucasian) structures within western georgia. recent studies show that in the colchis depression, according to seismic data, the crystalline basement subsided from east to west from 0 to 8–9 km (in the coastal part of the black sea). however, with general subsidence to the west (in some places in the basement), local uplifts are noted, which are quite clearly recorded on seismic profiles. in addition, these uplifts in the eastern part were exposed by boreholes. here, lower cretaceous deposits directly overlie the basement rocks, and the thickness of the mio-pliocene deposits is 400–450 m. to the west, between the villages of akhali sviri and vartsikhe, a trough is basheishvili and beridze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) noted, where the thickness of the mio-pliocene remains unchanged but the thickness of the upper cretaceous deposits doubles. the basement uplift was recorded in the village of vartsikhe, well no. 18, at a depth of 720 m. on a five-kilometre stretch of uplift, the thickness of the mesozoic-cenozoic cover is reduced to a minimum (700–750 m). to the west, in well no. 66 (sakuliya), the thickness of the miocene-pliocene deposits doubles, and chokrakian deposits directly overlie the upper cretaceous deposits. to the west of the village of sakuliya, the basement submerges again. no. 1 (samtredia) in 2800–3045 m exposed the middle jurassic deposits. here, deposits of the meotian stage rest on the upper cretaceous deposits. thus, along the latitudinal profile of zestaphonisamtredia (fig. 2), the thickness of the upper cretaceous deposits does not exceed 250–200 m, except for the akhali sviri-rodinauli area, where their thickness is 800 m, and the thickness of the lower cretaceous and mio-pliocene deposits does not change compared to neighbouring areas. to the west of the mentioned trough, geological and geophysical data record the uplifted vartsikhe block, which, as the drilling data show, is limited by faults penetrating at least to the bottom of the earth's crust from the west and east. from them, the western one within the georgian block caused a halving of the thickness of the mio-pliocene deposits. according to m. i. ioseliani et al. [7], igneous bodies that are not exposed on the surface are confined to this fault within ajara-trialeti. the vartsikhe fault, the eastern limit of the vartsikhe uplift within the georgian block, is well recorded on satellite images as a profound fault. it may also have a right-shear component. another fault of sub meridional strike is outlined along the ozurgeti-amtkheli line, which, in addition to the data of the seismic profiles of anaklia-zestaphoni and sabazho-simoneti, is also confirmed by the analysis of geological materials. in particular, within the ajara-trialeti zone, it corresponds to a meridional faultslip, along which the upper cretaceous and middle eocene deposits of the guria range come into contact with the mio-pliocene deposits. the vertical amplitude of this fault slip is more than 3000 m. jurassic deposits are missing east of the sakuliya village to the dzirula massif (along the samtrediazestaphoni profile). west of samtredia, according to seismic data, the basement is submerged to a depth of 8 km [7]. in the vicinity of the village of lessa (lanchkhuti district), deep wells (no. 2, 21) exposed a thick complex of sarmatian and post-sarmatian deposits. the upper cretaceous deposits gradually wedge out from north to south, and the lower sarmatian sandstones and conglomerates directly overlie the albian-cenomanian volcanogenic deposits. according to the data from well no. 1, the sole of the albian-cenomanian volcanogenic sequence is recorded at a depth of 3450 m. according to seismic data, the marked area is within the rioni-supsa trough [9] or the paliastomi graben [1, 8]. figure 2.latitudinal geological profile (samtredia-dzirula) according to drilling data. the rioni-supsa trough is the most submerged part of the colkheti depression, where the basement surface from east to west subsides to 6–8 km along seismic profiles. from the south, the noted trough is limited by the guria depression, the deep structure of which is due to faults of latitudinal and also meridional and diagonal strikes. in the east of the depression (east of chokhatauri), the basement is uplifted, and the absolute depth of its attitude is 3–4 km. the foundation is significantly higher in the south of this strip compared to its northern part. thus, the noted kobuleti-zekari band is, according to all geological and geophysical features, a fault zone, which is also fixed on the map of the depths of the upper mantle surface compiled by m.a. ioseliani et al. [7]. a diagonal (northeast strike) fault is basheishvili and beridze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) outlined along the southeastern margin of the guria depression. both gravimetric and seismic studies argue for the fault. seismic and seismic-geological sections compiled and interpreted by m.s. ioseliani et al. [7] for various profiles of the colkheti depression (sukhumi-batumi, chaladidi-jgali, didi kukhi-zestaphoni, vani-besiauri, and dzirula massif-anaklia) lead to the conclusion about the confinement of marginal velocities to the surface of the crystalline basement. for the colkheti depression, the regularity derived for most parts of the kura depression, where the surface is confined to the volcanogenic middle jurassic, is generally not revealed. this difference is probably due to the fact that the processes of continental rifting were rather intensive in the colkheti depression during the late jurassic and late cretaceous (the latter formations include rocks of the mtavari suite). this process led to deconsolidation, fragmentation, and, in connection with this, a decrease in density and velocity in the underlying formations of the volcanogenic middle jurassic (bajocian), as a result of which the rocks of the pre-jurassic basement turned out to have higher density and velocity, which leads to the fact that the marginal velocities established for the basement rocks, in this case, correspond precisely to these rocks. the odisha block, structurally the most distinct unit, covers the samegrelo syncline. in the late cretaceous, it experienced a change in the tectonic plan with the formation of the sub-meridional central samegrelo foredeep and the accumulation of deposits up to 500 m thick. to the west and north of the trough, meridionally elongated, narrow uplifts are outlined, in which upper cretaceous deposits were not accumulated. at the same time, the accumulation of the mtavari volcanic suite indicates the activation of the process of continental rifting, with a more or less meridional strike of this structure. in paleocene-eocene time, its meridional trough is outlined to the west (odishi depression), where sediments with a thickness of more than 1000 m accumulate. according to estimations, the crystalline basement is located at a depth of 7000m. conclusion the comparison of geophysical and drilling data and applying the system analysis method of disjunctive structures made it possible to clarify some issues of the structural-kinematic evolution and morpho-genetics of individual blocks and faults of the pre-jurassic crystalline basement within the limits of the southern caucasus. a 3d plasticine model of the surface of the crystalline basement constructed by us within western georgia shows the spatial arrangement and the character of the inversion nature of individual blocks, indicating the manifestations of the alpine and late alpine phases of ectogenesis (fig. 3). figure 3. 3d plasticine model of the pre-jurassic crystalline basement of western georgia scale – horizontal 1:500 000; vertical 1:200 000 basheishvili and beridze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) thus, the odisha block, located approximately in the central part of the depression from the western and eastern sides, is bounded by faults of a strike-slip nature, above which in the sedimentary cover, supra-fault echelon folds are developed, indicating the right-lateral component of the faults. in general, the kinematics of the odisha block indicate its shift in the southwest direction; the block is slightly inclined in the eastern part concerning the askhi and okriba blocks. from the south, it is bounded by the abasha block, one of the most subsided structures of the colkhida depression. analysis of the actual material, geophysical, and geological data for the intra-caucasian intermountain area allows us to draw the following conclusions: the georgian block (a fragment of the transcaucasian median massif, microplates, terranes), with a pre-jurassic crystalline basement (dzirula uplift) exposed in its central part, is divided into the western and eastern subsidence zones, which in turn disintegrate into separate blocks. from the central zone of the uplift of the georgian block to the east and west, a gradual "stepwise" subsidence and tilting of the blocks of the crystalline basement is outlined. similar structures are known in the literature as the so-called tilt blocks [3, 5, 10]. they are quite distinctly recorded on different geophysical profiles. in some cases, the transverse uplifts of the crystalline basement are recorded by drilling data. several transverse faults are associated with earthquakes, which are characterised by tensile stress and, therefore, can have a fault character with the inclination of the shear planes towards the centres of maximum tension. as a result of gravitational modelling, it is established that the m-boundary within this profile is indicated by a local uplifting under the central black sea and a comparative subsidence under the dzirula uplifts. the above outlines two plans of structural symmetry in the modern structure of the pre-alpine consolidated crust of the south caucasus median massif. the first (latitudinal profile) is characterised by extensional structures, mainly stepwise tilting blocks, which transform into listric faults. the second (meridional) is characterised by tangential, sub-meridional compression of the region caused by the advancement of the arabian inlier to the north with the formation of the transcaucasian transverse uplift and other collision structures. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. references 1. basentsyan, sh., pilipenko, a., svistunov, yu. et al. (1981). struktura osadochnogo chehla jugovostochnoj chasti chernogo morja po sejsmicheskim materialam [structure of the sedimentary cover of the south-eastern part of the black sea by seismic data]. izv. an sssr. ser. geol., ussr, moscow, 10, 5-18 (in russian). 2. basheleishvili, l. (1987). kinematika al'pijskoj deformacii adzharo-trialetskoj skladchatoj zony i gruzinskoj glyby zakavkazskogo sredinnogo massiva [kinematics of the alpine deformation of the ajara-trialeti folded zone and the georgian block of the transcaucasian median massif]. proc. of the second national junior school in geology. sofia, bulgaria, 215-222 (in russian). 3. basheleishvili, l. (1993). extension structures of the transcaucasian intermontane depression (latitude profile). annals geophysical. european geophysical society. germany, 56. 4. basheleishvili, l. (1999). structure associations of the basement and sedimentary cover of the georgian part of the caucasus. basement tectonics-13, blacksburg, virginia, u.s.a, 25-32. 5. basheleishvili, l., kuloshvili, s. (2004). morfokinematika sdvigovyh deformacij gruzinskoj chasti kavkaza [morphokinematics of shear deformations in the georgian part of the caucasus]. proceedings of the institute of geology of the georgian academy of sciences. tbilisi, georgia, № 119, 90-97 (in russian). 6. gamkrelidze, i. (1984). tektonicheskoe stroenie i al'pijskaja geodinamika kavkaza [tectonic structure and alpine geodynamics of the caucasus]. proceedings of geological institute of the acad. sci. of the gssr. tbilisi, 86. 105-184 (in russian). basheishvili and beridze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) 7. ioseliani, m., chichinadze, sh. et al. (1989). stroenie litosfery territorii gruzii po sejsmicheskim dannym [structure of the lithosphere of the territory of georgia according to seismic data]. tbilisi: metsniereba. 8. krasnopevtsova, g. (1966). rezul'taty issledovanija glubinnogo stroenija zemnoj kory na zapade kavkaza po linii profilja anaklija–zestafoni [results of the study of the deep structure of the earth's crust in the west of the caucasus along the line of the anaklia-zestaphoni profile]. deep structure of the caucasus. gssr. tbilisi, 97-102. 9. terekhov, a. (1979). osobennosti stroenija mezozojsko-kajnozojskih otlozhenij v vostochnoj chasti chernogo morja (po sejsmicheskim issledovanijam mov) [features of the structure of the mesozoiccenozoic deposits in the eastern part of the black sea (according to seismic studies)]. geotectonics, ussr, moscow, 2, 5-18 (in russian). 10. yusupkhodzhaev, kh., mindeli, p., kartvelishvili, k. et al. (1986). model' litosfery krymskokavkazsko-sredneaziatskogo regiona (vdol' geotraversa varna-tbilisi-chardzhou-tashkent.) [model of the lithosphere of the crimean-caucasian-central asian region (along the varna-tbilisi-chardzhoutashkent geotraverse)]. ussr, moscow, nauka. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 34-40 impact of global warming on zero degree isotherm of near surface temperature kukuri tavartkiladze1*, nana bolashvili1 abstract the evaluation of the modern global warming impact on the zero degree isotherm crossing dates of near-surface temperature is unequivocally determined by the length of the warm (cold) season in a given region. the study was conducted using perennial, near-surface temperature field data from ten observation points in a complex, highland region. the correlation changes of the dates of the crossing of the zero degree isotherm of temperature concerning the vertical and horizontal displacement is studied. the statistical structure of the multi-year change in the dates is established. it is accepted that the increase in the warm season caused by global warming mainly occurs in the first half of the year when the zero-degree isotherm crosses from negative to positive. there are also rare cases when the warm season, for a long time, experiences a decrease in the opposite. keywords: surface temperature, global warming, warm (cold) season introduction for more than a century, the earth's energy balance has been disturbed it receives more energy than it emits. the result of the gradual increase of energy potential is global warming. the main factors of global warming solar energy, gaseous composition of the atmosphere, physical (optical) properties of the underlying surface cause the increase of the earth energy potential as the isolated body, can reveal completely different effects by regions [1-3]. there are regions where centres of cooling have emerged in the face of global warming. such a region can be found in the small area of georgia. in parallel with global warming, the coastal temperature in western georgia has been gradually decreasing for decades [4, 5]. the process that creates the near-surface temperature field regime depends on the number of instantaneous and long-acting factors. the study of regime structure change, especially in such complex relief conditions as in georgia, is the constant object of research. it is essential to assess the impact of modern warming on extreme deviations in near-surface temperature variations. interestingly, for the given region, the extreme deviation change by time may be opposing, depending on what we account for the extreme deviation [6]. methods and materials this paper aims to study the effects of modern global warming on the crossing dates of zero degree isotherm by the near-surface temperature. such crossings occur at least twice at about one kilometre above sea level in the first and second half of the year. these dates are significant for the region as they determine the length of a given year's warm and cold periods. particular attention should also be paid to the seasonal temperature change [7, 8, 9]. the critical indicator of seasonal change is crossing the zero degree isotherm by near-surface temperature. systematic observational data of 10 meteorological stations in the 1070 -3659 km range in georgia for 1906-2009 are used to solve the given task. as it is known, the average temperature can cross the zero degree isotherm not twice but several times per year. the reason for this is that the random factors result from short-term weather changes. therefore, to determine the regime structure of the zero degree isotherm crossing date, it is not the average daily temperature directly used, but the inter annual temperature change constructed by the average monthly temperature. at the beginning of each year and the end of each observation point, the temperature transitions from negative to positive and from positive to negative are determined for the corresponding months. the zero degree isotherm crossing date is calculated by linear approximation and analytically. the range of calculated dates covers almost the entire year. this is only one point of observation (highland kazbegi), which is located three and a half kilometres above sea level, and there were years when the crossing of the zero degree isotherm took place even in the summer months. 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tsu, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: kuktav@mail.ru tavartkiladze k. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) results and discussion the main effect on the transition date from a negative value to a positive one is the temperature regime of the first half of the year. in the second half, on the contrary, the date of the transition from positive to negative is determined by the regime structure of the second half. the characteristics of the temperature field change in the first and second half of the year can be assessed by fig. 1. the figure shows the temperature field change, based on 1906-2009 data for ten observation points. figure 1. the normalized near surface temperature change of first (1) and second (2) half of the year by the linear and non-linear approximations and corresponding standard deviations (dashed lines) for georgian highland in fig.1, for the first and second half of the year, the normalized temperature changes based on all observation points data are presented, with linear and nonlinear approximations (as the month normalized parameter the monthly arithmetic mean has been taken of this observation point for each observation point, each year). the change direction (cooling or warming) and the magnitude is determined by the so-called "dynamic norm" [10], which can be used to assess the accuracy of the approximation. for example, the representation of temperature change in time by dynamic norm compared to the static norm reduces the standard error by about 5% in the case study (fig. 1). moreover, when the temperature goes from negative to positive, the error is reduced by 8%. the line equation determines the dynamic norm. when switching from negative to positive, it became the following expression: t(n) = 0.245 + 0.00038 n, (1) and the transition from positive to negative, e.g., in the second half of the year t(n) = 0.722 + 0.00014 n, (2) where t(n) is the mean temperature of 6 months, nyear from the equations, it is evident that the near-surface temperature change was of low intensity in the first and especially in the second half of the year of the highland system. in particular, according to (1) and (2), their values are + 0.038°c / 100 year and + 0.014°c/ 100 year. the nonlinear approximate curves given in fig.1 are of seventh order polynomials. these polynomials give the least standard errors when describing temperature changes compared to other polynomials. however, it should be noted that in this case, they are only 1.5 2.0% more accurate than the linear approximation in determining the temperature change result. the mean, minimum and maximum intersection dates of the zero degree isotherm for the ten observation points of the highland zone of georgia are given in table 1. tavartkiladze k. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 2. the dependence of warm season duration on place elevation as seen from the table, in the case of four observation points, the maximum date of crossing the zero degree isotherm is not fixed until the end of the year, which means that it moves on to the following year. to determine the relationship of the warm season duration of the year to the place elevation above sea level, the average multi-year crossing dates of the zero degree isotherm by temperature were determined. obtained results are used in fig. 2, which shows the mean date changes according to the place elevation. as can be seen from the drawing, in the highlands of georgia, the so-called warm season, at about one mile above sea level, exceeds nine months. as the height increases, it decreases linearly and becomes less than three months at the three and a half kilometre elevation. thus, above 1000 meters, as the place elevation increases with every 100 meters, the warm season decreases by 7-8 days. the obtained result is typical for a highland area covering several hundred square kilometres. it is obtained by combining multiannual data from 10 observation points. in such conditions, it is of interest to determine the relationship between observation points in the variations of the zero degree isotherm crossing dates. for this, we constructed the autocorrelation matrix with the annual dates of all observation points that determined the crossing of the zero degree isotherm for both the first and second half of the year. it is given in figure 3. table 1. the zero degree isotherm crossing dates by temperature for georgian highland (1906-2009) n observation post elevation zero degree isotherm crossing data (date, month) transition from negative to positive temperature transition from positive to negative temperature avg. min max avg. min max 1 pasanauri 1.07 27.02 30.01 21.03 10.12 9.11 2 dmanisi 1.256 24.02 18.01 24.03 21.12 12.11 3 abastumani 1.265 10.03 9.02 28.03 30.11 5.11 31.12 4 mestia 1.441 14.03 14.02 6.04 24.11 1.11 14.12 5 tsalka 1.457 12.03 12.02 1.04 3.12 4.11 6 bakhmaro 1.926 23.03 2.03 20.04 28.11 29.10 7 paravani 2.1 7.04 13.03 20.04 13.11 23.10 3.12 8 gudauri 2.194 6.04 3.03 23.04 13.11 11.10 22.12 9 jvari pass. 2.395 2.06 3.04 18.05 26.10 1.10 22.11 10 kazbegi 3.659 14.06 10.05 6.07 17.09 28.08 14.10 tavartkiladze k. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) the observation points on the horizontal axes are placed according to the place height increase from sea level. in general, especially in the first half of the year, there is a gradual decrease in correlation with increasing height distance. nevertheless, there are certain heights where this natural process is disrupted. as it can be seen from the drawing, such processes are not random. it is permanent for the period under consideration and may be caused by the constant exposure of a different landscape or nearsurface to its energy potential redistribution. fig. 3 shows the vertical variations of the zero degree isotherm crossing date. to identify what these variations are in the case of horizontal displacement, the correlation coefficients were determined by considering the distance between the observation points. the obtained results are given in fig.4. observation points, sorted by heigh above sea level figure 3. correlation of zero degree isotherm crossing dates by height between observation points (1,2,3, ..., 10) in the first (1) and second (2) half of the year. this connection, as expected, will not be significantly changed. it varies approximately in the range of 0.4 to 0.6 correlation coefficients by amount. this is entirely natural, as the maximum distance between observation points does not exceed 250 km. as mentioned above (fig. 1), the near-surface temperature change is occurring at very low intensity in the highland zone of georgia. figure 4. correlation of zero degree isotherm crossing dates by direct distances between observation points in the first (1) and second (2) half of the year (dashed lines define standard errors). to determine what impact has the near-surface temperature changed over the date of the zero degree isotherm. in addition, warm-season duration and the impact of global warming on it were also determined for each observation point. the obtained results are given in table 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ` 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 observation points, sorted by heigh abuve sea level 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 c o rr el a ti o n c o e ff ic ie n t (1) (2) tavartkiladze k. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) table 2. the impact of global warming on the change of zero degree isotherm crossing date n observation post zero degree isotherm date change (day /100y) warm season duration transition from negative to positive temperature transition from positive to negative temperature avg. (day) change (day/100y) 1 pasanauri -9.7 5.9 280 16 2 dmanisi -14.2 15.4 307 29 3 abastumani -6.0 -1.3 269 5 4 mestia -3.5 -3.3 255 0 5 tsalka -6.6 6.4 269 13 6 bakhmaro -1.0 -2.8 246 -2 7 paravani -3.8 0.6 220 5 8 gudauri -1.0 -2.6 224 -2 9 jvari pass. -7.1 1.7 161 9 10 kazbegi -8.3 4.0 94 12 as evident from the table, the changes of the emergence dates of the zero degree isotherm in the first and second half of the year are heterogeneous. whereas the dates of the transition from negative to positive temperature, due to the global warming, recede in the case of all observation points, i.e. shifts in the direction of increase of the warm season duration, changing from positive to negative, in four to ten cases the opposite happens. nevertheless, the duration of the warm-up season was not reduced for the two observation points (abastumani, mestia), as the duration was longer in the first half of the year than in the second half. however, in two observation points (bakhmaro, gudauri), the process of global warming was marked by a decreased tendency during the warm season. as mentioned, the change of the warm season duration by height is subject to a definite regulation. as for the change by time or the change that may be caused by global warming, it is not subject to any regularity. indeed, warming generally prolongs the warm season, but it is challenging to substantiate the reasons for the two not-so-distant regions (dmanisi, abastumani) in one, the duration of the warm season has been increased in 100 years by the month, and in the other by a few days. the crossing dates changes of the zero degree isotherm over the years do not differ significantly for the whole study area. fig. 5 shows the change of one of them (pasanauri) for the study period for both the first and second half of the year. it is selected from the point of view that the variations in the dates of the crossing of the zero degree isotherm of temperature, both in the first and second half of the year, are more diverse from the general picture than the others. dates are marked on the vertical axes of the drawings. in both cases, their change range rarely exceeds 30 days. linear and nonlinear approximations are used to determine the changing trend. the accuracy of the approximations is estimated using standard errors. tavartkiladze k. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 5. the transition from negative to positive (1) and from positive to negative (2) date change by years of near surface temperature of paravani using 1906-2009 year data and representation of those changes by linear (dashed) and nonlinear (curved) approximations the linear approximation of the first half of the year improves the accuracy by 7.51% compared to the arithmetic mean (i.e. when no change is foreseen at all). the nonlinear approximation was performed using a polynomial, the optimal expression of which was determined by the gradual increase of the polynomial order. typically, the maximum accuracy of a polynomial was reached when the polynomial was of 7 or 8 order (all nonlinear approximations in the present paper are of the seventh order). in the example given, the nonlinear approximation improved the accuracy by 0.06% compared to the linear approximation. as for the case of the second half of the year, i.e. when the temperature crosses the zero degree isotherm from positive to negative, the accuracy of the determined values are the following: the linear approximation reduces the standard error by 2.35% compared to the arithmetic mean. moreover, by nonlinear approximation, the standard linear approximation error is improved by only 0.14%. dates are marked on the vertical axes of the drawings. in both cases, their change range rarely exceeds 30 days. linear and nonlinear approximations are used to determine the changing trend. the accuracy of the approximations is estimated using standard errors. figure 6. the crossing date change by years of near surface temperature and it representation by linear (dashed) and nonlinear (curved) approximations while temperature transition from negative to positive (1) and from positive to negative (2) the annual dates change of crossing the zero degrees isotherm by the near-surface temperature field over the years is represented by the normalized values of all observation points. the changes based on the combined data by years are given in figure 6. first of all, the images show that the dispersion in the second half of the year is almost twice less than in the first half, i.e. the transition from a positive to a negative value is stable in a much shorter time. however, the impact of global warming on this process is not revealed at all. that means that the transition date from positive to negative temperature value does not change. the prolongation of the warm season occurs only during the transition from a negative value to a positive one. tavartkiladze k. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) conclusion to assess the climate change impact on the duration of the warm season, the nonlinear approximation compared to the linear one gives almost no improved results. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. k. t. conceived the idea; took the lead in writing the manuscript. n. b. provided critical feedback and helped shape the analysis and manuscript, worked out almost all of the technical details. references [1] budiko m. klimat v proshlom i budushem [climate in the past and the future]. l., gidrometeoizdat, 1980, 352 p. (in russian) [2] kondratyev k. globalnii klimat [global climate], nauka, 1992, 352 p. (in russian) [3] lovejoy t.e. and l. hannah, eds., climate change and biodiversity. yale university press, london. 2005, pp. 440 [4] amiranashvili a.g., amiranashvili v.a., gzirishvili t.g., kharchilava j.f., tavartkiladze k.a. modern climate change in georgia. radioactively active small atmospheric admixtures. tbilisi, 2005 (128). [5] tavartkiladze k., begalishvili n., tsintsadze t., kikava a. influence of global warming on the near surface air temperature field in georgia. bulletin of the georgian national academy of sciences, v.6, n 3, 2012 (55-60). [6] sherstyukov b.g. regionalnie i sezonnie zakonomernosti izmenenii sovremennogo klimata [regional and seasonal change regulations of the modern climate]. "vniigmi-mcd", 2008, 246 p. (in russian) [7] loginov v.f. sezonnie osobennosti mnogoletnix izmenenii globalnogo klimata i ikh prichini [seasonal features of long-term changes of the global climate and their causes]. ukrainian geographical journal, no. 2, 2013 (26-239). (in russian) [8] tavartkiladze k., begalishvili n., tsintsadze t., kikava a. influence of global warming on the nearsurface air temperature field in georgia. bulletin of the georgian national academy of sciences, v.6, n 3, 2012 (55-60). [9] tavartkiladze k., kikava a. (2021). annual amplitude regime of ground surface temperature field in georgia. georgian geographical journal, 1(1). https: //journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj/article/view/260 [10] tavartkiladze k. ukiduresi gadakhrebi mitsispira temperaturuli velis variatsiebshi da misi kavshiri havis tsvlilebastan (tbilisis magalitze) [the extreme deviations of near surface temperature variations and its connection with climate change]. transactions of the institute of geography v.3, 2011, pp.39-45. (in georgian). https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj/article/view/260 https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj/article/view/260 georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 34-41 assesing the impact of antropogenic factor on the ecosystems of the paliastomi lake region zurab janelidze1, nino chikhradze1*, giorgi janelidze1 abstract the ecological problem of the paliastomi lake is caused by anthropogenic factor. due to its distinctive natural conditions, the paliastomi lake area has never been densely populated by humans, although small early settlements date back to the bronze age. the insignificant population density did not lead to a radical change in the ecological condition, therefore, the development of landscapes took place in a naturally conditioned ecological environment. from 1860s, the intensive development of the paliastomi lake region began, which was caused by the growth of the population of the city of poti, construction of poti port, and intensive drying up of the swamps around the paliastomi lake. in 1920s-1930s, the ecological condition of the paliastomi lake was further aggravated by the construction of the rioni river canal, the drying up of swamps, the extraction of peat, as well as the alignment of the pichori river basin – a main tributary of the paliastomi lake. changes in the landscapes of the paliastomi lake region as a result of various agricultural activities are also observed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. keywords: original landscape, ecology, anthropogenic stress, paliastomi lake introduction the ecological problems of the paliastomi lake region (fig. 1) are mainly due to the human wrong activities during the last century and a half. according to the paleogeographical surveys and information preserved in the ancient written sources, for the last 5-6 thousand years, this area has been covered by impassable swamps, ravines, dense forests and a dense network of swampy rivers with shallow depths. during this time, the climate of this region has not changed much. it has always been characterized by abundant atmospheric precipitations, high relative humidity, periodically strong winds and quite hot summers. the existence of such climatic conditions is confirmed here by the continuous development of peat mass in the spread wetlands. the peat mass, in the vertical cuts of the swamps, does not contain layers of sediments of other genesis (clay, sand, etc.). this proves that the process of peat formation-accumulation in this area is still going on in humid climates. study area due to unfavorable physical and geographical conditions in terms of residential and agricultural use, the population density in the confluence of the rioni river (fig. 1 school of natural sciences and medicine, ilia state university, tbilisi, georgia, nino.chikhradze.1@iliauni.edu.ge georgian geographical journal 2) was negligible. according to the results of archeological research, human started to develop this area from the early stage of the late bronze age (3,300-3,500 years ago) (papuashvili, 2005; papuashvili and papuashvili, 2014). people inhabited the elevated and relatively dry sections of both banks of the rioni river on the north side of the paliastomi lake. herewith, we also note that on the shores of the paliatomi lake the city of phasis, now poti (fig.2), one of the oldest cities in georgia, was founded in the 5th-4th centuries bc. fig. 1. location of the paliastomi lake region the insignificant population density, together with the low level of means of production, led to the weak impact of anthropogenic factors on the physicalgeographical landscape of the paliastomi region. therefore, in the past, its development took place mainly in a naturally balanced ecological environment. natural or slightly modified wetlands, swamps and forest massifs fed with ecologically clean surface waters the paliastomi lake, which has always been characterized by an active hydrological regime under the influence of a humid climate. until the mid-1920s, the paliastomi lake was discharged from excess water masses through the kaparcha river (fig. 2). the river started in the north-west corner of the lake at a distance of about 4.6 km; it went directly along the western (seaside) shore of the lake, then flowed along the sea shoreline and about 8 km away from the head (near the village of grigoleti) it joined the sea. along the sea shoreline, due to the outflow of the kaparcha river, at a quite long distance, the salt water of the sea was not intruded into paliastomi. therefore, paliastomi has always been a freshwater reservoir and was characterized by favorable conditions for the development of janelidze et al. freshwater ecosystems (ichthyofauna, algae, aquatic plants, phytoand zooplankton, benthos). fig. 2. schematic map of the paliastomi lake region the noticeable intensification of the negative impact of anthropogenic factor on the ecosystems of paliastomi lake and its area began in 1860s. this process was conditioned by the beginning of the construction and operation of the port and the adjacent city of poti at the earlier confluence of the rioni river (so-called "big georgian geographical journal island"). according to the plan of the city of poti, compiled by v. maslovski (maslovski, 1901), the modern central part of the city ("big island"), together with the areas directly adjacent to it, was already completely built. by this time the city had a population of over 9,000. the rapid process of transport, trade-economic and demographic growth of the city of poti, willingly or unwillingly, led to the over exploitation of natural resources in the surrounding areas (hunting, fishing, deforestation, extraction of large amounts of inert material), which led to the beginning of strong degradation of ecosystems of the paliastomi lake and its surrounding areas. until 1860s, the area of the city of poti, along with the surrounding areas, was almost completely undeveloped by human. at that time, only at the direct confluence of the rioni river (the shoreline of the "big island") stood several huts for fishermen and administrative officials and two or three shops. this information is confirmed by the well-known researcher nikolai shavrov, a well-known researcher of the rioni river confluence, who has lived in the city for many years since the beginning of the construction of the city of poti. n. shavrov has been researching the ecosystems of the rioni river confluence since 1870s and the ecological problems that have arisen during the rapid development of the poti transport and trade hub. these problems n. shavrov well described in the article "vanished wintering area of birds in the vicinity of poti" (shavrov, 1907-1908). according to this article, in the early 1860s, dense forest massifs were widespread in the confluence of the rioni river with large numbers of noble deer, roe deer, wild boar, and marten. there were many otters in the rivers of swamp. the article emphasizes that the paliastomi lake was extremely rich in fish, most of which were freshwater species. an important part of the article is devoted to the description of the ornithofauna of the paliastomi lake and its surrounding area. more than 80 species of aboriginal and migratory birds have been described. according to the author, in 1860s, it was impossible to determine the number of groups of different species of birds in the confluence of the rioni river due to their excessive number. it is interesting the information given in the article about the fact that n. shavrov often had to warn the flocks of dozens of pheasants, which were in the edges of the forest of this area. until 1860s, the development of natural and less modified landscapes in the area of the paliastomi lake should have been stipulated by the fact that the city of phasis founded near the lake in the 5th-4th centuries bce ceased to exist in the 8th century ce. since then, as evidenced by proper sources, the areas directly adjacent to the paliastomi lake have not been inhabited for centuries, and consequently, their natural resources have not been used by humans, or were used to a lesser extent. here we note that the landscape of the area of the paliastomi lake and the coastal area of the kolkheti lowland (fig. 1) in general, in the conditions of humid and warm subtropical climate is characterized by a high capacity for self-renewal. consequently, in case of weakening or stopping the negative impact of the anthropogenic factor, the process of its recovery is going quite fast. during the following four decades since the beginning of the construction of the city of poti (since the 1860s), as a result of the growth of the territory of this city and janelidze et al. the relatively rapid increase in population, the forest has been massively cut down and the number of wildlife hunters in the city has increased unprecedentedly. carrying out various kinds of agricultural activities in the vicinity of poti was frequently happened by ignoring elementary household life. this was the main reason why the natural look of the physical-geographical landscape of this region was strongly changed for four decades since the beginning of the construction of poti. n. shavrov wrote about it with heartache: "when one sees the mutilated trees here and there, the washed and deserted shores of rioni, the piles of manganese abandoned in the swamp, ... one sees such a desolate landscape... it is impossible not to deeply regret the amazing picture of the full beauty of life and the carefree happiness that has already passed into eternity, which adorned these places forty years ago, when nature was the same, as it was created by the hand of the creator”. the negative impact of the anthropogenic factor on the ecosystems of the paliastomi lake and its surroundings has intensified since 1920s. one of the reasons for this was the connection of paliastomi with the sea through the straight linear maltakva canal (fig. 2) (canal length – approximately 600 m, average width – 60 m) in the years of 1924–1925. the purpose of cutting the maltakva canal was to quickly transfer excess water from the lake to the sea during heavy floods (which the kaparcha river could not do) along the shore due to its long-distance runoff and, consequently, to prevent heavy flooding of poti. it is known that during heavy floods a large volume of water enters the paliastomi lake from its catchment area and the rioni river. the kaparcha river, as mentioned above, could not ensure the rapid transfer of excess water from the lake to the sea, due to which during heavy floods a large volume of water flowed into the paliastomi lake through the pichori river. before cutting the maltakva canal, large volumes of water periodically flowing from the rioni river into the paliastomi lake caused the lake level to rise rapidly. due to the above, water flowed from the lake to the territory of the city of poti and caused heavy flooding of the latter. thus, the city of poti was catastrophically flooded in 1895 and 1922, when the height of the torrents in the streets of this city reached 2.8 m. cutting the maltakva canal solved the problem of flooding poti from the side of the paliastomi lake. instead, the paliastomi lake ceased to exist as a natural freshwater reservoir. the maltakva canal opened a free path to the salt water of the sea towards the lake. as a result, the freshwater lake turned into a salt lake-lagoon. prior to cutting the maltakva canal, the salinity of the paliastomi lake water did not exceed 1 ppm. after cutting the canal, during the high turbulence in the sea, its salinity increased to 14-16 ppm. the increase in salinity of the paliastomi lake has severely limited the living ecological conditions of freshwater plankton, benthic organisms living on the lake bottom, and severely damaged freshwater ichthyofauna (janelidze, 1997; janelidze, 2008). the second reason for the sharp deterioration of the ecological conditions of the paliastomi lake and its adjacent areas was the implementation of reclamation works in the pichori catchment basin (a main tributary of the lake, which covers most of the guria lowland) since 1930s (deforestation, drying of swamps, cutting of ditches and canals on wetlands, straightening of zigzag beds of swamp rivers) and the extraction of peat from the swamps directly adjacent to paliastomi. georgian geographical journal the conduction of these measures further aggravated the already severely shaken ecological situation of paliastomi lake. the function of filtrates of swamps, canyons and moist forests as surface waters has been significantly disrupted. intensive process of decaying and decomposition of dead vegetation mass began in puddles, depressions occurred in the peat extraction areas, as well as in the smoothed and silted riverbeds of swamps, in water drainage and water canals. this has led to the occurrence of large amounts of harmful biogenic elements that are brought into the paliastomi lake by its tributaries. with the contamination of paliastomi, its water transparency and, consequently, the intensity of photosynthesis decreased. as a result of the above mentioned, the production of phytoplankton was reduced and, consequently, its biomass was reduced as well. due to the salinization of the lake water and its biogenic pollution, the freshwater plankton biomass in the lake was reduced by 15 times and that of benthos – by 6 times. this, in turn, negatively affected the production of ichthyofauna, as plankton and benthos biomass are important food for fish (janelidze, 1997; janelidze, 2008). by cutting the maltakva canal, the maltakva river has lost its basic function. the river was split into two parts. its northern section with a small runoff flows southward at about 4.6 km long from the head as before, and enters the maltakva canal. the sharp decrease in the runoff of the kaparcha river (which was caused by the cutting of the maltakva canal) led to the gradual silting of this section of the riverbed and the swamping of separate areas.this section of the riverbed was used for a long time as dozens of man-made docs, as a result of which it was heavily polluted with harmful chemical and biogenic elements. the southernmost (confluent) part of the southern section of the kaparcha river, after cutting the maltakva canal, was silted,swamped and eroded. the northern part changed the direction of the current and began to flow into the maltakva canal. this part of the kaparcha river bed is quite watery. it is conflowed by the swampy river of dedabera and the plain south of the paliastomi lake, cut in 1950s and 1970s about 40 km long main canal. with various theoretical calculations, the average multi-year discharge of the pichori river at the confluence of the paliastomi lake is estimated from 8 m3/sec. to 15 m3/sec. in addition to the pichori river, more than a dozen of small rivers of swamps conflow the paliastomi lake. the southern section of the kaparcha river, as already mentioned, is quite rich in water. according to the above, the volume of water entering the sea in 1 second from the maltakva canal should not be less than 20 m3/sec. this, even a probable data, should be taken into account when discussing the closure and cancellation of the maltakva canal. a clear example of the negative impact of anthropogenic factor on the environment of the paliastomi lake region is the artificial increase in the volume of land-based terrestrial erosion at the confluence of the maltakva canal that took place in the 1990s. in 1991, a water-skiing complex of international standards was built in poti. for the preparation of the water-skiing route, at a distance of three hundred meters from the sea and at a distance of 2.5-3 km north from the confluence of the maltakva canal a hollow was excavated with about 1.5 km length, 100 m width in average and 3–3.5 m depth. several hundred thousand m3 of silty sand removed from janelidze et al. the hollow was dumped directly along the coastline. in this part of the coastal zone, the alongcoastal underwater stream flows from the north (poti port) to the south (towards the confluence of the supsa river). it caused a strong accumulation of sandy deposit on the underwater slope of the canal confluence. as a result, sandy hill (dune) began to form and extend southward (towards the confluence of the supsa river). in 4-5 years, the length of the hill reached 1.8-2 km. the hill blocked the confluence of the maltakva canal, and the canal flow, which had previously entered the sea in a straight line in a westerly direction, began to drain along the inner edge of the newly formed hill. thus, the maltakva canal stream flowed between the mentioned sandy hill and the sea shore. the stream of the canal, due to the parallel drainage of the sea shore, caused the latter to wash away at a catastrophic rate. it was urgently necessary to restore the original (in the direction of the sea) maltakva canal, which was resolved by artificial cutting of the sandy hill formed at the entrance of the canal. it should be noted that from the time the maltakva canal was cut (1924) until the early 1990s, the underwater slope in front of the canal was not filled with sand. the reason for this was that the underwater coastal flow moving from north to south was not saturated with solid deposits and no deposit accumulation was taking place at the canal confluence. in recent decades, due to the excavation of a water-skiing hollow in 1990s, the remnants of the sandy deposits dumped along the coastline, were moved to the maltakva canal confluence and accumulated there, which led to the formation of new sand hill. conclusion a number of measures are needed to maintain ecological balance in the landscapes of the paliastomi lake, the most important of which are: to stop the artificial growth of solid depositary material at the confluence of the maltakva river canal; cleaning the kaparcha river bed to improve its ecological conditions; prohibition of extraction of peat and sapropel from the area around the paliastomi lake. acknowledgment we are grateful to mr. akaki nadaraia, a researcher at the ilia state university, faculty of natural sciences and medicine, for providing visual material. references maslovski, v. (1901). plan portovago goroda poti. sostavlennyi v. maslovskim i izdanni gorodskoiu upravoiu [plan of the port city of poti. compiled by v. maslovski and published by the city government] (in russian) papuashvili, r. (2005). namosakhlarebis, samarovnebis da diunuri sadgomebis korelatsiistvis kolkhetis dablobze [for the correlation of former settlements, cemeteries, and dune stands in the kolkheti lowland]. tbilisi: archaeological research center of the gnas (in georgian) georgian geographical journal papuashvili, r., papuashvili, i. (2014). shavi zghvis paleorezhimi da misi gavlena kolkhetis dablobis dasakhlebebze [paleoregime of the black sea and its impact on the kolkheti lowland settlements]. tbilisi: mtsignobari. p.124 (in georgian) shavrov, n. (1907-1908). ischeznuvsheye mesto zimovki ptits v okrestnostyakh poti [vanished wintering area of birds in the vicinity of poti]. bulletin of the caucasus section of the emperor's russian geographical society (in russian) janelidze, zurab (1997). kolkhetis dablobis zghvis sanapiro zonis sainzhinrogeomorpologiuri pirobebis analizi [analysis of engineering-geomorphological conditions of the coastal zone of the kolkheti lowland]. doctoral dissertation.tsu, tbilisi (in georgian) janelidze, zurab (2008). sakartvelos shavizghvis sanapiro zonis sakhmeleto nawilis asaki. [age of the terrestrial part of the black sea georgian coastal zone]. proceedings of the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, 2 (81) tbilisi, pp.176-179 (in georgian) georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 27-33 impact of covid-19 on tourism in georgia-an overview nana kvirkvelia1*, mariam tsitsagi1 abstract coronavirus has posed a great challenge to the whole world, including georgia. the restrictions have taken a heavy toll on the tourism industry worldwide. it has been clear since the spring of the current year that the mass recovery of international tourism will not be possible by 2020. consequently, the necessity has led to changes, especially in the direction of domestic tourism. countries apply different strategies. this review article is based on the results of a mini-survey and data from the national statistics office. it is analyzed what impact covid-19 had on local tourism in georgia, what is the public mood, which places were visited, where did the epidemic break out after the restrictions were lifted, what are the statistics of international tourists in georgia, etc. besides, tourism support measures developed around the world are discussed. keywords: covid-19, tourism, georgia introduction it is generally accepted that the covid-19 pandemic has changed the whole world. it has had a significant impact on the international tourism industry. this branch of economics has lost its relevance for some time. flights around the world have been suspended, tourist traffic and the hotel industry have ceased to function. mass tourism and over-tourism are no longer a problem. even more, it is tourism that has become one of the main drivers of the epidemic. studies show that in the early stages of the epidemic, there was a correlation between international tourism and the level of infection (farzanegan et al., 2020). it has been repeatedly suggested that coronavirus infection will persist for several years and we will have to live with it. consequently, the tourism sector also faced many challenges. consequently, tourism needs to be transformed and changed (gössling et al., 2020). the epidemic crisis is forcing us to find the rare and best way to develop tourism for a better future. changes need to be made that focus on the interests of local communities and the protection of their rights. according to some scientists, in theory, such approaches to the welfare of society will "socialize" tourism (higgins-desbiolles, 2020). this in turn forces tourism to be accountable to the world's social and environmental constraints. demand is likely to increase for safe places where social distance protection will be possible. the whole world, as well as georgia, is facing this challenge. such types of tourism as eco, agro and rural tourism should be activated. the local population will be able to turn the income from tourism services into additional income, and the production of agricultural products will 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrartioni institute of geography, tamarashvili 6, 0177. tbilisi, georgia, nana.kvirkvelia@tsu.ge georgian geographical journal become their main source of income. it is a good fact that national geographic, one of the most influential travel publications in the world, named georgia, svaneti region, among the 25 best destinations in the world in 2021, which tourists should visit in the post-pandemic period (national geographic, 2020). some scholars are talking about the transition to the tourism industry using the "buen vivir" method. this is a south american concept that implies the local and slow development of tourism, which, in itself, will contribute to the protection of nature and benefit both the host local communities as well as the tourists. this concept serves the well-being of all (everingham & chassagne, 2020). according to the national tourism agency, in february 2020, the number of tourist visits to georgia increased by + 4%, while international traveler visits decreased by 0.7%. the development of domestic tourism, of course, is not associated with large revenues, but it will allow the country to develop sustainable tourism and more or less maintain the stability of the population involved in the tourism segment, and in fact, its existence depends on tourism. several projects are already underway in georgia (hotels in georgian mountain resorts during the "discount week"), which will help to popularize the region and encourage domestic tourism. these projects will also help attract visitors to tourist facilities. according to galt & taggart in its research, domestic tourism will be encouraged by the fact that in 2020, the travel of georgians abroad is limited. it should be noted that the measures of the support package of the government of georgia are similar to those of other countries, although there is one exception georgia has not stimulated domestic tourism. we think it is the duty of each of us to promote the development of local tourism. after some restrictions were lifted (meaning the summer period of 2020), to show solidarity, many georgian citizens promoted various tourist facilities, accommodation, or food facilities through social networks. tbilisi hotels would be in the worst condition, which was to be expected, as it was unthinkable to bring a georgian tourist or vacationer to the capital in the context of domestic tourism. therefore, most of the hotels in tbilisi are closed today, some of their employees were employed in hotels in the region, and representatives of the hotel business took an active part in this, some even had to temporarily change the field. the purpose of this review paper is to describe and examine the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on tourism in georgia. international tourism faces to covid-19 countries around the world have developed anti-crisis plans to deal with covid19 (rogerson & rogerson, 2020), (rutynskyi & kushniruk, 2020), (sah et al., 2020), (mariolis et al., 2020), (foo et al., 2020), (gil-alana & poza, 2020). there are three main types of approaches: 1. protecting people (e.g. italy, japan, korea, norway, poland), which includes informing visitors, assisting in repatriation, etc. financial support for people employed in the tourism sector. 2. business maintenance (e.g. eu, brazil, and australia) includes financial support for tourism companies, especially small and medium-sized companies, assistance in finding new markets, updating work processes, etc. 3. coordination mechanisms (e.g. canada, france, ireland, kvirkvelia and tsistagi united kingdom) special groups to assess the impact of covid-19 and response mechanisms (e.g. communication with the private sector, development of short-term, medium and long-term strategies, etc.). tourism support events have also been developed in various countries around the world. these include deferral (cancellation of taxes, access to loans), credit guarantees, financing of interest on loans, deferral of loans, wage subsidies, cash benefits for the unemployed, gift vouchers (programs to encourage inbound tourism retention, and invaluable tours). support measures are similar in georgia and other countries, except for domestic tourism incentives and vouchers. a study published by galt & taggart a survey of hotels identified the most critical problem with bank lending services. 73% of the hotel business would like to defer credit contributions by the end of 2020, 66% would want to subsidize interest rates on loans, 65% would want tax breaks, and 31% would want to defer utility bills. these requirements were even met. there are other requirements that could not be met. examples are access to loans (credit guarantees from the state), deferral of utility bills, employment programs (temporary employment of staff), and others (galt & taggart, 2020). georgia’s perspective chronologically, we present the sequence of restrictions that georgia adopted before the pandemic. after the virus has appeared, it became even more severe. the epidemiological chronology in georgia looks like this: january 29 air traffic with china was suspended, february 24 all types of traffic with iran were suspended, february 26 the first confirmed case of covid-19 was recorded, march 4 all types of traffic with italy were suspended, march 18 borders were closed, march 21 state of emergency declared, march 31 universal quarantine declared, april 14 state of emergency extended, april 27 first part of restrictions lifted, may 7 tourism support package announced, may 21 state of emergency ended, june 8 hotels and restaurants opened, july 1 borders with some countries open. as a result of restrictions and timely response, the situation in georgia was stable. removing restrictions after being locked up for so long, it is interesting to see how events unfolded. it was during this period, in august 2020, that we conducted a small survey remotely. august in georgia is a period of massive vacations, travel, with the addition of removed restrictions, both in the world and in georgia. the research is not large-scale but based on it and by analyzing the ongoing processes in the country, we were able to make some conclusions. for example, what is the travel mood of the georgian population during the fight against the pandemic, which places are popular, what followed these trips, etc. the study included citizens of georgia aged 16 and more, among whom the majority of females 77.4%. as we can see from fig.1 the majority of the respondents (76.9%) are people aged 30 to 50 years. 70 years and older 10.3%. 16 to 30 years 12.3%. as we have already mentioned, during the pandemic there were certain restrictions, curfew and intercity restrictions, which were obeyed by the citizens of georgian geographical journal georgia. presumably, this meant that the processes caused by covd-19 in the first half of 2020 were manageable and did not result in many casualties, which we cannot say about the post-summer period. as we know, the spread of the epidemic is related to socialization, after the lifting of restrictions, the population began to travel, and it was during this period that a large influx of tourists headed to svaneti. we note here that 71% of our respondents wanted to travel to samegrelo-zemo svaneti. the virus spread, which, unfortunately, led to the closure of svaneti. the next wave of the virus spread to the black sea coast. 57% of our respondents planned to spend their vacation here. it is also an important fact that 43% of respondents have already visited mtskheta-mtianeti region. an epidemic broke out in this area as well. 22.6% traveled to achara and 29.2% planned to travel to achara. the fact is, the virus has spread rapidly to areas where people have been active. the main purpose of the trip was rest and recreation (68.2%). despite the created situation, 39% of them are satisfied. fig. 1. respondents’ age as we have already mentioned, domestic tourism is one of the ways to alleviate the crisis, but its share in georgia is low 26% (galt & taggart, 2020). compared to other countries, the scale of domestic tourism in georgia is quite limited, as most locals do not visit hotels and rent private houses. analyze the statistical data of the second quarter of 2020 by the national department of statistics of georgia. the percentage of domestic visitors according to the cities visited is as follows: tbilisi 20%, batumi 7, 7%, kutaisi 7%, mtskheta 2, 6%, rustavi 2, 3%, gori 1.7%. the majority of their trip (53.5%) was to visit relatives and friends (nsog, 2020). domestic tourists prefer to stay in a hotel when traveling, especially in tbilisi. only 0.6% of visitors spend the night in a hotel. 46.9% with friends or relatives, and 49.9% at home (georgia, 2020). it is interesting what the statistics of visitor movement by regions of georgia look like. from fig. 2, it can be seen that tbilisi (20%), imereti (19.0%), and achara (11.5%) take the top three places (nsog, 2020). the practice of "tourist bubbles" is settling in the world. countries with similar epidemiological conditions open their borders to each other. there is a gradual return kvirkvelia and tsistagi of tourists. in the first stage, significant emphasis is placed on neighboring countries, from where most visitors visit the country in their own cars. according to the data of the national statistics office of georgia for the first quarter of 2020, the number of international visitors reached 883.8 thousand, which is a decrease of 15.2% compared to the same period last year. international visitors paid 765.3 thousand tourist types of visits, which is 13.2% less than the same period last year. the largest number of visitors 197.2 thousand visitors was recorded from azerbaijan, which is 22.3% of the total visitors and represents a decrease of 7.3% compared to the corresponding figure for 2019. the largest number of visits (262.2 thousand) was made by citizens of azerbaijan, which is 10.5% less than the same period last year. the majority of visitors 48.7%, belonged to the age group of 31-50 years. the number of women makes up 33.2% of the total visitors. in the first quarter of 2020, the most visits 31.9% were made for leisure, entertainment, and recreation, mostly in tbilisi and kvemo kartli, respectively, 559.3 thousand and 241.3 thousand. the average number of nights spent during visits in the first quarter of 2020 was 3.4 nights, which is 8.8% less than the figure recorded in the first quarter of 2019 (3.7 nights). 83.7% of the visits were repeated visits. expenditures on visits in the first quarter of 2020 amounted to 1.0 billion gel, which is 12.9% less than the same period last year. the average cost of a visit increased by 3.7% compared to the first quarter of 2019 and amounted to 922.4 gel (nsog, 2020). figure 2. visitors’ movement by regions of georgia azerbaijani and armenian tourists mainly visit georgia, and in the summer period, georgia may become more attractive to them. in addition to the neighbors, it is necessary to explore new markets chinese tourists are increasingly interested in georgia. the vast majority of chinese tourists are lowor middle-income individuals, for whom mostly cheap tourist markets are available. china is the largest tourist market in the world. most of them visit asia and the pacific, but there is a growing interest in developing tourism. according to mafengwo.com, the most frequently georgian geographical journal used online travel information portal in china, in 2018, special attention was paid to chinese tourists from georgia, turkey, serbia, cyprus, the bahamas, and croatia. an updated strategy by hotels should be prepared due to the decrease in visitors. in the summer of 2020, some discounts were observed in family-type hotels. due to the closure of the country's borders, many georgians who were going abroad for vacation were forced to travel inside the country. as some hotel consultants point out, this factor has had a positive impact on the development of domestic tourism. the increased flow of georgian tourists has increased competition between hotels for quality and cleanliness of services, which is often a pain/shortcoming of non-branded small facilities. this has shown the owners or managers of small and medium-sized hotels, restaurants, and managers that if before they had to count on foreign tours that came once and did not have to count on their repeat visit, now the situation has changed. as you know, the impression of the vacationer and satisfaction is of great importance. georgians are always followed by their friends or acquaintances, so quality care has become even more necessary in a pandemic. otherwise, the visitor will go elsewhere, since the hotel is a lot, the vacationer is a little, therefore, it is important to take care of the quality of food and service. little progress has been made in this regard, which will hopefully be maintained in the future as the state spends quite a large budget and resources to popularize the country internationally. the incoming tourist must meet the appropriate quality so that there are no negative consequences in the future. the level of international visitor satisfaction is set by hotels, restaurants, and tours organized by travel companies, on which the state has no leverage yet. conclusion the whole world, including georgia, has suffered from the coronavirus. the restrictions have caused great damage to the tourism sector. it has become clear that mass tourism international recovery will not be possible by 2020. consequently, the need has led to changes, especially in the direction of domestic tourism. when the borders are opened, security control will become relevant, in which it will be important to share the experience of other tourist countries. for example arrangement of quarantine areas in tourist destinations, test laboratories, allocation of doctors, control of social distance by drones on the beaches, covid-19 testing at the airport, periodic temperature control in hotels and restaurants, the possibility of operating hotels with 25% occupancy; restrictions for hotels, for example, accommodation of a maximum of 2 adults and 1 child in a room, and much more. the statistics mentioned in the article, the results of the mini-research, some recommendations will help the development of tourism in the conditions of coronavirus. kvirkvelia and tsistagi references everingham p. chassagne n. 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(2020). impact of covid-19 on tourism in nepal. in journal of travel medicine (vol. 27, issue 6). https://doi.org/10.1093/jtm/taaa105 https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1762119 https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1777951 https://galtandtaggart.com/upload/reports/18723.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1758708 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616688.2020.1757748 https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/features/best-of-the-world-2021/ https://www.geostat.ge/ georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) numerical modelling of pm10 propagation in rustavi city atmosphere during the southern background wind natia gigauri1, aleksandre surmava1,2 , liana intskirveli1*, mikheil pipia1,2 abstract according to observations, experimental measurements, and numerical modelling, the atmospheric pollution caused by microaerosols pm2.5 and pm10 in rustavi city, one of georgia's industrial centres, has been estimated. analysed were the fluctuations in concentration of pollutants in the urban atmosphere on a monthly, daily, and hourly basis. the particle concentrations in the atmosphere of rustavi city reach their highest levels at any hour of the day due to the combined influence of motor vehicle traffic and industrial facilities. the distribution of pm10 particles in the atmosphere has been determined using numerical modelling for scenarios involving background light air, a mild breeze, and a fresh breeze. calculations demonstrated that light air and mild breeze cause a rise in the concentration of microaerosols in the urban atmosphere, but fresh breeze facilitates the dissipation of the pollution cloud, albeit expanding its distribution area. keywords: atmosphere, pollution, microaerosols, concentration, monitoring introduction atmospheric air pollution represents a significant environmental challenge globally, including georgia, as humans constantly reside in this environment and are consistently exposed to polluted air. microaerosols pm2.5 and pm10 are atmospheric pollutants that require particular attention. they are introduced into the atmosphere through both natural and human activities. these particles consist of microscopic solid substances or liquid droplets that are of such a small size that they can be consumed and lead to significant health issues. pm2.5 and pm10 refer to particulate matter that consists of solid and liquid particles with diameters ranging from 1 to 10 µm. they are composed of particles of organic pollutants, carbon particles, road tar, rubber from tyres, mineral salts, acids, and other solid or liquid particles. the maximum allowable values for pm2.5 are 10 µg/m3 (daily average) and 25 µg/m3 (onetime maximum). for pm10, the maximum allowable concentrations are 20 µg/m3 (daily average) and 50 µg/m3 (one-time maximum). pm2.5 and pm10 particles pose the greatest risk to human life as they can lead to significant deterioration in human health, often resulting in fatal consequences. specifically, an immense number of individuals perish annually due to atmospheric pollution caused by microparticles [1]. according to the world health organisation, 3% of cardiovascular diseases and 5% of cancer diseases are attributed to the influence of these particles [1]. in addition, it is highly probable that viruses, like covid-19, attach to dust microparticles and spread in the atmosphere. the objective outlined above is to investigate the dispersion patterns of pm2.5 and pm10 particles in densely populated urban areas, with a particular focus on the influence of various wind directions. rustavi is a highly industrialised and densely populated metropolitan area. this area is home to cement and nitrogen facilities, along with a range of medium and small businesses. consequently, a variety of particles, including pm10 particles, are released into the air. the present research examines the patterns of pm10 distribution in the atmosphere of rustavi city through numerical simulations, taking into account the influence of a southerly wind. methods and materials based on the analysis of routine observation data [2] the content and peculiarities of microaerosols (pm2,5 and pm10) distribution in the atmosphere of the rustavi city, one of the industrial centres of georgia are studied. their maximum and minimum values are identified. through analysis of the curve of concentration hourly variation there is estimated a period of maximum pollution during a day. it is 1 department of environmental pollution monitoring and forecasting / institute of hydrometeorology, gtu, tbilisi, georgia 2 department of modeling the sea and atmosphere dynamics / m. nodia institute of geophysics, tsu, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: intskirvelebi2@yahoo.com gigauri et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) established that manifestation of maximum concentration is mainly related to the motor transport traffic intensity, industrial facilities operation mode and meteorological conditions. rustavi city atmospheric air quality measurements are made by means of only one automatic background monitoring station and 7 quarterly indicating measurement. based on the results of current monitoring it is impossible to see a complete picture of city atmospheric air quality, that is why for its estimation we have used three-year (2020-2022) observation data of automated station and results of our experimental measurement, which means measuring the concentration of pm10 particles (µg/m3) using indicators such as air temperature and atmospheric pressure, as well as wind speed and direction. one of the indicators was the number of vehicles. dust dissipation in the free atmosphere and surface layer of the atmosphere is modelled through numerical integration [3], using respective initial and boundary conditions. it is assumed that the atmosphere is polluted by a dust originated at city mains and streets due to motor transport traffic. its quantity changes in time and is determined according to assessment of continuous surveillance materials and transport traffic intensity. results analysis of everyday values of microparticle concentrations showed that very high indices are recorded in a majority of days over the month. as the example, in fig. 1 there is shown the microaerosols concentration change in rustavi city atmosphere in february 2022. it is seen from the figure, that over the period taken pm 2,5 and pm10 concentrations exceed two and more times their respective mpc values. figure 1. hourly variation of pm2.5 and pm10 concentrations in rustavi city in february 2022 hourly variation of pm particles concentration in rustavi atmosphere is analyzed (fig. 2). as the example, there is given the course of data in the interval from 20 to 26 february, 2022, from where it is almost impossible to draw any conclusion, since concentration maximums are recorded in different time intervals of a day, in contradistinction from tbilisi city [4], where the maximums have been always reached in the second half of a day, after 8pm, that is associated with motor transport traffic intensity in rush hour period. in case of rustavi, the dust from industrial facilities is added to motor transport emission, therefore concentration increase depends both on motor transport traffic intensity and on plants operation intensity. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 pm2.5 pm10 linear (pm2.5) linear (pm10) μg /m3 gigauri et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 2. hourly variation of pm2.5 and pm10 concentration in rustavi city in february, 2022 experimental measurement results experimental measurements cover tbilisi-rustavi main highway, central areas of the city and territories adjacent to the industrial facilities. mobile apparatus “trotec pc220” has been used for experimental measurements. expeditions have been made three times in different meteorological situations. in fig. 3 there are shown the results of expedition taken on 9th of april, 2022, and we see that pm particles concentrations given in item 7 (territory adjacent to heidelberg cement) 8 times exceed the data taken in other observation points. there was a windy weather (approx. 9 m/sec), and a windstorm perceptible to the eye during measurements that has had an impact on the graph. it may be said that pm2,5 particle concentrations in rustavi city atmosphere, as a rule, are less than pm10 concentrations, but the nature of their change curve is almost identical. their maximum values almost always surpass the corresponding maximum permissible concentrations. experimental observations showed that pm particles concentration increase in rustavi city is induced both by motor transport and by emissions of available plants and meteorological conditions. figure 3. pm2.5 and pm10 concentrations in different points of rustavi city, 9th of april, 2022 distribution of pm10 particles dissipated in the atmosphere of rustavi city and its adjacent territories during light air, gentle and fresh breeze is studied. modeling is implemented at 1189131 numerical grid with 1000 m horizontal steps and 1/31 dimensionless vertical steps. in the atmospheric boundary layer and in the free atmosphere a vertical step approximately equals to 300 m. in the 100 m thick lower 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 pm2.5 pm10 ზდკ pm2.5 μg /m3 gigauri et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) surface layer of the atmosphere 17 vertical grid points are selected, while step varies from 0.5 m to 15 m. it has been assumed during modeling that pm10 concentration at the territory of rustavi city is constant in time, maximal and equals to 50 µg/m3. the adjacent territories of rustavi city have a rugged relief, and altitude varies there from 370 to 1400 m. numerical calculations have been made within three-day interval. calculations showed that polluting ingredients are propagated quasi-periodically with 24 h period. light air in fig. 4 there are shown the fields of wind velocity and pm10 concentrations in the surface and boundary layers of the atmosphere, in case of background southern light air. background wind velocity changes from 1 m/sec (at 100 m height from the earth surface) to 20 m/sec (in tropopause). it is seen from fig. 4 that terrain effect and change in diurnal thermal regime cause formation of local wind, which partly differs from the background one. in particular, at kvemo kartli plain, along the mtkvari river valley and in the northern-western part of the region the south-western wind is formed. in the northern and southern parts of the region there is a southern wind. wind direction slightly changes with altitude and time. spatial distribution of microparticles is less altered, as well. resulting from dominant influence of formed local wind, microparticles are transferred to the north-west direction and form pollution cloud of elongated ellipse-like shape. the cloud width reaches 50 km, while length substantially surpasses it. figure 4. wind velocity and pm10 concentration distribution at z = 2, 100 and 600 m height during background southern light air, when t = 12 and 24 h gentle breeze in fig. 5 there are shown the fields of wind velocity and pm10 concentration in the surface and boundary layers of the atmosphere, obtained during background southern gentle breeze. it is seen from fig. 5 that when t = 12 and 24 h, the spatial distribution of wind velocity obtained via modeling is qualitatively similar to the wind velocity field received during light air. pm10 concentration spatial distribution is qualitatively similar, as well. microparticles available in the city air move northwestward along the formed local wind, first along the kartli plain and then along mtkvari river valley. therefore, a cloud polluting atmosphere with microparticles is oriented to the north-west, its shape is uniform in the surface and boundary layers of the atmosphere, while its width slightly rises with altitude increase. t = 1 2 h , z = 2 m . t = 1 2 h , z = 1 0 0 m . t = 1 2 h , z = 6 0 0 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 2 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 1 0 0 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 6 0 0 m . 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 0 . 0 0 0 1 0 . 0 0 1 0 . 0 1 1 5 2 5 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 gigauri et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 5. wind velocity and pm10 concentration distribution at z = 2, 100 and 600 m height during background southern gentle breeze, when t = 12 and 24 h fresh breeze during background southern fresh breeze, the impact of orography on local wind formation prevails the influence caused by diurnal variation of temperature. as a result, a local south-eastern wind, which slightly changes during a day is formed at kartli plain and mtkvari river valley (fig. 6). microaerosols propagation process is quasi-stationary, as well. microaerosol cloud has a shape of cigar plume directed from south to the north-west, and its width slightly increases from surface layer to boundary layer of the atmosphere. figure 6. wind velocity and pm10 concentration distribution at z = 2, 100 and 600 m height during background southern fresh breeze, when t = 12 and 24 h conclusion according on the analysis of data from the nea, we can make the following conclusions: typically, the levels of pm2.5 particles in the atmosphere of rustavi city are lower than the levels of pm10 particles, while the pattern of their change is comparable. on nearly a daily basis, their maximum values exceed the associated maximum permissible concentrations (mpc). the hourly variation trend of pm particle concentration reveals that the highest concentrations occur at various times throughout the day. this is due to the combination of dust emissions from industrial 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 2 0 4 0 6 0 8 0 t = 1 2 h , z = 2 m . t = 1 2 h , z = 1 0 0 m . t = 1 2 h , z = 6 0 0 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 2 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 1 0 0 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 6 0 0 m . 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 0 . 0 0 0 1 0 . 0 0 1 0 . 0 1 1 5 2 5 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7 0 8 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 t = 1 2 h , z = 2 m . t = 1 2 h , z = 1 0 0 m . t = 1 2 h , z = 6 0 0 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 2 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 1 0 0 m . t = 2 4 h , z = 6 0 0 m . 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 0 . 0 0 0 1 0 . 0 0 1 0 . 0 1 1 5 2 5 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 9 0 1 1 0 1 0 3 0 5 0 7 0 gigauri et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) facilities and motor vehicle exhaust. therefore, the increase in concentration depends on both the intensity of motor vehicle traffic and the operation of industrial plants. a study was conducted in rustavi city to numerically model the local propagation of microparticles in the presence of background light air, a soft and fresh breeze. the modelling results indicate that the presence of southern light air in rustavi, together with the topography impact and changes in the daily temperature patterns, lead to the production of local winds that are partially distinct from the prevailing winds. specifically, a south-northern wind is generated in the kvemo kartli plain, mtkvari river valley, and the north-western portion of the region. a southerly wind is generated in the northern and southern regions. the wind direction undergoes small variations in relation to altitude and time. due to the prevailing impact of local wind patterns, microparticles are transported in a north-west direction, resulting in the formation of a pollution cloud with an elongated, elliptical shape. the breadth of the cloud measures 50 kilometres, while its length significantly exceeds that measurement. the spatial distribution of wind velocity derived through modelling during a background southern gentle breeze is qualitatively comparable to the wind velocity field seen during light air. the regional distribution of pm10 concentration exhibits qualitative similarity. amidst a gentle wind blowing from the south, the influence of the local terrain on the creation of winds is more significant than the impact of daily temperature changes. consequently, a regional south-eastern breeze, which undergoes modest variations throughout the day, is generated in the vicinity of the kartli plain and mtkvari river valley. the microaerosol cloud takes the form of a cigar-shaped plume that extends from the south to the northwest. its width gradually grows from the surface layer to the boundary layer of the atmosphere. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution n.g. contributed to the execution of model calculations, analysis of the results, experimental measurements, and text revision for the article. a.s. conducted model computations, analysed the results, and oversaw the composition of the paper. l. i. was responsible for creating the monitoring database, actively contributed to the experimental measurement, conducted analysis on the obtained results, and reviewed the article manuscript. m.p. performed empirical measures and analysed the resulting data, participated in the evaluation of the manuscript. acknowledgements the scientific research is funded and implemented within the grant project ys-21-132 of the shota rustaveli national science foundation. references [1] world health organization, who’s agenda on air pollution and health. www.who.int/airpollution/en/) [2] https://mepa.gov.ge/ge/publicinformation/27987 [3] aleksandre a surmava, leila v gverdsiteli, liana n intskirveli, natia g gigauri. numerical simulation of dust distribution in city tbilisi territory in the winter period, journal of the georgian geophysical society, v. 24(1), 2021, pp. 37-43 [4] n. gigauri, v. kukhalashvili, a. surmava, l. intskirveli, m. pipia. spatial distribution of pm10 and pm2.5 concentrations in tbilisi city atmosphere according to routine observations and en-route measurement data, collected works of the institute of hydrometeorology at the georgian technical university, vol. 131, 2021, pp. 44-50. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) analysis of formation, development and contemporary morphodynamic processes of batumi cape grigol russo1,george lominadze2,giorgi kavlashvili2* abstract the presented work mainly relies on the data and materials of 1834–1980 and, importantly, the materials of the last 50 years of regime studies of the coastal zone of the cape, as well as reports from various organisations and published articles. the work includes the natural conditions of the formation of the cape, its development under the influence of anthropogenic factors, and the assessment of its actual stability, taking into account the expected risk factors. the work discusses the active influence of the submarine canyon existing along the cape on the stability of the coastal zone. its underwater slope (slopes of 300 and more) directly follows the entire shape of the cape. consequently, large volumes of beach-forming material are permanently lost at great depths. this process is well studied and presented in the paper. the work also considers the stability of the aquatic area of a small floating craft shelter (referred to as the "yacht club") arranged in the cape area. recently, a growing sediment accumulation zone has been formed along the coastal section of its enclosing structures (moles). its parameters and morphological markers indicate the formation of a destabilisation process of the accumulative form, with a correspondingly negative result. the issues listed in the paper are discussed based on the factual results of many years of research, with the inclusion of relevant graphic and photo materials. keywords: beach-forming material, alongshore sediment transport, lithodynamic system, submarine canyon introduction the problem under consideration is much broader than we discuss it today. this study is part of a large geoecological problem that exists on the black sea coast of georgia: the problem of accelerating the rise in the level of the world’s oceans, as well as powerful man-made pressure on the coastal zone, which causes an imbalance in sediment equilibrium in the coastal zone, beach erosion, and so on. batumi cape is located in the central part of the town, where there are many modern hotels, tourist attractions, and visitor entertainment facilities. also in its area are a yacht club and the northern section of the famous boulevard of batumi. accordingly, the coastal zone of the cape in all seasons of the year is crowded with both visitors and the local population. in adjara, resort and tourist infrastructure is being developed on a large scale, which requires thoughtful development of the coastal zone and, most importantly, maintaining its sustainability. based on the current reality, a comprehensive study of the formation, development conditions, and reasons for degradation of the seacoast zone has become urgent. the batumi cape coastal zone (above-water and underwater slope), as well as the canyon intruded within it, are well studied. observations on the morphodynamic processes taking place here and research in various directions were carried out here along with the formation and development of the cape (mostly after the construction of the batumi port at the end of the 19th century). their frequency has been increasing since the 1970s of the previous centuries. it is clear that it is not appropriate to carry out detailed studies within the entire adjara coastline, considering both our resources and the uneven sustainability of individual areas. according to the findings of a thorough, long-term study, a part of the batumi cape was found to be where the conditions were right for bad things to start happening. in particular, the most likely destabilisation of the stability of the coastal zone. methods and materials in the presented work, mainly the materials of the 1834–1980 unpublished reports and, importantly, the materials of the last 50 years of regime studies of the cape coastal zone are used. also reports from various organisations and published articles. it includes the natural conditions of the formation of the cape, the stages of its development under the influence of anthropogenic factors, and the assessment of modern sustainability taking into account the expected risk factors. there is discussion of the negative impact of the underwater canyon, located along the cape, on the stability of the coastal zone and the 1 national environmental agency, tbilisi georgia 2 institute of geography tsu, tbilisi georgia * corresponding author: kavlashvili@gmail.com mailto:kavlashvili@gmail.com russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) preventive measures taken to mitigate its activity. additionally, the sustainability of the yacht club water area and its surrounding construction (breakwaters and groynes) in the cape area the issues listed in the paper present the analysis of the results of many years of research, their combinations, and their conclusions. in connection with the mentioned problem, morphodynamic, lithodynamic, statistical, hydrometeorological, cartographic, comparative geographical, and general scientific methods were used. results conditions of formation and development of the cape the seacoastal zone of adjara and the entire kakhaberi plain (including the batumi area) are mainly formed by the solid sediment of the chorokhi river. under natural conditions, the beach-forming material of the river, which fell into the sea estuary under the influence of storms in the prevailing direction, formed an alongshore stream of alluvium (a unified lithodynamic system) from cape kalendere to the sea confluence of the river natanebi. figure 1. stages of development of kakhaberi plain 1834-1926 (depository 1) the length of the beach was approximately 50 kilometres [1, 2]. batumi port (1872–78), which completely stopped the movement of alluvium to the north, drastically altered the unified system [3]. an autonomous coast was separated from the south of the system; its length was 15–16 km. unpublished reports, such as manganar 1834, the first piece of cartographic data used by svishevski in 1939 [4], reflect these processes. the displacement of the main bed of the chorokhi river and its mouth (delta) from north to south is considered, which is directly related to the redistribution of the alluvion drawn from the river into the sea [5–11]. additionally, the influence of the batumi port on the development of the coast and the stages of the formation of the cape to protect the water area of the port from sedimentation, at the beginning of the last century, the famous boulevard of batumi spur was constructed with an initial length of 170 m, which was filled from the south with material from the chorokhi river brought by stormy waves. in the formation stage, the growth rate of the cape was approximately 4 m/year. the spur was filled for 30–40 years (depository 2), and the cape reached the extreme form of its development; it approached the depths of 4-5 m of the submarine canyon heads by the extreme distance. the movement of a large volume of alluvion to the depths leads to the erosion of the slopes of the underwater canyon and further activation of its headwaters. periodically, a large volume of drift and alluvion accumulates in the coastal zone of the cape, mainly in the local areas of russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the underwater slope. in the case of the formation of a critical mass, it moves to great depths together with part of the above-water beach and is practically analogous to an avalanche or landslide process. the process can be provoked by any insignificant disturbing factor: storm duration, direction, strength, different conditions of dewatering of nonuniform drift in the critical mass (in previous years, in many cases, the content of household garbage and construction waste), and many others. figure 2. spur influence on the variation in the sea edge line in 1880-1926 (depository 2) modern conditions of batumi cape active studies, with the use of different methods, of the ongoing morphodynamic processes within the batumi cape limits have been conducted since 1979 using various methods. the latest data are figs. 1 and 2 of 2022. according to their study, there are two sections that pose a risk: the first is between the old and new spurs, where a large amount of material that had been accumulating on the coast was released into the depths in 1999. the second, along the marina/seacoast groyne of the yacht club, is where a process similar to the first is in the stage of formation. on january 14, 1999, in the central area of the batumi cape (the first area), within the limits of two spurs, in absolutely calm sea conditions, an event developed when the accumulated material on the underwater slope instantly broke off and went to depth, taking with itself a 200–250 m long and 50–60 m wide above-water beach strip with a total area of approximately 12 thousand m2. the process was provoked by small earthquake resonance tremors (magnitude 3, data from the turkish side) that occurred in the trabzon region of turkey (250–270 km from the city of batumi). the process developed in winter, at night, when the beach was deserted. if the same thing happened in the summer, during the daytime, when there are hundreds of bathers and vacationers on the beach, it is not difficult to imagine what fatal consequences we would have. in the second area, along the jetty of the yacht club, there is an increasingly accumulative form of drift that has been forming for the last 10 years. unlike the first one, the movement of excess material from the coastal zone to great depths, with the scenario of instantaneous development of landslides or avalanches, was not observed. currently, the morphological parameters of the site and the analysis of the comparison of sections from different years indicate that the alluvion accumulation has reached a critical phase. if we take into account the catastrophic variant of the negative process of the previous century (14.01.1999) (with a nonfatal result), it is most likely expected to be repeated in both areas (figs. 3, 4) (sections 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5). russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 3. coastline changes (batumi cape) russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 4. cross-section russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 5. cross-section the characteristic sections of the first area are 2-2 and 3-3 (fig. 4), and those of the second area are section (5-5) (fig. 5). additionally, a graph of the comparison of sea edge lines (fig. 3.). to simplify the visualisation of the sections, the data of 4 different years are compared, unlike the information in (fig. 3.) (1979-2). russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 6. general topo-bathymetric map of the cape and layout of 4 cross-sections in the first area, a wide accumulation zone of alluvion was distinctly formed between the old and new spurs (fig. 3). the increase in the sea edge line was approximately 60 metres during the last 20 years (08.1999–03.2020). on the slope of the submarine canyon, a depth of 30 metres moved forward by 45–50 metres (section 3-3). (fig. 4.). accordingly, the volume of the accumulative mass exceeds the amount of drift lost in the underwater canyon on january 1, 1999. in this area, during the development russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) of the expected negative process, it is difficult to predict what area of the above-water beach will turn out to be in the sea. the beach, adjacent to new spurs, and the yacht club do not fall within the area of stormy influence of the prevailing direction on the cape—the westerlies or western rhumbs. in addition to the mentioned azimuth, the breakwaters of the batumi port shield it from uncommon n.w. storms. nevertheless, the conditions of formation and development of their coastal zone (fig. 5 and sections 4–4; 5–5) are different from each other. section 4-4 is taken within the batumi cape scopes, and during our observation period (40–45 years), no forms of excess alluvion accumulation are observed. in the abovewater part of the section, the fluctuation of the sea edge line is 10-15 m, and that of the underwater slope is 20–35 m within the depth scope of approximately 100 m. accordingly, section 4-4 actually shows that this area is a transit zone for drift movement. however, this does not mean that the transit drift does not fall into the great depths of the submarine canyon. [12] unlike other sections, where the alluvion moves under the conditions of accumulation of excess and critical mass formation, in section 4-4, the process is permanent, mainly by floating the drift on the subaqueous slope. as we mentioned, the form of excess drift accumulation along the yacht-club jetty (section 5–5. fig. 5) has been observed since 2000 and its activation in the last 15 years; currently, the increase in the beach above the water has reached 30 m. the bottom of the cone of excess mass (depth 30–35 m) is approximately 100–110 m away from the shore. there are various reasons for the formation of such a shape; however, it is interesting that this period coincides with the construction of the yacht club jetty as well as with the natural events of january 1999, which developed within the cape limits. fig. 6 shows the layout of the abovementioned cross-sections. influence of the batumi submarine canyon on the formation and stability of the cape as we mentioned, the final stage of the formation of the cape can be considered the approach of its previous accumulation zone to the heads of the canyon, and the reason for the activation of the canyon is the construction of the spur. based on various sources and our research, approximately 100–120 thousand m3 of large bottom fractional sediment-alluvium from the chorokhi river was and is being lost in the depths of the underwater canyon. if we take into account the losses of sand, the volume will increase at least 10 times. the displacement of material on an underwater slope causes its depth to deepen. the development of the corresponding morphological forms of the slope expresses the areas of development of this process. the most dangerous zone on the cape is shown in fig. 7. figure 7. batumi submarine canyon russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) (a) (b) figure 8. an underwater slope facing the old spur. tilt 30° depth 6-7 m. (a). in front of the yacht club. depth 15-17 m. (b) the photos (fig. 8) were taken by scuba divers and a special underwater pilot, who measured the direction, inclination, and depth of the slope. accumulating cape-building material of various grades as well as household garbage (mainly in front of the yacht club) are observed everywhere. the photos show only the surface of the slope, which is mainly covered by pebbles, sand, and silt. the same structure exists in the lower layers, at the points we have randomly measured, in layers 1.0–1.5 m deep from the surface [13, 14]. thus, the combination of sections and photos of the underwater slope reflects the active period of development of the cape, which can be a prerequisite for the development of the negative process. here, for comparison, photos of the cape coast from different years are shown. conclusion it is impossible to predict the development time and scale of negative processes with great probability. however, we deem it appropriate to consider several options: 1. permanent discharging of an underwater critical mass of material in smooth sea conditions; in this case, the central area of the cape is practically safe, but in front of the yacht club, where the critical mass is directly adjacent to the seaside groyne, destabilisation of the stability of both the club's surrounding buildings as well as the infrastructure of its water area and the vessels ported there is most likely to be expected. 2. in the event that processes similar to those of 1999 develop, the results could be more or less catastrophic for both districts; 3. from the point of view of the development of catastrophic processes, it is very important to know in which season of the year to expect the unpredictable processes discussed above. it is necessary to temporarily prohibit the presence of vacationers, fishermen, or people just walking or working in the areas designated by us for their safety. obviously, this ban will continue until, in agreement with the local authorities, the options and timelines for the preventive measure are decided. the issue cannot be resolved only on the basis of our many years of observations and experience. it is necessary to carry out detailed measurements of underwater (bathymetry up to 15 m depth) and above-water (topography to the end of the beach) areas from batumi boulevard to the entrance of the yacht club. it is important to include experts studying the sustainability of the coastal zone in cape development plans. on the one hand, future facilities should not provoke negative processes, and on the other hand, the facilities themselves should not fall into the destabilisation area. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution g.r. and g.l. conceived of the presented idea and wrote the manuscript. g.k. performed the analytic calculations, created the maps and design. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. references [1] lominadze g., 2018. morphology and dynamics of the coastal zone, national atlas of georgia, franz russo et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) steiner verlag, stuttgart, isbn978-3-515-12057-9 (print), pp.34-36 [2] papashvili i., gelovani i., lominadze g., kavlashvili g. (2022). black sea, geography of the physical environment, editors bolashvili nana and neidze vazha, ©springer nature switzerland ag, 227p. [3] gelovani i., lominadze g., kavlashvili g., russo g. (2021) example of coastal hazard along the georgian black sea coast, building knowledge for geohazard assessment and management in the caucasus and other orogenic regions, procceedings of the nato apv on building civil protection capacity to multigate geohazards in the caucasus: a regional approach tbilisi,georgia,october, published by springer, ©springer nature b.v. issn 978-94-024-2045-6, issn 1874-6519, pp.317-326 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2046-3 [4] destruction of the sea coast in batumi, as a common phenomenon for the east coast of the black sea. academy of sciences of ussr, news of the state geographical society. vol. lxxil – issue 5, leningrad 1939 pp. 658-689 (in russian). [5] metreveli t., papashvili i., russo g. impact of the anthropogenic factor on the development of autonomous coastal areas. proceedings final scientific session of the ig. an. gssr. “metsniereba”, tbilisi: 1987, pp. 62-63 (in russian) [6] leontyev o., safyanov g. canyons under the sea. ph,” mysl,” m: 1973, pp. 228-240;(in russian) [7] matkava d., papashvili i., russo g. coastal sediment loses into underwater canyons of the black sea coast of georgia and methods for its termination. (in russian)//institute grusniinti, series “geophysics” vol. no. 1. tbilisi, 1987, 40 p. (in russian) [8] scientific-industrial association. “saknapirdacva” batumi (2003), morphodynamics and development forecast batumi cape. p.29 [9] lominadze g., megreli n., russo g. changes in the dynamics of the black sea coastal zone under the influence of technogenic factors. proceedings of the international electronic conference. tbilisi-moscow, (in russian). www.cetm.narod.ru/pdf/lominadze.pdf [10] meladze f. (1993). engineering solutions for the protection of sea coasts. tbilisi. p.208 [11] (2000) study of coastal protection in batumi; integrated management of municipal water resources in georgia, world bank, netherlands, 53p. [12] bilashvili k., russo g. (2003) slide of mass deposits on submarine slope of cape batumi, georgia. ocean margin research conf. paris (france) 15th-17th september https://uit.no/enhet/igkonferanser/omarc/index.htm [13] galumova v., russo g. 2019 georgian environment agency newsletter [14] galumova v., russo g. 2023 georgian environment agency newsletter http://www.cetm.narod.ru/pdf/lominadze.pdf https://uit.no/enhet/igkonferanser/omarc/index.htm georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 51-61 the experimental research of ablation of adishi glacier tongue tamaz karalashvili1*, nana bolashvili1, vakhtang geladze1, guram imnadze1 abstract the study of glacier mass balance is gaining significant interest worldwide against modern global climate change. using drone gave good results in glacier mass balance studies. there is a sizeable difference between the values obtained by the modern and previous used methods, which is primarily because of the shortcomings of the old one. we believe the results obtained cause the revision of the old data of the mass balance ablation component. therefore, it became essential to restore the observation series and determine the compatibility of the data obtained by the old, traditional methods with the data obtained using new, modern technologies. the study aimed to compare the results obtained by standard ablation studies (ablation stake) and modern aerial photogrammetric methods based on actual observations in the adishi glacier tongue. keywords: ablation, glaciers, mass balance introduction glaciological studies are of great importance in the context of global climate change. the urgency of the study is determined because glaciers are the best natural fixer for climate change. at the same time, glaciers are the largest reservoirs of freshwater. glaciology requires interdisciplinary researches, requires climatologists, hydrologists, geomorphologists, tourism specialists, etc. joint studies and vision. at present glaciers are melting faster resulted in water balance change. along with environmental problems, this will lead to natural disasters. the studies of glacier mass balance on the southern slope of the caucasus have not been conducted for the last 30 years. semi-stationary (ablation period) combined glacial-hydro-meteorological observations on the glaciers in the river enguri, rioni and tergi basins have been performed by the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography since the 1950s, many materials on glacier mass balance, motion dynamics, glacial zone microclimate, river runoff of glacial feeding, etc. have been collecting. the tbilisa glacier (central caucasus, rioni basin) was selected as the sample for the most extended, 22-year continuous observation series. the monograph reflected the observation results [1, 2]. due to well-known events (1990s), those observations were terminated. scientists of the institute have recently updated studies conducted using modern technologies. the measuring method of the glacier consumption (ablation) has been significantly changed. study area the adishi glacier is located in the samegrelo-zemo svaneti region of georgia. a southwestern exposure on the southern slope of the central caucasus represents it. its area is equal to 9.50 km2, and its length is 9.46 km. the firn of glacier basin is located at an altitude of 3800 meters. it has a 1200-meter icefall, and the tongue of the glacier descends to 2442 meters [2]. according to the scientific research program of the institute of geography, it has been determined to update glaciological studies. for this purpose, during june-september 2019 period, field observations were conducted on the adishi glacier using both traditional and modern technologies. methods and materials stake method generally, the surface ablation accuracy calculated by this method greatly depends on the frequency of the stake net. the stake quantity is defined according to the study area and pollution degree of the glacier tongue surface. this network must cover the entire range of the glacier tongue and, as far as possible, the sharply outlined characteristic points pure ice and surface covered with a layer of moraine material of different thicknesses. usually, the systematic periodic observations are carried out in the morning or in the evening, which involves the data fixation on the stake and new drilling, so while 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tsu, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: karalash60@mail.ru karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) determining the optimal number of the stakes, the technical factor must be considered the number of observers and the speed of drilling. before the beginning of fieldwork, the network of ablation stakes must be formed in advance using satellite images and be specified directly in the field. figure 1. zoning of glacier tongue in our case, the adishi glacier tongue has been divided into four zones (fig. 1). it allocated three characteristic surfaces in each zone: pure ice (central part), weak moraine cover (left part), and morainecovered ice (right part). the melted volumes of the glacier in each zone are determined by the sum of the weighted volumes of the ice and moraine-covered ice surfaces and the melted volume of the entire tongue by the sum of the volumes calculated according to the zones. the ice drill was used to drill the glacier’s surface, and the 20 mm diameter and 4m length plastic pipes were used as stakes. for the calculation of glacier surface ablation, the accuracy of the measurement of the glacier tongue and the areas of its characteristic zones is of great importance in terms of the reliability of the final results. we should note that prior to the application of the high-resolution satellite images in glaciological studies, topographic maps were mainly used, which have been updated by multi-year periods. we have realized the transfer of the area data taken from topographic maps to actual ones considering the angle of inclination of the glacier tongue [3, 4]. besides, the surface of the glacier tongue drawn on a topographic map represents a less flat area than the actual relief area. naturally, the accuracy of the surface melting calculated from such measured area data would not have been high in the conditions of the dynamic processes activated in the glacial zone in the last decades. moreover, drawing the contours of the glacial surface covered by the moraine through satellite images is also associated with factual errors and requires correction in conducting direct observations in the field. here we will focus on another problem related to calculating the moraine-covered glacier surface ablation. it is known that, compared to the pure ice surface, the intensity of surface ablation covered with a certain amount of thin moraine material increases because of the heating of the latter by the effect of additional heat transfer to the ice surface. as the moraine capacity increases, the impact of surface heat energy on the ice melting weakens and ceases completely. there are universal curves that reflect the relationship between glacier surface melting and moraine strength, which is the basis for many experimental field studies [2]. however, they cannot wholly reflect the full range of the process, as the drilling of ablation stakes on the ice surface covered with thick moraine material or the area arrangement of runoff in such sites is associated with difficulties. in addition, using this type of data for the entire surface of the glacial tongue gives errors because the process of contamination of the glacial tongue with moraine material is dynamical and poorly studied. karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 2. transverse profiles of adishi glacier tongue in june and july, 2019 according to zone i (blue-june, red-july); vertical lines indicate the locations of the ablation stakes to solve these problems, we used data obtained using drones. in particular, during each repetitive drone session, the data expresses the descent of the glacier tongue and, consequently, the static state of non-glacial surfaces at the edges. in this way, the drone data allows us to assign the area contour involved in the glacier's ablation tongue with high accuracy. table 1. areas and average heights according to the zoning zones avg. elevation, m. area, m2 total moraine covered pure ice i 2490 95930 36422 59508 ii 2570 129728 75782 53946 iii 2600 126213 66275 59938 iv 2645 294607 141958 152650 the case study (fig. 2) shows the transverse profiles of the glacier tongue and the ablation stakes with data from the drone footage of june and july 2019. figure 3. correlation between site heights and melting measured by ablation bars during the observation period ▪ pure glacier surface ▪ moraine-covered glacier surface karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) it can be seen from the fig.2 that the separation of glacial and non-glacial (profile junction points) surfaces at the edge of the glacier tongue is not tricky. in addition, these profiles directly represent the effect of the moraine power on the melting and complete cessation of the glacier, allowing data to be averaged. the adishi glacier separated zone areas, and the zones' average heights considering the above are given in table 1. the correlation was established between the site heights and the melting measured by ablation stakes according to the entire observation period and individual months (fig. 3). the melting volumes were calculated using the melted data at average elevation for each zone, considering the clear and moraine-covered glacier areas (table 2). table 2. surface melting of the adishi glacial tongue during the observation period zones avg. height, m. pure ice area, m2 moraine covered ice area, m2 total area, m2 avg. melting on ice, m avg. melting on moraine covered area, m2 volume of pure ice, m3 volume of moraine covered ice, m3 total volume, m3 36422 59508 95930 6.60 6.60 240384 196377 436761 ii 2570 75782 53946 129728 4.53 4.30 343292 115984 459276 iii 2600 66275 59938 126213 3.76 3.43 249194 102794 351988 iv 2645 141958 152650 294607 2.60 2.14 369090 163335 532425 sum 80528 15549 96077 1201960 578490 1780450 the drone method in parallel with the above-mentioned stake method to study the ablation of the adish glacial tongue, the modern, innovative method was used, which involves aerophotogrammetric scanning of the glacier surface using drones. figure 4. the location of dgps control points in scientific articles published in recent years [5-9], the perspective of unmanned aerial vehicles in glaciological studies is highlighted. it allows appropriate monitoring to be carried out promptly, with high accuracy and significant human and financial resources savings. the resolution of the digital elevation model (dem) and orthophoto depends on many factors, such as the quality of the aircraft camera and the altitude of the drone. we used a portable dji phantom 4 pro flying machine tested for complex terrain. it is essential to measure the dgps control points on the karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) glacier surface when performing aerial photogrammetric imaging. 19 control gps points were located on the tongue of adishi glacier and its surrounding area (fig. 4), and the footage area was divided into three polygons depending on the flight time and challenging terrain. for the study, the altitude of the drone flight was determined to be 100 meters to obtain highresolution digital images. the aerial footage was carried out using the mission launch method for which the pix4dmapper software package was used. before the aerial filming, 12 of the 19 reference points selected at the study site have been located on the glacier surface, and seven at the edge of the glacier tongue on the non-glacial surface. the points were scaled by the dgps stonex s9 iii + rtk gnss, with a vertical error of 2 cm during field measurements and a 1.5 cm horizontal error. field data, up to 1200 gps coordinates of aerial and control points were processed in agisoft metashape professional software package, from which the high-resolution orthophotos (orthomosaic-2 cm), digital elevation model (dem-10 cm) and 3d relief were generated. high-resolution images have been integrated into geographic information systems (gis) software package arcmap 10.4.1. gis gave the possibility to perform glacier tongue ablation calculations up the centimetre accuracy. using the digital model of the terrain obtained from aerial photogrammetric imaging and the cut fill function of arcmap 10.4.1, the change in the ice volume from june to september was calculated. results and discussion as mentioned above, the comparative analysis of the surface ablation volumes of the adishi glacier, calculated by two methods, covers all four zones in july and the entire period of the first zone. the staking method was used to calculate the july surface melting volumes by zones (tab. 3). table 3. surface melting of adishi glacier tongue calculated by the stake method in july zones avg. elevation, m pure ice area m2 moraine covered ice area m2 total area m2 ave. melting on ice m ave. melting on moraine covered area m2 volume of pure ice, m3 volume of moraine covered ice m3 total volume, m3 i 2490 36422 59508 95930 2.28 2.22 83092 66053 149144 ii 2570 75782 53946 129728 1.81 1.74 137196 46941 184137 iii 2600 66275 59938 126213 1.63 1.56 108280 46764 155044 iv 2645 141958 152650 294607 1.37 1.29 194324 98503 292827 sum 80528 15549 96077 522892 258260 781152 the surface ablation data of the glacier tongue measured by photogrammetric and stake methods in july are given in table 4. table 4. adishi glacier surface ablation data by photogrammetric and stake methods zones photogrammetric method stake method area, m2 total volume, m3 avg. melting, m area, m2 total volume, m3 avg. melting, m i 106287 179643 1.69 95930 149144 1.55 ii 139179 201834 1.45 129728 184137 1.42 iii 135791 174735 1.29 126213 155044 1.23 iv 321229 349666 1.09 294607 292827 0.99 sum 702487 905879 646479 781152 the july surface ablation volumes calculated using two methods by zones are shown in fig.5. the ablation volume calculated by the stake method in july is 83% of the volume calculated by the photogrammetric method. it should be noted that the result obtained by us is consistent with the ablation data measured by two methods of glacier fontaine (new york state) in 2016: total melting, measured over a 3-day on the study area (0.185 km2), 0.170 m water equivalent was recorded by the drone, and interpolation of ablation measured by the stake showed the water equivalent of 0.144 m, which is 85% of the volume calculated by the photogrammetric method [8]. karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 5. the average surface melting of adishi glacier tongue by zones using photogrammetric and stake methods in july photogrammetric method stake method data from actual observations make it possible to compare surface ablation measured by two methods in zone i by months (table 5). table 5. surface ablation data of adishi glacier i zone by photogrammetric (i) and stake (ii) methods the dynamics of surface ablation in zone i by months is graphically depicted on fig. 6 figure 6. surface ablation of zone i of adishi glacier by months (july, august, september) photogrammetric method stake method as we have seen, the quantity of ablation measured by the photogrammetric method, both in the whole range of the glacier tongue (july) and in the individual zone (july-september), is higher than the quantity of the ablation measured by the stake method, by 17 and 17-20%, respectively. fig. 5and 6 show that we are dealing with a system error of the method (almost parallel curves). as mentioned above, the stake method has some drawbacks. in particular: · the melting is measured at the point of drilling of the ablation zone, and the data is generalized over a particular area; month ablation, m3 % stake method the drone july 149144 179643 83% august 158925 195443 81% september 62228 77805 80% sum 370297 452891 82% karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) · the accuracy of the measurement of the surface ablation of moraine-covered ice depends on the frequency of the network of ablation stakes, and the degree of data generalization is high too; · the surface drawn through a topographic map of the glacier tongue and its distinct zones is a plane with less than the actual terrain area. let us consider the relief area accuracy as the critical factor of the system error of the method. in the presented article, we deliberately do not use the topographic map to calculate ablation, as the last topographic survey taken during the 1980s is disabled to reflect the current state of the glacier fully, and therefore the survey results cannot be compared. the glacier tongue data and the 2d area of the individual zones in the ablation calculations with the stake method are obtained using a digital map from the drone footage. figure 7. correlation between real and plane areas of the adishi glacier tongue surface by zones naturally, the degree of correlation between the relief and plane areas is high (fig. 7). however, as shown in table 6, the surface area of the adishi glacier tongue used in the calculations is 92% of the actual area, and the areas of its zones range within 90.3-93.2%, respectively. table 6. adishi glacier tongue surface areas by zones in 2d and 3d formats zone 2d area, m2 3d area, m2 % i 95930 106287 90.3 ii 129728 139179 93.2 iii 126213 135791 92.9 iv 294708 321229 91.7 sum 646579 702487 92.0 this can be explained by analysing the longitudinal profile of the central part of the adishi glacier tongue presented in figure 8. in particular, a significant deviation in zone i is related to the steep surface of the glacier at the end of the tongue, zones ii and iii are approximately homogeneous, and zone iv is distinguished from the rest by significant surface irregularities. based on the conducted analysis, it can be concluded that the 8% from 17% of july surface ablation error of adishi glacier tongue calculated by the stake method and the 10% from 18% of the surface ablation errors calculated for the first zone by months are conditioned mainly due to the area size error. the remained 8-9%, in our opinion, should be caused by mechanical and under-glacial ablation, the measuring of which was not considered in the present study. however, in this regard, we have a specific suggestion based on the analysis of profiles obtained by periodic photogrammetric images along with the ablation stakes (fig. 9). fig. 9 presents the surface ablation profiles of the adishi glacier tongue in the i zone along with the ablation stakes by months. it is clear from the figure that the glacier surface is relatively smooth in july, and in the following months, the negative peaks are gradually increasing and widening. this is caused by the impact of surface melted water streams of glacier tongue during the ablation period, which karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) gradually deepens and widens the basins and cause the surface to sag. then the streams are lost in the cracks, pass through the glacier body and emerge on the subsurface. figure 8. longitudinal profile of adishi glacier tongue by zones in fig. 9, the vertical lines mark the location points of the ablation stakes. while looking, no cracks and crevices are observed in the vicinity of these natural points because the places of drilling of the ablation stakes are also chosen from the viewpoint that to ensure the continuity of the observations, they will not be mechanically injured frequently replaced. consequently, the stake method cannot reflect the mechanical melting process in the ablation calculation. figure 9. surface ablation profiles of the adishi glacier tongue in i zone along the ablation stakes by months the scale of the mechanical melting is indicated by the glacial lake recorded from the photogrammetric method in the fourth zone (june) and then vanished (july), which left a concave of 18 m depth (fig. 10). from the given analysis, it can be concluded that the ablation value calculated by the photogrammetric method includes the component caused by ice surface melting and also the mechanical losses of ice. as for under-glacier ablation, observation materials on this component of glacial ablation are scarce. it is known that the glacier melting at the contact point with the subsurface is caused by the mechanical karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) and thermal impact of surface melting flows on the glacier subsurface through the earth's heat and cracks. figure 10. emerged and then vanished glacial lake (june) on the adishi glacier tongue as a result of under-glacial ablation, by the pressure of a large mass of ice, the glacier experiences a periodic fall, which can be said to "fit", which is naturally described with the photogrammetric method. the staking method cannot fix this process for obvious reasons. figure 11. glacial lake and transverse profile in the case of an adishi glacier, the manifestation of under glacial ablation is the last part of the tongue where all the melted water gathers and then flows in a single stream from the grotto. as a result, a large mass of ice is lowered by about 8-10 meters. based on the above, it can be concluded that the ablation quantity calculated by the photogrammetric method also includes the under-glacial component. karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) conclusion • the method of aerial photogrammetric is quite innovative, and it allows us to obtain a surface height digital model (dsm), orthophoto image (orthomosaic) and three-dimensional model (3d) at a minimal cost. at the same time, it provides pretty high quality (accuracy) digital information of the terrain. • the data obtained from the drone allow us to allocate the contour of the area involved in the ablation of the glacier tongue with high accuracy. • the quantity of ablation measured by the aerial photogrammetric method is greater than the quantity of ablation measured by the stake method (in our case, the difference was 17-20%). data analysis showed that we are dealing with a systematic error of the stake method. • 8% from 17% of adishi glacier tongue the surface ablation error in july calculated by stake method, and 10% from 10% of the surface ablation error calculated by month mainly falls on the area value error. • the ablation quantity calculated by the aerial photogrammetric method includes components caused by both surface ice melting and mechanical ice losses, and in the long run, by underglacial ablation. • there is a significant difference between the values obtained from modern and previous recording methods, primarily due to the shortcomings of the previous records method. we believe that the results obtained necessitate the revision of the old data of the mass balance ablation component. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript. karalashvili t. conceived the idea; wrote the paper. bolashvili n. worked out almost all of the technical details, was involved in planning the work. geladze v. supervised the findings of this work. imnadze g. performed the measurements, collected the data. acknowledgements the authors thank the young scientists of the institute of geography: a. nadaraya, r. kumladze g. chartolani, and n. suknidze for their support in field expeditions. references [1] lednik tbilisa [glacier tbilisa], ed. g.gigineishvili, tbilisi, metsniereba, 1986 (in russian) [2] kotliakov v., gobejishvili r., glatsiologia [glaciology], tbilisi, 2000, (in georgian) [3] inashvili sh., kotliakov v., ledniki iuzhnogo kavkaza [glaciers of south caucasus], materials of glaciological studies. chronicle, discussion, vol. 25, moscow, 1975, (in russian) [4] kurdghelaidze g., glatsiologiuri dakvirvebebi mdinare rionis auzis mkinvarebze 1965-1967 tslebshi [glacial observations on the glaciers of riv. rioni basin in 1965-1967], in book: physical geography of caucasus, tbilisi, metsniereba, 1975, (in georgian) [5] gibson, m. j., glasser, n. f., quincey, d. j., mayer, c., rowan, a. v., & irvine-fynn, t. d. (2017). temporal variations in supraglacial debris distribution on baltoro glacier, karakoram between 2001 and 2012. geomorphology, volume 295, 572-585. doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.08.012. [6] groos, a. r., bertschinger, t. j., kummer, c. m., erlwein, s., munz, l., & philipp, a. (2019). the potential of low-cost uavs and open-source photogrammetry software for high-resolution monitoring of alpine glaciers: a case study from the kanderfirn (swiss alps). geosciences, 9(8), 356. mdpi ag. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/geosciences9080356 [7] evatt, g., abrahams, i., heil, m., mayer, c., kingslake, j., mitchell, s., . . . clark, c. (2015). glacial melt under a porous debris layer. journal of glaciology, 61(229), 825-836. doi:10.3189/2015jog14j235 [8] bash, e., moorman, b., & gunther, a. (2018). detecting short-term surface melt on an arctic glacier karalashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) using uav surveys. remote sensing, 10(10), 1547. mdpi ag. retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs10101547 [9] immerzeel, w. w., kraaijenbrink, p. d. a., shea, j. m., shrestha, a. b., pellicciotti, f., bierkens, m. f. p., & de jong, s. m. (2014). high-resolution monitoring of himalayan glacier dynamics using unmanned aerial vehicles. remote sensing of environment, 150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2014.04.025 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) rural depopulation in georgia: regional and municipal levels of analysis aleksandre shakhnazarovi1 abstract the statistical data analysis for 2014 and 2021 indicates that the population in georgia has slightly increased. however, further in-depth regional analysis of population dynamics based on the type of settlement differentiation (urban/rural) reveals significant regional differences. the study of population change demonstrates a clear depopulation trend in rural settlements in light of general population growth on a national level. moreover, this phenomenon is particularly critical in rural areas of specific regions and therefore has a regional dimension. the study will determine whether the rural depopulation tendency is due to the same regional factors. intraregional population data for the research's target areas will also be analysed. as a result of the two-level analysis (using regional and municipal units/levels of analysis), the research will reveal the most suitable/appropriate level to study rural depopulation and plan relevant policy/policy interventions. keywords: rural population dynamics, depopulation, regional and municipal levels of analysis introduction according to the national statistics office (geostat) data, in 2021, the population in georgia was estimated at 3,728.6 thousand people, which is 0.4% more than the population number recorded in the 2014 population census. therefore, the population of georgia has slightly increased over the past six years. however, the detailed analysis of population changes on settlement type (rural/urban) and territorial-spatial (administrative and territorial units of georgia—regions and municipalities) levels reveals that the population change is not homogeneous. between 2014 and 2021, the population in urban settlements of georgia increased by 4.4%, while the population in rural areas decreased by 4.9%. besides, the regional analysis shows significant regional differences in population change. in the case of the urban settlements, the population change is reflected by 10.1% growth (adjara) and 7.7% decline (imereti), while for the rural settlements, the population change is reflected by 1.5% growth (adjara) and 13.1% population decline in rachalechkhumi and kvemo svaneti (table 1). table 1. the population change of georgia in the period of 2014-2021(according to regions and settlement type) 2014 (in thousands) 2021 (in thousands) change georgia 3,713.8 3,728.6 0.4% urban settlements 2,122.6 2,215.6 4.4% rural settlements 1,591.2 1,512.9 -4.9% tbilisi 1,108.7 1,202.7 8.5% autonomous republic of adjara 334.0 354.9 6.3% urban settlements 184.8 203.5 10.1% rural settlements 149.2 151.4 1.5% guria 113.4 107.1 -5.6% urban settlements 31.9 31.2 -2.2% rural settlements 81.4 76.0 -6.6% imereti 533.9 481.5 -9.8% urban settlements 258.5 238.7 -7.7% rural settlements 275.4 242.8 -11.8% kakheti 318.6 309.6 -2.8% urban settlements 71.5 70.9 -0.8% rural settlements 247.1 238.6 -3.4% 1 department of human geography, tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia, * corresponding author: aleksandre.shakhnazarovi@tsu.ge mailto:aleksandre.shakhnazarovi@tsu.ge shakhnazarovi a. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) mtskheta-mtianeti 94.6 93.4 -1.3% urban settlements 21.3 22.6 6.1% rural settlements 73.3 70.8 -3.4% racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti 32.1 28.5 -11.2% urban settlements 7.0 6.7 -4.3% rural settlements 25.1 21.8 -13.1% samegrelo and zemo svaneti 330.8 308.4 -6.8% urban settlements 129.4 122.8 -5.1% rural settlements 201.4 185.6 -7.8% samtskhe-javakheti 160.5 151.1 -5.9% urban settlements 54.7 54.2 -0.9% rural settlements 105.8 96.9 -8.4% kvemo kartli 424.0 437.3 3.1% urban settlements 180.1 192.3 6.8% rural settlements 243.9 245.0 0.5% shida kartli 263.4 254.1 -3.5% urban settlements 105.2 100.6 -4.4% rural settlements 158.2 153.4 -3% therefore, population dynamics are characterised by remarkable regional differences, equally applicable to urban and rural settlements. at the same time, it is essential to note that, based on the relevant population change data (table 1), the rural settlements of georgia are more subject to population decline. the rural population decline rate is exceptionally high in three regions (administrative regions of the country) of georgia: racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti (-13.1%), imereti (-11.8%), and samtskhe-javakheti (-8.4%). the population decline rate in the three regions mentioned exceeds by approximately two times the national rural depopulation rate (-4.9%). the research analyses the three abovementioned regions of georgia that are subject to depopulation to the greatest extent. the study aims to determine whether the population decline in the named regions results from the same socio-economic and geographic factors. based on the geostat data, the research will identify how effective and appropriate it is to conduct population decline analysis on the regional level or whether it is more convenient to study depopulation in georgia on other territorial-spatial levels of analysis. in light of this study's aim, the population dynamics of three target regions (racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti, imereti, and samtskhe-javakheti) in 2014 and 2021 will be studied on the municipal level as well. methods and materials the research is based on space-time analysis, which entails answering two fundamental questions: where and when? however, as the terms "space" and "time" have different definitions/ meanings, and connotations, it is hard to conceptualise them appropriately [1]. in the scope of the given research, the regions and municipalities of georgia are considered the critical dimensions of "space", and "time" is defined as the period between 2014 and 2021. based on the data analysis, the research will identify to what extent the common depopulation factors contribute to georgia's regional and municipal patterns. in addition, as already mentioned, the study will determine the most appropriate levels and units of analysis for the rural depopulation phenomenon. the most significant limitation of the research is the need for more relevant (or incomplete, episodic) data for the regions and municipalities of georgia. the limitation mentioned is particularly significant in terms of municipal data. this constrains the conduct of practical space-time analysis, as it is essential to conceptualise (for example, on regional and municipal levels) two characteristics (space and time) and study trends (such as depopulation) based on the same parameters. shakhnazarovi a. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) results according to the geostat data, between 2014 and 2021, the negative natural change was one of the drivers of rural depopulation in two out of three research target areas, particularly in imereti, rachalechkhumi, and kvemo svaneti, while a natural population increase was recorded in the samtskhejavakheti region (table 2). therefore, the rural population decrease in the named region was due to migration. it is also worth noting that migration had a significant effect on rural depopulation in all three regions, especially in the samtskhe-javakheti and imereti regions, where rural negative net migration (the number of populations leaving rural areas exceeded the population moving into the same area) was the dominant factor contributing to population decrease in rural settlements. table 2. the indicators of natural movement of target rural settlements according to administrative-territorial units 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 imereti number of live births 4,179 3,773 3,652 3,179 2,777 2,773 crude birth rate (‰) 15.4 14.2 14 12.4 11.1 11.3 number of deaths 4,789 5,066 4,916 4,491 4,540 4,626 crude death rate (‰) 17.7 19 18.8 17.6 18.2 18.9 natural increase -610 -1,293 -1,264 -1,312 -1,763 -1,853 rate of natural increase (‰) -2.3 -4.9 -4.8 -5.1 -7.1 -7.6 samtskhe-javakheti number of live births 1,508 1,544 1,432 1,467 1,281 1,294 crude birth rate (‰) 14.4 15 14.1 14.6 13 13.3 number of deaths 1,329 1,373 1,280 1,290 1,305 1,342 crude death rate (‰) 12.7 13.3 12.6 12.9 13.2 13.8 natural increase 179 171 152 177 -24 -48 rate of natural increase (‰) 1.7 1.7 1.5 1.8 -0.2 -0.5 racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti number of live births 270 254 256 255 208 185 crude birth rate (‰) 10.9 10.5 10.9 11 9.2 8.4 number of deaths 695 706 597 518 571 653 crude death rate (‰) 28 29.2 25.4 22.4 25.3 29.6 natural increase -425 -452 -341 -263 -363 -468 rate of natural increase (‰) -17.1 -18.7 -14.5 -11.4 -16.1 -21.2 in 2014–2021, the rural population of the imereti region decreased by approximately 30 thousand people, compared to the natural population decrease of 8100 people. the rural population decrease in the samtskhe-javakheti region was 9 thousand in light of the natural population increase. while in the case of racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti, a negative balance of natural migration caused 2/3 of the total population decline. accordingly, migration from rural settlements was the main driver of rural population shrinkage in samtskhe-javakheti and imereti. in contrast, migration is a less significant factor in the overall picture of population decline in the racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti regions. the regional statistical analysis of the population dynamics of georgia shows that between 1989 and 2014, the population decreased most significantly in racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti regions (46.3%), while in the case of imereti and samtskhe-javakheti, the population decline was approximately 30% [2]. the mentioned factor should be considered as the explanation for the depopulation of rachalechkhumi and kvemo svaneti, primarily through natural population decreases in 2014–2021. because population decline has been actively taking place in the region for several decades, the relevant process of depopulation is reflected in the demographic picture of the current stage. based on the natural movement indicators (table 2), a decrease in the birth rate can be observed in all three regions, while the number of deaths is mostly stable. the mentioned observation indicates that shakhnazarovi a. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) the rural population of the target regions is in continuous decline, which will be reflected in the following population censuses. the 2014–2021 regional statistical analysis demonstrates that migration from rural areas is the critical factor behind the population decline in samtskhe–javakheti and imereti. at the same time, it is essential to mention that economic factors are considered the main determinants of migration. migration is quite often linked to inequalities in income levels between the origin and destination areas of the migrants. according to the global migrant flows analysis in 1995 and 2015, an increase of 10% in the income difference between origin and destination places increases the number of migrants by approximately 3% [3]. therefore, it is vital to analyse the economic factors that determine the migration, as these economic aspects could be the determinants of regional rural depopulation trends. the analysis at the regional level shows that the population decline rate in the study's three target regions is not directly correlated with various economic indicators (table 3). in the case of samtskhejavakheti, the region is advanced (compared to other regions of georgia) in terms of gdp (gross domestic product) per capita and fdi (foreign direct investment) per capita. at the same time, the unemployment rate in the region is one of the lowest 14.9% (2021), while the national unemployment rate was 20.6%, about six percentage points higher. imereti, racha-lechkhumi, and kvemo svaneti's gdp and fdi per capita are significantly lower than the national rate. despite this difference, these two indicators are still higher in the two named regions than in kakheti and guria, where depopulation is twoto three-times slower. as the unemployment rate is high in imereti, racha-lechkhumi, and kvemo svaneti regions, this is a determinant of population decline, particularly in terms of migration from the mentioned regions. this factor could be further supported by the highlighted mean rates of gdp per capita and fdi per capita in the two named regions. however, as has already been mentioned, in the case of samtskhe-javakheti, the same indicators do not correspond to this identified trend and, to some extent, nullify this correlation. table 3.economic indicators on national and regional levels gdp per capita/2020 (usd) fdi per capita/2019 (usd) unemployment/2021 (%) georgia 4255.7 363.2 20.6 tbilisi 6702.8 809.1 23.8 adjara ar 3982.9 553.7 19.2 guria 2323.8 15.1 17.1 imereti 2757.1 91.4 23.1 kakheti 2618.2 7.2 8.7 mtskheta-mtianeti 4451.6 140.5 14.7 racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti 3197.8 79.0 30 samegrelo-zemo svaneti 3251.1 145.0 15.7 samtskhe-javakheti 3610.7 329.2 14.9 kvemo kartli 2918.9 112.4 25.2 shida kartli 2726.6 4.8 22.3 along with other factors, low population density is also considered the determining factor for intensifying depopulation processes [4]. the study of neighbouring and border regions and municipalities in portugal and spain revealed that higher rates of population decline characterised the lower population density areas. furthermore, this rapid decline was the reason for substantial economic and structural changes (in terms of population structure and the societal structure as a whole). these areas and territories needed more business and human resources, creating additional challenges and pressure in terms of establishing/sustaining economic and other links with other regions [4]. the analysis of population density in georgia (table 4) demonstrates that low population density should be considered one of the determinants of the depopulation tendency that is particularly exigent in rural areas and settlements. racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti regions have the lowest population density, which is reflected in the fastest pace of population decline. population density is also low in samtskhe-javakheti, which is more subject to depopulation than other regions of georgia. shakhnazarovi a. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) however, the same pace of population shrinkage is not the case for two regions of the country: mtskheta-mtianeti and kakheti, where the population density rate is mostly the same as in samtskhejavakheti. moreover, despite the high population density in the imereti region, population decline is one of the highest in georgia. in the case of mtskheta-mtianeti and kakheti, one of the key factors contributing to the relatively low pace of population decline could be proximity to the capital city tbilisi, which leads to temporary, seasonal, or pendulum migration rather than permanent migration. the additional local factor affecting population dynamics in eastern georgia was identified by the study of borderline regions of the east caucasus mountains [5] and is related to the so-called "military road" that connects georgia to russia. despite the patterns of correlation that have been identified on a regional level and that reveal the extent of dependence between two variables—population density and depopulation—particular attention should be paid to intra-regional peculiarities. therefore, the phenomenon of the dependence of depopulation on population density could be more effectively examined on the municipal level and in relation to other variables. the study of depopulation in the mountainous region of china showcased that it is crucial to focus not only on macro factors but also on the local and spatial characteristics of target regions [6]. table 4.population density as of 2014 person per sq.km georgia 65.0 tbilisi 2,183.9 adjara ar 114.9 guria 56.1 imereti 83.9 kakheti 28.3 mtskheta-mtianeti 16.8 racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti 7.1 samegrelo-zemo svaneti 45.0 samtskhe-javakheti 25.2 kvemo kartli 65.6 shida kartli 77.0 as highlighted in the article's introduction, the three target regions of the research are particularly subject to population decline. the population in these three administrative-territorial units decreased at the fastest pace in 2014–2021. based on the focus of the article, which implies the identification of common regional determining factors of rural depopulation, it is relevant to analyse the rate of depopulation of the population of rural settlements in the mentioned regions from a municipal point of view. the analysis of the rural population changes in the study's three target regions in 2014–2021 shows that the pace of depopulation differs significantly at the municipal level (table 5). during the mentioned period, the population decline in rural settlements of the imereti region was 11.8%. however, the depopulation pace was two-timing slower in rural settlements of two municipalities of imereti, namely, kharagauli and chiatura municipalities (where the municipal population shrinkage was about 4-5%), while the depopulation tendency had a 6-7 percentage point higher pace (compared to the mean/regional level) in two other municipalities, tskaltubo and tkibuli (where population decline is estimated at 1718%). the same tendency is revealed in other target regions. in racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti, the rural population decline was two times slower in ambrolauri municipality (-7.7%) compared to tsageri municipality (-18.9%). in the case of samtskhe-javakheti, the rural depopulation was the fastest paced in ninotsminda municipality and accounted for approximately a quarter of the rural population (24.9%), in light of the rural population growth recorded in aspindza municipality (+3.9%). shakhnazarovi a. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) as a result, significant intraregional differences must be addressed despite the similar regional depopulation picture that positions these three target regions as the most depopulated ones in georgia. in specific cases, particularly in aspindza municipality, the opposite trend of depopulation (population growth) was observed. therefore, the municipal differences and peculiarities should also be studied as appropriate. therefore, the municipal differences and peculiarities should also be studied as appropriate. at the same time, it is essential to highlight that, according to geostat data, between 2015 and 2020, natural growth of the rural population was not observed in any municipality in imereti, rachalechkhumi, and kvemo svaneti. respectively, rural depopulation was driven by migration (from rural areas) and natural population change (decrease). in the case of samtskhe-javakheti, based on cumulative data for 2015–2020, natural rural population growth was recorded in four municipalities: adigeni, aspindza, akhalkalki, and ninotsminda. in other words, the rural depopulation was solely caused by negative net migration, which could be rural population movement towards either other regions of georgia (internal migration) or to other countries (external/international migration). therefore, the mentioned region could be considered particularly vulnerable to migration processes. for further research, the drivers of this phenomenon should be analysed more thoroughly and separately to understand the local context and factors. table 5.the population dynamics and the population change in rural settlements of the target regions on municipal level in 2014-2021 2014 (in thousands) 2021 (in thousands) change imereti 275.4 242.8 -11.8% baghdati municipality 17.9 15.3 -14.5% vani municipality 20.8 17.8 -14.4% zestaponi municipality 36.8 32.9 -10.6% terjola municipality 30.9 26.6 -13.9% samtredia municipality 21.5 19.1 -11.2% sachkhere municipality 31.6 29.1 -7.9% tkibuli municipality 11.0 9.0 -18.2% tskaltubo municipality 45.6 37.7 -17.3% chiatura municipality 27.1 25.7 -5.2% kharagauli municipality 17.5 16.7 -4.6% khoni municipality 14.6 12.8 -12.3% racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti 25.1 21.8 -13.1% ambrolauri municipality 9.1 8.4 -7.7% lentekhi municipality 3.4 3.0 -11.8% oni municipality 3.5 3.0 -14.3% tsageri municipality 9.0 7.3 -18.9% samtskhe-javakheti 105.8 96.9 -8.4% adigeni municipality 14.7 14.4 -2% aspindza municipality 7.6 7.9 3.9% akhalkalaki municipality 36.8 33.2 -9.8% akhaltsikhe municipality 17.3 17.2 -0.6% borjomi municipality 10.1 9.7 -4% ninotsminda municipality 19.3 14.5 -24.9% the unit/level of analysis of rural population decline could be the rural settlements (a settlement or a group of settlements as a unit of analysis) in conjunction with the altitude distribution of the population. the space-time analysis of the population of georgia [7] showcased those significant spatial differences that characterised the 1989 and 2014 population declines in georgia. from 1989–2014, the population change in georgia was -31.8%. in mountainous settlements (801 metres above sea level and higher), the population decline was 37.2%, while at lower altitudes (0-800 masl), the depopulation shakhnazarovi a. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) was estimated at 31.1%. this negative population growth tendency was particularly observed in the socalled medium mountain zone (1201–1800 masl), where the population almost halved (population decline estimated at more than 45%) in the same period [7]. the high depopulation rate observed in tsageri and tkibuli municipalities in 2014–2021 could be part of the mentioned trend. figure 1. the population change in rural settlements of the target regions on municipal level in 2014-2021 the analysis on the municipal level and the observed differences in intraregional depopulation pace indicate that further and in-depth analysis of the rural depopulation phenomenon will be more effective and appropriate on the sub-regional level. although the lack of various socio-economic indicator data at the named level of analysis, primarily through time (in different periods), hinders and poses a significant challenge for conducting a relevant study that would aim to identify regional and subregional factors causing depopulation in rural areas. the study of the depopulation of rural settlements is a complex one that is well reflected in the research results as it highlights the territorial differences and peculiarities. as a result, this topic in turn requires a complex approach to identify the determinants. for this reason, it would be adequate to compare neighbouring (maybe relatively close areas as well) municipalities that share the same demographic and other characteristics. for instance, this could be the case for samtskhe-javakheti, where, in 2014–2021, the highest rate of population decline was recorded in the akhalkalaki and ninotsminda municipalities. considering another aspect of this research area, namely ethnic composition, as in these two municipalities the ethnic minority of georgia composes the majority of the local population, it would be essential to integrate this aspect in the research as well (fig. 1). however, as it was mentioned in the research limitation section, the constructive regional and intraregional study of population decline could be conducted only based on complete data on the named levels of analysis, which were different during the conduct of the present research. however, relevant data still needs to exist or be available for regions and municipalities in georgia. that is an apparent constraint. conclusion the regional analysis of population dynamics in georgia in 2014–2021 identified that population change is not homogenous in urban and rural settlements. at the same time, the population decline is a more significant and pressing challenge in rural areas, particularly in racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti, imereti, and samtskhe-javakheti regions, where the depopulation rate is approximately two shakhnazarovi a. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) times higher compared to the mean/national pace of rural population decline. therefore, there was an urgent need to identify the process's root causes and highlight relevant regional factors. the statistical analysis showed that the rural population decline in these three regions is not homogenous either. in the case of samtskhe-javakheti and imereti, the key driver of rural depopulation was migration. in contrast, in the cases of racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti, negative net natural population change was the leading cause of population decrease. based on the available regional data, several socio-economic aspects were analysed that could be determinants of the rural population shrinkage on a regional level. the relation between several economic indicators/population density, and depopulation rate was examined. this was followed by the analysis on the intraregional/municipal levels. the differences identified in the rate of population decline in rural settlements at the municipal level of the target regions indicate that it would be more effective and constructive to examine the determinants of the named challenge at the municipal level rather than the regional level. the given research identified several trends and factors contributing to depopulation. however, a further need for municipal study is observed. in these terms, the non-existence/availability of relevant data is determined as a research constraint that poses a significant challenge and limits the capacities of practical multivariable and multilevel analysis. in this context, it is worth highlighting the importance of on-site research. the reasons for population decline are only sometimes reflected in statistics, and the field research data would be complementary. this gap and challenges are critical regarding economic indicators, and this aspect was addressed in the given study. conducting cluster studies of neighbouring municipalities to reveal regional peculiarities would be highly relevant for further research on population decline in rural areas and the development of relevant policy/policy interventions. this requires detailed and highly sophisticated regional and sub-regional data, enabling depopulation analysis from a time perspective. another relevant data source to study the issue is regional/municipal on-site/field research to fill in the existing gaps in the datasets. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. references 1. li an, ming-tsiang tsou, stephen e. s. crook, yongwan chun, brian spitzberg, j. marc gawron & dipak k. gupta. (2015). space–time analysis: concepts, quantitative methods, and future directions. 2. asanidze, t. (2017). review of migration processes in modern georgia (submitted to obtain a master's degree) [in georgian]. tbilisi: tbilisi state university 3. fao, ifad, io, wfp. (2018). the linkages between migration, agriculture, food security and rural development. rome. 80pp. (http://www.fao.org/3/ca0922en/ca0922en.pdf). licence: cc by-ncsa 3.0 igo 4. poeta fernandes, g. (2019). “rural depopulation, social resilience and context costs in the border municipalities of central portugal. dichotomies of social reorganization vs absence of public policies”. economía agraria y recursos naturales agricultural and resource economics, 19(1), 121-149. doi: https://doi.org/10.7201/earn.2019.01.07 5. tsitsagi, m. and kvirkvelia, n. (2019). some demographic trends in borderline regions of east caucasus mountains (georgia). ankara üniversitesi çevrebilimleri dergisi: volume 7(2), 125-129. retrieved december 7th 2022, from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/902429 6. yu, z.; zhang, h.; sun, p.; guo, y. (2022). the pattern and local push factors of rural depopulation in less-developed areas: a case study in the mountains of north hebei province, china. int. j. environ. res. public health 2022, 19, 5909. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19105909 7. khomeriki, g; shakhnazarovi, a. and suknidze, n. (2020). distribution of the population of georgia by altitude and demo-geographical challenges of mountainous areas. works of alexandre javakhishvili geographical society of georgia: new series: volume #ii (xx): pp.57-67. 8. annals of the association of american geographers, 105(5):1-23, doi: 10.1080/00045608.2015.1064510 9. geostat. (2022). demographic situation in georgia 2021. tbilisi: national statistics office of georgia. 10. geostat. (2014) general population census results. retrieved december 7th 2022, from http://www.fao.org/3/ca0922en/ca0922en.pdf https://doi.org/10.7201/earn.2019.01.07 https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/902429 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19105909 shakhnazarovi a. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) http://census.ge/en/results/census1 11. geostat. statistical data on population and demography / density by regions. retrieved december 7th 2022, from https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/41/population 12. geostat. statistical information by regions of georgia. retrieved december 7th 2022, from https://www.geostat.ge/regions/ http://census.ge/en/results/census1 https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/41/population https://www.geostat.ge/regions/ georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the importance of the transdisciplinary approach for sustainable tourism development mariam sharia1, tatiana sitchinava2* abstract in light of pressing global challenges such as climate change, overtourism, and cultural homogenization, sustainable tourism development has emerged as a pivotal concept, reflecting the growing need to balance economic, environmental, and sociocultural considerations within the tourism industry. this paper explores the significance of employing a transdisciplinary approach to achieve sustainable tourism development, considering its multifaceted and interconnected nature. traditional disciplinary boundaries often constrain comprehensive understanding and holistic problem solving in the realm of tourism development. the transdisciplinary approach transcends these limitations by fostering collaboration between various disciplines, stakeholders, and local communities. one of the primary benefits of the transdisciplinary approach is its capacity to uncover complex interactions and interdependencies among different facets of sustainable tourism. by integrating insights from multiple disciplines, a more nuanced understanding of the environmental impacts, sociocultural implications, and economic dimensions of tourism activities can be attained. this, in turn, empowers decision-makers and stakeholders to make informed choices that prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term gains. furthermore, the transdisciplinary approach contributes to the empowerment of local communities by involving them in the decision-making process. their indigenous knowledge, cultural insights, and historical perspectives become invaluable assets in crafting sustainable tourism strategies that respect and enhance the sociocultural fabric of the destination. the main research question of this article is “why the transdisciplinary approach is important for sustainable tourism development." a systematic review was used as a research methodology that involved several research results that were already conducted by the authors and other scientists. it aims to provide a comprehensive and unbiased synthesis of all relevant studies on a particular research question, including both quantitative and qualitative research. transdisciplinary approaches are critical to developing sustainable tourism, as demonstrated in this study. by breaking down disciplinary silos, fostering collaboration, and integrating diverse perspectives, this approach enables a comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions within the tourism ecosystem. as the tourism industry seeks to navigate the delicate balance between economic growth and environmental preservation, the transdisciplinary approach stands as an essential means to achieve a more sustainable and harmonious future. keywords sustainable tourism, transdisciplinary approach, development, systematic review introduction in recent years, sustainable tourism development has taken centre stage, becoming an essential and transformative concept that not only safeguards the long-term viability of the tourism industry but also upholds the well-being of the destinations it touches. this paradigm shift is rooted in a global recognition of the profound impact that tourism exerts on economic, social, and environmental dimensions, thus necessitating a holistic approach to its planning and execution. the united nations world tourism organization (unwto) and the united nations environment program (unep) jointly define sustainable tourism as tourism that considers immediate and long-term consequences on economic, social, and environmental aspects, addressing the requirements of visitors, the industry, the natural environment, and local communities [19]. traditional disciplinary boundaries have long served as confining barriers that hinder a comprehensive grasp and integrated resolution of the multifaceted challenges within the domain of sustainable tourism development. to surmount this limitation, the transdisciplinary approach emerges as a transformative paradigm. the transdisciplinary approach is a relatively new approach, but it has been gaining popularity in recent years as researchers have recognized the need to address complex problems that cannot be solved by any single discipline. it breaks down the walls separating distinct fields of study, promoting a dynamic synergy that encourages collaboration among diverse disciplines, 1 tourism and hospitality management/faculty of economics and business, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, mariamshariag@gmail.com 2 human geography/social and political science, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, * corresponding author: tatkasichinava21@gmail.com sharia and sitchinava. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) stakeholders, and local communities. this approach not only transcends the limitations imposed by disciplinary boundaries but also offers a promising avenue for harnessing the collective wisdom and expertise of a wide spectrum of voices, thereby enriching the sustainable tourism development discourse. the challenges associated with sustainable development often exhibit complexity and a multifaceted nature. consequently, comprehending these challenges necessitates the integration of diverse forms of knowledge and academic disciplines. transdisciplinary research empowers us to recognize and tackle pertinent issues with active involvement from experts across various fields, thereby generating recommendations for sustainable development. within the academic sphere, scholars are actively working on pioneering approaches to address this concern. as a result, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods have gained prominence, allowing us to delve into a broad spectrum of sustainability-related issues [7]. the transdisciplinary approach is not just a theoretical concept but a practical avenue for enhancing the resilience of tourism destinations, mitigating the environmental impact, and promoting the wellbeing of local communities. as researchers and practitioners increasingly adopt this approach, it opens up new vistas for innovative strategies and approaches that transcend traditional boundaries. by fostering a sense of shared responsibility and collaboration, the transdisciplinary approach paves the way for more effective, sustainable, and inclusive tourism development, aligning the industry with the principles of responsible tourism for the betterment of present and future generations. the transdisciplinary approach is a versatile approach that can be applied to any field of study. in the context of sustainable tourism development, it offers several key benefits: • it enables a more comprehensive understanding of the complex interactions and interdependencies among different facets of sustainable tourism. • by integrating insights from multiple disciplines, a more nuanced understanding of the environmental impacts, sociocultural implications, and economic dimensions of tourism activities can be attained. • this, in turn, empowers decision makers and stakeholders to make informed choices that prioritize long-term sustainability over short-term gains. • furthermore, the transdisciplinary approach contributes to the empowerment of local communities by involving them in the decision-making process. their indigenous knowledge, cultural insights, and historical perspectives become invaluable assets in crafting sustainable tourism strategies that respect and enhance the sociocultural fabric of the destination. the purpose of this paper is to explore the perspectives of employing a transdisciplinary approach in sustainable tourism development, considering its multifaceted and interconnected nature, based on a systematic review and transdisciplinary field case studies conducted in georgia in 2018, 2019 and 2020. the introduction provides a concise overview of the topic and highlights the benefits of the transdisciplinary approach to sustainable tourism development. it also outlines the key points that will be discussed in the main body of the paper. "why is the transdisciplinary approach important for sustainable tourism development?" this question will be addressed through a systematic review of relevant research studies. methods and materials the scientific research methodology that involves several research results that are already conducted is commonly referred to as "systematic review." this methodology synthesizes and analyses existing research findings to draw more robust conclusions, identify trends, clarify inconsistencies, and provide a comprehensive overview of a particular research topic. this approach, known as a "systematic review," seeks to offer a comprehensive, impartial synthesis of numerous pertinent studies within a single document. although it shares similarities with a conventional literature review in terms of summarizing insights from a body of literature, a systematic review diverges by aiming to encompass the entirety of evidence related to a specific question and concentrating on research that presents empirical data. to illustrate, the systematic review process comprises multiple stages, such as study selection, critical assessment, and data extraction, all performed in duplicate by independent reviewers. this approach diminishes the likelihood of subjective interpretations and minimizes the impact of random sharia and sitchinava. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) errors on the review's findings. these stringent methodologies set systematic reviews apart from conventional literature reviews [3]. an effective systematic review should have the following steps: 1. formulate research question: clearly, define the research question or objective of the review. 2. search strategy: develop a systematic and comprehensive search strategy to identify all relevant studies. 3. study selection: apply predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria to select studies for inclusion in the review. 4. data extraction: collect and summarize relevant information from each included study. 5. quality assessment: assess the quality and risk of bias in each study. 6. data synthesis: summarize the findings of the included studies, which may involve narrative synthesis, meta-analysis, or both depending on the nature of the studies. 7. interpretation: provide an overall interpretation of the evidence, discuss the implications for practice or policy, and highlight research gaps. 8. advantages: provides a comprehensive overview of existing research, includes both quantitative and qualitative data, and can inform decision-making in various fields. the research questions for systematic review were as follows: what is and how to conduct transdisciplinary research? is the transdisciplinary approach helpful for sustainable tourism development? for the research strategy, the following keywords were selected: “transdisciplinary”, “transdisciplinary research”, “transdisciplinary approach”, “transdisciplinary paradigm”, “transdisciplinary approach for sustainable development”, and “transdisciplinary approach in tourism studies”. articles, guidelines and books were collected from the google scholar database. there were some limitations for the searching phase – we were looking for results written in english with free access. after reading all the selected papers, relevant information was extracted for each of them and classified into subtopics. together with the literature obtained online, transdisciplinary field case studies conducted in georgia in 2018, 2019 and 2020 were also analysed. results as a result of the systematic review, the following major issues were identified: the essence and importance of the transdisciplinary approach; some innovative methods close to and related to the transdisciplinary approach; the transdisciplinary approach in sustainability studies; steps and challenges for tdr; tdr in tourism and tdr in sustainable tourism development. first, let us consider what tdr is and how important it is. the transdisciplinary approach is a dynamic and innovative paradigm within academic research and problem solving that has gained increasing recognition in different academic fields. unlike traditional disciplinary boundaries that often confine knowledge within specific fields, transdisciplinarity encourages the integration of diverse perspectives, methodologies, and expertise from multiple disciplines to address complex, real-world challenges. there are several research papers and books on the transdisciplinary approach explaining its advantages and step-by-step guidelines. according to them, the emergence of a transdisciplinary paradigm holds promise in boosting innovation and advancing transformative knowledge, particularly amid the diminishing disruptive nature of academic research. it stands as a potential catalyst for rejuvenating academia and tackling intricate, real-world issues that demand a multifaceted approach, transcending the constraints of conventional disciplines and incorporating a diverse array of viewpoints. through experimentation and transformative research designs, the transdisciplinary approach promotes a "new production of knowledge". a vast array of knowledge resources, including professional, every day, and implicit knowledge from various sectors, including politics, civil society, business, and culture, are actively integrated. they emphasize the innovation characteristics of this paradigm; in a free setting, researchers are encouraged to explore solutions unrestricted by conventional wisdom [2, 16]. transdisciplinary approaches are recognized as effective methods of studying complex issues in modern scientific and educational fields. a specific research design can be selected based on the specifics of a particular research issue in different disciplines. this approach is close to the following sharia and sitchinava. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) concepts: case study, citizen science, cooperative education, critical thinking, design thinking, sustainable development, indigenous knowledge, knowledge transfer, learning in transformation, participatory action research, performative knowledge, real-world lab, research integrity, researchbased education, science communication and so on. a case study involves the examination of a particular occurrence, whether it pertains to a product, individuals, an organization, or processes such as policymaking, decision-making, and transformation. it serves as a means to paint a detailed and intricate portrayal of the chosen phenomenon and its surrounding environment, which is frequently marked by intricate conditions. the primary objective of a case study is twofold: initially, to attain a better understanding of the phenomenon by exploring and uncovering its inner workings and origins within its unique context, and subsequently, to distil valuable insights that can be applied to other instances, both present and future. transdisciplinary case study research delves into pertinent societal issues through cooperation between scholars hailing from diverse disciplines and practitioners representing various sectors. to facilitate this collaborative research approach, a transdisciplinary case study typically encompasses three core stages: 1. collaborative problem definition, 2. collective knowledge generation, and 3. the amalgamation and practical application of insights. within the realm of sustainability studies, transdisciplinary case studies have transitioned from merely examining sustainability challenges, which entailed in-depth problem analysis and description, to encompassing research endeavours that also explore viable solutions to these sustainability issues. this shift towards solution-oriented research may encompass activities such as solution development, the study of their real-world implementation, or the assessment of the impacts resulting from these implemented solutions [14]. another innovative concept and approach that should be incorporated into tdr is “citizen science”. the term "citizen science" has its roots in anglo-american contexts and typically characterizes the practice of engaging individuals who lack institutional ties to academia as active contributors to the scientific research process. comparable methodologies are prevalent in various regions globally but under distinct designations such as community science and community-based research. citizen science encompasses a spectrum of practices, spanning from large-scale data collection initiatives for the general public to instances of autonomous or self-guided research conducted by nonacademic collectives or communities, thereby prompting a reevaluation of the term "citizen science" itself. for instance, haklay (2013) distinguishes between several categories, including crowdsourcing (primarily involving virtual participation and data collection), distributed intelligence (involving collaboration at various stages of the research process), participatory science (collaboration across all phases of research), and extreme citizen science (research primarily spearheaded by nonacademic individuals or citizens) [10]. another interesting approach is “design thinking”. although the design thinking method is actively used in business, in the process of product creation and development, scientists believe that design thinking effectively fosters transdisciplinarity by immersing students or researchers in real-world experiences and connecting them to practical applications. transdisciplinarity, defined as the extensive knowledge generation process involving diverse stakeholders and a receptivity to various forms of knowledge from both scientific and nonacademic communities, finds support in design thinking. this methodology adopts an interdisciplinary perspective, assembling researchers into diverse teams, thus exposing them to a multitude of knowledge sources and viewpoints. this setting promotes a transdisciplinary approach by facilitating the development of a shared understanding of the subject matter while considering multiple perspectives. as a problem-solving approach, design thinking is geared toward addressing complex, multifaceted challenges, making it a valuable didactic tool for realworld, practice-oriented learning experiences in education. consequently, it can be regarded as a transdisciplinary pedagogical instrument for equipping learners to confront intricate problems effectively [18]. participatory action research, as a research approach, places a central emphasis on the collaborative creation of knowledge and the implementation of action by integrating multiple perspectives to drive social change and rectify unjust systems. this method can be delineated by three core principles: 1. its primary goal is the amelioration of injustices, 2. researchers, directly engaged in sociopolitical processes, take on activist roles, engendering a perpetual interplay of reflection and action, and 3. sharia and sitchinava. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) individuals within the social sphere become coresearchers, participating in the identification of study requirements and potential issues, information gathering, analysis, and decision-making. the participatory action research methodology is characterized by its cyclical, iterative, transdisciplinary, and transformative nature. it is grounded in the idea that critical reflection and dialogue in practice form the foundation for both research and action. this approach acknowledges people as subjects, coparticipants, and coauthors of knowledge and action, stemming from their diverse viewpoints. this includes the collaborative construction of various elements of the process (problem analysis, objective setting, agenda, planning, organization, etc.).), creating opportunities for collective analysis and interpretation as research unfolds. participatory action research offers potent techniques for collaborative research that place a focal point on power dynamics and the rectification of unjust and unsustainable circumstances [8]. transdisciplinary research (tdr) manifests in various guises, encompassing approaches such as participatory action research, methodologies that facilitate the amalgamation of indigenous/local wisdom with western scientific methods, collaborative adaptive management, and contemporary variants of citizen science. distinctions emerge between the traditions of tdr in europe and the united states: european practices involve both cross-disciplinary collaboration and the active engagement of stakeholders, whereas their american counterparts primarily concentrate on interdisciplinary research predominantly involving academic experts. tdr projects commonly share three key characteristics: 1. addressing the research question necessitates the integration of knowledge from various disciplines. 2. the methodology fosters the collaborative generation of knowledge. 3. the resultant solution is geared towards addressing practical, real-world issues. in a similar vein, lang et al. (2012) outlined a set of principles to steer an "ideal-typical" tdr process, which is structured into three phases: 1. collaborative problem definition and the formation of a research team. 2. the cooperative generation of solution-focused and transferable knowledge through participatory research. 3. the reintegration and practical application of the jointly created knowledge [4]. along with everything, we must mention the challenges of transdisciplinary research. effective communication management among participants is deemed essential to establish mutual trust, especially in scenarios where scientists from diverse fields or nonacademic stakeholders are engaged. effective conflict resolution, facilitated through proper means, is identified as a critical element in bolstering the transformative potential of transdisciplinary projects. the careful selection of representatives for stakeholders and the implementation of strategies to ensure their active engagement are also recognized as pivotal. equally significant is the formulation of research questions that held value across all disciplines engaged in a project, alongside the collaborative delineation of problems with nonacademic stakeholders. a significant hurdle encountered at various levels arises from the amalgamation of diverse scientific traditions. in the researcher’s assessment of a research initiative within the australian alps, mitchell et al. (2017) noted the absence of a common conceptual framework and identified epistemological misunderstandings between disciplines, even though a facilitation team had been employed [15]. despite the abovementioned challenges, it is interesting that the transdisciplinary approach is used not only to effectively solve problems in real life but also to create an appropriate theoreticalmethodological basis in the academic field. in the paper “emerging transdisciplinary theory on tourism research: a case from bali”, a transdisciplinary paradigm has been applied in an effort to position tourism as a science. according to the authors, tourism can be studied from the perspectives of many different disciplines, and each discipline is interested in different issues that are interconnected in real life. researchers wrote that tourism in bali intricately intertwines with numerous facets of human existence, encompassing social and cultural dimensions. the academic exploration of tourism has traditionally leaned towards economic growth paradigms, with less scrutiny devoted to the ideological dimensions of tourism development. consequently, the adoption of a transdisciplinary approach, referred to as "anthro-sociotourism," is anticipated to unveil the underlying ideology shaping tourism practices, a subject that holds significance within tourism epistemology [1]. in the context of tourism, the transdisciplinary approach involves the integration of stakeholders' empirical knowledge into the methodology of sustainable tourism development. alongside practical knowledge, the incorporation of multidisciplinary theoretical insights is highly significant within this sharia and sitchinava. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) domain. this significance arises from the inherent complexity of tourism, with its multifaceted components being individually explored across various scientific, social, and economic disciplines. both approaches play a pivotal role in discerning practical solutions to issues and promoting the sustainable advancement of the field. the significance of adopting a transdisciplinary approach within the realm of tourism becomes even more pronounced when considering the environment's influence on this sector. environmental changes can result from both the influence of tourism and external factors unrelated to it [11]. as in sustainable tourism, the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment, and local communities are taken into account on both an immediate and long-term basis, and tdr is very helpful for sustainable tourism development. this approach ensures that the perspectives of different stakeholders are represented and indigenous, practical and academic knowledge are combined, giving us the possibility of determining long-term problem-solving decisions that reflect the interests of each party. discussion the transdisciplinary approach presents numerous significant advantages, with its primary strength lying in its focus on socially relevant issues. central to this approach is the emphasis on unifying knowledge from various disciplines, all oriented towards the resolution of societal problems and the design of transformative strategies for sustainable development [5, 6, 12, 13]. transdisciplinary research (tdr), as an amalgamation of diverse knowledge forms and worldviews (lang et al., 2012), serves to enhance sustainability transformations not only within the realm of science but also in policy and practical applications [9]. while the applicability of transdisciplinary research extends across disciplines, it is crucial to recognize the intricacies and organizational challenges involved in the td research process. the main difficulties arise from the distinct research methods and approaches in various disciplines. problem framing, integration, and effective implementation become significant issues in this context. moreover, the scarcity of researchers who possess training and experience in multiple disciplines can be a limiting factor. transdisciplinary research often demands substantial time and resources, as it necessitates interdisciplinary learning and collaboration. the communication and dissemination of transdisciplinary research can be challenging, as it requires audiences to possess a foundational understanding of multiple disciplines. it is imperative to consider and harmonize different perspectives and development scenarios involving both academic and nonacademic stakeholders. despite these limitations, transdisciplinary research remains a valuable tool for tackling complex issues. it has demonstrated its utility in various fields, including medicine, climate change, education, and sustainable development, facilitating significant advancements and a holistic understanding of multifaceted challenges. an illustrative example of transdisciplinary research in practice is the project titled "transdisciplinarity for sustainable development of tourism in the caucasus region." this collaborative initiative involved the armenian state pedagogical university (aspu, yerevan, armenia), ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university (tsu, tbilisi, georgia), university of natural resources and life sciences (boku, vienna, austria), and krems university of applied sciences (krems, austria). notably, this project marked the first instance of employing a transdisciplinary approach to tourism research in the caucasus region. the participating educational institutions embarked on a journey to explore how universities could contribute to solving the challenges surrounding the sustainable development of tourism in the caucasus countries by fostering collaboration with local populations and other stakeholders. a pivotal moment in this endeavor was the first transdisciplinary field research undertaken by tbilisi state university in 2018, located in the samtskhe-javakheti region in the town of tsaghveri. this study engaged students and professors from various faculties, including the faculty of economics and business, the faculty of social and political sciences, and the faculty of exact and natural sciences, alongside local residents and stakeholders. subsequently, a second transdisciplinary study occurred in 2019 in stepantsminda, located in the mtskheta-mtianeti region. here, students and professors from the same faculties of tbilisi state university actively participated. in 2020, the third transdisciplinary field study took place in ambrolauri, a municipality in the racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti region. this time, it involved students from ilia state university in addition to those from tbilisi state university. each of these locations was strategically chosen due to their rich tourism potential and the sharia and sitchinava. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) array of challenges hindering tourism development. the transdisciplinary research process successfully integrated diverse perspectives, enabling a comprehensive understanding of the intricate interactions within the tourism ecosystem. this project serves as a tangible testament to the effectiveness and applicability of transdisciplinary research in addressing complex issues, offering a valuable blueprint for future endeavours in diverse domains. conclusion this article underscores the vital role played by transdisciplinarity in addressing the complexities of sustainable tourism. through a comprehensive exploration of the theoretical frameworks, practical applications, and case studies, we have uncovered the capacity of this approach to foster holistic solutions, bridge gaps across various domains, and facilitate the engagement of diverse stakeholders. sustainable tourism is intrinsically linked to the well-being of our planet, and as the challenges continue to evolve, transdisciplinarity has proven itself as a powerful ally in our pursuit of harmony between tourism and the environment. by transcending traditional disciplinary boundaries and fostering collaboration among experts from various fields, researchers can better comprehend the multifaceted nature of sustainable tourism development. the systematic and structured transdisciplinary approach, as showcased in the article, illuminates the need for a new way of thinking and working together. it enables the integration of indigenous knowledge, scientific expertise, and community involvement, fostering the creation of sustainable tourism models that respect the environment, empower local communities, and provide enriching experiences for tourists. as we conclude, it is evident that the transdisciplinary approach is not merely a conceptual framework but a practical and transformative methodology that holds the promise of steering the tourism industry towards a more sustainable and responsible future. by embracing this approach, we can unlock the true potential of tourism as a force for positive change, both in the destinations it touches and in the global pursuit of a sustainable future. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution the authors of the article jointly agreed on the topic and methodology of the article. as the systematic review methodology requires, both authors were actively involved in the research process. abstract, introduction and discussion are provided by tatiana sitchinava, and results and conclusion are written by mariam sharia references [1] anom, i. p., mahagangga, i. g., suryawan, i. b., kristianto, y., & nuruddin, d. 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(2005). making tourism more sustainable a guide for policy makers. unep &amp. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 62-72 tbilisi through time mariam tsitsagi1, nino kharebava2*, dali nikolaishvili2, ia kupatadze3, lela gadrani1 abstract ancient cities have witnessed many changes throughout their long history. these changes have different underlying causes in different regions of the world. this paper discusses the urban sprawl of tbilisi, the capital of georgia, mainly from the beginning of the 19th century to 2020. through analysis of historical materials, city plans, and old maps, layers of tbilisi urban sprawl were created using arcmap 10.8. images of landsat 5 tm and landsat 8 oli have been used to assess changes over the last 30 years. we compared the obtained data with the census data conducted during the study period, reconstructed the current social, political, and economic situation using historical sources, and finally determined in which period the urban expansion took place, the reasons for it, and how this expansion affected the natural and social environments of the city. keywords: urban sprawl, urban expansion, tbilisi, georgia introduction cities are an integral part of the modern environment. it is estimated that by 2050, approximately 50% of the earth's population will live in cities and surrounding areas [1]. urban areas are constantly changing in time and space, and different parts of the city are associated with different historical epochs. these changes are often included in the definition of "city" itself. for example, according to one definition, "cities are not things, cities are processes" [2]. it is therefore essential to study these processes. archaeology and historical data provide information on the spatial transformation of cities [3], particularly urban sprawl, which is one of the accompanying processes of urban development. the character of sprawl varies by region, for example, in europe and america, and there are also internal differences within europe [4]. many factors, such as population growth, land prices, transportation development, and political fragmentation [5], influence urban sprawl. as mentioned earlier, the factors and influences are different within the countries and regions. for example, the size of many european cities is growing faster than their populations, hence the growing demand for land around the cities [4]. tbilisi is the largest and one of the oldest cities in georgia. it is logical that, over 1500 years of existence, the development and configuration of the city have been linked to its land use and urban sprawl. naturally, initially, but later intentionally, the city's structure has been formed and transformed through a series of brief interventions over time. these changes took place with varying intensities at different stages, and the main drivers also varied. research on these issues has been conducted in the past, and studies on similar topics have been published [6, 7]. in the present study, we want to focus on and deepen our knowledge of the drivers and consequences of urban sprawl in tbilisi over the last two centuries. the research aims to analyse changes in the urban area of tbilisi through time to determine and identify the main directions and reasons for these changes. we will also explore how and why tbilisi developed from a compact city into the urban structure it has today and what problems it may cause us in the future. study area tbilisi, the capital city of georgia, is located in the eastern part of the country, at the intersection of eastern europe and western asia, at 41°41′ n and 44°47′ e. the capital is situated on both banks of the mtkvari river. the section of the mtkvari river valley (tbilisi depression) from zemo avchala to ponichala is characterized by complex terrain. the height of the bottom of the depression varies in the range of 350–450 m asl, and its slopes reach 1500 m. in the north, it is bordered by the saguramo range, in the east and southeast by the iori upland, and in the south and west by the subranges of the trialeti range [8]. the city stretches *33 km along the mtkvari river and occupies an area of 502 km2. 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tsu, tbilisi, georgia 2 faculty of exact and natural silences, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, georgia 3 school of technology, ilia state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: kharebava.nino@gmail.com tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 1. changes in the area and administrative-territorial division of tbilisi through time tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) tbilisi has been mentioned as a city since 458 ad. the city is an important political, economic and cultural centre. the first urban growth of tbilisi dates back to the 19th century, after georgia became subject to the russian monarch. the city became the seat of the new governor and viceroy; therefore, new european-style buildings, railways and roads were constructed inside the settlement. in the 1850s, tbilisi was reinvented as an essential political, cultural, commercial and administrative centre in the southern caucasus. the city had significant growth under soviet rule. the second wave of urbanization erupted in the mid-20th century, with an influx of labourers and the emergence of factories and other similar facilities. by the year 1990, 17.4% of the area of tbilisi was an industrial zone. methods and materials there are many sources of information about tbilisi, but most are not in digital format. this is especially true of old maps and city plans. it therefore became necessary to contrast the old cartographic sources with the modern basis. the research is based on old cartographic sources and current remotely sensed data. several sources have been used in the study (table 1). table 1. data used in research # title year scale 1 plan of tbilisi by vakhushti 1735 1:500 000 5000m 2 plan of tbilisi 1800 3 new plan of tbilisi 1828 4 plan of tbilisi 1844 1:4100 41.3m 5 plan of tbilisi city and surroundings 1867 1:8400 84.3m 6 plan of tbilisi city and surroundings 1887 1:11 300 113.7m 7 plan of tbilisi 1902 1:4100 41.3m 8 plan of tbilisi 1913 1:8400 84.3m 9 plan of tbilisi 1924 1:6000 60m 10 plan of tbilisi (scheme) 1934 1:8000 80m 11 topographic map of tbilisi 1955 1:25 000 250m 12 general plan of tbilisi 1970 1:10 000 100m 13 landsat 5 tm 1988 1:3000 30m 14 landsat 5 tm 2010 1:3000 30m 15 landsat 8 oli 2020 1:3000 30m at the initial stage, a 1: 25,000 scale map of tbilisi and its environs, consisting of 19 sheets, is used as a cartographic basis. on this basis we have connected the maps and plans of the 19th-20th centuries (vakhushti bagrationi, the so-called "verstovki", soviet topographic and modern maps, space images), which are composed of different scales and projections, and what is also very important different cartography development levels. this circumstance created some problems in terms of gis registration and object matching. on the one hand, the map overlay provided good accuracy, and on the other hand, the complete disagreement of the objects. this is especially true when there is a large time difference between maps and also differences in mapping methods, coordinate systems, distances, and/or projections. here, we have identified the objects on the old plans, identified their modern matches, and "mechanically transferred" the information from the old cartographic sources to the new base. at the next stage, city plans were georeferenced. all maps were given projection wgs-84-38n. a green area and a built-up area were drawn from each map. in the next step, we defined the built-up and green areas from the landsat 5 tm and landsat 8 oli images using the lulc classification. we used google maps and large-scale maps to evaluate the accuracy of the results. the oldest data at our disposal was the tbilisi plan drawn up by vakhushti bagrationi in 1735. according to this plan, the contours of the then settlements of tbilisi were determined, the city centre was defined and using this center we determined the direction and speed of the development for each subsequent period. all operations were performed in the program arcmap 10.8. data from various narrative sources were also used to identify and analyse land use patterns. this function was performed using both scientific sources and ancient data. the data in these sources were identified, compared and entered into the gis database. all the above made it possible to identify the space-time changes of tbilisi land use, cartography, and anthropogenic quality of the area. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) results and discussion the processing of existing materials, ancient cartographic sources has shown that we can distinguish several waves of urban sprawl in tbilisi over the past two centuries. we have selected five periods in total and the underlying main drivers of these changes (table 2). during these periods, specific districts were formed, and city structures was transformed the relief construction, changes in the hydrographical set, destruction of natural green cover, etc. it should be noted that the changes were different in different periods. table 2. stages of the urban expansion in tbilisi period districts2 main drivers 1 pre 1800 sololaki, kalaubani, abanotubani, kharpukhi, rike, avlabari, former vorontsovi environmental factors; the terrain allowed for better protection of the city, mtkveri river 2 1800-1850 chugureti, vera, mtatsminda, isani, ortachala, krtsanisi population growth; turning tbilisi into the geopolitical center of the caucasus 3 1850-1930 nadzaladevi, didube, svanetis ubani, kukia, metromsheni, 8th legion settlement, navtlughi, saburtalo, vake population growth; ongoing social reforms in the empire 4 1930-1990 lotkini, sanzona, dighomi, vashlijvari, vedzisi, delisi metro area, dampalo, military city, vazisubani, varketili. soviet period, industrialization, natural and mechanical population growth, increased demand for residential and commercial space 5 1990present day the village of gldani, zahesi, mukhatgverdi, telovani, didgori, dzveli vedzisi, the village of digomi, tkhilvani, agaraki, bagebi, okrokana, tskneti, akhaldaba, tsavkisi, shindisi, tabakhmela, kojori, kiketi, betania, kveseti, didi lilo post-soviet period, problems of idps as a result of the political crisis, increased migration from rural to urban areas, especially increased demand for residential and commercial space until the 1800s, the settlement of the tbilisi was laid exactly where the channel of mtkvari river is the narrowest, and the relief functioned as a natural barrier and allowed better protection of the city. tbilisi was originally established as a compact city on both sides of the mtkvari. however, it should be noted that the right bank of the mtkvari was more populated than the left (fig. 2). according to source analysis, economic activities, especially trade, were quite intensive during this period, which is confirmed by the caravans, hazelnuts, open and closed markets, food or household/agricultural markets reflected in the plans of tbilisi in 1735 and 1800. it is also important to note the existence of a glass factory on the 1800 plan. however, the city was not infrastructurally equipped. guldenstedt, who was in tbilisi in the 1770s, also speaks about this. tbilisi is characterized with narrow and disordered streets [9]. the essential peculiarities at this stage can be distinguished by three circumstances: 1) confinement by natural constraints; 2) the compactness of the city around the thermal waters was gradually being violated, and the river of development was already intersecting. formation along the mtkvari; 3) existence of a significant area of green cover both inside the city and in its surroundings. there were gardens and vineyards in a large area. thus, the city was characterized by a simple territorial structure. thus, this period, the relief even served its original defensive function, and natural landscapes had not changed intensively, preserving a frame structure. 2 districts are listed under their current names tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 2. urban sprawl in tbilisi through history tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1800-1850s. at the beginning of the 19th century, georgia became a part of the russian empire. the stabilization of the political situation and the increase of the local function contributed to an increase in the local population (fig. 3). as a result, economic activity began to intensify. tbilisi became the political, economic and cultural centre of the caucasus, which increased the demand for residential, commercial, and industrial space, and led to urban sprawl. from fig. 2, it can be seen that the city's expansion along the mtkvari river was happening, and this trend was maintained throughout the nineteenth century. this expansion has been especially evident since the mid-nineteenth century. carefully examining figure 4, we can clearly see that sharp urban expansion began during 1809-1828. between 1828 and 1844 the urban area doubled, as illustrated in fig. 3. based on the exact figure, it is evident that the reason for this was not a sharp increase in population. during this period, the construction of the current isani district began, the settlement of avlabari expanded, and urban expansion in the direction of modern chavchavadze avenue began. it appears adjacent to the river mtkvari, parallel and transversely designed streets form rectangular quarters. at the same time, the architectural look of tbilisi was changing: european-type buildings were emerging [10]. however, the development of new territories was slow. due to the orography, the city could not develop equally in all directions, and it clearly took the form of length along the river mtkvari, to the north-west [9]. in contrast to previous development, for the first time, the relief became the primary reason why the city could not maintain its compact shape. however, as we mentioned in the first period, the city's situation did not improve in terms of infrastructure. it continued in the first half of the 19th century, which is the time that the linguist-orientalist claprot said: "they can hardly reach each other." also, the city's cleanliness was paid no attention. in history of tbilis, we read, "the population of the city dumped all kinds of garbage wherever they could fly". over time, however, they began to care about the appearance and communications of the city. the construction of squares began, which became permanent gathering places. figure 3. changes in population and built up area of tbilisi a significant area was covered with greenery gardens, vineyards, and vegetables during this period. at the beginning of the century, a german colony appeared in the area of kuki alexanderdorf, which is now in the centre of the city. this name completely changed the existing network of winding streets in tbilisi. a rectangular quarterly planning development emerged here. 1850-1930s are characterized by an even greater scale of socio-economic development, which is due to three important circumstances: 1) tbilisi became a city of attraction for foreign merchants and artisans [10], 2) the railway was built in the 1890s, which encouraged the growth of development in the old area between the settlement and the railway line; 3) the capital became the most important educational center, where the first state university was founded (1918) and a number of educational facilities were opened; and 4) new bridges were built and for the first time mass urban transport ("konka") was put into operation. we observe from fig. 3 that in 1844, compared to 1809, the population had increased by only 8,000. the picture is completely different between the data for 1844 and 1867. data in fig. 3 suggest that in tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) this case, too, the built-up area doubled in the given period, although, unlike the previous period, the population actually doubled. as can be seen from fig. 3, between 1867 and 1887 the population doubled again, although the increase in built up area was not so large. at the same time, at the end of the nineteenth century, a wave of urban expansion shifted to the left bank of the mtkvari, which is also due to the relief factor. the political processes developed at the beginning of the twentieth century in themselves have an impact on urbanization and comparing figs. 2 and 3 indicates that from 1900 to 1934 the development grew very slowly. it should also be noted that population growth was more noticeable. as a result of all this, there were already many reasons to expand the city and become an urban object, which affected both the city and its suburbs urban lands were taking the place of agricultural lands. according to tbilisi plans, compared to 1844, in 1924, the border area increased almost three times (from 3 km2 to 8 km2) (fig. 2). european-type buildings and industrial buildings were becoming more visible (for example, blacksmiths, either, soap, wood, and other factories, weapons factories, carpentry enterprises, blacksmiths, craftsmen, etc.). although the northwest direction of the development continued to grow, the city's growth in the southeast direction toward navtlughi was also significant. despite the rapid development described above, during this period, a significant amount of the city's green cover was still preserved, even in the city's central districts. for example, in the settlement of kukia, where intensive urban development began in the 1950s, there were still orchards and vineyards. it is noteworthy that fragments of gardens are still preserved in the form of parks. another practical change would be observed in the fourth period, 1930-90s, which coincides with the rising period of soviet rule. in terms of development, systematic urbanization was underway in tbilisi at that time. an excellent example of this is the 1958-1960s construction of the vazha-pshavela quarter, with its wide streets and greenery. it should be noted that such urbanization has not taken place from the initial development of tbilisi to the modern period, although it differs radically from international best practices. the area does not stand out artistically, though there are more free spaces, green areas, and children’s play spaces [11]. figure 4. varaz gorge before transformation and after transformation as the spatial needs of the city's inhabitants increased, so did the development of new areas for housing, trade, enterprise, and communication. accompanying this was the transformation of the natural environment impacting the relief, hydrography, and the landscape in general. an excellent example of this is the infrastructure work since the 1950s: the construction of riverbeds with large retaining walls and coastal roads, turning into collectors of rivers and dry ravines, etc., for example, varazi valley, where at present the river does not flow to the surface. (fig.4.) [11]. this period can be conditionally divided into two parts. during the first half of the period, the builtup area increased six times, and the population grewrapidly. this has its explanation. after the end of world war ii, a strong wave of industrialization began in the country, followed by the cultivation of tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) industrial areas. the city's population grew rapidly, which increased the demand for housing and even promted the construction of new housing estates. during this period, the foundation was laid for the development of new neighbourhoods, particularly the existing agrarian areas in the current metromsheni and didi dighomi settlements were transformed into a built-up area. the foundation is laid for the development of the territory of didi dighomi. during these twenty years, urban expansion shifted from the right bank of the mtkvari to the left bank. in this case, the built-up area was expanded mainly at the expense of agricultural areas [12]. in 1934 soviet authorities initiated the first master plan of tbilisi, where the main priority was developing housing areas, regulating density, and improving the living conditions of city inhabitants. they proposed to develop the left and right banks of the river, but mostly the left bank. industrialization and new factory development brought more people into the city, which needed accommodations. for this reason, new dwelling areas were constructed. several new bridges were erected that improved the connectivity of both parts of the city. a new highway type road was proposed on both sides of the river, which also led to the city's further structural development. as mentioned in the research of [13], at the end of the 1950s, it was possible to see a significant shift to a new city structure. soviet authorities initiated the micro-region development proposals. these were typical housing units developed as micro-regions, with the slogan “faster and cheaper.” every family had to have an independent dwelling unit, resulting in the construction of more housing units. during this period, saburtalo and dighomi areas were introduced as extensive mass housing areas, although not fully established as were, later on, gldani and temka areas. these processes became even more intense in the second half of this period. however, during the third master plan proposal (1949-1951or 1950s), the group proposed expanding the city structure linearly and developing it toward the tbilisi lake, a man-made lake (created after the first master plan 1934). the initial plan was to expand the city centre and connect the area to the newly developed housing near the tbilisi sea. unfortunately, this was never fulfilled. in the 1960s-70s, due to the relief, the tbilisi master plan design proposed to build one-two level housing units along the slope in the vake and saburtalo areas. unfortunately, due to high costs and the problem with population density, the idea was never realized. the saburtalo area, mainly the nutsubidze area, was designed and constructed as high-rise buildings on a very harsh relief. it should be noted that urban expansion was a more or less manageable process during this period and proceeded mainly according to pre-designed plans. in this particular case, we do not discuss how accurately these plans were implemented and the reasons for the failure to implement these plans to the end [14], which facilitated the construction of roads and connected certain areas of the city more closely. during this period, vake and saburtalo were connected, for which a specific section of the mountain slope was blown up, where tamarasvili street now exists. urban expansion continued for the next 20 years. during this period, the current mukhiani and mukhiani villas area were added to the built-up area. the development of the territory of didi dighomi became incredibly intense. urban expansion intensified in the direction of the tbilisi sea and the ponichala area, and the construction of vazha-pshavela avenue continued. even in this period, active urban expansion on the left bank of the mtkvari was taking place mainly at the expense of agricultural areas. in the 1980s, a wave of urban expansion swept across the right bank as well. the development of nutsubidze plateau began, the built-up area increased in the direction of vazha-pshavela avenue and vashlijvari settlement. in the next, fifth stage(1990s-present-day), the situation changed dramatically. the political situation in georgia has changed since 1990. at this stage, there has been no urban development strategy in the country [11]. from this period, the uncontrolled urban sprawl process began in tbilisi. the political, social, and economic crisis after the collapse of the soviet union in the 1990s led to a decline in the country's population. however, from this period, the unorganized urban sprawl began, mainly at the expense of suburban agrarian areas. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) in the 1990s, factories in georgia ceased to operate, and many people in the regions lost their jobs. at the same time, cultural centres were closed. lifestyle has changed radically. consequently, migration to cities began as a means of survival. in addition to industrial activities, trading was well developed in the cities, so the population found a solution by engaging in such activities. in addition to working within it, people need the cultural nourishment and hat the city has provided. this is evidenced by population statistics in rural and urban areas (fig. 5). figure 5. dynamics of the rural and urban population of tbilisi this process has been reactivated since the early 2000s. in this case, we can distinguish two directions: 1. replacement of low-rise housing in the central districts with multi-story buildings, as was the case, for example, in the vicinity of the sports palace; 2. development of new territories. in this case, the process of urban expansion became particularly active in the areas of didi dighomi and ivertubani near lake lisi. although the population has shrunk since 2002 compared to 1989, urban sprawl is still underway. as a result, we have a city that stretches for about 33 kilometers along mtkvari, which, in turn, increases the time spent on transportation and the demand for private cars as well. this is a big blow to the ecological condition of the city in terms of the quality of life in tbilisi [15]. consequently, the urban sprawl has presented in tbilisi with negative effects, which does not make life here pleasant, although half of the country's population is concentrated in the capital. this fact has its logical explanation, although we will not dwell on this issue in this particular case. all of the above circumstances have their logical explanation. in 2003, the government leadership in georgia changed, prompting significant reforms. this further affected the urbanization process. at the beginning of the 19th century, 2% of the country's population lived in tbilisi, and as of january 2021, 32% of the georgian population resided within. this is relatively high, concerning the area of tbilisi and causes congestion. it is interesting to consider what are the attraction factors when such numbers can even make life in the city uncomfortable. all this is due to the fact that, unlike in previous decades, providing for the vital needs of the population (primarily their food) no longer requires the involvement of large numbers of people in agriculture and other agricultural activities. today, cities offer more opportunities to the population exempted from agricultural activities, especially the young. tbilisi is a very difficult socio-economic, political, and cultural space. consequently, it is the centre of numerous human activities, more access to education, employment, entertainment and various services, which attract migration from rural areas. in 2006, villages and suburbs joined tbilisi. to review the statistics of rural and urban population in tbilisi in 1994-2007. the number of rural residents was invariably 0.1 (thousand) men. in 2007, 28.3 (thousand) men. this is related to the increase of borders. until 2006, the area of tbilisi was 356 km2, and from 2006 it was 502 km2, at the expense of the annexation of the bordering villages (fig. 1). this fact has also affected the density and has moved to second place in the country with this figure, when the capital is experiencing a large workload overall. in addition, the growth of green areas is also observed at a time when construction is proceeding at a catastrophic rate. in terms of urban renewal, the left bank of the mtkvari is more congested than the right, which is related to the old historical sites on the right bank, such as old tbilisi, where construction bans are in tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) place to preserve the appearance. it should also be noted that the city limits were raised from the right bank. conclusion in conclusion, the situation in the villages and cities of georgia creates a favourable environment for the urbanization "boom" (explosion) and overcrowding of cities, which means "mass" population approach to the city, primarily concerning tbilisi. this creates problems such as unsystematic development and chaotic constructions, which negatively impact the natural environment and social conditions of the place. as for the social problems that have arisen, the problem of employment is created in a congested city. unemployed people engage in illegal, sometimes criminal, activities. there is a significant social load, traffic jams, the problem of parking. in terms of the recommendation, we all need to talk about, proper urban planning is needed so as not to cause repeating problems for the citizens, and to make their living environment comfortable. it is also necessary to maintain more or less healthy natural environmental conditions. at the same time, attention should be paid to the retention of the rural population. this should be done not only by developing agriculture but also by developing the surrounding municipal centres, so that the population can at least partially receive the cultural or educational nourishment that draws them to the city. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.ts. and n. kh. conceived of the presented idea. l.g. and i. k. performed the analytic calculations. d.n. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. acknowledgements this research [phdf-21-1242] has been supported by shota rustaveli national science foundation of georgia (srnsfg). authors' note in the process of working on the article, the administrative boundaries of tbilisi were changed once again. these are minor changes; thus, the update was not included in the 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(1989). the nature of tbilisi and its surroundings. tbilisi: soviet georgia. [11] movement docu, (2021). urban sprawl. film, bakuradze, a., qadagishvili, e. [12] gadrani, l., tsitsagi, m., & tielidze, l. (2019 urban landscape of georgia (on the example of large cities). springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77764-1_6 [13] van assche, k., & salukvadze, j. (2012). tbilisi: urban transformation and role transformation in the post-soviet metropolis. in remaking metropolis: global challenges of the urban landscape. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203095485 [14] asatiani n. (2015). urban development problems in georgia in 1960-1970. ars georgia, series b. issn 1512-4088 [15] alpaidze, l., & pace, r. (2021). ecosystem services provided by urban forests in the southern caucasus region: a modeling study in tbilisi, georgia. climate, 9(11), 157. https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9110157 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77764-1_6 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203095485 https://doi.org/10.3390/cli9110157 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) a brief overview of joint research of vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography m. nodia institute of geophysics, and georgian technical university, institute of hydrometeorology over the past 10 years nana bolashvili 1, nugzar ghlonti2, tengiz tsintsadze3, nodar varamashvili 2* abstract for many decades, the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tsu, has had close scientific ties with the m. nodia institute of geophysics, tsu, and the institute of hydrometeorology, gtu. over the years, these institutes have conducted a large number of joint research projects in various areas in the fields of geography, geophysics, and hydrometeorology. this activity has not diminished in recent years. in particular, the following joint studies have been carried out over the past 10 years: the general and distinctive features of karst phenomena in the territory of georgia have been studied. the distribution of hail by average maximum size in the territories of municipalities in the kakheti region of georgia was studied. a simulation of the distribution of hailstones by average maximum size in the territory of kakheti (georgia) was carried out using data on the freezing level in the atmosphere and radar measurements. various bioclimatic characteristics of the village of mukhuri and the martvili canyon (western georgia) were studied. the ionisation and microclimatic properties of the tetra cave (tskaltubo, georgia) were studied. an assessment was made of the selective absorption of atmospheric aerosols from the coastal zone of the black sea in the spectral range of 0.52-0.80 μm, as well as other climatic parameters against the background of climate change. the influence of short-term geomagnetic activity on the variability of meteorological parameters in the mid-latitude region was studied. a structured data study was conducted to study wind variability to assess drought in georgia. a drought assessment was also carried out based on the spei and spi indices for this territory. a connection has been identified between the normalised vegetation difference index, precipitation, and drought indices in the conditions of kakheti, and a correlation of drought indices for different climatic conditions has been established. work has begun on the use of machine learning and big data for environmental monitoring. sediments in reservoirs have been studied using field experiments; the spatiotemporal distribution, genesis, and transport of bottom sediments have been determined; issues of solving the problem of siltation in reservoirs for the development of hydropower and coastal protection are discussed; and methodological aspects of determining landscape hydrological resources are discussed. the change in the number and extent of glaciers in the dolra river basin in 1911–1960–2014 (caucasus mountains, georgia) was studied using old topographic maps and landsat satellite images. between 1960 and 2014, the changes in the chalaati and zopkhito glaciers in the georgian caucasus were studied. in the future, it is planned to further strengthen scientific ties between these institutes. keywords: geography, geophysics, meteorology, hydrology introduction this year marks the ninetieth anniversary of the founding of the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography (tsu) and the mikheil nodia institute of geophysics (tsu) and the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the institute of hydrometeorology (gtu). the scientific activities of these institutes are widely known both in georgia and abroad. each of the institutes has its own specific scientific area. at the same time, to more effectively solve a number of scientific problems, the scientific potential of these organisations is often combined. in particular, such problems include environmental issues, climate change, and natural disasters. for many decades, these institutes were part of the geosciences department of the georgian academy of sciences. the academy's unified leadership was in charge of coordinating their scientific activities. as a result of reorganisation, since 2011, the institutes of geography and geophysics have been part of tbilisi state university, and the institute of hydrometeorology is part of georgian technical university. since 2014, the main scientific activities of all institutes have been carried out in accordance with state programme funding. this reorganisation did not affect the closeness of scientific 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tsu, tbilisi, georgia 2 mikheil nodia institute of geophysics, tsu, tbilisi, georgia 3 institute of hydrometeorology, gtu, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: ldvarama@gmail.com mailto:ldvarama@gmail.com bolashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) contacts between these institutes. moreover, in a number of areas, these contacts have even intensified (for example, research into the bioclimatic potential of georgia for the development of resorts and tourism, the development and implementation of new methods for studying various natural phenomena, joint expeditionary work, etc.). ). below is a brief overview of joint research between these institutions over the past ten years. methods and materials the results of studies presented in published works [1-22] were analysed. results the territory of georgia is rich in a variety of natural conditions that both contribute to the development of the human environment (minerals, bioclimate, resort and tourism resources, etc.) and negatively affect it (almost all types of natural disasters). in particular, the general and distinctive features of karst phenomena in the territory of western georgia have been studied [1]. this territory is rich in unique karst phenomena in which a single karsthydrogeological system is fixed. in this region, the existing karst phenomena are characterised by common (they are directly connected with limestone masses) and distinguishing signs, which are caused by geological and geotectonic characteristics and the intensive development of processes determined by climatic conditions; the physical parameters of the distribution of precipitation in the specified territory have been established; places of intensive flows of underground filtration streams and the direction of their movement have been identified; and georadar locational sections have been constructed. geophysical studies carried out on the limestone massif of migaria have revealed the distribution area of both previously recorded and recently found caves; their identification, mapping, and cadaster have been carried out. in [2, 3], the results of modelling the distribution of hailstones by mean max diameter (d) in the territory of kakheti (georgia) using data of the freezing level in the atmosphere and radar measurements of hail max sizes in clouds are presented. maps of the distribution of hail by the average maximum diameter in the territory of kakheti for individual months, from april to september, have been built. the vertical distribution of d in the indicated territory in the range of heights from 0.11 to 3.84 km was studied. various bioclimatic characteristics of the village of mukhuri and the martvili canyon (western georgia) were studied [4,5]. some new information about the village mukhuri in western georgia's bioclimatic features (tourism climate index and light ion content in the air) is shown. this information can help the area become a better health resort and tourist destination. it is shown that for the development of mass tourism, the months from march through november are favorable. researchers measured the amount of light ions in the air near the khobistskali river in the shurubumu karstic cave and forest. the results showed that ionotherapy could be developed in the area that was suggested. it is noted that all months of the year are suitable for therapeutic and preventive tourism [4]. the data about air equivalent-effective temperature (eet) and content of light ions in air in the martvili canyon environments (western georgia) in [5] are represented. the average monthly values of eet for the daytime hours vary from 2.8° (category "coldly," january) to 23.5° (category "warmly," august). a comfortable thermal regime is observed during may, june, september, and october. the concentration of light ions in the air on the surface of the river and waterfall inside the canyon varies from 1410 to 2460 cm3, which is minimally above the standard necessary for the health of people. the ionisation and microclimatic properties of the tetra cave (tskaltubo, georgia) were studied [6, 7]. the cave “tetra” is located in the northern part of the health resort tskhaltubo [6]. taking into account the microclimatic and ionising properties of the cave (the high concentration of light ions), at the beginning of the seventieth century, it was used for treating patients with the respiratory and cardiovascular systems. during the 2008 expedition, it was discovered that the special door into the cave was broken up. the tracks of the unsanctioned presence of people were revealed inside the cave. that is, the natural state of the cave was disrupted (sealing, air cleanliness, etc.). as a result, the unique bioclimatic and radiation properties of the cave were disrupted. accordingly, the concentration of light ions was the same as that in strongly contaminated industrial cities. urgent measures for the restoration of the natural therapeutic potential of the cave “tetra” were proposed. recently, the agency of bolashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) protected areas of georgia carried out several measures to restore the original state of the cave, which practically led to the restoration of its unique microclimatic and bioclimatic properties. in particular, the results of expeditionary work in 2018 showed that the restoration of the radioactive and ionising state of the cave occurred. therefore, the cave "tetra," as in the early years, will be possible to use for therapeutic purposes. the organisation of regular studies of the microclimatic, bioclimatic, and ionising properties of caves in georgia is planned [6]. research in 2021 confirmed that the restored cave retains its characteristic radioactive and ionising state. this shows that the use of the cave for medical, tourist, or other useful purposes will not harm its natural state [7]. one study looked at how atmospheric aerosols from the black sea coast are selectively absorbed in the 0.52-0.80 εm range. other climate parameters were also examined in the context of climate change [8]. the optical properties of mixed (continental and marine origin) atmospheric aerosols in the coastal zone have been studied, particularly the absorbing function of the aerosols in the 0.52–0.80 micrometre spectral range. over the years, more than 2,500 complex expeditions were carried out, during which, in 28 spectral regions, the spectral composition of direct solar radiation with the help of optical filters in a 0.341 to 1067 micrometre spectral range was measured. at the same time, the vertical distribution of water vapour in the atmosphere and the total amount of ozone were also measured. we found the empirical coefficients of the angstrom formula by looking at the optical density at the beginning and end of the spectral range (where no absorption was seen). this helped us determine the aerosol absorption function at 8 points in this range. an evaluation of the climate parameters of the black sea coastline in the context of climate change was conducted [9]. to evaluate the climate change level of this region, the dynamics of climate parameter (temperature and precipitation) changes during a certain time period were accessed and analysed. the study is based on the observation data of the national environmental agency and weather stations operating, in the past or at present, on the black sea coast. the data on air temperature (1930–2010) and sum of precipitation (1957–2006) for weather stations batumi (air temperature 1931–2010) and poti (1930– 2009) and statistical, climatologic, and graphical analysis of the treatment of many-year meteorological data were used for the study. in particular, according to the linear approximation trend of 80-year observational data, the average temperature in batumi increased by 0.70 °c. meanwhile, the average temperature in poti increased by 0.30 °c. the maximum temperature in batumi increased by 3.29 °c, and the minimal temperature also increased by 1.65 °c. the maximum temperature in poti increased by 1.42 °c, and the minimal temperature also increased by 1.21 °c. according to the linear approximation trend of 50 years (1957–2006) of observation data, the annual precipitation in batumi decreased from 2650 mm to 2550 mm, i.e., by 100 mm. meanwhile, the annual sum of precipitation in poti increased from 1700 mm to 2150 mm, i.e., precipitation increased by 450 mm. due to global climate change, natural hydrometeorological disasters occur more frequently and intensely, and the study and investigation of these events require the unification of all institutional resources to achieve progress in the set of goals and objectives essential for stable state development. among the enormous number of published scientific papers, there are remarkable recent studies dealing with the abovementioned problem [10–15]. in the articles, various climatic parameters and dangerous phenomena have been discussed: wind, heavy rain, temperature, drought, atmospheric perturbations, etc. all parameters and events are studied using modern methods, program packages, and data. especially important is the use of data from the earth observing satellite mission. reference [10] addresses a space weather prediction problem. this paper looks into what might happen when strong magnetospheric storms occur and how they might change the way weather works in the atmosphere. the goal is to find a link between changes in the magnetosphere and changes in the weather. georgia is prone to hydrometeorological hazards, so it is crucial to look into the physical processes that cause them. meteorological effects resulting from fluctuations in solar wind are poorly represented in weather and climate models. a geomagnetic storm is a significant disturbance of earth's magnetosphere, exchanging energy from solar wind into earth's space environment. these storms result from solar wind variations that significantly change the currents, plasmas, and fields in earth's magnetosphere. geomagnetic indices measure geomagnetic activity occurring over short periods of time. they have been constructed to study the response of the earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere to changes in solar activity. the correlation between geomagnetic storms and meteorological elements (temperature, precipitation, wind) was carried out for the georgian region using meteorological bolashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) observations, nasa's solar dynamics observatory, and noaa space weather prediction centre data. the results show that there is a dependence between meteorological parameters and geomagnetic disturbances. a structured data study was conducted to study wind variability to assess drought in georgia [11– 13]. drought is a frequent phenomenon in georgia. the spi and spei drought indices were calculated to analyse drought frequency and intensity in the territory of georgia in the 1991–2020 period. the structured data of the hydrometeorological observation net were used to calculate the following statistical parameters: pearson correlation, mean deviation, and absolute deviation, both for the entire period and for months. the programs r and r-instat are used to calculate and visualise these parameters. the correlation coefficient is in good agreement for all cases, and the absolute deviation shows data scattering, which should be related to the complex relief of georgia as well as the heterogeneity of the data series. the study is important for climate change assessment and hydrometeorological disaster early warning systems and may be used in nature-based solutions [12–15]. work has begun on the use of machine learning and big data for environmental monitoring. artificial intelligence (ai) and machine learning (ml) are also key technologies in big data analysis. the analysis of big data combines traditional methods of statistical analysis with computational approaches. the significance of big data in climate-related studies is greatly recognised, and its techniques are widely used to observe and monitor changes on a global scale. climate computing combines multidisciplinary research regarding climatic data and system sciences to efficiently capture and analyse climate-related big data as well as support socioenvironmental efforts. understanding the natural environment is increasingly important to respond to the negative impacts of climate change and anthropogenic pressures on finite natural resources [16]. sediments in reservoirs have been studied using field experiments; the spatiotemporal distribution, genesis, and transport of bottom sediments have been determined; issues of solving the problem of siltation in reservoirs for the development of hydropower and coastal protection are discussed; and methodological aspects of determining landscape hydrological resources are discussed. the change in the number and extent of glaciers in the dolra river basin in 1911–1960–2014 (caucasus mountains, georgia) was studied using old topographic maps and landsat satellite images. between 1960 and 2014, the changes in the chalaati and zopkhito glaciers in the georgian caucasus were studied [17–22]. the process of sediment accumulation in reservoirs stops after the silting prism is formed on the body of the equilibrium bed, by means of which the river can transport a full range of sediment downstream. presently, there is no approved method for forecasting the parameters of the silting prism and the equilibrium bed. to study the process of silting prism formation and equilibrium channel forecasting, field experiments were carried out on small mountain rivers in georgia. the methodology of the natural experiment implementation was created. for the analysis of the obtained results, the methods of mathematical statistics and differential calculus were applied. the experiments showed that the equilibrium bed is much higher than the initial position of the riverbed, posing a serious threat of catastrophic inundation in the event of a flood. it was found that the final result of reservoir silting is an accumulative terrace, where an equilibrium channel is produced. the length of the train is a function of the maximum flow discharge, the deposit of runoff, the diameter of the bottom sediment, and the initial inclination of the riverbed. the fractional distribution of the sediments into silting prisms is determined by the type of reservoir regulation and the intra-annual distribution of the fluvial sediments. the mechanism of riverside destruction by water flow is considered a random process that depends on both the flow rate and riverside stability. vulnerability, the characteristic of the riverside, is taken as an indicator of this process with respect to such influence, and the famous model "load-stability" from the theory of reliability is used for its identification [17]. the genesis, transport, and accumulation of settled sediments in mountain rivers are random processes in time and space that are defined by the river flow rate (q m3/sеc), the height of the basin (i), the inclination of the river, and basin geology. genesis and the volume of river sediment are functions of the climate, and in accordance with its cycles, they increase during the warming period and decrease as the temperature falls. the main natural factors for sediment formation are glaciers, erosion, landslides, and flax. sediment transportation: the process of sediment transportation by flow represents many variable functions, which are mainly described by chezy-maning and airy laws. aside from the aforementioned laws, this process is also subject to the regularity of dependence between the maximal diameter of the sediment (dmax) and the speed of the river (v, m/sec) in the head race of a water bolashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) reservoir. in some places, the river crosses an uplifted ridge, or “epirogenic threshold,” and the submersible lowland. the river saws such a threshold to create the so-called "equilibrium balanced riverbed" of its respective characteristics. if the speed of the threshold uplift is greater than the speed of the riverbed cut, then a depression is created, in which the river permanently deposits sediments to create a riverbed with a corresponding inclination, the so-called equilibrium riverbed. some rivers use a significant part of the sediments to compensate for stagnations caused by "flax dams" or alluvial fans of flax. in [18], it is shown that the result of such processes is the creation of the chiori grove, accumulative plain terraces of saglolo and chrebalo in the basin of the river rioni, the creation of the tianeti plain upstream of the river iori, and many more. a significant amount of sediment is spent on the formation of sanding prisms in water reservoirs. the river consumes one part of the remaining settled sediments to create a balanced riverbed in the submersible lowlands and to neutralise the effect of sea eustasy. the second part of sediments is spent on the formation of deltas, the permanent filling of coastal beaches, and the creation of accumulative formations in the sea. the mountain reservoir is in conflict with seacoast protection and the security of population and infrastructure at the head race. hence, the genesis of settled sediments in the river, places of natural accumulation, and sediment granulometry should be taken into account when choosing a reservoir. the optimal places for the construction of water reservoir dams are epeirogenic thresholds since the dam is uplifted there, and thus, the operation period of the water reservoir is relatively longer. georgia, as a seaside mountain country, faces three opposing issues: hydropower development, coastal protection, and flooding risks for riparian settlements and infrastructure. present climate change will even further strengthen the processes of beach abrasions. for the study of the silting prism formation process and the forecasting of the equilibrium channel, natural field experiments have been carried out on small mountain rivers. the experiment showed that for approximately one year, silting prisms on some rivers closely reached their limited size, and an equilibrium channel was formed. the silting prism in the tributaries forms the sediment train that extends to the boundary of the top water level in the river. the length of the train (l) is a function of the maximum flow discharge (qm), the deposit of runoff (r), the diameter of the bottom sediment (d), and the initial inclination of the riverbed (i). for the purpose of a harmonious resolution of all problems, eroded beaches should be periodically artificially filled by the river sediment accumulated in reservoirs. it is necessary to organise a system of quarries in reservoirs [19]. the aim of the paper [20] was to determine the quantity of water resources according to the landscapes in georgia using multifactorial analysis. assessment of the potential of water resources (hydroscopic resources) in landscapes requires multifactorial analysis. their potential is determined by the quantity of influent and effluent waters during certain time periods. this study was mainly based on multiyear hydrological data from georgia, covering 90 rivers. the series of observations included a time scale of 40–50 years and, in some cases, even 70 years. the study was based on cadastral data from 150 hydrological stations and posts. the authors investigated different and similar landscapes according to the total supply of water resources. the landscapes situated under more or less uniform physico-geographical conditions are similar in their total supply of water resources. landscapes within the limits of one type or even subtype differ according to the supply of water resources, particularly water resources, which are maximal under these conditions. the accuracy of the results has been testified to by the circumstances. the authors obtained approximately the same total values for georgia as determined by the calculations made by different scientists using different methods. article [21] presents the changes in the number and area of the dolra river basin glaciers during the last century in connection with climate elements. the dolra river basin is located on the southern slope of the central caucasus, in the territory of zemo svaneti, and joins the enguri river basin, which in turn is the main centre of the contemporary glaciation in georgia. during the study, we used the 1:42,000 scale topographic maps of the 19th century, which were drawn up during the first topographic survey by using the plane-table surveying method. additionally, the authors used the catalogue of glaciers on the southern slope of the caucasus, compiled on the basis of th-century m maps in 1911 by a well-known researcher of the caucasus, k. podozerskiy. to identify the area and number of glaciers in the 1960s of the 20th century, we used the work of r. gobejishvili, the georgian glaciologist of the 20th and 21st centuries, composed on the basis of 1:50,000 scale topographic maps of 1960. the data for 2014 were obtained from landsat aerial images of the l8 oli/tirs (operational land imager and thermal infrared sensor) taken in august 2014. in the mentioned study, except for the old topographic bolashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) maps and aerial images, the climate information was collected from mestia weather stations (mestia is the regional centre of zemo svaneti, where the only operating weather station is located at present). along with the dynamics of glaciers, the course of air temperature and atmospheric precipitation has been identified in the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st century. discussion georgia has unique natural resources to create comfortable living conditions for its population and guests. therefore, it is necessary to continue further research on these resources for their wider use for the needs of society. at the same time, due to climate change, there is a noticeable increase in various types of natural disasters (floods, landslides, mudflows, melting glaciers, droughts, etc.). therefore, comprehensive monitoring of natural disasters (observations, analysis, and forecasts) is necessary, which will make it possible to create long-term and early warning systems about their activation as well as to develop methods and recommendations for preventing or minimising the consequences of these disasters. to accomplish these tasks, it is necessary to combine the efforts of scientists of various profiles from scientific organisations in different directions. an example of such fruitful cooperation is the above overview of joint research between the three institutes over the past 10 years. conclusion in recent years, much modern equipment and tools have appeared for environmental research, both ground-based and remote. new methods for analysing the results of experimental studies have also appeared. particular attention is given to the importance of comprehensive studies of the human environment. considering this in the future, it is planned to further strengthen scientific ties between these institutes. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution n. b. and n. v. conceived of the presented idea. n. g. and t. ts. prepared relevant material for review. n. v. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. references [1] jashi g.g., tarkhnishvli a.g., odilavadze d.t., arziani z.a., bolashvili n.r., tsikarishvili k.d. 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(2015). glaciers amount and extent change in the dolra river basin in 1911-1960-2014 years, caucasus mountains, georgia, observed with old topographical maps and landsat satellite imagery. american journal of climate change vol. 04 no 03, article id:56396, 8 p. 10.4236/ajcc.2015.43017. https://www.scirp.org/html/4-2360260_56396.htm georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 70-83 economic policy of georgia in the face of chalenges related to global pandemic sofiko dzhvarsheishvili1 ucha gogrichiani2 abstract issue of pandemic crisis is actual nowadays, it is under attention of international and national scientists and is well reviewed in different types of literature. during the covid -19 the attention of the georgian government fully focused on the problem of health of georgian people, while the economy of the country was partially paralyzed. information included in the research strategy of the article were collected from multiple sources: documentary evidence, scientific literature analysis and statistical analysis. the scientific aim of the research is to highlight the current georgian economic challenges related to pandemic. the authors had an objective to investigate social-economic outcomes in georgia during the pandemic, to explore the major determinant of country’s economic development such as unemployment, foreign direct investment (fdi), gross domestic product (gdp) exports and imports, remittances, service sector. this paper examines the impact of the covid-19 crisis on the current important social-economic processes of the country, to generalize them in order to form proper opinions. findings based on research suggest that the economic situation in georgia is difficult, therefore all the parties that could influence the positive changes in economy should be informed and involved in every project planned by the local government and international organizations that provide opportunities to foster the process of regional economic development. authors also provides recommendations how to increase the competitiveness of the country in the future. pandemic for georgia is not only a crisis, but also an opportunity to build a new economy, but it is clear that the world will never be the same as it was before covid-19. keywords: pandemic, unemployment, foreign direct investment, economic growth, foreign trade, economy of georgia; introduction the main problem the world is facing today is the on-going spread of the new infection named covid-19, causing one of the biggest challenges for the health system all over the world, as well as for global economy. pandemic created economic problems in many countries and it pushed the whole world into the recession. the spread of the coronavirus in georgia is characterized by economic shocks: increase of unemployment, restrictions imposed on people’s economic activities causing the strongest supply shocks, economic sectors being partially paralyzed, breaking local and global supply chains, the economy experiencing quite significant 1 department of human geography, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university; tbilisi, georgia, sofiko.dzhvarsheishvili@tsu.ge 2 faculty of economics and business, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, ucha.gogrichiani@tsu.ge georgian geographical journal damage, there is an effect of its inhibition due to the limitations of certain activities which hinders of the economic growth and deepens the economic crisis. the present analysis focuses on the impact of pandemic in georgia and its economic outcomes. authors try to answer the following questions: 1. how is the situation with pandemic in the world by world health organization and in caucasus countries? 2. when was the spread of covid -19 recognized in georgia? 3. what is the unemployment rate in georgia in the time of covid-19? 4. how does pandemic affect foreign direct investment, gross domestic product, foreign trade, remittances and tourism sector in georgia? the following research methods have been used by authors: statistical analysis, comparative, quantitative and qualitative analysis. authors used articles of georgian and foreign scientists, materials from periodicals, data from the world health organization, world bank, national statistics office of georgia and national bank of georgia. there is a big interest in how the crisis develops and what it can lead the economy to. while the effects of the crisis are just unfolding, it is not possible to assess what it will lead to and what damage is caused. in this period of time, the assessment of real social and economic situation in georgia is relevant. an overview the covid-19 outbreak was founded in december 2019 in hubei province of china in the city of wuhan; allam (2020). the pandemic officially started when the world health organization (who) declared it in march 2020. until now the virus continues to spread across the world. global situation reported by world health organization on 22.11.2020 the coronavirus is affecting 216 countries, including 58426059 peoples with confirmed covid-19 and 1385223 cases of deaths. at the beginning of this year who has declared a public health emergency and decided to fight against it locally according to individual countries for reducing human infection and preventing secondary transmission, as well as international spread (world health organization, 2020). as shown in fig.1, in america and in europe there is a concentration of more cases compared to other regions, although initially the epicenter of the outbreak was china. this year will be recorded in the world history as the year of the coronavirus pandemic and the global fight against it (archvadze, 2020). the covid-19 pandemic pushed world economies into a great lockdown. almost all international flights, as well as all means of transport stopped in the vast majority of developed countries. therefore, oil prices reached low level due to historical index of drop of demand (silagadze and tvalchrelidze, 2020). in long term period scientists are expecting graver problems in economics. pandemic will reduce the economic growth of the countries worldwide, through lower investment, increase of unemployment and fragmentation of global trade and supply linkages. georgia confirmed its first covid-19 case on february 2 (garda world, 2020). attention of georgian governments and, of course, international organizations are dzhvarsheishvili and gogrichiani fully focused on the problems of human health. georgian government is aware of the threat the health system is facing as it could collapse because of a rapid increase of infections. therefore, to prevent spread of infection, all flights were suspended, entry restrictions for foreigners were imposed, borders were closed, business and state institutions were closed and public life was shut down. it was important at the beginning to slow down the growth of cases of infection with major cuts in social and economic life (gilauri, 2020)) and on 21.03.2020 georgia declared the state of emergency (civil.ge, 21.03.2020). on may 23, after 63-days of lockdown the georgian government decided to ease most of the restrictions, while left some of the regulations in place (civil.ge, 31.05.2020). fig 1. situation by who region on 22.11.2020 source: created by the authors based on data from world health organization https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=eaiaiqobchmitctsurmk6wivdbd7ch3puaoreaayasaaegizo_d_ bwe table 1. covid-19 situation in south caucasus as of 22.11.2020 countries total cases total deaths total recovered armenia 126224 1952 94090 azerbaijan 93094 1131 63841 georgia 104732 976 85639 source: created by the authors based on data from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries according to data from tab.1, georgia stands out in keeping mortality rates relatively low compared with the neighborhood countries. at the same time, the necessary protection measures had a severe negative impact on economic activities not only for georgia but worldwide. we will try to analyze the changes brought by the pandemic to georgia’s economic and social relations. 24563600 16873383 10367553 3796649 1446041 834216 0 5000000 10000000 15000000 20000000 25000000 30000000 americas europe south-east asia eastern mediteranien africa western pacific https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=eaiaiqobchmitctsurmk6wivdbd7ch3puaoreaayasaaegizo_d_bwe https://covid19.who.int/?gclid=eaiaiqobchmitctsurmk6wivdbd7ch3puaoreaayasaaegizo_d_bwe https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries georgian geographical journal average salaries, unemployment rate and number of locally registered businesses is different in various regions of georgia. traditionally, major part of the economy is concentrated in tbilisi. the impact of coronavirus in georgia as a small economy country is significant. by the beginning of march, all the schools, institutions, universities were closed and almost all organizations started working online using different online platforms. this has given a very strong impetus to the georgian digital economy (gaganidze, 2020). all shops except grocery stores, pharmacies, banks and gas stations were closed. many people working in private sector lost their jobs. georgian government compensated people who lost their jobs because of the coronavirus crisis. behavior of the people changed, they started staying home, because this was required by the government. the lack of money caused by pandemic negatively affected the consumption (babych et al. 2020). unemployment rate is even more alarming as fig.2 shows in the second quarter of 2020. the unemployment indicator in georgia increased by 0.9 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year and equaled to 12.3 percent; national statistics office of georgia (2020). the real figure could be significantly higher, as many people are not registered formally. fig. 2. unemployment rate in georgia % source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge the unemployment rate in georgia is higher for men than for women. the fig.3 below presents the unemployment rate by sex during 2018-2020. in the second quarter of 2020, compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, this indicator was increased for women, as well as for men by 1.8 and 0.1 percentage points, respectively, but if we compare it with first quarter of 2020, we will see that it increased for women from 9.4% to 11.8% and decreased for men from 14% to 12.7%. this speaks for the fact that in time of pandemic women are interested in gaining greater and more opportunities. even though the unemployment rate in rural areas is much lower than in urban settlements, one cannot assume that the rural people are richer than people in the 14 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.8 11.4 11.1 10.9 11.9 12.3 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 i q.2018 iiq.2018 iiiq.2018ivq.2018 iq.2019 iiq2019 iiiq.2019ivq.2019 iq.2020 iiq.2020 http://www.geostat.ge/ dzhvarsheishvili and gogrichiani towns. on the contrary, the problem of poverty is very acute in the regions of georgia what can be explained by little priority given to the agriculture (abesadze, 2014). fig. 3. unemployment rate by sex% source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge fig. 4. unemployment rate by urban-rural areas source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge in the second quarter of 2020 the unemployment rate in urban settlements was increased by 2.3 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, while in rural settlements the rate was reduced by 0.3 percent. if we compare with previous quarter, it also increased for urban areas but decreased for rural areas and this is represented on fig.4. this trend is caused by the fact that during the coronavirus, people who lost their jobs in the cities, but owned land plot, moved to their residential villages and started to run private farming. this situation has led to internal labor migration from urban to rural areas. georgia is among the leaders with the unemployed workforce with higher education levels. this means that the educated workforce is idle and cannot contribute to the country’s economy (economic policy research centre, 2011). 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 15.5 13.7 13 13.6 14.6 12.6 11.9 12 14 12.7 12.3 10.4 11.3 11 10.7 10 10.2 9.6 9.4 11.8 men women 0 10 20 30 22 18.1 18.3 18.8 19.4 17.5 16.6 16.3 17.6 19.7 5.8 5.9 6 5.6 6 5.1 5.5 5.5 6.1 4.7 urban rural http://www.geostat.ge/ http://www.geostat.ge/ georgian geographical journal a drop in demand for goods and services in the region, affected the overall economy via trade, foreign direct investment and production. foreign direct investment (fdi) is one of the main indicators for georgia. fig. 5. dynamics of fdi in georgia (million us dollars). source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge the fig.5 shows that foreign direct investment in georgia in the first quarter of 2020 in comparison with the same period of 2019 has decreased by 41.7 percent. it also decreased when we compare it with previous quarter from 347 million usd in fourth quarter of 2019 to 165.4 million usd in the first quarter of 2020. the main reason for a decrease of the fdi is, of course, the beginning of the pandemic, because foreign investors preferred to invest in safe assets (national statistics office of georgia, 2020). fig. 6. fdi by major investor countries in q1 2020. source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge 323.5 403.6 367 171 283.6 209.8 427.4 347 165.4 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 iq.2018 iiq.2018 iiiq.2018 ivq. 2018 iq.2019 iiq.2019 iiiq.2019 ivq. 2019 iq.2020 united kingdom 44% united states 17% panama 12% denmark 7% netherlands 7% turkey 7% other countries 7% united kingdom united states panama denmark netherlands turkey other countries http://www.geostat.ge/ http://www.geostat.ge/ dzhvarsheishvili and gogrichiani according to the data from national statistics office of georgia, significant amount of foreign direct investment in the first quarter of 2020 comes on tbilisi and adjara. the share of tbilisi in total investment is still high and is about 70%, while in adjara it is 12.3%. small amounts of foreign direct investment feature in the following regions: guria, samtskhe-javakheti, racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti. this shows that the capital of georgia and adjara are the most attractive regions for foreign investors, compared to other regions. as shown on fig.6, foreign direct investments (fdi) in georgia amounted to usd 165.4 million of which more than 50% come from the european union. as we already mentioned the volume of fdi in first quarter of 2020 is relatively low, therefore, the state should pay more attention to this problem and try to maintain the urban and rural population and promote economic growth and development of the regions, and also attract foreign investors to invest more not only in tbilisi and adjara but in other regions of georgia as well, which in turn will create new jobs and reduce unemployment (dzhvarsheishvili, 2018). according to preliminary estimates, the country’s gross domestic product will decrease by 4.0% 5.0% and the country’s foreign debt will increase sharply (mekvabishvili, 2020). table 2. gross domestic product of georgia indicators qi 2019 qi 2020 gdp at current prices (mil. us dollars) 3 823.0 3 780.3 gdp per capita (us dollars) 1 026.7 1 017.1 real gdp growth rate (%) 5.0 2.2 source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge let’s turn to this tab.2 which shows that in first quarter of 2020 the nominal gross domestic product (gdp) amounted to us dollars 3 780.3million. the real growth rate of gdp equaled to 2.2 percent year-over-year, while the same indicator in the first quarter was 5.0 percent. this indicates that economic growth and development in georgia in pandemic time are also low. if companies expect a slowdown in demand, they will also delay investment, and gdp will decline further. one of the most important factors contributing to a country’s foreign currency inflow and country’s development is foreign trade. the export in january – july 2020 comprised 1758.5 million usd. there was a decrease of approximately 17 % over the last year, while import amounted to 4272.1 million usd, or 18 % less. according to the national statistics office of georgia, trade balance during january-july 2015-2020 of the country is negative (national statistics office of georgia, 2020). http://www.geostat.ge/ georgian geographical journal fig.8 shows that in january-july 2020 the share of the top ten trading partners by exports in the total exports of georgia amounted to 77.2 percent. the top partners were china (usd 248.3 million -14%), azerbaijan (usd 230.7 million -13.1%) and russia (usd 229.1 million – 13.0%). fig. 7. general data on external trade of georgia in january-july 2015-2020 (million usd). source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge fig. 8. top trading partners by exports in january-july 2020 source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge according to fig.9, below, we can see that in january-july 2020 the share of the top ten trading partners by import in the total imports of georgia amounted to 70 percent. the top 3 partners were turkey (usd 728.6 million -17% of total imports), russia (usd 473.0 million -11% of total imports) and china (usd 379.3 million – 9.0% of total imports). 1268.2 1124.3 1457.2 1885.4 2113.4 1758.5 4104.6 3924.9 4274.3 5329.1 5201.4 4272.1 -2836.4 -2800.6 -2817.1 -3443.7 -3088 -2513.6 -4000 -2000 0 2000 4000 6000 2015 januaryjuly 2016 januaryjuly 2017 januaryjuly 2018 januaryjuly 2019 januaryjuly 2020 januaryjuly export import balance china 14% azerbaijan 13% russia 13% bulgaria 11% turkey 7% armenia 6% ukraine 5% switzerland 3% spain 3% united states 2% other countries 23% china azerbaijan russia bulgaria turkey armenia ukraine switzerland spain united states other countries http://www.geostat.ge/ http://www.geostat.ge/ dzhvarsheishvili and gogrichiani fig. 9. top trading partners by imports in january july 2020 source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge the data from national statistics office of georgia illustrates that copper ores and concentrates ($391.3 million 22.3 percent of total exports) claimed first place in the list of top export items of georgia during january-july 2020, second place is motor cars ($198.5 million -11.3%) and third place – ferro-alloys ($130.1 million 7.4 %), while the three top imported commodities were in january-july 2020 were– 1.motor cars ($383.4 million 9% of the total imports); 2.copper ores and concentrates ($290.8 million 6.8 %); 3.petroleum and petroleum oils ( $278.6 million 6.5 % ). trade of all commodities, except for food and medicine, is projected to decline, depending on the duration of the shock. the data from national statistics office of georgia shows that significantly decreased imports from the different countries such as china 24%, usa 30% and european union, approximately 45%. georgia is an import consumer country, which means that the local production cannot meet country's economy, which is why a chronical trade imbalance is in place in the country. under such condition’s exports decrease due to the “paused” economy (shengelia, 2020). according to national statistics office of georgia, in july 2020 the domestic producer price index for industrial products (dppi) increased by 0.3 percent compared to the previous month. in the mentioned period the prices for electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning were 2.1 percent higher. compared to july 2019 the dppi increased by 4.0 percent. the prices went up for manufactured products by 5.5%, for mining and quarrying products by 5.9 percent and for products from electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning by 3.0 percent. with regard to the annual core inflation, the prices increased by 6.6 percent. let’s consider business sector and the production value of it. as evident from fig.10 below, there is a growth tendency in the production value of the business sector. turkey 17% russia 11% china 9% azerbaijan 7% united states 6% armenia 6% germany 5% ukraine 5% italy 2% japan 2% other countries 30% turkey russia china azerbaijan united states armenia germany ukraine italy japan other countries http://www.geostat.ge/ georgian geographical journal fig. 10. change in the production value by quarters (billion gel) source: created by the authors based on data from national statistics office of georgia www.geostat.ge in the first quarter of 2020, its volume equaled to 10.3 billion gel, which compared with the iv quarter of 2019 declined by 23%. tourism is one of the important sectors for the economic growth in georgia. in 2020, tourism arrivals and receipts declined sharply as a result of the numerous travels bans and precautionary measures. inevitably, shutting down hotels, restaurants, cafes and bars, closing all ski resorts in the middle of the skiing season, closing the borders to passenger travel and banning foreign nationals from entering the country along with suspending the air traffic was what hit the tourism industry the most; mills (2020). due to the pandemic this sector is losing approximately 30 million gel per month; report news agency (2020). in the modern context of the relations between the european union and georgia especially noteworthy is that the european union member states had finally approved the list of 15 countries, including georgia, considered as safe country due to epidemiological situation, (papava, 2020) which could cautiously have contributed to restarting the tourism industry even under the coronavirus conditions. georgia opened its doors to foreign tourists after months of lockdown domestic tourism started on 15 june and international tourists were admitted to country since july 1st. a total of 1 236 tourists visited georgia between july 22 – august 15, 2020, including georgian citizens with dual citizenship in 14 countries, or those who have the right of long-term residence abroad (agenda.ge news, 2020). due to pandemic the world bank provided $80 million in financial support to georgia to help the government’s efforts to mitigate and address the health and social impacts of the covid-19 infection (the world bank, 2020). remittances also play an important role in the georgian economy. as shown on fig.11, [national bank of georgia (2020)] in the time of covid-19, remittances from other countries reduced as well. in april 2020, its volume equaled to $79078.5mill., which compared with the february 2020 indicators declined by 58%. people during february april 2020 in other countries had less money to send to their families and relatives under a “paused” economy (papava and charaia, 2020). most of the remittances come from russia, italy, usa, greece and israel, and due to pandemic 6.5 7.5 8.2 8.8 7.5 8.9 10.3 10.5 8.7 10 10.7 11.5 9.5 11.2 12.8 13.4 10.3 http://www.geostat.ge/ dzhvarsheishvili and gogrichiani remittances from those countries in the period from february to april are also reduced. fig. 11. remittances by country (february april 2020) usd million source: created by the authors based on data from national bank of georgia www.nbg.gov.ge conclusion the spread of the coronavirus disease had a considerable negative impact on the economy of georgia and increases poverty level and economic imbalance. based on the above-mentioned facts, we may conclude that the pandemic had an adverse influence on the health system and economics of the whole world. this virus spreads rapidly. in pandemic time georgia had high unemployment rate, people lost their jobs, which led to reduction in consumption. the pandemic acted as a main factor of the decline in gdp and fdi. as a result of the restrictions on travel, the tourism sector was among severely hit sectors, therefore, when demand decreases for services industry, other sectors also decrease their production, since their product is now less needed as an intermediate good; galt and taggart (2020). moreover, based on the information and statistics provided by the national statistics office of georgia, we observed a considerable decrease in the volumes of exports and imports as well. remittances are an essential pillar of the georgian economy – this type of income has also significantly decreased in the time of pandemic and is missing from the families as well as from the entire economy. however, there is also a huge opportunity for the government to refresh georgian economy in the future. it is important to attract more foreign investors to invest in the country’s economy, to pay more attention to promoting local production, which will enable the government to reduce the unemployment rate. the focus should be on the development of regions in the areas of agriculture, manufacture, medicine, biotechnology and healthcare system and digital economics (abesadze, 2020). it is also important to properly promote the sciences in all fields. the situation with pandemic in georgia is extraordinary, each new day brings a new picture of reality (kovzanadze, 2020). but in any case, we should be optimistic because, optimism brings new opportunities and new challenges. 1 3 7 ,3 2 5 .5 2 8 ,6 8 1 .2 2 1 ,6 6 6 .1 1 4 ,3 9 2 .5 1 6 ,4 2 9 .5 1 4 ,4 4 3 .6 1 2 5 ,8 6 5 .4 2 5 ,3 8 5 .5 1 7 ,3 0 6 .3 1 5 ,0 9 8 .1 1 6 ,2 3 6 .3 1 1 ,7 7 7 .9 7 9 ,0 7 8 .5 1 3 ,1 1 5 .2 1 3 ,3 6 3 .2 9 ,7 4 1 .1 1 0 ,1 5 2 .5 6 ,8 7 5 .0 t o t a l r u s s i a n f e 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world bank (29.04.2020). world bank pledges 80 million usd to support georgia’s response to covid -19 pandemic. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/04/29/world-bank-pledges-80million-to-support-georgias-response-to-covid-19-pandemic report news agency (26.02.2020). georgia to see 30-million gel loss due to coronavirus. https://report.ge/en/economics/georgia-to-see-30-million-gel-loss-due-to-coronavirus/ agenda.ge news (19.08.2020). over 1200 tourists visited georgia between july 12 and august 15. https://www.agenda.ge/en/news/2020/2585 civil.ge (21.03.2020) georgian parliament authorizes state of emergency over coronavirus. https://civil.ge/archives/343627 civil.ge (31.05.2020). covid-19 in georgia live blog. https://civil.ge/archives/358730 national bank of georgia (2020). https://www. nbg.gov.ge https://www.geostat.ge/media/33026/external-merchandise-trade-of-georgia-in-january-july-2020.pdf 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https://civil.ge/archives/343627 https://civil.ge/archives/358730 georgian geographical journal 2021, vol. 1(1) 84-87 100 birth anniversary of garsevan kurdgelaidze restless person and researcher koba kharadze1 garsevan kurdghelaidze was the first georgian scientist who entered antarctica continent. the investigation-research of ice cover of antarctic, atlantic ocean and breathtaking nature of georgia is related to his name. station “pionerskaya” (antarctica) 1958 garsevan kurdghelaidze was born on 11 of october, 1920in village shenako, tusheti. he was educated at kvemo alvani secondary school (akhmeta municipality), which graduated in 1938 and started job in his native region. during second world war he was crushing battalion member in telavi region. in 1951 he enrolled geography-geology faculty of tbilisi state university and in 1956 accomplished with hydrology-climatology specialty. after graduation he returned to his native tusheti, where was head of hydrometeorological station during two years. in 1957 he was invited to participate in soviet 3 antarctica expedition, there he stayed in antarctica scientific-research station “pionerskaya” till 1959.in extremely difficult meteorological conditions he showed himself as qualified 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi state university. tbilisi, 0178, georgia georgian geographical journal professional researcher geographer and deserved a number of appreciations from expedition leaders. the expedition researches resulted in his book – “diary of antarctica” (1962), where he gathered interesting materials and impressions. the book became very popular among school pupils. garsevan kurghelaidze was invited twice in oceanological expeditions on ship “monsoon” of soviet hydrometeorological service, which investigated atlantic ocean in 1970 and 1971 years. the gulf stream current was of key interest for that period. the batimetric and hydrometeorological observations were performed with his direct participation. and again, expedition leaders admired his high skills, moral and marine features. in his science archive there were filed awards and deeds. garsevan kurdghelaidze started work at vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography of georgian academy of science; where under supervision of prof. davit tsereteli was initiated glaciological researches on caucasus glaciers. experiences scientist garsevan kurdghelaidze leaded georgian glaciologists expedition and during years diligently worked on glaciers and rivers. he created more than 50 papers based on this work, most of them are published. he participated in the construction of georgian glaciers catalogue, which was published in sankt-petersburg on 1975. the interests of garsevan kurdghelaidze weren’t scoped by only glaciology. he greatly contributed in caves research and participated in abkhazeti-samegrelo speleological expeditions: descended in deep gaps, conducted hydrometric and meteorological measurements, studied carst springs and underground rivers. skilled hydrometeorologist worked with great responsibility and attentiveness in sioni expedition of institute of geography, where diligently performed complex observations. he published several interesting articles based on obtained materials. garsevan kurdghelaidze in oceanological expedition on ship “monsoon” (atlantic ocean) kharadze k. one of garsevan kurdghelaidze’s deeds as true naturalist garsevan kurdghelaidze was the person of poetic soul. he treated nature as the object of special care and expressed this in his enormous letters, stories, sketches, poems and beautiful tales that were published in journals and magazines. his great life experience and incomparable narrative ability strongly attracted children and they selflessly listened to travelers’ stories-imaginations alloyed with adventures and rich fantasy. garsevan kurdghelaidze often participated in amateur talent activities, where he deserved rewards for his original workpieces. he breathed life into dead branches, chucks and gave them amazing expressions of animals or objects. my (author) bookshelves is decorated a lot of such creations absolute gifted from him. two workpieces by garsevan kurdghelaidze georgian geographical journal along his life garsevan kurdghelaidze didn’t lost connection with his native land where he was born and grew up. he published monograph about his native land – “tusheti (agriculture, nature, toponyms)”, where the love of country native son toward country-seat is inwrought. garsevan kurdghelaidze actively cooperated with georgian geographical society. he gave interesting speeches and published articles in society proceedings. he met with pupils, youths and teachers numerously. unfortunately, garsevan kurdghelaidze suddenly died at the age of 63 (12 october 1983) and was buried in village zemo alvani. a lot of memos were published in magazines and journals. luckily his friends, colleagues and natives remember luminous face of fidgety researcher and creator. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 24-33 environmental and anthropogenic factors in the development of geodynamical processes in racha elene salukvadze1* abstract the work describes and assesses the main physical-geographical and anthropogenic factors in the development and characteristic activation of geodynamic processes in racha. the morphometric (hypsometric, mountain sloping, slope aspect) values are calculated and described. the paper also touches on the quantitative data that give the characteristics of the relief, climate, soil and vegetation cover and influence the development and activation of geodynamical processes. for studying the tasks mentioned above, we selected the mountainous region – racha (municipalities of ambrolauri and oni). for the studies, together with literary material and different sources, we used cartographic material, the landscape maps (1970, 1983) and the topographic map (scale; 1:100 000) of georgia and transcaucasia and the observation materials of the field expedition made in 2019-2021 in racha. racha is a mountainous region characterized by complex relief and geological structure. here, nearly all kinds of hazardous geodynamical processes such as landslides, mudflows, erosion, rock flows, avalanches, karst and suffosive phenomena are observed, though the most frequent are landslides, mudflows erosive processes and washing-off of river banks. the activation of the geodynamical process and the hazard of large-scale development of gravitational phenomena are extremely increased because the whole region territory is prone to earthquakes of intensity vii-ix. among the most critical factors in geodynamical processes are geological, geomorphological, climatic, and anthropogenic factors. the data on the triggering factors of the main geodynamical processes – erosion, landslide, mudflow, etc. in racha are given in the tables and diagrams of the paper. keywords: geodynamical processes, erosion, landslide, mudflow, racha introduction racha is located in the north-eastern part of west georgia, on the southern slopes of the central caucasus and is bordered by the main watershed of the caucasus, the ridges of lechkhumi and racha. the territory of racha is one of the mountainous regions of georgia, where erosive and other hazardous geodynamical processes (landslides, mudflows, avalanches, rock flows, etc.) take place in different degrees (fig.1). figure 1. hazardous geodynamical processes in racha the economic damage caused by them is enormous and dangerous for the environment. among all the well-known geodynamical processes in racha erosion (with different types), landslides and mudflows are the most hazardous phenomena. among the factors, which have a unique role in generating geodynamical hazardous processes, the main ones are the lithological structure, history of the relief development and age, morphologic characteristics of the mountain region, hydrologic conditions, behaviour of soil and vegetation cover and also anthropogenic factors. study area region racha, is located in the northeastern part of west georgia on the central caucasus (fig.2), on the south slopes of the main ridge of the caucasus includes two administrative centers: municipalities 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university. tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: elene.salukvadze@tsu.ge salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) of ambrolauri and oni. characteristically the complex, segmented relief and severe climate conditions, high-hypsometric location, extreme land shortage, great inclination of slopes. region distinguished for its diversity in nature. 22% of the territory is occupied with lowlands, 78% is covered with mountains and foothills with high-mountainous, middle-mountainous and low-mountainous type reliefs. the greater part of racha is occupied by mountainous forests and alpine valleys. the lowlands consist of a succession of small uplands and a pit and is covered by shrubs, meadows and mostly by anthropogenic landscapes [1]. figure 2. location of the study area methods and materials the research is based on a complex physical-geographic, field, cartographic, semi-stationary observation methods. the research was based on the existing published literary and foundation material about racha region. namely, landscape map georgia [2] and transcaucasus medium-sized landscape map [3], also topographic maps racha region (scale: 1: 50 000, 1: 100 000) [4] and statistic data. the important component was the field expedition research conducted in 20192021. results and discussion complex fractured relief characterizes the territory of racha, clearly expressed vertical zonality and diversity of soil-climatic conditions. its complexity of natural factors that are the reason for the intensity of erosive processes distinguishes the region of racha. rocks, particularly prone to erosion, are widely distributed here. regarding geomorphology, the territory of racha includes the following vast orographic elements: the main ridge of the caucasus, the shoda-kedela ridge, the gorge of the river rioni, the racha depression (the racha syncline), and the northern slopes of the racha ridge. in the relief's development, together with tectonic and erosive-accumulative, karst, gravity and other processes, the modern and old glaciations have an active role. its complex geological structure distinguishes the relief of racha. the top of the caucasus ridge has a horst-anticline structure. its crystalline core reaches 4000-4500 m above sea level and is outcropped because of erosive processes; it is composed of prepalaeozoic and palaeozoic granite, gneiss and schist [5]. several structural-tectonic zones are distinguished in the system of the folded southern slopes of the caucasus. the relief of the mountainous racha depression is built of lower jurassic noncarbonated flysch sediments–sandstone, slate, etc. the shoda-kedela ridge is composed of upper jurassic and lower cretaceous carbonate flysch sediments (limestone, marl, sandstone, and slate). the eastern part of racha (the depressions of upper racha and oni-sori) is composed of lias slate, sandstone and bajocian porphyry. the racha-lechkhumi syncline, which in relief coincides with depression with the same name, is built of oligocene and miocene sediments–clay, sandstone, conglomerate and limestone [6]. in the development of geodynamic processes, the orographic properties of the territory, hypsometric disposition and exposition, sloping of the relief surface, fragmentation degree, etc., are of great significance (table 1.). salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) table 1. altitudinal subdivision of racha elevation (m) area km2 k % of the total area of racha 300-500 13.7 0.55 500-1000 265.0 10.7 1000-1500 730.4 29.4 1500-2000 834.8 33.8 2000-2500 291.8 11.8 2500-3000 181.6 7.5 3000 3500 105.3 4.2 3500> 45.4 1.8 total 2468 100 the table shows that most area of racha are occupied with middle-mountainous relief (33.8%). the hypsometric zones express the considerable fragmentation degree of the surface of the territory of racha. length of the mountain slope, exposition, and form immediately influenced the washing-off process in the soil. relief sloping has a significant role in the speed of water flow and erosive energy. we distinguished gradations of surface deviation values on the study territory as described below (table 2.). table 2. sloping surface of relief of racha slope area km2 % of the total area of racha 0 -5° 172.4 6.9 5-10° 295.8 11.9 10-15° 355.2 14.3 15-20° 377.3 15.2 20-25° 375.2 15.2 25-30° 359.5 14.5 30-35° 291.7 11.8 35-45° 183.9 7.4 45° > 57.2 2.8 total 2468 100 as shown in the table, the moderately sloped relief (15-20%, 20-25%) occupies most of the area, totally of 30.4%, extremely sloped relief (25-30%) covers 14.5%, steep slopes (30-35%) make 19.2% and sheer cliffs cover 2.8% of the territory. the arable lands that are on slopes with over 35° declination are prone to liquid impact erosion and require soil-conserving activities. in racha, the modern erosive processes are widely distributed in flysch, terrigenous and volcanic sediments. in the existing relief conditions, the erosive processes differ from one another in activities and have different strengths at different places. erosive processes have destroyed or partially made gullies on hundreds of hectares of arable lands, ruined roads and bridges, homes, etc. in racha, there are two kinds of erosion: vertical and lateral. surface washing-off (with soil erosion) is widely distributed here. in most of the territory, vertical erosion is observed. it is observed in the areas of nearly all tributaries of the rivers rioni and jejori because of the great thickness of the deluvium cover, an abundance of atmospheric precipitations and flow of underground waters at little depths [7]. vertical erosion is extreme during summer rains and snow melting periods. at the same time, vertical erosion becomes more severe because of ploughing activities on slopes, which are highly slanted. it is hazardous regarding the development of liquid impact erosion. lateral erosion is observed almost everywhere, and hundreds of hectares of fertile soil are degraded for this reason. terraces are intensively washed down in town ambrolauri, villages of sori, shardometi, chrebalo, etc. on different exposition slopes, the processes of snow melting warming of soil and vegetation differ, namely, snow melts earlier on the south exposition slopes of the racha ridges than on the north exposition slopes. it, in its turn, develops different regimes in the hydrologic network. additionally, different exposition slopes receive a different quantity of atmospheric precipitation that, together with lithological composition, is in close relation with the development of landslides, avalanches and erosive processes (fig.3). salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 3. slope exposition of racha the diagram of the slope exposition distribution on the territory of racha shows that mainly southern, south-eastern and south-western slopes dominate the study territory. the slope expositions influence the intensity of shadowing and lighting and the soil temperature of a slope. the north exposition slopes receive less direct solar radiation during a whole year than the horizontal exposition surfaces, while the south exposition slopes have more of it. it is the same in the cases of other climatic elements. besides relief and lithological structure, the climate factor is also significant. namely, the number of precipitations and temperature are the most important. racha is located in the humid subtropical zone of west georgia. considerable distance from the sea, morphological and morphometric properties of the relief define the climate here. the climate in racha is transient from humid subtropical to continental. erosion, potential hazards of landslides and mudflows are influenced by precipitation quantity. on the one hand, precipitation distribution during a whole year is more significant for the generation of erosion (table 3). table 3. distribution during a whole year in racha object month (mm) i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii per year daily max (mm) ambrolauri 79 86 86 86 105 99 81 80 87 99 94 93 1075 92 oni 77 81 81 84 103 98 80 79 86 98 92 89 105 1050 98 utsera 110 115 115 120 149 140 113 112 122 141 132 126 1495 130 shovi 95 102 103 101 122 114 91 92 102 118 115 109 1234 115 kharistvala 162 162 175 177 215 202 164 163 177 202 195 184 2178 160 khvanchkara 78 82 83 85 106 100 81 80 87 101 91 90 1067 90 according to the table, the seasonal distribution of atmospheric precipitations over the whole territory of racha is: there are two peaks of precipitation fall: maximum–in may (105-215 mm) and in october (99-202 mm), minimum–in august (79-163 mm) and in january (79-162 mm). on the territory of racha, the most quantity of atmospheric precipitations is observed in kharistvala (2178 mm annually) that is mainly conditioned by its orographic conditions [8, 9]. the precipitation quantity during one rainfall is also significant. flow formation and erosion development are highly influenced by precipitation intensity, i.e., the quantity (mm) of precipitation that falls in a unit of time. during heavy rains, when raindrops fall on the surface so rapidly that the soil cannot absorb it, a surface flow is formed, and it washes the soil off. the more persistent and longlasting the torrential rain is, the more dramatic is the effect of the erosive processes. during drizzling rains, soil washing-off is not observed, even in case of a high quantity of precipitations, or it is quite inconsiderable. salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) the number of days with precipitations and their territorial distribution is especially significant for mountainous regions. during this period, the precipitation quantity was ≥ 30.0 mm. this volume of precipitations is mostly observed in the warm period. the number of such days in racha is 1-4 [10]. the number of days with ≥ 20.0 mm is also considerable (table 4). table 4. the number of days with different quantities of precipitations object month tve i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii per year aambrolauri 14.2 13.5 14.0 13.0 14.8 12.7 10.8 9.7 10.1 11.5 10.9 12.8 148 oni 11.6 10.9 11.5 12.4 12.7 14.6 13.3 10.6 9.2 9.9 10.2 10.5 11.6 138 shovi 15.5 15.6 17.0 16.5 19.8 18.3 15.4 13.3 13.6 13.8 12.2 13.6 185 ≥ 5.0 mm aambrolauri 6.0 10.9 5.2 5.2 4.3 5.6 5.5 3.8 4.1 4.9 6.4 4.8 5.7 62 oni 4.7 10.9 4.6 5.1 5.4 6.4 6.0 4.9 4.4 4.9 5.5 5.3 5.3 62 shovi 5.3 10.9 5.9 5.4 6.2 7.4 7.6 6.2 6.3 6.3 6.0 4.4 4.3 71 ≥ 20.0 mm aambrolauri 0.8 10.9 1.0 0.4 0.5 0.7 1.0 0.8 0.9 1.2 1.5 1.1 1.0 11 oni 0.6 10.9 0.6 0.5 0.6 0.9 1.0 1.0 0.9 1.0 1.2 1.1 0.8 10 shovi 1.0 10.9 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.4 1.2 1.2 1.5 1.3 1.8 0.9 0.9 21 the table shows that in the region of racha, the number of days with ≥ 0.1 mm atmospheric precipitation is observed at 400-800 m above sea level and reaches its maximum in spring–13.0-14.8, totally 138-148 days annually. below this height, the number of days with ≥ 5.0 mm precipitation is 4.3-6.4, a total of 62-71 days annually. some days with ≥ 20.0 mm atmospheric precipitation reaches its maximum in summer and autumn1.0 -1.5, totally 10-11 days annually, while above 800-1600m a.s.l. the number of days with precipitation grows, consecutive wet days (precipitation ≥ 0,1 mm) totalling 16.5-19.8, the number of days with ≥ 5.0 mm atmospheric precipitation reaches its maximum in spring 6.7 -7.4 days and summer 5.4-7.6 days. the number of days with ≥ 20.0 mm atmospheric precipitation reaches its maximum in spring 1.0-1.4 days and summer 1.2-1.5 days, 21 days annually. sometimes, recurrence of torrents and their intensity is 3-4 mm/min with a duration of 2-3 hours, maximum intensity–1.9-6 mm/min. erosion development is also conditioned by solid precipitation such as snow. the thickness of the snow cover and the frozen soil cover, and the intensity of snow melting associated with it influenced the intensity of erosive processes. a thick snow cover protects the soil and its deep layers from freezing (when 2̵0, 25° and lower temperatures). moreover, it contributes to its thawing by the warmth coming from the lower layers of the soil. during the snow melting process, an unfrozen soil more easily absorbs moisture and, in this way, decreases the surface flow. the snow cover thickness varies between 19 and 55 cm at 400-800 m above sea level. at 800-1600 m, it is 69-79 cm; at 1600-2000 m and higher, the snow cover thickness is 110-140 cm. the speed of the snow melting process depends on the direction and exposition of a slope. rapid melting is observed on southern, south-eastern and south-western slopes, as far as they are pretty warmed by the sun. the process is observed 5-10 days later on the southern slopes than on the southern ones. therefore, erosion caused by thaw water is more frequent on southern slopes. air temperature influences liquid impact erosion mainly in spring, during the snow melting period. the rapid increase in temperature in this period causes a rise in the speed of the snow melting process that makes good conditions for the generation of the large flow of thaw water. the higher the air temperature, the more severe is the erosion (table 5). table 5. average air temperature in spring and average dates of snow melting object month tve snowpack breakdown snow melting iii iv v ambrolauri 5.5 11.3 15.8 21. iii oni 4.2 9.8 14.4 2. iii 29. iii utsera -1.2 3.8 9.6 11. iv 23. iv shovi 5.6 11.2 16.3 18. iii kharistvala -1.1 4.1 8.4 9. iv 19. iv khvanchkara -0.2 5.5 11.7 7. iv 18. iv salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) according to the table, at 400-800 m above sea level, the snow cover melts on 18-29 march (chrebalo, ambrolauri, oni), at 800-1200 m–on 18 april and at 1200-1600 m–on 19-23 april (ghebi, shovi) [9]. erosive processes are highly influenced by considerable variation in daily air temperature. in racha, the average annual air temperature varies from 11.4° to 2̵.4°. the coldest month is january (0̵.2°, 1̵2°) and the hottest month is august (23.8°). in most of the territory (at 500-1600 m above sea level), the annual temperature amplitude is 22°-23°, whereas, in the high-mountainous zone, it is 19°. in spring, low temperature at night causes soil freezing. during the daytime, the thin soil layer’s surface thaws become saturated with water is easily washed off. while studying erosive processes, it is essential to consider the structure of the soil cover and the water permeability of the soil, on which the value of the surface runoff depends and which is the primary reason for soil washing-off. therefore, the water permeability of soil should be considered while undertaking anti-erosive activities and assessing a potential erosion hazard. in the study region, when the daily quantity of the atmospheric precipitations is 100-120 mm and more during torrential rains, and there is a significant slanting of slopes, then liquid impact erosion occurs. in the zone of forest dark, grey and humus-carbonate soil, on the 10-15° slopes, where hoeing cultures are grown, after one torrential rain (0.5 mm/min), 20-25 t/ha soil is washed off (table 6). table 6. washing soil off arable lands municipality arable lands completely (thousand ha) relief inclination washing soil off arable lands in year t/ha degree of soil erosion metric t/ha low medium high ambrolauri 2.7 15-200 5-10 1.0 0.8 0.3 oni 1.4 250> 5-10; 20-25 0.7 0.5 0.1 on the territory of racha, in ambrolauri municipality, from moderately slanting slopes (15-20°), 510 t/ha soil is washed off annually, while in oni municipality, 20-25 t/ha soil is washed off on extremely slanting (over 25°) slopes [11]. erosion is in close relation to vegetation cover. vegetation cover continuously decreases the development of erosion or completely stops it. vegetation cover is also essential for improving the soil structure. it raises water permeability, i.e., contributes to anti-erosive stability. we may distinguish three main categories of plants regarding soil-conserving: forest plants, natural-grassy plants, and cultural plants [12]. the soil-conserving value of forest vegetation is determined by a crown and form of timber trees, plant age, undergrowth and grass cover and blanket, and their use in economics. the most quantity of soil is washed off at bare places and the least–in the forests of 0.5-0.6 density. in spring, during heavy rains (1.37 mm/min), oak-oriental hornbeam forest of density 0.8 decreases surface liquid flow 17-folds, pine forest–8 times, fir-deciduous forest–9 times and closed grass cover– 1.8-2.9 times, e. i., during the period of intensive snow melting process the role of grass cover as of a liquid regulator is significantly decreased compared to the forest [13]. anthropogenic economic activities often harm the soil-conserving function of the forest. forest clearance causes soil degradation, especially in forests where density is less than 0.5 as far as forest blanket and undergrowth is cleared. in the regions of racha, where forests are chopped down, and cattle graze at forest edges and in sparse forests, the water permeability of forest soil becomes considerably low, and the surface liquid flow increases 10-15 times. the soil-conserving value of natural grassy plants is determined by its florist composition, perspective coverage ratio, turning into the meadow, the system of roots in the meadow, saturation of the soil with roots. resistance of soil against washing-off depends on morphologic properties of plants, namely, on the root system. the most effective soil-conserving properties are observed in the communities, where grains and many grasses with root runners and roots dominate in the meadow composition. annual plants are characterized by the worst soil-conserving properties. soil-conserving properties are not entirely characteristic of bush-grass, mat-grass, common bentgrass. at the same time, we should note that the species mentioned above, except bush-grass, are resistant to grazing, through meadows of mixed grasses salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) of bush-grass and bentgrass-bushgrass are most frequently mowed contributes to the development of erosive processes. the principal role regarding soil-conserving is assigned to above-ground parts of plants and projective plant cover of the surface. for example, a decrease in projective cover by 70-80% increases surface flows, though the soil is not almost washed off. a decrease in projective cover by 50% increases the surface flow, and washing-off also occurs. a decrease in projective cover by 30-40% makes washing-off significant. after a decrease by less than 30% in projective cover, the surface flow and washing-off are incredibly high, and many gullies and narrow valleys are formed. the higher the grassy cover and the more the number of layers, the more the soil is protected from the mechanical influence of rain. in the local development of erosion, the significance is the mosaic layout of the plant community. the larger the mosaic, the greater the risk of erosion. the intensity of soil washing-off also depends on different agricultural species. the most soilconserving properties against erosion are characteristic of perennial grass species (i soil-conserving category), annual grassy species and autumn (ii soil-conserving category), and spring (iii soilconserving category), cereal crops are characterized with less soil-protecting properties while hoeing species have the least soil-conserving properties. thus, the soil-protecting roles of different cultures vary and depend on the projective cover of the land surface and the state of the root system. the analyses of literary data [13-15] and field investigation enable us to distinguish the four soil-conserving categories of forest vegetation (table 7). table 7. soil protection categories of forest vegetation category of forest vegetation frequency of forest plantations main woody species condition of forest high resistance to erosion 0.9-0.8 oak and oriental hornbeam forest, hornbeam forest. projection coverage between trees 90%-80%; medium resistance to erosion 0,7-0.6 spruce and deciduous forest (chestnut, beech, lime, ash, maple). projection coverage between trees 70% 60%; sparse undergrowht, grassy cover is not common, forest floor is intact. low resistance to erosion less than 0.5 pine forests; bilberry, sea buckthorn, juniper and etc. projection coverage between trees 50% 40%; weakly developed undergrowth; forest floor is undeveloped or degraded. very low resistance to erosion less than 0,3 pontic rhododendron, cherry laurel, bladder-nut, hawthorn, dogwood, medlar, bilberry and etc.; grassy plants: bushgrass, mat-grass, common bentgras. projection coverage between trees is less than 30%, the herbaceous layer is not developed or only weakly developed; the undergrowth is sparse to absent; the forest floor is severely degraded. erosive processes, especially lateral erosion, are one reason for landslide formation. the main factor that causes generation and activation of landslide processes are complex geologic structure, distribution of rocks with low physical properties on large areas, deep fragmentation of relief and excess of extremely slanted surfaces, a large number of tectonic clefts, high seismic activity, variation of climate conditions and contrasting meteorological elements. activation of landslide processes highly depends also on anthropogenic economic activities. the areas of some landslides reach hundreds of hectares. for example, in oni municipality, the area of the somitso landslide is 550 ha, the zhashkva landslide area is 1500 ha, the volumes of which vary from several thousand m3 to tens and hundreds of millions of cubic meters. the volume of the chorda landslide is 150 mln m3, and the zhashkva landslide volume is 200 mln m3 (in oni municipality), etc. the most active landslides are observed in parakheti, shardometi, tsedisi and ghebi. the 1991 racha earthquake with magnitude 7.2 and intensity ix, which along with the 1988 spitak earthquake (armenia), is the strongest among the earthquakes recorded in the caucasus so far, in village chorda triggered a massive landslide (volume 150 mln m3) that destroyed the village of 70 households. salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) landslides with volumes of 170-200 mln m3 were formed on the territories of zhashkva and bajikhevi [16]. figure 4. frequency of landslides in racha the upper cretaceous eocene sandy-clayey and lower cretaceous and jurassic clayey facies rocks are prone to a significant risk of high-intensity development of landslide processes. according to the landslide damage and hazard risk zoning of the territory of georgia, racha belongs to extremely high (0.9-0.7) and high (0.7-0.5) risk categories [16]. the landslide dynamics directly relate to the quantitative value of seasonal and annual atmospheric precipitations. landslide activation periods immediately coincide with the positive balance of atmospheric precipitations regarding average long-term value. based on the studies of the properties of geomorphologic and composing rocks, there are certain regularities in the formation of mudflow foci. foci transformed by erosion and erosion-landslide processes dominate in the foothills and low mountain zones; gravitational-landslide processes are observed in the middle mountain zone; in high mountain zones, gravitational processes are formed because of solifluction and snow avalanches. mudflows are formed in the alpine-nival belt, and socalled “glacial mudflows” are observed in quaternary glaciation sediments and moraine sediments of the modern glaciers [6]. the quantity of mudflows is increased because of exceeding the average longterm precipitation norm and anthropogenic load, especially forest clearance. according to the risk of damage caused by mudflow processes on the territory of georgia, the region of racha includes an extremely “great hazard” (0.8-0.6) area, which covers the middle mountain and high mountain belts of racha, the zones of jurassic slates and terrigene-carbonate flysch. it mainly covers the territory of oni municipality. the “considerable” mudflow area covers the middle mountain and low mountain belts in ambrolauri municipality and the low mountain belt in oni municipality. the area of “weak” (less than 0.01) mudflows covers the foothill zone, the part of the racha ridge built of carbonate rocks. mudflows are most characteristic of the rivers originating from the shoda-kedela ridge (the head river rioni): sakhrikilo, gizhura, shodura, lagora, sakaura. in summer 2020, as a result of the flood and mudflow caused by overflowing of the rivers sakaura (the right tributary of the river rioni) and rioni, the tbilisi-oni main highway was substantially damaged, a bridge collapsed, village lagvanta and several other villages were left entirely isolated from the regional centre and were enormously damaged. mudflows are also common in the basins of the rivers kondarula, tchioriskhevi, shkhiroruli, dagoruli, rubodzali, sasvanostskali, barula, shardometiskhvi, tcheshora, seva and parakheti. conclusion the analysis of the physical-geographical and anthropogenic factors of racha, which was conducted in order to reveal their influence on geodynamical processes, enables us to make the following conclusions: more than half (59.1%) of the total area of racha, which is mountainous and fragmented into deep gorges, includes the height belt of 1500 m and higher than 3500 m above sea level. among them, the middle mountain belt covers 33.8%, and the high mountain belt occupies 25.3% of the territory, where the relief surfaces are significantly slanted, making suitable conditions for developing geodynamical processes. arable lands are on the plateaus of river gorges and different declination salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) slopes of mountains. among them moderately declined (15-20°, 20-25°) reliefs cover 30.4% of the territory, remarkably declined–19.2% and sheer cliff relief–2.8%. the mountainous, extremely fragmented relief, the climatic conditions, often unreasonable economic activities (clearance of soil-conserving forests, wrong land farming activities on mountain slopes, washing-off of pastures) contributes to the rapid development of liquid impact erosion that later causes washing-off processes in the upper layers of arable lands. in the racha region, among 4.1 thousand ha of arable lands, the value of the soil washed off extremely slanted (over 25°) slopes is 20-25 t/ha annually. regarding the development of geodynamical processes, the most significant is heavy and intensive precipitations because of climatic conditions, when precipitation quantity is ≥20.0 mm ≥ 32.0 mm and, correspondingly, their number is 21 and 5 days a year. as to the lithological composition, significantly slanted slopes built up of lower and upper cretaceous neocomian eocene limestone, marl, sandstone, terrigenous flysch, argillaceous shale and sandstone are less resistant to erosive, landslide and mudflow processes. the vegetation cover plays a significant role regarding soil-conserving, especially the forests of timber trees. racha is abundant in forests. among them, high soil-conserving ability is characteristic of the forest vegetation, where projective cover between forests is 90-80%, and forest density is 0.9-0.8. these are oak-oriental hornbeam and oak-hornbeam forests, which can be assigned to the category of forest non-prone to erosion. however, when projective cover is less than 30%, and the density of forest vegetation is less than 0.4, the grass cover is badly developed, the undergrowth is sparse, or it does not exist at all, such type of forests should be considered as ones prone to erosion hazard. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. references [1] salukvadze, e., chaladze, t., gogidze, k. (2021). the natural resources potential and exploitation peculiarities of mountainous regions (on the example of lower racha). georgian geographical journal, 1(1), 42-53. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.258 [2] saneblidze, m., ukleba, d., khazaradze, r. (2000). christephore jakeli (1970) sakartvelos landshapturi ruk’a. [landscape map of georgia (1: 600 000)], tbilisi-moscow: main department of geodesy and cartography/russia, moscow: (in georgian). [3] ukleba, d., budagov, b., useibov, m., sokhadze, e., bagdasarov, a. (1983). landšaftnaja karta zakavkazija, glavnyi departament geodezii i kartografii [landscape map of the south caucasus, (1: 600 000)], main department of geodesy and cartography/ russia, moscow: (in russian). [4] map topographic racha region (1: 50 000, 1: 100 00) designed in 1950-63 and updated in 1976 by the russian military headquarters, moscow, 1976 (in russian). [5] gobejishvili, r. (2000). rach’a-lechkhumi//in: sakartvelos geograpia, nats’ili i, pizik’uri geograpia rachalechkhumi//in: geography of georgia, part i, [physical geography of georgia], tbilisi: metsniereba, 256-258 p.; (in georgian) [6] tsereteli, e., tsereteli, dj. (1985). osobennosti razvitija selevix processov v gruzii//in: geologičeskie uslovija razvitia celey v gruzii.[features of the development of mudflow processes on the territory of georgia],in: geological conditions for the development of mudflows in georgia//georgia, tbilisi: mecniereba, 9-15 p.; (in russian). [7] goishvili, b. (2012). rach’is geoekologia, geologia, stikiuri movlenebi da geokimiuri prots’esebi//in: rach’a: ts’arsuli, ats’mq’o, momavali/sakartvelos mets’nierebata ak’ademiis mtis problemebis k’ompleksuri shests’avlis k’omisia. [geoecology of racha, geology, hazards processes and geoshemical phenomena], in racha past, present, future. georgia, tbilisi, p. 94-96; (in georgian) [8] sakartvelos samets’niero da gamoq’enebiti klimaturi ts’nobari. [scientific and applied reference book of climate in georgia], (2004), part i., tbilisi: bakur sulakauri publishing, p. 55-82; (in georgian) [9] meladze, g., meladze, m. (2012). rach’a-lechkhumi-kvemo svaneti// in: sakartvelos dasavlet regionebis agroklimaturi resursebi//racha-lechkhumi-kvemo svaneti [in: agroclimatic resources of western regions of georgia], tbilisi: universali, p. 404-406 (in georgian) https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.258 salukvadze e. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) [10] javakhishvili, sh. (1977). atmosperuli nalek’ebi//in: sakartvelos klimatograpia [atmospheric precipitation], in: climatography of georgia. georgia,tbilisi: tbilisi university publishing house, p. 69-76 (in georgian) [11] gogichaishvili, g. (2012). niadagis ch’amoretkhiloba sakhnavi mits’ebidan, in: sakartvelos erovnuli atlasi [in: washing soil off arable lands] in:. national atlas of georgia, p. 74; (in georgian) [12] machavariani, v. (1987). erozia počv//in: generalnaja cxema protivoerozionnix meropriatyi gruzinskoy ssr na 1981-1990 godi i na period do 2000 goda. [soil erosion], in: general scheme of anti-erosion measures of the georgian ssr for 1981-1990 and for the period up to 2000/georgia, tbilisi, p. 132-136; (in russian) [13] kharaishvili, g. (1988). mtis tq’eebis ts’kaldats’viti da niadagdats’viti roli//in: tq’is roli bunebis dacvis sakmeshi [water protection and soil protection role of mountain forests], in: the role of forests in nature protection/ georgia,tbilisi:tsodna, p.14 -18 (in georgian) [14] zharkova, y. (1976). ocenka potencialnoy opasnosti erozii v svjazi rastitelnim pokrovom//in: ocenka i kartografirovanie erozionnoopasnix deflacionnix zemel.[ assessment of potential erosion hazards with regard to vegetation cover changes]. in: land erosion and deflation assessment and mapping. russia, moscow: moscow university publishing house, p. 94-96; (in russian) [15] kandelaki, t. (2012). rach’is regionis tq’is resursebi//in: rach’a: ts’arsuli, ats’mq’o, momavali/sakartvelos mets’nierebata ak’ademiis mtis problemebis k’ompleksuri shests’avlis k’omisia. [forest resources of the racha region], in: racha past, present, future. georgia, tbilisi, p. 286-290 (in georgian) [16] tatashidze, z., tsereteli, e., khazaradze, r. (2000). stikiuri bunebrivi movlenebi//in: in: sakartvelos geograpia, nats’ili i, pizik’uri geograpia [elemental narulal processes], in: geography of georgia, part i, [physical geography of georgia], tbilisi: metsniereba, 69-83p.; (in georgian). georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) on some accessory minerals in upper paleozoic granites of the khrami crystalline massif tamara tsutsunava1*, giorgi beridze1, irakli javakhishvili1 abstract the khrami crystalline massif is exposed within the black sea – central transcaucasian terrane (georgia). the massif is built up of preсambrian gneiss-migmatite complex, the packet of middle paleozoic (?) metasandstones and protrusions of mantle serpentinites; paleozoic gabbroids; middle-upper paleozoic granitoids and rocks of volcanogenic-sedimentary complexes and upper paleozoic quartz-porphyry granite-porphyry formations. a number of scientists have studied the granitoids of the khrami crystalline massif, but detailed investigations on some minerals using modern analytical facilities have not been conducted yet. the late variscan granitoids of the khrami massif are represented by biotite-hornblende-allanite-, biotite-microclineand biotite-garnet-bearing granites and aliaskites. we have studied in detail the accessory minerals garnet and allanite in the late variscan granites of the massif. their microprobe analysis has been performed. according to the microprobe analysis of the studied garnets, the centre of the crystal is homogeneous, while the peripheral part is zonal. the amount of feo decreases slightly from the centre to the periphery, while the amount of cao and mgo significantly decreases; a well-expressed increase in mno content is recorded. the variation in almandine content is insignificant. the amount of pyrope and grossular drops sharply from the centre to the periphery while the number of spessartine increases. the amount of al2o3 in all varieties of granitoids is similar. in our opinion, the garnet formation occurred in two stages: during the crystallization process of granitic magma and its subsequent post-magmatic stage. the core of the garnet was formed in the magmatic stage, but its periphery was in the cooling stage of granitic magma. according to the results of the microprobe study of allanite, the same two stages of their formation have been conducted: during the crystallization process of granitic magma and in its next post-magmatic stage. the genesis of allanite in the biotite-hornblende-allanite-bearing granites of the massif is due to the concentration of ree in the granitic magma and the introduction of calcium by hydrothermal solutions. these allanites belong to the cerium variety with high content of ce2o3, la2o3 and nd2o3. keywords: georgia, the khrami massif, accessory mineral, garnet, allanite. introduction the khrami crystalline massif is exposed within the black sea – central transcaucasian terrane in the territory of georgia [4]. it is a washed-out part of the horst-like uplift of the artvin-bolnisi belt. the massif is built up of a preсambrian gneiss-migmatite complex, the packet of middle paleozoic (?) allochthonous metasandstones exposed in the complex; protrusions of mantle serpentinites; paleozoic gabbroids; rocks of middle-upper paleozoic granitoids and volcanogenic-sedimentary complexes and upper paleozoic quartz-porphyry – granite-porphyry formations (fig. 1). the granitoids of the khrami crystalline massif has been studied by a number of scientists at different times [7, 16, 17, 11, 13, 14, 8, 9, 5, 1, 2, 3]. the late variscan granitoids of the khrami massif are represented by four varieties: biotitehornblende-allanite bearing, biotite-microcline bearing and biotite-garnet bearing granites and aliaskites. the mineralogical composition of biotite-microcline bearing granites and alaskites is as follows: quartz, plagioclase, microcline and biotite (in alaskites biotite is a secondary mineral); biotite-garnet bearing granites are represented by quartz, plagioclase, microcline, biotite and garnet; the constituent minerals of biotite-hornblende-allanite granites are quartz, plagioclase, microcline, biotite, hornblende and allanite. the age of the late variscan granitoids of the khrami crystalline massif is reliably established by the u-pb la icp ms zircon method. in particular, the data of analysis of 27 points correspond to the interval 321-331±6.0 ma [6]. 1 al. janelidze institute of geology, iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: tamara.tsutsunava@tsu.ge tsutsunava et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 1. schematic geological map of the khrami crystalline massif [6], with g. beridze additions [3]. 1 – pre-cambrian gneiss-migmatite complex; 2 – middle paleozoic(?) packet of metasandstones in the gneiss-migmatite complex; 3 – protrusives of mantle serpentinites; 4 – paleozoic gabbroids; 5-9 – late variscan granitoid complex: 5 – biotite-microcline bearing granites and alaskites; 6 – biotite-garnet bearing granites; 7 – biotite-hornblende-allanite bearing granites; 8 upper paleozoic quartz porphyries; 9 – upper paleozoic granite porphyries; 10 – middle-upper paleozoic volcanogenicsedimentary complex; 11 – mesozoic-cenozoic sedimentary rocks; 12 – ruptures; 13 – transgressive arrangement. methods and materials for the determination of minerals composition, a microprobe analysis of garnet and allanite has been carried out. the composition of minerals was determined using an electronic microprobe facility jeol jxa-8200, in the laboratory of the institute of geology of ore deposits, petrography, mineralogy and geochemistry of the russian academy of sciences, in moscow. the device is equipped with five long-wave dispersive x-ray spectrometers (wds) and one energy-dispersive xray spectrometer (eds). the analysis was performed with an accelerating voltage of 20 kv, a beam current of 20 na, and a beam size of 1-2 μm, with a 10-second counting time. all elements were measured along the ka1 analytical line. see the results of the analysis in table 1. results figure 2. a) biotite and allanite inclusions in garnet crystal, ppl (plane-polarized light) and b) xpl (cross-polarized light) we have studied in detail the accessory minerals garnet and allanite in the late variscan granites of the khrami crystalline massif. within the massif, biotite-garnet bearing granites are exposed in the area of the khrami hydroelectric power station-i on an area of ≈1-1.5 km2. they are leucocratic, coarse-grained porphyry rocks. the garnet content in the rock is 5-10%. the mineral is presented in tsutsunava et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) the form of well-defined tetragonal-trioctahedral crystals of 2-10 mm size. garnet grains contain apatite, biotite, zircon and allanite inclusions [11, 13] (fig. 2). figure 3. backscattered electron (bse) image of garnet crystal. figures indicate disposition of analyzed points. according to microprobe analysis and mineral composition data, the studied garnets are zonal (fig. 3): the centre of the crystal is homogeneous, while the peripheral part is clearly zonal. the amount of feo decreases slightly from the centre of the crystal to the periphery, while the amount of calcium and magnesium significantly decreases; a well-expressed increase in manganese content is recorded (fig. 4). as for the variations in the composition of minerals, they also show the same picture: the variation in the content of almandine is insignificant, the amount of pyrope and grossular drops sharply from the centre to the periphery, while the number of spessartine increases (fig. 5, table 1). figure 4. profiles of chemical composition in garnet. previous researchers believed that garnet in biotite-garnet bearing granites is of assimilative origin, which was due to the assimilation of clay rocks by the granitic magma [12]. our data do not prove this. the amount of al2o3 in biotite-garnet-, biotite-hornblende-allaniteand biotite-microcline bearing granites is similar; biotite-garnet bearing granites do not have a high tio2 content typical of hybrid granites [10, 2]; also, the increased amount of cao characteristic of contaminated granites is not recorded, while its content is 0.7-45% in uncontaminated granites. the magnesium content and the spessartine molecule are reduced to 5%. in our opinion, garnet formation took place in two stages: during the crystallization process of granitic magma and its subsequent post-magmatic stage. the core of the garnet was formed at the magmatic stage, in paragenesis bt+pl+or+grt+qz (mineral symbols are given as per whitney and evans [15]), but its periphery at the cooling stage of granitic magma (probably at 450-500℃ tsutsunava et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) temperature conditions), in paragenesis ab+mc+grt+qz±ms. this is based on the fact that existed in the rock the primary high-temperature plagioclases and potassium feldspars crystallized from the magma are transformed into low-temperature minerals (albite, which contains 1% anorthite molecule, and microcline, which contains 3% albite molecule) in the post-magmatic stage [3]. figure 5. profiles of minal content in garnet. although allanite is generally an accessory mineral, it is a rock-forming mineral in biotitehornblende-allanite bearing granites of the khrami crystalline massif [13, 14]. allanite is presented as tabular and well-defined prismatic crystals of greenish-brown colour; sometimes, it is twinned. biotite and sometimes garnet occur as inclusions in allanite (fig. 6). as for the presence of allanite in the other varieties of the granites distributed in the massif, it is appeared there as an accessory mineral and is spread sporadically. table 1. microprobe analysis (wt.%) of garnet from biotite-garnet bearing granites of the khrami crystalline massif (mean values of 9 crystals analysis) component garnet analysis 1 (core) 2 3 4 5 6 7 (margin) sio2 36.39 36.47 36.43 36.48 36.18 36.59 36.81 al2o3 20,91 20.86 20.76 20.77 20.84 20.60 20.48 feo 37.01 36.90 36.81 36.86 36.87 36.59 35.70 mno 1.87 1.94 1.9 2.31 3.06 3.79 6.49 mgo 2.27 2.29 2.37 1.96 1.53 1.23 0.70 cao 1.43 1.43 1.44 1.55 1.25 1.18 0.53 total 99.88 99.89 99.71 99.93 99.73 99.98 100.71 si 2.96 2.96 2.96 2.97 2.96 3.00 3.01 al 2.00 2.00 1.99 1.99 2.01 1.99 1.97 fe3+ 0.08 0.07 0.08 0.07 0.07 0.02 0.01 fe2+ 2.43 2.43 2.42 2.44 2.45 2.48 2.43 mn 0.13 0.13 0.13 0.16 0.21 0.26 0.45 mg 0.27 0.28 0.29 0.24 0.19 0.15 0.09 ca 0.12 0.12 0.13 0.14 0.11 0.10 0.05 x fe2+ 0.90 0.90 0.89 0.91 0.93 0.94 0.96 alm prp sps grs 0.84 0.08 0.04 0.04 0.84 0.08 0.04 0.04 0.84 0.09 0.04 0.04 0.84 0.07 0.04 0.04 0.85 0.05 0.06 0.04 0.84 0.04 0.08 0.04 0.83 0.03 0.13 0.01 a microprobe study of allanite has also been carried out (table 2). determinations were carried out both in the core of the crystals and on its peripheries (fig. 7). as a result of research, allanites of tsutsunava et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) magmatic and post-magmatic genesis have been established [1]. allanite of magmatic generation is characterized by well-defined crystalline forms and zoning and is often accompanied by secondary epidote rims (fig. 6). within the massif, allanite of metasomatic origin is also observed is characterized by irregular paddle-shaped crystals and various mineral inclusions. according to v.lyakhovich [10], the concentration of large amounts of allanite in biotite-hornblende-bearing granites is related to calcium enrichment. he assumed that the increased amount of allanite in granites is related to the process of their assimilation with sedimentary rocks. according to our data, this view is not confirmed. it is paragenetic with apatite, zircon, sphene and magnetite, which appear during the crystallization stage of granitic magma. figure 6. a) zonal allanite, ppl and b) allanite crystals with epidote rims, xpl. figure 7. bse image of allanite crystal from the khrami crystalline massif rocks. dots indicate disposition of analysis in the core and periphery of the crystal. as a result of the research, it was established that the allanites of the khrami massif granitoids belong to the cerium variety with a high content of ce2o3, la2o3 and nd2o3 [1]. the origin of allanite in biotite-microcline-, especially biotite-hornblende bearing granites, is due to the high concentration of ree in the granite magma and the introduction of calcium by hydrothermal solutions (table 2). table 2. microprobe analysis (wt.%) of allanites from the biotite-hornblende-allanite bearing granitoids of the khrami crystalline massif (mean values of 6 grains analyses) wt, % the khrami massif (mean) periphery core sio 2 29.56 29.93 tio 2 1.82 1.62 al 2 o 3 14.17 14.31 feo * total 16.77 16.32 mno 0.20 0.23 mgo 0.34 0.29 cao 10.20 10.02 sro 0.14 tsutsunava et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) tho 2 0.84 0.68 la 2 o 3 6.62 6.60 ce 2 o 3 12.00 12.12 pr 2 o 3 nd 2 o 3 3.92 3.36 sm 2 o 3 1.86 1.68 gd 2 o 3 0.11 0.09 y 2 o 3 0.16 0.13 dy 2 o 3 er 2 o 3 yb 2 o 3 uo 2 0.08 0.09 f 0.27 0.03 h 2 o 1.60 1.93 total 100.52 99.57 conclusion • the garnets from the biotite-granite bearing granites of the khrami crystalline massif are zonal. in particular, the centre of the crystals is homogeneous, while the peripheral part is clearly zonal. • garnets of the massif were formed in two stages: during the crystallization process of granite magma and in its next post-magmatic stage. the core of the garnet was formed in the magmatic stage, in paragenesis bt+pl+or+grt+qz, but its periphery in the cooling stage of granite magma, in paragenesis ab+mc+grt+qz±ms. • the genesis of allanite in the biotite-hornblende-allanite bearing granites of the massif is due to the concentration of ree in the granite magma and the introduction of calcium by hydrothermal solutions. • allanites of biotite-hornblende-allanite bearing granites from the khrami crystalline massif belong to the cerium variety with high ce2o3, la2o3 and nd2o3. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. references 1. beridze, g. (2015). alaniti khramis kristaluri masivis gvianvariskul granitebshi [allanite in late variscan granites of the khrami crystalline massif]. proceedings of al. janelidze institute of geology of tbilisi state university, new series, 127, 155-159. (in georgian) 2. beridze, g. (2015). akhali monacemebi khramis kristaluri masivis gvianvariskuli granatiani granitebis shesakheb [new data on the late variscan garnets of the khrami crystalline massif]. journal of science and technology, 1 (718), 43-48. (in georgian) 3. beridze, g. (2016). khramis kristaluri masvisi gvianvariskuli magmuri da vulkanogen-danaleqi warmomnaqmnebis petrologia [petrology of late variscan magmatic and volcanogenic-sedimentary formations of the khrami crystalline massif]. abstract of dissertation, 2016, 30 p. (in georgian) 4. gamkrelidze, i. (1997). terranes of the caucasus and adjacent areas. bulletin of academy of science of georgia, 155, (3), 75-81. 5. gamkrelidze, i., shengelia, d. dokembrijsko-paleozojskij regional'nyj metamorfizm, granitoidnyj magmatizm i geodinamika kavkaza [precambrian-paleozoic regional metamorphism, granitoid magmatism and geodynamics of the caucasus]. m.: nauchny mir, 2005, 460 p. (in russian) 6. gamkrelidze, i., shengelia, d., tsutsunava, t., sun-lin chung, han-vi chiu, chikhelidze, k. et al. (2011). new data on u-pb zircon age of pre-alpine crystalline basement of the black-sea -central tsutsunava et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) transcaucasian terrane and its geological significance. bulletin of georgian national academy of science, 5 (1), 64-76. 7. kazakhashvili, t. (1941) geologo-petrograficheskij ocherk hramskogo kristallicheskogo massiva [geological and petrographic review of the khrami crystalline massif]. proceedings of tbilisi state university, 5, 56-126. 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(in russian) http://dx.doi.org/10.2138/am.2010.3371 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) modern approaches and their importance in the teachinglearning process of geography nana kvirkvelia1 abstract the main goal of teaching geography is to form a multifaceted personality. one of the most important missions of teaching geography is to study the problem of the relationship between nature and society, to raise ecological awareness for each member of society and to create a caring attitude and personal responsibility towards nature. the mentioned direction contributes to the formation of students' economic thinking, which helps them understand and solve the socioeconomic problems of their own country. additionally, geography has a communicative role to some extent, which involves obtaining, perceiving, and analysing different types of information. therefore, the high involvement of students in the learning process is very important, as well as the use of modern approaches and strategies. in connection with the mentioned issues, research was conducted among students at the basic and secondary levels of buckswood international school. the purpose of the research is to outline the effective methods of the teaching-learning process of geography, which will make it easier for students to study the subject and will help to apply the acquired knowledge in practice. additionally, it will help to plan the educational curriculum correctly, interestingly, and effectively. the survey was conducted online using the google forms platform. then, the resulting composition was analysed, and the highlights were created in diagrams. additionally, the article presents information about the educational field activities already carried out by the students participating in the research and illustrative photo material. approximately one hundred students participated in the survey. during the research, interesting trends were revealed, including which form of teaching they prefer, when learning is pleasant and effective for them, how they analyse the theoretical knowledge, and how they can use this experience. this is presented in detail in the article. in conclusion, to obtain quality and practical education and to form a full-fledged citizen, research on the abovementioned issues is important. it is necessary to change teaching-learning approaches with time and adapt to students. the learning process should be fun for them. this research will help the teachers of schools and higher education institutions plan and conduct the educational process correctly and interestingly. keywords: geography, education, modern approaches to teaching, buckswood international school introduction the teaching of geography in schools and universities forms the main framework that gives students an idea of the world. they have the opportunity to use the acquired knowledge in practical life. therefore, geography teachers have a great mission. it is important to improve the quality of the teaching-learning process of geography, which will contribute to the education of a good person and citizen. the national curriculum is the main tool for achieving the goals of education reform. the document defines mandatory requirements for the school community in three directions: 1. orientation of the teaching-learning process on the student’s personal development; 2. basing the educational process on constructivist educational principles; 3. establishing a school culture focused on care and support [1]. learning processes are complex. many factors determine their successful implementation and perfection. a teacher should always consider the interests and abilities of each student. he should clearly determine which learning forms will help to achieve the goals so that students can easily absorb, understand, and remember new information. the educational process planned by the teacher should be consistent and serve information assimilation, processing and storage, and practical use. while planning the sequence of the learning process, important aspects (ideal learning conditions) should be taken into account [2]. the teacher should be able to arouse interest in the subject in students with constructivist teaching approaches, helping them to perceive the problem and solve it. additionally, the teacher should provide the students with practical skills that will help them use the acquired knowledge. it is essential to guide aspects of student-centered learning and to select teaching methods that are focused on students' needs, abilities, interests, and learning styles. for a fun, interesting learning process, the teacher should use various teaching strategies and constructivist approaches [3, 4]. according to constructivism, the 1 tsu vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, nana.kvirkvelia@tsu.ge kvirkvelia. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) student is an active participant in the learning process and not a passive recipient of information. the constructivist teaching methodology is based on the principle according to which the acquisition of any kind of knowledge implies the construction of this knowledge. the methods should be adapted to the interests of students as much as possible; students should be encouraged to analyse and interpret facts, events, and concepts. open questions are often used in this process; the learning process should be based and built on students’ previous knowledge and experience [5]. the teacher should not provide the material to the student in a ready-to-use form but only help them build knowledge, contribute to their knowledge construction, create motivation for studying, explain the purpose of learning, work on household-type tasks related to reality, create a favourable environment for learning and diverse resources and encourage them deservedly so that they do not lose the incentive. according to earlier educational experiences, the students were completely subordinated to the teacher [6], but today, the teacher expects from them active action, independent thinking, doubting recognized opinions, expressing assumptions, calling for ideas, and creativity. in the teaching-learning process, it is necessary to provide and analyse world events and processes, lead a discussion, and focus on problems. therefore, it is important to use a variety of strategies in teaching geography that will help teachers conduct interactive lessons, arouse students' interest, motivate them, and develop critical and creative thinking. these strategies will help teachers to create interesting and complex tasks and help students complete them with interest. such kinds of strategies are discussion, debate, problem-based learning (pbl), cooperative learning (cooperative), case study, brainstorming, role-playing and situational games, mini-lectures, demonstration methods, and others. discussion is one of the frequently used methods of interactive teaching, the purpose of which is to discuss different approaches, ideas, or problems in a group. if during the lecture the teacher provides ready-made information to the students, during the discussion, on the contrary, the students become active and the teacher receives information from them. the more intense the discussion, the more effective it is. during the discussion, students develop various skills, such as argumentative reasoning, active listening, respect for different opinions, and others. discussion can be a good motivator for students. they will try to independently find information on certain topics so that they can have appropriate arguments during the discussion. debate is a form of discussion and is based on preplanned speeches of the participants. the presenters are chosen from the group. the debate begins with the speech of one representative of each of the two opposing sides. after that, the tribune is given to other participants from each side for questions and comments. the teacher should set a certain time for each speaker. problem-based learning (pbl) – a learning method that uses a problem as the initial stage of the process of acquiring and integrating new knowledge. cooperative learning (cooperative) – according to this teaching strategy, each member of the group is obliged not only to learn by himself but also to help his teammate learn the subject better. each member of the group works on the problem until all of them have studied the issue. case study – the teacher discusses specific cases with the students in the lesson and together with them studies the issue in every way and thoroughly. for example, the essence of natural events in physical geography, the causes of their occurrence, the risks of spreading, and the ways to avoid them. from a geopolitical point of view, in the geography of conflicts, it can be an analysis of a specific conflict, etc. case analysis has several definitions: a case is a description of a real situation, a snapshot of reality, or a photograph of existence. in addition, it is a unified information complex that allows us to get to know the situation. a real case is that we can transform the status of a ‘life situation’ into a task and solve it with reflection and using the resources necessary for a solution. the method case study is a tool that allows us to apply theoretical knowledge to practical tasks. thanks to this method, students have the opportunity to reveal and develop analytical and evaluation skills, learn group work, and find rational ways to solve problems. brainstorming – this method involves the formation and expression of as many radically different opinions and ideas about a specific issue/problem as possible within a specific topic. this method helps to develop a creative approach to the problem. role-playing and situational games – scenario-based role-playing allows students to look at an issue from different perspectives, helping them to develop an alternative point of view. like discussion, rolekvirkvelia. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) playing also develops the ability of students to express their position independently and defend it in an argument. a mini-lecture is a small lecture, the purpose of which is to convey certain information to the audience. by means of a mini-lecture, important and necessary information will be given to students in a short period of time. during the mini-lecture, the teacher is more active, while the students are relatively passive. the teacher should prepare theoretical and visual materials, graphs, and photographs in advance to make the lecture interesting, especially for those students who have better-developed visual memory. in the process of teaching and learning, it is important to check knowledge in different ways. the teacher should offer variety to the students. summary works can be complex assignments, presentations, projects, etc., within the framework of which students have the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities, both academic skills and critical thinking or creativity. demonstration method – this method involves a visual representation of information. it is effective in terms of achieving results. in many cases, it is better to provide the material to the students simultaneously in audio and visual form. the material to be studied can be demonstrated by both the teacher and the student. this method helps teachers to make visible the different stages of learning material perception. it should be specified what the students will have to do independently. at the same time, this strategy visualizes the essence of the issue/problem. demonstration may be simple or complex, such as conducting a multistep science experiment [7, 8]. in addition to the given teaching strategies, there are other strategies that the teacher can choose depending on the specific learning task. during teaching and learning, it is necessary to use different forms of work, for example, collaborative, individual, and pair work [9-11]. objective assessment is important for students' motivation. student assessment is one of the main and important activities of a teacher. according to researchers, one-third of a teacher's time is spent on evaluation [12]. student assessment allows us to understand how students have mastered the learning material and what their strengths and weaknesses are. by means of evaluation, it is possible to plan the learning process correctly and to draw up learning activities taking into account the progress or regression of the students. today, two types of assessment are used in general education schools – determinative and formative. formative assessment determines a student's level of achievement in relation to subject-specific curriculum outcomes. the student is evaluated using a ten-point system. formative assessment determines the dynamics of each student's development and is aimed at improving the quality of learning. to promote the improvement of the quality of learning, priority should be given to formative assessment, which evaluates the student in relation to his previous results, measures his individual progress, and allows him to gradually construct knowledge. it is important that the student himself is involved in the formative assessment. assessment of the learning process will develop the student's independent learning skills, will help in mastering learning strategies, and will allow him/her to consciously contribute to his own progress and success. the main purpose of inclusion in assessment is to familiarize the student with learning processes, which will teach him/her to manage these processes intelligently and independently [7, 9, 11]. methods and materials in connection with the mentioned issues, a study was conducted among the students of the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th grades of the basic and secondary levels of buckswood international school. more than 100 students participated in the survey. the survey was conducted online using the google forms platform. the questionnaire included ten questions. the obtained results were analysed, and visualizations were created in the diagrams. in addition, various studies were developed around the studied issue, which were analysed and presented in the introductory part of the article. in addition, both international and local research was considered the issue under study. there is international experience in researching the mentioned issues [4, 5], which was analysed and presented in the introductory part of the article. results kvirkvelia. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) to determine the effective methods of the teaching-learning process of geography, interesting and necessary trends were identified in the mentioned research. this will contribute to the correct planning of the educational curriculum and will make it easier for the students to study the subject. in addition, students will be able to apply the acquired knowledge in practice. a total of 52.5% of the participants in the survey were female, and 47.5% were male. among them, 34.7% were 11-13 years old, 60.4% were 14-16 years old, and 5% were over 16 years old. as a result of the research, the majority of students prefer various approaches and methods in the teaching-learning process. the survey results are presented in the pie charts. forty-seven percent of students believe that they learn new material more cheerfully and easily when studying geography with a lesson game. however, they are also helped by lessons, seminars, and conferences to learn new material. twenty-five percent of respondents believe that all of the listed approaches are important in the teaching-learning process, depending on the need to study the topic (fig. 1a). figure 1.aforms of teaching geography; bmaterials for teaching geography (students’ choices (%)) since all students are individuals and have different abilities and perceptual abilities, it is important for teachers to use different types of resources. research confirms this. thirty-six percent of students preferred different types of visual material, including text, map, photo, video, graphics, and others. visual resources help to analyse and understand the issue (figure 1b). summarizing the studied material is important because it allows the student to analyse and present the acquired knowledge in the form of various products (complex tasks, tests, projects, presentations, abstracts). the majority of students (41%) preferred the presentation. it seems that when working on a presentation, students have an opportunity to better demonstrate their acquired knowledge and creative skills. in addition, 2% of respondents believe that summative work can be performed as a complex assignment, as well as in the form of a report, project, or test (figure 2a). figure 2a-. forms of the task performance; bforms of the task performance (students’ choice (%)) thirty-eight percent of students believe that group work makes their learning process easier. during group work, everyone demonstrates their abilities, and they cope with common work better. additionally, the research showed that 29% of respondents preferred to work individually, and 33% preferred to work in pairs. for some students to improve/develop their communication skills, it is important to involve them in group work (figure 2b). for students to analyse what they did well or what they failed to do in the learning process, both determinative (23%) and formative (24%) assessments are important. formative assessment helps kvirkvelia. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) students reflect. as a result of the research, according to 58% of students, both determinative and formative assessments are significant (fig. 3a). figure 3aforms of assessment students’ choice (%); b-participation in extracurricular activities number of students in percentages nonformal education is important in the teaching-learning process of geography. during nonformal activities, students are given the opportunity to better understand and perceive the practicality of theoretical issues. this requires many outdoor activities and the active involvement of students in these activities. fifty-eight percent of students participate in extracurricular activities provided by the school. nineteen percent of respondents did not participate in such an activity, and 23% did not remember whether they were involved in an outdoor activity or not (fig. 3b). unfortunately, some students do not take advantage of this opportunity. why, this is another subject of separate research. figure 4. how does the graphic organizer (charts) help the students perceive and understand the issue? forty-four percent of students believe that a graphic organizer (charts) helps in understanding the issue, so it is important for the teacher to use visuals when explaining the lesson because some students have a visual memory. nineteen percent of respondents never thought about this issue (fig. 4). discussion research has shown that it is important to consider the interests and abilities of students when planning the curriculum. since all students are individuals and have different abilities and perceptual skills, it is important for teachers to use different types of resources. to achieve effective results, the teaching-learning process should be guided by student-oriented approaches. use a variety of resources, for example, text, maps, photos, videos, graphics, etc. during summative work, students should be given the opportunity to demonstrate the acquired knowledge in various forms, be it a presentation, a project, a complex task, a test, or something else. to develop communication skills, it is important to involve students in group work. for the student to understand how he mastered the study material, where he made mistakes, and what the strengths and weaknesses of his completed task were, he/she should be assessed as both formative and deterministic. formative assessment helps students reflect. nonformal education is important in the teaching-learning process of geography. during nonformal activities, students are given the opportunity to better understand and perceive the practicality of kvirkvelia. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) theoretical issues. this requires many outdoor activities and the active involvement of students in these activities. conclusion in conclusion, to obtain quality and practical education and to form a full-fledged citizen, research on the abovementioned issues is important. it is necessary to change teaching-learning approaches with time and adapt to students. the learning process should be fun for them. research has shown that it is important to consider the interests and abilities of students when planning the curriculum. to achieve effective results, the teaching and learning process should be conducted with student-oriented approaches, and a variety of resources should be used. students should have an opportunity to create different products during the summary assignment. they should be assessed as both formative and determinative assignments. participation in outdoor activities is extremely significant. this research will help the teachers of schools and higher education institutions plan and conduct the educational process correctly and interestingly. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. references [1] ministry of education and science of georgia, (2018-2024). national curriculum https://mes.gov.ge/content.php?id=3929&lang=geo [2] living and learning democracy in schools and at home, textbooks 2.https://www.livingdemocracy.com/ge/textbooks/volume-1/part-2/unit-4/chapter-2/ [3] n. bagatrishvili (2019). aspects of learner-centered teaching part i. mastsavlebeli.ge. internet newspaper https://mastsavlebeli.ge/?p=23552 [4] ovelyn matanluk, baharom mohammad, dg. norizah, ag. kiflee, molod imbuga. (10 october, 2013). the effectiveness of using teaching module based on radical constructivism toward students learning process. procedia social and behavioral sciences, volume 90, 2013, pages 607-615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.132 [5] fatih aydin, (2011). geography teaching and metacognition. academic journals. educational research and reviews vol. 6(3), pp. 274-278. https://academicjournals.org/article/article1379679467_aydin.pdf [6] e. garsevanishvili (1985) methodology of teaching geography. tsu publishing. tbilisi. [7] m. bliadze, d. kereselidze (2019). geography, teacher's book, 10th grade, bakur sulakauri publishing house. tbilisi. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1868qfbzsiylsy5svwmagq-ufpbizegrw/view [8] m. bliadze, d. kereselidze (2019). geography, teacher's book, 9th grade, bakur sulakauri publishing house. tbilisi https://drive.google.com/file/d/17qdhen4rpkdhppljwnitrputvzitdcjc/view [9] m. bliadze, d. kereselidze (2019). geography, teacher's book, 8th grade, bakur sulakauri publishing house. tbilisi. https://drive.google.com/file/d/16stwtbgia4r9e8kqjuixpaz7za4sqrbq/view [10] daniel muijs, david reynolds. 2017. effective teaching evidence and practice.fourth edition. 392 pages. sage publications ltd. [11] manana bochorishvili (2022). formative assessment as a compass. magazine “teacher” and internet newspaper “mastsavlebeli.ge“ https://mastsavlebeli.ge/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/mastsavlebeli-2022-1web.pdf [12] m. bliadze, d. kereselidze (2019). geography, teacher's book, 7th grade, bakur sulakauri publishing house. tbilisi. https://mes.gov.ge/content.php?id=3929&lang=geo https://www.living-democracy.com/ge/textbooks/volume-1/part-2/unit-4/chapter-2/ https://www.living-democracy.com/ge/textbooks/volume-1/part-2/unit-4/chapter-2/ https://mastsavlebeli.ge/?p=23552 https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/procedia-social-and-behavioral-sciences https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/procedia-social-and-behavioral-sciences/vol/90/suppl/c https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.132 https://academicjournals.org/article/article1379679467_aydin.pdf https://drive.google.com/file/d/1868qfbzsiylsy5svwmagq-ufpbizegrw/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/17qdhen4rpkdhppljwnitrputvzitdcjc/view https://drive.google.com/file/d/16stwtbgia4r9e8kqjuixpaz7za4sqrbq/view https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/author/daniel-muijs https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/author/david-reynolds https://mastsavlebeli.ge/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/mastsavlebeli-2022-1-web.pdf https://mastsavlebeli.ge/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/mastsavlebeli-2022-1-web.pdf georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 63-69 annual amplitude regime of ground surface temperature in georgia kukuri tavartkiladze 1*, antaz kikava 2 abstract the present paper deals with the regime of annual amplitude of temperature applying the annual empirical data of the ground surface temperature of the territory of georgia. in particular, we have determined the amplitude distribution according to the values and obtained within-year change regularity. we have also determined the change of amplitude values according to years and determined the connection of ground surface amplitude to the height of location from the sea level and constructed the annual distribution schematic map of the ground surface temperature for the territory of georgia. keywords: temperature amplitude, within-year change, change according to years, connection to height, territorial distribution introduction the main factors in the formation of the climate are the solar radiation energy and the shape of the earth. but, during the formation of regional climate, other processes also take place. for example, the proximity of the region to the ocean or sea has a great influence upon the formation of the regional climate of the continent. the oceans and the seas have a relatively long retention capacity of the radiation energy, or the inertia, and thus affect the climate. the closer the region is to the ocean or the sea coast, the stronger is the influence. this process determines the so-called "continentality" of the climate and the minimum temperature of winter and maximum temperatures of summer of the ground temperature during a year are most clearly dependent on it, specifically, the ground surface temperature amplitude which is determined by the difference between the maximum and the minimum temperatures (elsnen and tsonis, 1996). having used the data of 120 years of the 30 observation points of the russian federation, the work by sedov (2015) deals with the regime structure of the average annual amplitude of the ground surface temperature and its modification in conditions of modern global warming. the author notes that one of the main parameters of the climate system is the average annual amplitude, which basically determines the climate "continentality". the paper shows that the minimum volume of amplitude mode of the ground surface temperature in the european territory of the russian federation is observed in socha and its surroundings and it is equal to 16.7 °c and the maximum is in volgograd and equals to 33.2°c. the eastern part the amplitude is 30 inches high and reaches the maximum in verkhoyansk where it is equal to 64.7°c. today, on the entire territory of the russian federation, the annual amplitude of the surface temperature is growing and the authors think that the growth process will last until 2030. 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, 6, tamarashvili, 0177, tbilisi, georgia, e-mail: kuktav@mail.ru 2 batumi shota rustaveli state university, 35, ninoshvili str. 6010, batumi, georgia mailto:kuktav@mail.ru georgian geographical journal the change of annual amplitude of ground surface temperature is described on the territory of belarus (davidenko, 2014). the author concludes that the amplitude has been decreased to about 1°c and unevenly in the territory of belarus in the background of global warming, namely, less than 1°c in the west, and 1.5°c in the east. the reason for this is the rise of urbanization in the east. it is noteworthy that the work polevoi (2014) discusses the regime structure of transiting to 0, 5, 10 and 15°c surface temperatures on the territory of ukraine, it is stated here that the spring transition date is in the early period and in autumn it occurs on the contrary the date of transition is later. i.e. the ground surface temperature amplitude gradually increases. 600 500 400 300 200 100 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 0 15 20 25 30 15 20 25 30 35 fig. 1. distribution of ground surface temperature amplitude of georgia in the highlands of the southern slopes of the caucasus (1), on the plains of eastern georgia (2) on the meskheti javakheti uplands (3) and in the foothills of western georgia (4). in the work andreizhuk and mongush (2009), the continentality of the climate is analytically connected to the ground surface temperature amplitude and the geographical longitude of the location. having been introduced the so-called "continentality index", it is gradually increased for the tuvi mountainous system, along with the global growth of temperature. the surface temperature amplitude for the territory of georgia is less studied. the main determinant of the annual amplitude change of the ground surface for the earth is the distance from the equator; it is minimal on the equator and the maximum value is reached at the poles. using the data on the ground surface temperature of 90 years (1906-1995) of the 89 points of observation in the territory of georgia 1 2 4 3 tavartkiladze and kikava (tavartkiladze et al. 1994, 2012), the aim of this work is to study the regime structure of the temperature amplitude on the territory of georgia and the influence of the climate change on it. methods annual amplitude of ground surface temperature for all points of observation was determined by two different ways in order to reduce the marginal consequences of the results. in particular, during the study of amendments according to the within-year regimes and years the amplitude for each point of observation is represented as a difference between the maximum and minimum values of the average monthly temperatures of each year. and while studying the connection of the location with the height and determining the territorial distribution, the amplitude represents the average monthly maximum and minimum temperatures between the values of the 90-year period of the observation point. results 12 10 8 6 4 12 10 8 6 4 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii i ii iii iv v vi viiviii ix x xi xii fig.2. within-year distribution of the ground surface temperature amplitude in georgia (definition of the values of numbers is given on fig. 1). at the same time, since the relatively small area of georgia is characterized by a variety of climatic regimes, the regime structure has been studied by four different regions. these regions are: mountainous southern slopes of the caucasus mountains; plain of the east georgia; meskheti-javakheti highland and foothills of western georgia. 1 2 3 4 georgian geographical journal certain picture on the applied empirical data is given by their distinction according to the values of amplitude for specific regions. it is represented on the fig 1. in the vertical and horizontal sides of the figure, the number of cases and the values of amplitudes are consequently measured in °c. the largest amplitude is observed on the meskheti-javakheti upland and the plain of eastern georgia. therefore, their average perennial amplitudes are 23.55 °c and 23.42 °c. the standard drawbacks of these values are 2.43 °c and 2.38 °c, and the number of cases 1080 and 1890. in the highlands of the southern slopes of the caucasus mountains, the value of the ground surface temperature is 22.19 °c and the corresponding standard drawback and the number of cases is 2.38 °c and 1980. the foothills of western georgia are characterized by significantly small amplitude. here it is equal to 18.92 °c, and the standard drawback is 2.26 °c and 3060. the horizontal and vertical axes of the drawing are adjusted for months and amplitude values. continuous curves determine the values of the average amplitude of the month, and the intermittent curves show the boundaries of standard drawbacks. as seen from the drawing, the ground surface temperature amplitude experiences significant seasonal changes. during moving from the warm season to the cold season, the amplitude gradually increases. from the warm season to the cold season, the amplitude gradually increases, which is almost similar to the entire area and varies within about 6°c. changing the average monthly value of ground surface amplitude on the territory of georgia (within-year distribution), allocated for four regions is not significantly different from each other (fig. 2). regardless of the sharply fragmented surface, the regional differences seem to have less impact on the change of ground surface temperatures. therefore, we have represented the amplitude changes according to the years and the impact of the change in the atmosphere of the whole territory of georgia without regional divisions. in order to be compatible with all the data of the observations, we have carried out all the standardization of the observation data, and we took the values of the average perennial amplitude of each observation point. thus, the change of average annual amplitude of ground surface temperature in 1905-1995 for the entire territory of georgia is presented on fig. 3. 1.3 1.2 1.1 1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 fig. 3. average annual amplitude changes of normalized ground surface temperature in georgia and its linear approximation (intermittent line). tavartkiladze and kikava as mentioned above, the volume of the ground surface temperature amplitude is influenced by the distance from the equator, as well as from the shoreline of the oceans and seas. for such a distinctly fragmented area, like georgia it is particularly interesting whether it is influenced by the change of the altitude of the location from sea level or not. in order to determine this, on the fig.4 is given the values of annual anomalies in the ground surface temperature according to the heights of the location above the sea level (the height above the sea level in km and the amplitude values have been measured on the axes of coordinates). 30 25 20 15 0 1 2 3 4 fig 4. change of average annual amplitude of ground surface temperature according to height. as shown from the drawing, the average value of the amplitude for the whole territory is almost unchanged, but according to individual territories the boundary of change is within ±20%. it is noteworthy that the changes in the ground surface temperature in georgia during this period were characterized by both, warming and cooling. the temperature amplitude is like that, despite the invariability for the entire area, there is an increase in temperature amplitude and reduction in certain areas. thus, linear approximation of the amendment presented in the drawing, for the whole territory of georgia, gives us the following image of the annual amplitude (ta) change of the normalized ground surface temperature: 𝑇𝑎 = 0.995 + 0.0001 n 1 where n is the years recounted since 1900. i.e. the change for one hundred years (0.01 °c/100 years) is practically zero. the amplitude changes for the four regions allocated by us for 100 years are characterized by the following values: north positive 0.036°c, east negative 0.014°c, south zero and west positive 0.012°c. all the values are within boundaries of the calculation drawbacks and we can conclude that there is no change in the temperature amplitude for any region. today it is very difficult to determine what causes the opposite directions of change in such a small area. but such a misunderstanding also occurs during the modern global warming, when some cooling centers emerge in some of the world's enclosed areas on the background of warming. it should be noted that from the 89 observation points, the amplitude is reduced on the 37th. the maximum reduction in annual amplitude of ground surface temperature takes place in tbilisi (-0.0050°c/ 100 years) and in nearby karsani (0.0057°c/100 years). . ... .... . . . . . ....... . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .... . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . ... . . .. georgian geographical journal while the largest amplitude is observed in western georgia, on the mtsvane kontskhi territory and it is equal to 0.0081°c/100 years. 22 20 20 18 20 20 22 22 20 22 18 24 20 22 22 24 fig. 5. distribution of average annual amplitude of ground surface temperature in the territory of georgia. as seen from the drawing, the change of annual amplitude of temperature does not show a sharp expression according to height (zo). its estimated approximation can be presented as follows: 𝑇𝑎 = {17.5 + 12.80 zo when zo < 0.5 km 24.4 – 1.24 zo when zo ≥ 0.5 km 2   conclusion according to the height the approximate change of the amplitude can be given as following: the amplitude of about 500 meters above the sea level increases sharply, and during the further growth of height it is gradually reduced. as a result of the survey, a schematic map of the yearly amplitude distribution of the ground surface temperature is constructed for the territory of georgia and it is given in fig. 5. at great heights above the sea level, the fact of annual amplitude reduction of the ground surface temperature, which is shown by the 4th drawing, has been partially shown on the map. but it seems that the main reason for amplitude change is the factor of separation from the sea for georgian territory. references andreizhuk m.f., mongush m.m. (2009) osobennosti raspredelenia indekca kontinentalnosti v tuviiskoi gornoi oblasti. [distribution features of the continental index in the tuvian mountainous region]. bulletin of tuva state university,2 (50-53). elsnen, j.tsonis a. (1996) singular spectrum analysis. a new tool in time series analysis. new york, plenum press. (163 p.) davidenko, o.v. (2014) dinamika aridnikh godovikh temperatur vozdukha i ikh vnutrigodovikh variacii na territorii belorusii. [dynamics of arid annual air temperatures and their intra-annual variations in the territory of belarus]. bsu bulletin, ser. 2, (89-95) (in russian) tavartkiladze and kikava kislov, a.v. (2010) klimat v proshlom, nastoiashchem i budushchem. [climate in the past, present and future]. m., science, (352) (in russian) polevoi, a.n., bojlo l.e., dronova e.a., borovskaia g.a. (2014) izmenenie pokazatelei temperaturnogo rezhima vozducha na period do 2030 g. [changes in air temperature indicators for the period up to 2030]. ukrainian hydrometeorological journal, no 17, (95-104) (in russian) sedov, v. e. (2015) otsenka doli i godovoi amplitudi additivnikh sezonnikh component vremennikh riadov prizemnoi temperaturi vozdukha v 30-ti punktov nabliudenii za 120-letnii period. [estimation of the annual amplitude of the additive seasonal components of the surface air temperature time series at 30 observation points over a 120-year period]. earth science. issue.7 (38), partt 4, 2015 (133-137) (in russian). tavartkiladze, k., elizbarashvili e., mumladze d., vachnadze e. (1999) sakartvelos mitsispira temperaturis tsvlilebis empiriuli modeli [the empirical model of change of the ground surface temperature field of georgia]. tbilisi: metsniereba, (128 p.), in georgian. tavartkiladze k., begalishvili n., tsintsadze t., kikava a. (2012) influence of global warming on the near-surface air temperature field in georgia. bulletin of the georgian national academy of sciences, v.6, n 3, (55-60). georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) highmountain soils of the khevi region ketevan gogidze1* abstract khevi is a region in georgia that is situated at a high altitude. the mean elevation of relief is 2850 metres above sea level. the lowest elevation is found in dariali gorge at an altitude of 1210 metres above sea level, while the highest point is the peak kazbek, towering at an elevation of 5033 metres above sea level. the orographic features in the khevi region include the northern slope of the main ridge of the caucasus, which is characterized by peaks such as zilgakhokhi, kadlasani, lagatisari, khorisari, and kvenamta. additionally, there are several passes in the area, namely, uristi, jvari, and gudamakari. to the north, the khokhi ridge rises, with notable peaks such as the jimara (4770 m), suatisi (4480 m), and maili (4620 m) ridges, as well as the shavana and kuro ridges. additional orographic features in the khevi region include the r. tergi gorge, the cavernous area of kazbegi, and sno. the khevi territory covers an area of 1081.7 square kilometres, which represents 15.9% (6786.2 square kilometres) of the mtskheta-mtianeti region. mount kazbek is renowned for its exquisite beauty and majestic presence among the european mountain range. the elevation of the object is 5033 metres above sea level. kazbek is situated in a nival-glacial region and is consistently enveloped by snow and ice. the kuro, kidegani, and shavana ridges are located on the left side of the tergi river in the meridian direction. the research area is situated in the subalpine and alpine regions. the alpine zone is located at an elevation range of 2100-2300 metres. the alpine natural zone is found at the highest elevations of the caucasus ridge. mountain meadow soils are found in the subalpine and alpine zones. mountain meadow soils exhibit undifferentiated profiles. the primary diagnostic indicators are a distinct humus layer overlaying a minor weathering layer. the entire area of mountain meadow soils is 1,758,200 hectares, accounting for 25.1% of the country. mountain meadow soils are found extensively in the subalpine and alpine regions of the caucasus and the southern mountains of transcaucasia, ranging in elevation from 1800 (2000) m to 3200 (3500) m above sea level. keywords: soil, caucasus, subalpine, alpine, highmountain introduction s. zakharov conducted comprehensive research on high mountain soils and authored a monograph dedicated to this specific soil type. he formulated an extensive categorization of mountain meadow soils, wherein he differentiated between mountain meadow alpine, subalpine chernozem-like raw (found on carbonate rocks), and turf soils (characterized by a robust framework and stones). the examinations conducted by s. zakharov served as the foundation for extensive research on these soils in the caucasus and other mountainous areas. the mountain meadow soils are developed in severe climates, characterized by prolonged winters (with extended snow coverage) and mild summers. the duration of the frost-free period ranges from 3 to 5 months. the duration of the vegetative development phase is 3 to 4 months. the mean temperature in january ranges from -12.0°c to -5.2°c, in april from -1.6°c to 5.6°c, and in july from 7.3°c to 14.4°c. the average yearly air humidity fluctuates between 68% and 81%, with a humidity coefficient of 6-7. however, during warm periods, despite the high summer rainfall, it significantly decreases to 1.1. this can be attributed to significant evaporation. the duration of the snow covers lasts for a period of 5-7 months, with its peak occurring in march. the mountainous climate is distinguished by intense solar radiation. the frigid environment in elevated mountains facilitates extensive rock weathering, resulting in a significant buildup of rock pieces on the surface of the soil [1]. the altitude of the high mountains reflects the impact of different vertical zones. at the higher level, there is a predominance of erosion-denudation relief characterized by the frequency of frost events. in addition, we encounter several types of relief resulting from quaternary volcanic activity. erosion gorges are frequently observed at lower elevations, characterized by steep slopes and extensive alluvial plains in certain locations. the geological composition of the high mountains in east georgia is primarily composed of clayschists and sandstones. the principal components consist of volcanic rocks, which form the peaks of the mountains. greater quantities of sediments can be found in the upper caucasus region. the vegetation in high alpine regions exhibits distinct zonality. the vegetation in the subalpine belts exhibits significant heterogeneity. shrubs, mixed grasses, and communities of mixed grasses are the dominant vegetation in the subalpine belt. the high highlands are characterized by a dense and tall grass cover, 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tsu, tbilisi, georgia, qetusi86@gmail.com gogidze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) primarily consisting of various mesophilic species. under rather arid conditions, the mesophilic high grass flora undergoes a transition to xerophytic vegetation. the subalpine vegetation comprises secondary meadows that are produced near the higher boundary of the forest due to forest clearings. within the alpine belt, two dominant types of vegetation prevail: alpine carpet, which consists of turf-forming grasses with a mixture of several grass species, and grass vegetation. the soils found in mountain meadows have a composition that ranges from loamy to clayey. they exhibit an acidic or weakly acidic reaction and have a significant amount of humification, which extends to deep layers. in some cases, the lower horizons of these soils contain more than 1% humus. the humus is classified as fulvate or humate-fulvate, consisting mainly of water-soluble components and lacking adequate nitrogen. the concentration of silicate iron increases as depth increases, and this is influenced by the overall bioclimatic conditions found in high mountain regions. this relationship is supported by the limited occurrence of active weathering and soil formation. the spatial distribution of amorphous iron in the profiles exhibits significant irregularity. the mountain meadow soils exhibit shallow depth on average, with a surface layer composed of turf material. they have a loamy or clayey texture and tend to be predominantly acidic or weakly acidic in nature. these soils also display a significant degree of humification, with a deep layer of organic matter. base saturation is generally low or moderate, and there is an uneven distribution of mineral fractions and total oxides. additionally, these soils undergo a type of weathering known as siallitic weathering. the primary soil formation processes in mountain forest meadow soils are siallitization and humus development. the soil profile exhibits limited differentiation and shallow depth, with a notable presence of high base saturation that diminishes with increasing depth. additionally, the lower horizons of the soil profile demonstrate reduced water permeability compared to the upper horizons. they possess a significant concentration of humus. the primary soil formation processes include humus formation, sod formation, and structure formation. the primary procedure is leaching. humus siallitization is characterized by a significant increase in humus formation and accumulation. the clay formation exhibits no discernible indications of illuviation. sod processes are distinguished by the substantial generation and storage of humus due to dense grass cover [2-4]. methods and materials during field activities, the soil has been studied with a description of morphological signs. the morphological signs are observed visually. the following indicators were described: gps coordinates, altitude, slope, exposition, and human influence on the environment. in the alpine meadow zone, 7 soil pits have been made there. the following analyses were performed in the laboratory: ph, humus, hygroscopic h2o, caco3, cation exchange capacity, and soil texture. the alpine meadow zone is situated at an elevation of 2200-2500 metres above sea level. the southfacing slope is covered by steppe grass, which is challenging to access. results in village tsdo soil has following build soil profile composition: a-b-bc (pr. 3). soil has well developed sod, glacier stones are on the surface. the soil is characterizing with weak acid reaction (ph 4, 0 – 5, 6), in 100g soil the sum of absorbed cation capacity is 12, 4 7, 11 mg. eqv. from absorbed bases ca predominates mg, content of humus is 4,0 – 5,6 % (table 1). in village pansheti soil has following build soil profile composition: a – ab – b – bc (pr. 7). soil has well developed sod. the acid reaction of soil (ph 5, 4 – 6, 2), in 100g soil the sum of absorbed cation capacity is 19, 01 – 15, 99 mg. eqv. from absorbed bases ca predominates mg, content of humus is 0,75 – 8,80 % (table 1). in village gergeti soil has following build soil profile composition: a′ a′′ ab – bc (pr. 4). the acid reaction of soil (ph 5, 8 – 6, 8), in 100g soil the sum of absorbed cation capacity is 25, 3 – 10, 21 mg. eqv. from absorbed bases ca predominates mg, content of humus is 1,69 – 9,40 % (table 1). gogidze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) in stepantsminda soil has following build soil profile composition: a – bc (pr. 8). the acid reaction of soil (ph 4, 3 – 5, 8), in 100g soil the sum of absorbed cation capacity is 12,71 – 12,07 mg. eqv. from absorbed bases ca predominates mg, content of humus is 1,69 – 9, 40 %. in village achkhoti soil has following build soil profile composition: a′ a′′ ab – bc (pr. 10). the acid reaction of soil (ph 5,0 – 5,8), in 100g soil the sum of absorbed cation capacity is 34,1 – 12,8 mg. eqv. from absorbed bases ca predominates mg, content of humus is 5,0 – 5,8 %. in village sno soil has following build soil profile composition: a – bc (pr. 37). the acid reaction of soil (ph 4,2-4,4), in 100g soil the sum of absorbed cation capacity is 24,47 – 22,35 mg. eqv. from absorbed bases ca predominates mg, content of humus is 3,30 – 10,23 %. in villages sno (pr. 37) and achkhoti (pr. 33) (table 2) the soil has light loam texture, number of roots and moisture become more with increasing of the slope, much roots, and vegetative cover is presented by steppe grass. table 1. main characteristics table 2. soil texture profile № location, exposition, altitude horizon, depth (cm) fractions, % 1-0,25 0,25-0,05 0,05-0,01 0,01-0,005 0,005-0,001 <0,001 <0,01 37 sno a 0--30 5 38 13 20 13 11 44 ab 30--70 0.6 53.4 26 7 5 8 20 bc 70--100 29 45 4 6 2 14 22 33 achkhoti a′ 0--10 17 33 1 36 9 4 49 a′′ 10--25 5 17 22 16 34 6 56 ab 25--40 4 26 18 3 11 38 52 bc 40--60 4 27 31 13 18 7 38 objects, profile № horizon, depth (cm) рн (h2o) humus, % hygr. h2o % cation exchange capacity, mg/equivalent in 100 g. soil % from sum ca++ mg++ h+ sum ca mg h 3 tsdo a 0-20 4,0 10,18 1,02 5,30 4,60 2,5 12,4 40 35 25 b 20-65 5,2 8,15 1,02 6,60 4,42 5,35 16,55 39 35 26 bc 65-100 5,6 0,94 1,02 4,01 2,60 0,5 7,11 53 35 12 7 pansheti a 0-10 5,4 8,80 1,04 12,60 5,31 1,1 19,01 63 20 17 ab 10-30 5,5 5,6 1,03 10,11 5,39 1,6 17,1 59 31 10 b 30-50 6,5 1,11 1,02 8,70 4,35 1,6 14,65 65 25 10 bc 50-80 6,2 0,75 1,03 10,03 4,56 1,4 15,99 60 23 17 4 gergeti a′ 0-10 5,8 9,40 1,05 17,65 7,35 0,3 25,3 65 28 7 a′′ 10-20 5,5 7,30 1,03 8,50 4,78 0,2 13,48 40 23 37 ab 20-40 5,8 6,40 1,03 8,03 2,36 0,5 10,89 65 15 20 bc 40-58 6,8 1,69 1,03 5,10 4,01 1,1 10.21 55 37 8 8 stepantsminda a 0-20 5,8 8,05 1,02 8,12 3,55 0,4 12,07 67 31 2 bc 20-40 4,3 3,12 1,02 9,36 3,35 0 12,71 74 26 0 10 achkhoti a′ 0-20 5,8 10,77 1,08 25,55 6,75 1,8 34,1 65 18 17 a′′ 20-45 4,4 8,46 1,04 6,40 3,55 8,3 18,25 35 15 50 ab 45-55 4,8 5,32 1,04 3,35 1,4 5,1 9,85 30 18 52 bc 55-65 5,0 2,11 1,04 6,10 2,30 4,4 12,8 42 18 40 37 sno a 0-15 4,4 10,23 1,03 15,65 4,8 2,4 22,85 60 38 2 bc 15-40 4,2 3,30 1,04 13,85 5,02 5,6 24,47 47 25 28 gogidze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) mountain meadow soils are widely distributed in subalpine and alpine zones of the caucasus and the transcaucasia southern mountains, at 1800 (2000) m to 3200 (3500) m asl. the mountain meadow soils are formed under extreme climatic conditions, which are characterized by long winters (with long snow cover) and cool summers. the period without frost lasts 3-5 months. the period of vegetation growth is 3-4 months. the average temperature of january fluctuates between -12°c and -5,2°c, in april between -1,6°c and 5,6°c, and in july between 7,3 and 14,4°c. the average annual air humidity ranges from 68% to 81% with a humidity coefficient of 6-7, but in warm periods, despite the summer maximum precipitation, it sharply drops to 1,1. this may be explained by the high evaporation. the vegetation of the high mountains is characterized by a sharply expressed zonality. the vegetation of the subalpine belts is quite inhomogeneous. in the vegetation cover of the subalpine belt, shrub, shrub-mixed grass and mixed grass communities predominate. the grass cover of the high mountains is dense and high and is mainly represented by different mesophilic species. in comparatively dry conditions, the mesophilic high grass vegetation changes to xerophytic vegetation. in the alpine belt, two types of vegetation predominate – alpine carpet, turf forming grasses with elements of mixed grasses and grass vegetation. alpine meadow zones with different exposures and inclinations are characterized by well-expressed humus horizons. these soils are characterized by weak acid reactions (ph 4,5-6,1) and very high humus contents (0,94-11,23%). figure 1. soil profile of town stepantsminda figure 2. soil profile of vil. achkhoti discussion mountain meadow soils are loamy to clayey and have an acid or weakly acid reaction, with high and deep humification; in lower horizons, the content of humus sometimes exceeds 1%. the type of humus is fulvate or humate-fulvate, with predominantly water-soluble fractions and insufficient nitrogen. the content of silicate iron increases with depth, which combines with the general bioclimatic conditions of the high mountains and is proven by limited active weathering and soil formation. the distribution of amorphous iron in the profiles is very irregular. thus, the mountain meadow soils are characterized by average or little depth, loamy or clayey texture, mainly acid or weakly acid reactions, high and deep humification, low or average base saturation, an unequal distribution of mineral fractions and total oxides, and a siallitic type of weathering. the basic soil-forming processes of mountain forest meadow soils are siallitization and humus formation. the soil profile is characterized by weak differentiation and little depth, high base saturation (which decreases with depth) and high-water permeability (which also decreases in the lower horizons). they contain a high amount of humus. the main soil-forming processes are humus formation, sod formation and structure formation. the main process is leaching. during humus siallitization, intensive humus gogidze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) formation and humus accumulation are visible. the clay formation is without noticeable signs of illuviation. sod processes are also characterized by intensive humus formation and humus accumulation under the influence of dense grass vegetation. the alpine vegetation conditionally includes secondary meadows that are formed at the upper forest border as a result of forest cuttings [5, 6]. conclusion upon evaluating the primary indicators of research subjects, it is noted that high altitude soils in alpine regions do not display a discernible variation that could have had a genetic importance. soils have characteristic traits such as comparable capacity, a fully developed humus layer, abundant humus content, and varied characteristics. the primary variables influencing these traits are ecological, particularly climate severity, while local variations are not associated with distinct genesis peculiarities. competing interests the author declares that there are no competing interests. acknowledgements this work has been supported by shota rustaveli national science foundation (srnsf) [grant # phd_f_17_117, studying of genetic peculiarities of soil in kazbegi municipality]. references [1] urushadze tengiz, kvrivishvili tamar (2014). mountain-meadow soils. georgia, tbilisi: pp. 94-98 [2] maruashvili levan (1971). central caucasus. georgia, tbilisi: metsniereba, pp. 172-236 [3] gigauri giorgi (2004). general characterization of diversity of natural conditions of khevi. georgia, tbilisi: gulani, pp. 23-49 [4] khazaradze revaz, kharadze koba (2012). geographical environment and ongoing geodynamic processes in kazbegi municipality. georgia, tbilisi: national academy of science of georgia [5] urushadze tengiz, blum winfried (2014). soils of georgia. usa, new york: lambert, pp. 282-324 [6] hanauer tomas, pohlenz caro, kalandadze besik, urushadze tengiz, felix-henningsen peter (2017). soil distribution and soil properties in the subalpine region of kazbegi; greater caucasus; georgia: soil quality rating of agricultural soils. georgia, tbilisi: annals of agrarian science, 1-10 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) aya/kolkheti to the history of synonymous toponyms nargiz akhvlediani1, lela chotalishvili2, nino jorbenadze3, iamze gagua4 abstract the great wisdom of knowledgeable writers has played a crucial role in studying the ancient history of georgia. they have preserved not only invaluable historical facts but also, at times, unique information about the traditions of our country. the study of epistolary heritage vividly reflects the socioeconomic relationships, lifestyle differentiation, and the political-economic history of the colchis region, as well as the cultural ties and politicaleconomic interaction with neighbouring countries in the history of the colchis kingdom. "aia" is the most ancient name for colchis. the name "kolkha" (kikha) is found in assyrian cuneiform writings up to the 13th century bc. colchis had relatively strong unity. such a union was recognised by ancient wise men, who experienced such an alliance of wisdom that their sayings and words became respected authorities. the term "kolkhida" or "colchis" is not known in the georgian language in any form unless it appears in georgian sources and is derived from the language of the learned, bringing with it its peculiar concepts and expressions. in georgian sources, it is identified as egrisi. the well-known fact for the day is that from ancient times, in the euro-asian part of the caucasus, as well as in crete, the smaller parts of asia, the south caucasus, the black sea region, and other widespread areas, the worship of the goddess of fertility and the protector of life, the "mother of gods," the "great mother," was prevalent. it was also closely associated with the realm of animals, plants, and celestial bodies. its manifestations are found in many cultures across europe, the smaller parts of asia, and the territories of the caucasus. keywords: aia, colchis, toponym, argonauts introduction toponyms (place names) are "living memories" that contain information about local cultures and languages. they are passed down from generation to generation and carry centuries-old traditions. the goal of the study is to explore the historical context of two synonymous toponyms ("aia" and "colchis") and the complex problematic questions related to their interconnection. this issue is intricately linked to folkloric historicity and the transmission mechanism of information about the distant past through the difficult and somewhat controversial path of folk traditions and the discursive problematics of folklore. methods and materials in the process of research, starting from the objectives of the investigation, we will systematically conduct specific analyses, aligning them with existing data from the scientific literature and related studies. when working on the article, we will present insights through both descriptive and historicalcomparative methods. the name "colkheti" was first used by the ancient greek historian hesiod and the poet pindaros and later by the greek geographer strabo. this name is mentioned in bc. in the 8th century, eumelos with corinthian. it should be noted that the first mention of kolkheti closely coincides with the historical context of the foundation of the kingdom. namely, the reign of king ayet. ancient scholars often refer to her as "aia" in connection with medea's kingdom. you should pay attention to the fact that the first name of kolkheti exactly corresponds to the official name of the ruler of the state: "kulkha || colchi". the old name "kolkha" comes from "kulkha", and this toponym originates from this region. results the main goal of the argonauts' campaign is that the name of the geographical area, "aya" (αἶα), is found in the most ancient variants of argonauts. homer does not know the name colchis. he only speaks of a country that should be called αἶα. 1 department of folklore, dialectology and emigrant literature of niko berdzenishvili institute, batumi shota rustaveli state university, georgia, batumi, 2 ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, language centre teacher of classical languages 3 tsu arn. chikobava institute of linguistics 4 tsu institure of classical philology, byzantine and modern greek studies * corresponding author: nargiz.akhvlediani@bsu.edu.ge mailto:nargiz.akhvlediani@bsu.edu.ge akhvlediani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) for a while the legendary aya and colchis were interchangeable (herodotus was the first to associate aya with colchis). it is noteworthy that the first mention of colchis in greek sources coincides with the mention of the state of colchis under the name kulkha/kolkha (kulcha/kolcha) in the urartian inscriptions of the 8th century bc. two synonymous toponyms (aya and kolkheti), according to researchers, should reflect two different archaeological levels, of which aya is chronologically older and colchis is a later version. most likely, the story of the argonauts' campaign against aya developed in the greek mythopoetic tradition, when the name of colchis did not yet exist and the country was called aya. georgian sources do not know the names of colchis and kolkheti. it should be noted here that other ancient toponyms and names associated with the legend of the argonauts show a connection with the georgian linguistic world, which should echo the results of a specific mycenaean expedition, which was actually carried out; contacts that the mycenaean world was supposed to have with the georgian world of the eastern black sea region; and the realities that were supposed to be related to the intended purpose of the argonauts' expedition. αἶα must probably represent the second component of the name κύταια. some ancient sources consider κύταια to be the city of ayia, and some call both cities colchis. since the hellenistic era, various authors have fixed the name "/" as the capital of both the legendary and real colchis. it is interesting to draw a parallel with the name of the city on the northern coast of crete, κύταιον, which is repeatedly mentioned in ancient sources. the kinship between these two astionyms is clear and undisputed. according to ancient sources, κύταια is the homeland of medea: “kvitaia is a city in colkhis, due to which [the poet] calls [medea] kuitaiel." (explanations of isaac, john tzetzes for cassandra by lycophron, 174). some ancient sources consider it the city of aia: “the high caucasus and the city of aia, "kvitaisi,” towered on the left” (apollonius of rodos, argonautica, ii, 1266). some of them refer to both as cities of colchis: "aias," the city of colchis; and "kvitaia, kvitaia the city of colchis. in addition, people of colchis as the tribe near libistines” (footnotes to alexandra by lycophron, 1024, 1312). it is interesting to draw a parallel with the name of the city κύταιον on the northern coast of crete, which is repeatedly mentioned in ancient sources. according to stephanus of byzantium, “kuita is the city of colchis, the homeland of medea. there is another city in scythia as well as kuitaia in lycophron: he/she came to kuitaia of the libistines (libistines are neighbouring people of colchis). it is also called kuitaisi, from kuitaiosi. according to some, kuita is two—from here and european. there also exists the city of kuitaioni on the island of crete” (stephanus of byzantium, the ethnica, summary). according to numerous references in bb-linear documents, this city was already present on the island of crete during the mycenaean era. r. brown considers the geographical name κύταιον to be pre-greek and suggests that it must be associated with κυταία, the birthplace of the colchis medea [1]. in the sources, the name κύταια occurs in several variants: κύτα, κύτη, κυταίς, κυταΐς, κύτηΐς, etc. it is true that κύταια/κυταία appears in greek sources from the hellenistic era, which may indicate a relatively late origin. however, it seems that the name of the settlement of aeetes did not occur in the hellenistic era. this is probably indicated by the name of the son of phrixus, κυτίσωρος (who is already known to herodotus), and the names of cities in anatolia: κύτωρος (paphlagonia), μασσί-κυτος (lycia), and, possibly, κότα (caria). κυταία must be linked with "kutaisi," which is confirmed by regular correspondences in all three kartvelian languages: georgian (kutaisi), mingrelian (kuteshi), and svan (kutashi), which gives us reason to assume that this settlement or residence already existed in the era of the circulation of the proto-kartvelian language. the etymology of the toponym is remarkable. in this case, the root should reflect the pre-greek κυτ and kartvelian *kut [2]. the same root must be contained in a "pomegranate flower bud." it is noteworthy that κύτινο belongs to the pre-greek lexical fund, and lexical forms containing a similar root are also named in the etymological dictionary of beekes: κύταρον "spoon, ladle", κύταρος "honeycomb, pod of egyptian beans", κύδαρος “small ship”, κυττοί "nests, boxes". according to hesychius, κύστεροι = ἀγγεῖα τῶν μελισσῶν "honeycomb". [3]. akhvlediani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) based on the analysis of various forms, brown concludes that the meaning of the root κυτ must be a "hollow receptacle." gordeziani also suggests that *kut is related to the root confirmed in georgian (kut-n-a) and has the meaning of a hollow object, hollow, pod, or bud. [4]. it is noteworthy that *kurt-/*kutwas recently restored by h. fenrich to the proto-kartvelian level: kartvelian kurd-/kut-, e.g., kut-n-a/ga-mo-kut-na "pumpkin heart removal," kurd-i "thief," or "someone who empties everything"; mingrelian kvirt-i "thief"; svan kvit-, kvt"thief" [5]. all of the above revealed the connections of the pre-greek κυτ with the general kartvelian root and, accordingly, the relationship between κύταιον and kutaisi. it may look like m. chukhua holds a different view on the etymology of the name kurt or kut [6]. who believes that the following types of phonetic-semantic transitions occurred in the root of interest to us: phonetic: proto-kartvelian. *kart-(a) – georgian-zan. kurta/kuta semantic: fence > fencing > fenced, confined place > city (public name) > the proper name of the city despite the different etymological definitions of the root at first glance, an important point is that this opinion of the scientist does not interfere with the theory of georgian and greek relativeness and unity named above. moreover, we assume that it is quite possible to combine the aforementioned hypotheses and, therefore, semantic values and determine the basic content with the following semantic transitions: fence > fencing > fenced > confined place of any volume (spoon, bud, pod, honeycomb, nest, box, or ship) city (public name) > proper name of the city there are disagreements regarding the etymology of αἶα; it has not been restored at the general georgian level, although it is found in some composites associated with religious holidays that have survived: in mengr. ayia-zhashka—the name of great lenten sunday, the fifth in order; in svan. ayia mizhladeg—the sunday before palm sunday. in our opinion, the relationship of the root aya with the component of identical composition (jav), confirmed in the form of yav-nana, is also very interesting. what is extremely important is that the form of yav-nana, in turn, is associated with the name of the cult of the goddess of fertility and life, the mother. figure 1. goddess "great mother" statue. a woman sitting sideways on a horse. the composition features a woman, a child, a cup, a horse and a place on a horse. the item is covered with a green patina. tsaishi, kolkhian collective grave n1. dadian palaces, historical architectural museum, st. 872. h 11.5, l 9.5 (tab. xiii, 2), bc viii in the colchian archaeological collection, there is displayed "a woman riding a horse" of the gods, the great mother—known in the georgian world as nana—is widespread both in georgia and in the mediterranean world (fig. 1). "yav-nana" ("lullaby") is an old georgian folk poem-song, originally an ancient hymn of a pagan ritual. like the songs of the "nanina" cycle, "yav-nana" is also associated with the name of nana, the goddess of the sun and fertility. akhvlediani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) "yav-nana" has lost its original character; today it is a lullaby, although before that, at some point, it was sung to children during the "illness of masters" (hence "ya" and "vardi"—as an associative connection with pimples—and compared to flowers to win the hearts of "masters"). as already mentioned above, this song was not of such limited use before and had the form of a wider ode and general hymn. the form "rose" was probably added later, perhaps in association with the form "ya" as the name of a flower. conclusion the extraordinary variety and abundance with which the archaeologically well-studied centres of ancient civilisation cannot be compared to colchis is a visible testimony of the very high level of colchian agriculture, which is completely consistent with the stories of the argonauts. as a result of the research, it can be assumed that the two synonymous toponyms "aya" and "kolkheti" reflect two different archaeological levels, of which kolkheti is later and aya is older, possibly introduced by oral transmission. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution the idea of creating a paper and certain scientific material around the research issue belongs to the researcher nargiz akhvlediani. depending on the goals of the research, the specialists of the relevant field, in particular, the researcher lela chotalishvili, provided us directly from the sources important scientific material for the research and a specific synthetic analysis corresponding to the analytical research. researcher nino jorbenadze reviewed new studies related to the issue in the scientific literature and prepared a paper according to specific requirements. the historical-etymological research of the place name "kutaisi" in the research of toponyms synonymous with kolkheti belongs to lela chotalishvili and nino jorbenadze. during the research, researcher iamze gagua provided relevant critical feedback and comments. all authors contributed uniquely to the creation and development of this article. references [1] brown 1985, brown r., evidence for pre-greek speech on crete from greek alphabetic sources, amsterdam, 1985, p. 132. [2] gordeziani r., mediterranean-georgian relations ii, iii. tbilisi, 2007, iii, p. 471. [3] beekes r.s.p., etymological dictionary of greek, brill. leiden. boston, 2010, p. 809-810. [4] gordeziani r., ancient and georgian, tbilisi, 1985 [5] fähnrich h., kartwelisches etymologisches wörterbuch, brill. leiden. boston, 2007, p. 472-73. [6] chukhua m., georgian-circassian-abkhaz etymological dictionary, tbilisi, 2018, p. 419. georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 42-53 the natural resources potential and pecularities of their exploitation in moutainous regions (the case of kvemo racha, georgia) elene salukvadze1*, tamila chaladze1, ketevan gogidze1 abstract to reveal natural resources of a region it is causally necessary to reveal and describe certain landscapes as far as they are means of manifesting natural resources. besides they are subject of study of land management. it is important to identify resource potential and current state of landscapes and each of their components. landscapes occupy certain areas which are characterized with certain natural conditions and, obviously, different natural potential. to study the above issues, we selected mountainous region of kvemo racha (ambrolauri municipality of georgia). for the studies, together with literary material and different sources, we used cartographic material, the landscape maps (1970, 1983) and the topographic map (scale; 1:50000) of georgia and transcaucasia and the observation materials of the field expedition made in 2019 in kvemo racha. we constructed a large-scale landscape map for kvemo racha (ambrolauri municipality) by gis (geographic information system) technology. the work describes individual natural components of landscapes and resource potential of the distinguished landscapes. the data on mineral resources, climate and agro-climate, soil and forest resources are given in the table and diagrams. among the landscapes distinguished as a result of comprehensive studies, the landscapes in the racha depression on the right and left banks of the river rioni have especially great potential. these landscapes are located on either sides of the rioni river gorge, though the landscape on the right bank of the river is especially distinguished. this is racha depression with a synclinal river gorge, river terraces, juts at some places, humus-carbonate soils. it is a specific micro-zone on the southern slope of the lechkhumi ridge (450-750 m above sea level), with unique vine species (aleksandrouli, mujuretuli, shavi (black) kapistoni), which are used to produce naturally sweet and semisweet “khvanchkara” type red wines known world-wide. the wealth of racha – forest landscapes are also noteworthy as some of them have industrial, others have recreational and ecological resources and are of high significance for preserving the biodiversity in the region. keywords: natural resources potential, mountainous regions, kvemo racha the main part kvemo racha presented as ambrolauri municipality, is a region distinguished for its diversity in nature (like the whole region of racha). ambrolauri municipality (1 town and 68 villages) is located in western georgia on the south-eastern slopes of the caucasus mountains, in the rioni river basin, bordered on the west by tsageri and on the north by lentekhi municipalities, on the east by oni municipality, 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography of the ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, elene.salukvadze@tsu.ge mailto:elene.salukvadze@tsu.ge georgian geographical journal on the south by tskaltubo, tkibuli, chiatura and sachkhere municipalities. its area is 1142 km2. the region occupies the southern slopes of the folded mountains of the caucasus. it is mainly built of jurassic and cretaceous shale, sandstone, limestone, marl, tertiary gypsum clay. the relief is mainly of middle and high mountain-ravine type. the southeastern and south-western boundary is stretched along the racha ridge, the northern slope of which is located in ambrolauri municipality. in the north it is bounded with the lechkhumi ridge (with the peaks of samertskhle – 3584 m, kareta – 3354 m, lukhunistsveri – 3216 m). in the east the ridge divides the basins of the rivers lukhunistskali and sakaura. in the west there are the ramifications of the lechkhumi ridge and the racha ridge. the lowest part of the municipality is occupied by racha (ambrolauri) depression, the average height of the bottom of which is 500 m. together with tectonic and erosive processes the quaternary glaciation has played significant role in the formation of the relief. ancient glaciers and glaciation tracks (kars, cirques, etc.) have survived on the high ridges. on its small territory one can meet eye-catching deciduous and coniferous forests, mountains covered with subalpine and alpine meadows, deep river gorges, karst and cultural landscapes. racha is a region with many mountains and shortage of lands. the most part, 78.8%, of its territory is occupied with mountains and foothills. due to the relief complexity, extreme disintegration and strong inclination (48% of the territory is covered with slopes inclined by 20° and more) the resources of the land for agricultural activities are extremely limited. the agricultural lands occupy 15 946 ha, which is 14% of the whole territory. among the mineral resources discovered in ambrolauri municipality are coal, arsenic (extraction is stopped), manganese, clay, antimony, limestones, etc. for revealing and analyzing a region it is important to have climate and agroclimate characteristics and agro-industrial soil data. the climate of kvemo racha varies from subtropical to continental. the air temperature sharply changes together with height variation. in the lower zone the climate is humid. moderately cold winter and long-term warm summer is characteristic of this zone. the average monthly air temperature during warm periods in the 300-600 m zone varies from 21.1° to 9.5° and in the 1650 200 m zone it is 13.8° 1.5°. during cold periods the temperatures here are 7.8° 1.0° and 0.3° ̵ 6.9°, correspondingly. during active vegetation period the quantity of the precipitation varies from 570-700 mm to 935-1220 mm. the number of the days with snow cover is 40-170. the maximum thickness of snow cover is 190 cm. in the lower zone, active vegetation process starts from 4-19 april and ends at the end of the third decade of october and the beginning of november. in separate years, when freezing period lasts too long or starts in early autumn, the vegetation period may decrease by 1 month (gobejishvili, 2000; scientific and applied climate. . ., 2004). kvemo racha, according to agro-climate zoning, belongs to the moderately humid region of the west caucasus sub-district of west georgian district (see the table below). kvemo racha is rich in rivers, the main river rioni, which flows for 40 km on the territory of ambrolauri municipality and almost divides in the middle. the left tributaries salukvadze et al. of the rioni river are – krikhula, znakvura, sharaula, the right tributaries – ritseula, lukhunistskali, askistskali and etc. relatively large lakes are cheliagele and nakarevi (satsurblia), shaori reservoir (area 9.2 km2). the reservoir is for hydropower purposes, as well as for tourist-recreational purposes. surface and groundwater are used to supply water to the population. there are multiple mineral water sources uravi, chrebalo, abanoeti, gorisubani, likheti and khidikari. table 1. agro-climate characteristics of kvemo racha object m. above sea level (m) the sum of active temperatures (100>) absolute minimum temperature (average) (c0) moisture rate annual sum of atmospheric precipitation (mm) duration of frostfree days ambrolauri 544 3500 -18 1.2 1000 244-165 chrebalo 530 3200 -16 1,5 1034 250 -172 khvanchkara 560 3200 -16 1.3 1150 254 -174 (agroclimatic resources of georgia, leningra, gidrometeoizdat, 1978; scientific and applied reference book of climate in georgia, 2004). among the soils humus-carbonate soil is dominating here. it has developed on the eroded products of limestone, marl and carbonate sandstone and limestone deluvium. vast massifs of this kind of soil are spread over the left side of the river rioni between villages tsesi and sori. in the mountainous zone there are dark grey forest soil and dark grey podzolic soil covering large areas. there is mountain-meadow land in the subalpine and alpine zone and alluvial soil on the lower terraces of the rioni ravine. conditions are favourable for development of viticulture and horticulture on the ravines and slopes, which are occupied with alluvial and humus-carbonate soils. among vegetation covers, in economical viewpoint, a forest cover is the most significant. it has soil-conserving, anti-erosion, and at the same time recreational function, which is very important for healing. the forest area occupies 50% of the whole territory of kvemo racha. the subalpine and alpine meadow vegetation cover is presented mostly as high-productive livestock food. in the lower part of the ravines of the region there are colchian forests with evergreen undergrowth. beech forests are dominating on the lower slopes of mountains. mixed forest of hornbeam, chestnut, oak and maple trees are also met. the undergrowth is presented with hazel nut, hawthorn, medlar, azalea, etc. there are many kinds of wild fruits in the forest: wild pear, crab apple, chequer, guelder-rose and bilberry. in high-mountain areas coniferous forests are distributed. here and there yew trees (taxus baccata) are met. higher on there are subalpine and alpine meadows. among the animals west caucasian tur, roe deer, wolf, bear, fox, badger, wild cat, rabbit, caucasian squirrel, rarely lynx are found, caucasian grouse lives in high mountains, there are many quail, owl, etc. from reptiles there are snakes, lizards, toads, lake frogs, trout and barbel -in the rivers. in the 80-90-ies of the past century the area of arable lands considerably decreased that was caused by following factors: as a result of the partial land reform, in regards with privatization of public lands, the infertile lands were abandoned. due to georgian geographical journal significant steepness of the relief and erosive and landslide processes certain part of arable lands lost their fertility and are used for different functions nowadays. especially favourable agro-climatic conditions in kvemo racha provide development of viticulture, horticulture, cereal farming, which has been carried out by the population from ancient times. racha is homeland of nearly 50 species of vine. in georgia vine mainly grows in lowlands. among the mountainous regions of georgia exactly the racha დepression is well-known for its diversity in vine species. the endemic vine species of “aleksandrouli”, “mujuretuli”, “tsulukidzis tetra” and “dzelshavi” are represented here. the yield area is spread over metric tons/ha. from these unique vine species world-wide known wines are produced. the vineyards mainly grow in the lower zone on the slopes along the river rioni and its tributaries. the whole area of vine growing is approximately 900 ha. the vine species here are characterized with high sugariness and corresponding acidity and are distinctly different from one another for their fragrance, colour and softness. from them wellknown semisweet and table wines are produced: “khvanchkara”, “usakhelouri”, “tetra” and “barakoni”. at different exhibitions these wines have won several gold and silver medals. according to vertical zoning, industrial vineyards are mainly grown at height of 600-800 m above sea level. the extreme limit of vertical distribution is 1100-1200 m (chkhartishvili, 2012). vineyards grow on the either sides of the gorge of the river rioni, in the hollow surrounded by high cliffy ridges, on well-illuminated slopes that make the best thermal conditions for producing sweet and semisweet red and white wines. the natural conditions of the zone are favourable for developing horticulture, though yield is low. the fruit of racha is known for its taste and high quality from ancient times. here winter and summer species of pear and apple, also quince and walnut are distributed. on small areas fig and pomegranate are met. in ambrolauri municipality agricultural lands occupy 15 946 ha area, which makes 14% of the whole territory, while the arable area makes 1141 ha, pastures occupy 13 108 ha and perennial crops 1647 ha (local economic develop..., 2020). cattle breeding is widely distributed in the municipality, though for the last years the number of broad-footed cattle has considerably decreased (by 4 000 heads of livestock). the population has pigs, sheep and goats in a small quantity, is occupied with poultry-farming and bee-keeping, the development of which is well provided by diverse plants full of nectar growing in the region. nearly whole population is involved in bee-keeping and apiculture and honey production. there is no shortage of hay meadows and pastures for cattle-herders here. on the summer pastures 22 000 cattle heads can graze, whereas 2.4 ha of hay meadows and pastures come on 1 head of cattle (agladze, chkheidze, 2012).the natural fodder areas of racha are mainly located in the following vertical zones: racha natural fodder lands are mainly located in the following vertical zones: a. the lower belt of the mountain (450-750 m above sea level); b. the middle belt of the mountain (750-1800 m); c. the upper belt of the mountain (subalpine meadows 1800-2400 m); d. the upper belt of the mountain (alpine meadows 2400-3200 m) (fig.1) salukvadze et al. ambrolauri municipality is rich of forest resources. here they have industrial value as well. 50% of the territory is occupied with forest, which makes 57 000 ha. among the vegetation cover of the forests of racha region 272 are caucasian and georgian endemics (among them 54 are georgian and 9 are racha-lechkhumian endemics) (kandelaki, 2012). the diversity and distinguishability of the flora is caused due to its existence in the contact zones of the geo-botanical areas of the eastern and western parts of georgia. in racha we meet colchian tertiary relicts and endemics (pontic rhododendron, cherry laurel, bladder-nut, persimmon, box tree, etc.) as well as dry continental vegetation characteristic of the southern slope of east georgia: oak, oriental hornbeam, hawthorn, dogwood, medlar, juniper, pine and etc. the diversity in the flora is also provided by long amplitude of heights above sea level (from 450 m to 4000 m) and vertical zonality of vegetation distribution. fig.1 structure of natural fodder lands here we meet all the species of coniferous plants distributed on the whole territory of the caucasus: spruce, fir, pine, yew and juniper. spruce and fir trees make massifs of virgin forests of high productivity in the central caucasus. the forests are mainly located mainly at 500-2000 m height. wide-leaved forests are very rich in floristic viewpoint. they are met at 1000-1100 m height. here we meet oak, chestnut, beech, lime, ash, maple and other trees. beech forests are presented as pure copses (from 1100 and above) as well as copses mixed with coniferous trees. in the subalpine forests we meet litvinov birch, high-mountainous maple and caucasian rowan. together with subalpine and alpine meadows caucasian evergreen azalea, juniper and high-mountainous bilberry are met. in the forest there are plants, which have entered the “red book” of georgia: yew, chestnut, colchian bladder-nut, georgian hazel nut, sea buckthorn and etc., also the trees, which have entered in the “red list” of georgia: caucasian hornbeam, caucasian fir, black alder, oriental beech, box, oriental spruce, chestnut, highmountainous maple. 14% 19% 40% 27% 1 2 3 4 vlower belt of the mountain midle belt of the mountain upper belt of the mountain (subalpine meadowvs) upper belt of the mountain (alpine meadows) georgian geographical journal the most forests of kvemo racha are located at 1001-2000 m above sea level (77.2%). according to this the forest zonality of the region has a large diapason (4504000 m above sea level) that provides diversity in the vegetation cover and clearly expressed vertical zonality. here the whole height spectrum characteristic of west georgia is presented. the belt of fir and spruce copses are located at 1600-2000 m above sea level. the main constituent species here are caucasian fir and oriental spruce. here also are the timber species as beech, lime, birch, aspen and etc. the undergrowth is presented as cherry laurel, holly, bilberry, azalea, butcher’s broom, daphne and others are met. the caucasian fir tree recognized world-wide as a unique species is distributed in this zone (fig 2). fig. 2. dominant woody species of kvemo racha forests racha is a region rich in forests, though is characterized with not quite high yield class indices. the most area of the ambrolauri forests belong to yield class iii and covers 25 310 ha, i.e., 43% of the whole forest area. high, ia and i yield class forests occupy extremely small area in the region – 1031 ha, i.e., 2.0% . the forests of racha are characterized with considerably high density, the average value of which is 0.685, whereas the forests of kvemo racha have density index 0.67. here the dominating species are characterized with the following densities: fir – 0.68, spruce – 0.63, pine – 0.61, beech – 0.69, oak – 0.68 and etc. (kandelaki, 2012). the most part of the ambrolauri forest are located on slopes with 20-30° inclination. the forested area of kvemo racha (ambrolauri municipality) makes 50% of the whole territory. this value is higher than the one of upper racha and the value of the whole country as well, as far as the forested area of georgia makes 40% of the whole territory of the country. the average supply per 1 hectare of the ambrolauri forests is 249 m3 (the one of georgia is 161 m3). the recreational potential of kvemo racha is of high significance – coniferous forests, favourable climatic conditions (long duration of sun light, short amplitudes of the temperatures of day and night), hydro-mineral resources (high quality mineral waters). abundance in natural, historical, ethnographic, cultural monuments, natural monuments – karst caves in gogoleti, tsakhi, tskhrajvari, sakinule (nikortsminda) and etc., the shaori reservoir make favourable conditions to develop tourism here. the region also has balneo-climatic resort bugeuli and balneological resort khidikari. the places with resorts potential are uravi and tsesigora as well. the hypsometric difference of kvemo racha (ambrolauri municipality) between the lowest (400 m – the bottom of the river rioni) and highest (3584 m – peak fir 17% spruce 2% pine 6% beech 50% oak 16% hornbeam 7% chestnut 2% salukvadze et al. samertskhle on the lechkhumi ridge) points, the diverse lithological structure, large number of orographic entities caused complexity and provided development of height fig. 3. landscape map of ambrolauri municipality landscapes: 1.a hollow with a synclinal river gorge, river terraces, juts at some places, humus-carbonate soil, agro-landscapes (vineyards, fruit gardens, maize fields), habitation landscapes; 2. riverside forests with alluvial soil, inhabited landscape, agricultural land; 3. a grassy hollow between mountains with karst springs, large karst funnels, diversity in karst wells. it is used for recreation and partially, as pastures; 4 a hilly-terraced hollow, eroded relief with vast landslides, juts, agro-landscapes (vineyards, fruit gardens, arable farms) and inhabited landscapes; 5. low mountains with steep slopes cut with gullies, shrubbery, oak forests, hornbeam forests, at some places destroyed forests and secondary meadows; 6. low mountains, hills, eroded karst relief, at some places canyon-like ravines, significant development of erosive forms, oak and oak-hornbeam forests; 7. low mountains with chestnut forests, at some places hornbeam forests, destroyed forests with secondary shrubbery, colchian undergrowth; 8. middle mountains with mountain-ravine relief, dark grey forest soil, beech and hornbeam-beech forests; 9.middle mountains with extremely fragmented narrow and deep ravines, steep slopes, beech forests, beech-fir forests, dark grey forest soils and dark grey podzolic soils; 10. middle mountains with fragmented erosive gorges, fir and spruce forests; 11.a plateau-like massif, short in surface rivers, with karst relief; 12. middle mountains with high intensity of karst phenomena, karst relief, abundance in karst forms in the relief (wells, funnels, caves, etc.), at some places deep canyon-like gorges, dark grey forest soil and dark grey podzolic soil, beech-fir and fir-beech forests, colchian undergrowth; 13. high mountains with secondary meadows in a formerly forested area; 14. high mountains, remnants of old glaciation, with subalpine birch forests and meadow-shrublands, on mountain meadow soils;15. high mountains with alpine meadows, mountain-meadow soils. georgian geographical journal zones of the landscapes. the existence of the racha-lechkhumi syncline in neogene played a great role in the peculiarity of the formation of the relief. it caused the existence of the racha depression, which has a lowland and hilly relief surrounded with middle and high mountains. we carried out comprehensive studies of landscapes on the territory of the region in regards to landscapes. each type of distinguished landscapes is estimated in the viewpoint of their natural conditions and potential possibility of resource usage. on the territory of ambrolauri municipality we distinguished 15 types of landscapes. we will consider several out of these landscapes as far as they have significant resource potentials (fig. 3): 1. a hollow with a synclinal river gorge, river terraces, juts at some places, humuscarbonate soil, agro-landscapes (vineyards, fruit gardens, maize fields), habitation landscapes. this kind of landscape is located in synclinal racha depression. the relief is the widened segment of the right bank of the rioni gorge. it is fragmented with fluvial terraces. landslides and juts are observed here. this is a zone of an agricultural settlement and active economic activities. the quantity of annual precipitation is 1000-2000 mm. the vegetation period lasts for 7 months. the average air temperature in july and august is 22°. high summer temperatures are caused by the cavity form of the relief and foehn winds. the active temperature sum during the vegetation period is 2600-3900. the average annual duration of sun light is 1900-2000 hours. the humus-carbonate soil on the right side of the river rioni has mostly developed on the eroded crust of carbonate sandstones. the average thickness of soils is 40-60 cm. the humus capacity is 8-9%. the natural vegetation cover has considerably changed due to high population density and economic activities. only separate copses of forest derivates have survived. within the boundaries of the landscape the vineyards grown in the specific viticulture microzones of kvemo racha (the southern slopes of the lechkhumi ridge) produce such famous wines as “khvanchkara”, “usakhelouri”, tetra’, “arabeuli” and etc. the micro-zone is located at 450-750 m above sea level, on the right bank of the river rioni, in the hollow surrounded by high ridges. it includes the following villages: khvanchkara, chrebalo, tola (i and ii), chorjo, sadmeli and bostana. among the vine species, according to growing area, “aleksandrouli”, “mujuretuli” and “tsolikauri” occupy the first place. then come “kapistoni”, “sapheravi” and etc. the climate is moderately warm and humid. during vine ripening period the climate is dry and sometimes drought-stricken, the quantity of precipitation considerably decreases that cause high sugariness in the vine. the natural fodder lands are distributed on the lowlands and hills along the river rioni and its tributaries –the pastures at village edges, the grass cover of which is presented as dry, feral meso-xerophilous groups. among them wild sorghum, brome and quaking-grass are dominating. 2. riverside forests with alluvial soil, inhabited landscape, agricultural lands. the landscape is distributed alongside the river rioni. it includes riverside forests composed of aspen, willow and alder trees. in regards to economy it is the best territory for maize, wheat, vegetable and fruit. 3. a grassy hollow between mountains with karst springs, large karst funnels, diversity in karst wells. it is used for recreation and partially, as pastures. the shaori hollow is located between the nakerala ridge and village nikortsminda. the slopes of nakerala and racha ridges, which are adjacent to the shaori hollow, are rich in karst funnels and wells. salukvadze et al. here are the caves of sakinule (to the village of nikortsminda) and sakishore (to the village of tlughi). pastures occupy a vast territory. here cereals are dominating. 4. a hilly-terraced hollow, eroded relief with vast landslides, juts, agro-landscapes (vineyards, fruit gardens, arable farms) and inhabited landscapes. this landscape is located in synclinal racha depression. the relief is the widened segment of the left bank of the river rioni. the relief is fragmented with fluvial terraces. here landslides are frequent (strong landslides are observed in the areas of mukhli, khimshi, saketsia, shroma, kveda shavra, bugeuli, baji). there are sharp bends on the left tributaries (river khoteura, river znakvura, etc.) of the river rioni. it is an active rural and economic zone. within the boundaries of the landscape on the left bank of the river rion located viticulture micro-zone of ambrolauri -bugeuli. with main villages: ambrolauri, bugeuli, saketsia, bareuli, gadishi, abanoeti, tsesi, khimshi. the micro-zone is located at 500-800 m above sea level, on the left bank of the river rioni. this area is quite different, with its exposition and soils, from the territories on the right bank of the river rioni located opposite to it. here vineyards are growing on northern and north-eastern slopes. the vineyards are shaded for several hours (at least two hours) a day by the mountains at their south and south-east. it makes a negative influence on the intensity of sugar accumulation in vine. therefore, this micro-zone gives moderate quality red dry wines. here mainly white species grow: “tetra”, “kudurauli (sugariness – 20-23%), “khikhvi”, “tsulukidzis tetra”, “tetri (white) kapistoni”, “tetri (white) arabeuli”. they give better quality wines then the red species do. 5. low mountains with steep slopes cut with gullies, shrubbery, oak forests, hornbeam forests, at some places destroyed forests and secondary meadows. the landscape is located on the saelio ridge, between the villages of kvatskhuti and tsesi, from the river ritseula to the lower flow of the river lukhunistskali at height 1000-1300 m above sea level. the precipitation quantity varies from 950 mm to 1300 mm. among the soils dark grey forest soil is dominating. the vegetation cover consists of oak forests, hornbeam-oak forests and hornbeam forests. at some places the forests have been cut down and replaced with secondary meadows. 6. low mountains, hills, eroded karst relief, at some places canyon-like ravines, significant development of erosive forms, oak and oak-hornbeam forests. the landscape includes the slopes of the racha ridge. surroundings villages: skhartali, tskadisi, khotevi, skhvava at some places the oak forests have degraded and replaced with oak and oriental hornbeam trees. large areas are occupied by inhabited localities and agricultural lands. it is possible to run pig farms here as far as the oak forests give the best food for them. 7. low mountains with chestnut forests, at some places hornbeam forests, destroyed forests with secondary shrubbery, colchian undergrowth. the landscape is distributed in the nakerala-shaori area at 1500 m above sea level. the natural vegetation cover of this belt is presented with chestnut forests. extremely steep slopes rich in limestone soils are covered with georgian oak copses. in the forest are mainly found hornbeam, beech, pine, maple, yew trees, common bladdernut, wild pear, crab apple, dogwood, guelder-rose and bilberry. 8. middle mountains with mountain-ravine relief, dark grey forest soil, beech and hornbeam-beech forests. the belt of beech forests is met from 1000 m to 1600 m above sea level. the main timber species composing the forest here is oriental beech, which is mixed with hornbeam, chestnut, lime, fir, spruce and aspen trees. in the undergrowth blackberry, pontic rhododendron, hazel nut, bilberry and etc. georgian geographical journal 9. middle mountains with extremely fragmented narrow and deep ravines, steep slopes, beech forests, beech-fir forests, dark grey forest soils and dark grey podzolic soils. the forests within the boundaries of the landscape bring considerable benefits to the population – wood is the main raw material used by them for heating. besides, the population receives high income from collecting the seeds of caucasian fir-tree (it is exported to europe). among the non-timber plants of the forest the population uses wild fruit and berries such as wild pear, dogwood, dog rose, chestnut, fir seeds, hawthorn, sea buckthorn and etc. great quantity of healing plants is met here: marjoram, southernwood, st john’s wort, valerian, yarrow, greater celandine, chicory and etc. there are also a great number of plants, which are the best for development of apiculture. the honey produced here is distinguished for its high quality and is ecologically clean. the belt of fir copses is spread from 1600 m to 2000 m above sea level. its main constituent species is caucasian fir tree. precipitation quantity makes 1500 mm that provides distribution of best massifs of dark coniferous forest with well-developed colchian undergrowth. 10. middle mountains with fragmented erosive gorges, fir and spruce forests. the landscape is located on the ridges of svanebi and kekhitekho, in the gorges of ritseula and sokhasteri. the spruce forest belt occupies the area from 1600 m to 2000 m above sea level. its main constituent species is oriental spruce, which is mixed with beech, lime, birch, aspen and other timber species. 11. a plateau-like massif, short in surface rivers, with karst relief. the landscape is located on the nakerala ridge. here lightly erosive and karst processes are observed, with forms characteristic for it, funnels, wells. it is only slightly fragmented with rivers that can be explained by the intensive karst development. 12. middle mountains with high intensity of karst phenomena, karst relief, abundance in karst forms in the relief (wells, funnels, caves, etc.), at some places deep canyon-like gorges, dark grey forest soil and dark grey podzolic soil, beech-fir and fir-beech forests, colchian undergrowth. the landscape is spread over the eastern part of the nakerala ridge. the belt of beech forest is located from 1000 m to 1600 m above sea level. the main component of the forest among timber species is oriental beech tree. humidity rate on the nakerala ridge is the highest in whole racha. the quantity of precipitation is also registered as the greatest (2000 m). its high value causes development of colchian undergrowth and intense formation of pontic rhododendron in karst hollows, which form impenetrable thorny undergrowth known as so called “shkeriani”. 13. high mountains with secondary meadows in a formerly forested area. the landscape is located on the lechkhumi ridge (to the north) and on the racha ridge (to the south). the meadows are of secondary origin. they have formed as a result of cutting down of forests and cattle grazing, which prevents the forest from restoration. there are rockslide and landslide foci at some places. 14. high mountains, remnants of old glaciation, with subalpine birch forests and meadow-shrublands, on mountain meadow soils. the landscape is spread over the southern slopes of the lechkhumi ridge at 2000-2300 m above sea level, upstream of rivers aski, ritseula, zhrinevi and lukhuni. these landscapes are characterized by intense erosion and denudation processes, rock falls, mudflow processe. litvinov birch, highland maple, caucasian rhododendron are found in subalpine forests. subalpine belt meadows are suitable for livestock and are used as natural pastures. 15. high mountains with alpine meadows, mountain-meadow soils. in the alpine zone, the vegetation is represented mainly by grass groups, suitable for natural food in the form salukvadze et al. of livestock. the landscapes in the high-mountainous subalpine and alpine zones in the kvemo racha are the best pastures and meadows for mowing that are necessary for cattle breeding. conclusion as a result of comprehensive studies of kvemo racha by gis technology a largescale landscape map (1:50 000) of kvemo racha (ambrolauri municipality) region was constructed. we distinguished 15 low rank landscape entities – landscape types. the distinguished landscapes give a clear image of the diversity and potential of the natural resources of the study region. it is noteworthy that the most part (78.8%) of the landscapes is made of mountain landscapes. certain part of the distinguished landscapes is useful for agricultural activities; some part can be used as forest resources and the other part – for tourism and recreation aims. the most part of the agricultural landscapes is located in considerably lower hypsometric zone (400-800 m) in synclinal racha depression, on either sides of the river rioni. the landscapes (#1, #4) here have a special role in the development of viticulture in kvemo racha. the majority of vineyards of racha (900 hectares from 1028 hectareრამდენიდან) are located here. the landscapes (#2) on the alluvial soils along the river rioni are the most useful for fruit and vegetable growing and cereal farming. the landscapes in the shaori hollow (#3) and high-mountainous subalpine (#14) and alpine (#15) zones are the best pastures and meadows for mowing that are necessary for cattle breeding, the total area makes 24 000 ha. the pastures and hay meadows of kvemo racha have great potential. they can provide development of livestock breeding here. the forest landscapes occupy the mort territory of kvemo racha. they have high value in industry as well as in preserving ecology and biodiversity. here the landscapes of river-side forests (#2), low mountain forests (#5, #6, #7 landscapes) and middle mountain forests (#8, #9, #10, #11) are met. among them virgin forests occupy quite a considerable area. great touristic and recreational potential has been unlocked in the landscapes (#3, #6) around the shaori reservoir, the landscapes where karst caves, balneo-climatic (bugeuli) and balneological (khidikari) resorts, also resort places (uravi and tsesigora) and other significant tourism and recreation objects are located. among the landscapes of kvemo racha the ones in racha depression, the boundary landscapes of low mountains, middlemountainous forests and high-mountainous meadows have changed. at many places secondary meadows can be observed at the places of former forests. the natural landscapes existing in the past here are presented as varieties of anthropogenic and natural-anthropogenic landscapes. references agladze gogotur, phiran chkheidze (2012). rach’is sadzovrebis mdgomareoba, mati produktiulobisa da khariskhis gazrdis ghonisdziebebi//in: rach’a: ts’arsuli, ats’mq’o, momavali/sakartvelos metsnierebata ak’ademiis mtis problemebis k’ompleksuri shests’avlis k’omisia. [condition of racha pastures, measures to increase their productivity and quality]//in: racha: past, present, future/commission for complex study of mountain problems of the georgian georgian geographical journal national academy of sciences, tbilisi: georgian national academy of sciences press, 117-127; (in georgian) agroklimatičeskie resursi gruzii (1978), agroclimatic resources of georgia] leningrad, gidrometeoizdat, p. 78-124. chkhartishvili nodar (2012). mevenakheobisa da meghvineobis ganvitarebis problemebi rach’ashi// in: rach’a: ts’arsuli, ats’mq’o, momavali/sakartvelos mets’nierebata ak’ademiis mtis problemebis k’ompleksuri shests’avlis k’omisia. [problems of development of viticulture and winemaking in racha] //in: racha: past, present, future/commission for complex study of mountain problems of the georgian national academy of sciences /georgia, tbilis: georgian national academy of sciences press, p. 153-160; (in georgian) gobejishvili ramin (2000). rach’a-lechkhumi//in: sakartvelos geograpia, nats’ili i, pizik’uri geograpia racha-lechkhumi//in: geography of georgia, part i, [physical geography of georgia], tbilisi: metsniereba, 259-260 p.; (in georgian) kandelaki teimuraz (2012). rach’is regionis tq’is resoursebi//in: rach’a: ts’arsuli, ats’mq’o, momavali/sakartvelos metsnierebata ak’ademiis mtis problemebis k’ompleksuri shests’avlis k’omisia. [forest resources of the racha region]//in: racha: past, present, future/commission for complex study of mountain problems of the georgian national academy of sciences/georgia, tbilis: georgian national academy of sciences press, p. 271-276; 283-2 87 (in georgian) ambrolauris municipalitetis ekonomikuri ganvitarebis gegma [local economic development plan ambrolauri municipality] (2020). georgia, ambrolauri: http://ambrolauri.gov.ge/geo_version.pdf, 14-15 p.; (in georgian) garemos mdgomareobis shesakheb erovnuli angarishi 2014-2017 ts’listvis. [national report on the state of the environment for 2014-2017]/30.12/2019, georgia, tbilisi (in georgian) saneblidze, meliton, david ukleba, christephore jakeli (1970) sakartvelos landshapturi ruk’a. [landscape map of georgia (1: 600 000)], tbilisi-moscow: main department of geodesy and cartography/russia, moscow: (in georgian). sakartvelos samets’niero da gamoq’enebiti ts’nobari. [scientific and applied reference book of climate in georgia], (2004), part i., tbilisi: bakur sulakauri publishing, p. 55-82; (in georgian) ukleba david, budag budagov, museib museibov, elena sokhadze, aleksandr bagdasarov (1983), landšaftnaja karta zakavkazija, glavnyi departament geodezii i kartografii [landscape map of the south caucasus, (1: 600 000)], main department of geodesy and cartography/ russia, moscow: (in russian) georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) two years of pandemic (georgian perspectives) mariam tsitsagi1*, sofiko dzhvarsheishvili1, nana kvirkvelia1, aleksandre shakhnazarovi1 abstract modern society faces many challenges, including the pandemic caused by covid-19, which has changed many aspects of public life. the article discusses the impact of covid-19 on georgia's economy and demography and the challenges the country faces in the post-pandemic situation. the pandemic had a burdensome impact on the already fragile economy of georgia. this has affected tourism, putting people employed in the tourism and hospitality sector under severe financial pressure. small businesses were affected, unemployment increased, and a large migration followed. the pandemic has burdened the health sector and increased the death rate. the country's economy is trying to regain its strength post-pandemic. however, the region has now found itself the harbinger of another challenge: the subject of a separate study. keywords: covid-19, demography, tourism. economy, georgia introduction any epidemic, especially a pandemic, does not end without a trace and leaves a more or less deep mark on the economies of the countries affected. after that, it directly depends on the fragility of the country's economy to either eliminate this footprint or live with it. pandemics of the historical past are proof of this [1]. the first officially confirmed case of covid-19 was recorded on december 31, 2019 [2]. on march 1, 2020, it was officially declared a global pandemic. the outbreak of covid-19 has caused some economic shocks around the world. these restrictions (quarantine, travel bans and restrictions, social distance enforcement, and lockdown—closure of public places and cancellation of public events) affected the economies of different countries differently. some economies are more fragile at such times, and others are more resilient. tourism was particularly vulnerable to the pandemic [3, 4]. it took longer than expected to restore it worldwide [5]. in countries where tourism was still developing, weaknesses were especially highlighted, and specialists began to develop future strategies for their elimination [6]. when discussing the effects of an epidemic, the first thing that comes to mind is the negative economic consequences and disruption of the normal rhythm of society's life. however, not everything is defined only from an opposing point of view. for example, a study in the usa confirms a decrease in anthropogenic (nox) emissions in march–june 2020, which can be explained by the economy's slowdown related to covid-19 [7]. georgia is no exception. covid-19 has affected the economy in large numbers and changed many social aspects of the country. the article attempts to gather existing statistical data and publications published during the pandemic to analyse the impact of covid-19 on georgia's economy, tourism, demography, and other aspects of public life. methods and materials the research is based on statistical data from various sources and literature analysis. maps were created in arc map 10.8 and adobe illustrator to illustrate the data. results the analysis of the data revealed that the pandemic had a severe impact on the population of georgia. these influences manifested themselves in almost all aspects of life. figure 1 shows the essential decisions and actions taken at the beginning of the pandemic by the government. the scenario discussed in detail below is the result of the backlash inside and outside the country. demography in 2020 and 2021, particularly in 2020, negative natural population growth was recorded in georgia for the first time since the 2014 population census. the natural population decline was approximately 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: mariam.tsitsagi@tsu.ge tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 4,000 people, while in 2021 the natural population decline was around 14,000. the phenomenon continues and results from the population decline tendency in georgia for the last several decades due to natural population decline and emigration (negative net migration). however, the natural population change data according to the type of settlement (urban and rural settlements) shows that in 2020 and 2021, the natural decline was recorded both in urban and rural settlements, while in 2016-2019, the natural population change in urban settlements was mainly stable, with an annual natural increase of 45 thousand being recorded (table 1). figure 1. covid-19 timeline in georgia during the first lockdown. data source [8] the increased number of deaths essentially caused the mentioned. since the 2014 population census, georgia's annual number of deaths has been mostly stable with a slight reduction tendency. however, in 2020 and 2021, the number of deaths in georgia significantly increased. in 2021, almost 60 thousand people died in georgia, which is 13 thousand more compared to 2019 (table 2). this increase was remarkably well observed in urban settlements, although a growing tendency was also recorded in rural settlements. table 1. natural population increase by settlement type. data source [9] year urban settlement rural settlement 2015 7759 2369 2016 5439 359 2017 5000 471 2018 5469 -855 2019 4583 -2946 2020 859 -4876 2021 -6027 -7933 this rapid and significant increase in the number of deaths should be considered a result of the covid-19 pandemic. according to national statistics office of georgia (geostat) data, in 2020 and 2021, the number of covid-19-related deaths was 13,867, or 12.6% of the two-year cumulative deaths. the mentioned share was even higher in 2021 and accounted for almost 19% of all deaths recorded in georgia. in addition, it is noteworthy that in 2020–2021, covid-19 was the cause of death in 15% of death cases in urban settlements, while the share of covid-19-related deaths was 9.6% in rural settlements. for more details, the number of covid-19-related deaths in 2020 was 2,587, of which 1,458 were males and 1,129 were females. in 2021, the number increased to 11,280, including 5,213 males and 6,067 females. therefore, the number of covid-19-related deaths in georgia was higher in 2021 compared to 2020 by approximately 8,700 people [10]. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) in this regard, it is also essential to analyse the change in the number of deaths in 2019–2021 in terms of sex and age, which would enable us to indirectly assess the possible effect of covid-19 on death based on gender and age. the comparative analysis of the 2019–2021 death data reveals that in the mentioned period, the death rate increased in all age groups for both sexes, except the 0–14 age group. the increased mortality was highest in the 45 and older age groups, particularly in the 65-84 age group, and the increase was almost 32%. based on the age-sex analysis, the increase in mortality was exceptionally high in the 65–84 and 85+ age groups for males. in the case of females, the excess mortality was significant in the 45–64 age group, and the number of deaths increased by 48%. regarding gender, it should also be noted that the difference between the mortality growth rate for men and women was almost 30% in the 45-64 age groups, which is a huge difference. the difference in death rates was also significant in the 25–44 age group. table 2. number of deaths by settlement type. data source [9] year urban settlement rural settlement 2015 26139 22983 2016 26788 23983 2017 25326 22496 2018 24737 21787 2019 24688 21971 2020 27053 23484 2021 33497 26409 it is also noteworthy that the covid-19 pandemic affected life expectancy as well. in 2019, the life expectancy at birth was 74.1 years; in 2021, it decreased to 71.4 years. in the case of males, the life expectancy decreased by 2.3 years, while in the case of females, the decrease was three years. therefore, the effect of covid-19 on life expectancy could be significant for both sexes. added to all this, even after introducing vaccines against covid-19 into the country, the level of vaccination was relatively low, even among health workers [11]. table 3. change in number of deaths by gender and age. data source [9] age groups 2019 2021 2021/2019 (% change) both males females both males females both males females 0-14 541 310 231 537 304 233 -0.7% -1.9% 0.9% 15-24 277 208 69 311 236 75 12.3% 13.5% 8.7% 25-44 1,701 1,328 373 1,961 1,466 495 15.3% 10.4% 32.7% 45-64 9,439 6,829 2,610 11,967 8,101 3,866 26.8% 18.6% 48.1% 65-84 24,468 12,122 12,346 32,214 15,798 16,416 31.7% 30.3% 33.0% 85+ 10,233 3,222 7,011 12,916 4,251 8,665 26.2% 31.9% 23.6% total 46,659 24,019 22,640 59,906 30,156 29,750 28.4% 25.6% 31.4% economics the two years of the pandemic triggered health and economic problems in georgia and throughout the world. this period in georgia was characterised by economic shocks such as a raised unemployment rate, decreased foreign direct investments, and decreased gross domestic product, especially at the beginning of the spread of the coronavirus infection [12]. in the first stage of the pandemic, the major lockdown in social and economic life caused a big failure in the market mechanism of the entire country [13]. the current analysis focuses on the effects of two years of the pandemic on the economy of georgia in a regional context. one of the most important macroeconomic indicators is gross domestic product (gdp), which is recognised and accepted internationally. according to the geostat, gdp measures the total market value of all final goods and services produced during a specific year. the data from geostat illustrates that in the last decade, just before the spread of the coronavirus infection, the real gdp growth rate was always positive. the gdp growth rate decreased from 2011 until 2016, but after 2016, it started to increase, and in 2019, it was equal to 5%. this is its highest level in the last seven years. in 2020, the actual growth rate of gdp was negative and equaled equalled -6.8 %. this data shows that during the pandemic time in 2020, georgia had an economic recession [15]. from the beginning of the pandemic, according to different restrictions, there was little demand for various items [16]. some companies closed their activities, and many businesses tried to put off tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) investments and everything, leading to a decline in gdp [13]. although the economy is beginning to recover, in 2021, the situation improved, and this indicator again showed a positive rate of 10.4%. (fig. 2). the present has largely remedied the severe effects of the covid-19 depression, but this crisis has not yet been fully fixed [17]. figure 2. real gdp growth rates compared to the same period of the previous year %. data source [14] the most damaged sector in georgia and different regions during the pandemic was the service sector, especially accommodation and food service activities [12]. according to data from geostat, in 2020, the share of gdp of economic activities such as accommodation and food service in comparison with the previous year declined sharply, almost 46%, but some economic sectors increased, including mining and quarrying; household activities as employers; undifferentiated goods and services producing activities of the household for own use; and education. figure 3. gdp share by regions in 2020. data source [14]. in georgia, the share of gdp among the regions is unequal. as evident from fig. 3, the largest share of gdp by region in 2020 is held by tbilisi, followed by the adjara autonomous republic (ar) and imereti in third place. activities such as wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, real estate activities, construction, transport, and storage contribute 54% of the gdp in tbilisi. during the pandemic, tbilisi's three most damaged economic activities were: 1. accommodation and food service; 2. administrative and support service; 3. water supply, sewerage, waste management, tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) and remediation activities; in the adjara ar, the central part of gdp was concentrated in real estate activities (16.2%), followed by construction (14%), wholesale and retail trade, and repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (0.1%). the most damaged activities in adjara were: 1. accommodation and food service; 2. administrative and support service; and 3. construction. in imereti, the main components of the gdp were: agriculture, forestry, and fishing (14%); manufacturing (12.9%); and real estate (12.2%). furthermore, in imereti, the most damaged sectors were: 1. administrative and support services; 2. water supply; sewerage, waste management, and remediation activities; and 3. information and communication. figure 4. number of active enterprises by regions. data source [22] georgia's small and medium businesses were expanding firmly prior to the pandemic. data from geostat show that, before the pandemic, from 2014 to 2019, georgia's business sector, especially production value, had substantial growth of approximately 45%. however, the covid-19 crisis created challenges that decreased the number of active organisations. the production value of the business sector in 2020, compared with 2019, decreased, too, by approximately 3%. by the beginning of march 2020, practically all businesses will continue their activity online using various web platforms [18]. many of them, especially in the service sector, were closed. surveyed organisations started using digital platforms to sell their products through online channels. enterprise sales fell due to the pandemic, whereas sales through digital channels rose [19]. the pandemic's main challenge was lockdown, which caused a transformation in entrepreneurial activity. the feature of digital entrepreneurship that distinguishes it from traditional entrepreneurship is that the parties involved in a deal can contact each other and complete the necessary transaction on a digital platform [20]. this business started developing actively in georgia during the pandemic [21]. the number of active enterprises in 2020 decreased by 1.4 % compared to the previous year, equaling 165,300 firms. therefore, in the private sector, many people lost their jobs. the number of employees in the business sector in 2020 decreased due to pandemic restrictions. the rate was reduced by 7 %, equaling 703,9 thousand people. tbilisi has historically been the centre of the economy. evidence from fig. 4 shows that a significant part of active enterprises, approximately 42%, concentrate in the capital of georgia, tbilisi, followed by imereti -14% and adjara ar-10%. during the pandemic in 2020, the active number of enterprises in all regions of georgia decreased. as a result of anti-pandemic restrictions, turnover of the small enterprises in comparison with the previous year, 2019, decreased by 3%, and employed persons in this type of organization also decreased by 15%. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) compared with the previous year, the number of employed persons in 2020 in the business sector in tbilisi significantly decreased by approximately 5% and equalled 443272 people (fig. 5), followed by adjara and imereti the reduction was respectively 9% and 8%. georgian government try to support entrepreneurship and the business environment. in this regard, it is essential to draw attention to the world bank's "doing business" ranking, in which georgia was ranked in the seventh position for its sustained improvement of the business environment over numerous cycles [24]. also, georgia was classified as a "mostly free" country in the heritage foundation's "index of economic freedom," where it was ranked 12th in 2020 [25]. a substantial network of free trade agreements has been built by the government of georgia [26]. figure 5. number of employed persons in business by regions. data source [23] as evident from fig. 6, georgia's external trade turnover from 2016–2019 displayed a trend towards growth. during this period, it increased 1.2 times; by 2019, this indicator had reached 13.3 billion usd. in 2020, external trade turnover will comprise 11.4 billion usd. over the previous year, there was about a 15% reduction; in 2021, this indicator increased and peaked for the last five years. concerning import and export in 2020, compared with the previous year, these indicators fell too, respectively, by 15% and 12%, comprising 8.1 billion usd and 3.3 billion usd. georgia must raise the production of domestic goods that will be competitive enough to meet domestic demand. it is also essential to support industrialization, focusing on exports [28]. by the year 2020, the five most significant export products were: copper ores and concentrates (23.35% of total export), motor cars (12.08% of total export), ferroalloys (7.40% of total export), wine of fresh grapes (6.29% of total export), undenatured ethyl alcohol, spirits, liqueurs, and other spirituous beverages (3.96% of total export), while the five major export countries in 2020 were: china (14.3% of total export), russia (13.2% of total export), azerbaijan (13.2% of total export), bulgaria (9.4% of total export) turkey (5.7% of total exports). as for imports, the five main imported products were: motor cars (9.71%), copper ores and concentrates (7.23% of total import); petroleum and petroleum oils (6.19% of total import); petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons (3.91% of total import); and telephone sets, including telephones for cellular networks or other wireless networks (2.05% of total import). the five major import countries in 2020 were: turkey (17.5% of total import); russia (11% of total import); china (8.8% of total import); usa (6.9% of total import); and azerbaijan (6.4% of total import). tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 6 external merchandise trade. (million usd). data source [27] due to the foreign trade agreement between china and georgia [29], which was signed on may 13, 2017, business owners in georgia are free to export their goods to china without paying extra taxes. therefore, in 2020, china was georgia's top exporting business partner. georgia's foreign trade turnover was $11.34 billion in 2020, a 14.8% decline from the previous year. the value of imports dropped by 15.9% to $8.1 billion, while exports decreased by 12% to $3.34 billion. in 2020, the external merchandise trade indicators were entirely changed, caused mainly by the covid-19 pandemic. economic and financial losses for the world economy and individual states define this period [30]. georgia's significant challenge is the growth and development of the nation's economy, which requires active work in many areas, such as the intensification of free trade and investment processes internationally. since georgia has a low rate of saving, in these types of countries, foreign direct investment is the primary driver of economic growth and recovery [26]. figure 7. dynamics of fdi, remittances and reinvestments in georgia (million us dollars). data source [31] as evident from fig. 7, the rate of foreign direct investment has been varying from 2013–2021. from 2017, foreign direct investment (fdi) had a downward tendency, and in 2020 they reached their minimum of 500.3 million usd, mainly due to the pandemic, which was 54.3% less than in 2019. in 2020, the following two sectors: the financial sector (69%) and mining (16.7%) received more than half of all foreign direct investments, while the largest investor countries were: the united kingdom (51.4% of total investment) and the netherlands (35% of total investment); let us talk about georgia's tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) geographical differences in terms of foreign direct investment. according to the geostat, tbilisi, adjara ar, and kvemo kartli regions received substantial foreign direct investment in 2020, respectively 44.2%, 21.2%, and 13.4%, due to the unstable situation in the country. in 2020, reinvestment also decreased, but according to the data from the national bank of georgia, remittances from 2015 have been increasing and in 2021 reached their high point. 76.52 % of all money transfers in october of 2022 came from russia – 59.62%; italy – 7.12%; the usa -5.97%; greece – 3.81%. in georgia, remittances continue to be crucial for stabilising the economy [32]. on november 19, 2020, the georgian government approved the state initiative to increase foreign direct investment in specific economic sectors such as the production of electrical and electronic engineering products, the manufacture of aircraft parts and components, the manufacture of vehicles and equipment as well as their parts, the export of business services, the development of warehouses and logistic centres, and aircraft repair and maintenance. the programme's objective is to encourage the growth of foreign direct investments, the infusion of technology, and the creation of new jobs in the country [25]. we can infer from the information above that georgia has had great difficulty during the pandemic: people lost their jobs, the unemployment rate has increased, and gdp, fdi, and reinvestment have significantly decreased. despite these unfavourable facts, positive aspects, such as a surge in remittances in 2020 as they reached a high level, can also be seen. it should be noted that the georgian government implemented innovative programmes that will help attract more foreign capital in the future, which will help create more new positions with the highest income and opportunity levels in a regional context [33]. figure 8. unemployment rate in georgia %. data source [35] unemployment continues to be a severe social and economic problem for georgia. georgia changed to the new standard of unemployment definition that the international labour organisation (ilo) requires. the ilo has created a new approach for calculating unemployment, which the geostat uses. an unemployed person is 15 years of age or older, has not worked (even for one hour) for seven days before the interview, has been looking for work for the past four weeks, and is prepared to start working in the next two weeks. in particular, according to the new standard of the international labour organisation, the definition of unemployed covers all economically active populations. who were: 1. "without a job," that is, not engaged in self-employment or paid work; 2. "currently available for work," meaning they could have found a job or worked for themselves throughout the reference period; 3. "seeking work," having taken particular actions recently to look for paid employment or selfemployment. it is noticeable that the economic crisis caused by the pandemic and the following limitations had a detrimental impact on georgia's employment and unemployment rate. the official data state that the employment rate during 2019–2021 decreased from 42.7% to 40.4%. the unemployment rate is even more alarming in georgia, and in 2021 it increased by 2.1% compared to the previous year's corresponding period, equaling 20.6%, and reached its highest point over the last four years (fig. 8). it also should be noted that the number of economically active people fell, which could have happened because of 1) an increase in international labour migration and 2) the "ageing" of the population [34]. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) the unemployment in georgia is higher for men than for women. the fig. 9 presents the unemployment by sex during 2010-2021. figure 9. unemployment rate by sex%. data source [35] in 2021 compared with 2019, unemployment increased for women and men by 1.8% and 3.8%, respectively. this illustrates women's motivation to pursue more and better chances during pandemics. additionally, there are substantial regional differences in unemployment rates. according to the geostat, in 2021, the number of unemployed amounted to 316.2 thousand persons. urban areas account for 65 % of the country's total unemployment. figure 10. unemployment rate by regions (%). data source [36] as evidenced by fig. 10, tbilisi and its unemployment growth rates especially distinguish kvemo kartli. in 2021, about 30% of the total unemployment is in racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti, followed by kvemo kartli (25.2%) and tbilisi (23.8%). an extreme reduction in the number of unemployed persons in 2019–2021 was observed only in kakheti, mtskheta–mtianeti, racha– lechkhumi, and kvemo svaneti. the economy of georgia was significantly harmed by unemployment, which raised the poverty rate and exacerbated the country's economic imbalance. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) it should be underlined that in order to reduce poverty in our country, we should implement an active labour market policy, which will be organised by the government, and an adequate system of social protection for unemployed persons. such as access to healthcare services and the implementation of focused government training programmes, which help unemployed persons in the future find a good job [37]. tourism despite the impact of the pandemic [38, 39], the tourism industry in georgia is steadily returning to its old performance. according to the statistics for 2021, the number of visits by international travellers amounted to 1,881,271 (+7.7%). the number of visits by international travellers includes the number of visits made by international visitors: 1,721,242 (+13.7%), and other visits (non-tourist): 160,029 (-31.5%). of the visits made by international visitors, 1,577,463 (+45.1%) were tourist visits (overnight visits), and 143,779 (-66.3%) were one-day visits [40]. figure 11. visits made by international visitors 2019-2022. data source [41] in the second quarter of 2022, the number of international visitors reached 765.3 thousand, an increase of 189.4% compared to the same period of the previous year. in the reporting period, international visitors made 749.3 thousand tourist-type visits, which is 145.0% more than the indicator for the same period of the previous year. 81.8% of international visitors were only tourists (a tourist is a visitor who spent the night in the territory of georgia). the share of only excursionists (an excursionist who does not spend the night in the territory of georgia) was 14.8%, and 3.5% of visitors were both tourists and excursionists. in the second quarter of 2022, the most significant number of visitors, 147.7 thousand, was recorded from the russian federation, or 19.3% of the total number of visitors. turkey is in second place with a 14.9% share, and armenia is in third place with a 12.1% share. accordingly, the most significant number of visits was made by citizens of the russian federation (175.4 thousand), turkey (158.3 thousand), and armenia (136.8 thousand). most visitors (48.5%) belonged to the 31–50 age group. women made up 37.0% of the total visitors [42]. most international visits were made via air transport at 877,158 (51%), followed by ground transport at 826,355 (48%). the number of visits by rail and sea was 10,879 (0.6%) and 6,850 (0.4%), respectively. the busiest border was tbilisi airport, with 568,149 (33%). sarfi follows it with 253,859 (14.7%), batumi airport with 221,853 (12.9%), kazbegi with 220,788 (12.8%), and sadakhlo with 125,047 (7.3%). the largest share of international visits comes from these five border checkpoints: 80.7% of all international visits. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) the number of international visits from eu countries amounted to 139,157 (+96.7%). the most visits were made from poland: 30,988 (+189.9%), germany 21,194 (+127%), and france, 10,646 (+103.9%). the majority of international visits were made by men, at 1,186,831 (69%), while women's visits accounted for 534,411 (31%). representatives of the 31–50 age group made the most visits, with 885,473 (51.4%). it is followed by the 51-70 age group with 428,309 (24.9%) and the 15-30 age segment with 385,563 (22.4%)—the youngest age group, 71 and older, only accounts for 1.3% of visits, amounting to 21,897 visits. the share of international visits in the number of international travellers has increased, and the share of tourist visits in the number of international visits has increased. the share of international visits in the number of international travellers increased from 86.6% to 91.5%, mainly due to fewer visits by under-15s, while also increasing the share of tourist visits from 71.8% to 91.6% [43]. in second quarter 2022, most visits (52.0%) were made for leisure, entertainment, and recreation purposes. most of the visits were made in tbilisi and adjara ar, respectively, with 512.7 thousand and 375.3 thousand. the chart below shows the percentage distribution of the number of visits by region visited. figure 12 distribution of the average monthly number of visits made by non-resident visitors of georgia aged 15 and older by regions visited2. data source [44] the average number of nights spent during visits made in the second quarter of 2022 amounted to 6.2 nights. 70.5% of the visits were repeat visits. 58.9% of visitors express satisfaction. in 2021, the average monthly number of tourists made by georgian resident visitors to the territory of georgia was determined at 662.6 thousand, which is 37.9% more than the previous year's figure. domestic visitors made 16.9 million visits in the given period, an increase of 35.8% compared to the same period of the previous year. the highest number of visits (41.8%) was recorded from tbilisi. most of the internal visits were made in the direction of the main cities in georgia. the average duration of the visit was two nights. the average length of tbilisi residents' visits was the highest at 2.9 nights, while for other regions, this figure was one night. residents of georgia made 46.9% of the internal visits to visit friends and relatives. the trip's primary purpose was to visit the second home, which accounted for 15.9% of the visits, and shopping visits represented a significant share of 13.2%. as for the visits made for treatment or health, 8.9% were made, while 8.1% were made for rest, entertainment, and recreation. other frequently reported goals included business and professional activities at 3.5%. the total number of overnight stays made by domestic visitors amounted to 35.5 million. among them, visitors spent 46.4% of overnight stays in a friend's or relative's apartment, 41.5% in their own home, and 4.3% in a guest house or hostel. the total expenditures made by domestic visitors exceeded 2.7 billion gel, and the average expenditure incurred during one visit was 160.1 gel. the largest share of expenses, 35%, was recorded for shopping [41]. fig. 13 shows the distribution of the average monthly number of georgian resident visitors aged 15 and older by age groups. 2 note in order to avoid the risks related to the spread of the new coronavirus (covid-19) in georgia, the field work of the statistical survey of foreign visitors by geostat was temporarily suspended. accordingly, data from the ii quarter of 2020 to the iv quarter of 2021 is not available. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 13. distribution of the average monthly number of georgian resident visitors aged 15 and older by age group in 2021. data source [45] according to str global, the occupancy rate of hotels in georgia in 2021 was 45.7%, an increase compared to the previous year was +106.8%. the highest load was observed in july at 73.1%, august at 65% and june at 58.4%, while the lowest was january at 16.1%, february at 18.8% and march at 23.9%. the data of shg global allows analysis of three categories: tbilisi, batumi and the rest of georgia. among them, batumi leads with the load factor of 55.4%, followed by the rest of georgia with 50.2% and tbilisi with 41%. during 2021, 589,098 visitors visited protected areas, an increase of 145.2% compared to the previous year. the number of foreign visitors to protected areas was 311,014, an increase of 1,077%. ukrainians (13.7%), jews (13.3%), russians (12.1%), belarusians (11.3%) and latvians (9.5%) prevailed among foreign visitors. figure 14. number of total and international visitors according to popular tourist destinations as evident from fig. 14 the most visitors visited martvili canyon (19.8%), prometheus cave (17.7%) and kazbegi national park (11.4%). the foreign visitors mostly visited prometheus cave (26.5%), martvili canyon (26.2%) and okatse canyon (12.5%). an interactive map (fig. 15) created based on these statistics offers photos of the mentioned popular protected areas. tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) figure 15. most visited protected areas in georgia the income received from tourist services of the protected areas amounted to 5,832,764 gel, an increase compared to the previous year is 548.8%. table 4. income from tourist services for the most popular protected areas tourist destination income from tourist services (gel) 1 prometheus cave 2,365,460 2 martvili canyon 1,850,180 3 okatse canyon 650,076 4 sataplia 351,428 table 4 shows revenues from popular protected areas. the share of foreign visitors to protected areas increased from 11% to 53%. the increase in the number of foreign visitors amounted to +1,077%, while the increase in georgian visitors amounted to 30%. as a result, the share of foreign visitors in the number of visitors to protected areas increased. the largest increase in the number of visitors was observed in the cases of martvili canyon, prometheus cave, and okatse canyon (table 5). the increase of georgian visitors in martvili canyon was 16,896; in kazbegi national park, 13,912; and in sataplia, 9,918. table 5. increased number of visitors and income in according to protected areas tourist destination increase of visitors increase of international visitors increase in income increase in income (%) 1 prometheus cave +84,767 +75,320 +2,074,871 42.1% 2 martvili canyon +94,931 +78,035 +1,594,536 32.3% 3 okatse canyon +40,438 +36,464 +558,319 11.3% prometheus cave had the most significant increase in income in terms of protected areas (table 5). the total increase in the revenues of the protected areas amounted to 4,933,688 gel. mari file attachment mari file attachment mari file attachment mari file attachment mari file attachment mari file attachment mari file attachment mari file attachment mari file attachment tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) among the visitors, 47% are georgian (278,084), and 53% are foreigners (311,014). according to the data of 2021, georgian visitors compared to 2020. the number has increased by 30%, and the number of foreign visitors has increased by 11.7 times. see fig. 16. figure 16. number of visitors in protected areas 2020-2021. data source [45] the pandemic has affected small and medium enterprises [46, 47]. their sales decreased significantly during the lockdown, but online sales increased across the country, and businesses that quickly adapted to the online platform saw relatively less loss. the education system is worth noting among the many components of the pandemic. it should be emphasised that the system responded quickly, and the learning process moved to the online platform [48]. the famous tv school project was created. however, various difficulties were also revealed. these included limited access to technology and the internet (especially in remote villages), a lack of willingness on the part of some staff, and a lack of skills to adapt to the online platform. here, the issue of personnel readiness has relatively improved over time. the financial instability associated with unemployment, the constant stressful background, and the interrupted socialisation due to the lockdown resulted in the deepening of mental problems in society [49]. studies of college students have shown high levels of depression and anxiety [50]. it is also noted that, despite their vulnerability, international students coped with this challenge better than local students. this fact has its own logical explanation, which we will not dwell on in this article. more detailed studies on the consequences of the pandemic in the field of education will be needed to put it more clearly into perspective. discussion generally, covid-19-related data and scholarly articles highlight that case fatality rates were higher among men than women in most countries due to biological factors, such as immune response, and behavioural risk factors related to particular habits [51]. however, there are exceptions when a higher case fatality rate is recorded among women in countries like india, nepal, vietnam, and slovenia. researchers explain this by incomplete data, other demographic factors, or the health system profiles of the countries [51]. in the case of georgia, as it has already been mentioned, 2020–2021 geostat data indicates that the total covid-19 death number was higher among women by 525 (6671 males compared to 7196). however, in this regard, it is crucial to consider the average population and sex ratios in georgia for 2020 and 2021, as the number of women exceeds the number of men. after conducting the necessary calculations, the combined covid-19-related death rates for men and women could be considered roughly equal for 2020 and 2021. concerning the difference in death rates by sex in 2020 and 2021 (as two different tendencies could be observed: in 2020, more men died from covid-19, and in 2021, more women died), it is difficult to draw a clear conclusion and provide an explanation for this observation due to a lack of relevant data and evidence. a clear explanation could not be provided for why, in 2021, excess female mortality was recorded for ages 25–64, particularly in the 45–64 age group, for the same reason. therefore, if more tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) comprehensive data and information becomes available, further research would be essential to understand the factors that determine these processes' determinants. despite the impact of the pandemic, the tourism industry in georgia is steadily returning to its old performance. this is evidenced by the statistical data presented in the article. it should be noted that despite the pandemic, the citizens of neighbouring countries and the world do not lose interest in georgia. the number of international visitors has increased. russians, turks, and armenians share the first, second, and third places among them. geographical location and good neighbourly geopolitical relations with these countries contribute to the flow of tourists. among the international visits from eu countries, the most visits were made from poland, germany, and france. the average monthly number of tourist-type visits made by georgian resident visitors to the territory of georgia has also increased. most visits were recorded from tbilisi. most of the internal visits were made in the direction of the main cities in georgia. the occupancy of hotels has also increased. it is known that tbilisi is the centre of migration. accordingly, there is a seasonal flow of population in the regions. different goals of the visits were highlighted. among them, the most are for visiting friends and relatives. therefore, visiting the second home leads to the trip's primary goal. also, the visits made for the purpose of shopping represented a significant share. treatment/rehabilitation visits are distinguished. relatively less was recorded for rest, entertainment, and recreation. it should be noted that during the pandemic period, after lifting various restrictions, especially isolation, the largest share of spending by domestic visitors was recorded on shopping. the load factor of hotels also increased. people had an extreme desire to leave their familiar environment. post-pandemic travel and recreation in open spaces are becoming relevant and popular. accordingly, foreign and local visitors' interest in protected areas has increased. citizens of eastern european countries predominated among foreign visitors: ukrainians, russians, belarusians, and latvians. most visitors visited martvili canyon, prometheus cave, and kazbegi national park. accordingly, the income received from the tourist services of the protected areas has also increased. prometheus cave had the most significant increase in revenue. this may be because the cave of prometheus can be visited at any time of the year due to its stable temperature. one of the factors determining the popularity of kazbegi national park is its geographical proximity to tbilisi. conclusion as evidenced by this article, it is already noticeable that the pandemic negatively influenced georgia's economy. as a result of the widespread lockdowns and quarantine restrictions, some economic sectors have experienced significant losses [52]. during the pandemic, georgia had a high unemployment rate; individuals lost their jobs, reducing consumption. when demand declines, other industries reduce production since their goods are no longer required as intermediary goods, especially in the business sector. therefore, some enterprises decided to delay investments, other companies terminated their operations, and the overall effect was a fall in gdp [53]. based on statistical information provided by geostat, in 2020, we noticed a decline in export and import volumes, but in 2021, external turnover increased. the georgian economy's cornerstone is remittances. during the pandemic, they rose too and reached their maximum level. before the pandemic, there was a declining trend in foreign investments, but in 2020, its shocking effects reached georgia. attracting international investments is the responsibility of the national government. as a result, the georgian government will aim to increase the foreign investment it receives in the future. therefore, they set up many creative initiatives to entice foreign investors, which will aid the government in lowering the unemployment rate and helping develop various regional economic sectors. despite the impact of the pandemic, the tourism industry in georgia is steadily returning to its old performance. russian, turkish, and armenian citizens are leading among international visitors in the region. most visitors (48.5%) belonged to the 31–50 age group. from the eu countries, most visits were made from poland, germany, and france. most of the visits were made for rest, entertainment, and recreation. most of the visits were made in tbilisi and adjara ar. the increase in the load factor of hotels in georgia compared to the previous year amounted to +106.8%. the highest load was observed in july, august, and june. the protected areas of georgia do not lose their relevance. most foreign visitors visited prometheus cave, martvili, and okatse canyons. after the pandemic, rest and recovery from the energy spent at work are very important. especially with so many restrictions and isolation, people have an increased desire to travel, socialise, and get healthy. the statistical data tsitsagi et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) reviewed in the article prove that tourism retains its relevance, and it is crucial to utilise and use the tourist potential of our country rationally. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.t. developed the theoretical framework. a. s. performed the calculations of demographic data. s.d. and n.k preformed the numerical calculations. m.t. wrote the manuscript with input from all authors. appendix a 1. coronavirus disease (covid-19) is an infectious disease caused by the sars-cov-2 virus. sars‑cov‑2 is a positive-sense single-stranded rna virus that is contagious in humans. 2. the national statistics office of georgia, or simply geostat, the legal entity under public law, carries out its activities independently. it is an institution established to produce the statistics and disseminate the statistical information according to georgian legislation. the national statistics office of georgia is established by the law of georgia, dated december 11, 2009, on official statistics. 3. str is the leading provider of premium global data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace for the global hospitality industry. 4. the agency of protected areas (apa) underwent several stages of development and structural reforms before becoming what it is today. the objective of the agency is to improve the management of protected areas, ensure the functionality of territorial administrations, supervise the process of following legally established regulations, and plan, create, and develop new protected areas. 5. the national bank of georgia (nbg) is the central bank of georgia. its status is defined by the constitution of georgia. the main objective of the national bank is to ensure price stability. 6. since kazbegi has been renamed as stepantsminda, the national park remains known by the original title of kazbegi national park. references 1. belitski, m., guenther, c., kritikos, a. s., & thurik, r. 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(2022) the challenges of georgia’s economic policy in achieving sustainable development goal 9 in the covid -19 pandemic period. conference: challenges in economics and business in the post-covid times; doi:10.18690/um.epf.5.2022.3 georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 54-62 protected areas and natural landscapes – an essential factor for sustanable development of ecoturism in mountainous regions elene salukvadze1 abstract development of ecotourism requires providing conditions for creating reserves, national parks and other protected areas, which are the main objects of ecotourism of nowadays in georgia. at present the country counts 90 different statuses of protected areas. preserving them in their natural form and using their potential for ecotourism is of high significance nowadays. there is a tight relation between tourism and environment. unaffected nature provides adequate quality of life for local tourists, whereas for foreign travelers it is an incentive to visit georgia to see the natural monuments of the country. the paper shows the significance of protected areas in the development of ecotourism in georgia on the example of two mountainous regions – guria and racha. the work considers a scientifically corroborated hypothesis that there is a great potential of transforming the first newly formed protected area in guria – pontine oak reserve and the high quality landscapes (mixed and dark-coniferous forests and sub-alpine meadows) on the territory of adjacent (4 km distance) resort bakhmaro and its vicinities into national park in the future. the work shows that against the background of planned protected areas, there is a resource potential in racha, which will enable to create a category of protected areas in the near future in the region. it, in its turn, will provide improvement of social-economic conditions of the region. for the fulfillment of the work we used the material of field expeditions and observations carried out in 2009-2016 in resort bakhmaro and its vicinities and in 2019 in racha. keywords: ecotourism, protected areas, natural resources potential. study area ecotourism is tightly associated with protection of rare and endemic species of flora and fauna, the most of which are exotic and at the same time are the objects of ecotourism. eventually, it includes the whole natural-territorial complexes – landscapes as well. quite often, tourists and holidaymakers make advantage of not passive but active travelling and rest in nature. ecotourism, especially in association with protected natural territories, contributes to nature protection. the majority of protected areas, especially national parks, are formed in order to protect the ecosystem and develop tourism in the region. worldwide fund actively supports development of ecotourism for nature (wwf), which makes researches for encouraging ecotourism in developing countries. the fund has greatly contributed to the formation of borjomi-kharagauli national park in georgia. 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography of the tbilisi ivane javakhishvili state university. tbilisi, georgia georgian geographical journal development of ecotourism in the mountainous regions of georgia is primarily determined by its nature, which is diverse, unique and attractive, and at the same time, it can be used for cognitive and adventurous goals. moreover, in its every component we can meet resources for healing, recreating, rest, sport and aesthetics. international nature protecting organizations (european landscape convention, wwf etc.) are actively involved in formation of the network of protected areas in order to preserve the high-mountainous ecosystems. in june, 2019 the first protected area – pontine oak reserve was formed in guria. founding a protected area provides protection, restoration and preservation of the biological diversity of the natural ecosystems, flora and fauna, especially the species of wild animals and plants on the verge of extinction, which are listed in the “red book” and “red list” of georgia. pontine oak reserve is located in the chokhatauri municipality of guria region and covers a 443-ha territory (mineral (acidic) water area) of the forest territory of chokhatauri. it is located near the bakhmaro-chkhakoura arterial highway, on a small segment of the lashi mountain, in the ravines of the rivers telvanis ghele and dzegvelas ghele. pontine oak is an ancient species, which has been entered in the “red book” of georgia and is on the verge of extinction. in georgia, it is presented as small groups or specimens. the height of its distribution varies from 800 m to 12501850 m above sea level. pontine oak is a high bush or a small tree. in georgia its distribution area starts from abkhazia, continues to adjara and guria and reaches the slopes of karchkhali, murghuli and ponto mountains in turkey. generally, in georgia it is presented as small groups or specimens in kintrishi protected area, in the vicinities of the national parks of machakhela and mtirala. large copses of pontine oak are met only on the bakhmaro ridge. pontine oak grows on well-illuminated, south-eastern and south-western slopes, in dark grey soil. pontine oak copses are met in the belt of beech forests, also sparse and warped sub-alpine forests. the species of pontine oak is an extremely interesting plant. in fossilized flora there is not yet found any pontine oak or any species somehow similar to it. generally, in the diverse family of oaks (approximately 600 species) there is no species more or less similar to it. therefore, its uniqueness is quite obvious. in pontine oak reserve the vegetation cover is presented as four kinds of formations: 1) the pontine oak copse, in formation of which other species do not take part (pure copse); 2) a formation in a colchian mixed forest; 3) a formation in a beech forest with a colchian undergrowth; 4) a formation mixed with a birch forest (surmava, moistsrapishvili, 2018). the landscapes with mixed and dark coniferous forests and sub-alpine meadows in the vicinities of pontine oak reserve, which are located in the territories of resort bakhmaro and its adjacent area, make a precondition and have a great potential for creating a category of either a national park or a protected area in the future. establishing a national park will contribute to the protection of the unique nature of resort bakhmaro and its vicinities and social-economic development in the region. in the national park there can be arranged seven different kinds of areas: a zone of traditional use, a zone of effective protection, a restoration zone, a visitors’ zone and a historical-cultural zone managed by the administration together with the population. in the zone of traditional use, it will be admitted to use the natural renewable resources salukvadze e. and thus, mowing, grazing, wood chopping, gathering non-timber forest formations like mushroom, berries, etc. will be available for the local residents, the need of transforming pontine oak reserve into a national park in the future can be supported by the fact that the territory of pontine oak reserve is covered with well-preserved forests characteristic of the landscapes of the north-western part of the lesser caucasus, it is located on the area adjacent to resort bakhmaro and here pontine oak copses have been preserved in the best state. as far as the territory is located separately and is difficultly reachable and well-protected, we can consider it as a “shelter” for species of animals and plants. among them are many endemic and relict species. the forests here are characterized with relict undergrowth, among which are evergreen shrubbery: cherry laurel (laurocerasus officinalis), rododendron pontic (rhododendron ponticum), holly (ilex colkhica), butcher’s-broom (ruscus ponticus) etc. this will enable to preserve the bio-diversity of the northwestern part of the lesser caucasus. on the territories of pontine oak reserve and adjacent resort bakhmaro and its vicinities, by distribution type, we can distinguish the following ones out of the existing 41 timber plant species (results of chokhatauri forest.., 2017): well distributed (5), distributed (19), rare (9) and very rare (8) species (fig.1.). fig. 1 characteristics of forest wood species in terms of distribution well distributed and distributed timber species include those shown in (table 1): table 1. list of tree species and their status 1 2 3 4 v very common common rare very rare wooden species very distributed distributed № english name latin name 1 caucasian alder morus alba + 2 caucasian hornbeam carpinus caucasicus + 3 oriental beech fagus orientalis + 4 oriental hornbeam carpinus orientalis + 5 cherry laurel laurocerasus officinalis + 6 caucasian fir abies nordmaniana + 7 caucasian spruce picea orientalis + 8 caucasian pine pinus sosnowskyi + georgian geographical journal rare and very rare distributed timber species include those shown in (table 2). table 2. list of tree species and their status pontine oak reserve offers good possibilities for ecological education and ecotourism development. resort bakhmaro adjacent to pontine oak reserve (4 km distant from the reserve) and resort nabeghlavi (20 km distant from the reserve) make good conditions for development of recreational zones. considering it will be a quite timely and necessary activity (in case of creating a national park) for improving the state of the unique coniferous forests on the territory of resort bakhmaro and its vicinities. the resort territory is mostly covered by dark coniferous forests, namely, spruce and fir trees. these landscapes are the mostly loaded (in the way of recreation digression, forest clearance, and livestock grazing). the landscapes are characterized with sparse forests. although there is quite considerable quantity of young growth, in early summer, when the population drives the wintering cattle to the area, then it becomes extremely ill-used. among the territories adjacent to the resort, the most area (9.2 km2, i.e. 25% of the whole territory) is covered with sub-alpine secondary meadow-shrubbery and sub-alpine meadows. quite a large territory is covered with secondary meadows, which are at some places covered with weed (false hellebore, mat-grass, wild sorrel). the general image in regards to landscape is as follows: dark coniferous forests (spruce and fir forests, fir forests, spruce forests) are dominating. in the eastern part of the resort, we meet pure beech forests (1.65 km2, i.e. 4% of the whole territory), also beech and dark coniferous forests (area 2.59 km2, i.e. 7% of the whole territory). only a small territory is occupied with pine forests (0.34 km2, i.e.1% of the whole territory) (salukvadze, khechikashvili, et al. 2010). the general load made by holidaymakers (c. 10 000 people) together with cattle owners, who live here temporarily and seasonally often leads the dynamics of the natural complexes (landscapes) to deplorable conditions. sparsity in the forest is great. 9 georgian oak quercus iberica + 10 caucasian willow salix caucasica + 11 sweet chestnut castanea sativa + wooden species rare very rare № english name latin name 1 white mulberry morus alba + 2 field maple acer campestre + 3 norway maple acer platanoides + 4 caucasian lime tilia caucasica + 5 litwinow’s birch betula litvinovi + 6 pontic oak quercus pontica + 7 lebanon cedar cedrus libani + 8 wych elm ulmus glabra + 9 walnut juglans regia + 10 wild service tree sorbus torminalis + 11 yew taxus baccata + 12 black mulberry morus nigra + 13 european ash fraxinus excelsior + salukvadze e. trees damaged by bark beetles are frequently met here. the quantity of growing plants is quite fair, though still insufficient as a result of unmanageable forest chopping and cattle grazing, which is now often observed even on the territory of the resort (in summer a certain part of the adjarian migratory population drives its cattle to this territory to use pastures. they live the whole summer season here, make dairy products and sell them at the very place). consequently, many cut trees are met at many places alongside the river bakhvistskali. the forest is sparse. an anthropogenic load after certain time causes changes in the state of landscapes. in its turn a landscape is characterized with self-restorability, which provides its resistance to influencing forces. however, when the load is intense, i.e., it takes place for a long period, then the resistance of the landscape reduces and it starts to degrade. the degree of damage caused by exogenic and endogenic forces increases, the intensity of disintegration and washing away of upper layers of soil becomes stronger, which leads to ecocide in the landscape. the following processes take more times and cause destruction in the main geologic foundation (basic rocks), which, in its turn, results in geo-cide in landscapes, i.e., a complete destruction (beroutchashvili, nesterenko, 1973). arrangement of a national park, on the one hand, considers the local socialeconomic and traditional-cultural requirements, and on the other hand, its main function is to protect and preserve wild nature. a national park zone must cover especially vulnerable ecosystems and those, which have not yet undergone anthropogenic changes. in case pontine oak reserve becomes a national park in the future it must be effectively protected, i.e., become a zone of strict control. a zone of traditional use. usage of certain resources must be admitted, for example, using those resources that do not have much influence on the environment and are easily manageable. the population living in the vicinities of the national park should be allowed to make traditional use of the territory. such usage must be easily manageable and this will be a quite timely activity as far as the population (migratory stockbreeders) has been using the alpine meadows of the territory adjacent to resort bakhmaro for pasturing. considerable increase in the intensity of grazing caused great ecological problems in the alpine zones and forest landscapes: activation of erosive processes, risk of pollution in the best mountain drinking water springs, undesirable changes in the local flora and fauna, etc. for elimination of the above-mentioned major restrictions should be imposed on livestock quantity, grazing intensity and seasonal cattle migration. it is necessary to build special roads (corridors) for cattle migration. pasturing should be strictly controlled. restoration zone. distinguishing restoration zones is required to restore the landscapes of the territories, which have undergone considerable degradation as a result of anthropogenic influences. it would be reasonable that restoration processes took place without human involvement as to prevent violation of the consequence in natural processes and selfrestoring mechanisms of the landscapes. fortunately, on the territories adjacent to resort bakhmaro, despite the deplorable state of the forests, the positive fact is observed that young plants are growing intensely in the places, which are not easily reachable for cattle. auxiliary zone. in the auxiliary zones the population will be allowed to use the lands within the park (cultivable land, forest and etc.), which will be subject to the georgian geographical journal protection requirements of the national park. this will provide protection and preservation of the natural landscapes and at the same time will bring economic benefits to the population. zoning of a national park, besides strict control areas and traditional zones, also considers distinguishing so called wild nature, where it is advisable that the environment was not significantly changed by human activities and it would be the most characteristic landscape of the park. this zone must include places with high recreation value and unique natural characteristics, also historical and cultural monuments: in bukistsikhe – the remains of a castle dated back to early feudal age, in goraberezhouli – a castle wall (the end of xvii century) and a church (xix century), in ganakhleba – a monastery complex “udabno” (middle centuries), a church (developed middle centuries) in zemo erketi and etc., also the memorial museums of nodar dumbadze, ana kalandadze, nikolai marr, mose gogiberidze and the local museum of the region. the national park may become a tourist center in guria region, while it requires organizing various tours with ecological and educational purposes. scientific investigations also could be carried out by students and scientists. it is significant to reveal and use the energy resources (small hydroelectric powers on the rivers of bakhvistskali, gubazeuli and supsa) on the territory of the national park. the other region for our studies, racha, is located in the northeastern part of west georgia. it, on the central caucasus, on the south slopes of the main ridge of the caucasus includes two administrative centers: municipalities of ambrolauri and oni. the complex, segmented relief and severe climate conditions, high-hypsometric location, extreme land shortage, great inclination of slopes do not make any favourable conditions for development of land farming here. extracting of barite and arsenic has been stopped whereas these ores made a great contribution to the mining industry of not only the region but the whole country as well. the state of the demography in racha is poor (the number of population in oni municipality is 613 and ambrolauri municipality it is 9129). consequently, racha is a less populated mountain region of georgia. the significant part of population has abandoned their residences in really existing villages, which have only maintained the official status of village nowadays. nowadays in the region of racha ecotourism has become an economic activity with a sustainable growth. the number of guest houses, hostels and small cottages for local and foreign tourists is increasing. the territory on the central caucasus is among the planned protected areas. the area also includes racha region (oni municipality) with its intact nature, diversity in vegetation, animals and birds, beautiful landscapes and exotic natural monuments, ancient historical and cultural heritage. before 90-ies of the past century, tourism was a substantial part of the industry in racha. however, the unmanaged tourism activities led to disastrous results here – the vulnerable high-mountain ecosystems were damaged and collapsed, the environment became highly polluted. creation of protected areas will provide preserving unique ecosystems. the planned protected area on the territory of the central caucasus includes the northern part of racha on the main ridge of the caucasus – on the southern slopes of the peak chanchakhi (4461 m), mountain pasismta (3779 m), mountain tsitelimta (3691 m), the ridges gezevtseki (3452 m), gurdzievtseki (3325 m) and mamisoni salukvadze e. (2829 m), the territories of the rivers lukhuni, zopkhitura, chveshura and chanchakhistskali, the divide ranges of shoda-kedela, and etc. the main goal of creating a protected area in oni municipality is protecting the ecosystems of the source of the river rioni and its tributaries, which flow from the main ridge of the caucasus, also the high-mountain ecosystems around the glaciers feeding these sources, water ecosystems and the forest ecosystems stabilizing them. the prioritized goals of creating the protected areas are: protection of the unique and rare ecosystems; preservation of the ecosystems of the mountain pasi and the ridge shoda-kedela in their natural state; preservation, protection and reproduction of the relict and endemic plants and animals distributed in the region that have entered in the red book; protection of the hardly survived sub-alpine forests and their constituent arboreal plants: litvinov birch tree, caucasian rowan, high-mountain maple tree and etc.; protection of the less changed ecosystems around the river rioni and its tributaries; protection of the ecosystems of the forests around the resorts of shovi, utsera, sortuani and skhepuri with enormous recreation potential in order to stabilize the climate in the area; protection of cultural heritage, restoration and conservation of historical-cultural monuments, support for improvement of the social-economical state in the villages (glola, ghebi, tchiora, lagvanta, sakao, khideshlebi and etc.) adjacent to the protected area. there are various types of landscapes, separate ecosystems and cenosis in the protected area. among the vegetation cover, together with the representatives of xerophilous plants (oak, pine trees, etc. in the forests), we can meet shrubbery and herbaceous plants here, also relict plants of colchian type. we can also meet wideleaved forests with oak, chestnut and hornbeam, beech trees, mixed dark-coniferous forest of spruce, fir, pine and beech (1100-1800 m), sub-alpine warped and sparse forests (1800-2500 m). in the forest there is a great quantity of wild fruits and berries and resources for hunting. out of the presented plants here, 33 species of relict and endemic plants have entered the red book of georgia (table 3). among them are georgian hazelnut, chestnut, walnut tree, sea buckthorn etc. among the representatives of fauna, the lynx, otter, black vulture, griffon vulture and others are met. table 3. plants included in the red book of georgia, common in the racha region name of the plant relics endemics brief description yew + tree colchis boxwood + tree georgian nut + + tree chestnut + tree hartvis oak + tree imeretian oak + + tree walnut tree + tree colchis bladernut + tree common bladernut + tree sea-buckthorn + buch georgian geographical journal scarcity of landscapes in the planned protected area of racha is caused because the eastern boundary of the protected area coincides with the boundary of west georgia. thus, here we meet meadows of sub-alpine cereals characteristic of east georgia and forests covered with xerophilous oak, hornbeam and tall scrubs characteristic of the mountain regions of east georgia but rare for west georgia, the geo-botanical zone of the central caucasus is also presented. virgin forests have survived on the territory of oni municipality. the area of the forests covers 8960 ha, 12% of the whole forest territory (kandelaki, 2012). it is possible to build small hydropower stations on the quick mountain rivers that would improve the energy supply for the population. it is also possible to manage trout farms on the rivers. collecting healing plants and making medicine from them, collecting wild fruits, berries and mushrooms and producing food from them, collecting fir seeds, reproducing and breeding seedlings, and use of resources for hunting will provide improvement in the social-economical state of the region. in the vicinities of the planned protected area of racha we can meet numerous churches and towers belonging to middle and late centuries, for example the church in utsera, the castle in chidrota, the church of archangel of ghebi (developed middle centuries), tower dedagvtisa (mother of god), the medieval church in gloli, tamar’s castle and etc. conclusion in guria and racha, the mountainous regions of georgia, which have severe natural conditions, difficult social-economic conditions and vulnerable demographic situation (decreased reproduction, abandoned and emptied villages) and deteriorated ecologic state, development of tourism, namely, ecotourism will contribute to rationalization of land management. using more territories for tourism purposes will bring more benefits to the region than using the lands for farming and industry would do. development of ecotourism requires creating protected areas that will provide protection, restoration and reasonable use of natural or transformed territories distinguished for their biodiversity, also creating favourable conditions for sustainable development of recreation, health care and ecotourism in the natural and historical-cultural environment. after creating a national park in guria and racha the local population will return to the abandoned homes and the income received from ecotourism will improve their economic conditions. development of ecotourism in the high-mountainous regions of guria and racha will provide preserving the natural beauty of the unique territories, decrease the full load on the environment, raise awareness of the population and provide education in nature exploitation for nature managers, broaden knowledge in pupils and make their relation harmonious with the nature. it is important to transform certain natural areas into protected areas and protect the mountain ecology. common persimmon + tree yellow water lily + perennial herbaceous plant cyclamen colchicum + georg. . perennial herbaceous plant salukvadze e. inventorying and creation of databases of natural and historical-cultural resources of the regions is of great importance. the database should be periodically updated with the information on the state of the environment; the cases of violations in ecological nature management should also be noted. references beroutchashvili nikoloz, nesterenko vladimir (1973) genocid, ecocid i narušenie strukturi prirodno – territorialnix kompleksov/in: journal: nabludenia i issledovania na mgfs. [genocide, ecocide and violation of the structure of natural-territorial complexes], in: journal: observation and research on ifhc /georgia, tbilisi, # iv, p. 12-15 (in russian) kandelaki teimuraz (2012) rach’is regionis tq’is resursebi//in: rach’a: ts’arsuli, ats’mq’o, momavali/sakartvelos mets’nierebata ak’ademiis mtis problemebis k’ompleksuri shests’avlis k’omisia. [forest resources of the racha region], in: racha past, present, future. georgia, tbilisi, p. 271-276 (in georgian) ch’okhatauris tq’is inventarizaciis shedegebi. [results of chokhatauri forest inventory] (2017), georgia, p. 33-38 (in georgian) salukvadze elene, khechikashvili maia, chaladze tamila, lominadze george (2010) k’urort bakhmarosa da mis shemogarenshi antropogenuri zemokmedebit gamots’veuli landshapturekologiuri mdgomareobis taviseburebani/in: zhurnalshi:mets’niereba da teknologiebi/ sakartvelos mets’nierebata erovnuli ak’ademiis q’oveltviuri samets’niero jurnali. [the peculiarities of the bakhmaro landscape and ecology triggered by anthropogenic effects] journal: science and technologies monthly scientific-revieweed magazine of georgian national academy of ssciences/ georgia, tbilisi, # 10-12, p. 50-55 (in georgian) surmava lela, moists’rapishvili lasha (2018) bunebisa da adamianis harmoniuli tanaarseboba [harmonious coexistence of nature and man], journal: guria/ georgia, tbilisi, # 25, p. 26-28 (in georgian) ukleba david, budag budagov, museib museibov, elena sokhadze, aleksandr bagdasarov (1983), landšaftnaja karta zakavkazija, glavnyi departament geodezii i kartografii [landscape map of the south caucasus, (1: 600 000)], main department of geodesy and cartography/ russia, moscow. (in russian) iubile-mokle vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography the institute of geography was established on march 16, 1933 at tbilisi state university by the initiative of the founder of georgian geography school, academician alexandre javakhishvili. he was the first director of the institute and supervised it for 29 years (1933-1962). in 1962-1979, the director of the institute was acad. feofan davitaya; in 1980-1981 – acad. m/c, prof. alexandre aslanikashvili; in 1982-1991 – doctor of geological-mineralogical sciences tamaz kiknadze; in 1991-1993 – doctor of geographical sciences, prof. roman kverenchkhiladze; in 1993-2005 – acad. m/c, prof. zurab tatashidze; in 2005-2006 – doctor of geographical sciences, prof. ramin gobejishvili; since 2007 to present – geography acad. doctor nana bolashvili. the institute has had several deputies, including david tsereteli, alexander aslanikashvili, roman kverenchkhiladze, revaz khazaradze, nodar elizbarashvili, nana bolashvili and zurab janelidze. currently, elene salukvadze is a deputy director. the following employees worked as scientific secretaries: ioseb kurdiani, ivane charkviani, ilarion jibladze, george chirakadze, shalva kipiani, tamar nutsubidze, alexander aslnikashvili, david ukleba, guram dondua, tinatin gabrichidze, natela gvasalia, vasil kandelaki, jemal kapanadze, nana bolashvil, elene salukvadze, and nino lomidze. mariam tsitsagi currently holds the position of a scientific secretary. a rich and diverse scientific literature of the institute’s scientific library (heads: elene sakvarelidze, l. mgaloblishivili, m. mirzoeva, v. zaalishvili, mariam sharashidze, tsiala tsinadze, eter eliozashvili and now–mariam beburishvili) counts 120 000 units; it includes the manuscript collections, georgian, russian, english, french, german, armenian, azerbaijanian literature, etc. over the period of its 90-year activity from 1933 to 2023, the institute conducted extensive scientific research that focused on complex geographical studies of mountainous regions, including those in georgia and the caucasus. the scientific activity of the institute was dedicated to the physical-geographical and economic-geographical study of georgia and publications of papers. the institute of geography was incorporated into the academy of sciences of georgia on march 9, 1945, as stated by the praesidium of the commissars council of the georgian ssr. on december 6 of the same year, the institute of geography was officially designated with the name of the esteemed georgian scholar vakhushti, as stated in the decree of the praesidium of the supreme council of the georgian ssr. following the transition of the institute to the academy system, three distinct departments were established: the department of general geography, the department of regional geography, and the department of cartography. during ww ii, a comprehensive and regional analysis of georgia's natural and economic features was conducted through a geographical survey. famous scientists worked at the institute in different periods: academicians of the academy of sciences of georgia: alexander javakhishvili and feofan davitaya; academy membercorrespondents: alexander aslanikashvili, vakhtang jaoshvili, zurabtatashidze and archil kiknadze; professors: george gekhtman, luarsab karbelashvili, levan maruashvili, david tsereteli, mitrophane kordzakhia, george gvelesiani, lev vladimirov, grigol zardalishvili, vsevolod zenkovich, david ukleba, nikoloz astakhov, konstantine gogishvili, shota javakhishvili, roman kverenchkhiladze, demur tabidze, emil kobakhidze, vladimer gvakharia, aexander motserelia, tamaz kiknadze, lidia koghoshvili, natela gvasalia, elene sokhadze, givi gigineishvili, jansugh kekelia, besarion kavrishvili, iase shakarishvili, shalva gogebashvili, boris klopotovski, shalva kipiani, simon nemanishvili, nodar nachkhebia, guram dondua, katevan kavrishvili, george changashvili, boris gergedava, ilya apkhazava, garsevan kurdghelaidze, tengiz lashkhi, tinatin gabrichidze, revaz shengelia, vladimer kakabadze, nino klopotovskaia, karlo liponava, arsen okrojanashvili, nana mamatsashvili, irakli matureli, david matkava, zinaida bondireva, rostom chekurishvili, anatoli kukushkin, akaki makacaria, omar cheishvili, robinzon bazerashvili, ioseb kartvelishvili, otar samadbegishvili, merab tvalchrelidze, tsisana zhorzhikashvili, nata ghoghoberidze, ala chigiri, nugzar zakharashvili, omar erkomaishvili, shalva jaoshvili, nikoloz shurghaia, tengiz minashvili, zurab tavartkiladze, levan mikeladze, aleqsandre (sandro) javakhishvili, igor bondyrev, ramin gobejishvili, emil tsereteli, koba kharadze, nino machavariani, givi gagua, dali mumladze, vajha neidze, mikheil khabazishvili, etc. since the 1970s, the institute’s scientific research topics have widened. the main attention was given to the study of mountainous geographical regularities. in this regard, the institute works brought great authority to the institute and it was considered among the states of the former soviet union the leading scientific institution in researching geographical problems of the mountainous countries. the international authority of the institute of geography is confirmed by the fact that during this period, a number of national and international conferences, congresses and symposiums were held in georgia. prominent soviet scientist, academician of the academy of sciences of the ussr, i. gerasimov noted: “it can be said that in georgia was established one of the strongest schools of the modern geographical science”. recognition of the georgian geographical school was the fact that in montreal in 1972 and in moscow in 1976, the vice president of the international geographical union was elected the institute director, academician f. davitaya. many problems and themes were developed in the institute that were related to the study of water resources of georgia, as well as the hydrology, limnology and glaciology, the pollution of atmosphere and modification of its air composition, palaeoclimatology, natural processes forecasting methods, theoretical problems of geography, etc. the remote sensing method of research on environmental pollution developed at the institute has been successfully used in cosmic space research. important and successful studies were conducted in geomorphology, speleology and landscape science, and geoecological studies and elaboration of environmental measures were conducted in the direction of constructive geography. in 1950-1989, the whole series of complex economic, geographical and physical-geographical studies of the regions of georgia (shida and kvemo kartli, kakheti, zemo and kvemo imereti, guria, samegrelo, svaneti, samtskhe javakheti, adjara, abkhazia and eastern caucasus), tbilisi and the industrial centers were created, which were published as collective monographs. a total of over 200 monographs and 80 collected papers were published, along with atlases and maps, many of which received several prestigious awards. these publications include: – “geomorphology of georgia”, 1971, in russian (the principal author and editor prof. l. maruashvili was awarded the n. przhevalski gold medal of the all-union geographical society, 1972); – "agroclimatic and water resources of the regions of development of virgin and rested lands" (the author f. davitaya was awarded the alexander voeikov prize in 1956); – “development and distribution of socialist production in georgian ssr" (g. gvelesiani, 1965, was marked by al. javakhishvili prize, 1978); – “population of georgia”, 1968, in russian; (prof. v. jaoshvili, the member correspondent of the academy of sciences of georgia was awarded the p. semionov-tian-shanski gold medal of the all-union geographical, 1970); – “cartography, issues of the general theory" (al. aslanikashvili, 1968, was awarded the state prize, 1971); – “natural landscapes and physicalgeographic regions of eastern georgia’s mountainous areas”, 1974 (the vakhushti bagrationi prize to prof. d. ukleba, 1987); – “water balance of georgia" (l. vladimirov, g. gigineishvili, a. javakhishvili, n. zakarashvili, 1974, in russian, were awarded the al. javakhisvili prize, 1993); – “georgia’s brown and meadow brown soils”,1977 (doctor of geographical sciences e. nakaidze was awarded the williams prize, 1979, in russian); – “anthropogenic landscapes of georgia" (d. ukleba, 1983, was awarded the vakhushti bagrationi prize, 1993, in russian); – “geographical problems of transport of georgia", (r. kverenchkhiladze 1986, in russian, was awarded the al. javakhishvili prize, 1989); – “economic geographical study of tbilisi”, 1989 (v. jaoshvili, e. kobakhidze, v. neidze and r. kverenchkhiladze were awarded the vakhushti bagrationi prize, 1993); – “modern climate change in georgia, radiatively active small atmosoheric admixtures” (k. tavartkiladze et al., 2005., in english, k. tavartkiladze was awarded the national prize of georgia in 2009 for this and other works dedicated to climate change); atlases: – atlas of georgia (georgian and russian versions, 1964; al. javakhishvili, f. davitaya, al. aslanikashvili, g. gvelesiani, m. kordzakhia, l. vladimirov and v. jaoshvili were awarded the state prize of the georgian ssr in 1971); – atlas of resorts and resort resources of georgia, 1989 (e. kobakhidze was awarded the state prize of georgia in 1993); – study atlas of geography of georgia, 1992 (r. kverenchkhiladze, t. kiknadze, d. ukleba and i. kartvelishvili were awarded the state prize of georgia in 1994); – atlas of georgia by vakhushti bagrationi, 1997; – atlas of georgia, 2012. – national atlas of georgia, 2018 (in english), (n. bolashvili, v. neidze, a. dittmann and l. king were awarded the vakhushti bagrationi prize, 2023. – georgian geographical atlas, 2018 the institute employees participated in the compilation of: – climatic atlas of the ussr (3 volumes, 1960, in russian), second time f. davitaya was awarded the voeikov prize in 1966; – the national atlas of cuba (1970, in spainish, in russian) was prepared and published by the direct involvement of georgian geographers; f. davitaya was awarded the ussr state prize for compilation and publication of the atlas in 1973; – atlas of the snow and ice resources of the world (it was prepared and published with the direct participation of the georgian geographers, 1997, in russian); employees of the institute of geography give lectures in the different high educational institutions and public schools; many of them are the authors of textbooks. in 1972, in the institute, a laboratory of the coastal zone was created (heads: a kiknadze in 1972-2002 and v. zenkovich in 1975), and in 1981, for the first time in our country under the leadership of a. kiknadze, the great scientificindustrial union “sakzghvanapirdatsva” was created (director general a. kiknadze), the work of which gave very useful and fruitful results. as a result of joint scientific and practical industrial activities, an important part of the black sea beaches survived the washing-off. laboratory work was carried out to obtain the full picture of coastal dynamics of the sea of georgia and based on it for specification of its development prognosis (k. liponava, sh. jaoshvili, j. mamaladze, g. tsenteradze, l. tigishvili, v. kandelaki, n. dzidzikashvili, g. ruso, i. gelovani, i. papashvili, g. lominadze and others). the institute of geography was actively involved in the process of developing the colchis utilization problem of national importance, which was reflected in the collective monograph “colchis lowland. scientific preconditions of utilization” (1990, moscow, in russian) dedicated to the complex-geographical research of colchis lowland. important works were carried out to reveal the territorial regularities of the elements of atmospheric precipitation runoff and the water balance. fundamental works were created dedicated to the water balance, river runoff, water resources, lakes of the caucasus, evaporation from mountain reservoirs, solid runoff and other important issues. very important were the elaboration of methods and principals of calculation of water balance in the conditions of high mountain volcanic and karst relief, mapping of natural landscapes, research of caves, physicalgeographical zoning of mountain areas, study of factors and problems of distribution of industrial sectors, urban and rural population, and specification of economic-geographical structure issues and economic-geographical zoning principles. the institute had great achievements in karstology and speleology. the discovery and study of the akhali athoni cave system is the greatest merit of docent sh. kipiani, prof. z. tatashidze, a. okrojanashvili, j. jishkariani, b. gergedava and others, which was marked by the state prize of the ussr (1977). for the first time in the former soviet union, the international symposium of speleologists was held in tbilisi on the basis of the institute of geography (1987). it was important to discover the tskaltubo (kumistavi) cave system (j. jishkariani, t. kobulashvili, a. jamrishvili and v. kapanadze) in 1984. in connection with the reorganization of the academy of sciences of georgia, in 2006, the institute was granted the status of a legal entity of public law and went under the ministry of education and science (government regulation №74), and in 2010, according to the statement of the government of georgia (№278), it joined the ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university as an independent research institute. the institute of geography is a national research institution, and its main directions of study and research are as follows: physical geography (landscape science) of mountainous areas, economic and human geography, rational use of natural resources, geoecology (environmental protection), natural – hazardous processes, glaciology, karstology speleology, modern climate change (global warming and desertification), hydrology, natural and anthropogenic landscape transformation, environmental analysis, ensuring the sustainable development of industry and population, tourism geography, compilation of geographical maps and atlases, and historical geography and toponymy issues, which are reinforced by the application point of view of constructive geography. these problems are studied in the departments of geomorphology and geoecology (head – dr. george lominadze), physical geography (head– dr. mariam tsitsagi), hydrology-climatology (head – dr. tamaz karalashvili), human geography (head – dr. marine bokeria) and cartography–geoinformatics (head – dr. guliza liparteliani). the research being conducted in the institute scientific stations is supervised by doctor of phys.-math. sciences, kukuri tavartkiladze in batumi, geography doctor merab gongadze in zemo khodasheni and geography doctor tamaz karalashvili in sioni. the employees of the institute actively participate in a wide range of international projects, as well as in funds provided by the georgian national science foundation. they also contribute to workshops, symposia, conferences, and seminars. the institute of geography employs numerous talented young scientists who will carry on the legacy of distinguished academics with honour in the future. dr. nana bolashvili director of vbig section editor-in-chief georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) changes in hotel management during the covid-19 pandemic and post-pandemic periods in georgia marine bokeria1, mzia tutberidze1* abstract the covid-19 pandemic, which caused significant human loss, significantly damaged several economic sectors, primarily tourism and its significant segment, the hotel industry. in georgia in 2019, before the pandemic, tourism reached its highest indicators since its independence. international arrivals totaled 7,7 million, with 5.1 million tourist visits; tourism accounted for 8.4% of the gross domestic product (gdp), while the number of people engaged in the industry was 11.6% of all employees in the country. by the end of the first year of the pandemic, the number of international tourist visits to georgia decreased by 78.5% (2020), and 66.0% of hotels and food sector facilities in the country ceased operations. several hotels were used as quarantine spaces and "covid hotels" during the pandemic, per government decree. to overcome the crisis, targeted measures were developed, envisaging support and special activities as well as financial benefits for the subjects of the tourism industry. nevertheless, the crisis management plan could have been better and did not foresee the alterations necessary after the pandemic, which caused significant consumer behaviour changes in the hotel industry. now customers give priority to compliance with hygiene and safety norms. however, most hospitality industry organisations in georgia need more resources for implementing new technologies that meet tourists' needs. the pandemic has aggravated the problem of staff outflow and redistribution to other sectors. in the post-pandemic period, an increase in demand for medical and health-improving tourist programmes and ecological and adventure tours is expected, which should be provided with appropriate accommodation facilities. keywords: covid-19, pandemic, post-pandemic period, tourism, hotel industry. introduction as an essential tourism segment and a socio-economic factor, the hotel industry directly and indirectly impacts tourism development and related infrastructure. tourism is a dynamic sector of the economy that plays an essential role in its formation, activating the foreign trade balance, and providing jobs and income for the population. tourism and the hotel industry in any country are sensitive to external and internal factors, such as military conflicts, the dangers of terrorism, natural disasters, economic crises, and the pandemic spread of viral infections. the unprecedented scale of the problem the world has faced in recent years, when almost 200 countries around the globe have been put to the same test, is a good example [1]. at the end of 2019, the worldwide spread of the coronavirus decreased the number of international tourist visits to georgia by 78.5% (2020) (table 1), and 66.0% of georgian hotels and catering establishments ceased operations [2]. table 1. international tourist visits in the world and in georgia (2018-2021* region/ country number of international tourist visits in the world and in georgia (million) change in the number of international tourist visits (%) 2018 2019 2020 2021 2019/ 2018 2020/ 2019 2021/ 2020 2021/ 2019 europe 715,8 746,1 238,7 279,8 4,2 -68,0 17,2 -62,5 america 216,0 219,3 69,9 81,9 1,5 -68,1 17,2 -62,7 asia and oceania 346,5 360,4 59,4 20,9 4,0 -83,6 -64,9 -94,0 middle east 65,5 69,9 19,0 14,5 6,7 -74,0 -23,7 -79,3 africa 67,2 68,6 15,9 17,9 2,1 -76,8 12,6 -73,9 georgia 4,7 5,1 1,1 1,6 8,5 -78,5 45,4 -68,7 * the table is compiled by the authors based on data from the world tourism barometer and the national tourism administration (gnta.ge). 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: mziatutberidze@gmail.com bokeria and tutberidze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) methods and materials literary source analysis, statistical analysis, and sociological methods were used in the research. the materials were presented with the statistical data from the annual report of the national tourism administration of georgia (gnta.ge) and the relevant literature on hotel management. besides, meetings were held with hotel industry practitioners, whose opinions were reflected in the article. results tourism sector of georgia before the pandemic over the last two decades, tourism has been established as one of the priority sectors of the georgian economy. the number of international visitors to the country in 2019 was 7.7 million, including 5.1 million tourists; tourism contributed us $ 3.3 billion, or 8.4%. of gdp, while the number of those engaged in the industry exceeded 150 thousand and was 11.6% of the total number of employees in the country. during that same period, 2,575 accommodation facilities were registered in the database of the national tourism administration, with a total capacity of 94,438 beds [3]. these were the highest rates in the history of independent georgia. according to the world travel and tourism council (wttc), the industry's total contribution to the world's gross domestic product during the given period totaled us $ 8.9 trillion, creating 330 million jobs. as for world economic development, the sector accounts for one in every ten jobs and 6.8% of the world's total exports, while its share in the gross domestic product is 10.3% [3]. the first international visitors to georgia were representatives of four neighbouring countries: azerbaijan, russia, armenia, and turkey. according to str (smith travel research), georgia's hotel occupancy rate in 2019 was 56.7%. maximum occupancy was observed in the summer and autumn [3]. in 2019, the accommodation facilities' main capacity was concentrated in tbilisi and batumi (53.1% of bed places), followed by the samtskhe-javakheti and imereti regions. 47.7% of international visitors would stay overnight in hotels and hotel-type accommodation facilities, while only 6.6% of domestic visitors used hotels. the purpose of a visit defined this correlation: most international visits (43.5%) were made for rest, fun, or recreation. 19.0% of visits were to friends and relatives; the rest were business trips, professional activities, shopping, and others. as for internal tourism, visiting friends and relatives accounts for the most considerable portion (51%), 12.3% for shopping, and 9.7% for leisure, entertainment, and recreation. significant is that if international tourist accommodation accounts for 24.0% of visitors' expenses, only 4.5% of local visitors' expenditures were paid for an overnight stay. the types of accommodation facilities have changed over the years and become more diverse. in the first years of independence, the soviet system of hotels still prevailed: communal hotels concentrated in administrative centres; besides, there were hotels that accommodated only foreign tourists (the intourist hotel network); there were also sanatoriums and boarding houses in resorts. during the crisis of the 1990s and the ensuing civil war, hotel infrastructure was damaged, with many of its objects remaining on the territories occupied by the russian federation. resettlement of the population displaced from the occupied territories in other parts of the hotel infrastructure caused a significant depreciation of the latter [4]. in the 2000s, the restoration and renovation of the old accommodation facilities and the construction of new types of facilities began. along with the traditional hotels, family hotels, guest houses, hostels, etc., come into being. by the end of 2019, 66.3% of the total capacity of accommodation facilities belonged to hotels, 17.9% to family hotels, and 8.2% to guest houses; the rest were hostels, cottages, and glamping. the latter has gained popularity in recent years as well-adjusted camping-type hotels on mountainous terrain. there are 41 brand hotels in georgia, with a total capacity of 10,135 beds (10.7% of the total volume of accommodation facilities). almost half of the brand hotels are in tbilisi, batumi, borjomi, tsinandali, and elsewhere. the following brands are represented: radisson, hilton, marriott, holiday inn, best western, biltmore, ramada, etc. [5]. course of pandemic and activities to support tourism and hospitality the first case of covid-19 was detected in georgia on february 26, 2020. as of april 23, 2022, 1,654,163 cases of covid-19 have been confirmed in the country (excluding the occupied regions). 1,635,550 infected fully recovered, and 16,797 people died [6]. bokeria and tutberidze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) compared to other countries, the consequences of the first wave of the pandemic in georgia were moderate. rapidly implemented quarantine measures and restrictions on movement within the region stopped the spread of the virus. the tourism sector has been most severely affected by the pandemic. hence, targeted measures were developed to overcome the crisis. they included financial benefit allocation and special activities for supporting tourism industry entities. the government's decision to use the facilities first as quarantine spaces and then as covid-hotels was important for the country's hotel industry and the tourism sector in general. it should be noted that georgia is the only country where such use of hotels took place. the implementation of the project facilitated the operation of more than 200 hotels (approximately 2,300 rooms) [7]. what is more, the employees retained their jobs and income. the project also financially supported transportation services, catering, and other sectors. to alleviate the impact of the pandemic, the national tourism administration of georgia (gnta), in turn, carried out a whole range of activities aimed at supporting the private sector and assisting it in adapting to the new situation, namely: training on implementing the covid-19-related regulations; publishing recommendations on safety measures for conducting public events in closed spaces; besides, an international project called "work from georgia "was launched. due to efficient managerial work, the pandemic's first wave brought about relatively small losses, while the second wave was hefty. large numbers of people on the black sea coast in summer and the election-related crowded rallies in autumn resulted in a rapid increase in the number of infected and dead. in 2020, the number of patients was 228,410. in 2021, it grew to 708,434; moreover, the cumulative incidence rate, measuring disease frequency in the population during a given time, was 6,000 infected persons per 100,000 throughout 2020 and 19,000 per 100,000 in 2021 [7]. at the end of 2021, a new strain of the coronavirus, omicron, appeared, characterised by a remarkably rapid spread and relatively mild symptoms. january-february 2022 saw the highest number of contaminated individuals, 24–26 thousand per day [7]. the situation has calmed by april 2022, and quarantine restrictions and covid-hotels have been cancelled since march 1, 2022. hotel industry during the pandemic and post-pandemic period the spread of covid-19 and travel restrictions in most countries worldwide have hit the world tourism industry (tourism's contribution to global gdp decreased by 22.5%). by the end of 2020, tourist visits to georgia will have decreased by 78.5% to 1.1 million. income from international travel was us $542 million (an 83.4% decrease). once again, the majority of international visits were from neighbouring countries. the expectations that domestic visits would increase against the background of declining international tourism were not met. however, the decrease in this area was slightly less than expected, at some 12.5%. again, most internal visits (45.9%) were to friends and family. only 3.2% of visitors stayed overnight in hotels, and 3.0% were accommodated in guest houses and hostels [8]. according to str global, in 2020, the hotel occupancy rate in georgia was 21.2%, a decrease of 62.3% compared to the previous year [8]. there were positive shifts in 2021—the number of visitors increased slightly to 1.7 million. the number of tourist visits in march 2022 was 159.199, which is twice as much as in march 2021 (an increase of 210.6%); compared to march 2019, the recovery was 48.5% [9]. the pandemic's alleviation and the growth of international tourism since 2022 have raised hopes for the sector's reactivation. however, the start of the war in ukraine in late february was followed by the cancellation of hotel bookings. according to the hotel industry professionals of georgia, despite the efforts on the part of the government and certain advantages given to the industry, the crisis management plan could have been better, and the need for change after the pandemic was not considered. the pandemic has significantly changed customer behaviour patterns in the hotel industry. now guests give priority to adherence to safety rules and hygiene norms. most of the hotel industry facilities in georgia need more resources to introduce new technologies (ventilation, disinfection) to meet tourists' needs. training should be conducted to increase staff motivation, professionalism, and awareness [10]. after the pandemic, according to tourism experts, the first to recover will be small hotels and apartments, where compliance with hygiene norms is easier. the data of the first quarter of 2022 bokeria and tutberidze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) confirms it: the occupancy of small and medium-sized hotels has increased compared to 2019 (fig. 1). this fact is partly due to the influx of refugees from ukraine. figure 1. average occupancy of hotels in march 2019 and 2022 [11] large hotels will probably have to give up services that involve close contact with guests, such as reception; online services will replace receptionists. "swedish table" will lose popularity [12]. prices in hotels are expected to decrease. during the pandemic in the summer of 2020, georgian family hotels offered customers specific discounts [13]. according to experts, the second major problem aggravated by the pandemic is the shortage of qualified personnel caused by the personnel outflow and relocation to other sectors during the pandemic. compared to other economic sectors, tourism is rapidly adapting to the needs of the time. the pandemic has further accelerated the rate of change. the changes will affect tourists' needs and the range of offers. the demand for medical, health-improving, ecological, agro, and adventure tourism will increase. the number of people wishing to participate in mass tourism will remain the same. accordingly, offers should be targeted at specific, independent, and individual tourism. conclusion -besides bringing about the loss of life, the pandemic has significantly changed the world economy, people's daily routines, and priorities. people were scared of travelling or being in crowded places. in addition, many have lost their income, and therefore travel expenditures would be less likely to be considered in their budget; – a political factor (the war in ukraine) added to the consequences of the pandemic; therefore, the georgian tourism sector is likely to be oriented to the gulf countries, from which a significant number of tourists was coming even in the pre-pandemic period; – the pandemic has significantly changed the hotel industry's customers' conduct and priorities, which must not be ignored while considering the industry's prospects; – the problem of qualification upgrade and staff outflow, which haunted the hotel industry before the outbreak, has become even more apparent during the pandemic; – in georgia, the tourism sector's recovery will be gradual. first will come tourist demand for apartments, with a lower customer turnover, and then there will be demand for small family hotels and large hotels. as for the brand hotels, they have maintained their status during the pandemic. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m. b. presented the principal idea and the analysis of the measures implemented during the pandemic. m.t. performed an overview of the tourism sector and hotel industry prior and after the pandemic. bokeria and tutberidze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) references 1. covid-19: impact on the hospitality work force. https://hospitalityinsights.ehl. 2. georgian companies facing the challenge of covid-19 pandemic (2020), p. 9. https://www.pwc.com/ge/en/assets/pdf/may-2020/georgia_covid19_survey_report_final_georgian_21.05.20.pdf 3. georgian tourism in figures. structure and industry data (2019). annual report. georgian national tourism administration, https://gnta.ge/statistics/ 4. tutberidze m. (2021). the georgian resorts as a basis for wellness tourism development. georgian geographical journal, 1(1) https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.261 pp18-26. 5. https://gnta.ge/statistics/ 6. spread of covid-19 in georgia (29.04 2022). https://civil.ge/ka/archives/342458 7. report on the measures taken by the government of georgia against covid-19. https://stopcov.ge/content/files/government--report.pdf 8. georgian tourism in figures. structure and industry data (2020). annual report. georgian national tourism administration, 9. https://gnta.ge/ge/statistic-march/ 10. hüseyin pamukcup, gürkan çaliskan, emrah yasarsoy. (2021) coronavirus (covid-19) and crisis management in accommodation businesses p.10. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357118470_coronavirus_covid19_and_crisis_management_in_accommodation_businesses 11. tourism: resilient (march 2022). tbc capital, p.7. https://static.tbccapital.ge/uploads/files/tourismmonthlywatch_15-04-2022.pdf?v=1 12. covid-19's effect on the hotel industry | mckinsey (june 10, 2020). https://www.mckinsey.com. 13. kvrikvelia n., tsitsagi m. (2021). impact of covid-19 on tourism in georgia – an overview. georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 27-33. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.08. https://hospitalityinsights.ehl/ https://www.pwc.com/ge/en/assets/pdf/may-2020/georgia_covid-19_survey_report_final_georgian_21.05.20.pdf https://www.pwc.com/ge/en/assets/pdf/may-2020/georgia_covid-19_survey_report_final_georgian_21.05.20.pdf https://gnta.ge/statistics/ https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.261%20pp18-26 https://gnta.ge/statistics/ https://civil.ge/ka/archives/342458 https://stopcov.ge/content/files/government--report.pdf https://gnta.ge/ge/statistic-march/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357118470_coronavirus_covid-19_and_crisis_management_in_accommodation_businesses https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357118470_coronavirus_covid-19_and_crisis_management_in_accommodation_businesses https://static.tbccapital.ge/uploads/files/tourismmonthlywatch_15-04-2022.pdf?v=1 https://www.mckinsey.com/ georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 18-26 the georgian resorts as a basis for wellness tourism development mzia tutberidze1 abstract political, economic, social and ecological changes that have taken place in the world in recent decades have brought about the increase of population's demand for wellness tourism. at present, wellness tourism is the fastest growing and most significant segment of the world tourism industry, with double growth rate, compared with the growth rate of the tourism industry as a whole, each customer spending 53percent more than a typical international tourist. though wellness tourism is a global phenomenon, its implementation is predominantly localized in the resorts with the appropriate natural conditions and infrastructure. natural resources have been used in georgia for health care and wellness since time immemorial. based on the diversity of this country's natural conditions, 103 sites were given the legal status of resorts, and up 200 are defined as resort areas. still, the awareness of georgia's capacity in this aspect is low worldwide. due to the crisis of the 1990-s and the civil war, part of the resorts were destroyed; another part is located in the occupied territories and to date is outside the georgian government's jurisdiction. though the industry's recovery began in the 2000-s, the pace of the health tourism's development lags behind that of other kinds of tourism. according to the infrastructure's present condition and developmental trends, four groups of resorts can be highlighted in georgia. in the future, upgrading of the legal framework, further development of the resorts' infrastructure, targeted diversification of tourism products, more flexible, high-quality system of services, and improved resort management will create conditions for wellness tourism advancement in georgia, which, in turn, will establish it in the world tourism industry. keywords: georgia, health tourism, medical tourism, wellness tourism, resort, resort area. introduction georgia is positioned in the world tourist market as a country with landscape diversity, richness of natural resources and unique ethnic culture. still, revealing its potential as a favorable place for health and wellness tourism will significantly expand and complement its image. travel for rest and health improvement is one of the oldest types of tourism. in georgia, too, natural resources have been used for health care and wellness since time immemorial (e.g. in abastumani, borjomi, tsqaltubo, etc.); 103 out of the world's 4000 resorts (dracheva, 2008) are located here (namely, 44 climatic, 27 balneological, 2 mud treatment and 30 mixed-type resorts). by the end of the 1980s, georgia was one of the soviet union's most significant resort regions, yielding only to russia and ukraine in the number of resorts and their carrying capacity, with its 120 thousand beds (recreational, 1991). processes that took place in the following decade, seriously impeded tourism development, just as other economy segments. in 1 department of human geography, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, mziatutberidze@gmail.com georgian geographical journal the 2000s some revival of the field began, though compared to the other types of tourism, health tourism is developing rather slowly. main text for years, tourism for health treatment and wellness, both based on use of natural resources were considered one single area, since their implementation was localized at the resorts. resorts are the basis of health and wellness tourism in any country. the term “health-wellness tourism” being frequently used in georgia during the soviet period and afterwards. in soviet balneology, the concept of health tourism rested on 18, 21 or 24-day treatment course carried out in specialized pensions and sanatoriums. some authors use the term "resort tourism" meaning a purposeful journey to a resort for a comprehensive health treatment and rehabilitation in specialized centers in the lap of nature (baklykov, 2003). fig.1 interrelatedness of health, spa, wellness and medical tourism domains. (tourism in russia, 2015). tutberidze m. the overabundance of terms (treatment tourism, health tourism, resort tourism, sanatorium-resort tourism, clinical tourism, medical tourism) interferes with customer and management's clear understanding of the existing types of tourism. nowadays, the world tourism organization, researchers and specialists in the field of “health tourism” differentiate between "medical tourism" and "wellness tourism", according to the tourist group’s target (https://www.unwto.org/high-levelforum-medical-and-health-tourism). moreover, there is a tendency to further segmentation. in medical tourism, for example, there are travelers that go straight to high-tech medical institutions to be treated by highly qualified personnel; or, the group that is at the crossroad of medical and wellness tourismtourists that utilize natural resources (spa tourism) (fig.1 ). in wellness tourism two groups are singled out; first, the tourists who choose the destination mainly for health purposes, and second, those who seek health maintenance and improvement independently of the travel destination. several factors influence population's growing demand for rest and wellness: 1. population has changed demographic structure; 2. broadening of the middle class; 3. life acceleration and increase of stressful situations; 4. ecology deterioration; 5. popularity of wellness lifestyle; 6. border opening and travelling alleviation (dracheva, 2016; nikitina, 2012). as some authors point out, complex health treatment measures result in 1.7 times health level rise in the population. natural factors' application increases treatment efficiency by 25-30percent and reduces treatment costs in hospitals and out-patient clinics by 10-15 percent (nikitina 2012). the most rapidly developing wellness tourism is a volatile and complicated segment of world tourism industry. according to the global wellness institute 2017 estimation, with us$639 bln spent, this tourism segment shows 6.5percent annual growth, which is twice as much as general tourism growth. in 2017, the world wellness tourism trips number was 830 mln, which exceeds the 2015-year figures by 139 mln. it is noteworthy that the secondary wellness tourism accounts for 89percent of trips and for 86percent of expenditures (gwi 2018). generally, both domestic and international tourists spend much more for wellness tourism than other kinds of tourists, since the treatment a customer receives is only efficient when a particular course of treatment is taken, as a rule, not less than 10-14day long. all this makes these tourism segment customers high spenders. in 2017, wellness tourists spent average $1528 for one trip, which is 53percent more than a typical international tourist's expenditures. a domestic tourist would spend $609, which exceeds a typical domestic tourist's expenses by 178percent (gwi 2018). noteworthy is that these expenditures are divided between several segments of tourism industry: accommodation, food, wellness treatment, health improvement procedures, sightseeing’s, shopping and other. though the wellness tourism is a global phenomenon, as was already mentioned, it is generally localized at the resorts with appropriate natural conditions and infrastructure. georgian geographical journal georgia's natural diversity, its healthy climate, the black sea coast with convenient beaches, abundance of hydrographic objects, over 2000 mineral springs of various chemical composition and different temperature, vast areas covered with forests, speleological objects, the abundance and variety of protected areas create the basis for organizing resorts with different medical profiles. the state of ecosystem and natural resources is of great importance for health tourism, as a nature-oriented field. the competitiveness of a tourist destination is based on combination of the existing natural conditions and quality infrastructure. that is what makes the leading companies in the field care so much about resource maintenance and sustainable development. in georgia, there are certain geographic regularities that characterize territorial structure of different type resorts, i.e., the majority of balneological and mud-therapy resorts are concentrated in the intermountain lowland, while climatic and mixed-type resorts are on the seashores or in the mountain foothills (neidze at al. 2017). in recent years, the resorts have undergone significant transformation caused by changes in touristic demands. together with healthy lifestyle growing popularity, demand for wellness tourism increased among middle-age population who prefer active rest and are short of time. during last 25 years, traditional sanatorium treatment of advanced age customers was substituted by wellness procedures fit for vast groups of customers. therefore, a traditional resort nowadays is not just a resting place for the senior population but rather a multifunctional wellness center designed for vast groups of population with various demands that functions round the year. fig.2 resort tsqaltubo (photo by m.tutberidze). the paradigm of sanatorium-resort service has changed in accordance with today's demands, and "hospital" service has been substituted by the treatment aimed at general health maintenance and improvement, with the increasing demand for complete rest and wellness. tutberidze m. transition from government-subsidized operating to self-financing in the postsoviet space (georgia included) is yet another reason of the resorts' transformation. prior to the collapse of communist regime, the state-run resorts were subsidized from the state budget and other non-centralized sources. nowadays resorts management seek to diversify the products offered in order to attract new investments. to this intent, while maintaining the resort's curative functions, management organizes cultural and sport events, various health improvement and wellness procedures (anticellulite, anti-stress, phito-rejuvenation programs, and cosmetology). fig. 3. greenhouses in the resort tsaishi, which utilize local thermal mineral waters (photo by m. tutberidze). the very basic forms of resort service have changed as well: instead of pensions and sanatoriums with their medically trained personnel there are hotels of all kinds, where people with health problems live side by side with regular guests of different age, while medical treatment can be obtained at adjacent outpatient clinics, medical centers, balneal service centers or baths. there one can get all necessary information and recommendations regarding usage of resort resources for medical purposes (such service pattern was implied at a popular resort of tsqaltubo since 1930-s). the majority of georgian resorts face many problems nowadays. resort infrastructure was partially destroyed in this country during the crisis of the 1990-s and the civil war. refugees from the territories occupied by russia were accommodated in what remained of buildings that used to comprise a luxury resort, which resulted in their further amortization. restoration of the tourist objects infrastructure began in the 2000s. partially, the accommodation capacity of old resorts was restored; at the same time, new buildings for tourist accommodation are under construction (map). the georgian resorts can be subdivided into several categories, according to the state of preservation of their infrastructure (with the exception of those in the territory of abkhazia and tskhinvali region that are temporarily outside georgian jurisdiction): georgian geographical journal tutberidze m. 1.the resorts where after the economic crisis of the 90-s the hotel infrastructure was restored, renovated and advanced and that nowadays work full power approximately 25 of them, such as the black sea resorts, tbilisi and its suburban resorts and resorts of borjomi group as well as sairme and tsqaltubo resorts. 2. resorts with the partially restored hotel infrastructure, those where restoration process continues, and those that have opportunities for development. there are about 15 such resorts, among them – abastumani that is rapidly developing, due to both governmental and private investments; bakhmaro, which is successfully developing, in accordance with the approved general plan; ujarma and nunisi have attracted attention of private investors. 3. resorts that accommodate guests only periodically, mainly during tourist season. their hotel infrastructure is of a low quality as a rule, and the only customers are local population. there are ten such resorts, namely, sulori, bugeuli, torghva bath, lashichala. 4. resorts with completely destroyed hotel infrastructure whose restoration is not planned for the nearest future, while their natural resources, such as mineral water is utilized for other purposes (as in tsaishi and menji, for example in greenhouses). this group is most numerous (up to 30 resorts) and includes such well-known for georgian population sites as menji, tsaishi, nabeghlavi, zvare, zekari, skuri, lebarde and others.according to the data of the georgian national tourism administration at the beginning of 2020 which we completed during our field research, total accommodation capacity of the georgian resorts (excluding abkhazia and tskhinvali region), approximates 75 thousand beds which is significantly less than the maximum rate of the 80-s (almost 40 percent). however, today this amount represents 75 percent of the total carrying capacity in this country which in our opinion indicates the degree of attractiveness of the resorts. the accommodation capacity’s 69.3percent belongs to hotels, 12.6percent to family houses. besides, there are guest houses, hostels, etc. in tsemi, shekvetili and tsqaltubo only 4 sanatoriums are left, with the total accommodation capacity of 500 bed-places. just as expected, the largest concentration of accommodation capacity is in tbilisi (the capital and a balneological resort at the time)-25.2 thousand beds, with batumi and bakuriani as co-runners lagging significantly behind (14.1 thousand and 10.0 thousand beds consequently). these figures, however, do not reflect the real situation at the resorts. the data base is volatile and incomplete. it should also be noted that vacationers at resorts actively use private housing stock. an important issue is that of determining whether certain resorts were appropriately given this status, for it necessarily implies the existence of infrastructure, along with natural resources. at the same time, some resort areas (defined by the law as an area containing natural healing resources, suitable for targeted exploitation and not having relevant buildings) fully meet the requirements for a resort and have long functioned as such (gonio, kvariati, chakvi, shekvetili, sioni and other) (neidze at al. 2017). total carrying capacity of such sites exceeds 7 thousand bed-place. mountain ski centers, such as gudauri, tetnuldi, goderdzi have significant wellness potential. gudauri stands out for its accommodation capacity (up to three thousand beds). georgian geographical journal regarding public demand for the wellness tourism, it should be noted that the population of georgia that has a long tradition of recreation and treatment at the domestic resorts, due to infrastructure malfunctioning and low solvency, prefers vacations with rural relatives or in villages, there are from. thus, in case quality and to the budget tour product is offered, georgian population is prepared to go to local resorts. according to the national tourism administration research, in 2019 only 8.8 percent of the tourists this country's citizens traveled for health treatment and wellness purposes (10.3percent in 2015), and 9.7 percent traveled for entertainment, rest and recreation (in 20157,6percent). in regard of the inbound tourism, the lack of information about georgian resorts in the international market, together with low level of infrastructure competitiveness is a major hindrance. in 2019, only 1.8percent of foreign tourists came to georgia for health rehabilitation and wellness purposes. the amount of those coming for rest, entertainment and recreation has risen for 11, 6 percent in comparison with 2015 and makes 43,0percent of travelers (https://gnta.ge/statistics). assessing the current state of resorts, we cannot ignore the coronavirus pandemic, which has hampered economy development, tourism industry including, worldwide. international tourist arrivals were down 56percent globally from january to march, compared to 2019, according to the un's world tourism organization (ihttps://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09). it is too early to try to assess all the consequences of the pandemic. however, the impressive advancement of tourism, georgia has achieved in recent years is at stake. currently, when part of the resort accommodation capacity is used for quarantine purposes, only domestic tourism is allowed, in accordance with special regulations. after the end of the pandemic, the demand for health tourism is likely to increase. georgia's natural conditions and developing resort economy make it possible that wellness tourism become a priority kind of tourism, which, systematically, will attract high-spending tourists to the country. conclusion 1 the legal framework has to be changed, and the list of resorts and resort areas approved by the government decree needs to be revised; 2. infrastructure development in georgian resorts and further diversification of tourism products will attract to the country wellness tourism consumers; 3. since wellness tourism is available almost all year round, it will alleviate the seasonality of the resorts; 4. insurance companies and public sector of the economy should be actively involved, in order to meet the needs of the population in health tourism, considering economic opportunities of the georgian population; 5. the quality of the services rendered should be brought into correlation with the fees charged. besides, there is lack of qualified personnel; 6. the resort management system has to be improved, for which certain measures are being implemented. tutberidze m. references baklykov l. i, 2003.kurortnii turizm v sovremennikh usloviiakh. “aktualnie problemi vosstanovitelnoi medicini, balbneologii i fizioterapii”.moskva. [resort tourism in modern conditions] // "current problems of restorative medicine, balneology and physiotherapy", moscow. materials of the international congress “zdravnitsa-2003” (kislovodsk, october 14-17, 2003) (in russian). dracheva e.l.2008 k voprosu o kurortovedenii i rekreacionnom turizme. [on the issue of resort studies and recreational tourism] in: tourism and recreation on the path of sustainable development. the soviet sport publishing house. moscow. (in russian). dracheva e,l. 2016 specialnie vidi turizma. medicinskii turizm [special kinds of tourism. medical tourism], publishing house “knorus”. moscow. (in russian). gwi global wellness tourism economy. 2018 neidze v, pavliashvili n, tutberidze m. 2017. sakurorto turizmis ganvitarebis tendenciebi saqartveloshi [resort tourism development trends in georgia], magazine: “science and technologies” #2, p. publishing house “technical university”, tbilisi (in georgian). nikitina o.a.2012 upravlenie formirovaniem integrirovannikh sanatorno-kurortnikh kompleksov v regione [managing the formation of integrated sanatorium-resort complexes in the region]. saint petersburg (in russian). rekreacionnie resursi i problemi ikh osvoenia.1991. [recreational resources and the problems of their explotation]. 1991 in: natural resources of georgia and the problems of their explotation., publishing house “mecniereba”, tbilisi. (in russian). tourism in russia: a management handbook.2015 publisher: emerald. editors: frederic dimanche, lidia andrades. https://www.unwto.org/high-level-forum-medical-and-health-tourism https://www.researchgate.net/figure/interrelatedness-of-health-spa-wellness-and-medicaltourism https://gnta.ge/statistics/ https://www.unwto.org/high-level-forum-medical-and-health-tourism)/ htt/ps: www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09 saqartvelos mtavrobis brzdzanebuleba № 428, 3 ivlisi, 2014, tbilisi, “saqartvelos kurortebisa sa sakurorto adgilebis nusxa”, [edict of the goverment of georgia № 428, 3 july 2014, tbilisi, "about the list of resorts and resorts places of georgia"], (in georgian). https://www.researchgate.net/figure/interrelatedness-of-health-spa-wellness-and-medical-tourismhttps://www.researchgate.net/figure/interrelatedness-of-health-spa-wellness-and-medical-tourismhttps://gnta.ge/statistics/ https://www.unwto.org/high-level-forum-medical-and-health-tourism)/ georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) low fertility the challenge of demographic security of georgia giorgi meladze1,2 abstract ensuring the demographic security of the country is an important component of the national security of the state. in recent years, among georgia's demographic challenges, fertility issues have gained particular prominence. based on the relevant indicators of demographic and statistical materials, the article considers the current state of fertility and its prospects. based on the demographic and statistical materials of relevant indicators, the current situation of fertility and its prospects are considered. it is noted that fertility decline is a global phenomenon. today, in 101 countries around the world, the total fertility rate is below the level of simple reproduction of the population (2.1). this process will continue in the future, and it will cover more countries. georgia is in the fourth phase of the demographic transition. this phase is characterized by declining fertility and a reduction in the number of children in families. as a result of the negative events that have developed since the 1990s, the demographic system of georgia dropped out of the natural course of development. in recent years, one of the most important elements of the natural movement of the population—fertility—has declined even more. in 2022, the crude birth rate was 11.4‰, which is the lowest rate since 2002 and significantly less than the level of simple population reproduction (15‰). the fact that only a small portion of generations born in the 1990s are now actively childbearing in georgia complicates the issue. the fact that a small generation born in the 1990s entered the active childbearing age in georgia complicates the issue. according to the medium variant of the 10th revision of the un projections for 2022, by 2035, due to declining fertility, the number of children under the age of 15 will be less than the number of people aged 65 and over. this process is very dangerous for georgia because it will worsen the functioning of the demographic system, which, without the implementation of a reasonable sociodemographic policy based on demographic security, will lead to serious social and economic problems in the future. keywords: georgia, demographic security, low fertility, population introduction demographic security represents the protection of the state against threats such as depopulation, demographic aging, fertility decline, and emigration processes; the aforementioned also implies the state of health of the nation. the processes taking place in society have a socioeconomic character; therefore, demographic security affects almost all segments and spheres of human activity. at the same time, its provision depends on the state of the economic, environmental, food, social, and cultural spheres [1]. the main demographic threats to modern georgia are low fertility, high mortality, depopulation, and unregulated migration processes. self-flowing development with the mentioned processes poses a threat to the country's demographic security. as a result of the negative events that have developed since the 1990s, the demographic system of georgia has fallen out of its mainstream natural development. in recent years, fertility, one of the most important elements of the natural movement of the population, has further decreased, which has accordingly been reflected in the total population. according to the medium variant of the 10th revision of un projections for 2022, by 2035, the number of children under 15 years of age in georgia will be less than the number of people aged 65 and over. the process of fertility decline is an integral event in the demographic history of mankind, the first signs of which were observed in europe at the end of the 18th century, and it is gradually spreading throughout the world. accordingly, the theory of demographic transition describes fertility decline as a global process. the mentioned theory includes four stages: 1 department of geography, i. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, faculty of exact and natural sciences, 2 department of human geography, tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography. tbilisi, georgia, giorgi.meladze@tsu.ge meladze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) in stage 1, which applied to most of the world before the industrial revolution, both birth rates and death rates were high. as a result, population size remains fairly constant but can have major swings with events such as wars or pandemics. in stage 2, the introduction of modern medicine lowers death rates, especially among children, while birth rates remain high; the result is rapid population growth. many of the least developed countries today are in stage 2. in stage 3, birth rates gradually decrease, usually as a result of improved economic conditions, an increase in women’s status, and access to contraception. population growth continues, but at a lower rate. most developing countries are in stage 3. in stage 4, birth and death rates are both low, stabilizing the population. these countries tend to have stronger economies, higher levels of education, better healthcare, a higher proportion of working women, and a fertility rate hovering around two children per woman. most developed countries are in stage 4 [2]. in the mentioned stage, the process of demographic stabilization is completed. the crude birth and death coefficients are approximately 13‰. the history of the development of demographic processes shows that the demographic transition will not end with population stabilization. after the end of the fourth phase, the fifth regressive phase is established [3]. regarding the discussed issue, it is worth noting the five-stage modified model of demographic transition proposed by georgian scientist v. gujabidze in the 1970s of the last century. according to the author, in the fifth stage of the demographic transition, the death rate will exceed the birth rate [4; 5]. the recent history of demographic development shows that we must consider the famous scientist a. carlson's symbolic expression as a reality—the conviction of demographers that the population of western countries is stabilizing at the limit of simple reproduction or close to it has never been more than an unfulfilled dream [6]. in the historical past, with permanent wars, frequent pandemics, a low level of medicine and sanitary and hygienic conditions, mortality was very high. twenty-seven percent of infants did not survive the first year of life, and approximately 47.5% of children did not survive puberty [7]. due to the current situation, people were forced to focus on high fertility norms to save the population. on a global scale, the initial impetus for the decline in fertility was the fall in mortality, especially infant mortality, as a result of improved nutrition and the impact of new discoveries in medical science, such as smallpox vaccination (edward jenner), the defeat of cholera (john snow), germ theory of disease (louis pasteur), and the discovery of the pathogen of tuberculosis (robert koch) [8]. in addition to the aforementioned factors, the global reasons for the decrease in birth rate are urbanization processes, industrialization of countries, mass involvement of women in public production, lengthening of study periods for education, reduction of the influence of religion on the life of society, weakening the tradition of giving preference to boys, and the establishment of state pension and social security systems, as elderly people are no longer materially dependent on their children, which contributes to the decline in fertility. currently, the total birth rate in 101 countries in the world is less than 2.1, which does not ensure simple reproduction of the population [9]. the number of countries mentioned will increase even more in the future. by 2050, in 151 out of 195 countries in the world, the total fertility rate will be below the replacement level (<2.1), and by 2100, the number of these countries will reach 183 [10]. modern georgia is in stage 4 of the demographic transition. this phase is characterized by the massive spread of fewer-child families. from 2016 to 2018, a small number of generations born in the 1990s entered the active childbearing age, which led to a lower absolute number of children. social and economic instability in the country has led to growing distrust in the future among a significant part of the population. which ultimately resulted in the postponement of childbearing in the desired order. in georgia, the average age of first marriage and the number of divorces are increasing, which are also factors in decreasing fertility. methods and materials meladze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) methods of historical, comparative, descriptive, statistical analysis and evaluation were used for the study and to analyse the relevant materials. based on official statistics, the corresponding coefficients were calculated. for the calculation of total fertility rates, differentiated by the order of birth of children by the mother, we have used a matrix that has the following form: f15-19 = 1f15-19 + 2f15-19 + 3f15-19 + . . . + nf15-19 f20-24 = 1f20-24 + 2f20-24 + 3f20-24 + . . . + nf20-24 f25-29 = 1f 25-29 + 2f25-29 + 3f25-29 + . . . + nf25-29 f30-34 = 1f30-34 + 2f30-34 + 3f30-34 + . . . + nf30-34 f35-39 = 1f35-39 + 2f35-39 + 3f35-39 + . . . + nf35-39 f40-44 = 1f40-44 + 2f40-44 + 3f40-44 + . . . + nf40-44 f40-44 = 1f40-44 + 2f40-44 + 3f40-44 + . . . + nf40-44 tfr = 1tfr + 2tfr + 3tfr + . . . + ntfr where f x — age-specific fertility rates nfx age-specific fertility rates, differentiated by order of birth n (1,2, 3,...). the order-specific birth rate was obtained by the formula (to illustrate the calculation, we present the age group of 15-19 years) [11]: 𝐹15−19 = 𝐹15−19 × ( 115−19 𝑁 𝑁15−19 + 215−19 𝑁 𝑁15−19 + 315−19 𝑁 𝑁15−19 ) 𝑒𝑡𝑐. the gross growth potential of women is calculated according to j. bourgeois-pisha's formula, which has the following form: 𝑉𝑏 = (∑ 𝑆𝐾39 0 ) × 16 𝑁 where: vb gross growth potential of women; s number of women by five-year age groups from 0 to 39 years; n total number of women; k the averaged value of the special function g up to 39 years, showing the effect of age on the potential value [12; 13]. e. the coale formula is used to calculate the intrinsic natural increase rate [14]: 𝑟 = 𝑙𝑛𝑅0 𝑇 × 1000 where: r -intrinsic natural increase rate; lnr0 natural logarithm of the net reproduction rate; t female generation length. in e. coale's formula, the length of the generation of women is calculated by the formula: t = (∑fx × lx × x)/(∑fx × lx) where: t female generation length; ∑fx age-specific fertility rates; lx number of person-years lived between exact ages x and x+n (from female mortality table); x age. meladze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) results in recent years (2014-2022), the absolute number of births has been permanently decreasing in georgia. in this period, the number of births decreased by 30.2%. the mentioned indicator diminished in rural settlements (35.1%), and in urban settlements, the decrease was 26.7%. correspondingly, the crude birth rates declined (table 1). in 2022, a very low level of the marked indicator was recorded (11.4‰), which was significantly lower than the level of simple reproduction of the population (15‰). in recent years, along with the real reasons for the decline in fertility, the covid-19 virus pandemic has played an important role. table 1. dynamics of the absolute number of births and the total birth rates in georgia by types of settlement2 (2014-2022) years absolute number of births crude birth rates georgia urban population rural population georgia urban population rural population 2014 60635 35079 25556 16.3 16.5 16.1 2015 59249 33898 25351 15.9 15.8 16.0 2016 56569 32227 24342 15.2 14.9 15.5 2017 53293 30326 22967 14.3 14.0 14.7 2018 51138 30206 20932 13.7 13.9 13.5 2019 48296 29271 19025 13.0 13.4 12.4 2020 46520 27912 18608 12.5 12.7 12.3 2021 45946 27470 18476 12.4 12.4 12.3 2022 42319 25722 16597 11.4 11.5 11.2 an analysis of the considered coefficients in the context of city-village showed that its indicator was higher in the cities of georgia. in general, in the country since 1975, the number of people born in cities has always exceeded the number of people born in villages. in 2022, fewer children were born in georgian villages than during the second world war in 1943 (20928) [15]. although the crude birth rate fixed in georgia in recent years is below the level of simple reproduction of the population, among european states in 2022, it was behind only iceland (12.3‰), moldova (12.1‰) and ireland (11.5‰). the lowest level of this indicator was recorded in spain (7.5‰), greece (7.4‰) and italy (6.9‰) [16]. compared to the crude birth rate, the total fertility rate is a more accurate indicator of fertility, which does not depend on the age structure. in georgia since 2020, the negative natural increase has been fixed. from the point of view of demographic security, the achievement of zero natural increases today’s minimum target. based on the appropriate methodology [17], according to our calculation, to achieve zero natural increase of the population, the total fertility rate should be 2.11. in 2022, the mentioned indicator was 1.82. to reach the specified number, it is necessary to activate the demographic policy. according to the data of the national statistics office of georgia in 2014-2016, the total fertility rate in the country exceeded the level of simple reproduction (2.1) and ensured its expanded reproduction (table 2). in recent years, the considered ratio has been decreasing. in 2022, it diminished to 1.82, which is an indication of narrow reproduction. despite this fact, the value of the total fertility rate in georgia is one of the highest in europe (fig. 1). 2 here and further without the noncontrolled territories of abkhazia and tskhinvali region. source: national statistics office of georgia. meladze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 1. 10 european countries with the highest total birth rate and georgia (2022 year) [18] significant changes have taken place in age-specific fertility rates. according to the official data of the national statistical service of georgia, in 2014-2022, the mentioned indicator per thousand for women aged 15-19 years decreased by 2.4 times. it is a significant fact that since 2017, the ratio of women aged 25-29 exceeds the ratio of women aged 20-24 (see table 2). the fixed fact is due to the increase in the average age of the mother at the time of the child's birth. according to official data from 2014-2022. the average age of first birth increased by almost 2 years and amounted to 26.4 years (2022). table 2. dynamics of age-specific birth rates, total fertility rates and net reproduction rates in georgia in 20142022 (source: national statistics office of georgia) years m o t h e r ’s a g e t o ta l fe rt il it y ra te n et r ep ro d u ct io n r at e -2 0 2 0 -2 4 2 5 -2 9 3 0 -3 4 3 5 -3 9 4 0 -4 4 4 5 + 2014 51.5 144.7 131.3 86.5 38.9 9.2 0.7 2.31 1.10 2015 48.4 144.1 128.0 87.7 41.5 10.6 0.7 2.31 1.08 2016 43.4 134.9 127.5 86.4 43.7 11.2 0.8 2.24 1.08 2017 36.2 126.1 126.9 84.5 44.0 10.5 0.5 2.14 1.01 2018 32.3 121.9 127.5 85.4 44.3 11.0 0.6 2.12 1.01 2019 29.4 112.1 121.3 81.2 44.6 12.4 1.5 2.01 0.96 2020 27.3 103.3 121.8 81.6 44.4 13.3 1.7 1.97 0.93 2021 24.8 100.4 126.7 86.9 44.8 12.1 0.8 1.98 0.94 2022 21.9 90.2 113.7 83.1 42.9 11.6 1.1 1.82 0.87 in recent years, the age pattern of birth has changed significantly. in the total number of births for 2014-2022, the share of mothers aged 20-24 years has significantly decreased (by 10.2 points), and the share of mothers aged 30-34 years has significantly increased (by 8.0 points) (fig. 2). meladze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 2. dynamics of age groups of women 20-24, 25-29 and 30-34. 2014-2022 (source: national statistics office of georgia) the net reproduction rate for georgia in 2022 was 0.87 (table 2). the indicated coefficient represents the average number of daughters a hypothetical cohort of women would have at the end of their reproductive period if they were subject during their whole lives to the fertility rates and the mortality rates of a given period. it is expressed as the number of daughters per woman [19]. based on the value of the net reproduction rate (2022), the generation of girls will be 13% less than the generation of mothers. the decomposition of total fertility rates by birth order of children provides important information about the dynamics of fertility. in particular, this concerns the total coefficients of the first order in cross-sectional generations. the value of the ratio of the specified order may deviate from 0.900-0.950 in any direction. these deviations contain important information about the causes of changes in fertility. if the coefficient exceeds 0.950, this indicates structural changes in the birth calendar, the accumulation of births of several adjacent real generations of women in one calendar year as a result of an increase in the marriages, a decrease in the mean age of women at first marriage, and a decrease in protogenetic (from marriage to birth first child) intervals. a similar situation was fixed in georgia in 2014-2016 (table 3). in the following years, the considered indicator fell below 0.900, which indicates the postponement of the birth of children in the birth calendar (timing), the increase in the age of marriage of women, etc. since 2020, a mass postponement of the birth of first-order children began. table 3. total fertility rates differentiated by the birth order 2014-2022 (source: calculated by the author, on the basis of data from the national statistics office of georgia) years b i r t h o r d e r 1 2 3 4 5 unknown 2014 1.025 0.872 0.327 0.062 0.025 0.004 2015 0.987 0.868 0.347 0.071 0.027 0.005 2016 0.941 0.842 0.356 0.074 0.027 0.000 2017 0.868 0.811 0.356 0.079 0.026 0.003 2018 0.837 0.798 0.364 0.080 0.028 0.008 2019 0.802 0.728 0.359 0.081 0.030 0.013 2020 0.781 0.699 0.361 0.086 0.031 0.009 2021 0.778 0.702 0.368 0.091 0.033 0.011 2022 0.748 0.607 0.331 0.086 0.035 0.016 one of the factors in the decline of fertility in georgia is the decrease in the number of women of fertile age (15-49 years). in 1995-2023, the absolute number of noted women decreased by 32.5%, the reasons for which are large-scale emigration processes and declining fertility (fig. 3). meladze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 3. dynamics of the number of women of fertile age in georgia. 1995-2023 (source: national statistics office of georgia) the reduction in the number of women affects the gross growth potential of women. this last one shows how much the number of women may change in the future only at the expense of the age structure. calculations showed that the abovementioned potential in 1995-2023 had a decreasing trend (figure 4). in 1995, due to the specifics of the age structure, the number of women could increase by 13.5%. according to 2023 data, it is expected to decrease by 5.3%. figure 4. dynamics of gross growth potential of women in georgia, 1995-2023 (source: calculated by the author, on the basis of data from the national statistics office of georgia) the intrinsic natural increase rate shows how much the population would change after a period equal to the length of the female generation if birth rates, mortality rates, and the age and sex structure of the population remained unchanged. according to our calculations, in 2022, the indicated coefficient was -5.3‰, and the length of the female generation was 25 years. based on this, if the age structure of the population is in accordance with the current regime of population reproduction, after a quarter of a century, the population of georgia will decrease by 0.5% due to natural decline. meladze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) in the considered year, the actual rate of natural increase of the population was equal to -1.8‰, the difference between them is because the actual age structure is relatively younger than the age structure that corresponds to the modern parameters of birth and death of a stable population, due to which in the population has accumulated a certain growth potential, more precisely, the potential to slow down population decline, which is why the population of georgia is declining at a slower pace. currently, small generations born after the second half of the 1990s of the last century are entering reproductive age; in the near future, this potential will be exhausted, and the natural decline of the population will increase. conclusion the decline of fertility to the level of simple reproduction and to a lower value is a global phenomenon, and at the end of the 21st century, all countries in the world will face this problem. in the near future, an increase in fertility is not expected in georgia since the generation of women born in the second half of the 1990s, when fertility dropped sharply, entered childbearing age. in the total number of births since 2020, there has been a mass postponement of children of the first order. 86.7% of the population will provide for the following generation in 2022, according to the total fertility rate value. the analysis of the gross growth potential, net, and true coefficients of reproduction showed that the situation in the field of fertility is expected to worsen in the future. it is likely that the coronavirus pandemic will not radically change the trajectory of fertility. this does not exclude the acceleration or deceleration of existing trends by the pandemic. under existing unstable economic conditions and in a situation of decreasing numbers of women of reproductive age, without the active support of families from the state, fertility will decline even more. to alleviate the expected situation, at the level of state policy, value orientations in society should be changed. state priorities should be related not only to the momentary interests of the country but also to the continuity of generations and the transmission of values from one generation to another. special attention should be given to the formation of the needs of the third and subsequent generations of children in georgian society. it is necessary to carry out work in a sociocultural, religious, and moral direction. this work should be supported by the media and public organizations. of course, such work should also be carried out through state administrative institutions. the 2016 vote by the georgian parliament to approve the concept of demographic security calls for revision in light of current circumstances. the way that georgia has to go out of the narrow reproduction regime zone is still very long and less realistic in the near future. competing interests the author declares that there are no competing interests. references [1] bondarenko n.a., syupova m.s. (2017). formy proyavleniya demograficheskoy bezopasnosti regiona i ocenka ee ugroz [forms of manifestation of the demographic security of the region and assessment of its threats]//vestnik togu n3 (46). p. 193 (in rissian). [2] grover d. what is the demographic transition model. https://populationeducation.org/what-demographictransition-model/). [3] tsuladze g., meladze g. (1998). demografiuli gadasvlis shedegi:stabilizacia tu regresi? [the results of demographic transition: stability or regress?]//georgia. journal for the humanities. tbilisi, n3, 1998. p. 176 (in georgian). [4] gujabidze v.v. prostranstvenno-vremennaya diffuziya demograficheskogo perekhoda i prognozirovanie estestvennogo dvizheniya naseleniya [spatiotemporal diffusion of demographic transition and forecasting of natural movement of population]//proceedings of international scientific conference problems of regional demographic planning. dushanbe, 1979. p.35 (in russian). [5] gujabidze v.v. demograficheskiy perekhod i starenie naseleniya v gruzii [. demographic transition and population aging in georgia]//proceedings of international scientific conference actual problems of the meladze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) development of demographic processes in georgia. tbilisi, 1990. p. 5 (in russian). [6] carlson a.c. family questions: reflections on the american social crisis. new brunswick (usa) & oxford (u.k), 1990. [7] volk a., atkinson j. infant and child death in the human environment of evolutionary adaptation//evolution and human behavior. 34 (2013) 182–192 2013 p. 182 [8] lorant k. the demographic challenge in europe.brussels, april, 2005. p. 6. [9] https://www.prb.org/international/indicator/fertility/table. [10] fertility, mortality, migration, and population scenarios for 195 countries and territories from 2017 to 2100: a forecasting analysis for the global burden of disease study//lancet 2020; p. 1285. [11] vielose e. elements of the natural movement of population. oxford-london. 1965. pp. 159-165. [12] bourjeois-pichat j. stable, semistable populations and growth potential. population studie, vol. 25, n2, 1971, p. 235-254. [13] valentey d., kvasha a. demografiya [demography]. moscow, 1989. p. 177-178 (in russian). [14] coale a.j. the calculation of approximate intrinsic rates//population index. vol. 21. № 2, april 1955. p. 94-97. [15] http://demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ussr_ed_1935.php [16] https://www.statista.com/statistics/611593/crude-birth-rate-in-europe/. [17] semya i semeynaya politika v pskovskoy oblasti [family and family policy in the pskov region]. ed. by vasilievoy n.v. i arkhangelskogo v.n. pskov, 1994. p. 180-181 (in russian). [18] https://www.statista.com/statistics/612074/fertility-rates-in-european-countries/ [19] http://data.un.org/glossary.aspx?q=net+reproduction+rate+(surviving+daughters+per+woman) georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) german toponyms in georgia mariam tsitsagi1, valeri kekenadze 1* abstract toponyms contain essential historical and geographical information. when quantitative and qualitative data are included in the study of toponyms, geodatabases are very convenient. georgia is one of the noblest countries, where over a long history, various national minorities left their mark, which was also reflected in toponyms. based on the importance of toponyms, we started creating geodatabases, where spatial and statistical data are collected. the article discusses new toponyms and their changes in relation to the latest migration processes in the history of georgia. these toponyms are german settlements in georgia. more than 200 years have passed since the creation of the first german settlement in the country. within the research framework, a database was created where alphanumeric and population census data of different periods are included. finally, the data is displayed on a digital online map, where all available data can be viewed. keywords: swabians, settlements, toponym, georgia introduction one of the key issues of georgia's onomastic research is the toponymic study of settlements in different parts of georgia, their identification, and systematisation. a toponym is generally assigned to a place based on some characteristic feature. it reflects the characteristics or historical processes characteristic of the geographical area. for example, the turkish, arabic, or persian words present in the names of places in georgia mostly point to the migration processes carried out in those places. a toponym is a kind of source, building material for a historian, especially in historical geography. over time, the local name of one or another geographical area changes. at the same time, this or that settlement disappears or joins different geographical units. various factors influence these processes. therefore, their research and systematisation of the toponymy of local regions are of great importance. as we have already mentioned, toponymy is a kind of source in the study of the history of this or that country. the study of toponyms in the conditions of a specific area helps us to determine demographic processes, migrations, which ethnic groups alternate in a specific territorial area, what changes this brings to place names, etc. [1]. based on the importance of toponyms, a project was developed that provides for the creation of a database of toponyms on the territory of georgia. as a rule, the emergence of new toponyms is caused by historical events and related migration processes. accordingly, the initial stage of the project also includes such a recent event and its consequences. this is the migration of germans to georgia and the spatial-temporal changes of toponyms related to them. the use of gis in historical research is becoming increasingly popular, especially when it comes to quantitative and qualitative data [2, 3]. georgian-german relations have a long history; they date back to the 14th century. there were frequent trips of german explorers to georgia: in 1396–1417, shitberger; then, at epochal intervals, steder, guldenstedt, rheinegs, klaprot, eichwald, wagner, hackthausen, and others [4]. in 1918, germany played a big role in the declaration of georgia's independence, and one of its inspirers was otto hermann von losov, a high-ranking german military official in the ottoman german headquarters during the first world war. for a correct understanding of recent history, the study of german settlements is of great importance [5]. methods and materials the research aimed to determine the settlements of germans living on the territory of georgia at different times and through retrospect mapping [6]. the study of the settlements and architecture of the germans was fully implemented in 2015–2017 [5], which was dedicated to celebrating the 200th anniversary. the primary data sources were scientific papers published on this topic, historical maps, and population census data conducted in different years. based on the mentioned data, a database was created in arcmap 10.8. 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: valeri.kekenadze@tsu.ge tsitsagi and kekenadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) results and discussion the first wave of germans in georgia was recorded in 1817. in 1817, 531 german families entered the territory of the russian empire, 31 families (118 people) of them settled in the territory of georgia. the mentioned migrants, e.g., german separatists, entered the empire as refugees, which mostly meant religious orientation [7]. in his monograph, demographer vazha lortkipanidze names 181 people who came here from württemberg in the flow of 1817 [8]. the above-mentioned flow of german colonists arrived in tbilisi on september 21, 1817, and settled in a place pre-selected by the government—in the outskirts of sartichala, which they called the newly founded colony marienfeld [6]. the settlement was named in honour of queen maria feodorovna. she was the mother of emperor alexander i and the sister of the king of wüttemberg [9]. during the rule of russian emperor alexander, the first (1801–1825), the desire to colonise the conquered territories was particularly aroused. all this was favourable not only from an economic point of view but also for political interests. the balance of different ethnic groups in the local population would not allow their national interests to develop. according to official documents, the leader of the germans is considered to be general yermolov at that time [9]. the process of migration that started in 1817 continued in 1818; during this period, 494 families of germans gradually settled in georgia (a total of 2023 people). they settled in sartichala, specifically in tbilisi, in the villages of kukia and didube. the second wave in kvemo kartli—in asureti and bolnisi. according to the censuses of 1865, the number of germans reached 6114; in 1897, the number reached 9405; and in 1939, the number increased to 20.5 thousand. as we can see, the number of germans in different parts of georgia is increasing day by day. the last demographic census in georgia was conducted in 2014, according to which about 650 germans are registered as permanent residents in georgia. the decrease in the number of germans in georgia was caused by major world political changes, which we will touch on in more detail below [8]. in some existing publications about the german colonists, the authors indicate a different date for their settlement in the territory of georgia; for example, the german traveller august haxthausen, who visited these colonies in 1843, names the year 1818 [10], as well as grigol zardalishvili [11]. in our opinion, in this case, it is the most reliable. it is a document traced by siboshvili, and the arrival of german colonists to georgia should have started in 1817. in 2017, the 200th anniversary of georgiangerman relations was also celebrated in georgia [12]. the main reason for the arrival of the first flow of german colonists was religious. august hauxthausen writes: "the german colonies in transcaucasia, as far as i have heard, are the new constructions of the swabians, mostly wüttembergians, who came here since 1818 because they felt deeply offended by religious beliefs and injustice in their homeland. then, along with other innovations, a new book of hymns was introduced, which the peasantry considered non-dogmatic, watered down, and obscene. the people did not want to be corrupted by the strong, faithful faith expressed in the church hymns, so they decided to emigrate. the russian government allocated them land in the odessa area. but this did not bring benefits, and, at their own request, the majority went to transcaucasia". as can be seen from other sources, the reason for the migration of germans was the religious factor. in their religious activities, the russian local authorities in the caucasus did not interfere at all, and the newly established colonies had complete independence in this matter [10]. the colonists who settled in the territory of tbilisi brought crops unknown to the local population, such as potatoes. along with potatoes, other vegetables were also grown in abundance by new settlers, according to haukshausen, they became the main suppliers of vegetables for the population of tbilisi. haukshausen can't hide his surprise that the people of tbilisi don't want to plant and harvest their favourite potatoes themselves, they have been buying potatoes and other vegetables from germans for many years [10].the german newcomers, although they brought many innovations to tbilisi, both in agriculture and technology, but they actively assimilated the achievements of the local population, for example, they threshed wheat and all kinds of grains in general like georgians with a threshing wheel. also, the germans actively assimilated the traditions of local viticulture and winemaking, they planted georgian grape varieties and produced high-quality wine with special technologies, which was highly demanded and valued in the georgian market. saperavi and rkatsiteli were especially abundantly cultivated. in the 50s, new colonists brought european grape varieties: muscat, madeira, isabella, etc. it should also be noted that the germans obtained a completely new grape variety "kashmi saperavi" tsitsagi and kekenadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) through grafting and selection of different varieties of grapes, which is still cultivated in georgia and the wine made from it was very popular even before. the developed technologies of the germans, their hard work greatly attracted the georgian princes, there were frequent cases when the princes asked the germans to settle in their estates, but the said offer was decisively refused by the germans, they did not want to leave their compact settlements [13]. it is also worth noting that all the needs of the colonists were provided on the spot, starting from the mills and ending with the medical field. for example, let's take the division of labour in one of the german colonies: field worker 258, soap maker 1, shepherd 2, potter 3, weaver 30, basket-make 1, vintner 42, saltpetre maker 1, cooper 10, needle maker 2, shoemaker 26, knacker 2, butcher 9, beer brewer 3, tailor 26, bricklayer 16, baker 4, blacksmith 9, locksmith 2, glazier 1, hatter 1, broadcloth-worker 3 , carpenter 8, builder 12, saddler 1, bookbinder 3, land surveyor 2, nail maker 1, watchmaker 1, teacher 4, gunsmith 2, wood-turner 1, sock maker 6, cart maker 3, glover 1, miller 1 and others [5]. in many cases, the products of the above-mentioned handicraft branches were also sold. in the end, a total of 23 german settlements were established on the territory of georgia (table 1). table 1. german settlements in georgia german settlement year [14] municipality (current day) settlement name (current day) 1 marienfeld 1817 gardabani sartichala 2 neu-tiflis 1818 tbilisi2 3 alexandersdorf 1818 tbilisi3 4 katharinenfeld 1818 bolnisi 5 elisabethtal 1818 tetritskaro asureti 6 petersdorf 1819 gardabani sartichala 7 freudental4 1848 gardabani sartichala 8 alexandershilf 1857 tsalka trialeti 9 gnadengerg 1884 sokhumi 10 neudorf 1884 sokhumi 11 lindau 1884 sokhumi 12 blumental 1892 tsalka kavta 13 traubenberg 1908 marneuli tamarisi 14 georgstal 1910 mtskheta dzveli kanda 15 waldheim 1911 dmanisi ipnari 16 marnaul 1914 marneuli marneuli 17 wiesendorf till 1914 tetritskaro marabda 18 steinfeld till 1914 tetritskaro kotishi 19 grüntal till 1914 gardabani ruisbolo 20 traubental till 1914 gardabani ambartapa 21 hoffnungstal till 1914 gardabani akhalsheni 22 rosental ? mtskheta vardisubani 23 neu-botanika 1956 gardabani botanika at the beginning of the second world war, the germans living in georgia were deported to kazakhstan at the request of the soviet government based on political considerations. after the end of the war, only a small part of them returned. most of them went back to germany. as for the toponyms, taking into account the historical background described above, it is clear that the political narrative prevails in the names of the settlements, for example, marienfeld, alexandersdorf, katharinenfeld, elisabethtal, and petersdorf. alexandershilf, in direct translation, means built with the help of alexander. the listed toponyms are selected in honour of the representatives of the german and 2 streets nearby aghmashenebeli ave. 3 current day didube district (agladze, tskaltubo and samtredia streets [5]) 4 freudental was founded in 1842 near abastumani, which was moved to marienfeld and petersdorf in 1848 [5] tsitsagi and kekenadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) russian imperial houses. in light of the help that the new settlers received, their decision to name the new settlements is quite understandable. in addition to the political content, the migrants also chose names that reflect the landscape features of the place. for example, traubenberg, which means grape mountain, or traubental, which means grape field, this indicates that there would be many vineyards in these places. the peculiarities of the terrain are reflected in the following toponyms: wiesendorf, which means meadow; steinfeld, which means stony field; and grüntal, which means green field. figure 1. example of the dashboard app in german toponyms, there is a name copied directly from the first place of residence of the migrants, for example, lindau. the small town of the same name is located in the southwest of bavaria. as can be seen from table 1, today these settlements have completely different names, although the modern name of rosental, vardisubani, means district of roses in direct translation from georgian. arcgis dashboard5 was created (fig.1) based on the processing of existing materials (articles, maps, census data). the dashboard is easy and convenient to use, and the instructions for its use are provided on the dashboard. conclusion based on the analysis of written and cartographic sources, it was established that there were 23 german settlements on the territory of georgia. the oldest of them (marienfeld) was founded in 1817, and the newest (neu-botanika) in 1956. as part of our research, a geodatabase was created in arcmap that includes spatial and alphanumeric data about german settlements. detailed information about german settlements can be obtained from the interactive map created on the basis of the mentioned database. analysing the content of the map, we find that the short history of the german community in georgia was not easy. settlements were often renamed for political reasons and disappeared altogether in the 1940s. it is a happy fact that the population of georgia respects this part of history, and the remains of former german settlements are today declared cultural heritage. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.t. designed the study. v.k. designed the framework and analysed the data. all authors discussed the results and contributed the final manuscript. 5 https://gis.mepa.gov.ge/portal/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/e25655f609394cf0b2d31217e0b53323 https://gis.mepa.gov.ge/portal/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/e25655f609394cf0b2d31217e0b53323 tsitsagi and kekenadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) acknowledgements the authors would like to thank gvantsa tsitsagi for her help with the translation from german. appendix a 1. arcgis dashboards enables users to convey information by presenting location-based analytics using intuitive and interactive data visualizations on a single screen. references 1. kekenadze, v. (2017). historical toponyms of sachkhere municipality. kartvelian onomastic, 108117 2. chloupek, b. r. (2018). a gis approach to cultural and historical toponymic research in nebraska. journal of cultural geography, 35(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/08873631.2017.1317182 3. fuchs, s. (2015). toponyme und gis – rolle und potenzial von ortsnamen im kontext geographischer informationssysteme. kartographische nachrichten, 2015(6). 4. songhulashvili, a. (2009). economic existence and traditions of germans living in georgia. historicalethnographic researches, ivane javakhishvili institute of history and ethnology, vol. 11. 5. tatarashvili, n. (2022). germans settlements in gardabani municipality/deutsche siedlungen in der gardabani minizipalitat. tbilisi. 6. transcaucasus statistical committee. (1893). statistical data of settlements in transcaucasus. based on statement of 1886. tiflis: printing house of i. martirosiants. 7. siboshvili, j. (2012). german swabians in sartichala. tbilisi. 8. lortkipanidze, v. (2018). demology. tbilisi: sachino. 9. tatarashvili, n. (2018). germans settlements and architectural heritage in georgia/die deutschen siedlungen und das deutsche architektinische erbe in georgien. tbilisi: sezani. 10. about georgia: the first half of the 19th century / august haxthausen/translated from german and comments added by g. gelashvili. eds: g. gelashvili, b. kudava. (2011). tbilisi: artanuji. 11. zardalishvili, g. (1978). toponyms of tbilisi and its surroundings. tbilisi: tsu press. 12. kevanishvili, e. (2017, april 28). radio tavisupleba. retrieved from https://www.radiotavisupleba.ge/a/pirveli-germanelebi-sakartveloshi/28457086.html 13. gamba, j. f. (2021). travel in caucasus, volume 2. tbilisi: publishing house of academy of science of georgia 14. tatarashvili, n. (2017, may 22). german-georgian archive. retrieved from http://germangeorgian.archive.ge/ka/blog/15 georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 farming according to the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet of 1595 dali nikolaishvili1*, davit sartania2, avtandil ujmajuridze3 abstract this article describes the economic situation, particularly the tradition of georgian farming culture, in southwestern part of georgia, concurred by the ottoman empire in the 16th century and called gurjistan vilayet by the ottomans. gurjistan vilayet covered a significant area of southwestern georgia, with only a tiny part being a part of georgia and the remained territory being a part of the republic of turkey, the legal successor of the ottoman empire. the study is mainly based on the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet. in the study's course, the geographical objects (villages, sites of ancient villages, sowing areas, etc.) given by the defter were identified, systematized, and classified and a gis database and relevant maps were developed. the objects plotted on the map were identified by comparing with other sources used to identify the types and amounts of taxes set by the ottoman for the population, group them thematically, and draw a picture of the region's economic potential. it was found that the georgian economic tradition was solid and sustainably profitable, but the ottoman ideological press had a particular effect on it. keywords: gurjistan vilayet, liva, nahiyah, ottoman defters, 16th century, farming introduction following the conquest of the southwestern part of georgia by the ottomans in the 16th century, a new administrative-territorial unit “gurjistan vilayet” was formed, where islamization and gradual eradication of the remnants of georgian culture started. however, this process was slow and gradual. the first change made by the ottomans in the occupied territories was the introduction of the ottoman tax system, which was based on religious discrimination. in particular, the christians paid higher taxes than the muslims. this supported the substitution of the christian faith in islam, which was dangerous for the traditional georgian culture. when the forced transformation of the traditional georgian culture started in the area, how it developed and which areas it covered is an essential issue of a scientific study. studying this issue through scarce, old georgian sources is virtually impossible. consequently, the old ottoman documents are an irreplaceable source. the most important of them is the population census books. “the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet”, dated 1595, is the first document translated and published in georgian, which describes the political, socio-economic, and cultural situation of this newly conquered territory of georgia. the grand defter was a subject of interest to many scholars [1-6]. however, because of its diversity and information value, many interesting novelties are still found in the document. study area as per the defter of 1595, gurjistan vilayet was divided into 8 livas and 28 nahiyah. these livas are: akhaltsikhe, khertvisi, akhalkalaki, chrdili, potskhovi, petre, didi-artaani and panak. according to the map compiled by al. aslanikashvili [7], there were 9 livas and 37 nahiyahs in gurjistan vilayet, although the defter says that oltisi liva inscription was made sometime later [1], i.e., it does not belong to the defter of 1595. the area of gurjistan vilayet was 11 791 km2 (excluding oltisi liva) [8]. the livas of gurjistan vilayet occupied utterly different areas due to their different natural conditions. after all, the borders between the livas were fixed with mountain systems and river valleys. the biggest (akhaltsikhe) liva was almost four times bigger than the smallest (potskhovi) liva. there were five big livas in the vilayet: akhaltsikhe, akhalkalaki, didi artaani, chrdili, and panak, while the area of 3 other livas (petre, khertvisi, and potskhovi) was less than 950 km2. 1 ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, faculty of exact and natural sciences, department of geography; 3, ilia chavchavadze ave; tbilisi, 0128, georgia, 2 ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, museum of tsu; 1 ilia chavchavadze ave; tbilisi, 0128, georgia 3 ivane javakhishvili center; 33, tsinamdzgvrishvili str; tbilisi, 0112, georgia * corresponding author: dali.nikolaishvili@tsu.ge nikolaishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 methods and materials the study is based on the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet of 1595, prepared by the ottoman empire, translated from turkish to georgian, and published in 1941 by s. jikia. the turkish original of the grand defter of gurjistan (hereinafter "the defter") was written on 490 quite large pages and is preserved at the korneli kekelidze georgian national center of manuscripts [fund # 478]. the document gives extremely rich and diversified data about the social-economic situation of then-time georgia, regarding which s. jikia, the translator and researcher of the defter wrote: "the feudal ottoman empire, owing to unequal forces, succeeded in isolating it from georgia, which had the economic riches and traditions of the high culture of the many-century-long history of georgia" [1]. "the map of gurjistan vilayet" [7], different-scale (1:100,000; 1:50,000) soviet topographic maps, maps in the old verst system (scales: 1 inch: 5 versts and 1 inch: 10 versts), 3-dimensional google earth geo-images were also used as primary sources. the paper relies on the agricultural data given in the "defter", mainly the information related to farming, which tells us about the kinds of crops the people of the region grew and the geography and intensity of the crops. defter's data are compared with the latest data, including the ethnographic studies of the 20th century. the study used comparative, semantic, quantitative, and retrospective mapping methods. results and discussion general features of agriculture. regarding “the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet” of 1595, sh. lomsadze wrote: "it shows us enslaved people deprived of all rights and grouped by villages and cities; the heads of the families who are referred to by their names and patronymics (as it was common in turkey) ... the sites of ancient villages and cities, desolate and "empty of rayah (peasant)" [8]. furthermore, defter gives a picture: almost 1/3 of the villages are deserted. as per our calculations, there were 1070 objects named in the vilayet (excluding oltisi liva), but only 726 of them had permanent residents, while the rest of the locations were deserted, i.e., were sites of ancient villages. the agricultural lands in these villages were used by the people from the surrounding villages who therefore paid relevant agricultural taxes. it is of these taxes; these villages were included in the defter. presumably, the vilayet had many more sites of ancient villages abandoned entirely by their permanent inhabitants and by the farmers from the neighbouring villages, who would cultivate the abandoned land to gain harvest. such state of affairs indeed impacted vilayet's economy, as the statistics from defter show. the residents of gurjistan vilayet paid 64 different types of taxes, including 55 agricultural and nine non-agricultural taxes. akhaltsikhe and didi artaani livas paid the highest taxes, and the minor taxes were paid by petre liva (fig. 1). the vilayet paid 9 391 732 akçe (the chief monetary unit of the ottoman empire and neighbouring countries in 14th-19th centuries). the biggest livas paid the highest taxes. namely, the first three biggest livas were: akhaltsikhe (paying 2 942 868 akçe), didi artaani (paying 1 458 612 akçe) and akhalkalaki (paying 1 120 480 akçe) livas. petre liva paid the lowest tax (475,305 akçe). figure 1. total taxes according to livas (%) nikolaishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 the situation will be the opposite if calculating the total taxes by homesteads. on average, the population of vilayet paid 593 akçe per homestead. petre liva was charged with a maximum tax (1657 akçe), and didi artaani liva paid the minimum tax (340 akçe), the former paying a five times higher tax than the latter meaning that virtually, the inhabitants of didi artaani nahiyah must have had higher incomes. this is logical since petre nahiyah was already relatively depopulated by then, and most sites of ancient villages of all vilayet were found on its territory (fig. 2). at the same time, the situation in didi artaani liva was “calmer”, and this figure was close to the average value of the vilayet. there was no significant difference between the amounts and types of agricultural and nonagricultural taxes in different livas (fig. 3). the average difference for the non-agricultural tax was 8.8%. there is a more considerable difference in different nahiyahs and villages. all over the vilayet, the maximum (56.0%) non-agricultural taxes were paid by panaskerti nahiyah of panak liva, while petre nahiyah of petre liva paid the minimum (2.9%) taxes. gurjistan vilayet petre liva didi artaani liva agricultural taxes non-agricultural taxes 8.8 % 5.0 % 13.4 % figure 2. share of villages and ancient villages in gurjistan vilayet (%) figure 3. agricultural and non-agricultural taxes 1.8 % livestock advanced branches 1.4 % 6.4 % 92.2 % lilvestock advanced branches 2.5 % 26.6 % 70.9 % farmi ng farming gurjistan vilayet estate in mzvare nahiyah livestock farming 19.7 % patara alabala 78.5 % advanced branches figure 4. branch structure gurjistan vilayet nikolaishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 there is an even greater disproportion between the villages. across the vilayet, the maximum (46.2%) non-agricultural taxes were paid by village gura of mzvare nahiyah of didi artaani liva. this was due to two circumstances: 1) the village had many (133) households, with their majority being christians who were consequently charged with higher non-agricultural taxes (hispenje, murahasie), i.e., non-agricultural taxes. they account for the largest share (39%) of total taxes; 2) low tax on grain (wheat, barley), just 3600 akçe. this is a meager tax for the village for so many homesteads. for comparison, take village zanazgomi with only 13 households paying the same tax (3600 akçe) on grain as big village gura with many homesteads used to pay. at the same time, we would note that such a big difference in taxes between these two villages evidences a big difference in the incomes of the two. village zanazgomi had a much higher income, i.e., the natural conditions in this village were most favourable to grow grain. several agricultural branches were developed in gurjistan vilayet. the taxes in farming were much higher than in cattle-breeding (fig. 4), with 92% and 8% specific weight ratios. this ratio varied more or less across the livas, nahiyahs, and villages, particularly differentiating between the villages. for example, in one of the estates of mzvare nahiyah of didi artaani liva [“defter”, p. 405, #3], the share of cattle-breeding was almost 27%. the situation is similar in village patara alabala of the same nahiyah where the share of cattle-breeding was much higher than the average value of the vilayet. grain-growing was the most developed branch all over gurjistan vilayet. a total of 5,954,870 akçe that is almost 64% of the total tax and 86% of the agricultural tax was paid by the vilayet. the highest tax (2,025,492 akçe) was paid by akhaltsikhe liva, which accounted for more than 1/3 of the relevant vilayet tax. didi artaani liva ranked second (with 923,986 akçe). both of these livas paid almost ½ of the total tax. petre liva was charged with the least tax (50,750 akçe). however, a homestead-based calculation gave a completely different picture. the highest tax on cereals per household was paid by petre liva (1450 akçe), with all other livas felling much behind it. this tax was the least (341 akçe) in didi artaani liva. such a significant imbalance with the primary agricultural crop is the sign of the different economic standing of the population. in this respect, petre liva was in the most unfavourable situation. as is clear from the taxes, the people grew four cereal varieties: wheat, barley, rye and millet. essential cereals were wheat and barley. the total wheat tax was 2,994,912 akçe, and the barley tax was 2,635,172 akçe. these crops were grown in all livas and nahiyahs (fig. 5). as already mentioned, the highest was the wheat tax amounting to 2,994,912 akçe, i.e., ½ of the cereal tax. the cereal tax was exceptionally high (908,332 akçe) in akhaltsikhe liva, accounting for almost 1/3 of the vilayet wheat tax. this tax was similarly high in didi artaani (523,130 akçe) and akhalkalaki (377,610 akçe) livas. the aggregate data of all three livas are over 60% of all vilayet taxes. thus, the given livas were the principal wheat “producers”. petre liva paid the least tax (24,000 akçe). the forested nahiyah of didi artaani liva paid the highest tax (227,000 akçe). it was followed by akşehir nahiyah of akhalkalaki liva (221,110 akçe). with this tax too, none of nahiyahs of akhaltsikhe liva is ahead of others what is easy to explain: akhaltsikhe liva occupied a large area and figure 5. taxes on wheat according to livas (akçe) nikolaishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 was administratively divided into many (8) units so that the total value was distributed among those units. the second leading crop was barley. a total of 2,635,172 akçe, i.e., more than 44% of cereal tax was levied. at the same time, alongside barley, wheat accounted for the largest share of the grain tax (almost 95%) in gurjistan vilayet. like wheat, barley was grown in all livas and nahiyahs (fig. 6). the highest barley tax was paid by akhaltsikhe liva (more than 1/3 of the barley tax of the liva). with this tax too, didi artaani liva ranked second (397,776 akçe), khertvisi liva ranked third (305,120 akçe), and petre liva paid the least tax (26,000 akçe). however, with this value, the latter exceeded the corresponding wheat tax. of gurjistan vilayet, petre liva was the only one where the barley tax was higher than the wheat tax. the situation was completely different with the total barley tax per homestead, where petre liva paid the maximum tax per household (743 akçe), and didi artaani liva paid the minimum tax (111 akçe). as evidenced by tax amounts, rye and millet must have been much less critical. this is evidenced by the fact that the sum of taxes on two cereal varieties paid by the liva was less than the taxes paid by individual nahiyahs (akhaltsikhe, akhalkalaki, didi artaani and khertvisi) on wheat. a total of 230,936 akçe was paid as a rye tax by the whole vilayet. an exceptionally high tax (116,600 akçe) was paid by akhaltsikhe liva, which was more than ½ of the total rye tax of the vilayet. this was an exceptionally high value. as proof of this, it may be said that this tax was almost three times higher than that of akhalkalaki liva (41,320 akçe), ranking second. akhalkalaki (39.8 akçe) and khertvisi (39.3 akçe) livas paid the highest tax per household, and artaani liva paid the least tax (0.9 akçe). the least common cereal was millet, and a total of 93,850 akçe was levied on it, making only 1.5% of all cereal taxes. as millet was the least common crop, didi artaani and chrdili livas did not pay any tax. this tax was minimal for petre, and akhalkalaki livas and not all nahiyahs of other livas paid it. akhaltsikhe liva paid the highest tax (67,620 akçe), making up more than 72% of the total rye tax. all nahiyahs in the said liva paid this tax, with ude nahiyah paying the highest tax. the tax was also high (16,400 akçe) in panak liva. several studies were used to establish that georgia is located in the geographical area where wheat crops were cultivated, as evidenced by six endemic wheat species and their varieties found in georgia [10-12]. a unique role in this respect was played by historical meskheti or the region where gurjistan vilayet was located for some time. the people widely used such cereals as wheat and barley until the mid-twentieth century [13]. alongside the endemic wheat varieties, more than 50 botanical forms of barley are found in georgia [14]. the fact of wheat and barley species and their varieties having survived to the industrialization epoch proves their great importance for georgian farmers, and “the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet” clearly proves its importance. they also grew legumes in gurjistan vilayet. the legumes, alongside the cereals, played an essential role in the agricultural life of the georgians. legumes are known to be rich in proteins and to be very important for living organisms. in georgia, “in the past, people traditionally did not eat meat every day, and fasting prohibitions of the christian religion played quite an important role in it. therefore, the deficit of meat proteins in human food was compensated by the products rich in legume proteins and nitrogenous substances” [15]. thus, legumes have been known in georgia since ancient times. a total tax of 26 755 akçe was levied on the legumes in gurjistan valayet. this is a meagre figure compared figure 6. taxes on barley according to livas (akçe) nikolaishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 to the cereal tax. at the same time, only 3 livas was charged with legume tax: akhaltsikhe (24,965 akçe), panak (120 akçe) and khertvisi (1690 akçe). defter shows that three legume varieties were grown to gurjistan vilayet: peas, lentils and broad beans. peas (accounting for 43% of total tax on legumes) and lentils (35%) must have been widely spread. only the residents of akhaltsikhe liva paid taxes on broad beans. the highest tax on all three legume varieties was paid by ude nahiyah of akhaltsikhe liva, accounting for almost 1/3 of the tax on legumes in akhaltsikhe liva. villages paid exceptionally high taxes: uraveli and tskordza, paying 2.53 times higher legume taxes than other villages. flax must have been another critical agricultural crop. except for petre and panak livas, all of its livas was taxed. the total tax amounted to 23,294 akçe. exceptionally high tax on flax (11,550 akçe) was paid by akhaltsikhe liva, making almost ½ of its total taxes. at the same time, flax must have been a widely spread crop in liva as all nahiyahs paid its tax. the maximum tax (250 akçe) of villages was paid by village kvemo pamaji of chrdili nahie of the same liva. flax tax was similarly high in akhalkalaki liva (4408 akçe). vegetable-growing was one of the most advanced branches in gurjistan vilayet, as evidenced by the size of its total tax and the vast majority of villages paying it (fig. 7). the population of the vilayet paid a total of 84,731 akçe on vegetables accounting for more than 1/5 of the total taxes on farming (except cereals), which was quite a significant value. the vegetable patch tax must have been even higher. in particular, two more taxes should be added to this value: 1) the tax levied on sowing areas (57,330 akçe), which obviously refers to arable lands, i.e., vegetable patches and orchards, and 2) tax levied on fruits and vegetables (4811 akçe), which makes it impossible to determine the exact share of vegetables, but we can probably assume tax of ½-½ per each. this means that the share of vegetablegrowing and gardening was taxed by a total of 142 261 akçe, i.e., making more than 1/3 of the total taxes on farming (excluding cereals). as m. svanidze wrote, based on the nineteenth-century data, alongside vegetables and watermelons, they grow pumpkins, dill, cabbage, melons, celery, garlic, mint, carrots, coriander, savoury, beets, onions, etc. all over the principality of samtskhe [4]. it is not excluded that the listed products were the region's traditional crops and were grown even in the 16th century. the highest tax on vegetables and watermelons was paid by akhaltsikhe liva (28,127 akçe), accounting for almost 1/4 of total taxes on vegetables in the vilayet. it was followed by didi artaani liva (18,221 akçe). elsewhere, the maximum vegetable tax alone was 9000 akçe. of the nahiyahs, the highest tax (8024 akçe) was paid by the forested nahiyah of didi artaani liva. all over the vilayet, the vegetable tax averaged 6.7 akçe per household. petre liva paid the highest (14.3 akçe) tax, and panaki liva paid the least tax (3.8 akçe). the vegetable tax was levied in fact on every village. the only exceptions are a tiny village with 2 or 3 households or estates, where not all taxes were enlisted. consequently, it may be said that vegetable-growing was common everywhere, although it seems that it was not equally developed figure 7. some land taxes (excluding wheat) nikolaishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 everywhere and hardly survived at the devastated locations, where the ottoman officials had not even mentioned it. the highest taxes were paid by some villages, with the first three villages of klde of mzvare nahiyah of akhaltsikhe liva (790 akçe), village okami of akshehir nahiyah of akhalkalaki liva (600 akçe) and village panakis rabati of panak nahiyah of panak liva (534 akçe). it is noteworthy that these villages are not large, with some households of 20-38. therefore, per household tax was high (15-30 akçe). an opposite picture is seen in some other villages with more households where the vegetable tax is much lower, e.g., the villages of panak nahiyah of panak liva: bariq (with 42 households paying vegetable tax of 150 akçe), villages zemo arsenak and shua arsenak (with 138 households paying 242 akçe) and village kotik (with 40 households paying 150 akçe). viticulture and fruit-growing must have been one of the most advanced branches in gurjistan vilayet, as evidenced by several circumstances, primarily the taxes on fruit, vineyards and must. the highest land tax (almost ½ of all taxes), excluding cereals, was a must. the fruit and vineyard tax proportions were much lower. vineyard tax was levied in 3 livas and made 1951 akçe. the maximum tax was paid by akhaltsikhe liva (871akçe) and panak liva (550 akçe). khertvisi liva ranked the third (410 akçe). all three of these livas accounted for 95% of the vineyard tax. it is also interesting to note that the vineyard grew in the livas located farther south, i.e., where today the local people do not grow vines. such livas are akhalkalaki and potskhovi. in proof, we cite the relevant data from "meskhetian chronicles of the psalter", the same as "meskhetian chronicles" (16th century). there is also a reference where the village of oloda, located in the southwestern part of modern akhalkalaki plateau, is mentioned. it was located at a 1900-1940 m above sea level. the document states that in addition to fruit-growing and cattlebreeding, viticulture was also developed in the area [16]. this is confirmed by later sources as well: "according to ballas, in 1895, there were only ten vineyards of 3 dessiatines in akhaltsikhe province" [17]. another interesting fact is that didi artaani liva located even further south was charged vineyard tax. these issues need further in-depth study. a higher (20 395 akçe) than the vineyard tax was levied on fruit. akhaltsikhe and khertvisi livas had to pay the highest taxes (16 046 and 2075 akçe, respectively), although akhaltsikhe liva was still leading, paying 8-9 and even several tens of times higher tax than other livas. exceptionally high taxes were paid by atskuri (3930 akçe), chacharaki (3350 akçe) and mzvare (2430 akçe) nahiyahs. interestingly, must (the grape of fruit juice) was similarly high in akhaltsikhe and khertvisi livas. two livas: didi artaani and panak did not pay fruit tax. the latter is of particular interest since the liva paid vineyard tax and must, but not fruit tax. these evidences the intensive development of viticulture in the region. gurjistan vilayet paid 179,540 akçe as must. this tax varied a lot across the area (fig. 8). the livas in the northern and southern parts of the vilayet paid the taxes, while the livas in the central part were not taxed. only 2 livas (didi artaani and oltisi) paid this tax. 3 livas (akhaltsikhe, khertvisi, panak) were charged with the highest tax, with akhaltsikhe liva ranking the first, paying 90 440 akçe. this tax for akhaltsikhe liva was twice as much as khertvisi liva, which ranked second. it was these 3 livas paying the significant proportion of must (92%). conclusion figure 8. taxes on must according to livas nikolaishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 farming was a leading branch in gurjistan vilayet, according to the analysis of statistical data given in the defter evidence. where grain-growing was particularly important, grain-growing was more or less common in all livas and nahiyahs. there were two other advanced agricultural branches in the area: fruit-growing and vegetable-growing. vegetable-growing seemed to be developed all over the region, particularly in akhaltsikhe and didi artaani livas. an exception was petre liva, who was depopulated that diminished many agricultural sectors. fruit-growing and viticulture were developed in all livas, but showed more imbalance. fruit-growing and viticulture were particularly well developed in akhaltsikhe, akhalkalaki and khertvisi livas. it is known that farming has always been the essential branch of georgian agriculture. the data of the defter evidence that farming in southwestern georgia, which the ottomans conquered by the end of the 16th century, was a pretty well-developed field of agriculture. the defter evidence that although the conquest of the region reduced the population and hampered the region's development, it did not harm the georgian agricultural traditions, as evidenced by the region's diverse and highly productive cereals and legumes. the data of the defter also evidence relatively well-developed viticulture in the given region, proving that the georgians firmly maintained this traditional branch. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript. acknowledgements the authors cordially thank the shota rustaveli science foundation for support, under whose financial aid it became possible to accomplish the present work within the project “mapping and to analyze georgian cultural heritage of south-west georgia according to old turkish population census books”, grant #he-18-448, 26.07.2018). the authors also cordially thank members of the project, especially manana kvetenadze, who fulfilled calculations of taxes. references [1] jikia, s. (1941). the great book of gurjistan vilayet, book ii, publishing house of the academy of sciences of the georgian ssr, tbilisi, in georgian. [2] jikia, s. (1941). the great book of gurjistan vilayet, book iii, publishing house of the academy of sciences of the georgian ssr, tbilisi, in georgian. [3] svanidze, m. (1971). from the history of the georgian-ottoman relations in the 16th-17th centuries. tbilisi, in georgian. [4] svanidze, m. (1984). agriculture of south-west georgia in the 16th century, metsniereba, tbilisi, in georgian. [5] tivadze, g. (1946). ottoman dervishism and peasant uprisings in the 16th century, by discussing some additional issues, technology and labour, tbilisi, in georgian. [6] shengelia, n. ottoman taxes and liabilities according to the “grand defter of gurjistan vilayet”, proceedings of the tbilisi state university, # 91, series of oriental studies, ii, tbilisi state university publishing house, tbilisi (1960) 277-304, in georgian. [7] aslanikashvili, al. map of gurjistan vilayet. scale: 1:300 00, 1953, in georgian. [8] lomsadze, sh. samtskhe-javakheti: from mid-eighteenth century to the mid-nineteenth century, s. janashia state museum, metsniereba, tbilisi, 1975, in georgian. [9] kelberashvili, m. the demographic situation in gurjistan vilayet at the end of the 16th century, tsu, tbilisi, 2017, in georgian. [10] bregadze, n. wheat, historical-ethnographic atlas of georgia, tbilisi, 1980, in georgian. [11] menabde, v. georgian wheats and their role in general wheat evolution, proceedings of the institute of botany of georgian academy of sciences, v. 21, 1961, in georgian. [12] zhukovsky, p. cultural plants and their varieties, leningrad, 1970, in russian. nikolaishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1-9 [13] beriashvili, l. farming in meskheti, tbilisi, 1961, in georgian. [14] bregadze, n. barley, materials for georgian ethnography, v. 19. tbilisi, 1978, in georgian. [15] beriashvili, l. legumes of georgia. kidney beans. materials for georgian ethnography, v. 19, tbilisi, 1978, in georgian. [16] nikolaishvili, d., sartania, d., ujmajuridze, a. (2016). materials of scientific conference “regional development perspectives: samtskhe-javakheti”. tbilisi, 43-60. [17] beridze, g. (1965). wine and cognac of georgia, sabchota sakartvelo, tbilisi. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) territorial organisation’s originalities of the population of ajara merab putkaradze1 abstract rational territorial organisation of the population mostly determines the normal social-economic development of any country, but the originality of the population`s location in a separated region is related to some particular problems, which is clearly expressed in ajara's example in georgia. the topic is urgent from the point of view that the population in ajara is located quite unevenly, which is related to economic and ecological problems. by applying traditional and modern methods of research in the work, the natural-geographical and social-economic factors of the territorial organisation of ajara’s population are studied. the quantitative and qualitative properties of a population`s location are analysed according to administrative units, hypsometric steps, and agricultural lands. the influence of the original population location on the region’s socioeconomic and ecological conditions is determined. geographical originalities of the problems related to population location are determined, future development tendencies are evaluated, and optimisation paths are set. keywords: population, location, density, economy, ecology introduction according to the demographic development point of view, ajara is one of the most known and, at the same time, most densely populated regions in georgia. in addition, the population location is quite uneven due to natural-geographic and socioeconomic factors. therefore, the irrational territorial organisation of the population creates some particular problems for the region`s socioeconomic development and ecological conditions. coming out of this, the evaluation of the existing condition and the identification of problems constitute a quite urgent topic. the urgency of the topic is even enhanced by the fact that population location differs according to administrative units, hypsometric steps, and cultivated lands. the main goal of the research is to determine the basic originalities of the population’s location and related issues on the basis of the quantitative and qualitative properties of the population’s territorial organisation. to implement the main goal of the research, the following tasks should be solved: determine the main reasons and originalities causing the population`s territorial organisation; determine the population`s average density according to administrative units, hypsometric steps, and agricultural lands; determine the originality of changes related to the population`s territorial organisation, shape the issues connected to it, and set the paths for the population`s rational location. the study object is the autonomous republic of ajara, where in recent years, a number of originalities and problems have been related to the population`s territorial organisation. therefore, research conducted on a particular region’s example would have cognitive and applicable significance as well. methods and materials to determine the territorial organisation of the population of ajara, field research, statistical, comparative, space-time analysis, geoinformation, and other research methods were applied. the foregoing research database is based on population censuses from 1989, 2004, and 2014, as well as statistical materials for population evaluation in 2022. in addition, theoretical materials related to the population`s territorial organisation [1, 2, 3] and hypsometric data of populated areas of ajara [4] were used. results natural conditions and socioeconomic factors have a crucial impact on the population`s territorial organisation, location, and density. population settlement in some particular areas is mostly related to a preferable natural environment, but this regularity more or less changes according to demographic processes, standard of living, and location of productive forces. significant changes in the territorial organisation of the population of georgia during the past 30 years were caused by political and 1 shota rustaveli batumi state university, batumi, georgia, merab.putkaradze@bsu.edu.ge putkaradze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) demographic processes [5]. the territorial organisation of the population of a country from a regional point of view is quite different. most regions have obviously shaped decreased tendencies in the population`s average density, although the mentioned originality significantly differs in ajara. in particular, mountainous ajara has decreased, and the coastal regions have increased tendencies of population density. therefore, to assess the existing conditions, it is necessary to first determine the qualitative indicators related to the population’s location (see table 1; fig. 1). table 1. average density of the population of ajara according to administrative units in 1989-2022. source: table is calculated on the basis of data after geostat (table doesn`t include data of batumi city) administrative units 1989 2022 area (sq. km) population (thousand people) average density (people per sq. km) area (sq. km) population (thousand people) average density (people per sq. km) ajara 2900 392,0 135 2900 355,5 123 kobuleti 720 88,2 123 711,8 78,7 111 khelvachauri 410 82,2 201 356,4 77,5 217 keda 452 20,1 45 452 17,1 37 shuakhevi 558 25,4 46 558 15,5 28 khulo 710 39,6 56 710 27,9 39 figure 1. average density of the population of ajara according to administrative units in 2022 the given data (see table 1; fig. 1) make it clear that the population`s average density during 1989– 2022 in ajara slightly decreased: 135 people per 1 sq. km in 1989 and 123 people per 1 sq. km in 2022. in addition, the mentioned indicators (except khelvachauri municipality) decreased in all putkaradze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) administrative units, especially in mountainous ajara. changes related to population location were mainly implemented due to demographic processes. in particular, the population of mountainous ajara in 1989–2022 decreased from 85,1 thousand to 60,6 thousand. as a result of increased density in khelvachauri municipality, its territory was reduced due to administrative-territorial changes. in particular, two adjacent boroughs (khelvachauri and makhinjauri) and 13 villages were connected to batumi. it should also be mentioned that the population of batumi city is rapidly increasing (it was 136,5 thousand in 1989 and will become 173,7 thousand in 2022), and presumably, this pace will continue in the future as a large part of potential migrants prefer to settle in batumi city [6]. accordingly, an increase in density in village settlements due to the development of demographic processes is not expected. to thoroughly determine the research goals, it is necessary to define the population`s territorial organisation on the cultivated lands, which actually represents the quantitative property of economic density, via means of which the properties of anthropogenic load on the environment and its impact on ecological conditions will be determined (see table 2). table 2. density of the population of ajara in line with cultivated lands in 1989-2022. source: the table is calculated on the basis of data after geostat. 1989 2022 number of population(p eople) cultivated lands (ha) density per 1 sq. km (people) number of population(p eople) cultivated lands (ha) density per 1 sq. km (people) ajara 207619 33843 613 150600 22886 658 kobuleti 55218 14452 382 42400 9876 429 khelvachauri 74113 9531 778 52700 6768 779 keda 19011 3815 498 15400 2454 628 shuakhevi 20780 2713 765 14200 1570 904 khulo 38497 3327 1156 25900 2218 1168 from the analysis of statistical data (see table 2), it is found that village population density relating to cultivated lands in ajara in 1989-2022 increased from 613 people per 1 sq. km to 658 people per 1 sq. km on average, while this indicator for all of georgia equals 470 people per 1 sq. km. notwithstanding the fact that the village population in ajara during 1989-2022 decreased from 207,6 thousand to 150,6 thousand – density did not fall, it increased in all administrative units. the mentioned originality is caused by fact that the volume of cultivated lands decreased from 33843 ha to 24186 ha. a high anthropogenic load of cultivated lands promotes the activation of geodynamic processes and worsens ecological conditions. this topic becomes even more urgent in mountainous ajara, the environment of which is known for its lower sustainability. therefore, as a result of rational natural management, geodynamic processes are held more or less in every village, but up to 35 villages are located in the zone with a high level of threat from natural, geological processes [7]. coming out of this topic, attention should be given to the population’s rational territorial location, and business activity should be held by maintaining the basic principles of rational natural management. complex study of the topic requires determination of the originalities of the population’s location according to hypsometric steps, which is clearly represented in table 3. table 3. location of the population of ajara according to hypsometric steps in 2014. source: the table is calculated on the basis of hypsometric data after geostat and the populated areas. elevation (m above the sea level) area (sq. km) number of population (people) location of population population density putkaradze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) according the elevation (%) (people per sq. km) 0 -200 394,4 256906 77,1 351 201 500 269,7 33717 10,1 125 501 1000 782,6 19083 5,7 24 above 1000 m 1453,3 23494 7,1 16 total 2900 333200 100 115 table 3 shows that a large part of the population of ajara (77,1%) lives at 0-200 m above sea level. therefore, the number of populations decreases as the elevation increases. in particular, 10,1% of the population resides at 201-205 m elevation, 5.7% at 501-1000 m elevation and 7.1% at elevations more than 1000 m above sea level. here, it should also be mentioned that the population at elevations greater than 1000 m above sea level is greater than the population residing at 501-1000 m elevation, which is because slopes are more inclined as the elevation increases, where the agricultural cultivable lands are more abundant. in recent years, the population in the lower zones has obviously increased but gradually decreased as the elevation increases. the mentioned originality is a common trend of the modern period, which is also confirmed in ajara’s example. as of population density according to hypsometric steps, the highest average density (351 people per 1 sq. km) is at 0-200 m elevation above sea level. accordingly, density decreases as the elevation increases at a time, and there are only 16 men per 1 sq. m at elevations greater than 1000 m above sea level (see table 3). the mentioned data are also situated from the fact that the upper limit of permanent settlement in ajara is up to 1600 m. a large part of the population of ajara is concentrated in the coastal region, especially in urban areas. during this period, there were 2 cities (batumi, kobuleti) and 5 urban-type settlements (chakvi, ochkhamuri, keda, shuakhevi, khulo) in the region, where up to 204,8 thousand people lived by 2022, and the urbanisation level was 57.6%. a large part (84,8%) of the urban population lives in batumi city, where the population by 2022 was 173,7 thousand people. the territorial organisation of the population in modern cities is one of the challenges that creates some socioeconomic and ecological problems in urban areas. batumi city is not an exception, where daytime and nighttime density quite differ. the population`s average density or nighttime density in batumi by 2022 was 2676 people per 1 sq. km. this indicator is the lowest in the airport (337 people) and gonio-kvariati (459 people) administrative units. therefore, high density is observed in the bagrationi 1 (78045), bagrationi 2 (74495) and samretsvelo (73001) administrative units. the mentioned originality is caused by the fact that airport and gonio-kvariati constitute newly joined areas of the city, which are characterised by large areas and less population. the high density in the bagrationi 1, bagrationi 2 and samretsvelo administrative units is caused by small areas, population numbers and architectural originalities. we have more different indicators in line with batumi’s population density during the daytime. in particular, the daytime density compared to the nighttime density is especially high in the local territories of the boni (5194 people) and aghmashenebeli (average 7624 people) administrative units, where large local markets are located. the density in the mentioned territory is approximately 15-20 times higher on average. in addition, batumi`s daytime density in the summer period is especially high in coastal recreational places. increased noise and pollution are observed in the mentioned territories, and traffic jams are also observed therein. normal living conditions are violated, and ecological conditions are worsened in the mentioned territories. moreover, the mentioned problem increases the tendency progress, and it is possible that the situation becomes more aggravated. solving the problems related to population location in batumi constitutes one of the priority trends for a city`s further development, which requires optimal spatial arrangement of social-economic activity and transformation of general development. conclusion putkaradze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the following conclusions may be drawn on the basis of research on the territorial organisation of ajara’s population: in recent years, the population`s increase has been observed in coastal regions, and the population`s decreasing tendencies have been sharply outlined in mountainous regions. in 1989–2022, the average population density according to administrative units increased only in khelvachauri municipality, but in the rest of them (especially in mountainous ajara), it decreased. in 1989–2022, village population density in line with cultivated land increased in all administrative units. this was implemented on account of the decrease in the mentioned lands. the population's location, according to hypsometric steps, decreases as the elevation increases over time. in 2014, 77.1% of the population resided at 0-200 m above sea level; social-economic and ecological problems related to the population`s location is outlined in batumi and in all the administrative units as well, especially in mountainous ajara. to improve the existing condition, it is first necessary to foresee the population`s rational territorial organisation in some particular administrative unit`s spatial arrangement for the implementation of social-economic activity. in addition, to settle the problem, it is necessary to implement particular changes in a country`s demographic policy in line with the optimisation of the population`s location. competing interests the author declares that there are no competing interests. references [1] gogsadze g. population geography. tbilisi, 2008 (in georgian) [2] jaoshvili v. population geography. tbilisi, 1983 (in georgian) [3] smidovich s. population density, theory and demographic processes. native population. 46-th issue, moscow, 1984 (in russian) [4] putkaradze m. ajara (economnc-geographical characterisation). batumi, 2001 (in georgian) [5] putkaradze m. ecological problems of natural management in mountainous ajara. materials of international scientific-practical conference. kutaisi, 2011 [6] putkaradze m. & putkaradze l. (2018). effect of political processes on demographic development of georgia. journal of geography and earth sciences. 6 (2): 50-57 [7] putkaradze m & abuselidze g. (2022) social-economic aspects of potential migrants of mountainous region of georgia: analysis and results. journal of geography, politics and society.vol.12. no.2: 8-15 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) administrative-territorial organisation of georgia in the 20th and 21st centuries givi tavadze1* abstract the russian empire started incorporating georgia at the beginning of the 19th century. the country was divided according to imperial russian patterns. this influenced the territorial changes and the administrative-territorial organisation of the later democratic republic of georgia (1918–1921), the georgian soviet socialist republic (1921–1991), and the republic of georgia (from 1991). the internal administrative-territorial changes that took place during the last two centuries represent the main topic of research. the most reliable information was discovered in two publications of the soviet epoch, separated from each other by more than 40 years and published in 1930 and 1978, respectively. they contain different information, though the administrativeterritorial organisation of these periods is the primary basis for both. the formation of the ultimate administrative organisation of the territory is a fundamental problem today, as parts of the country are under foreign occupation. it should also be noted that in our survey, several maps were used to state and compare the validity of the obtained information. they contain rich information about georgia during various periods from 1900 to 2012. keywords: uezd, district, region, municipality introduction the military administrative-territorial organisation of feudal georgia was abolished during the 19th century and changed at least three times in the last two centuries. the russian empire and the ussr influenced georgia's new and newest histories. the russian empire formed the basis for the modern administrative-territorial organisation of georgia. georgia within the russian empire georgia was part of the caucasian viceroyalty, the russian empire, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. it was divided into various administrative and territorial units. the territorial organisation of the empire had several levels. the state was divided into "governorates" (provinces) and "oblasts" (counties), which were subdivided into "uezds" and "okrugs." they were further subdivided into smaller parts: police districts and rural village communities, which is another research topic. the caucasian viceroyalty comprised 11 high-level territorial regions by 1903: tbilisi governorate (the centre of the viceroyalty was referred to as tiflis in the empire and abroad), kutaisi governorate, kars oblast, erevan (erivan) governorate, elisavetpol (ganja) governorate, baku governorate, dagestan oblast, terek oblast, kuban oblast, black sea governorate, and stavropol governorate. there were three regions on a lower taxonomical level: sokhumi, batumi, and zaqatala okrugs. tbilisi and kutaisi governorates comprised georgia’s modern and historical territories; the kars oblast included the historical lands of georgia and armenia. interestingly, tbilisi city was named "tiflis" or "tpilisi" even on georgian maps till the 1930s. in this article, we refer to the capital as "tbilisi". the tbilisi governorate comprised 9 uezds by the end of the 19th century: tbilisi uezd with its centre tbilisi, akhaltsikhe uezd – akhaltsikhe, akhalkalaki uezd – akhalkalaki, borchalo uezd – shulaveri, gori uezd – gori, dusheti uezd – dusheti, tianeti uezd – tianeti, telavi uezd – telavi and sighnaghi uezd – sighnaghi. the zaqatala special okrug was a separate administrative territory under the rule of the tbilisi governor. in 1903, zakatala was separated from the tbilisi governorate. according to the map of 1900, the kutaisi governorate comprised ten provinces, among them 7 uezds: kutaisi uezd – kutaisi, shorapani uezd – shorapani, racha, oni, lechkhumi uezd – tsageri, senaki uezd – senaki, zugdidi uezd – zugdidi and ozurgeti uezd – ozurgeti. the sokhumi ­okrug was a separate administrative territory under the rule of the kutaisi governor. batumi and artvin okrugs were separate from the kutaisi governorate and united in the batumi oblast, which is confirmed by the map of the caucasus before ww1 [1]. the kars oblast comprises four okrugs: kars, with its capital kars; ardagan (artaani in georgian)—adragan; olti (oltisi in georgian)— olti; and kagizman—kagizman. artaani and oltisi okrugs used to be territories of the ancient kingdom of 1 department of human geography, vakhushti bagrationi institute institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia. * corresponding author: givitava1991@gmail.com mailto:givitava1991@gmail.com tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) georgia, conquered by the ottoman empire by the end of the 16th century; kars and kagizman okrugs were territories of the ancient armenian kingdom that had been under muslim rule since the 13th century. figure 1. tbilisi governorate at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century2 the tbilisi governorate comprised parts of modern eastern and southern georgia. the tbilisi uezd occupied the eastern part of the modern kvemo kartli region, the southwestern part of the kakheti region, and the city of tbilisi per se. the borchalo uezd was situated to the west and south of the latter. its northern and central parts constitute the land of the modern kvemo kartli region. the southern part of ancient borchalo uezd is part of the republic of armenia today. akhalkalaki and akhaltsikhe uezds were situated to the west of borchalo uezd. their territory coincided with the modern samtskhe-javakheti region of georgia (aspindza, akhaltsikhe, adigeni, akhalkalaki, and ninotsminda municipalities). the gori uezd was situated to the northwest of the tbilisi uezd. mountainous regions of eastern georgia were within dusheti uezd and tianeti uezd. the first one comprised the modern mtskheta, dusheti, and kazbegi municipalities. the northernmost part of this uezd, a part of the dariali gorge, belongs to the russian federation today. the tianeti uezd approximately occupied the modern tianeti and akhmeta municipalities. telavi uezd was situated to the northeast of the city of tbilisi. it occupied the modern telavi and kvareli municipalities. the sighnaghi uezd was situated to the east of tbilisi. it comprised the modern gurjaani, lagodekhi, sighnaghi, and dedoplistskaro municipalities. two uezds of the kutaisi governorate, kutaisi and shorapani, were parts of the modern imereti region. the shorapani uezd approximately occupied the territory of the modern sachkhere, chiatura, zestaponi, and kharagauli municipalities. at the same time, the kutaisi uezd roughly occupied the territory of the modern tkibuli, terjola, baghdati, vani, and tskaltubo municipalities and the city of kutaisi. the modern khoni and samtredia municipalities’ lands, which are parts of the imereti region of today, were included in the senaki uezd, together with the territories of martvili and abasha, the senaki municipalities, and the city of poti. the zugdidi uezd was another part of the historical samegrelo. its territory approximately occupied the lands of the modern tsalenjikha, chkhorotsqu, zugdidi, and khobi municipalities. the racha uezd was situated north of the kutaisi and shorapani uezds. it comprised the territory of the modern ambrolauri and oni municipalities. the lechkhumi uezd was situated west and northwest of the racha uezd. it occupied the historical lechkhumi (the modern tsageri municipality) and the upper and lower svaneti (the modern mestia and lentekhi municipalities). the ozurgeti uezd encompassed the modern guria region almost within the same borders. the batumi okrug was situated to its south, with the northern and central parts representing the territory of the modern adjara autonomous republic. in contrast, its southernmost part belongs to the republic of turkey. the artvin okrug, situated further to the south, is entirely on the territory of turkey today. the sokhumi okrug occupied the territory of the modern abkhazia autonomous republic. besides, the southeastern part of the black sea governorate became part of the democratic republic of georgia according to its treaty with the rsfsr of urkey today. the sokhumi okrug occupied the territory of the modern abkhazia 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tiflis_governorate#/media/file:tiflis_governorate_atd.png tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) autonomous republic. besides, the south-eastern part of the black sea governorate became part of the democratic republic of georgia according to its treaty with the rsfsr of may 7, 1920, and was included in abkhazia as the gagra district. figure 2. kutaisi governorate at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century3 the democratic republic of georgia (1918-1921) claimed the northern and south-western parts of the kars oblast (ardagan and oltisi uezds) after the russian empire fell. however, oltisi remained beyond georgian control. this land became a part of turkey according to the moscow treaty between rsfsr and turkey on 16 march 1921. figure 3. kars oblast at the end of the 19th century and in the beginning of the 20th century4 the democratic republic of georgia the map of the democratic republic of georgia published in 1920 (fig. 4.) is an interesting artefact to help research the administrative-territorial system of the epoch. it is based mainly on “wishful thinking”, as the southern borders of the independent republic were not demarcated and were contested with the neighbouring countries. the internal territorial organisation was based on the imperial system, with some exceptions. according to the georgian constitution of 1921, article 11, the democratic republic of georgia was planning to form three autonomous regions: sokhumi district or abkhazia, batumi district or “the muslim georgia region”, and zaqatala district. nevertheless, the georgian government could not fulfil these laws as the constitution was adopted three days before the soviet occupation. 3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/kutaisi_governorate#/media/file:kutaisi_governorate_atd_(1905-1917).png 4 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/kars_oblast_atd.png tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 4. democratic republic of georgia (in georgian)5 “the lore (lori) neutral territory” was formed after the georgian-armenian war in 1918 and had to be under the observation of entente (the uk and france at that time). however, this territory became the centre of the bolshevik plot to attack the independent georgian republic in february 1921: they organised a rebellion on this land to make it a casus belli. the georgian soviet socialist republic soon after the soviet occupation, in 1922, georgia, armenia and azerbaijan were forced by moscow to form the transcaucasian socialist federative soviet republic. the federation existed till 1936 when it was dissolved by a decree issued in moscow to form three separate soviet republics of the soviet transcaucasia. according to the map of the south caucasus of 1928 (fig. 5), georgia’s territory shrank compared to 1920 as some areas were annexed to rsfsr, armenian ssr, azerbaijanian ssr and turkey. however, the internal administrative-territorial division was still formed according to the pattern established by the russian empire, which remained almost intact in the democratic republic of georgia and the early years of the georgian ssr. according to the book published in 1930 [2], which depicts the administrative-territorial organisation of that period, one can see what changes occurred in the 1920s. first of all, the authors of the book wrote about three autonomous units established in 1921-1922: “ssr abkhazia allied to ssr georgia,” which in 1931 has been transformed into “the abkhazian assr,” “adjaristan autonomous soviet socialist republic” and “south ossetian autonomous oblast.” it ought to be reiterated that according to the constitution of the democratic republic of georgia, it was intended to grant autonomous status to the ethnic abkhazians in the former sokhumi okrug and the ethnic georgian muslims in the former batumi okrug (adjara of today). on the other hand, south ossetian autonomous oblast was entirely a communist creation. the administrative-territorial organisation of the georgian ssr was in the process of formation in the 1920s and 1930s. the final law was issued in 1938 [4], according to which the georgian ssr comprised 51 districts, adjara assr, abkhazian assr, south ossetian ao, tbilisi and poti cities. the administrative-territorial borders are hardly discernible on the map of georgia of 1938, though the map contains the list of districts (the modern municipalities) of that period. it allows us to group them in the borders of the modern regions (mkhare in georgian). the following paragraphs analyse the changes that happened in the georgian administrative-territorial system in the following 40 years, 1938-1978. 5 https://archive.gov.ge/ge/sakartelos-pirveli-demokratiuli-respublika tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 5. the transcaucasian socialist federative soviet republic 1928 (in russian)6 the modern kakheti region was divided into sagarejo, gurjaani, telavi, kvareli, lagodekhi, sighnaghi and tsitelitskaro districts (raion in russian and georgian) in 1938, whereas by 1978, the akhmeta district had been formed. the latter was part of the telavi district till 1951 and 1963-1964, and it became a separate administrative unit in 1964. the modern mtskheta-mtianeti region comprised dusheti, kazbegi, tianeti and leningori districts in 1938: by 1978, the mtskheta district had been formed as well, which earlier was a part of the tbilisi district. the modern kvemo kartli region comprised karayaz, borchalo, aghbulagh, luxemburg, tsalka and bashkichet districts in 1938. all these districts, except tsalka, had been renamed and became gardabani, marneuli, tetritskaro, bolnisi and dmanisi districts, respectively. the modern shida kartli region, except for the “tskhinvali region,” comprised kaspi, gori and khashuri districts in 1938, while the kareli district was formed in 1939 and comprised parts of gori and khashuri districts. no other territorial changes occurred there from 1939-1978. the former south ossetian autonomous oblast in 1938 comprised staliniri, znauri, java and leningori districts. there was only one change here by 1978: the historical name of tskhinvali had been returned to the town of staliniri in 1961: the last change resulted from a certain “destalinization” under nikita khrushchev in the early 1960s. there occurred no changes in the territory of the modern samtskhe-javakheti region during these 40 years. it comprised the borjomi, aspindza, akhaltsikhe, adigeni, akhalkalaki and bogdanovka districts in 1938 and 1978. 6 https://www.flickr.com/photos/levanrami/4339697868 tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 6. georgian soviet socialist republic in 1944-1957 (in russian)7 the territory of the modern imereti region comprised orjonikidze, zestaponi, chiatura, tkibuli, chkhari, kutaisi, baghdati, vani, tsulukidze and samtredia districts in 1938. the sachkhere district had been separated from chiatura and the tskaltubo district – from kutaisi in 1939. the township of chkhari lost its importance, and the district centre became the township of terjola in 1950. thus, the modern imereti region territory comprised eight districts and three city councils in 1978: orjonikidze, zestaponi, terjola, mayakovski, vani, tsulukidze, samtredia and sachkhere districts; tskaltubo, chiatura and tkibuli city councils. the territory of the modern samegrelo-upper svaneti region comprised abasha, gegechkori, tskhakaia, khobi, zugdidi, chkhorotsqu, tsalenjikha and upper svaneti, later renamed as mestia district, as well as the poti city council. poti-city did not have a different status in 1978. the territories of the modern guria, racha-lechkhumi and lower svaneti regions did not change during these 40 years. the lanchkhuti, makharadze, and chokhatauri districts were parts of guria; ambrolauri, oni, tsageri and lower svaneti, later renamed as lentekhi district, were parts of racha-lechkhumi and lower svaneti. according to the physical-geographic and historical sources, tbilisi, the capital, had always been a part of kvemo kartli. the tbilisi district should have been considered a separate administrative unit. nevertheless, the modern mtskheta municipality was part of the tbilisi district in various years of the 1930s. abkhazian assr comprised gali, ochamchire, sokhumi, gudauta and gagra districts in 1938. the gulripshi district separated from sokhumi in 1946, whereas the gagra city council ruled the area of the modern gagra district in 1978. adjara comprised kobuleti, batumi, keda and khulo districts in 1938. the territory of the batumi district became khelvachauri district, whereas the city of batumi is a self-governing unit today. the shuakhevi district was separated from khulo in 1952. as a result, the adjara autonomous soviet socialist republic comprised kobuleti, khelvachauri, keda, shuakhevi, khulo districts and batumi-city in 1978. the south ossetian autonomous oblast comprised staliniri, leningori, znauri, and java districts in 1938, but tskhinvali was separated from its district in 1978. significant territorial changes happened in the georgian soviet socialist republic from 1944-1957. the chechen, ingush, balkar and karachai peoples were exiled from their homeland by the decrees issued in kremlin. these people were accused of collaborating with nazi forces during the second world war. parts of the land of the modern karachay-cherkessia, kabardino-balkaria, ingushetia and 7 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/gruzinskaja_ssr_%281944-1955%29.jpg tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) chechnya were given to the georgian ssr – they formed klukhori district in the west and akhalkhevi district in the east. the latter had joined the dusheti district at the beginning of the 1950s. these territories were returned to the peoples of the north caucasus after their amnesty and returning home in the 1950s. changes were made not only in the naming of the georgian districts. the mtskheta district was separated from tbilisi in 1930-1934; in 1934, it joined the capital and separated again in 1938. other changes were made as well, which have already been mentioned above. so, we can see the administrative-territorial organisation of georgia on the map of 1981, which contains similar information to the publication of 1978 [3]. this administrative-territorial system is the main base for the following organisation of the independent republic of georgia. figure 7. administrative-territorial organisation of the georgian soviet socialist republic in 1981 (in georgian)8 the republic of georgia the georgian internal conflicts of the 1990s became the main obstacle to solving the problem of the administrative-territorial organisation when the state restored its independence. according to the georgian constitution of 1995, this problem should be decided when the state restores its control over the entire territory. two autonomous republics remain officially in georgia: abkhazia and adjara. abkhazia is beyond the control of tbilisi as it is under russian occupation. the remaining territory is divided into nine partially official "regions" under state authority. the primary function of the state representatives ("governors") of the regions is to maintain coordination and consultation between the state and governments of the municipalities within the same region. these regions are kakheti, mtskheta-mtianeti, shida kartli, kvemo kartli, samtskhe-javakheti, imereti, racha-lechkhumi, lower svaneti, samegrelo-upper svaneti, and guria. tbilisi, the state's capital, does not belong to any of the regions. 8 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ka/0/00/saqartvelos_ssr_1981.jpg tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) the south ossetia autonomous oblast was officially abolished in 1991, though "the south ossetia temporary administration" had been formed in 2007 with its headquarters in the village of kurta. nevertheless, due to the russia-georgia war of 2008, the temporary administration is exiled to tbilisi. as for municipalities, georgia was divided into 72 units in 2020, including five self-governing cities: tbilisi, rustavi, kutaisi, poti, and batumi. the latter have the mayors and chairpersons of the city assemblies. tbilisi is the biggest self-governing city in the country. the kakheti region comprises eight municipalities: sagarejo, akhmeta, telavi, gurjaani, kvareli, lagodekhi, sighnaghi, and dedoplistskaro. telavi is its administrative centre. the mtskheta-mtianeti region comprises five municipalities, among which akhalgori remains under russian occupation. mtskheta, tianeti, dusheti, and kazbegi are others. mtskheta is the centre of the region. the shida kartli region comprises four municipalities: kaspi, gori, kareli, and khashuri. some changes have occurred there since 1991. this region was officially divided into five municipalities in 1991–2007 before the south ossetian temporary administration was created. java was the fifth municipality, whereas territories of the former tskhinvali and znauri districts were declared parts of the gori and kareli municipalities. gori is the centre of shida kartli. the kvemo kartli region comprises seven municipalities: gardabani, marneuli, tetritskaro, bolnisi, tsalka, dmanisi, and the city of rustavi, which is the centre of this region. the samtskhe-javakheti region comprises six municipalities: adigeni, akhaltsikhe, aspindza, akhalkalaki, ninotsminda, and borjomi. the city of akhaltsikhe is the centre of this region. the imereti region comprises 12 municipalities: sachkhere, chiatura, kharagauli, zestaponi, terjola, tkibuli, baghdati, vani, tskaltubo, khoni, samtredia, and the city of kutaisi, which is the centre of this region. the racha-lechkhumi and lower svaneti region comprise four municipalities: ambrolauri, oni, tsageri, and lentekhi, with ambrolauri as its centre. the samegrelo-upper svaneti region comprises nine municipalities: abasha, senaki, khobi, zugdidi, martvili, chkhorotsqu, tsalenjikha, mestia, and poti-city. the city of zugdidi is the centre of this region. the guria region comprises three municipalities: lanchkhuti, ozurgeti, and chokhatauri. the city of ozurgeti is its centre. the autonomous republic of abkhazia comprises seven municipalities: gali, ochamchire, gulripshi, sokhumi, gudauta, gagra, and azhara. the territory of the azhara municipality was the only one under georgian control until the war in 2008. it was officially formed in 2006. the term "upper abkhazia" had been used as another name. sokhumi is the capital of the autonomous republic of abkhazia, but its official government is in exile in tbilisi. the autonomous republic of adjara comprises six municipalities: kobuleti, khelvachauri, keda, shuakhevi, khulo, and the city of batumi, which is the capital of this autonomous republic. significant changes were made in the naming of the municipalities and their centres. the old names had been returned to the cities, towns, and respective districts in the early 1990s. tsitelitskaro in the kakheti region has restored its old name of dedoplistskaro; leningori in the mtskhetamtianeti region is akhalgori. the township of kazbegi restored its ancient name of stepantsminda in 2006, though its municipality retained the name of kazbegi; znauri became kornisi in the shida kartli region. three names had been restored in the imereti region: orjonikidze returned to kharagauli; tsulukidze became khoni; and mayakovski became baghdati again. bogdanovka returned to the old georgian name of ninotsminda in the samtskhe-javakheti region. tskhakaia became martvili again, and makharadze became ozurgeti in samegrelo and guria, respectively. the last crucial administrative-territorial change was made in 2017 when seven self-governing cities—telavi, mtskheta, gori, akhaltsikhe, ambrolauri, zugdidi, and ozurgeti—which were the centres of the regions and municipalities at the same time, lost the status of "self-governing" settlements. conclusion the administrative-territorial organisation of modern georgia was based on russian imperial laws. from 1801 until the 1870s, the russian empire conquered and annexed the historical georgian lands tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) from the persian and ottoman empires. the territory had been divided according to the historical patterns and russian imperial laws that became the basis for the territorial organisation of the later democratic republic of georgia (1918–1921). in contrast, the soviet union took much time to replace it almost entirely. the district system, formed in the soviet epoch, became the second step in forming the two-tier modern territorial organisation of "the semi-federative" georgia. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no competing interests. references 1. sanadze m., beradze t., thopuria k. historical atlas of georgia. caucasus before the ww1, p. 33. “saqartvelos macne”. 2012. tbilisi. georgia (in georgian). 2. administrative-territorial organisation of the soviet socialist republic of georgia. “publishion of the georgian ssr central committee”. 1930. tiflis, georgia (in georgian). 3. gvaramadze sh. o., baghaturia m. p. administrative-territorial organisation of the soviet socialist republic of georgia. “soviet georgia.” 1977. tbilisi, georgia (in georgian). 4. territory of georgia in the russian empire in the beginning of the 20th century (in georgian) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ka/6/6f/saqartvelo_xix_saukunis_bolos.jpg 5. democratic republic of georgia (in georgian) https://archive.gov.ge/ge/sakartelos-pirvelidemokratiuli-respublika 6. south caucasian soviet federate socialist republic in 1928 (in russian) https://www.flickr.com/photos/levanrami/4339697868 7. districts of the georgian soviet socialist republic in 1938-1939 (in georgian) https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kldiqotk_ee/xpwmvwug8di/aaaaaaabi6i/b-8hrnpy1myhjjdjupq14fstm5lhp0naclcbgas/s1600/1%25e1%2583%2591.jpg 8. georgian soviet socialist republic in 1944-1957 (in russian) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/gruzinskaja_ssr_%281944-1955%29.jpg 9. administrative-territorial organisation of the georgian soviet socialist republic in 1981 (in georgian). https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ka/0/00/saqartvelos_ssr_1981.jpg 10. constitution of georgia, 1995. article 7: bases of the territorial organisation (in georgian). https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/30346?publication=36 11. abolition of the self-ruled cities. 2017 (in georgian). https://droa.ge/?p=124286 https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ka/0/00/saqartvelos_ssr_1981.jpg https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/30346?publication=36 https://droa.ge/?p=124286 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) 62-72 geodeterminism: truth or illusion? tinatin ratiani1 abstract the paper is about geographical determinism (geodeterminism), allegedly a foundation of geopolitics. according to this doctrine, the development of society depends on the geographical environment. this paper is divided into three parts. the first part is devoted to an historical overview of geodeterminism and the difference between geodeterminism and geopolitics. the views of ancient greek philosophers, middle eastern scholars, and mediaeval european thinkers are discussed. in the second part, geodeterminism is presented as a genuine phenomenon, and various arguments and examples are given to prove it. in contrast, the third part is devoted to reasoning, based on which geodeterminism can be perceived as an illusion. the last part is the conclusion, which summarises the topics discussed above and formulates some concluding remarks. the paper is framed within a methodological framework. it is based on qualitative research methods, which enabled an in-depth analysis of the information surrounding the research question. in particular, content analysis was used. the research relies on both primary and secondary sources. the paper is largely based on various books, articles, and studies that have made it possible to find an answer to the research question, which served to determine whether geodeterminism is true or is it just an illusion? keywords: geodeterminism (geographic determinism), geopolitics, geographical theory. introduction at its most general definition, geographic determinism, or geodeterminism, is the doctrine that the natural environment is responsible for all human actions. the development of society depends on the natural environment. in other words, in a deterministic view of struggle and survival, people are not free to make their own choices, and their achievements must be explained as the result of natural conditions. [1] the development or backwardness of this or that country is determined by the geographical conditions in which it is located. according to geodеterminists, the landscape mosaic is a peculiar matrix when humanity is predetermined. [2] although deterministic arguments have always been contested, they have long dominated and provided a means of accounting for and hierarchically ranking cultural, political, and economic differences between people and places. historical roots of geodeterminism it should be noted that geographical determinism has deep roots. it originated in ancient greece and then spread throughout europe and the world. as far back as the ancient greek philosophers hippocrates and polybius, they thought that people who live in hot climates are sluggish. this is the reason why they cannot form a developed society. furthermore, as for the people living in cold climates, all their energy is directed towards maintaining their physical existence, so they cannot create anything of value either. the formation of civilizations is possible only in moderate climatic conditions, where a favourable natural environment is present. herodotus strongly supported the idea that "all history must be treated geographically, and all geography must be treated historically." this idea from herodotus was an implicit recognition. he observed that geography was the physical background and arena where historical events occurred. the visions of plato and aristotle, who were the first to connect the geographical environment with politics, are worth noting. plato believed the political regime suitable for mountainous countries is a democracy, and autocracy is suitable for states with plain terrain. according to aristotle, a republic is the best form of government for small countries. for large countries, it is a monarchy; for vast countries, it is an empire (tyranny). as for the middle ages, during this period, geodeterminism was overshadowed by religious doctrines that sought a religious explanation for the facts, but after some time, arab scientists appeared who extended their views to the geodeterministic ideas proposed by the ancient greeks. al-masud 1 undergraduate student of the faculty of social and political sciences (international relations), ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, e-mail: tinatin.ratiani918@sps.tsu.ge ratiani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) from the arab world deserves a special mention. he proposed a new world division into 14 climatic regions in 985. he also described human activities in hot and temperate climates, indicating the importance of climate to human activities. [3] ibn battuta and ibn khaldun must be singled out from the arab world as well. ibn khaldun was the last arab scholar contributing to the mediaeval deterministic concept. in 1377, he wrote the book "muqaddimah", which begins with a discussion of man's physical environment and influence, as well as the characteristics of man related to his culture or lifestyle rather than the environment [4]. geodeterminism was gaining ground in europe as well. the 16th-century french scientist jean bodin, the founder of the state sovereignty concept, provides essential information about geographical determinism. according to jean bodin, the geographical environment influences people's characters. he claimed that the best conditions for the existence of people are created in the temperate zone, between 40 and 50 degrees of north latitude. it is precise because strong states were formed and developed here, and the inhabitants of this region were distinguished by their outstanding military leadership, trade, etc. therefore, the strength of individual states depends on the influence of the surrounding belt [5]. the most significant representative of geographical determinism, frenchman montesquieu, should be noted. in 1748, the french educator published the fruit of 30 years of his work, the well-known "spirit of the laws" (de l'esprit des lois), whose 17 books were devoted to the influence of climate, the customs of individual peoples, and the forms of state organisation. we should also remember that geographical determinism was the basis for geopolitics. the term geopolitics was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century by the swedish scientist rudolf kjellén. however, geopolitics as a scientific concept dates back to the 19th century, when friedrich ratzel and rudolf kjellén published their works. it should be noted that geopolitics did not emerge on bare soil, and geographical determinism is often considered its predecessor [6]. nevertheless, is geographical determinism geopolitics? we will see many similarities if we start to research and analyze the issue by comparing geographical determinism and classical geopolitics. classical geopolitical thinkers such as halford mackinder and friedrich ratzel saw geography as a critical factor determining the rise and fall of great powers throughout history. mackinder, for example, argued that the world was divided into two central regions: the eurasian "heartland", dominated by russia, and the "rimland" around it, controlled by various naval powers such as britain and the united states. he believed that a state that controlled the heartland would have a natural advantage in dominating the rest of the world due to its central location and resources [7]. as for ratzel, he considered the state to be a living organism. according to his thinking, like every living organism, the state is born, grows, reaches adulthood, and then dies (ceases to exist). by the state's growth, he meant the territorial expansion of the state at the expense of small and weak neighbouring political entities. states, like living beings, must create a living environment. therefore, territorial expansion and conquest wars are permissible and logical events [8]. according to classical geopolitics, it turns out that any political event, for example, war, is caused by natural-geographical laws and not by the decisions of political leaders. in other words, classical geopolitics practically ignores the idea that space is a social construction [9]. nowadays, being guided by classical geopolitics is wrong because we face a different geopolitical reality. that is why modern geopolitics was formed. modern geopolitics has evolved in response to the changing global landscape and the emergence of new geopolitical actors and challenges. modern geopolitics is characterised by a broader range of analysis, including the role of non-state actors such as multinational corporations, ngos, and terrorist groups, and the impact of globalisation, climate change, and technological advances on the international system. modern geopolitics also includes more diverse theoretical perspectives, including feminist, postcolonial, and critical approaches that challenge classical geopolitics' traditional assumptions and power structures [10]. the main difference between classical and modern geopolitics is their focus and theoretical orientation; classical geopolitics emphasises state power and territorial control. in contrast, modern geopolitics emphasises the complexity and interconnectedness of the global system. geopolitics is not the same as geographic determinism. however, it is based on the assumption that geography determines the limits and opportunities in international politics: states can realise their geopolitical opportunities or ratiani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) become victims of their geopolitical situation. one of the main objectives of grand strategy is to exploit one's advantage and the weaknesses of one's opponent. finally, when the historical roots of geodeterminism and its independence from geopolitics have already been clearly identified, we can discuss the truth of geographic determinism itself, which will be proven with specific examples. geodeterminism– truth nicholas spykman once wrote that "ministers come and go, even dictators die, but mountain ranges stand unperturbed" [11]. because of their persistence, spykman considered geographical conditions— the physical realities that state face—crucial to international relations and politics." geography does not argue; it just is" [12]. if we start the study of the issue from the deep past, we will be sure that the geographical environment and location have always been given priority. this geographical factor has changed over time. for example, rivers were the most critical geographical factor for ancient civilizations such as ancient egypt, mesopotamia, india, and china. only those civilizations that arose near rivers were often flourishing [13]. after the era of river civilizations, there was the age of maritime civilizations, when those countries with access to the sea reached the highest point of advancement. greece, carthage, rome, byzantium these great empires must thank their geographical location for going down in history as the greatest expansionists. furthermore, as for great geographical discoveries, those countries with a favourable location towards the ocean were promoted, the creation of the colonial empires of portugal, spain, england and others and the making of the most important geographical discoveries for humankind was ensured by the geographical factor. american naval strategist alfred t. mahan had interesting opinions on the strength of naval states. he wrote the book "the influence of sea power upon history" (1890), arguing that national prosperity and power depended on control of the world's sea lanes. in his opinion, only that country can become a leader in political and economic life, which occupies a leading position at sea: "whoever rules the waves rules the world "[14]. climate should also become an advantage for the states. when discussing geographical advantages, it is impossible to leave out russia, which has been saved by the climate more than once. during the second world war, the cold russian winter had disastrous results for nazi germany. the lack of frostresistant military equipment and appropriate clothing caused the wehrmacht to fail. these and many other historical examples show that geography is crucial in the fight against the adversary. in addition, geographical location can also affect the economic well-being of a country. for example, we can consider the gulf countries (saudi arabia, iran, iraq, kuwait, the united arab emirates, and qatar these countries have the largest oil reserves in the region), whose economic development is wholly based on the oil extracted from the persian gulf (in case of qatar instead of oil prevails gas). although the share of oil supplied from the middle east in the world market has somewhat decreased in recent years, as new deposits have been discovered (in venezuela, canada, angola, kazakhstan, etc.), the middle east still holds more than half of the world's oil reserves, at the same time, it is of higher quality. table 1 shows the oil reserves and the share of their extraction worldwide. it should be noted that the revenue produced from the oil extracted and exported by the gulf countries accounts for more than 50% of the economies of these countries [15]. table 1. oil reserves and production of the gulf countries.2 countries oil reserves (billion tons) 2020 share of world oil reserves (%) 2020 oil production (million metric tons) 2020 share of world oil production (%) 2020 saudi arabia 40,9 17,2 519,6 12.5 iran 21,7 9,1 142,7 3.4 2 source: bp, statistical review of world energy, 2021 https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/businesssites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2021-full-report.pdf https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2021-full-report.pdf https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2021-full-report.pdf ratiani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) iraq 19,6 8,4 202,0 4.9 kuwait 14,0 5,9 130,1 3.1 the united arab emirates 13,0 5,6 165,6 4.0 qatar 2,6 1,5 75,9 1.8 oman 0,7 0,3 46,1 1.1 the success and prosperity of countries depend on the climatic zone in which they are located. if we draw a map of the wealthiest economies, we can see that almost all the rich countries are in non-tropical zones (with the exception of hong kong and singapore). countries far from the equator have better economies than countries around them. figure 1. gdp per capita (gdp pc) for each country plotted as a function of its geographic latitude. the analysis is done based on the climatic zones shown in figure 1. the tropic zone is the zone between the tropic of capricorn and the tropic of cancer (between 24°n and 24°s). zones located between 24°n and 40°n and between 24°n and 40°n form the subtropics, and zones located at latitudes greater than 40°n form the temperate zone. these three zones each share one-third of the earth's surface (the tropical zone is 35% of the world's surface, the subtropical zone is 33% of the world's surface, and the temperate zone is 32% of the world's surface). subsequently, for each country, gdp, gdp per capita (gdp pc), population, surface area, and geographic latitude were extracted from the world data bank. depending on its latitude, each country is assigned a climatic zone. only countries with a population of more than 1 million are analyzed. the data used is from 2018. the surface of the world is almost evenly distributed between different climatic zones. however, 48% of the world's population is located in the tropics, but less than 15% of the world's gdp is generated from it. almost 60% of the world's gdp is generated in the subtropics. according to world bank data, except for singapore ($64,580 per capita gdp) and hong kong ($48,675 per capita gdp), no countries in the tropics have a per capita gdp above $20,000. in a deeper analysis, we note that there is a big difference between countries with access to sea transport and countries surrounded by land in the tropics. those both tropical and landlocked are among the poorest economies in the world, such as the central african republic, zimbabwe, bolivia, niger, zambia, etc. this difference between the north and south is also observed on the continents. in latin america, the correlation between latitude and gdp pc is undisputed. argentina, uruguay, and chile have the most southerly coordinates and the region's highest gdp per capita. ratiani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) the same thing happens when we consider the african continent. although the entire continent has historically been associated with the poorest area on earth, the wealthiest countries are located at its southern and northern latitudes: south africa and the maghreb, two zones located in the subtropical parts of africa. european countries are shown as the graph descends to higher degrees of latitude (45° to 65°). switzerland wins the race with the highest gdp pc (luxembourg has a higher gdp pc but is not included in this analysis due to its small population) [16]. assessing and analyzing the economic situation of countries in different climate zones allows us to believe in geographical determinism, which undoubtedly affects the development or underdevelopment of countries and societies, their financial promotion or backwardness. nevertheless, it is also noteworthy that in the 21st century, in the era of globalization, one can overcome geographical factors, be it climate, natural resources or others and transform the environment to get the most out of it. geodeterminism – illusion the territory, climate, resources, landscape and soil layer affect social development because people use various natural resources to produce material goods. the broader the scope of their economic activity, the more actively they use these resources. as a result, the sphere of direct interaction between people and nature is undergoing changes and expansion, which means that the role of the geographical environment in social life is increasing. although primitive people mainly used living resources (plants and animals) and made work tools from natural resources (stone and wood), in the later stages of historical development, the importance of mineral and energy resources increased, and the geography of human activity expanded dramatically. at the same time, the difficulty of work was constantly increasing due to geographical factors. a man had to exist in a friendly environment and harsh, life-threatening natural conditions. thus, the temperate climate, fertile soil, and optimal moisture allowed abundant harvests with relatively low labour costs. before the 21st century, man's economic and social condition was more dependent on the natural environment than now, when humankind's economic and technological capabilities are higher. today, when humanity is approaching the highest point of development, its economic growth collides with the natural limits of the geographical environment, which is very limited in size and resources. studies have shown that the number of raw materials consumed in the 21st century is equal to that consumed throughout history [17]. if the economic growth rate is the same in the coming decades, industrial production may increase two to three times, leading to additional demand for natural resources. it turns out that man himself creates the environment in which he lives. this means more roads, railways, canals, various constructions, etc. the category of people who deny the existence of geographical determinism believes that, at present, man is the leading figure in changing the geographical environment and not the other way around. nowadays, man completely transforms the environment for his benefit, although in some cases, we may not even realize that what is good now may be wrong in the future. around 400 bce, plato discussed soil erosion around athens and lamented that the once fertile area was left without soil. human influence on the physical environment causes the latter to change. however, the main thing is that if these changes are not calculated in advance, their effect can be damaging for the people themselves [18]. criticism of geodeterminism and the opinion that it is only a theory, and practically an illusion, is not new. according to martin glassner, this had to do with the fact that experiments and evidence never supported determinism. hence, mild criticism from the 1920s became more intense and severe in the late 1930s and 1950s, and the term "determinism" could be said to have acquired an almost insulting and derogatory meaning. therefore, geographical determinism, widespread before the mid-20th century, became insignificant in academic geographical studies. the biggest reason for this change is the increase in humans' constructive and alternative power over the natural environment through the technologies they have developed [19]. the fact that geographical determinism is not justified and man can overcome environmental factors is clearly seen in the example of japan. japan has very few mineral deposits and largely depends on ratiani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) imports to meet demand. they succeeded and built a thriving economy based on technological expertise and innovative culture. japan also refutes the basic thesis of the heckscher-ohlin theory, according to which countries are oriented to produce those products in which they have a comparative advantage [20]. however, despite the above, are we still prisoners of geography? although geography can influence a country's political and economic trajectory, it is not the only factor determining its success or failure. a country's culture, political system and human capital also play an essential role in determining its destiny. therefore, while geography may be a constraint or an opportunity, it is not necessarily deterministic. people and nations can take steps to overcome geographic limitations, so geography is not destiny, and the prescription that the strong stay strong and the weak are doomed to be forever weak is false. geography is not "fixed," as kaplan writes, but unstable.[21] thus, it is crucial to recognize that physical geography is not fixed. technology advancements such as air travel and the internet have made distance and physical barriers less critical. therefore, technological progress or human intervention can overcome the complexity of this or that landscape in which societies will have the opportunity to develop. conclusion in conclusion, presenting geographic determinism as truth or illusion is wrong. many examples have confirmed the truth of geographical determinism. at the beginning of the work, the purpose of analysing the views of the geodeterminism theoretical school were to convince the reader of the validity of this theory. however, on the other hand, we must emphasize that the proponents of geographical determinism needed to understand human capabilities and adequately see the influence of the geographical environment in all aspects of public life. their goal was to explain the level of human development by environmental conditions. the followers of these doctrines were partly right, based on the fact that nature can significantly influence man, but not all aspects of life can be controlled by nature. it is impossible that only nature forms a person or, on the contrary, only a person nature. based on inventions and knowledge, technological progress and modern society began to influence and change natural factors more intensively. this was unimaginable for geographical determinists of the 19th century, so in this case, their criticism will not be justified. in the end, geodeterminism is not at all a field of illusion. abundant practical examples confirm it, but in the 21st century, it is clear that man appears as a transformer of the geographical environment. however, an approach that considers the possibilities of human transformation of the earth and recognizes human influence on the earth could only be formed by passing through certain stages, one of which is geographical determinism. we could not immediately recognize the power of man, it was necessary to slowly conclude other theories, according to which the main actors on earth are people, and they can even change the natural environment. references 1. davitashvili, z. (2016). the charm of geopolitics, my world (pp. 2-13). georgia, tbilisi: gfsis. (in georgian) 2. gegeshidze, a. (1999). geopolitics (pp. 29-39). tbilisi. (in georgian) 3. önal, h. (2018). reflections of environmental determinism in the questions prepared by geography teacher candidates, review of international geographical education online (rigeo). turkey, balıkesir: publishing house balıkesir university. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1179985.pdf 4. pišev, m. (2019). anthropological aspects of ibn khaldun’s muqaddimah: a critical examination. in bérose encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l'anthropologie, paris. retrieved 19/03/2023 from https://www.berose.fr/article1777.html?lang=fr 5. gorgiladze, i. (2009). fundamentals of geopolitics, tbilisi: publishing house "universal" (in georgian) https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1179985.pdf https://www.berose.fr/article1777.html?lang=fr ratiani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) 6. hagan, charles b. “geopolitics.” the journal of politics 4, no. 4 (1942): 478–90. https://doi.org/10.2307/2125653. 7. gogsadze, g. (2020). space and politics. publishing house ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university. (in georgian) 8. stogiannos, a. (2019). the genesis of geopolitics and friedrich ratzel. dismissing the myth of the ratzelian geodeterminism. cham, ch: springer nature 9. dodds, klaus. economic geography 74, no. 1 (1998): 77–79. https://doi.org/10.2307/144346. 10. smolén, k. (2012). evolution of geopolitical schools of thought. the department of international relationships, maria curieskłodowska university of lublin. (p.5-19) 11. scholvin, s. (2016). geopolitics an overview of concepts and empirical examples from international relations, fiia working paper. publishing house: the finnish institute of international affairs. retrieved from https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/196701/wp91-geopolitics.pdf 12. spykman, nicholas j. “geography and foreign policy, ii.” the american political science review 32, no. 2 (1938): 213–36. https://doi.org/10.2307/1948667. 13. pravilov, e. (2009). river of empire: geopolitics, irrigation, and the amu darya in the late xixth century. openedition journal. retrieved from https://journals.openedition.org/asiecentrale/1130 14. mahan, a. t. (1890). the influence of sea power upon history 1660-1783. boston: little brown and company. retrieved 19/03/2023 from http://www.enabed2016.abedef.org/resources/download/1403180516_arquivo_mahaninfluenceofs eapoweruponhistory.pdf 15. british petroleum (2021). statistical review of world energy. retrieved from https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energyeconomics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2021-full-report.pdf 16. melmeh, e. (sep 8, 2020). does a country’s geographical latitude impact its economy? published by aion. retrieved from https://www.aionconsulting.eu/post/does-a-country-s-geographical-latitudeimpact-its-economy 17. weidmann,t.o., schandi, h &others.( may 19, 2015). the material footprint of nation. retrieved 19/03/2023 from https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.1220362110 18. salukvadze, j. (2012). geography of culture. tbilisi: tbilisi state university (in georgian) 19. önal, h. (2018). reflections of environmental determinism in the questions prepared by geography teacher candidates, review of international geographical education online (rigeo). turkey, balıkesir: publishing house balıkesir university. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1179985.pdf 20. spero j., hart j. (2010). the politics of international economic relations, seventh edition, wadsworth, cengage learning. 21. owen m, t. (march, 2015). geopolitics, con and pro. foreign policy research institute. retrieved 19/03/2023 from https://www.fpri.org/docs/owens_on_geopolitics.pdf https://doi.org/10.2307/2125653 https://doi.org/10.2307/144346 https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/196701/wp91-geopolitics.pdf https://doi.org/10.2307/1948667 https://journals.openedition.org/asiecentrale/1130 http://www.enabed2016.abedef.org/resources/download/1403180516_arquivo_mahaninfluenceofseapoweruponhistory.pdf http://www.enabed2016.abedef.org/resources/download/1403180516_arquivo_mahaninfluenceofseapoweruponhistory.pdf https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2021-full-report.pdf https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2021-full-report.pdf https://www.aionconsulting.eu/post/does-a-country-s-geographical-latitude-impact-its-economy https://www.aionconsulting.eu/post/does-a-country-s-geographical-latitude-impact-its-economy https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.1220362110 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ej1179985.pdf https://www.fpri.org/docs/owens_on_geopolitics.pdf georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the toponym "batumi" – etymology nargiz akhvlediani1 abstract interest in georgian cities arose in the second half of the 19th century. active scientific research began in the middle of the 20th century. various monographs and works were dedicated to georgian cities, including batumi. the aim of our research is to determine the etymology of the toponym "batumi" and the motivation behind the name. researchers in geography, ethnography, history, and other fields often use toponyms for research purposes. on the other hand, linguists also often need geographical, ethnographic, or historical data to explain toponyms. the aim of our research is to determine the etymology of the toponym "batumi." several hypotheses exist regarding the origin of the name in kartvelian studies. some suggest that it derives from the greek, while others propose it originates from turkish or other kartvelian languages. there are several explanations for the etymology of "batumi." each of them is subject to scientific consideration and, of course, has the right to exist. we have been trying to identify this plant for the last ten years. in our opinion, the toponym "batumi" is a phytotoponym derived from the name of a plant, the name of which is confirmed today only in folk oral speech or folklore, although the local population no longer remembers it and future generations will no longer know it. below, we present our research regarding the mentioned phytotoponym. keywords: batumi, toponym, phytonym, etymology, chakvi grass. introduction the collection and study of georgian toponymy have a long tradition. ancient georgian geographical names are preserved in ancient georgian literary-historical writings, which contain important information about the name of this or that geographical point. however, despite this, vakhushti bagrationi (1690–1770), an outstanding historian and geographer of the 18th century, is considered the founder of the scientific study of georgian onomastics. linguists have long paid attention to the importance of toponymy for dialectological research, especially historical dialectology. the study of the toponymy of adjara is a necessary task for the study of the adjarian dialect as well as the past existence, history, and ethnography of this region. methods and materials based on the goals of the study, we initially searched for scientific literature and notes from travellers and researchers about the toponym batumi. during the search process, through comparison with scientific literature, we critically approached existing scientific views. through scientifically based research and interpretation, we have drawn relevant, reliable conclusions. when working on the article, we were also guided by the methods of historical-comparative analysis and synthesis. results batumi, known as the city of the past, dates back to approximately 400 bc, as mentioned by jean moreau [1]. according to t. kaukhchishvili's research, the first written record about batum is attributed to aristotle (4th century bc) [2]. it is also possible that batum was mentioned by plinius (1st century ad). the second roman author is ariane (2nd century ad), who, like plinius, travelled along the coasts of kolkheti and kartli and mentions the river "batis" [3]. it should be noted that plinius also mentions the point of the same name. this point was also named by the anonymous author of the 5th century and later by the byzantine historian michael panaretos [4]. k. muller equates the point "tabula peutingeriana" with "portus altus" on the roman road map with batumi, which is located on the site of modern batumi [5]. s. kaukhchishvili considered it the latin form of the greek "batis" [6]. this identification was shared by i. sikharulidze and d. braund [7] and [8]. 1 phd in philology, chief researcher, department of folklore, dialectology and emigrant literature of niko berdzenishvili institute, batumi shota rustaveli state university, georgia, batumi, nargiz.akhvlediani@bsu.edu.ge mailto:nargiz.akhvlediani@bsu.edu.ge akhvlediani. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) "megale polis" ("great city"), "tabula peutengeriana," and "portus altus," aka batumi, are mentioned in the chronicle of easter (7th century ad). academician s. kaukhchishvili identifies them with "batumi." some researchers share the opinion that early batumi was located at the mouth of the koroli river. [9]. vakhushti batonishvili notes in his work that batumi was located on the coast of the black sea, which was a small, beautiful city conquered by the ottomans [10]. on european nautical maps, batumi is indicated by cartographic marks denoting a fortress town and is mentioned on various european maps, such as 13th-century venetian and 14th-century italian compass maps, namely, visconte 1318, pizzigani 1367, and gracizo benicaza. (1480), and jakofo gastoldi (1561) showed a sailing ship near batumi on the map, which indicated that it was an important port city [11]. in 1426, the german traveller hans schiltberg, in his "travel book," called batumi the main city [12]. in addition, in 1472, the italian diplomat and traveller iosafat barbaro mentions batumi as a city where "kolkhuri tetri" spread as "colchicam ivitam." this indicates that batumi is a beautiful city on the coast. venice's ambassador to persia, ambrogio contarini, who visited batumi in 1474, refers to it as a fortress city [13]. in 1615, the missionary louis grange named batumi a strategic centre, a harbour monopoly, a batumi), and the sea port, the centre of the trade monopoly and the residence of the strategists, was in batumi. residence of strategists, and especially a seaport [14]. s.kaukhchishvili notes that the petra fortress was in tsikhisdziri (tsikhisdziri is a place near batumi. in recent years, notable attention has been drawn to the history of batumi in our scientific literature. this attention dates back to the 6th century, when it was mentioned in historical sources as the localization of 'petra,' a significant black sea coastal lazic city. interestingly, during the 6th century, the classical sources do not mention petra as part of batumi, but it is emphasized as a key centre on the black sea coast, where significant byzantine-sasanian wars took place. authors from byzantium, procopius of caesarea, and agathias scholasticus provide us with detailed information about these events. the history of batumi as a settled area begins with gori. it has been a city settlement since the 2nd–6th centuries ad [15]. the archaeological findings on the territory of batumi provide various ceramic materials from the ancient period. the importance of these urbanized settlements in the hill gora-samosaxlo region was significant, which contributed to trade and economic cooperation with the centres of antiquity. imported ceramics, such as khios, samos, tazos, and amforiani, and local ceramics, including colchian pottery, have been found. according to n. berdzenishvili, there was a well-established ancient colchian village in the territory of present-day batumi. the research suggests the presence of ancient graves with fenstyle burial from the early centuries (inner chorokhi ii), which closely resemble the constructions used in petra's citadel (the remains of petra in chorokhi, near the chakvi [16]). this text discusses the historical significance of batumi in georgia and its connections to the ancient city of petra. there are several attempts to explain the etymology of the toponym "batumi". each of them is the result of some judgment and, of course, is worthy of existence. according to the data of kartvelian languages, for the first time acad. s. kaukhchishvili tried to explain the meaning of the toponym batumi. in it, the researcher separated the "um" suffix and the "bat" base material. this opinion was supported by researchers: t. mibchuani, j. chkheidze, a. inaishvili, m. qaldani. [17-20]. the hypothesis of its origin in greek was supported by professor z. chumburidze, but he did not rule out that it derives from some georgian word. it is also known that the greeks referred to the place near novorossiysk as bati, batea, or bata, but a similar toponym was not created there. one circumstance should be taken into account: often two names of this or that toponym, ethnonym, or hydronym are known in the sources: one is named by locals, the other by foreigners. some examples of this are rion, fasis; chorokhi, akampsis; korolistavi, batis. t. kaukhchishvili draws attention to a similar fact. kaukhchishvili discusses the writings of joseph flavius: joseph flavius often mentions two names of tribes: one is what they were called according to ethnarchos, and the other is what the hellenes called the same tribe: gomars, galatians, magogs, scythians, and midians (t. kaukhchishvili, 1983). are not we dealing with the same event in batumi? researcher i. chkhonia writes in his dictionary that batumi means a swampy place or land with the meaning of swamp [21]. in addition, the root "bat" is not alien to georgian surnames and proper names, for example, bati, bata, bataya, batia, batadze, and batiashvili [22]. the main hypothesis of s. kaukhchishvili is correct, that the greek word "petra" is translated as georgian "bat", "stone" or "rock". this is because "bat" or "kara" means stone or rock in georgian languages [m. qaldan, 1982.]. it should be noted that from the given definition it is clear that in the akhvlediani. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) georgian language "batumi" was associated with such geographical features as rocks or stones. it is also necessary to emphasize that "petra" is considered to have the same meaning, because the word "bat|bakh" in svanur meant "rock", and the term "petra" in old georgian meant stone or rock. in addition, an attempt is made to explain batumi based on georgian languages; the um suffix was also distinguished in the analysis material [23]. it is conceivable that batumi with its variants should not have originally been the name of a river [hydronym], but a geographical name [toponym] of a place. researcher r. gordeziani notes that in the name "batomi" // "batumi" the -um/-om maker is separated, and "bat" is the root. we think that in our particular case we are dealing with a variation of this suffix [24]. researcher m. faghava also identified the -um suffix in the toponym "batumi" and considered that -um and -om suffixes form geographical names from phytonymic roots [25]. several toponyms of phytonymic origin have been confirmed near batumi: ,,bartskhana”, which means a grove, and prickly place (,,bartskhnari”). the researcher g. bedoshvili develops the same opinion [26-27]. we will consider the toponym of batumi together with the names of geographically adjacent places. these are "kaprasha", "kapreshumi", "beshura" and beshumi). such toponyms are mentioned in the neighborhood of the main toponym "batumi" (cf. batura"-batumi), as a result of the study of ethnographic material in georgian mythology, it was determined that the cross and icon are not traditional attributes. but objects of worship related to the cosmic and astral worldview and sacred trees. in ancient georgia there was a cult of trees and animals [28]. the sacred tree, like several other anthropomorphic beings, was transformed into more anthropomorphic forms and became an object. characteristics of a worshiped or incarnated animal or plant [29] from the history of religion, it is known that man-made objects passed from earth to heaven, and during earthly life they hierarchically embodied social forces and institutions (god, king, ruler), priest, evil, good).[30] it is known that in 1927 the famous linguist v. topuria discovered svan manuscripts about elbatur, notes that there is a legend (svan texts) about the mythological village of elbatur. tsalanar. , ii: 174). another famous person in ossetian ethnography is amiran's double, the proud batradzi, who falls into the water (river) and dies, and three towers appear from his tears [31]. according to another version, the grass on the river bank grows on these tears. sometimes a fat person is also called batura. batura is also the name of a dog. in folk traditions, especially in poetry, the plant "batura" can be found in zoidze's poetry (see poet sh. zoidze's "ballad"). the poet also lists the names of field grasses: "korkotina", "moloka", "kelaptara" and "batura". the distinct meanings of the lexeme "βαθνs \ batus" in ancient greek are recorded [32], with several meanings: 1. deep, 2. high and 3. fertile. it has three such different semantics. al. in makashvili's "botanical lexicon" there is a latin word: "caprea", which is related to the svan "bagvra" and the migrelian "katujvar". according to botanist natela varshanidze, the latin term is "pollinia imberbis", and its synonym is "microstengium vimeneum", which translates as "bamboo grass" (bamboo is a sacred tree in mythology). in guria it is called "pur-pura", "barbatsa", in adjara "bambuka", and in samegrelo it is called "tea mafatia"(chaishi mafatia). [33]. "chakvi grass" is an annual weed. it is a plant that grows to a height of 40-80 cm. it has long, pinnate leaves that are toothed and compound. its leaves are lanceolate and about 5-10 cm long. its stems root easily when in contact with the soil, so it is very fertile. it is characterized by abundant fertility. it especially likes moist, shady places. chakvi grass, aka bamboo grass ("bambuka"), is a fairly common plant in chakvi, green cape, makhinjauri and batumi, only on the coastal plain, on the surrounding slopes, in gardens and parks (fig. 1). akhvlediani. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 1. "pebble grass", bamboo, “bambuka’’ in our opinion, this is a weed grass, the name of which is confirmed today only in folk speech and folklore. the next generation does not know him. the local population no longer remembers this plant by this name. this is our attempt to explain the etymology of the toponym batumi. conclusion in our opinion, the etymology of the toponym "batumi" is related to the plant "batura", which today is actually only found in folklore and word of mouth (see, for example, the poem "balada" by the poet sh. zoidze), although today the local population no longer remembers this phytonym batura. "batura" as a plant is not known by the future generation. for the etiology of this toponym, the motivation for its name may be due to the widespread distribution of the aforementioned plant, which still thrives in abundance in the area today. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. references [1] jan murie, batumi and chorokhi's bridge, translated from french by iza lordkipanidze, batumi, 1962: 22. [2] t. kaukhchishvili, reports of greek writers about georgia, vol. v, tb., 1983. [3] f. ariané, travel, black sea coast, tbilisi, 1961: 37. [4] m. panaretos, "chronicle of trapezunt" materials for the history of georgia and the caucasus, n. 33, 1960: 40. [5] n. lomouri, the topography of ancient georgia's trade routes, in georgian, tbilisi, x-xi, 1958: 10-11. [6] s. kaukhchishvili, reports of byzantine writers about georgia, georgika, volume ii, tbilisi, 1965:56-57. [7] i. sikharulidze, toponymy of eastern and southeastern georgia, vol. 2. batumi, 1959: 82. [8] d. braund, 1994: 185. d. braund, georgian in antiquity, oxford, 1994. [9] s. kaukhchishvili, ancient materials, about the history of batumi, proceedings of kutaisi pedagogical institute volume iv, kutaisi 1950-51:17-23. [10] kartlis tskhovreba 1973: 176. [11] t. gvantsaladze, an unknown italian map of georgia from, tbilisi, 1981:33. akhvlediani. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) [12] mamistvalashvili, e., "georgia in the travel book of hans schiltberg", matsne, 1980, no. 2, p. 108. [13] barbaro iosafat, journey to tana, barbaro and contarini on russia. l.1971:215-216. [14] m. tamarashvili, georgian church, from the beginning to the present, tb., 1995:545. [15] a. surguladze, for the history of batumi, issues of existence and culture of the population of adjara, tbilisi., 1965. [16] .n. inaishvili, department of archeology and history of art, proceedings of n. berdzenishvili institute, shota rustaveli state university vi publishing house, bath.. 2008:77-78. [17] t. mibchuani, from the history of ethnogenesis, settlement and culture of the georgian mountaineers of western georgia, tbilisi 1989:240. [18] j. chkheidze, for the history of batumi, batumi 1959:17. [19] a. inaishvili, for the etymology of batumi, sectoral vocabulary of the adjarian dialect, volume i, tb., 1976:77-86. [20] ,m. qaldani, again for the etymology of batumi, "chorokhi", batumi, 1982, no. 2: 84-86. 85. [21] i. chkhonia, "words kona", 1910. [22] al. ghlonti, proper names1940:80 .. [23] m. paghava, again a toponym for the etymology of batumi, works of n. berdzenishvili institute, publishing house, shota rustaveli state university, vol. i, 2009:291. [24] r. gordesiani. pre-greek and kartvelian, volume, 1985:22 [25] m. paghava um, -om, suffix in georgian toponyms and etymology of some. geographical. names of the faculty of sciences bsu humanitarian works vol. xiii, batumi, 2009:3-14.. [26] g. eliava, toponymy of abashi and gegechkor, tb., 1997:109.. [27] g. bedoshvili, explanatory-etymological dictionary of georgian toponyms, tb., 2002:78. [28] iv. javakhishvili georgian nation, vol. i., vol., 1928:86. [29] v. bardavelidze, traditional public-cultural monuments of eastern georgia mtianeti, vol. i, pshavi, "science". tb., 1974:10. [30] m. chikovani, issues of greek and georgian mythology, tbilisi university publishing house, tb., 1971: 6-7. [31] z. kiknadze, georgian mythology, tb., 2014: 24-25. [32] t. giorgobiani, ancient greek-georgian comparative dictionary, tbilisi, 2013. [33] al. makashvili, botanical dictionary, vol., 1991: 151. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 10-23 demographic issues of social-economic development of eastern georgia: population as a demographic potential giorgi khomeriki1*, giorgi meladze1, nana nadareishvili1, mzia tutberidze1, nana kvirkvelia1, sofiko dzhvarsheishvili1, givi tavadze1, marina bokeria abstract the policy of stimulating regional development is based on local potential, one of the main components of which is population: its number, nature of reproduction, structure, and social-economic conditions (employment, standard of living, and so on).the present research aimed to study the issues of georgia's demographic potential: population dynamics, natural movement, migration, gender and age structure, labour force, and standard of living of the population. the study of the demographic potential of georgia is a long-term task of the authors, the first geographical object of which is the study area of the present article eastern georgia and, in particular, the regions of kakheti, mtskheta-mtianeti, kvemo kartli (not including tbilisi, the capital of georgia, but including selfgoverning city rustavi) and shida kartli. the research adopts a geographical approach, focusing on a unified vision of the issue, and studies regional differences. the research results outline the demographic situation in the study area and the modern trends that reflect the peculiarities of the demographic potential of eastern georgia. these include the following: a) the decline in the absolute number of population has slowed down in the last decade due to reduced emigration; b) according to the latest statistics, in eastern georgia as a whole, natural increase is negative (-0.4 percent), but higher than the national average (-1.1%); c) the process of population ageing in eastern georgia has been generally outlined, the dynamics of which are different between the regions in kvemo kartli, due to the relatively high natural increase, it is developing relatively slowly than in other regions; d) the share of women in gender structure is reduced (50.9 percent) compared to the country's average rate (52.3 percent), while in mtskheta-mtianeti, contrary to the general rule, the share of men exceeds that of women; d) georgians make up 75 percent of the ethnic structure of the study region, followed by azerbaijanis (19.7 percent), the principal part of the latter concentrated in kvemo kartli, which, in, turn, determines a number of peculiarities of the demographic behaviour of the population in this region; e) a large part of the population of eastern georgia is mostly employed in traditional, non-commercial and partly commercial agriculture, due to which a higher share of self-employed (41.6 percent) was registered in the study area compared to the average in the country (31.9 percent); f) unemployment (18 percent of the economically active population), low income and low purchasing power remain the main social-economic issues. in the last decade, as in the whole of georgia, signs of improvement were noted in the social-economic situation in the study area, though the covid-19 pandemic partially slowed this trend. keywords: demographic potential, population, child-woman rate, gender-age pyramid, labour force, unemployment rate, share of selfemployed introduction the tremendous political and social-economic changes at the end of the 20th century caused changes in the nature of demographic processes in georgia. the following negative tendencies were revealed: reduction of population numbers, the outflow of employable citizens, the ageing of the population, the reduction of the labour force, the deterioration of social conditions, etc. the demographic potential of the country was weakened, which adversely affected its development. demographic problems are a constant focus of interest for demographers, economists, and professionals in human geography. however, their focus is on individual issues, whereas the significance and the diverse nature of the issues require constant study. the present study aims to review the issues of georgia's demographic potential with a geographical approach and places a focus on studying regional differences. for the authors, eastern georgia is the first geographical object of study in the demographic potential of the country. this includes the following regions of georgia: kakheti, mtskheta-mtianeti, kvemo kartli, and shida kartli. the research omits the capital, tbilisi, located in the eastern part of georgia. the primary reason for excluding tbilisi from the present study area is its social, economic, and political 1 department of human geography, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia. * corresponding author: giorgi.khomeriki@tsu.ge khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) conditions and functions, which result in unique demographic characteristics. therefore, the demographic potential of tbilisi should be analysed separately. the demographic potential of the individual regions is, first and foremost, influenced by the country's general political and economic situation. the demographic habits of the regions in question are also significantly influenced by the following social and geographic circumstances peculiar to this part of georgia: -distance from the coastline and marine-related economic activities. -proximity to tbilisi the capital of the country and the main economic centre, located in the geographical centre of eastern georgia. the study area is closely related to the city through economic, political and cultural ties and is directly influenced by it. -favourable international economic-geographical location. the study area is bordered by three of georgia's four neighbour states azerbaijan, armenia and russia and is crossed by important northsouth and east-west international overland highways. it should also be noted that a significant portion of shida kartli encompassed by the study area is occupied by the russian federation and is a zone of constant tension. internally displaced persons and families from this zone are mainly settled in different parts of eastern georgia, mainly in shida kartli. the influences of these circumstances affect the relevant data for the demographic potential of the study area. dynamics of population number during the last 31 years (1990-2021), the total population of eastern georgia has decreased by 27.0%, which is 4.3 percent lower than the nationwide indicator. the population decline affected all regions of eastern georgia, especially kakheti, where the population has decreased by one third. there was also a significant decrease in the mtskheta-mtianeti [1] and kvemo kartli regions (23.6 per cent and 28.4 per cent, respectively). rustavi is located in the latter (kvemo kartli region). rustavi is the second-largest city in eastern georgia, after tbilisi. until the 1990s, rustavi was a robust industrial centre in the country—the central hub of metallurgy, important chemical and construction materials enterprises, and other industrial branches. according to 1990 census data, the city had a population of 161.6 thousand people.as a result of a prolonged decline in economic activity, by 2021, the population of rustavi decreased by 19.5% to 130.1 thousand. a deterioration in socio-economic circumstances mainly caused the mentioned decline. in shida kartli, the population decreased by one fifth (table 1). the observed facts are mainly conditioned by large-scale emigration processes and negative tendencies in the natural movement of the population. table 1. dynamics of the absolute number of populations in 1990-20212 regions y e a r s 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2021 kakheti 442.9 432.7 369.8 341.6 329.2 318.8 310.1 309.6 mtskhetamtianeti 122.3 124.9 113.7 108.9 92.5 94.1 93.3 93.4 kvemo kartli 611.1 592.4 472.0 440.8 422.8 425.2 434.2 437.3 shida kartli 323.0 325.8 290.6 274.7 266.0 262.9 255.1 254.1 eastern georgia 1499.3 1475.7 1246.1 1166 1110.5 1101.1 1092.8 1094.4 georgia 5424.4 4742.3 4116.8 3917.0 3799.8 3721.9 3716.9 3728.6 the change in the population over the considered period was not the same in all regions. to analyse this issue, we will use the formula for calculating the average annual change in the population, which is as follows: ∆s = 2 × (st – s0) / k × (st + s0) 2 here and further, data are without population of abkhazia and tskhinvali regions since 1995. (source: national statistics office of georgia – geostat). khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) where: ∆s is the average annual change in the number of population (percentage). s0 is the population number at the beginning of the period. st is the population number by the end of the period. k is the length of the period (years). according to calculations, the average annual rate of change in the population was negative in all regions in 1990-2000 and 2000-2010 (table 2). in 1990-2000, the kvemo kartli region was distinguished by exceptionally high negative rates (-2.57 per cent) (fig 1). in 2000-2010, the lowest rate (-2.06 per cent) was observed in the mtskheta-mtianeti region. in the latter, during the mentioned period, significant changes in the population were caused by the resolution №4173 of december 20, 2006, of the parliament of georgia, according to which the villages of mtskheta municipality were annexed to tbilisi, such as akhaldaba, gldani, agaraki, didgori, dighomi, tkhinvali, zurgovana, dzveli vedzisi, telovani and the settlement of zahesi. as a result of the russian-georgian war in august 2008, more than 9,000 refugees were settled in the tserovani settlement, mainly from the didi liakhvi and patara liakhvi gorges-akhalgori municipality; tserovani had a population of 6,433 people by 2015 [2]. in total, in 2010-2020, population growth was observed in kvemo kartli and mtskheta-mtianeti. figure 2. the change in population number between 1990 and 2021 in the municipalities of eastern georgia3 3 (source: calculations are made by authors based on geostat data) khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) table 2. average annual change in number of population (percentage) regions 1990-2000 2001-2010 2011-2020 kakheti -1.80 -1.16 -0.60 mtskheta-mtianeti -0.73 -2.06 0.09 kvemo kartli -2.57 -1.10 0.27 shida kartli -1.06 -0.44 -0.42 eastern georgia -1.84 -1.15 -0.16 georgia -2.74 -0.80 -0.22 natural movement during the analysis period (1990-2020), the rates of population natural movement (birth rate and mortality) deteriorated sharply in all regions. the birth rate level for 2020 reflected in the birth rate crude coefficient did not provide the superficial reproduction level of the population in any of the regions (the simple reproduction limit of this coefficient is 15 per mille). in 1990-2020, the birth rate crude coefficient was halved in shida kartli; it was significantly reduced in mtskheta-mtianeti (by 46.6 per cent) and kvemo kartli (by 40.4 per cent), and it was reduced by a third in kakheti (table 3). table 3. dynamics of natural movement coefficients of population in 1990-2020 (per mille)4 region y e a r s 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 crude birth rate coefficient kakheti 17.5 12.1 10.8 10.8 13.0 16.4 12.4 mtskhetamtianeti 18.6 13.5 10.9 11.6 14.5 13.6 9.9 kvemo kartli 21.3 11.2 13.8 13.6 16.3 16.6 12.7 shida kartli 22.9 12.9 12.2 11.1 14.3 15.8 11.6 eastern georgia 20.3 12.1 12.3 12.0 14.7 16.1 12.1 georgia 17.1 12.1 11.8 11.8 14.6 15.9 12.5 crude mortality coefficient kakheti 11.6 12.1 13.3 14.2 16.2 15.6 14.7 mtskhetamtianeti 8.5 9.4 5.6 7.8 10.3 8.9 8.2 kvemo kartli 6.8 5.8 8.7 9.1 11.2 10.4 11.2 shida kartli 12.4 10.5 13.6 14.2 13.9 13.6 13.5 eastern georgia 9.6 9.0 10.9 11.7 13.3 12.5 12.5 georgia 9.3 10.6 11.8 12.7 13.5 13.2 13.6 crude natural increase coefficient kakheti 5.9 0.0 -2.5 -3.4 -3.2 0.8 -2.3 mtskhetamtianeti 10.0 4.1 5.4 3.8 4.2 4.7 1.7 kvemo kartli 14.5 5.5 5.1 4.5 5.1 6.2 1.5 shida kartli 10.6 2.5 -1.5 -3.1 0.4 2.2 -1.9 eastern georgia 10.8 3.1 1.3 0.3 1.4 3.6 -0.4 georgia 7.7 1.6 0.0 -0.9 1.1 2.7 -1.1 in case the current level of birth rate is maintained for a long time, each subsequent generation in the considered regions will be less than its predecessor one: in mtskheta-mtianeti by 33.9 per cent, in shida kartli by 22.5 per cent, in kakheti by 17.6 per cent, and in kvemo kartli by 15.4 per cent. the birth rate crude coefficient is a rough indicator of the birth rate evaluation, which depends on the gender-age structure of the population. unfortunately, we do not have data across the region to allow a more in-depth study of the birth rate process. nevertheless, it still shows current general trends that need to be considered and taken into consideration. one solution to the current situation is to calculate the child-woman ratio, which shows the number of children aged 0-4 years per 1,000 women aged 15-49 years. population censuses provide the information needed for this coefficient. 4 source: calculations are made by authors based on geostat data khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) calculations of the 1989 and 2014 population census data showed that between 1989 and 2014, the number of children aged 0-4 years per 1,000 women aged 15-49 was significantly reduced in all regions (fig. 1). it should be noted that the child-woman ratio in kvemo kartli was traditionally high compared to others, which was due to a large number of muslims in this region. at the same time, according to the latest population census data, during this period, the "child-woman ratio" is most reduced in kvemo kartli (from 434‰ to 316‰), thus bringing it closer to the level observed in the kakheti region (310‰). figure 3. child-woman ratio according to the population census of 1989 and 2014 (per mille)5 more or less, mortality rates in eastern georgia more or less correspond to the general trend (excluding the mtskheta-mtianeti region), primarily reflected in the increase in crude mortality coefficients. according to the latest data (2020), the highest mortality rate was recorded in the kakheti region, which was 1.1 points higher than georgia's average (table 3). the shida kartli mortality coefficient is close to the average country level. as for the mtskheta-mtianeti region, according to the available official data, the uneven change in the mortality coefficient, at first, is increasing. then – a significant decrease is probably caused due to the shortcomings in the field of statistical accounting of deaths. this opinion is supported by the fact that the population of the mentioned region has a high rate of ageing. according to the 2014 population census, the share of the population aged 65 years and over was almost 17 per cent, contributing to the increase in the mortality coefficient. birth rate and mortality trends are reflected in the natural increase of population, respectively. despite the variability of the population natural increase coefficient in 1990-2020, the vector of natural increase was mainly directed towards the decline in the country, in general, and in the regions. according to the latest data, the mortality rate exceeded the birth rate in kakheti and shida kartli, while the birth rates in kvemo kartli and mtskheta-mtianeti were slightly higher than the mortality rates. in georgia, the considered figure was generally -1.1 per mille (table 3), which is the lowest figure since 1990. due to the value of the population natural increase coefficient, depopulation is observed in the country. among the regions of eastern georgia, a slight positive natural increase was observed in kvemo kartli (1.5 per mille) and mtskheta-mtianeti (1.7 per mille). however, if we consider the shortcomings in the registration of the number of deaths in the latter, the positive natural increase observed in the region is less probable. migration migration processes play an essential role in changing the population. unfortunately, compared to other indicators of current accounting, the accounting statistics of the latter was always distinguished by less accuracy and repeatedly was the subject of discussion for specialists [3;4;5;6;7;8]. as a result of the complex social-economic situation in georgia in the early 1990s, an unprecedented emigration wave peaked by the mid-1990s. due to the decline in the functioning of state institutions during this period, the control and registration of migration processes turned out to be impossible for official services. the official migration statistics of that time unrealistically reflected the current situation. famous specialist of population geography v. jaoshvili wrote about the mentioned situation "today no one can even calculate the number of people, who left georgia in recent years, but it can be said with certainty that their number is several hundred thousand" [9]. 5 source: calculations are made by authors based on geostat data 370 351 434 360 393 345 310 303 316 293 308 288 0 100 200 300 400 500 kakheti mtskheta-mtianeti kvemo kartli shida kartli eastern georgia georgia 2014 1989 khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) following the 2002 population census, to regulate the 1991-2001 migration registration, geostat recalculated migration statistics data that was more or less in line with reality. the results of the 2014 population census revealed the discrepancies caused by the shortcomings in the statistical registration of external migration. geostat recalculated the external migration data between 1995 and 2011, and since 2012 the statistical data are based on the data of the border police of the ministry of internal affairs, which is considered reliable. despite some of the measures taken by geostat, we do not have statistical information on migration processes at the regional level. given the current situation, we are forced to use the indirect method of calculating migration, which is as follows: if we know the number of populations for january 1 of the adjacent years and the natural increase in population, it is possible to calculate the estimated number of migrations indirectly. calculated per thousand inhabitants, in 2012-2019, a negative migration balance was observed across the country. a similar situation was observed in kakheti and shida kartli (table 4). table 4. dynamics of migration balance in 2012-2020 (per mille)6 region y e a r s 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 kakheti -3.9 -1.3 -4.5 -4.1 -5.3 -3.5 -5.9 -5.6 0.8 mtskhetamtianeti -2.1 2.0 -5.6 -5.0 -5.7 -5.1 -7.2 -5.9 -1.2 kvemo kartli -5.6 -0.9 -0.7 0.4 -1.0 0.6 -1.7 -0.9 5.7 shida kartli -3.0 -0.9 -6.1 -6.1 -6.9 -5.4 -7.4 -7.5 -2.2 eastern georgia -4.2 -0.8 -3.5 -2.9 -4.0 -2.5 -4.7 -4.2 1.9 georgia -5.8 -0.7 -1.8 -0.9 -2.2 -0.6 -2.9 -2.2 4.2 in the rest of the regions, the migration balance was negative except for some years. in 2020, the negative rate of migration balance decreased in all regions, while in kakheti and kvemo kartli the positive indicators were noted. the observed fact was mainly caused by the global spread of the covid19 virus, due to the outflow of georgian citizens from the country was sharply reduced. also, some of those, who were abroad, were sent back [10]. in 2020, the positive migration balance was equal to 15.7 thousand across the country, which was an unprecedented case. the observed fact was more or less reflected in the migration indicators of the regions. gender-age structure of the population the demographic structure of the population of eastern georgia is reflected in the 2014 gender-age pyramid presented in absolute values (fig. 3). figure 4. distribution of the permanent population of eastern georgia by gender and age in 20147 6 source: calculations are made by authors based on geostat data 7 source: compiled according to the 2014 population census materials: https://www.geostat.ge/en khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) in the whole population of the region, males are slightly behind females by number; their share is 49.1 per cent and 50.9 per cent, respectively (on average, males and females in georgia are 47.7 per cent and 52.3 per cent, respectively). the number of males and females in rural areas is equal, while in the urban population, females outnumber males; females make up 52.5 per cent and males 47.5 per cent. in general, the excess of females in the whole population is a natural phenomenon (due to the lower mortality rate compared to males) and is typical for almost all regions of eastern georgia. the ratio of males and females in kakheti is 49.0 per cent and 51.0 per cent, respectively, in kvemo kartli 49.2 per cent and 50.8 per cent, and in shida kartli 48.7 per cent and 51.3 per cent. the exception is mtskheta-mtianeti, where males slightly outnumber females and amount to 50.4 per cent, while females amount to 49.6 per cent. quantitative redundancy of females compared to males in the whole population is expressed by higher differences (their redundancy increases by general trend above the age of 20-25). however, due to complex economic conditions and unemployment, some females leave georgia for employment abroad. this condition is reflected in the gender structure of the 15-64 age groups (table 5). table 5. gender-age structure of the population of eastern georgia and its regions in 2014 (percentage)8 age group (year) t h e s h a r e o f p o p u l a t i o n i n t h e a g e g r o u p s eastern georgia r e g i o n s kakheti mtskheta mtianeti kvemo kartli shida kartli m. f. m. f. m. f. m. f. m. f. 0-14 19.2 53.3 46.7 17.8 53.4 46.6 17.0 52.9 47.1 21.1 53.7 46.3 18.4 52.5 47.5 15-64 66.4 50.0 50.0 64.8 50.3 49.7 66.1 52.5 47.5 67.7 49.4 50.6 66.7 49.7 50.3 65+ 14.4 39.5 60.5 17.4 39.7 60.3 16.9 39.6 60.4 11.2 39.4 60.6 14.9 39.5 60.5 total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 in kakheti and mtskheta-mtianeti, males outnumber females in the employable population, while females outnumber males in kvemo and shida kartli. a relatively wide field of employment distinguishes kartli regions, so the migration processes are relatively limited compared to other parts of georgia (western or southern parts). females over the age of 65 and older outnumber males by more than 20 per cent, generally determined by the male-female lifespan gap. the age structure of the entire population of eastern georgia largely coincides with the georgian average rates. the process of population ageing is taking place in different intensities in different country regions, which is reflected in the territorial differences of this indicator. there is a relatively young population in kvemo kartli. here the ageing process is characterized by a slower pace, and as in georgia, this region is characterized by the highest natural population growth; the population of azerbaijani ethnicity, which makes up 41.8 per cent of the population of the region, still retains the traditions of the prominent families of the muslim religion. the share of children and adolescents aged 0-14 in the total population is 21.1 per cent, and those aged 65 and older are 11.2 per cent. in the other regions, the ageing process is more pronounced. it is most intensively found in kakheti, and mtskheta-mtianeti, where the 0-14 age group is 17.8 per cent and 17.0 per cent, respectively, and the share of the 65-year-old and older contingent is 17.4 per cent and 16.9 per cent, respectively. it is noteworthy that the percentage composition of the young and old generations is almost the same, which will further slowdown the reproduction of their population in the future. it is also noteworthy that the deepening of the ageing process is also reflected in labour resources the share of people aged 45-65 years in the employed population will increase. compared to these regions, the 8 source: table is compiled based on the 2014 population census data khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) population of shida kartli is ageing at a slower pace. here, the share of the 0-14 age group is 18.4 per cent, and that of over 65 is 14.9 per cent. the natural and mechanical decrease in the rural population leads to more significant ageing than the urban population; in eastern georgia, the contingent over the age of 65 is 15.6 per cent of the rural population and 12.0 per cent of the urban population. ethnic structure the social-economic problems of the first two decades of georgia's independence caused some changes in the ethnic composition of the population of eastern georgia. unlike in western georgia, its population has always been characterized by ethnic diversity. for centuries, by the will and decision of the authorities, various ethnic groups come from outside were settled. as in the rest of the territory of georgia, they felt protected with the local tolerant population; they were settled on uninhabited, fertile land and engaged in agricultural activities. georgians have always been the vast majority in eastern georgia. besides them, azerbaijanis, ossetians, kists, armenians, russians, yezidis, ukrainians, greeks, assyrians and others lived here. the figures below clearly reflect their number and territorial differentiation in eastern georgia (table 6). table 6. ethnic composition of the permanent population of eastern georgia and its regions in 20149 ethnic groups population of eastern georgia (total) population of regions kakheti mtskhetamtianeti kvemo kartli shida kartli thousand people percentage percentage percentage percentage percentage in total 1100.1 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 georgian 827.4 75.2 85.2 94.5 51.2 94.6 azerbaijani 217.2 19.7 10.2 2.4 41.8 2.1 armenian 26.1 2.4 0.7 0.3 5.1 0.8 russian 5.6 0.5 0.6 0.3 0.6 0.3 ossetian 9.3 0.9 0.8 1.4 0.2 1.8 yezidi 0.9 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.0 ukrainian 0.9 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 kist 5.6 0.5 1.7 0.0 0.0 greek 2.4 0.2 0.0 0.1 0.5 0.1 assyrian 1.1 0.1 0.0 0.7 0.1 0.0 other 3.6 0.3 0.5 0.1 0.3 0.2 the natural and mechanical decrease in population in 1990-2014 more or less reduced the absolute and percentage numbers of all ethnic groups living here. along with employment in foreign countries, the emigration of non-georgians was also motivated by settling in the historical homeland, and some cases, by receiving refugee status (severe political events in shida kartli caused a significant part of ossetians to leave the country). among the 2002 and 2014 population censuses, if the permanent population of georgia decreased by 15.0 per cent, in eastern georgia, it was equal to 18.1 per cent. the number of following ethnicities decreased the most: greeks (by 71.9 per cent), ossetians (by 63.6 per cent), russians (by 57.3 per cent) and armenians (by 34.2 per cent). the decrease in azerbaijanis, kists, and ukrainians ranged from 17 per cent to 21 per cent, georgians by 14.6 per cent and other ethnicities by 11.5 per cent [11]. (the 2002 and 2014 general census materials). among the regions of eastern georgia, the most homogeneous population is found in shida kartli and mtskheta-mtianeti, where georgians amount more than 94 per cent, while kakheti and kvemo kartli are more multiethnic regions. a significant part of their population is composed of azerbaijanis 9 source:the table is compiled based on the 2014 population census data khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) -10.2 per cent and 41.8 per cent, respectively. azerbaijanis, greeks, assyrians and armenians live compactly in rural areas. in kakheti, shida kartli and mtskheta-mtianeti, some of the ethnicities are being assimilated with georgians, which is facilitated by mixed marriages. first of all, this refers to the armenians and ossetians, who settled there a long time ago and who live more or less scattered in cities or villages. to a certain extent, this circumstance also contributes to the quantitative reduction of the population of these ethnicities. assimilation with georgians does not take place in kvemo kartli. this is due to the compact settlement of non-georgians (azerbaijanians, armenians, greeks) and their religious and cultural difference from the georgians. the ethnic composition of the population is different in urban and rural areas. the non-georgian population is mainly engaged in agricultural activities; therefore, there is more ethnic diversity in rural areas than in cities. according to 2014 data, the share of georgians in the urban population was 87.0 per cent, in the rural population 69.0 per cent. labour force and standard of living one of the essential components of demographic potential is labour resources as a productive force. labour resources include the working-age employable population (men aged 16-65 and women aged 16-60 in georgia since 1996) and employed adults and retirees. regarding labour resource involvement, statistics operate by indicators such as the economically active population (eap) employed and unemployed together or the labour force, which is less than labour resources. it became possible to present the actual picture of georgia's economically active population or labour force and its structure after the methodological changes in the labour force calculation implemented in 2020. in particular, according to the new standard of the international labour organization, self-employed persons, who are not market-oriented and produce agricultural products mainly (more than 50 per cent) for their consumption, are no longer considered self-employed. individuals with this status were re-qualified either in the unemployed category or outside the labour force [12]. in 2020, the economically active population (eap) or labour force in eastern georgia was 438.9 thousand people, which was 28.8 per cent of the country's eap. kvemo kartli is distinguished among the regions of the eastern part of georgia in terms of the labour force and employment; kakheti and shida kartli are behind it. mtskheta-mtianeti region is the smallest in terms of population, labour force, and employed number (table 7). as a result of low natural increase and increased migration flows, in the last decade (2010-2020), the labour force in the regions of eastern georgia decreased by 27.9%. employed was 81.9 per cent of the labour force, of which 41.5 per cent was self-employed. over the last decade, the number of self-employed has consistently exceeded the number of hiring. since 2020 (table 7), the picture has changed in favour of hired (58.5%), due to the strengthening of the private sector and the new standard for the definition of "self-employed". table 7. distribution of 15+ population by economic activity in the regions of eastern georgia in 2020 (thousand people)10 labour force indicators kakheti mtskheta -mtianeti kvemo kartli shida kartli total eastern georgia georgia total 15+ population 247.0 80.3 343.4 221.1 891.8 3018.5 labour force (active population) total 122.2 38.8 172.2 105.7 438.9 1523.7 employed 109.5 31.7 133.9 84.6 359.7 1241.8 hired 57.1 21.8 77.9 53.1 209.9 845.3 self-employed 52.4 9.9 56.0 31.3 149.6 395.9 not-identified 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.7 unemployed 12.7 7.1 38.2 21.1 79.1 281.9 population outside the labour force 124.8 41.5 171.2 115.3 452.8 1494.8 unemployment rate, percentage 10.4 18.3 22.2 20.0 18.0 18.5 10 source: calculations are made by authors based on geostat data www.geostat.ge khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) labour force participation rate (economic activity rate), percentage 49.5 48.3 50.1 47.8 49,2 50.5 employment rate, percentage 44.3 39.5 39.0 38.3 40,3 41.1 most self-employed people are engaged in agriculture, which is distinguished by low productivity. the distribution of employed in georgia by sectors of the economy is unequal: 19.8 per cent are employed in agriculture, 15.1percent in wholesale and retail trade, 11.7 per cent in education, and 11.4 per cent in the industry [13; 14]. the primary source of employment is the private sector, which amounts to 76.3 per cent of employed. the share of employed in the business sector in the considered regions varies between 23 per cent and 38 per cent [15]. it should be noted that the distribution of employed in the business sector according to the types of economic activities is similar in all four regions. the most significant number of employed falls in the following fields: wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, manufacturing, mining and quarrying [15]. we must take into account the fact that the 2020 data was marked by the covid-19 pandemic, which had a significant impact on the labour market, significantly reducing economic activities such as entertainment and leisure, accommodation and food supply, transport and storage, wholesale and retail trade and tourism-related other fields. the pandemic has exacerbated georgia's most pressing social-economic problem over the years unemployment. the average unemployment rate in eastern georgia is 18.0 per cent, which is slightly lower than the country's average (18.5 per cent). the lowest rate in the region is in kakheti, which traditionally has the lowest unemployment rate in georgia (10.4 per cent), while the highest unemployment rate is in kvemo kartli (22.2 per cent) (table 7). as in the whole country, high unemployment rates are observed among young people aged 15–24 (27.8 per cent) [16].this is explained because young people of the mentioned age prefer education. after completing their studies, they face two types of problems: the labour market's demand for the professions they have mastered is low, and their qualifications and work experience do not meet market demands [18]. there are some in-demand professions for which staff is not trained in georgia. that is why people with higher education make up a third of the unemployed population [17]. this indicates a structural and qualitative imbalance between the supply and demand of the labour force when on the one hand, there is an excess labour force with inappropriate qualification and undemanded professions. on the other hand, there is a high demand for qualified professionals. added to this is that the number of actual unemployed is significantly higher than the number of registered unemployed. the quality of use of the country's labour and economic potential, the population's standard of living, and social satisfaction significantly depend on the proper functioning of the labour market. in addition to employment and unemployment, the standard of living is reflected in indicators such as wages, incomes and expenditures, the share of the population below the absolute poverty line, the gini coefficient, etc. the average monthly nominal earnings of hired have increased by an average of 5-6 per cent annually over the last decade [19]. in 2019, salaries in the regions of eastern georgia ranged from 690 to 900 gel, lagging behind the country's average rate (1,129.5 gel) (table 8). the average monthly salary of employees in the business sector was slightly higher than the total salary hired and was the highest in the mtskheta-mtianeti region (1,055 gel). in recent years, according to the types of economic activities in georgia, the highest salaries are in financial and insurance activities, professional, scientific and technical activities, administrative and support services. in eastern georgia, the highest salaries are in the business sector, such as electricity, gas supply, mining and quarrying, and the processing industry [19]. file:///g:/ggj/2nd%20issue/income/2volume/(https:/www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/683/employment-unemployment) khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) table 8. average monthly nominal wages of hired in the regions of eastern georgia in 2010-2019 (gel)11 years kakheti mtskheta mtianeti kvemo kartli shida kartli georgia 2010 339.7 432.6 509.1 358.2 597.6 2013 430.8 658.2 637.5 485.9 773.1 2016 531.2 765.9 711.1 585.1 940.0 2019 690.2 901.9 851.4 707.2 1129.5 for comparison, the subsistence minimum rates should be brought here: in 2020, the subsistence minimum for employable males was 197.0 gel, and the average subsistence minimum for one average family was 330.4 gel. the share of the population below the subsistence level, or the share of the population below the country's poverty line, was 21.3 per cent. among the regions of eastern georgia, the highest rate is in kvemo kartli (32.1 per cent), followed by mtskheta-mtianeti (26.3 per cent). the situation is significantly better in shida kartli and kakheti, respectively 19.6 per cent and 18.6 per cent (www.geostat.ge). even the indicator is decreasing annually, the share of the poor population (population with an income of $ 5.5 a day-world bank standards) in georgia is 41.9 per cent, almost half of the population [20]. population incomes were increasing from 2010 to 2019, but they decreased at the end of 2020 due to the economic crisis caused by the pandemic, and the average monthly income per capita in eastern georgia ranged between 270-330 gel. the structure of incomes is similar in all four regions, and their central part (67.5 per cent) consists of salaries, scholarships and allowances (fig. 4). figure 5. distribution of the average monthly money income and transfers of the population in eastern georgia in 2020 (percent)12 the central part (91.1 per cent) of the household income is spent on food, tobacco, utility charges, medicines and transport. unfortunately, the share of money spent on household items, clothing and footwear, and education is insignificant (fig. 5). the average monthly expenditure per capita in the regions varies between 238 and 328 gel. a comparison of the population's incomes and expenditures clarifies that many helpless families desired to receive subsistence allowance. in 2020, 106,918 families were registered to receive helpless families subsistence allowance in all four regions, of which 49,453 families (46.2 per cent) were receiving the subsistence allowance, 264,874 persons (24.2 per cent of the total population of the region) were receiving pensions, and social packages in all four regions, however, the largest number was in kvemo kartli (90,686 persons) [21]. in 2020, among the regions of eastern georgia, the highest rate of social inequality, so-called gini coefficient by total consumption expenditures (index value 0 indicates that there is no inequality, while 11 source: calculations are made by authors based on geostat data www.geostat.ge 12 source: calculations are made by authors based on geostat data www.geostat.ge 41.4 26.1 10.2 9.9 8.0 3.9 0.5 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 45.0 from hired labor pensions, scholarships, allowances from the sale of agricultural products from self-employment money received as a gift transfers from abroad from property (from rent, percent from deposit) http://www.geostat.ge/ khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 1 indicates that inequality is maximal), was in kakheti 0.42, and in the other three regions – 0.39 0.40 (country ratio 0.41). during the last 12 years, this indicator fluctuated by 0.01 points [20]. ensuring effective employment of the population is of great importance for achieving economic development and solving the existing social-economic problems in any country. the excellent labour market of the market economy in georgia is still in its forming stage, and there are many problems and challenges in this process. figure 6. distribution of average monthly consumer money expenditures of the population in eastern georgia in 2020 (percent)13 speeding up the country's economic development, creating new jobs and overcoming poverty is highly dependent on pursuing an active policy in the field of employment that includes developing labour market infrastructure, balancing of labour force demand and supply, providing vocational training for the unemployed, and employing a low-competitive labour force. conclusion thus, the study outlined the demographic situation and trends in the study area, which represent the regional peculiarities of the demographic potential of eastern georgia: 1. over the last decade, the decrease in a number of population has slowed down in eastern georgia; though between 2011 and 2020, in two of the four regions mtskheta-mtianeti and kvemo kartli, even a slight increase was observed, + 0.09 per cent and + 0.27 per cent on average per year, respectively. the decreased slowdown in the absolute population is mostly stipulated by a reduction of emigration than by the growth of natural increase. 2. in the study area, during the last 30 years between 1990-2020, the birth rate decreased by 8.2 points (from 20.3 per mille to 12.1 per mille), while the mortality increased by 2.9 points (from 9.6 per mille to 12.5 per mille). natural increase is still negative (-0.4 per mille in 2020), but in two of the four regions mtskhetamtianeti and kvemo kartli, according to the latest data, it turned out to be positive (+ 1.7 per mille and + 1.5 per mille, respectively). mtskheta-mtianeti is distinguished by the meagre rates of both – births and mortality (9.9 per mille and 8.2 per mille, respectively) among the regions of eastern georgia. 3. in general, there is a tendency of "ageing" of the population in eastern georgia, but unevenly distributed. in kvemo kartli, due to the relatively high natural increase, it develops relatively slowly. it is most intensively manifested in kakheti and mtskheta-mtianeti, where the share of young (0-14 years old) and elderly (65+ years old) in the total population is almost the same (within 1718 per cent), which will further slowdown the population reproduction process and intensify the "ageing" process. 4. the share of females in the gender structure is reduced compared to the natural balance (5-6 per cent excess of women), while in mtskheta-mtianeti, males (50.4 per cent) are ahead of females (49.6 per cent). a large number of females should explain this phenomenon among the labour emigrants. this problem is also related to a so-called family crisis and related demographic problems declining natural increase and reduction in child-woman ratio, etc. 13 source: calculations are made by authors based on geostat data www.geostat.ge 46.4 12.4 12.3 12.1 8.7 3.4 3.3 1.4 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 food, drinks and tobaco production house, water, electricity, gas and other fuels health care other consumer expenses transport household goods clothing and footware education khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) 5. among the regions, kvemo kartli is partly distinguished by other demographic characteristics, which is explained by the large share of the azerbaijani population (41.8 per cent) and corresponding traditionally different demographic behaviour. georgians predominate in the study area as a whole (75.2 per cent). the share of national minorities in rural areas is much higher than in urban areas. 6. 28.8 per cent of the country's total labour forces are gathered in eastern georgia, which is slightly less than its share in the country's population 29.6 per cent. the majority of the population is employed in non-commercial and partly commercial agriculture, which determined a higher than average share of the self-employed among the employed; namely, in eastern georgia, self-employed is 41.6 per cent when they are only 31.9 per cent in georgia as a whole; 7. unemployment remains a major social problem; in 2020, the unemployed amounted to 18.0 per cent of the economically active population. the low incomes of a large part of the population are also problematic; in 2019, the average salary in eastern georgia was 787.7 gel, which was 30.3 per cent less than the average in georgia (1,129.5 gel). low income and low standard of living are major negative factors in economic growth, as a low purchasing power prevents the formation and expansion of domestic markets. 8. recently, as in the whole of georgia, there are signs of improvement in the social situation in the study area; for example, the average salary was increasing by 5-6 per cent annually during the last decade (2010-2020); also, the share of the population with less than the minimum income or below the poverty line, was decreasing every year. the covid-19 pandemic partially hampered these positive trends. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution g.k. and g.m. conceived of the presented idea. g.m., m.t. and n.n. developed the theory and performed the computations. s.d., n.k. and g.t. verified the analytical methods. all authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. references [1] tsitsagi, m. & kvirkvelia, n. (2019). some demographic trends in borderline regions of east caucasus mountains (georgia). ankara üniversitesi çevrebilimleri dergisi, 7 (2), 125-129. retrieved from https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/aucevrebilim/issue/51058/626462 [2] the eu delegation to georgia launches the 2015 campaign on "let's greet europe together" http://eugeorgia.info/ka/articlefeatured/29/evrokavshiris-warmomadgenlobasaqartveloshi--2015-wliskampanias-ertad-shevegebot-evropas-iwyebs--/ accessed june 25, 2021. [3] gachechiladze, r. population migration in georgia and its social-economic consequences. tbilisi, 1997. p. 27 (in georgian). [4] gugushvili, t. (1998). external migration-demographic problems of georgia. tbilisi, (in georgian). [5] kekelia, j., tskhakaia, t., khabazishvili, m. territory of georgia and settlements (cartometric analysis). tbilisi, intellect, 2004. [6] meladze, g., tsuladze, g. (1997). population of georgia and demographic processes]. tbilisi. 1997 (in georgian). [7] jaoshvili, v. (1996). population of georgia. tbilisi, p. 160 (in georgian). [8] salukvadze, j., meladze, g. georgia: migration, a main risk towards sustainable demographic future, discovering migration between visegrad countries and eastern partners. has rcaes geographical institute. budapest, hungary. 2014. pp. 150-169. [9] hakkert, r. population dynamics in georgia (review based on the results of the 2014 population census). tbilisi, 2017. [10] kvirkvelia, n., & tsitsagi, m. (2021). impact of covid-19 on tourism in georgia-an overview. georgian geographical journal, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.08.10 [11] source: 2002 and 2014 population censuses materials of population of georgia. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/aucevrebilim/issue/51058/626462 http://eugeorgia.info/ka/articlefeatured/29/evrokavshiris-warmomadgenlobasaqartveloshi--2015-wlis-kampanias-ertad-shevegebot-evropas-iwyebs--/ http://eugeorgia.info/ka/articlefeatured/29/evrokavshiris-warmomadgenlobasaqartveloshi--2015-wlis-kampanias-ertad-shevegebot-evropas-iwyebs--/ https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.08.10 khomeriki et al. georgian geographical journal 2022, vol.2 (1) [12] https://www.geostat.ge/ka/modules/categories/316/mosakhleoba-da-demografia [13] geostat data https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/552/methodologia-social-statistics [14] geostat data https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/683/employment-unemployment [15] geostat data https://www.geostat.ge/ka/modules/categories/683/dasakmeba-umushevroba [16] geostat data https://www.geostat.ge/regions/ [17] geostat data https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/683/employment-unemployment [18] unemployment in georgia. economic review and indicators in georgian (2017-2020). [19] labor market analysis of georgia 2020. [20] geostat data https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/39/wages [21] geostat data https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/48/standard-of-livingsubsistence-minimum [22] geostat data https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/53/healthcare-and-social-protection https://www.geostat.ge/ka/modules/categories/316/mosakhleoba https://www.geostat.ge/ka/modules/categories/316/mosakhleoba https://www.geostat.ge/ka/modules/categories/316/mosakhleoba-da-demografia https://www.geostat.ge/ka/modules/categories/316/mosakhleoba-da-demografia https://www.geostat.ge/ka/modules/categories/316/mosakhleoba-da-demografia https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/552/methodologia-social-statistics https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/683/employment-unemployment https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/683/employment-unemployment https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/683/employment-unemployment https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/683/employment-unemployment https://www.geostat.ge/ka/modules/categories/683/dasakmeba-umushevroba) https://www.geostat.ge/regions/ https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/683/employment-unemployment https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/39/wages https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/48/standard-of-livingsubsistence-minimum https://www.geostat.ge/en/modules/categories/53/healthcare-and-social-protection  georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the performance of regcm4.7.1 over georgia’s territory using two different configurations mariam elizbarashvili1*, zurab seperteladze1, george mikuchadze1 abstract this study utilised the abdus salam international centre for theoretical physics (ictp) regional climate model version 4.7.1, adopting two different configurations. the ability of each configuration to reproduce mean and extreme temperatures and precipitation in different environmental conditions in georgia was studied. the model conducted simulations over the time frame of 2009–2014, with a horizontal grid spacing of 12 km. the simulations utilised era5 data as boundary conditions. both simulations encompass the whole geographical area of georgia, as well as the black and caspian seas. the outputs from these high-resolution simulations of mean and extreme precipitation and air temperature were compared with the observational data for 2010–2014 for georgia’s territory. a comparison of existing weather station data with model data showed that the model with both configurations performed better in simulating the monthly mean and extreme values of temperature than those of precipitation. the biases between observed and simulated precipitation are high for both configurations as well. there is no significant difference between the two simulation results. however, it is also important to carry out further analysis and compare the results of these simulations not only with weather station data but also with different reanalysis data, which will allow us to perform not a point analysis but a spatial analysis over the entire area of the domain. keywords: observation, model simulation, mean and extreme, temperature, precipitation introduction regional climate modelling is recognised as an important tool for assessing the potential impacts of climate change at local and regional scales. it can be used to predict temperature, precipitation, or extreme weather events [1, 2]. such information is crucial for policymakers, urban planners, and communities to make informed decisions about infrastructure, land use, and disaster preparedness. therefore, high-resolution, reliable regional climate modelling is essential for individual countries and regions, for which, first, it is necessary to conduct experiments with the purpose of selecting regional model configurations. in this study, we apply the regional climate model version 4.7.1 to the georgian territory and surrounding area. the objective of this study is to evaluate the model's performance and its ability to reproduce observed data. the model's performance was assessed by conducting sensitivity experiments. the regcm was configured, and parameters for physical processes such as convection, clouds, radiation, and boundary layers were set. two simulations with two different settings were performed to understand how changes in the model physics configuration and domain size affect the results. the model simulation results were validated against observational data, and the ability of each configuration to reproduce mean and extreme temperatures and precipitation in different environmental conditions in georgia was assessed. methods and materials the regional climate model (regcm) was developed by the abdus salam international centre for theoretical physics (ictp) and has been widely used for climate simulations for different regions of the world [3-9]. in this study, regcm4.7.1 simulations for the period of years 2009-2014 at a 12 km horizontal grid spacing were performed over georgia’s territory with: 1. emanuel cumulus convection scheme [10] and explicit nogherotto-tompkins moisture scheme [11] (emanuel 1). 2. emanuel cumulus convection scheme with explicit wsm5 moisture scheme (emanuel 2). 1 department of geography/faculty of exact and natural sciences, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: mariam.elizbarashvili@tsu.ge mailto:mariam.elizbarashvili@tsu.ge elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the first simulation (emanuel 1) was performed over the domain centered in clat = 41, clon = 43 with 252 points in the e/w direction, 172 points in the n/s direction and 41 vertical levels. the second simulation was performed over the domain (emanuel 2) centered in clat = 41.5, clon = 41.2, with 200 points in the e/w direction, 128 points in the n/s direction, and 41 vertical levels. both domains encompass georgia’s territory, the caucasus mountains, the full black and caspian seas and surrounding areas. the community land model version 4.5 (clm) [12] exponential relaxation lateral boundary conditions scheme, stratocumulus clouds simulation, and the rapid radiation transfer model rrtm radiation scheme [13] were used for both simulations. the hourly era5 high-resolution climate data and the weekly sea surface temperature from the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa) [14] were applied to drive the model. era5 is the fifth generation european centre for medium-range weather forecasts (ecmwf) atmospheric reanalysis of the global climate. regcm simulations are computationally intensive, especially when using high spatial and temporal resolutions and access to sufficient computational resources is essential. for our simulations, we used the georgian research and educational networking association grena’s resources. study area the article discusses the findings of a study that compared weather data from various weather stations in different physical-geographical and climatic conditions in georgia, including tbilisi, tsalka, poti, and mta sabueti (as shown in table 1). the study also included simulation data generated by two different configurations of a regional climate model. the observational data were compared to the data from the nearest grid point in the model simulation. table 1. meteorological stations meteorological station latitude, n° longitude, e° elevation, m tbilisi 41.7 44.83 600 tsalka 41.6 44.09 1482 mount sabueti 42.03 43.48 1248 poti 42.14 41.68 3 tbilisi is situated in the eastern part of georgia, particularly in the tbilisi hollow. it occupies land on both sides of the mtkvari river, at an elevation ranging from 380 to 600 metres a.s.l. the city has a dry subtropical climate. tsalka is situated in the eastern part of georgia, particularly in the kvemo kartli region. it is located in the tsalka hollow, on the bank of the tsalka reservoir and khrami river. the town is at an elevation of 1482 mm a.s.l. and has a dry subtropical mountain climate. mt. sabueti is situated on the western slopes of the likhi range, at the headwaters of the chkhrimela river, with an elevation of 1246 m a.s.l. the likhi range functions as a climatic barrier separating the western and eastern parts of georgia. however, the border of the kolkheti plain and the climaticbotanical regions of eastern georgia do not align with the watershed, but instead follow the eastern slopes of the range. thus, mt. sabueti is situated inside the geographical area characterised by a hilly terrain and a humid subtropical climate. poti is situated in the kolkheti plain along the black sea coastline, at an elevation of 1-3 m a.s.l. this area is known for its humid subtropical marine climate. results annual air temperature fig. 1 presents the annual air temperature variation according to the model simulations and observational data for the selected weather stations in georgia. it seems that for all stations for both simulations, the model well describes the annual air temperature variation. elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 1. annual temperature variation for selected weather stations according to the model and observational data in tbilisi, the observational data exceed the “emanuel 2” simulation outputs for all years and almost coincide with the “emanuel 1” simulation outputs for some years. in tsalka, poti and mt. sabueti, the model data for both simulations exceed the observational data for all years. the largest difference between the model and observational data of average annual air temperature is observed in mount sabueti and poti, and the difference is 4.78 oc and 4.18 oc, respectively. there is not a large difference between the model simulations. 12 13 14 15 16 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean air temperature tbilisi observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc 5 6 7 8 9 10 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean air tempeature tsalka observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc 13 18 23 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean air temperature poti observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc 5 10 15 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean air temperature mt. sabueti observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc 0 10 20 30 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly mean air temperature tbilisi 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc -10 0 10 20 monthly mean air temperature tsalka 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 2. monthly mean air temperature for selected weather stations according to the model and observational data monthly mean air temperature fig. 2 presents the monthly mean air temperature for tbilisi, tsalka, poti and mt. sabueti according to the model and observational data for 2010-2014. the model simulation data well reflect the intraannual trend of the monthly mean air temperature. in tbilisi, the model simulations and observational data almost coincide with each other throughout the year for both simulations. in tsalka, the difference between the model simulations and observational data is highest during the winter, and the best agreement is during the summer and in march, april and october. monthly maximum air temperature figure 3 shows the monthly maximum air temperature for 4 weather stations in georgia according to the model and observational data for 2010-2014. the intra-annual movements of monthly maximum temperatures are in good agreement with each other according to the observational data and model data. there is no difference between the outputs of the two simulations. the largest difference between the monthly maximum air temperature observational data and model data is observed at the high mountainous station on mt. sabueti. this difference is relatively small in eastern georgia’s high mountain station – tsalka, in tbilisi and in western georgia on the black sea coast in poti (fig. 3). moreover, for mt. sabueti, both model simulations significantly exceed observational data for all months; there is no such picture for other selected stations. 0 10 20 30 40 monthly mean air temperature poti 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc -10 0 10 20 30 monthly mean air temperature mt. sabueti 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc 0 10 20 30 40 50 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly maximum air temperature tbilisi 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc -5 5 15 25 35 monthly maximum air temperature tsalka 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 3. monthly maximum air temperature for weather stations according to the model and observational data, 2010-2014 monthly minimum air temperature fig. 4 shows the monthly minimum air temperature for tbilisi, tsalka, poti and mt. sabueti weather stations for 2010-2014 according to the model and observational data. the intra-annual course of monthly minimum air temperature is in good agreement with each other according to observational data and model data. both the “emanuel 1” and “emanuel 2” simulations depict monthly minimum air temperature observational data for tbilisi well. figure 4. monthly minimum air temperature for the weather stations of georgia according to the model and observational data, 2010-2014 17 22 27 32 37 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly maximum air temperature poti 2010 2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc 7 17 27 37 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly maximum air temperature mt. sabueti 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc -20 -10 0 10 20 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly minimum air temperature tbilisi 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc -35 -15 5 25 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly minimum air temperature tsalka 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc -5 0 5 10 15 20 25 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly minimum air temperature poti 2010 2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc -20 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly minimum air temperature mt. sabueti 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 oc elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the largest difference between the monthly minimum air temperature observational data and the model data is observed for tsalka in february -13.55 oc, and -15.38 oc for the emanuel 1 and emanuel 2 simulations, respectively (figure 4). the large difference between the monthly minimum air temperature observational data and model data is also observed in all months at the weather station on the black sea coast – poti (figure 6). for poti, the model data exceed the observational data for both simulations. in the high mountain weather station of western georgia – mt sabueti, the gap between the monthly minimum air temperature’s observational data and model data is relatively small. annual precipitation figure 5 shows the variation in annual precipitation according to the model and observational data for tbilisi, tsalka, poti and mt. sabueti weather stations for 2010-2014. as we can see, in most cases of all stations, the model data differ significantly from the observational data. figure 5. annual precipitation variation for weather stations according to the model and observational data for poti station, the emanuel 1 and emanuel 2 simulation outputs almost coincide with each other, and the observational data significantly exceed the model data for both simulations in all years (fig. 5). for mt. at the sabueti station, the annual precipitation observational data significantly exceed the emanuel 2 simulation data in all years, and the emanuel 1 simulation data exceed the observational data in all years except 2011, where the emanuel 1 and emanuel 2 simulation outputs coincide with each other. monthly mean precipitation 50 100 150 200 250 300 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean precipitation tbilisi observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 50 150 250 350 450 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean precipitatio tsalka observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean precipitation poti observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 100 200 300 400 500 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 mean precipitation mt. sabueti observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) fig. 6 presents the monthly mean precipitation for tbilisi, tsalka, poti and mt. sabueti weather stations for 2010-2014. as we can see, the intra-annual movement of average monthly precipitation mainly differs from each other according to observational data and model data. figure 6. monthly mean precipitation according to the model and observational data for weather stations, 2010-2014 for tbilisi, the emanuel 1 and emanuel 2 simulation outputs differ from each other, although the model and observational data of some months coincide with each other. there is a significant difference in the weather station of tsalka (1482 m) located in the high mountainous areas of eastern georgia, where the model data significantly exceed the observational data in all months. for the emanuel 1 simulation and for the emanuel 2 simulation, the gap between the model and the observational data is relatively small, and in january and march, the emanuel 2 simulation data almost coincide with the observational data. for poti station, the emanuel 1 and emanuel 2 simulation outputs coincide with each other, and the observational data significantly exceed the model data for both simulations in all months (figure 6). for mt. at the sabueti station, the gap between the emanuel 1 simulation output and observational data is larger than the gap between the emanuel 2 simulation output and observational data for each month. daily maximum precipitation fig. 7 presents daily maximum precipitation for tbilisi, tsalka, poti and mt. sabueti weather stations for 2010-2014. as we can see, the annual movement of maximum daily precipitation differs from each other according to observational data and model data. in tbilisi and poti, the daily maximum precipitation model data are less than the observational data. 0 50 100 150 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii monthly mean precipitation tbilisi 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 monthly mean precipitation tsalka 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 0 100 200 300 400 monthly mean precipitation poti 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 0 100 200 300 monthly mean precipitation mt. sabueti 2010-2014 observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 7. daily maximum precipitation for georgia’s weather stations for 2010-2014 discussion comparing regional climate model results with observational data is a fundamental step in assessing the reliability and accuracy of the models. it informs our understanding of past and current climate conditions, helps identify model deficiencies, and supports the use of these models for making future climate projections and informed policy decisions. there is no significant difference between the model simulation results on two different size domains with two different configurations. a comparison of the model and observational data showed us that both configurations of the model describe the average and extreme values of air temperature and atmospheric precipitation for different weather stations with different accuracies. the discrepancy between the model data and the observational data is particularly obvious when it comes to precipitation. this can be explained by the complex terrain of georgia and the resolution of the model, which leads to a significant difference between the model points and the actual locations of the meteorological stations [6]. usually, the observational data from the meteorological stations are compared to the data in the nearest grid of the model simulation. it is important to conduct further analysis and compare the results of these simulations not only with the weather station data but also with different reanalysis data, which will allow us to conduct not a point but spatial analysis over the entire area of the domain. conclusions observational data from weather stations located in the different physical-geographical conditions of georgia are compared with the results of simulations conducted with two different configurations of the regional climate model, which showed us that model’s both simulations reproduce better the monthly mean and extreme values of temperature than precipitation. 20 40 60 80 100 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 daily maximum precipitation tbilisi observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 20 40 60 80 100 120 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 daily maximum precipitation tsalka observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 0 50 100 150 200 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 daily maximum precipitation poti observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm 20 70 120 170 220 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 maximum precipitation mt. sabueti observational data emanuel 1 emanuel 2 mm elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) both simulations capture the variation in the annual, monthly mean and extreme values of air temperature better in the stations located in eastern georgia – in tbilisi and tsalka – than in the stations located in western georgia – in poti and mount sabueti. the smallest bias between the observational and model monthly mean and extreme values of temperature for both simulations is in tbilisi. there are many uncertainties in yearly, monthly and extreme precipitation. the biases between the observations and simulated precipitation are high, which may be explained by the model resolution, which causes a significant inconsistency between the model points and the locations of weather stations. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.e., z.s., and g. m. conceived the presented idea. g. m. performed the analytic calculations. m.e. and z.s. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped to shape the research, analysis and manuscript. acknowledgements this research has been supported by the shota rustaveli national science foundation of georgia (srnsfg) № fr-19-8110. references [1] giorgi, filippo (2019). thirty years of regional climate modelling: where are we and where are we going next? journal of geophysical research: atmospheres, 124, 5696–5723. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018jd030094 [2] rummukainen, markku (2010). state-of-the-art with regional climate models, wires climate change, volume 1, issue 1, page numbers: 82-96 https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.8 [3] giorgi, filippo., marinucci, maria rosaria., bates, gary t (1993) development of a second-generation regional climate model (regcm2) i: boundary layer and radiative transfer processes. monthly weather review 121:2794– 2813 [4] giorgi, filippo., marinucci, maria rosaria., bates, gary t., de canio, gerardo (1993). development of a second-generation regional climate model (regcm2) ii: convective processes and assimilation of lateral boundary conditions. monthly weather review 121:2814–2832 [5] elizbarashvili, mariam., kalmár, timea., tsintsadze, magda., mshvenieradze, tsezari (2022). regional climate modeling for georgia with regcm4.7. egu general assembly conference abstracts, egu222065 [6] elizbarashvili, mariam., mikuchadze, george., kalmár, timea., pal, jeremy (2023). comparison of regional climate model simulations to observational data for georgia. egu general assembly conference abstracts, egu23-3828 [7] elizbarashvili, mariam., tsintsadze, magda., mshvenieradze, tsezari (2021). high-resolution climate simulation using double-nesting method for georgia agu fall meeting abstracts, a55q-1638 [8] giorgi, filippo., bi x., pal, jeremy (2004). mean, interannual variability and trends in a regional climate change experiment over europe. i. present-day climate (1961–1990). climate dynamics 22, 733–756. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-004-0409-x [9] giorgi, filippo., bi x., pal, jeremy (2004). mean, interannual variability and trends in a regional climate change experiment over europe. ii: climate change scenarios (2071–2100). climate dynamics 23, 839– 858 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-004-0467-0 [10] emanuel, kerry a (1991). scheme for representing cumulus convection in large-scale models. journal of atmospheric sciences, 48, 2313–2329. [11] nogherotto, rita., tompkins, adrian mark., giuliani, graziano., coppola, erika., giorgi, filippo (2016). numerical framework and performance of the new multiple-phase cloud microphysics scheme in regcm4. 5: precipitation, cloud microphysics, and cloud radiative effects. geoscientific model development, 9(7), 2533-2547 https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.8 https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=14578302865785978&btni=1&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=14578302865785978&btni=1&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=10033072132910633824&btni=1&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/scholar?oi=bibs&cluster=10033072132910633824&btni=1&hl=en https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-004-0409-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-004-0467-0 elizbarashvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) [12] brunke, michael a., broxton, patrick., pelletier, jon., gochis, david., hazenberg, pieter., lawrence, david m., leung, l. ruby., niu, guo-yue niu, troch, peter a., zeng, xubin (2016). implementing and evaluating variable soil thickness in the community land model, version 4.5 (clm4.5). journal of climate. 29, 3441–3461 [13] mlawer, eli., taubman, steven., brown, patrick., iacono, michael., clough, shepard (1997). radiative transfer for inhomogeneous atmospheres: rrtm, a validated correlated-k model for the longwave. journal of geophysical research, 102, 16663–16682 [14] reynolds, richard w., rayner, nick a., smith, thomas m., stokes, diane c., wang, wanqiu (2002). an improved in situ and satellite sst analysis for climate. journal of climate, 15, 1609–1625 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) mapping and analysis of anthrax cases in humans and animals tamar chichinadze1*, zaza gulashvili1, nikoloz suknidze1, lile malania2, nana bolashvili1 abstract anthrax is a rare but severe disease caused by the gram-positive, rod-shaped bacterium bacillus anthracis, a toxinproducing, encapsulated, facultative anaerobic organism. anthrax occurs naturally in the soil and mainly affects livestock and wildlife. it can cause severe diseases in both humans and animals. anthrax, an often-fatal animal disease, is spread to humans through contact with infected animals or their products. people become infected with anthrax when the spores enter the body. the study aims to localise and monitor anthrax on geographic maps and identify geographic variables significantly associated with environmental risk factors for anthrax recurrence in georgia (caucasus), as the geographic environment affects specific diseases, for example, soil and climate, etc. we carefully analysed 1,664 cases in humans and 621 in animals, up to 1,430 locations of anthrax foci in soil (animal burials, slaughterhouses, bp roads, construction, etc.). we analysed more than 30 geographic variables such as climate, topography, soil (soil type, chemical composition, acidity), landscape, etc. we have created several digital thematic maps and foci of anthrax distribution and detection. the discovered variable will help to monitor the foci of anthrax development. keywords: anthrax, geodata, infection, cartography, gis analysis introduction anthrax is a rare, acute bacterial disease that spreads to animals and humans. the bacterium is caused by bacillus anthracis, which spreads as a spore in the soil and even remains there for several decades. anthrax is especially common in herbivores. after grazing on large-grained grass, animals receive wounds in the gastrointestinal tract, allowing bacteria to be placed in the wound, damaging the host organism and causing death. there are three ways of spreading the disease: contagious, alimentary, and aspiration, the first of which is promoted by blood-sucking insects. as it is clear from the records, anthrax has existed in georgia since ancient times, but different names have been given to this disease. however, the correct definition of anthrax is described in the 1697 monograph of the georgian writer, scientist, and public figure sulkhan-saba orbeliani. he defines anthrax as a devastating disease for animals and humans [1]. even though anti-anthrax actions are constantly taking place in the country, anthrax still poses a significant threat to our country today. methods and materials we carefully analysed 1,664 cases of anthrax in humans and 621 cases in animals, up to 1,430 locations in soil (animal burial grounds, slaughterhouses, bp roads, construction sites, etc.) recorded in georgia. the data are taken from the national centre for disease control and public health of georgia, which scientists have researched for over 70 years [2, 3]. originally, these data were handwritten, with many inaccuracies. the geographical coordinates are corrected, and the exact location of the settlements is indicated. some cases went beyond the state borders of georgia, so the accuracy of the manuscript coordinates was corrected. data was entered into the arcgis programme. we have compiled over a hundred thematic, complex, and analytical maps: relief, landscape, forest cover, soils, plants, protected areas, etc. then, on all the compiled maps, the anthrax detection coordinates were used to obtain the corresponding variables at the anthrax detection sites: anthrax distribution relief height, exposition, climate, soil types, soil acidity, structure, minimum and maximum air temperature, vegetation, landscape, and wind direction. distances were measured between settlements and anthrax hotspots and between anthrax hotspots and drinking and non-potable water. we also calculated the anthrax intensity at each point (in some cases, it was 224 times for 70 years) to analyse which geographic variable determines the distribution and intensity of anthrax. we have compiled climate maps of georgia, the central database of which is https://www.ecad.eu/download/ensembles/download.php: elements: daily mean temperature tg, daily 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia 2 l. sakvarelidze national center for disease control and public health, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: tamar.chichinadze@tsu.ge chichinadze et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) minimum temperature tn, daily maximum temperature tx, daily precipitation sums rr, where the database is available in regular grids of 0.1 and 0.25 degrees. to create a map, we took multi-year diary data (1965–2010) and calculated the multi-year average. because the data on this website can only be viewed at 45 degrees east longitude, we have completed climate maps with data from local meteorological stations. after data aggregation, the data grid was recreated via kriging. results geographical components have a positive effect on the spread of anthrax. one of the main geographical components is the soil and climate. figure 1. soil type impact of soil on anthrax the soil is a reservoir of anthrax spores, as evidenced by numerous studies. the most favourable places for the anthrax bacterium are black soil, brown soil, and alluvial soil, which the river brings and deposits. humus also contributes to the spread of spores (4% or more than 4%). these are: red soils, humus-carbonate soils, ash soils, black soils, especially on arable lands, and mountain-meadow cord soils with the highest humus content. is -8, 26–18, 81% [4]. anthrax also contributes to the spread of soil moisture, a temperature regime of 15–45 degrees celsius, and various chemicals and amino acids [5]. a soil map is crucial for studying anthrax spread because it is crucial to analyse which soil type affects the anthrax bacteria's storage, life, and distribution. the map is compiled in the programme arcgis. the basis of the soil map is the national atlas of georgia soil maps [6], published in 2012 and 2018 (figure 1). the soil types and characteristics of the recompiled map help us analyse anthrax's distribution. the digital map of soils has the following defined parameters: soil texture, soil organic matter content (%), soil ph, mean soil ph", average base saturation (mg/100gr soil), average calcium carbonate concentration (%), average calcium sulphate concentration, "soil salinity (ec in microelements/cm)", fe in soil %, cu in soil mg/kg, mn in soil mg/kg, zn in soil mg/kg, al in soil (%), ti in soil (%), ni in soil (%), and al thirty-four types of soil in georgia, where the data are given for soil type, humus, and chichinadze et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) structure of each type of soil, and databases are created for anthrax variables and analysis (figures 2 and 3 the digital map of soils has the following defined parameters: soil texture, soil organic matter content (%), soil ph, mean soil ph, average base saturation (mg/100 g of soil), average calcium carbonate concentration (%), average calcium sulphate concentration, soil salinity (ec in microelements/cm), fe in soil %, cu in soil mg/kg, mn in soil mg/kg, zn in soil mg/kg, al in soil (%), ti in soil (%), ni in soil mg/kg. thirty-four soil types in georgia were given the data on the humus and structure of each type of soil and used to create databases for anthrax variables and analysis (figures 2, 3, and 4). figure 2. soil texture analytical maps showed that anthrax is found in all municipalities of georgia, although the prevalence and intensity are very different. for example, the intensity of anthrax is highest in shida and kvemo kartli, followed by kakheti, and samtskhe-javakheti. this is because livestock is mainly developed in these regions. figure 3. soil organic matter content chichinadze et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 4. anthrax density by soil ph figure 5 analytical maps showed that anthrax is found in all municipalities of georgia, although the prevalence and intensity are very different. for example, the intensity of anthrax is highest in shida and kvemo kartli, followed by kakheti and samtskhe-javakheti. this is because livestock is mainly developed in these regions (figure 5). figure 5. intensity of anthrax disease by the soil type as the analytical maps showed, the main foci of anthrax and high levels of intensity were mainly observed where the following types of soil had their characteristics: 1) alluvial calcareous: soil texture: chichinadze et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) heavy loam; soil organic matter content: 3.18%; soil ph: 62; average base saturation: 20,89 mg; average calcium carbonate concentration: 2,9%; soil salinity (ec in microelements/cm): 115,4; fe in soil: 7,66%; not found here cu, mn, zn, ni, as for al in the soil is 15,81%, ti – 0.55. anthrax 155 foci have been identified in the distribution area of this type of soil; 2) cinnamonic: 60 centres of anthrax have been identified in the distribution area of this type of soil. soil characteristics are soil texture: light loam; soil organic matter of the content of 4.9%; soil ph: 7.4; average base saturation: 23,07 mg; average calcium carbonate concentration: 7.5%; soil salinity (ec in microelements/cm): 87,0; fe in soil: 7.99%; not found here cu, mn, zn, and ni; as for al in the soil, it is 17,07%; ti is 0.57; and 3) rendzic leptosols: 51 centres of anthrax have been identified in the distribution area of this type of soil. soil characteristics are soil texture: light loam; soil organic matter content: 4,95%; soil ph: 7,8; average base saturation: 28,1 mg; average calcium carbonate concentration: 20,13%; "soil salinity (ec in microelements/cm) 68,8, fe in soil is 12,72%; not found here: cu, mn, zn, ni; as for al in the soil, it is 12,75%; and ti is 0.68; an equal number of foci are found in yellow soils and alluvial acid soils, and then they are sequentially distributed: eutric cambisols, chernozems, yellow podzolic gley soils, andosols. the smallest anthrax is recorded in red soils, dystric cambisols, mountain forest meadows, and claysols. anthrax is not fixed in western georgia, eutric cambisols, or mountain meadows. figure 6. cattle tracks, small fragment, kakheti region the spread of anthrax is facilitated by the movement of cattle on the roads. seasonally, these trails operate from july to october. at this time, the surrounding areas, settlements, and populations are threatened as anthrax bacilli are excreted in the urine, faeces, blood, and other biological fluids of infected animals. animal-eating insects that feed on the carcasses of infected animals may also play the role of mechanical carriers in causing and spreading the disease. when exposed to free oxygen, environmental conditions affect the anthrax bacillus, which produces dormant (non-plant) spores, is resistant to environmental conditions, and maintains infectivity and viability in soil, animal fur, water, and plants for decades. [6] diseases from the soil are easily spread by rainwater and irrigation canals within a radius of several kilometres (figure 6). influence of climate on anthrax chichinadze et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 7. elements daily mean temperature figure 8. daily maximum temperature figure 9. daily minimum temperature one of the main factors in the spread of infections is the geographical component—climate. because of this, we have compiled climate maps of georgia: elements daily mean temperature tg, daily minimum temperature tn, daily maximum temperature tx, and daily precipitation sum rr. where the database is available in regular grids of 0.1 and 0.25 degrees, to create a map, we took multi-year diary data (1965–2010) and calculated the multi-year average. because the data on this website can only be viewed at 45 degrees east longitude, we have completed climate maps with data from local meteorological stations. after data aggregation, the data grid was re-created via kriging: the average temperature of georgia, the absolute maximum, the annual average (calculated from daily maximums), the annual average (calculated from daily minimums), and precipitation (multi-year average calculated from daily total) (figures 7, 8, 9, and 10). georgia has a warm climate, which is favourable for the spread of anthrax and high intensity. the higher the relief height, the lower the temperature, and the lower the anthrax spread and intensity. in chichinadze et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) some places, for example, on the greater caucasus range, the caucasus watershed ridges, or the lesser caucasus, there are no manifestations of anthrax. figure 10. intensity of anthrax disease. daily precipitation sum conclusion during high temperatures, the spread of anthrax is intense in the plains. the risk of anthrax spread decreases with increasing altitude. irrigation with untreated water also contributes to the spread of anthrax, in which the bacillus enters the upper layers of the soil and is transferred to pastures; the spread of anthrax spores is also facilitated by the ways of transporting livestock, during which the animals spread the anthrax bacilli or leave these bacteria in the soil for hundreds of years. soil types and their chemical composition have been related to the preservation of the anthrax bacillus for centuries. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution t.c. and l. m. conceived of the presented idea. t.c. and l. m. performed the analytic calculations. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. acknowledgements this research has been supported by defence threat reduction agency (usa), grant #hdtra11910044, preparation of the atlas of zoonotic infections in south caucasus. references 1. essays, volume iv, tbilisi, 1966. p. 45. 2. lile malania, ian kracalik, nikoloz tsertsvadze, julietta manvelyan, lela bakanidze, paata imnadze, shota tsanava, and jason k. blackburn. human cutaneous anthrax, georgia 2010-2012. emerging infectious diseases.www.cdc.gov/eid.vol.20, no.2, february 2014 3. ian t. kracalik, lile malania, nikoloz tsertsvadze, julietta manvelyan, lela bakanidze, paata imnadze, shota tsanava, jason k. blackburn. evidence of local persistence of human anthrax in the country of georgia associated with environmental and anthropogenic factors. plos neglected tropical diseases | www.plosntds.org 1 september 2013 | volume 7 | issue 9 | e2388. http://www.cdc.gov/eid.vol.20 http://www.cdc.gov/eid.vol.20 http://www.plosntds.org/ chichinadze et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) 4. https://agrokavkaz.ge/fermerta-skola/saqarthvelos-dzirithadi-tipis-niadagebis-agroqimiuridakhasiatheba.html 5. t. kukhalashvili. anthrax foci in georgia, publishing house meridiani, tbilisi, 2007, 68 p. 6. national atlas of georgia, jsc cartography, tbilisi, 2012, 164 p. https://agrokavkaz.ge/fermerta-skola/saqarthvelos-dzirithadi-tipis-niadagebis-agroqimiuri-dakhasiatheba.html https://agrokavkaz.ge/fermerta-skola/saqarthvelos-dzirithadi-tipis-niadagebis-agroqimiuri-dakhasiatheba.html georgian geographical journal 2021, vol.1 (1) 1-17 a historical geography of jewish setllement in georgia (the caucasus) revaz gachechiladze1 abstract the presence of the jewish population in georgia and its peaceful coexistence with the local people has more than two millennia history. more or less systemic sources about the spatial aspects of their presence in georgia exist only from the second half of the 19th century. the paper discusses the historical geography of the jewish population in the 19th-20th century with the emphasis on their settlement pattern in the 1920s using for that purpose a detailed population census carried out in 1926. keywords: jews of georgia, georgian jews, settlement pattern, population census of 1926. introduction if someone will search the internet about "jewish settlement" the first things that will appear on the screen will be "jewish settlement in palestine" or "jewish settlements in the west bank". but this paper’s aim is more mundane – to describe the geographical pattern of jewish settlement in georgia (the caucasus) where the jews used to live peacefully for centuries along with their neighbours of ethnic georgian or other origins. although being a small share of the entire population of georgia the jews were significant in this country's history and geography. there were several small towns and rural communities in georgia where the jews constituted a significant part of the population before their majority left for israel or, to much less extent, for the usa and the eu states in the last decades of the 20th century. although some authors touch upon the issue of the distribution of jewish population on the territory of historical georgia (mamistvalishvili, 1995; khananashvili, 2002-3; baazova, 2007; lerner, 2008), the issue has not been studied from a geographical point of view. therefore, the major topic of the paper is to analyze the geographical features of a relatively recent, but already historical pattern of settlement of jews in georgia. for that reason, the published materials of the first population census carried out in the soviet union in 1926 has been used. the term "georgian jews" (commonly known as "uria " in georgia before the 20th century, and later as "kartveli ebraeli") describes a distinctive subgroup of the people of judaic faith with georgian vernacular while the term "jews of georgia" concerns the jews of all the subgroups residing in this country. the majority of the jews residing in georgia were georgian-speaking, especially in the city of kutaisi, small towns, and rural area. ashkenazi jews, constituting about a third of the total in 1926, inhabited the largest urban centers (tbilisi, batumi) of the country. jews had traditional congregations and synagogues in several towns, townships, and villages of georgia. the settlement network of the jews in georgia dramatically diminished in size from the late 1960s and practically ceased to exist by the end of the 20th century. a 1 department of human geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia. e-mail: revazg@gmail.com georgian geographical journal. small community remains today, mostly in the capital of georgia, tbilisi. the places where the jews used to live still preserve artefacts indicative of their presence – most notably synagogues and cemeteries. the jews in georgia before the 20th century the presence of the jews in georgia is evident from georgian historical sources. a medieval chronicle attributes the arrival of the first jews in mtskheta, the ancient capital of kartli (eastern georgia), to the time of the sacking of jerusalem by nebuchadnezzar ii of babylon in the 6th century bce (kartlis tskhovreba,1955,1516). apart from this rather mythological information, there are more reliable sources as well, е. g. a document of 1260 testifies that a georgian christian nobleman bought a village in the central part of kartli from a group of vendors among whom was a person of judaic faith (kartuli istoriuli, 1984, 147). that suggests a jew could own agricultural land (with serfs!) in medieval georgia. on the other hand, many historical sources indicate the existence of serfs of judaic faith dependent on christian secular and spiritual feudal lords (mamistalishvili,1995, 297; baazova, 2016, 443). during a long coexistence with the local people of georgia, the mother tongue of jews became georgian. most probably such linguistic assimilation had started from the earliest times of the jewish settlement in kartli. the spoken language of georgian jews contains a limited number of hebrew words but practically does not differ from the standard georgian (kartuli) language. it ought to be said that georgian language differs from all the languages in the caucasus and the middle east: it belongs neither to indo-european, nor to semitic or altaic (turkic) linguistic families but to kartvelian linguistic family embracing a handful of languages the georgian proper (kartuli) being the dominant among them. for more than 15 centuries georgian language uses a specific alphabet. these circumstances meant that the jewish community which had adopted georgian as vernacular became rather “different” from the other communities of their kin. the georgian jews had a long history of coexistence with ethnic georgians, but, apart from rare cases, didn’t get assimilated with them and preserved their faith. a situation of an interethnic and interreligious symbiosis was peculiar to medieval georgia and it continued later on. during feudalism which lasted in georgia till the early 19th century, a large part of the jews of this country were engaged in agriculture, but many of them were active in trade and financial operations. these economic niches were avoided by ethnic georgian nobility and peasants of the orthodox christian faith (greek rite) at least till the second half of the 19th century: the tradesmen in ancient georgia were almost entirely the representatives of peoples of different faiths, predominantly armenians and jews. the first ashkenazi jews arrived in georgia from european part of the russian empire following the annexation by the latter of this country in the first decades of the 19th century. the caucasus was outside of the pale of settlement for the jews established in the russian empire by empress catherine ii in 1791 and was accessible to european jews to come and settle there. ashkenazi jews settled mostly in tiflis2. 2 tiflis is a persian pronunciation of an original georgian place name tbilisi, adopted in russian and other languages. tiflis was used until 1936 when the usage of tbilisi became official in the ussr and later adopted elsewhere. gachechiladze r. tiflis, being the seat of the russian viceroy of the caucasus and major administrative, commercial, and cultural center of the region attracted people from european parts of the russian empire and europe proper. some were ashkenazi jews, who became active in many spheres of the economy. the labor qualities of their artisans were in high demand for the russian bureaucracy, for officers, the georgian nobility, and armenian bourgeoisie. in tiflis "jews were the best cobblers and tailors" (jones, 2005,163). georgian jews started to move to tiflis, mostly from the towns of akhaltsikhe and tskhinvali, later than ashkenazi jews, approximately by the mid-19th century. they avoided competition with local armenian merchants in tiflis (mamistvalishvili, 1995, 111). information about the distribution of the jewish population on georgia's territory could be traced only from the second half of the 19th century when in georgia, then a part of the russian empire, local authorities started to collect information about the population and its ethnic and religious structure (e.g. sbornik svedenii, 1880). according to the data of the first general population census of the russian empire of 1897 (pervaya vseobshchaya, 1905) there were 16,716 persons of judaic faith in tiflis and kutaisi provinces (gubernii) covering, respectively, eastern and western parts of georgia. kutaisi province comprised batumi region (batumskaia oblast’, i.e. adjara) and sokhumi district (sukhumski okrug, i.e. abkhazia). jews accounted for 1.28 percent of the total population of georgia in 1897 (table 1). table 1. people of judaic faith in georgia in 1897 administrative-territorial units and their centers jewish (“evreiski”) speaking georgian speaking total tiflis province 5079 4158 9237 of them in the city of tbilisi 2868 411 3279 kutaisi province 5758 1721 7479 of them in the city of kutaisi 3410 38 3448 batumi region 1053 51 1104 of them in the city of batumi 1043 51 1094 sokhumi district 135 14 149 of them in the city of sokhumi 134 9 143 source: pervaya vseobshchaya, 1905, pp.107-124 the census of the russian empire of 1897 lacked a question about ethnicity and not always correctly identified mother tongue. that was especially apparent in the case of kutaisi province where, according to the 1897 census, the mother tongue of 77 percent of the population of judaic faith presumably was "evreiski" (jewish) which in russian meant yiddish spoken by the majority of the ashkenazi jews. but almost all the jews of kutaisi province were georgian speakers. the prayers were recited in their synagogues in hebrew but the lessons were read in the georgian language, understandable to all of them. the census of 1897 had revealed georgian as the vernacular of just 23 percent of jews in the same province which was a gross underestimation. temporal context of the population census of 1926 the above-mentioned mistake with the mother tongue was corrected 29 years later when the first all-union general population census was carried out in the soviet union according to the situation on december 1, 1926 (vsesoyuznaya perepis', georgian geographical journal. 1929). the materials of this census are more accurate when tracing the historical settlement of the jews in georgia. the jewish settlement pattern in the first quarter of the 20th century was fairly stable which was a result of the relative stability of economic policy in georgia. a couple of comparisons of political and economic developments in russia and georgia will explain the reasons for such geographical inertia of the jewish settlement pattern in georgia. after the communist (bolshevik) revolution of november 7, 1917, dramatic political and economic changes occurred in russia proper including forcible nationalization of industrial enterprises, prohibition of private trade. the russian currency, rouble, collapsed. these were the costs of “war communism” practiced by the bolsheviks in the early years of their rule. the economic dislocation in russia was augmented by a bloody civil war (1918-1920) which led to a couple of million human victims. by 1921 russia's economy was in ruins. the grave situation forced the ruling communist party of russia (bolsheviks) under lenin to turn to a "new economic policy" (nep) which was introduced in the russian soviet federated socialist republic (rsfsr) in the spring of 1921. nep allowed private trade and other small and medium business to restart in the country. forcible expropriation of agricultural products from peasants by the state, which was a common practice in the first years of the bolshevik rule, was abandoned. real money (“chervonets”) was introduced. georgia was a part of the russian empire from 1801/1811 until 1917 when there was legal to own private property. being the independent democratic republic in 1918-1921 georgia avoided the russian “war communism” and civil war. a liberal economic policy allowing private commerce had been followed by the ruling socialdemocratic workers' party of georgia (the mensheviks) in 1918-1921. as an american scholar r.g. suny wrote: "the mensheviks held back from assaults on the capitalist mode of production" (suny, 1994, 201). after the intervention of the russian red army georgia was proclaimed a soviet socialist republic (ssr) on february 25, 1921. from a political point of view that meant the introduction of an authoritarian regime, the prohibition of all parties except the communist one, sharp degradation of democracy, arrest, and execution of dissenting and often innocent people. large industrial enterprises (very rare in the predominantly agricultural georgia) were nationalized. but because nep was extended to the ssr georgia3 and other non-russian soviet republics in 1921 agricultural production and commerce remained in private hands. that was suitable to the jewish population of this country as the majority of them were engaged in wholesale and retail trade, artisanship, or agriculture. nep proved to be an economic success in the ussr, but from ideological and political points of view, it was considered a potential threat to the only party which monopolized political power – the communist one, with its ideology based on class struggle. the revival of wealthy classes was perceived as a prerequisite of more economic power in their hands which might have transformed into political power later. stalin who after lenin's death in 1924 gradually became the paramount leader of the ussr abolished nep altogether in 1928. enterprises of any size and large residential houses were nationalized. private trade had been declared illegal. this 3 such sequence of words – “soviet socialist republic [of] georgia” – was used in the official name of the soviet republic until 1936 when it was renamed the georgian ssr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/russian_ruble gachechiladze r. gravely affected the economic situation of the jewish population of georgia (baazova, 2016, 685). but all the above-mentioned happened after the 1926 population census had been carried out, and before 1928 the jewish settlement pattern had no incentives to change dramatically. there was the outflow of the rural georgian jewish population to large cities, especially to tiflis even before the abolition of nep, but migration to urban centers of georgia intensified from the 1930s. nevertheless, the majority of the jewish households remained in the same settlements as in 1926 up to the late 1960s when the great aliyah (see below) started and the traditional network of jewish settlements in georgia ceased to exist. it can be argued that the most detailed population census carried out in the soviet times was that of 1926. its published materials provided information on number, sex ratio, ethnic and subethnic division, and mother tongue of population according to towns, townships, and rural communities. in contrast, the published materials of most of the censuses of population carried out later in the ussr (19374, 1939, 1959, 1970, 1979, 1989) don't provide a geographer with detailed spatial information, as these materials do not contain data about the population of rural communities. even the information about the number of population of towns with less than 50,000 inhabitants became top secret in the ussr since the early 1970s. the results of all censuses of the population in the ussr ignored the religious affiliation of a person as the communist regime insisted on its atheistic character. the jews of the soviet union were considered as an ethnic group (narodnost’) and not a religious one. the communist state’s antireligious propaganda and practices in the 1920s-1930s were pointed against all the religious denominations, including jewish. but the restrictions against the latter were a bit milder in soviet georgia than in the ussr as a whole. it wasn’t allowed to construct new synagogues: almost all the synagogues in soviet georgia were constructed before 1921, e.g. in lailashi in 1800, in senaki – 1818, in akhaltsikhe – 1860 and 1880, in tbilisi – 1864, 1885, and 1886, etc. (baazova, 2016, 751-765). some of them were closed the same way as in the ussr as a whole, but an official document of 1946 reveals that among the 30 acting synagogues in georgia one, in the town of gori, had been built in 1937 (baazova, 2016, 752), apparently after the permission obtained from the local administration. several synagogues in soviet georgia were refurbished thanks to insistence of the leaders of the jewish congregations. the majority of synagogues in contemporary georgia stay closed because the practicing believers moved elsewhere, but they serve as markers of the past jewish settlement. the buildings of a number of synagogues had been restored to serve as historical monuments with the financial aid of an ethnic georgian philanthropist b. ivanishvili in 2013-2014. 4 the results of the all-union population census carried out in january 1937 didn't satisfy stalin as they revealed a dramatic decline of population in ukraine, kazakhstan, and parts of rsfsr caused by terrible famine following forcible collectivization of peasant households in 1931-1933. the organizers of the census were sentenced to death. the results were declared null and void and made secret. generalized data of the all-union population census of 1937 became public only in 1990 [polyakov et al., 1990]. georgian geographical journal. the jews of georgia according to the census of population of 1926 30,632 persons (1.15 percent of 2,666,494 people of ssr georgia) were jewish in 1926. the total number of jews in georgia increased by 70 percent from 1897 to 1926. apart from the high birth rate, the immigration of ashkenazi jews from the other parts of russia/ussr contributed to such growth. 30,632 persons (1.15 percent of 2,666,494 people of ssr georgia) were jewish in 1926.5 the total number of jews in georgia increased by 70 percent from 1897 to 1926. apart from the high birth rate, the immigration of ashkenazi jews from the other parts of russia/ussr contributed to such growth. the all-union population census of 1926 divided the jews of the soviet union according to six subgroups. as for ssr georgia, 20,897 claimed to belong to the subgroup of the georgian jews, 9,262 – were jews (“evrei” – this referred to ashkenazi jews who were addressed commonly by the local population as "russian jews"), 176 – crimean jews, 145 – central asian ("bukhara") jews, 98 – karaits, and 54 – mountain jews (of dagestan and azerbaijan). the latter four subgroups were small in number in georgia and didn't form significant communities. therefore, only the geography of the georgian and ashkenazi jews in georgia will be analyzed below. georgian jews made up 68.2 percent of the total jewish population of georgia. they exclusively (99.9 percent) claimed georgian as their mother tongue: this reveals a serious flaw of the 1897 census of population mentioned above. ashkenazi jews made up 30.2 percent of all the jews of georgia. 53.2 percent of them considered russian as their mother tongue, 41.5 percent – "the language of their nationality" (most probably that was yiddish), 3 percent – georgian. the rest declined to answer. it is to be mentioned that the mixed marriages of the georgian and ashkenazi jews were rather rare. the georgian jews adhered to endogamy, followed a stricter form of religion, and a more patriarchal way of life (konstantinov, 2007). they were a bit critical of "emancipated" ashkenazi women.6 there was more chance for an ashkenazi woman to marry a man of a different ethnicity than a georgian jewish man and there were quite a few mixed families of the ashkenazi jews and representatives of other ethnic groups (georgians, russians, armenians, etc.) in urban centers of georgia. a certain part of the descendants of such mixed families remembered their jewish roots when emigration to israel became advantageous in the last decades of the 20th century. the socio-political life of georgia's jewry in the 1920s ought to be discussed in the context of the ussr as a whole. although bolshevik revolution inflicted a harsh blow to democracy, among its rather rare positive accomplishments is to be mentioned the abolition of anti-jewish practices of the tsarist regime: e.g. the pale of the settlement was erased, quotas for university admission were canceled. in the 1920s the jews had ample opportunities for education, employment, and career advancement. 5 all statistics below including those displayed in tables are given per the results of the allunion population census of 1926 [vsesoyuznaya perepis', 1929] if not specified otherwise. 6 the author recalls that in 1999 when serving as the ambassador of georgia in israel, he attended in the city of ashdod playing of a comedy with a peculiar name "ashkenazi wife" written in georgian by an israeli playwright of georgian jewish origin. the comedy was met warmly by the audience composed of the georgian jews. gachechiladze r. ashkenazi jews of russia proper were quick to take advantage of such opportunities. some of them reached very high levels of the hierarchy of the ruling communist party (bolsheviks), especially in the early years of soviet russia: the names of such prominent soviet leaders of jewish descent as trotsky, sverdlov, kamenev, zinoviev, sokolnikov, litvinov, kaganovich, larin, etc. come to memory. according to v. konstantinov the jews composed 5 percent of the members of the all-union communist party (bolsheviks) in the first half of the 1920s while they constituted just 1.8 percent of the entire population of the ussr (konstantinov, 2007, 254). this indirectly indicates to their substantial role in the internal political life of the state as a whole. in contrast, the jews composed just 0.8 percent of the members of communist party of georgia (ibid.) which was a regional organization of the allunion communist party (bolsheviks). it is impossible to determine what were the shares of georgian and ashkenazi jews in the above "0,8 percent", but most likely ashkenazi jews prevailed. ashkenazi jews were better educated in general in 1926: 73.6 percent of them were literate; the level of literacy of the georgian jews was lower (38 percent among males and 27 percent among females). meanwhile, the educational level of the georgian jews was rising. that primarily concerned the residents of tbilisi, where more georgian jews began to migrate from the 1920s. during the later decades of the 20th century the georgian jews got more involved in the cultural fabric of georgia as many of them got university degrees and started activities in such spheres, which were unknown to their immediate ancestors: some of them became prominent in sciences, arts, medicine, law, georgian literature, etc. it ought to be noted that the ashkenazi jews were not represented among the intelligentsia of soviet georgia at the same high level as, say in soviet russia or soviet ukraine because most of them didn’t know georgian language and, besides, the georgian intelligentsia (including that of georgian jewish origin) was quite numerous itself. geography of jewish settlement in 1926 the administrative-territorial division (atd) of georgia in the 1920s was different from the one introduced in 1930 which is used since with minor changes. the country was using a somewhat modified atd of the independent democratic republic of georgia in 1926 with new autonomous units established. ssr georgia was divided into 24 districts (mazra in georgian, uezd in russian) mostly bearing the name of its center (apart of the districts of kodori, racha, lechkhumi, zemo svaneti, and borchalo) of which five were in the treaty ssr of abkhazia7, five – in the autonomous ssr of adjara. south ossetian autonomous region (soar), established in 1922, had no district division but was divided into 14 rural raions. the capital tbilisi and the seaport of poti had separate administrative statuses (fig.1). 7 abkhazia with a population less than 200,000 in 1926 was the only “treaty soviet socialist republic” in the ussr formally “associated to the ssr georgia by a treaty” from 1921. the clause 15 of the constitution of the ussr of 1924 considered abkhazia as an autonomous republic within the ssr georgia (konstitutsia, 1924) which sent just one member to the chamber of nationalities of the central executive committee of the ussr in moscow while the union republics sent five representatives each. the actual status of abkhazia as an autonomous republic within ssr georgia became official from february 1931. georgian geographical journal. districts included cities/towns, townships8, and rural communities. the rural community had the traditional name of temi in georgian language (the same transcription was used in the russian text of the results of the all-union population census of 1926 in the ssr georgia). temis, 525 in all (including 14 rural raions of soar), encompassed the neighbouring villages and hamlets with strong cultural and social links. fig. 1. administrative-territorial division of soviet georgia in 1926 and settlements (other than administrative centers) with jewish population over 50 people fig. 2 shows the placement of ashkenazi and georgian jews according to urban and rural settlements of georgia in 1926. the jewish population was represented in the relatively more developed intermountainous lowland of georgia located in the central parts of eastern and western georgia (gachechiladze, 1995), while to the north and south of the country there were economically less developed mountainous regions. nevertheless, large jewish communities were present in some mountainous districts of georgia (town of oni, rural community of lailashi). the georgian jews that had no problems of the linguistic contact with the ethnic georgian majority, were fairly scattered and represented in several dozens of settlements of georgia in 1926 but only in 25 of them, their number exceeded 50 people (table 2). there were more settlements with smaller number of the jewish population. 72.9 percent of jews were urban dwellers that far exceeded the level of urbanization of those days georgia (22 percent). 59,9 percent of all the jewish population (divided almost evenly between the ashkenazi and georgian jews) were residing in the largest urban centers of georgia – tbilisi, kutaisi, batumi, sokhumi, poti, akhaltsikhe, and gori. the rest of urban population lived in the towns and townships with a population of less than 10 thousand whose inhabitants, including local jews, at least partially were engaged in agriculture (jaoshvili, 1968). 8 the status of city/town (kalaki in georgian) and township (daba) was granted by the state and didn’t depend on the number of population. gachechiladze r. fig. 2. jewish population in urban and rural settlements of ssr georgia in 1926 table 2. the number of the jewish population and their share in the entire population of selected cities (c), towns (t), townships (tn) and rural communities/temi (rc) in 1926 settlement entire population number of the jewish population of them georgian jews share of all the jews in the entire population of the settlement tbilisi (c) 294,044 9,005 3,160 3.1 kutaisi (c) 48,196 4,982 4,738 10,3 kulashi (rc) 9,424 2,407 2,407 25.5 batumi (c) 48,474 1,988 37 4.1 tskhinvali (t) 5,818 1,781 1,739 30.6 surami (tn) 4,589 1,190 1,190 25.9 oni (t) 2,912 1,176 1,176 40.4 sachkhere (tn) 2,757 983 983 35.7 sokhumi (c) 21,568 974 215 4.5 akhaltsikhe (t) 12,327 921 827 7.5 kareli (rc) 8,707 784 784 9.0 bandza (rc) 5,906 677 677 11.5 lailashi (rc) 3,519 533 533 15.1 sujuna (rc) 6,144 499 499 8.1 vani (rc) 10,709 412 412 3.9 gori (t) 10,547 314 314 3.3 poti (t) 13,137 161 161 1,2 velistsikhe (tn) 5,934 127 127 2.1 georgian geographical journal. senaki (tn) 5,498 118 118 2.1 telavi (t) 9,697 100 100 1.0 mukhrani (rc) 8,696 89 89 1.0 dzveli gavazi (rc) 8,269 79 97 0.9 luxemburg (tn) 5,658 66 0 1.2 karayazi (rc) 8,358 55 0 0,7 gurjaani (rc) 10,345 51 51 0,5 the city of tbilisi (tiflis of those days) was the capital not only of the ssr georgia but also of the transcaucasian soviet federated socialist republic (tsfsr) which existed in 1922-1936. the tsfsr included three soviet republics of the south caucasus – armenia, azerbaijan, and georgia whose major ethnic groups – armenians, azeris, and georgians – spoke mutually unintelligible languages belonging to different linguistic families. multinational bureaucracy of the tsfsr used russian as lingua franca. that might have been a reason for coming from the european part of the ussr of quite a few ashkenazi jews whose majority had good proficiency in russian. many ashkenazi jews found a job in the governmental sector (e.g. bureaucracy, state security) but also in medical service, freelance activities of the multiethnic transacaucasian capital. they made up 1.9 percent (5706 persons) of the entire population of the city: their number doubled in comparison with that in 1897 (2868). they almost twice exceeded the number of the georgian jews in the city in 1926. but growth of the number of the latter from 411 in 1897 to 3160 in 1926 was outstanding: their number increased more than sevenfold! other subgroups of jews accounted for mere 139 persons in the city. although tbilisi possessed jewish districts in kala area in the old part of the city (jones, 2005, 164) around synagogues, the jewish newcomers, especially ashkenazi jews who arrived from russia or ukraine, preferred to settle in the other parts of the city. the population of the city of kutaisi was almost monoethnic and entirely georgian-speaking: 82.2 percent were ethnic georgians and the largest minority were georgian jews (10.3 percent) communicating in the same language. kutaisi had the second-largest community of jews in georgia after tbilisi. there were three synagogues in kutaisi. the majority of jews were ashkenazi in batumi and sokhumi (the capitals respectively of adjara and abkhazia) on the black sea coast of georgia. ashkenazi jews far exceeded the number of georgian jews in both cities (the latter made up just 217 in sokhumi, and 37 – in batumi). the largest in georgia number (206) of the jews of other than georgian jewish and ashkenazi subgroups was present also in sokhumi. ashkenazi jews together with ethnic russians and people of other origins from the european part of russia started to settle in the fast-developing seaport of batumi after the latter was annexed by the russian empire in 1878: earlier it belonged to the ottoman empire (in medieval times – to the georgian kingdom). over one thousand ashkenazi jews were present in batumi already at the end of the 19th century. the rural area around the city was populated by adjarans, an islamized georgian subgroup. already in the first half of the 20th century, the reintegration of adjarans into the georgian nation became an irreversible fact. many of them moved from rural areas to the city of batumi from the 1930s onward and gradually became a majority there. but in 1926 the population of the city of batumi was clearly multiethnic. gachechiladze r. it was noticeable that the jews were almost absent outside the centers of all the three autonomous units within ssr georgia. that could be explained by cultural (in case of the adjarans) or linguistic differences of rural ethnic minorities (in cases of the abkhazians and ossetians) from the georgian jews. in general, the rural areas of these autonomous units were underdeveloped in those days, peasants in the mountainous parts were mostly following subsistence agriculture. 23,5 percent of the jews of georgia resided in the medium and small towns and townships. in some of them (oni, sachkhere, surami, tskhinvali) georgian jews constituted the largest ethnic group after ethnic georgians. in the small town of oni (a historical province of racha) which is on the way to the mountain pass leading to the north caucasus, georgian jews (40 percent of the population of the town) had run trading business for generations. a beautiful synagogue (constructed in 1895) is a major architectural monument in the town even now. the ancient georgian town of tskhinvali was added to the area allocated to the south ossetian autonomous region established in 1922 to serve as its center. 30.6 percent of people in tskhinvali were jewish in 1926, the absolute majority of them georgian jews. their number was slightly exceeded by ethnic georgians (33.0 percent). the rest of the population were ossetians (19.8 percent), armenians (with the georgian mother tongue, 14.2 percent), and russians (1,9 percent). a substantial jewish population (26 percent of total) was in surami (a historical province of shida kartli) located at the beginning of the long climb to the rikoti pass on the highway leading from eastern to western georgia and vice versa. the shops and catering establishments of the township located along the main road were visited by multiple travelers who usually stopped in surami. akhaltsikhe (meaning “newcastle” in georgian) from medieval times was a traditional trading center of southern georgia and always had a substantial jewish population even when it was under the ottoman rule (the 16th century –1829). in 1873 there were 1972 georgian-speaking jews there (sbornik, 1880). a small part of them together with the jews from different areas of georgia migrated to ottoman palestine in the late 19th or early 20th century and settled down in jerusalem where they were addressed as "gurji" (the word means "georgian" in turkish). more jews from akhaltsikhe moved to tbilisi where they built a synagogue for themselves. akhaltsikhe was the sixth in size urban settlement of georgia in 1926 and the jews (921 people, most of them georgian-speaking) composed 7.5 percent of the entire population. 27.1 percent of jews of georgia were rural dwellers self-employed in agriculture (horticulture, sericulture, etc.) or involved in local commerce. they were present in 38 temis and in a handful of them their number exceeded 50 persons (table 2). jews preferred to settle in the major village of a temi. all the villages with a sizeable jewish population served as local "central places", having bazaars with multiple shops. an article in menora (kekelia, 2020) confirms the above. it describes the life in the village of bandza in western georgia during the times of nep. the center of bandza had a distinctive unofficial name of uriakari which translates into english as "jewish gate". the majority of shops there belonged to the jews who amounted to 677 people in 1926 (11,5 percent of the population of the temi). they were served by two synagogues built by the families of sepiashvili and ajiashvili in 1910 and 1915. due to its convenient geographical location in the northern part of the senaki district (a part of the historical province of samegrelo), the village of bandza served as a commercial center since the 1860s for at least 17 smaller villages and hamlets in the georgian geographical journal. vicinity which didn't possess a bazaar or even a shop. the jews and georgians maintained friendly relations which was typical of georgia as a whole and the village of bandza is a good example of such relations: georgian jews who emigrated to israel from this village in the 1960-1970s or their descendants come annually to celebrate passover there in their synagogues and to have traditional feasts together with the friends from local people. the temi of kulashi in the kutaisi district (a part of imereti province) had the largest number of the georgian jews in the rural area of the whole country: 2407 jews of kulashi constituted 25,3 percent of the total population of the temi. almost all of them lived in the major village, kulashi per se, where they had four acting synagogues and one – needing restoration. some years after the population census of 1926 was conducted the village of kulashi was granted an official status of a township. in kakheti, the easternmost historical province of georgia comprising telavi and signaghi districts, famous for wine-making and other high-quality agricultural products, two rows of villages along the east and west banks of river alazani could be observed on the map (fig. 2). small groups (up to 25 people) of georgian jews were residing in these temis of kakheti. only in the town of telavi, a township of velistsikhe and large temis of kvareli and dzveli gavazi the jews made up communities of 50-125 persons. the jews residing in kakheti were producing kosher wine for the jewish communities in georgia (the largest consumer being their community in tbilisi), supplying the population of kakheti with manufactured goods, and buying local agricultural products to resell them in the towns of georgia or elsewhere in the ussr. a small cluster of the ashkenazi jews (just 102 persons) was present in borchalo district (historical province of kvemo kartli and modern region of the same name to the south of tbilisi). a possible explanation for the presence of the ashkenazi jews in this district might be the german population of the area. the germans, predominantly from württemberg, were settled in this part of georgia by the government of the russian empire from 1817 onwards. in 1926 the germans constituted an ethnic group of 12,074 people (0.5 percent of the total population of georgia) residing mostly in the aforementioned district and the city of tbilisi. they were well integrated into the economic structure of georgia, at the same time preserving their language and culture. supposedly the ashkenazi jews speaking yiddish, very close to german, managed to find a contact with the local germans. 66 persons of ashkenazi jewish origin resided in the township of luxemburg9 where the majority of the population (73.4 %) were german-speakers. 9 the name of the township during the russian empire and democratic republic of georgia was katarinenfeld in honor of catherine ii, empress of russia in the 18th century, an ethnic german herself. in the soviet era, the name had been changed to honor rosa luxemburg, a revolutionary socialist active in germany who had been executed in berlin, the weimar republic in 1919. after nazi germany invaded the ussr on june 22, 1941, all the persons of german origin residing in the european part of the ussr, including those in soviet georgia, were deported to central asia and siberia by the order of the kremlin. the township of luxemburg was renamed and given the name of bolnisi in 1943 after a nearby village famous for an ancient georgian church of the 5th century. gachechiladze r. jewish emigration and its geographical consequences the population dynamics of georgia's jews were upward until the end of the 1960s (table 3). the largest number of jews (55,400) in georgia appeared to be in 1970 when they made up 1.2 percent of the entire population. but by that time huge repatriation of the jews to israel had already started (gachechiladze, 2012). the process received the name of great aliyah of georgian jews, literally “the act of going up (to jerusalem)”. table 3. dynamics of jewish population of georgia according to the population censuses of 19262014 (thousands) 10 census year all jews of georgia among them the georgian jews jews residing in tbilisi the ratio of jews residing in tbilisi in the total of the jews of georgia (percent) 1926 30,6 21,0 9,0 29,4 1939 42,3 27,0 13,9 32,9 1959 51,6 40,0 17,9 34,7 1970 55,4 45,0 19,6 35,4 1979 28,3 18,0 14,9 52,7 1989 24,8 19.0 13,5 54,4 2002 3,7 … … … 2014 1,4 … … … … no data; sources: konstantinov, 2007; vsesoyuznaya perepis’1929; sakartvelos mosakhleobis, 2003; mosakhleobis 2014 based on different sources v. konstantinov, (2007, 272) calculated the number of jews who emigrated from the ussr by union republics. according to his estimates 29,900 jews emigrated from georgia in 1959-1978 (28,000 in 1969-1972 alone): that figure constituted 16,3 percent of all the jews that left the ussr at the same time. by the end of the 1970s, the georgian jews left all rural areas and many small towns and townships of georgia. kulashi, tskhinvali, oni, surami, akhaltsikhe, kareli, bandza, lailashi, sujuna, vani, senaki, and other small settlements lost all their jewish population (gachechiladze, 2011, 406). the number of jews in georgia diminished dramatically. the major factor for mass emigration was the zionist principle. in the rural settlements, the leaders of jewish congregations insisted on the necessity of aliyah. a lot of families decided to emigrate taking into account the decision of the entire community. many people were afraid to "stay alone" when "everybody is leaving". a strong pull-factor of migration was economically fast developing state of israel. 10 the data for 1939-1989 in column 3 of table 3 are based on the estimates given by v. konstantinov (2007, tables 1.2, 1.5, 1.6) where 32,000 georgian jews in 1939 were mentioned. but such a number implied an increase of this group by an improbable 50 percent (sic!) in 1926-1939 due to natural growth only as the inflow of the georgian jews from outside of the georgian ssr was excluded: practically all of them resided in this union republic in the 1930s. a more plausible estimate is closer to 27,000 georgian jews in 1939 which was used in the table 3. georgian geographical journal. soviet jews enjoyed unique opportunity in 1969-1972 to leave the ussr which was a cherished desire of many soviet citizens of other nationalities as well, which, like jews, would like to take advantage of the benefits of western prosperity. there have been quite a few cases of fictitious marriages of non-jews with jews in order to obtain permission to leave the ussr and eventually to travel to the usa. due to new restrictions introduced by the soviet government during the decade of 1979-1988, the volume of jewish emigration from georgia decreased and only 4,800 of them left: 3,300 for israel and 1,500 for the us (konstantinov, 2007, 272). it looks like there was an indirect factor to some extent hindering emigration. the ussr unofficially banned the right to return to jewish emigrants if they decided to apply for soviet citizenship again. some potential emigrants took seriously the issue. that might be a geographical explanation of why a substantial part of the jews, better educated and rather wealthy people (some of them involved in “shadow economy”), remained in the large cities of georgia, especially in tbilisi: they didn't want to risk their relatively prosperous present in the ussr for an unknown future abroad. table 4 reveals that in the 1970s-1980s more than half of the jews of georgia lived in tbilisi (54,4 percent in 1989). the capital city accommodated more than a million of inhabitants of different ethnic origin 65 percent of them being ethnic georgian in 1989 (gachechiladze, 1995, 75) with whom the georgian jews maintained the closest relations. but the political and economic situation in the ussr was changing rapidly on the eve of the 1990s. the soviet superpower was on the brink of collapse. nationalliberation movements were becoming more powerful in the baltic republics, georgia, and ukraine. there was already a war raging between the soviet republics of armenia and azerbaijan over the region of nagorno karabakh. political parties multiplied in georgia as elsewhere in the union republics, some having armed militias very much resembling criminal gangs. illegal guns became easily accessible. many people, not only jews, were leaving the ussr and its successor states for good since the early 1990s. according to konstantinov (2007, 272) about a million former soviet jews emigrated to israel in 1990-2006. a small part of them, 22,600, was from georgia but they constituted the majority of the remaining community. besides, 2,000 jews of georgia left for the us and 300 – for germany [ibid.]. the censuses of the population of independent georgia, a member of the un from july 1992, were conducted by the statistical office of this country in the 21st century. "religious affiliation" had been included in the questionnaires of the censuses of population of 2002 and 2014. 3,700 jews were registered by the census of population of georgia in 2002 (sakartvelos mosakhleobis, 2002). the results of the general census of population of georgia of 2014 didn’t mention the jews in the table of ethnic groups: because of the small number they were included in the category of "others" (mosakhleobis 2014). but 1,4 thousand people were mentioned as followers of judaism in the table of religious affiliations. these were the jews of georgia in 2014. that number doesn’t include the descendants of the mixed families who theoretically have a right to apply for israeli citizenship. although small in number, the jewry of georgia, mostly residing in tbilisi, was aging but still viable community in the first decades of the 21st century. they were served by two synagogues and a community house in tbilisi. two jewish newspapers (in georgian and russian) were being published. the jewish historicalgachechiladze r. ethnographical museum had been restored with the help of the government of georgia. the georgian jews who emigrated to israel, continue to maintain community spirit there. they have constructed their synagogues in jerusalem, ashdod, holon, kiryat ata, bat yam, etc. some of them tend to visit the places in georgia where their ancestors used to live. conclusion for the first time, the results of the all-union population census of 1926 in the georgian ssr were analyzed from the historical-geographical point of view to describe the settlement pattern of a relatively small ethnoreligious group, the jews, in the 1920s. over two-thirds of the jews belonged to a subgroup of georgian jews who used to live in georgia from times immemorial. they constituted a large proportion of the population in several small towns and townships (tskhinvali, oni, sachkhere, surami) located on major transportation routes and were present in the better developed rural areas. almost one-third of the jews were ashkenazi who started to migrate to georgia from the beginning of the 19th century. they resided predominantly in the largest urban centers. the settlements with a large number of jewish population in rural area of georgia and some small towns served as local trading centers in the 1920s. the majority of jews there were involved in commerce which was mostly in private hands during the so-called new economic policy carried out in the soviet union in 1921-1928. the dynamics of jewish population from the 1920s until the end of the 1960s were upward. but from the 1970s the number of jews was declining due to emigration to the state of israel. the majority of the remaining people concentrated in tbilisi, the capital of georgia. from the early 1990s, the jewish emigration became massive and their settlement network in georgia practically ceased to exist. a small jewish community remained in tbilisi in the first decades of the 21st century. acknowledgments the author would like to express his gratitude to ms. tamara chichinadze of vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography (tbilisi state university), for drawing the maps for this text, professor stephen f. jones of mount holyoke college (ma, usa), professor constantine lerner of the hebrew university of jerusalem (israel), and mr. guram batiashvili, editor-in chief of the newspaper “menora” (tbilisi, georgia) for useful advice. references baazova, lili. (2016). evrey v gruzii [jews in georgia]. moscow: galaktika (in russian) gachechiladze, revaz (2011). ahklo ahgmosavleti: sivrtse, khalkhi da politika [the middle east: space, people, and politics] iii edition. tbilisi: sulakauri publishing (in georgian) gachechiladze, revaz (2012). didi alia. enciklopedia "sakartvelo". tomi 2 [great aliyah. in: encyclopedia "georgia", vol. 2] tbilisi: georgian encyclopedia publication (in georgian) gachechiladze, revaz (1995). the new georgia: space, society, politics. london: ucl press georgian geographical journal. jaoshvili, vakhtang (1968). naselenie gruzii. ekonomiko-geograficheskoe issledovanie. [population of georgia. an economic-geographical study] tbilisi: metsniereba (in russian) jones, stephen f. (2005). socialism in georgian colors. the european road to social democracy 1883-1917. cambridge, mass., london: harvard university press kartlis tskhovreba. teksti dadgenili qvela dziritadi khelnatseris mikhedvit s. qaukhchishvikis mier. tomi i (1955). [a history of kartli/georgia. the text was established by s. kaukhchishvili according to all major manuscripts. volume i]. tbilisi: sakhelgami (in georgian) kartuli istoriuli sabutebis korpusi. tomi i. (1984). sheadgines da gamosacemad moamzades t. enukidzem, v. silogavam da n. shoshiashvilma [collection of the historical georgian documents. vol. i. collected and prepared for publication by t. enukidze, v. silogava, and n. shoshiashvili] tbilisi: metsniereba (in georgian) kekelia, igor. (2020). sopel bandzis savachro-puladi urtiertobis istoriidan (xix s-is meore naxevari – xx s-is pirveli naxevari [from the history of trade-financial relations in the village of bandza (ii half of xix c. – i half of xx c.) in newspaper menora n9, august (in georgian) khananashvili, daniel (2002-2003). ebraelebi sakartvelos daba-kalakebshi [the jews in georgia’s towns and townships]. in newspaper menora nn 18-24, 2002 – nn 1-12, 2003 (in georgian) konstantinov, vyacheslav. (2007). evreiskoe naselenie bivshego sssr v xx veke (social'nodemograficheskii analiz) [konstantinov, vyacheslav. the jewish population of the former ussr in xx century (social-demographic analysis). jerusalem: lira (in russian) konstitutsia sssr (1924). izdatel'stvo tsentral'nogo komiteta n81. tiflis [constitution of the ussr. publishing house of the central committee n81] (in russian) lerner, constantine b. (2008) evrei gruzii ot ellinizma do pozdnego feodalizma [the jews of georgia. since hellenistic times till the late feudal period (ii bc -xix ad), jerusalem: magnes press (in russian) mamistvalishvili, eldar (1995). kartvel ebraelta istoria. antikuri da feodaluri khana [a history of the georgian jews. the period of antiquity and feudalism]. tbilisi: metsniereba (in georgian) mosakhleobis 2014 wlis sakoveltao aghtseris. dziritadi shedegebi. zogadi informatsia (2016). [main results of the general census of population of 2014. general information]. tbilisi: national service of statistics. retrieved from http://census.ge/files/results/census%20release_geo.pdf (august 20, 2020) pervaya vseobshchaya perepis naselenia rossiiskoy imperii 1897 goda. tom ii (1905) [the first general census of the population of the russian empire. volume ii]. saint-petersburg] (in russian) polyakov yu. a., zhiromskaya v. b., kiseliov i. n. (1990). polstoletiya bezmolviya. vsesoyuznaya perepis' naseleniya 1937 goda. [half a century of silence. all-union population census of 1937]. in the journal sotsiologicheskie issledovanya [sociological studies] №7, pp. 30-52 (in russian) sakartvelos mosakhleobis 2002 tslis pirveli sakoveltao aghtseris shedegebi. tomi i (2003) [the results of the first national population census of georgia of 2002. vol i] tbilisi: state department of statistics of georgia. retrieved from http://census.ge/files/2002/geo/i%20tomi.pdf (august 20, 2020) sbornik svedenii o kavkaze. tom vii. (1880). [collection of information on the caucasus. volume vii]. printing house of the central office of the caucasian viceroy. tiflis (in russian) gachechiladze r. suny, ronald grigor (1994). the making of the georgian nation. indiana university press: bloomington and indianapolis vsesoyuznaya perepis' naselenia 1926 goda. ssr gruzia. otdel i: narodnost' – rodnoy yazik – vozrast – gramotnost' (1929); izdanie centr. stat. upravleniya zaksfsr. tiflis [all-union census of population of 1926. ssr georgia. part i: ethnicity – mother tongue – age – literacy. publication of central statistical office of tsfsr. tiflis] (in russian and georgian) georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) 62-72 artificial change of toponymy as a tool of propaganda of soviet ideology nana khotcholava-matchavariani1*, nino jorbenadze2, ketevan rekhviashvi3, lela chotalishvili4 abstract toponymy, this original area of the vocabulary of the language, is a kind of guide, since taking into account the conclusions obtained on the basis of its scientific study is the best way to fully understand nature, historical past, culture, migration, and the existence of a particular country. we consider it especially important to include toponymy as an auxiliary discipline in the educational process of general education schools. with this goal, since 2022, we have started work on the project "georgia through toponymy". the topic turned out to be very diverse. this time, we present only one aspect of the project "artificial change of toponymy as a tool of propaganda of soviet ideology". it is important to observe the artificial change of preselected toponyms to give students an understanding of the tragic history of 20th-century bolshevism-infected georgia, which is still not fully appreciated and underestimated by modern society. we selected the toponym "leselidze" as a sample. this is a striking example of artificial toponym change. the change was implemented in 3 stages, and each stage was determined by the historical context. our conclusion is as follows: toponym is a linguistic historical document. it is necessary to include toponymy achievements in the educational process. keywords: toponymy, soviet ideology, the conquest of the caucasus by russia, toponym “leselidze”, project teaching models. introduction school programs are based on fundamental sciences, and since science is developing at a rapid pace, it is necessary to incorporate its achievements in educational processes in a timely and effective manner. we consider it interesting to gradually include the achievements of toponymy in the educational programs of general education schools in different directions. students show special interest in the recent history of georgia. the occupation of the democratic republic of georgia, the criminal ideology of the bolshevik government, has not yet been adequately studied in georgian historiography. this flaw can be seen in school textbooks as well. to effectively include toponymy in the learning process, it is necessary to select appropriate toponymy taking into account school programs, knowing the selected toponyms and a number of issues related to them with project teaching models, creating and reviewing a presentation sample, and forming certain recommendations for teachers. taking into account the topic, we choose any interesting toponym and offer the students a presentation prepared by us as a sample (the presentation sample is enriched with appropriate visuals). we will present it ourselves and discuss it together with the students. division of students into groups. giving a task to each group; preparation of works by students and their presentation step by step; review and evaluation of work. we selected the toponym "leselidze" as a sample. this is a striking example of artificial toponym change. the change was implemented in 3 stages, and each stage was determined by the historical context, the location of this geographical object and the historical-political issues related to it. methods and materials 1 department of lexicology, arnold chikobava institute of linguistics, georgia 2 department of georgian speech culture, arnold chikobava institute of linguistics, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, georgia 3 leading teacher in georgian language/literature and civic education, lepl-davit sarajishvili tbilisi public school #16, georgia 4 institute of classical philology, byzantinistics and modern greek studies, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, georgia * corresponding author: mzeshina@mail.com khocholava-matchavariani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the geographical object, the name changes of which we have to talk about, is in georgia, in the territory of the currently occupied autonomous republic of abkhazia. the township is located near the georgia-russia border on the black sea plane. until the end of the 19th century, this place was called gechripsh, the etymology of which is presented in special literature as follows: gechripsh "gechbes' area, residence" (gechbes were the owners of this place, gechba the lineage of the nobles of the jiks ethnic group). to correctly perceive the changes in this toponym, it is necessary for students to repeat a number of issues from the material learned in history and to become acquainted with additional new material. figure 1. stages of toponym changes results i stage of toponym change (gechripshi> ermelovsky) the gechbs, who owned gechripshi, turned out to be the victims of muhajir (emigration), and they were forcibly deported to ottomans in 1864. in 1894, the minister of agriculture and property of the russian empire ermolov came here on a special assignment. after that, the township of gechripsh was officially renamed ermelovsky in his honor. to understand the reasons and essence of the i stage of toponym change, it is necessary to familiarize and discuss the following issues: 1. abkhazia historical part of georgia. although many issues of the history of abkhazia require further scientific study, various historical sources undoubtedly confirm the following: georgians and abkhazians lived side by side here for many centuries. the kingdom of abkhazians was one of the georgian feudal kingdoms in the middle centuries (8th10th). in the 19th century, russia annexed the territory of abkhazia and abolished the principality of abkhazia. in the 20th century, abkhazia was still part of georgia. after the conflict (in 1992-1993), the territory of abkhazia was occupied by the russian federation and was de facto ruled by a separatist regime. 2. who were the jiks? since the ethnic group of jiks was named, let us determine what we know about them. jiks were representatives of the iberian-caucasian family. the language of the jiks and the language of the abkhazians are considered dialects of the same language. the jiks used to live across the ridge, and according to strabo, they are newly settled in the black sea region [2]. after the conquest of the caucasus by russia (19th), its government forcibly relocated approximately 20 thousand jiks from the coast. after that, the jiks disappeared from the arena of history. 3. the conquest of the caucasus by russia. in the 19th century, the conquest of the peoples of the caucasus by russia lasted for many years (1817-1864). it ended with the annexation of the caucasus, •gechripshi> ermelovsky i stage •ermelovsky>leselidze ii stage •leselidze>gechrifsh iii stage khocholava-matchavariani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the destruction of some mountain peoples. as a result of russia's conquest of the peoples of the caucasus, a significant part of the native population of the caucasus was forced to emigrate to the ottoman empire, which is known as the “caucasian muhajiro”. many issues will be raised during the presentation, so we consider it necessary to analyse each stage of toponym change. what did the empire want to achieve? to erase the historical memory of the conquered caucasian peoples; the story of the emigration of a particular family should be forgotten; to establish and in the future to perceive surnames of russian origin as natural; the name of this geographical object was identified with the name of the new owner, a russian official; to become a reference that the service of the russian empire was valued; in the consciousness of the people, this geographical area was established as one of the settlements of the russian empire; along with other rights the local population was limited in their ability to perceive and name the environment in their native language. ii stage of toponym change (ermelovsky>leselidze) in 1944, the township of ermelovsky of the autonomous republic of abkhazia, included in soviet georgia, was named "leselidze" after the soviet general of the second world war, konstantine leselidze. issues to be discussed: 1. biography of k. leselidze. konstantine leselidze was born in 1903. he has been a member of the communist union since 1920. in 1921, he became a cadet of the caucasus red banner army. in 1924, he participated in the suppression of anti-soviet demonstrations in georgia. in 1934 and 1937, he was a delegate of the congresses of the communist party of georgia. from 1942, he fought against hitler's germany on the transcaucasian front, he was the commander of the troops of the north caucasus front. in 1943, he was awarded the military rank of colonel general. leselidze died in 1944. in moscow, in a military hospital. in 1971, he was awarded the title of hero of the ussr. in 1974, his remains were transferred to the pantheon of writers and public figures, a bust was placed on the street named after him in tbilisi, and the streets of many districts and cities of georgia were named after him. from leselidze's biography, it is clear that he aspired to a bolshevik and military career from his youth and succeeded. he was awarded the rank of colonel-general of the soviet army, and after his death the title of hero of the ussr. apart from township leselidze, the streets of many georgian cities were named after him. 2. the democratic republic of georgia and its occupation by bolshevik russia. we must definitely touch upon that fateful time when a change took place in the history of georgia and the independent country became part of the ussr. from that time, everything changes radically turned upside down. toponyms have also changed [4]. in 1918, the democratic republic of georgia was established. t was difficult but still successful, moving forward in all directions and becoming a democratic state. in 1921, the red army invaded the democratic republic of georgia. its goal was to establish a bolshevik regime in the country and to annex and occupy the territory of georgia. in 1922, georgia joined the union of soviet socialist republics. the history of independent georgia stopped for several decades. 3. 1924 anti-soviet uprising georgia. soon after the occupation of georgia, the resistance movement started, and in 1924, a general popular uprising took place. its goal was to liberate georgia from the soviet occupation and restore the democratic republic. on the one hand stood an enormous empire; on the other hand, small georgia and europe had only moral and verbal support. the rebellion was defeated. defeat was followed by brutal terror and repression... 4. the history of the name one of the oldest streets in tbilisi. here, let us become acquainted with the history of the name of one of the famous streets of tbilisi because, apart from being very interesting, it is also related to the name of our research toponym (leselidze). this street was created in the middle ages and was called the "middle market". historically, it was the section of the ancient caravan road connecting east and west. over the centuries, its name has changed many times: “middle bazaar”>1867 pavle tsitsyanov (military, statesman of the russian empire)>1876 “armenian market”>1938 silibistro todria (bolshevik)>1944 k. leselidze (hero of the ussr, colonel-general of khocholava-matchavariani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the ussr)> 2006 kote abkhazi (military and public figure of the democratic republic of georgia). today, this street is named after kote abkhazi. 5. biography of k. abkhazi. konstantine (kote) abkhazi (1867-1923) was a representative branch of the princes of abkhazia sharvashidzes established in eastern georgia. this person has an invaluable contribution to the independence, statehood, and culture of georgia. he was major general of artillery of the national army of the democratic republic of georgia (1918); member of the national council of georgia (1917-1919); one of the founders of tbilisi state university (1918); active participant in the restoration of autocephaly of the georgian orthodox apostolic church (1917); one of the authors of the act of independence of georgia (1918); one of the founders of the georgian national army from the date of occupation-annexation of georgia by bolshevik russia. one of the leaders of the liberation movement of the georgian nation and the military center of this committee was created under his initiative. in february 1923, the chekists arrested him together with the officers of the military center and shot him. it is clear from biography that k. abkhaz is a hero fighting for the independence of georgia. there should be a street named after him in tbilisi. taking into account all these issues, the merits of k. leselidze should be evaluated in a new way and, accordingly, the reasons for the toponym changes that are interesting to us. how to evaluate leselidze's life and work? merit: bravery, military skills in the fight against fascism. a crime: 1924 participation in the suppression of the anti-soviet uprising of georgia; loyal service to the soviet system. conclusion: 1. he was rightfully awarded the title of hero of the ussr. 2. leselidze is not a hero of georgia! 3. today, his name should not be confirmed as the names of geographical objects. analysis of the 2nd stage of toponym change: 1) with the glorification of leselidze in 1924 erasing the heroism of the fighters who died for the restoration of georgia's independence. 2) glorifying the faithful servants of bolshevism as an example. 3) the deepening of the rift between georgians and abkhazians, which the russian empire created from the beginning of the 19th century. stage iii of toponym change (leselidze>gechrifsh) after the war in abkhazia, leselidze was again called gechrifsh. issues to be discussed: 1. changes in soviet toponyms after the collapse of the ussr. immediately after the collapse of the soviet union, in georgia, the return of historical names began at a rapid pace. soviet toponymy, as a tool of propaganda, could not withstand the spirit of the era and, by the will of the people, disappeared from the country's geography. 2. 1992-1993 war in abkhazia and its consequences. it was a war secretly provoked and organized by russia between the government troops of georgia and a part of separatist ethnic abkhazians. after the fall of sukhumi (1993), separatist fighters shot members of the local government and brutally assaulted the peaceful georgian population of abkhazia. it was ethnic cleansing, and the abkhaz people also suffered heavy losses. the country received the most victims. even today, the region of abkhazia, which enjoys de facto independence from georgia, faces serious social and economic problems. 3. metamorphoses of toponymy in abkhazia – “toponymic war". in abkhazia, there was always a deliberate change in geographical names, which was conditioned by political events. several stages are distinguished. after the end of the war in abkhazia, changes will take place in two directions: a) georgian toponyms are replaced by russian, abkhaz, and armenian names; b) georgian names differ with certain transcriptional changes [1, 3]. analysis of the iii stage of toponym change: 1) the change gechrib > leselidze restores the historical reality; therefore, it is justified. 2) even after the return of the autonomous republic of abkhazia to the state of georgia, gechripshi should remain. the starting point for us is that abkhazia is the homeland for both peoples. 3) toponymy war is only harmful to history and the future. author(s) can divide the resalt section into the subsections. conclusion teaching with projective models of toponyms showed us that students independently search for appropriate materials, analyse them, and convincingly present their works. they agree that the toponym khocholava-matchavariani et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) can be a guide in the labyrinths of history. it becomes clear to the teacher that the inclusion of appropriate toponyms as supporting material is a convenient approach to conduct the learning process. our conclusion is as follows: toponym is a linguistic historical document. it is necessary to include toponymy achievements in the educational process. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution n.j., n.k., k.r. and l.c. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. references [1] gvantseladze t. (2000) mass change of toponyms in abkhazia after 1864. annual of ibero-caucasian linguistics, xxxiv, georgia, tbilisi: pp. 44-51. [2] kaukhchishvili, t. (1976). ancient greek sources of georgian history. georgia, tbilisi: p. 137. [3] kekelia, i. (2022). toponymy of abkhazia. georgia, tbilisi: pp. 33-34 [4] soviet totalitarian toponymy in georgia (2021). georgia, tbilisi: p. 1-3, https://idfi.ge/ge/soviet_totalitarian_toponymy_in_georgia georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the geography of the rugby world cups and some tourism issues givi tavadze1 abstract according to legend, a kind of sport called rugby was born in the english town of rugby on april 7, 1823, when william webb ellis, a local student and football player, took a ball in his hands and put it down in the goal of the opposing team. this legend is officially denied today, but it is important because the cup of the rugby world championship is named the “william webb ellis cup." rugby was formed and spread during the 19th and 20th centuries, and both processes continue. its spreading beyond the british commonwealth became more or less difficult because of the conservatism of the brits. for example, the british formed the “irfb” (international rugby football board) in 1886, which became the “irb” (international rugby board) in 1997. however, as they did not admit france to this organisation, this state formed a separate union called “fira” (fédération internationale de rugby amateur) in 1934, which is “rugby europe” today. the first rugby world cup was held only in 1987 for various reasons. nine tournaments were organised between 1987 and 2019, and the 10th one will open this year, in september–october 2023, on the 200th anniversary of the establishment of rugby. the arrangement of the world and regional championships often encounters problems, despite some written and unwritten laws. tourism-related financial issues are one of the most significant troublemakers. they create obstacles for organising committees and hinder the spread of rugby’s popularity around the world. at the same time, they cause problems with the promotion of georgia’s national team to a higher regional level, which is one of the most important goals for georgian rugby players and supporters. the main sources of this article comprise some english and french magazines related to various world tournaments, interviews with rugby specialists, and the plentiful information accumulated during many years of my own connection with the world of rugby. keywords: tournament, rugby, rugby world cup, national team introduction rugby is spread on all six settled continents, and there is at least one state on all of them, the national team of which is constantly included or even does not leave the top ten of the world rugby rating. england, scotland, wales, ireland, france, and italy are such countries in europe. it is worth noting that, unlike football, northern ireland has no national team in rugby. northern ireland and the republic of ireland have one common national team. among european countries, only england won the william webb ellis cup once. georgia’s national team stands more or less near these six countries. at the end of 2022, our players managed to defeat the national team of italy for the first time, and then they succeeded in winning the match against wales as well. the national teams of romania, russia, spain, and portugal are more or less equal to those of georgia. other states in europe are not as good at rugby. only japan has a successful national team in asia. however, there are no other teams on this large continent that could compete with the japanese rugby players. the republic of south africa (south africa) is a triple world champion and has the best national team in africa. namibia and zimbabwe, the states of the south african region, have weaker but still successful national teams. namibia took part in all world cups beginning in 1999, whereas zimbabwe was admitted to the first two tournaments instead of south africa. argentina has the most powerful national team on both american continents. canada, the usa, and uruguay have weaker teams, but they almost always participate in the rugby world cups. australia and the pacific region comprise the most successful national teams. australia has been the world champion twice, and new zealand three times. fiji, samoa, and tonga have strong national teams as well. choosing the place for organising a championship has often been problematic for “irb” leaders. it is established that one tournament is held in the southern hemisphere, and the next is held in the northern hemisphere. however, the naming of the concrete country becomes difficult for various reasons. first, rugby management tries to arrange the tournament in such “classical” rugby states as australia, new zealand, south africa, the uk, and france. only in 2019, for the first time, was the championship 1 human geography department, vakhushti bagrationi institute, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, givi.tavadze@tsu.ge tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) organised beyond these countries in japan. on the other hand, there was no attempt to arrange this tournament in argentina, which has one of the most powerful teams in the world and the best in the western hemisphere. although argentina always had a strong national team, which often occupied one of the top five positions in the world rating, for a long time, it was formed of amateurs, not professionals. this became the main reason why the championship was not organised in this state. here, we should also name italy, which is a member of europe’s “six nations” championship as well as a constant participant in the world cups. this state has all the means to host this tournament alone or at least with france; however, there was no mention of arranging the championship in italy either. organising support and tourism are other important issues. the first tournament was organised in australia and new zealand simultaneously, and both teams played only in their own stadiums. a more complex situation occurred at the second tournament in 1991. england was the official host of this championship, but scotland, wales, ireland, and france also played in their own stadiums. the financial side of sports tourism has a significant influence on choosing a place. to date, all national teams and their supporters have had to leave the states where the championships were held and return home if they did not get into the play-off. however, the 2023 world cup is arranged in france, and according to the local officials, all the players and their supporters will be allowed to stay in the country until the end of the tournament. if such tourist politics become usual, it will encourage further development of tourism and may motivate other countries to pay due attention to rugby and make them fight for the right to host this important tournament alone or with other states. 1987 rugby world cup the “irfb” decided to organise the world championship in 1985 on the initiative of australia and new zealand. all the members of this organisation supported this idea except the uk’s countries and ireland, so these opponents had to agree. the “irfb” leaders decided to organise the tournament in the states that offered this idea. sixteen countries took part in the games, which were arranged in the cities and towns of australia (2) and new zealand (7). although south africa had one of the most successful national teams, it was cut off from this championship because of "apartheid" politics in this state. zimbabwe had the right to take part on behalf of the african continent instead of south africa. the ussr, which was one of 16 in the rugby world ranking, refused to take part, so the right to participate was granted to tonga. table 1. 1987 rugby world cup – group stage2 group country group a australia, england, the usa, japan group b wales, ireland, canada, tonga group c new zealand, fiji, italy, argentina group d france, scotland, romania, zimbabwe seven european countries took part in the first championship: england, scotland, wales, ireland, france, italy, and romania; one from asia and one from africa—japan and zimbabwe, respectively; three states were from both the americas: argentina, canada, and the usa; and four from australia and the pacific: australia, new zealand, fiji, and tonga. many people hoped that the hosts would meet in the final, though france managed to defeat australia in one semifinal; new zealand left no chances for wales in the other semifinal. new zealand defeated france too and won the first “william webb ellis cup.” as for third place, wales could defeat australia in the difficult match. they won only by one point. 2 these insertions show which place was occupied by various teams during group stages in different championships tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 1. hosts, participants and winners of the rugby world cup 1987 1991 rugby world cup soon after the end of the first championship, it was decided that the second tournament would be arranged in europe. the well-known “six nations championship” was the “five nations” one at that time, and italy was not its participant yet. therefore, five countries became hosts: england, scotland, wales, ireland and france. the same seven european states, one country from asia and one from africa, took part in the second tournament. south africa was dropped again. the same three states were from both americas; as for the pacific region, australia, new zealand and fiji played again, but samoa replaced tonga this time. only countries of the “british commonwealth” managed to occupy the first four positions in the second championship. england defeated scotland in one semifinal and australia beat new zealand in the other. australia defeated england with a good score in the final and won its first cup. new zealand occupied third place. table 2. 1991 rugby world cup – group stage group country group a new zealand, england, italy, the usa group b scotland, ireland, japan, zimbabwe group c australia, samoa, wales, argentina group d france, canada, romania, fiji tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 2. hosts, participants and winners of the rugby world cup 1991 1995 rugby world cup the place for the third championship should have been chosen in the southern hemisphere, so as south africa had condemned the “apartheid” politics this state was chosen. sixteen countries had to take part in the tournament again, and 9 places were already occupied – 8 teams that played the quarterfinals in the former tournament plus the host. the list is as follows: england, scotland, ireland, france, canada, new zealand, australia, samoa and south africa. forty-five national teams, including georgia (for the first time), were competing for the remaining 7 places. it is interesting that russia’s national team was able to defeat georgia’s national team for the first and hopefully the last time. there were no alterations in the list of the european and asian teams: england, scotland, wales, ireland, france, italy, romania and japan. important changes happened in africa: the ivory coast took part in the tournament together with the host south africa. argentina and canada represented the western hemisphere, the usa could not obtain the right to participate this time, and neither could fiji from the pacific. only samoa and tonga played with australia and new zealand from this region. south africa proved that its exclusion from the former championships was a sport absurd. in the semifinals, the host defeated france and new zealand – england. for “the southern final”, south africa won and got its first cup. france defeated england and took third place. table 3. 1995 rugby world cup – group stage group country group a south africa, australia, canada, romania group b england, samoa, italy, argentina group c new zealand, ireland, wales, japan group d france, scotland, tonga, ivory coast tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 3. the host, participants and winners of the rugby world cup 1995 1999 rugby world cup important changes happened by the year 1999. four places were added to the list of tournament participants. wales was the official host of this championship, although games were also arranged in england, scotland, ireland and france. it is interesting that georgia was trying to enter the championship again, and our team even defeated tonga in tbilisi, but they could not gather enough points in two games (at home and away). eight european countries took part in this championship. spain was the eighth country with the former seven countries. only japan was from asia; south africa and namibia were from africa. four states took part from the western hemisphere: canada, the usa, argentina and uruguay. five states were from the pacific: australia, new zealand, fiji, samoa and tonga. the 1999 championship, which was arranged in europe, became a disaster for europeans. only france could save europeans’ dignity more or less. australia defeated south africa in one semifinal and france beat new zealand in the other. however, the europeans lost in the final and australia won the “william webb ellis cup” for the second time. south africa took third place. table 4. 1999 rugby world cup – group stage group country group a south africa, scotland, uruguay, spain group b new zealand, england, tonga, italy group c france, fiji, canada, namibia group d australia, ireland, romania, the usa tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 4. the host, participants and winners of the rugby world cup 1999 2003 rugby world cup the fifth rugby world cup was arranged in australia, and only one change was made in the list of participants. georgia turned in the championship for the first time instead of spain. it is important that as georgia turned, it has not skipped even a single tournament yet. georgia went to group c with england, south africa, samoa and uruguay. in spite of the great achievement and participation in the championship, our team could not show itself during the tournament and was heavily defeated by england, south africa and samoa. uruguay defeated our players too, so georgia left the championship without a point. australia defeated new zealand in one semifinal, england – france in the other. new zealand heavily defeated france in the battle for the third place. as to the final, its fate was decided by one dropkick goal during the additional time, so england defeated australia with the score 20:17. as a result, the william webb ellis cup was won by his countrymen. table 5. 2003 rugby world cup – group stage group country group a australia, ireland, argentina, romania, namibia group b france, scotland, fiji, the usa, japan group c england, south africa, samoa, uruguay, georgia group d new zealand, wales, italy, canada, tonga tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 5. the host, participants and winners of the rugby world cup 2003 2007 rugby world cup the sixth world cup was held in france. it hosted 9 european (including its own), 1 asian, 2 african, 3 american and 5 pacific teams. only one change occurred in the list of participant states. the european country portugal took part in the championship instead of south american uruguay. georgia was in group d with argentina, france, ireland and namibia. our national team improved its previous results and defeated namibia with a score of 30:0. it should be noted that it was the best result the georgians could achieve because no other teams in our group were easy opponents to us. however, irish sportsmen and fans still had reason to feel nervous, as they won only 4 points (14:10), and the georgians received 5 points after these two matches. the game against argentina turned out to be the most difficult, and our players could not get even one try, unlike the games against ireland and france. england defeated france in one semifinal and south africa in argentina in the other. south americans astonished the whole rugby world in the game for the third place as their team, which was considered “amateurs” by everyone, defeated the host, france (34:10). this victory brought a serious acclaim to the argentinians. south africa defeated england in the final and received “the william webellis cup” a second time. table 6. 2007 rugby world cup – group stage group country group a south africa, england, tonga, samoa, the usa group b australia, fiji, wales, japan, canada group c new zealand, scotland, italy, romania, portugal group d argentina, france, ireland, georgia, namibia tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) figure 6. the host, participants and winners of the 2007 rugby world cup 2011 rugby world cup the seventh world cup was arranged on 10 stadiums of new zealand, and only one change was made in the list of the participants. russia took part in the championship instead of portugal. georgia joined group b with england, argentina, scotland and romania. our sportsmen were defeated by stronger opponents (41:10, 25:7 and 15:6, respectively); they won the match against romanians (25:9) but could not improve or repeat the result of the previous championship. georgians received only 4 points. according to the unconfirmed source, a new rule was enacted beginning from the seventh world championship: the teams holding third place in each group, as well as those participating in the playoff, automatically become the participants of the next world championship. pursuant to the aforementioned rule, future selections include teams that go to quarter-finals. as a result, 12 out of 20 places in the world cup tournaments are occupied in advance. at the end of this world cup, 2 out of 4 matches ended with the unusual scores for rugby. france defeated wales 9:8 in one semifinal, and new zealand – australia in the other. australia ranked third, and new zealand defeated france 8:7 in the final place and obtained the world cup for the second time. table 7. 2011 rugby world cup – group stage group country group a new zealand, france, tonga, canada, japan group b england, argentina, scotland, georgia, romania group c ireland, australia, italy, the usa, russia group d south africa, wales, samoa, fiji, namibia tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 7. the host, participants and winners of the rugby world cup 2011 the europeans experienced an absolute collapse in this world cup tournament, and even france could not save, as they had done before in 1999. four european teams moved to the quarter-finals: england, scotland, ireland and france. however, the semifinals became absolutely southern. new zealand defeated south africa 20:18 in one of them, australia beat argentina 29:15 in the other one. the first three places were distributed among the “southern grands.” south africa defeated argentina in the battle for the third place; new zealand surpassed australia in the final place. as a result, new zealand became the champion for the third time. 2015 rugby world cup the eighths rugby world cup was officially held in england, actually in england and wales. the traditional participants took part in this championship again. the following countries took part in the tournament: 8 european (england, wales, scotland, ireland, france, italy, georgia, romania), 1 asian (japan), 2 african (south africa, namibia), 4 american (argentina, uruguay, the usa, canada) and 5 pacific (australia, new zealand, fiji, samoa and tonga.) georgia played in group c with new zealand, argentina, tonga and namibia, which brought double success to our sportsmen. first, they gained two victories, defeating tonga and namibia 17:10, 17:16 and occupying third place in the group. this gave our team a direct pass to the next world championship. in addition, our sportsmen could stand face to face “the hakka” – the salute and war dance of new zealanders, which is a great honour for all rugby lovers. in spite of the fact that argentina and new zealand heavily defeated georgia, our sportsmen got one try against “the all black” (the nickname of the new zealand national team), which became another symbolic success for our team. table 8. 2015 rugby world cup – group stage group country group a australia, england, wales, fiji, uruguay group b south africa, scotland, japan, samoa, the usa tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) group c new zealand, argentina, georgia, tonga, namibia group d ireland, france, italy, romania, canada figure 8. the host, participants and winners of the rugby world cup 2015 2019 rugby world cup only one change occurred in the list of participants of the ninth world cup. russia replaced romania. in addition, the tournament was organised in asia and japan for the first time. georgia was in group d with australia, wales, fiji and uruguay. it was quite a difficult group, and the maximum possible result should have been the repetition of the previous achievement. the georgians defeated uruguay with a large score and gained 5 points from one match. however, they could overcome neither wales nor fiji, not to mention australia. it must be noted that the game against australia was a step forward that enriched our experience of playing against the “southern grands.” all semifinals and finals of the ninth championship became “intercontinental”. england defeated new zealand in one semifinal and south africa surpassed wales in the other. the third place was occupied by new zealand, whereas south africa left no chances to england in the final and gained “the william web-ellis cup” for the third time. table 9. 2019 rugby world cup – group stage group country group a japan, ireland, scotland, samoa, russia group b new zealand, south africa, italy, namibia, canada group c england, france, argentina, tonga, the usa group d wales, australia, fiji, georgia, uruguay tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 9. the host, participants and winners of the rugby world cup 2019 conclusion the geography of the rugby world cups shows that this sport is quite conservative. there is an admitted idea that divides the world national teams into the 1st and 2nd levels, but in my opinion, such dividing does not show their actual possibilities. i would like to offer you another idea: the highest level comprises the national teams that obtained the world cup at least once: new zealand, south africa, australia, and england, as well as the teams that occupied the second or third places at least once: argentina, france, and maybe wales. the high-level group comprises the national teams that stably participate in the play-off: scotland, ireland, japan, fiji, samoa, tonga, and perhaps canada. it is interesting that this group does not include italy, the 1st level team, because despite this level, italy’s national team never played in a play-off. the next group is the medium level, which includes the teams that permanently obtain the right to take part in the world cup tournaments: italy, romania, georgia, namibia, the usa, and uruguay. the rugby world championships are characterised by a number of peculiarities. for example, zimbabwe, which took part in the first and second championships, never played again. the same may be said about ivory coast, which participated only in 1995. some european teams lack stability: spain, portugal, and russia. in 2023, the national team of chile, south america, will play in the tenth world cup tournament for the first time. the geography of the places where the championship is held and, accordingly, the inflow of tourists and finances are also conservative. time and the next world cup tournaments will show if the promise made by france to let all the tourists stay in the country until the end of the championship brings positive results. it would also be interesting to learn whether different states will express more interest in obtaining the right to host the world cup or whether the 2019 tournament held in japan was just an exception. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. references [1] rugby world cup 1999, le magazine officiel de la coupe du monde de rugby. tavadze. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (1) [2] rugby world cup 2003, magazine officiel de la coupe du monde de rugby. [3] rugby world cup, 2003, the ultimate guide. [4] atlas coupe du monde de rugby, australie 2003. [5] irb rugby world cup 2003, team media guide. [6] rugby world cup 2007, coupe du monde de rugby france 2007. [7] irb rugby world cup 2003, official match day program, match 8, 19, 25, 32. [8] irb rugby world cup 2007, official match day program, 09, 16, 31, 38. [9] irb rugby world cup 2015, match 02, 13, 23, 32. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) development potential of mice tourism in georgia: a case study of tbilisi and batumi marina bokeria1, eleonora tchania1* abstract this scientific article explores the promising landscape of meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (mice) tourism in georgia, with a specific focus on the vibrant cities of tbilisi and batumi. the research endeavours to assess the scale of hotel and conference infrastructure in these two cities. furthermore, it examines the evolution of economic indicators in the mice tourism sector in georgia, both before and after the covid-19 pandemic. geographic information system (gis) tools and adobe illustrator for data visualization round out the study's foundational social research techniques, which also include document analysis and statistical investigation. the key findings of the study are that the mice tourism sector in georgia, particularly in tbilisi and batumi, has experienced growth and transformation, showcasing resilience in the face of challenges posed by the covid-19 pandemic. georgia's proactive measures, evolving infrastructure, and diverse attractions position it as a competitive player in the global mice tourism industry, with the country on an upwards trajectory and ambitious plans for further growth. keywords: mice tourism; tbilisi, batumi; post-pandemic recovery introduction mice tourism is a rapidly growing and transformative segment within the global tourism industry, recognized for its significant economic contributions and its role in promoting connectivity, innovation, and diversification in the tourism sector. mice tourism provides substantial revenue to local economies, creating a ripple effect that strengthens sectors such as hospitality, transport, and catering. business travellers, known for their propensity to spend more than leisure travellers, are emerging as important players in sustaining these industries. furthermore, the mice sector plays a crucial role in establishing a stable labour market. over the past decade, georgia has undergone a remarkable transformation from a little-known destination to a competitive regional hotspot that attracts visitors from the post-soviet space and the middle east. it is worth noting that europe and parts of asia are increasingly sustainable tourist markets, which helps georgia find its place in the global tourism landscape. mice tourism is a rapidly growing sector with development potential in georgia. notably, the tourism sector in georgia recovered quickly after the pandemic. in the first half of 2023, the recovery of international visitor travel reached 78% of prepandemic levels in 2019 [1]. there was also a noticeable increase in international visitors to georgia during the first half of 2023, exceeding 2.5 million visits and increasing by 76% compared to the same period in 2022. [2][3]. the country's rapid recovery from the pandemic, along with strategic investments in hosting and event facilities, will help position georgia as a promising destination for business events and conferences. [4] in 2019, georgia had a stated goal of improving its mice tourism infrastructure by introducing 15 international brand hotels in the coming years. these hotels would collectively add 12,537 square metres of event spaces and accommodate 8,485 guests in tbilisi's mice market. the spread of high and mid-level hotel brands in georgia, especially in tbilisi and batumi, offers new perspectives for the development of the mice sector in the regional context. [5] in tbilisi and batumi, the primary urban areas of the country, a self-organized chain of hotel brands has emerged, which frequently host conferences, business meetings, exhibition events, and "workshops." this scientific article delves into the analysis of hotel and conference infrastructure within the vibrant cities of tbilisi and batumi, georgia. utilizing statistics, the research aims to investigate the dynamic effectiveness of hosting and event facilities, specifically focusing on how these initiatives contribute to positioning georgia as an attractive destination for business events and conferences. the study seeks to 1vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, department of human geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: eleonora.tchania@tsu.ge bokria and tchania. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) quantify and qualify the scale of facilities dedicated to meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (mice) and assess their impact on the overall tourism sector. what are the key factors influencing the sustained growth and recovery of mice tourism in georgia following the covid-19 pandemic? what is the current state of hotel and conference infrastructure in tbilisi and batumi, and how has it evolved in the postpandemic period? how do statistics reflect the dynamic effectiveness of hosting and event facilities in tbilisi and batumi? methods and materials in our pursuit of analysing the burgeoning field of mice tourism in georgia, we adopted a methodology that combines social research methods and data analysis. a meticulous examination of documents and statistical data was conducted to gather comprehensive insights into the mice tourism landscape in georgia. the national statistical service of georgia and the national tourism administration of georgia served as primary sources for valuable information. national statistical service data: the official statistical data provided by the national statistical service of georgia offered a reliable foundation for our analysis, encompassing various aspects of tourism and economic indicators. national tourism administration data: insights from the national tourism administration of georgia contributed to a nuanced understanding of the tourism landscape, providing details on visitor trends, preferences, and sector-specific developments. to enhance the clarity and accessibility of our findings, we employed data visualization tools such as adobe illustrator and microsoft excel. through these platforms, we transformed raw data into visually compelling graphics, charts, and diagrams, allowing for a more intuitive understanding of trends and patterns. by amalgamating these research methods and materials, we aim to explore the dynamic mice tourism sector in georgia, shedding light on its role in economic development and recovery postpandemic. small hotel sector of ajara and the main challenges of the covid-19 pandemic pavliashvil et al meticulously investigated the challenges faced by the ajara autonomous republic's small hotel sector during the tumultuous 2020-2021 period [6], aiming to provide a nuanced understanding of the adversities amid the global upheaval caused by the covid-19 pandemic. the focus is on the significant role played by small hotels and guesthouses in ajara, particularly in employment metrics. with approximately 70% of georgia's tourism revenues depending on international visitors, the study aims to discern the profound economic repercussions within the region. the research explores governmental policies formulated to mitigate the impact of covid-19 during this biennium, revealing a pivotal shift in 2021 toward economic considerations. the article sheds light on how these policy shifts have shaped the trajectory of ajara's small hotel sector. emphasizing the critical role of the restoration of international travel in revitalizing the tourism sector, the article underscores the symbiotic relationship between global travel dynamics and the resilience displayed by ajara's small hotel businesses. within the broader context of georgia's hospitality sector, the article highlights ajara's significance, ranking second only to tbilisi and representing nearly half of the country's total hotel rooms and beds. the aim is to underscore ajara's noteworthy position in georgia's hospitality mosaic. in georgia's hospitality sector, ajara is crucial, with 3,117 facilities, 47,832 rooms, and 114,910 beds. ranked second to tbilisi, it represents nearly half of the country's total hotel capacity, highlighting its noteworthy position in georgia's hospitality mosaic. mice market in georgia (by colliers georgia) in this comprehensive exploration of the meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (mice) industry in georgia, colliers georgia sheds light on the evolving landscape of the mice sector, with a particular focus on tbilisi and batumi [7]. the aim of this research, as outlined in the article "mice bokria and tchania. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) market in georgia," is to dissect the challenges, opportunities, and dynamics influencing the mice market in the country. the article highlights the instrumental role played by international upscale and midscale hotel brands, particularly in tbilisi and batumi. notably, the panorama sololaki hotel and upcoming developments are discussed as key contributors poised to address existing venue capacity challenges. addressing the underutilization of mice facilities in both tbilisi and batumi, the research emphasizes the importance of a balanced growth rate in business tourism to align with the anticipated increase in supply. delving into tbilisi's central role in hosting mice events, the article analyses its net exhibition space in comparison to other cities. it also brings attention to the growing number of local events at convention centers and the competitive landscape with neighboring countries, such as azerbaijan. as the research concludes, strategic insights are provided to ensure the sustainable growth of the mice sector in georgia. the article emphasizes the significance of strategic planning and alignment with international standards to position georgia as a formidable player in the global mice tourism landscape. in summary, the "mice market in georgia" by colliers georgia offers valuable insights and recommendations, presenting a holistic view of the mice sector in the country and charting a course for its sustainable development within the broader context of georgia's tourism industry. results in the context of georgia, the source of tourists in the tourism sector has undergone a significant transformation in the wake of the pandemic. it is noted that the commencement of the 2020 summer season, which experienced a delay, played a role in the reduction of tourist influx [8]. prior to the pandemic in 2019, the number of arrivals for mice (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) tourism from eu countries was 9% higher than that in 2022. similarly, arrivals from cis (commonwealth of independent states) countries saw a notable decline of 20.1% from 2019 to 2022 (please refer to fig. 1 and fig. 2 for visual representations of these data). this shift in tourist demographics suggests a substantial reconfiguration of georgia's tourism landscape, underscoring the need for adaptive strategies within the industry. figure 1. number of guests in hotels and hotel-type establishments by country of citizenship (purpose of visit: mice tourism). (source: national statistics office of georgia) the distribution of the number of visits made by nonresident visitors to georgia in 2022 according to the purpose of the trip shows that 6.6% were made for professional/economic purposes [9]. in 2019, the reported rate was 10.7%. this year, 69.2 thousand people entered georgia for professional and business interests (fig. 3), indicating significant growth in this trend. in general, during the prepandemic period, we can observe a positive and accelerating trend in the number of foreign visitors who come for bokria and tchania. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) mice (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) tourism year after year (fig. 4). most of the visits were made in tbilisi and adjara ar [10]. figure 2. the number of guests in hotels and hotel-type establishments categorized by the percentage share of guests' countries of citizenship (for the purpose of mice tourism) (source: national statistics office of georgia) figure 3. distribution of the average monthly number of visits made by nonresident visitors of georgia aged 15 and older according to the purpose of the business or professional visit in the overall index (thousands). (source: national statistics office of georgia) it is significant that 51.1% of the mentioned indicators included corporate/business meetings, seminars, "workshops," or presentations in 2022. the exhibition/trade fair is less attractive, 7.2% (fig. 5). this trend underscores the concentration of business tourism in urban areas, with tbilisi and batumi being the primary focal points. these cities have experienced rapid and extensive development, particularly in the construction of high-rise hotels, apartments, and office spaces. this urbanization trend is driven by several factors, including the growth of international conferences and exhibitions and attracting professionals and business travelers to these cities. in addition, the development of highquality accommodations, such as luxury hotels and modern apartments, has contributed to the appeal of tbilisi and batumi as key destinations for business travellers. this phenomenon is not unique to georgia but reflects a global trend of urbanization in the context of business and professional tourism. it is interesting that in the case of tbilisi, high-class hotels are situated in the central, historical part of the city. in contrast, batumi has torn down its historical district in favor of the newly built section of the city, known as the “new boulevard.” bokria and tchania. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 4. average monthly number of visits made by nonresident visitors of georgia aged 15 and older, annual number (for the purpose of mice tourism) (thousands). in 2019, which was a year prior to the onset of the global pandemic, tbilisi emerged as a central hub for georgia's mice (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) sector. this vibrant city hosted the majority of the country's conference and meeting facilities, contributing significantly to the growth of the mice industry, not only in tbilisi but also in the charming coastal city of batumi. in 2019, mice (meetings, incentives, conferencing, exhibitions) tourism emerged as a vital component of georgia's hospitality industry. this period marked a significant boom in mice tourism before the global pandemic, providing georgia with an opportunity to position itself as a year-round destination. figure 5. distribution of the number of visits made by nonresident visitors of georgia aged 15 and older within the scope of professional/economic activities according to the goal in 2022 (thousands) (source: national statistics office of georgia) the remarkable appeal of georgia as a mice destination rested on various pillars. the country boasted a substantial supply of high-end internationally branded hotels. additionally, its safe environment, visa-free access to over 100 countries, direct flights to 28 countries, rich cultural diversity, bokria and tchania. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) and an array of attractions collectively created an enticing environment for attracting international business visitors. table 1. hotels opened in 2020-2023 (tbilisi) (source: georgian national tourism administration) name year of completion number of rooms bed places taberne boutique hotel tbilisi 2020 36 50 hilton garden inn 2020 170 340 pullman hotels & resort 2020 226 400 golden tulip design tbilisi hotel 2022 77 154 clocks hotel tbilisi 2022 65 130 bazzar boutique hotel 2022 20 40 address boutique hotel 2022 28 60 monograph freedom square 2020 36 72 biography tbilisi 2021 103 206 communal hotel plekhanovi 2021 13 26 new tiflis 2021 38 80 ibis hotel tbilisi 2022 153 300 ibis tbilisi stadium 2021 158 350 ramada by wyndham tbilisi old city 2021 107 200 holiday inn express tbilisi avlabari 2023 122 240 onyx hotel 2022 97 180 pine atoria 2022 125 240 ramada tbilisi 2022 125 190 in the years leading up to 2019, the supply of conference facilities witnessed significant growth in both tbilisi and batumi. tbilisi, as the capital, was home to 48% of georgia's total supply of conference and meeting facilities, offering a total capacity for hosting approximately 7,500 delegates. meanwhile, batumi's conference facilities had the capacity to accommodate up to 5,600 guests. the remainder of the mice facilities were spread across various regions of the country, with a combined capacity of 2,600 guests. this growth in supply was primarily driven by the increasing presence of internationally branded hotels in tbilisi and batumi. [9] during this flourishing period in 2019, an average of 5-7% of hotel guests in georgia were mice tourists. tbilisi, being the epicenter of mice events, stood out prominently. batumi also emerged as an attractive mice destination, with approximately 100,000 delegates attending conferences and meetings in 2017. georgia, in the prepandemic year of 2019, exhibited immense potential to become a premier mice destination, particularly for countries within the cis, middle east, and central asia regions. the extensive growth in infrastructure and facilities, combined with the country's unique attractions and a business-friendly environment, positioned georgia as a promising choice for international events and conferences. during that prepandemic period, tbilisi's international upscale and midscale hotels collectively offered an impressive array of conference facilities. this included a total of 81 halls equipped to accommodate no less than 9,262 delegates, making it a bustling center for business events. notably, bokria and tchania. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) sheraton grand tbilisi was a standout among these venues, boasting the largest mice facility capacity among the city's international hotels [7]. table 2. hotels opened in 2020-2023 (batumi) (source: georgian national tourism administration) furthermore, expo georgia, the country's exclusive dedicated conference center, played a crucial role in shaping georgia's mice landscape. in the years leading up to the pandemic, expo georgia saw a significant uptick in the number of international and local exhibitions, conferences, and festivals hosted within its facilities. along with expo georgia, the importance of the exhibition spaces silk factory studio and funicular complex is significant. table 3. hotels under construction and planned 2023/2025 (tbilisi) (source: georgian national tourism administration) international brand year of completion number of rooms bed places holiday inn express 2023 110 220 hilton tbilisi 2024 200 350 tabori ridge recreation & golf resort 2023 183 366 offices & hotels at erekle ii square 2023 150 300 paragraph golf & spa resort tabori hill 2024 177 354 marriott autograph collection-panorama sololaki 2023 210 420 paragraph hotel freedom square 2023 220 440 hotel sololaki hills 2023 190 380 swissotel 2023 150 300 these 2019 data, reflecting the situation before the pandemic, highlight tbilisi's pivotal role in georgia's mice sector, showcasing the city's significant development in conference and event facilities. over the span of four years, from 2020 to 2023, tbilisi witnessed the grand opening of a noteworthy 18 high-class hotels, collectively contributing an impressive sum of 1,699 rooms and an accommodation capacity of 3,258 beds. in the same time frame, the vibrant city of batumi welcomed the inauguration of four hotels, adding a total of 693 rooms and enhancing its hospitality capacity with 1,287 beds. table 4. hotels under construction and planned 2023/2025 (batumi) (source: georgian national tourism administration) international brand year of completion number of rooms bed places babylon tower 2025 168 336 swiss-belhotel 2023 186 360 wellness resort and spa mtsvane kontskhi 2024 120 240 ibis style batumi 2023 107 214 novotel living batumi 2023 167 334 in the period of 2023 to 2025, there are ambitious plans in the works. tbilisi is poised for substantial growth in its hotel industry, with a remarkable 66 hotels on the drawing board. this visionary expansion name year of completion number of rooms bed places new wave hotel batumi 2021 81 162 courtyard by marriott 2020 157 315 le meridien batumi 2020 105 210 orbi twin towers 2021 350 600 bokria and tchania. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) translates to the potential addition of a staggering 10,531 beds to accommodate the increasing influx of visitors. meanwhile, batumi is also gearing up for further developments, with plans in place for the construction of 13 new hotels, offering the promise of an extra 1,496 beds to cater to the growing demand. these exciting developments demonstrate a thriving and dynamic hospitality sector in both tbilisi and batumi, reflecting a keen commitment to providing top-notch accommodations for travelers and meeting the evolving needs of these vibrant cities. conclusion the mice tourism sector in georgia, with a specific focus on tbilisi and batumi, has experienced significant growth and transformation in recent years. despite the challenges posed by the covid-19 pandemic, georgia has demonstrated resilience in its recovery and a strong commitment to becoming a prominent mice destination. the evolving infrastructure, international brand hotels, and an increasing number of conference facilities have positioned georgia to attract business travelers and host a wide range of events. as the data and developments from 2019 to the present suggest, georgia's mice sector is on an upwards trajectory, with tbilisi and batumi leading the way. the diverse attractions, accessibility, and proactive measures taken to enhance the mice infrastructure underscore georgia's potential as a yearround mice destination. the promising landscape of mice tourism in georgia highlights the country's emergence as a competitive player in the global tourism industry, offering economic opportunities and fostering connectivity and innovation. with ambitious plans for further growth on the horizon, georgia is well positioned to continue its journey toward becoming a premier destination for international meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution e.t. and m.b. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. references [1] georgia’s tourism market watch 1q23. galt&taggart.2023 https://api.galtandtaggart.com/sites/default/files/2023-04/report/tourism-market-watch-1q23_0.pdf [2] tourism update 6 m, 2023. tbc capital https://tbccapital.ge/static/file/202307315025-tourism-update6m-2023.pdf [3] statistical overview of georgian tourism (2022). georgian national tourism administration https://gnta.ge/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2022-geo.pdf [4] inbound tourism statistics (2022 year). national statistics office of georgia https://www.geostat.ge/media/51279/inbound-tourism-statistics----2022.pdf [5] georgian tourism in figures structure & industry data 2019. georgian national tourism administration https://gnta.ge/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2019_eng_print.pdf [6] pavliashvili n., gogsadze g., kvinikadze g., chkaidze v. the small hotel sector of ajara and the main challenges of covid-19 pandemic. environment and society, no. 6, december, 2022, pp.1-25. ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi. [7] mice market | georgia | 2019. colliers international georgia [8] gogsadze, g., pavliashvili, n., tsitsagi, m., kvirkvelia, n. (2022). challenges of the covid-19 pandemic confront georgia’s tourism industry. in: brunn, s.d., gilbreath, d. (eds) covid-19 and a world of ad hoc geographies. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94350-9_95 [9] hotel market in georgia 2017. colliers international georgia https://api.galtandtaggart.com/sites/default/files/2023-04/report/tourism-market-watch-1q23_0.pdf https://tbccapital.ge/static/file/202307315025-tourism-update-6m-2023.pdf https://tbccapital.ge/static/file/202307315025-tourism-update-6m-2023.pdf https://gnta.ge/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/2022-geo.pdf https://www.geostat.ge/media/51279/inbound-tourism-statistics----2022.pdf https://gnta.ge/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2019_eng_print.pdf bokria and tchania. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) [10] tsitsagi m., dzhvarsheishvili s., kvirkvelia n., shakhnazarovi a. two years of pandemic (georgian perspectives). two years of pandemic (georgian perspectives). georgian geographical journal, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2023.01.06 georgian geographical journal dynamics of atmospheric microcirculation processes in certain regions of georgia marika tatishvili1* , zurab khvedelidze1 , inga samkharadze1 , nanuli zotikishvili1 , nana chelidze1 1 institute of hydrometeorology of georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: m.tatishvili@gtu.ge introduction atmospheric processes are highly heterogeneous and anisotropic in space and time. the main reason for this is the uneven distribution of energy from the sun to the earth's surface. in the lower layers of the atmosphere, the heat regime is provided by longwave radiation reflected from the earth's surface. the heterogeneous surface causes the rays to reflect at different angles, which in turn causes an uneven distribution of the heat field. an uneven heat field causes an uneven distribution of atmospheric pressure to establish so-called permanent "barrier centres". these centres provide air motion mainly from west to east ("leading" flow) (8-12) m/s and other zonal flows. these processes are peculiar everywhere, especially in difficult physical terrain, such as transcaucasia and georgia. the wind speed is a three-dimensional vector. the vertical stiffness is small compared to the horizontal stiffness and can only reach 10-20 cm/s or greater under intense convective motion. such convective movements, however, often occur on uneven, mountainous terrain (tatishvili et al., 2019a). therefore, in the mountainous terrain layer, it is not acceptable to have zero divergence of the wind, as is allowed for a straight surface. experimental measurements of wind vertical velocity are associated with principal difficulties; therefore, it is necessary to evaluate these measurements using theoretical methods (khvedelidze et al., 2018). there are several microregions in the territory of georgia whose climatic conditions sharply differ from the climate, with changes in climatic parameters and impacts on weather conditions in the outer region. thus, it is necessary to investigate, explain and justify the nature of changes in wind speed, air flow turbulence and climatic parameters on different construction tracks, radiation regimes and environmental pollution assessments for different time intervals. actions of the mentioned type were ongoing and are still ongoing in transcaucasia, particularly in georgia. the transcaucasia road, open pit works in the chiatura and kaspi regions, and the construction of hydroelectric power stations in various regions. when performing such studies, the spatial change in the turbulent flow of atmospheric air, first in the ground layer, should be studied. it is known that additional orographic turbulent currents and regular oscillatory disturbances are formed in mountainous areas (khvedelidze et al., 2018). a change in the microrelief of the earth's surface, even on a small scale, causes local circulation of the air flow. it becomes clear what impact such long-term construction, which we have already mentioned above, will have. it is necessary to analyse the spatial-temporal change mode of meteorological parameters in these regions (khvedelidze et al., 2023). georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 57-63 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract there are many microregions on earth in which the study of developed hydrometeorological processes is important and has great practical value. such regions include various caverns, highways, open quarry work areas, hydropower plant construction area. a special theoretical approach to study of local events in such areas for their modelling is given in the presented paper. the mathematical basis of this approach is presented; sample examples and calculation procedures are given. the presented materials and obtained results are important for conducting further studies, have practical value and are recommended to be taken into account when carrying out various activities in the local area of similar terrain. keywords: microcirculation processes, wind speed, turbulence flow, atmosphere disturbances, von karman vortex citation: tatishvili, m.; khvedelidze, z.; samkharadze, i.; zotikishvili, n.; chelidze, n. dynamics of atmospheric microcirculation processes in certain regions of georgia. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.07 received: 9 november 2023 revised: 22 march 2024 accepted: 5 may 2024 published: 7 june 2024 tatishvili et al. 2024 4(1) 58 there are several microregions in the territory of georgia whose climatic conditions differ sharply from the climate of the outer region. one of these microregions is the svaneti cavern. zemo svaneti plays a special role in diverse regions of georgia. this is due to both its unique nature and centuriesold history, which has added a unique touch to the cultural heritage of this area. zemo svaneti is located on the southern slopes of the central caucasus. most of the high peaks of this mountain massif are concentrated in this part of the caucasus and include those of shkhara (5203 m above sea level), tetnuldi (4858 m), ushba (4700 m), tikhtingeni (4617 m), and shkhilda (4368 m) (khvedelidze, 2018). the peaks covered with glaciers and permanent snow rise above the villages are scattered on the slopes and terraces, of which the center of the region, the village of mestia, which is in the hollow region, stands out. the region of mestia is bordered to the north by the ridge part of the main axial ridge of the caucasus, which morphologically belongs to the western caucasus. this section is covered with a glacial coat. the district is bounded in the northwest by the kodori ridge, which continues to the jvari reservoir, and in the southeast, it is bounded mainly by svaneti and in the southwest direction by the odishi ridge, which flattens to the southwest. the lentekhi municipality is located on the southern slope of the caucasus range and is one of the most mountainous regions in georgia. the region is bordered to the southeast and south by the lechkhumi range, to the west by the kodori range, and to the north by the main watershed of the caucasus. the tskhenistskali river is the main hydrographic unit in the territory of the lentekhi municipality. it is joined by the kheledura river and laskadura river in the town of lentekhi, after which the tskhenistsali river flows out of the kvemo svaneti cavern. then, it connects the caverns of kvemo svaneti and tsageri, has a submeridian direction and continues from lentekhi township to tsageri at 20 km. the kvemo svaneti cavern extends from west to east at 85 km. the area of lentekhi municipality is 1344 km2. the largest settlement is the village of lentekhi. there are 61 villages in the municipality (khvedelidze et al., 2020). under quiet atmospheric conditions, in narrow deep canyons, under the influence of a periodically active specific heat source related to solar radiation, a convection boundary layer can form on the slope of the ridge bordering the canyon. as the height in the canyon increases to 200-250 m, the speed of the convection wind increases. after reaching the maximum, its magnitude gradually decreases to such an extent that, at some level, the direction of the wind reverses (inversion). this event should be qualitatively the same in different canyons. it is known that the inversion level, such as the wind speed, increases with increasing atmospheric instability. under calm, less cloudy conditions, the wind flow on the mountain side, approximately half an hour after sunrise, occurs down the valley (tatishvili et al., 2019b). when the slope warms up and the specific heat source is activated, the wind blows in the same direction for approximately one hour. after that, the direction of the wind, whose characteristic speed is (1-3) m/s, changes from downwards to upwards. methods and materials one of the most important contemporary problems from both scientific and industrial-practical points of view is to study the climatic features of local regions against the background of global climate change. the quantitative forecasting of precipitation (qpf) and other meteorological parameters: temperature, wind, pressure and etc on regional scales is still inadequate for many applications such as weather prediction, hydrology, flood and landslide forecasting. for this purpose, it is essential to reproduce precipitation accurately down to the size of small catchment areas. the most applicable is the weather research and forecasting model (wrf) that is weather numerical forecasting and atmosphere simulation system created as for research as operational application. the model is elaborated usa national center for atmosphere research (ncar), mesoscale and microscale meteorological division (mmm), noaa, ncep, esrl, afwa, naval research laboratory, caps, and etc (ebert et al., 2003). it is used in following fields: real-time numerical forecasting, data assimilation, physical parameterization research, regional climatic simulations and etc. the dynamical core of the model provides general circulation processes transformation influenced by caucasus relief and proximity of the black and caspian seas resulting in local weather. the specification of those processes is possible by optimal configuration selection of schemes describing physical processes. besides arw provides introduction of higher spatialtemporal resolution horizontal grid that focuses on target sub-region and significantly increases model resolution (from 15km to 5 km.) (bianco, 2008). the wrf-arw version 3.1 was running operationally on the nea cluster during several months with two different model configuration tatishvili et al. 2024 4(1) 59 combining different convective and microphysical schemes. all runs were initialized with 25-km ncep gfs model grib data results from regional nwp do not have the same quality for all areas within the domain. (kutaladze et al., 2021). the results of model validation are not homogeneous inside domain and are highly dependent on the physical content of the synoptic process and complexity of relief. continuous operational data show that the weather in some local regions noticeably differs from that in surrounding areas. this circumstance is mainly related to the shape and the dynamic processes caused by the relief. therefore, the definition of terrain influence parameters and their analysis are highly pertinent and important. a hydrodynamic approach was used to explain the developed microcirculation processes in the svaneti cavern. the characteristic parameters of the relief of the region are estimated, and the orographic vertical velocity is calculated. by statistically processing long-term meteorological data, the climatic features of caverns and the nature of air flow dynamics can be determined. the results of the model calculations make it possible to clarify those features. we use the following hydrodynamic equation for a vertical wind velocity compiler (khvedelidze, 2018): (1) for the mountainous territory, the wind velocity vortex in the geostrophic approach may be written as follows (khvedelidze, 2018): (2) where is the current function and u and v are the horizontal components of the wind velocity. ageostrophic parameter, pressure at the hill top, pressure at the bottom, laplacian operator, parameters describing the influence of parallel and meridian orography, and current functions derived from the ox and oy axes, -velocity divergence, and lcoriolis parameter. from the above equations, we obtain the following equation: (3) the solution of this equation is a flat wave, and after transformation, the following dependence is obtained: (4) this dependence theoretically confirms the regional problem noticed and recognized in synoptic practice, namely, that atmospheric processes in the trans caucasus mainly spread in parallel directions along mountain ridges (khvedelidze, 2018; tatishvili, 2017; tatishvili et al., 2022). this result is also valid for the local area, where the mountain massif can be approximated in the form of a geometric figure and the appropriate characteristic parameters can be calculated. thus, the air flow at any selected local polygon is influenced by the up-and-down currents generated by the influence of the terrain, which must be considered. these currents principally determine the nature of local circulation and a number of features in local hollows. after simple transformations, we obtain the equation for the orographic vertical velocity 1 1 ( , ln ) ( )h p p w p h b a h l l x y      = = −   (4) the identification of and members must be realized for each local region. results the complex topography of the region results in a considerable diversity of climatic zones. hypsometric heights in the region cover a wide range—from 500 meters on the bank of the cross reservoir to 5203 meters on the peak of shkhara. accordingly, the climate in upper svaneti changes from the humid warm sea climate characteristic of the colchis lowland to the humid high mountain climate with permanent snow and glaciers; according to the modern classification, it contains 5 tatishvili et al. 2024 4(1) 60 climatic zones. naturally, all these zones, depending on the local conditions, react in their own way to regional climate change. figure 1. the average annual air temperature according to the mestia weather station data (1938-2008) the territory of zemo svaneti is characterized by a moderately humid mountain climate. weather types within the district vary hypsometrically from a moderately humid valley-type climate to a harsh high mountain climate. atmospheric precipitation is unevenly distributed in the district territory. the average annual amount reaches a maximum in the crown region and a minimum below mestia in the enguri river direction and reaches 800-1000 mm per year. the distribution of precipitation is mainly determined by orography. figure 2. distribution of the monthly mean air temperature according to the mestia weather station data (yellow, 19742008; blue, 1938-1973) the significant part reflecting the climate of upper svaneti (the middle zone) has been characterized by the mestia weather station, which is located at an elevation of 1,441 m. mestia has a humid climate with cold winters and long, cool summers. based on observations from 1936-1960, the average annual temperature of this area is 5.7°c, and the average temperature of the coldest month (january) is 6.0°c. the average temperature of the hottest month (july) is 16.4°c, the absolute minimum is 350°c, and the absolute maximum is 35°c. the sum of the active temperatures (more than 10°c) is 2,039 degrees, the average annual relative humidity of the air is 75%, the annual precipitation sum is 918 mm, and the maximum of the monthly sum usually occurs in the month of october and reaches 95 mm, while the minimum occurs in february (61 mm). the average annual wind speed is equal to 1.1 m/s. north and southwest winds prevailed in the surrounding area. tatishvili et al. 2024 4(1) 61 according to the mestia weather station data, the average air temperature for the coldest month (january) in 1938-2008 was -5.7°c, and that for the hottest month (june) was 16.6°c. for the course of the average annual temperature according to the last 10 years of data (after 1999), the average annual temperature reached its maximum of 6.6°c in 2006. to determine the temperature dynamics, we divided the given period into two (35-year) parts: 19381973 and 1974-2008. the distribution of average monthly air temperatures for both periods is given in fig. 2. according to the data from the last 35 years, an increase in the monthly mean temperature is observed in march (0.10°c), august (0.30°c) and october (0.40°c). for other months, the average monthly temperature is either constant or decreasing. according to the mestia weather station data, the average air temperature in 1938-2008 for the coldest month (january) was -5.7°c. the hottest month (june) is 16.60°c in temperature. for the mean annual temperature, according to the last 10 years of data, it reached its maximum in 2006 (6.6°c). figure 3. distribution of the annual precipitation sum for the mestia weather station (1938-2008) discussions the peculiarities of the mestia cavern in the svaneti region are particularly interesting. this hollow occupies a significant area in the altitude zone of 1000-2000 meters. the cavern is characterized by cold winters and long cool summers. if for model calculations we conditionally assume that the hollow occupies (50/50) the area of a square kilometre, then the following values are obtained for the orographic parameters: a=7, 2.10-4 1/m, b=10-4 1/m; that is, a=7,2b. these parameters are inversely proportional to the wavelength of the invading air masses. therefore, the wind in the cavern mostly blows (in the landward layer) from the west in a direction parallel to the main ridge. the orographic vertical velocity is small. the intruding air mass is surrounded by mountains covered with high glaciers on three sides; due to the low vertical speed, mass flow cannot occur over these mountains. the air stream is reflected from the mountains (a law of momentum constancy) and remains in the hole for a long enough time. this is the reason for the climatic peculiarity of svaneti, which has a cold winter and long cool summer. from the given reasoning, the received theoretical modelling result substantiates the climatic specialness that is observed in caverns. conclusion the existence of hollows over terrain significantly complicates weather prediction (tatishvili et al., 2020; tatishvili, 2017). the latent heating in a large complex of deep moist convection often produces a cyclonic vortex. these vortices can then initiate additional convection the next day. as a result, they represent a complex forecast challenge: for a numerical model forecast to make an accurate "day 2" forecast, it must make a correct prediction of the location and timing of the convection on day 1 (which is itself difficult); it must represent the vertical structure of latent heating that leads to the development of the cyclonic vortex; it must correctly capture the evolution of the tatishvili et al. 2024 4(1) 62 vortex; and it must determine whether the lifting associated with that vortex will initiate convection again. when steady wind flows around an isolated obstacle, such as a mountain or a mountainous island, atmospheric vortex streets (avss) can be generated on the leeward side of the obstacle under favourable meteorological conditions. the avs pattern exhibits a double row of counterrotating vortex pairs shedding alternately and resembles the classic von karman vortex street; these types of vortex streets have significant weather and climate implications. atmospheric vortex streets may modulate cloud and wind patterns over downstream regions and are an additional reason for forecasting uncertainty. to avoid all these complications together with numerical weather predictions, another model must be run: the microscale model, which depicts local atmospheric disturbance (tatishvili et al., 2022.) this coupling became essential, as georgia is a country with great tourism potential, including winter sport tourism. detailed information on the wind stream velocity can aid in safe paragliding sport and rescue missions. additionally, research outcomes may be important for early warning systems. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contributions m.t., z.k. and i.s. conceived of the presented idea. i.s., n.z., and n.n. performed the analytic calculations. m.t. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research and analysis of the manuscript. acknowledgements the authors thank the national environmental agency for providing meteorological stations data. special thanks go to nasa for their rapid and perfect response on geo-data request. orcid id marika tatishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3327-2208 zurab khvedelidze https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0400-4036 inga samkharadze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2130-624x nanuli zotikishvili https://orcid.org 0009-0001-0096-4542 nana chelidze https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1793-0873 reference tatishvili, m. r., khvedelidze, z. v., samkharadze, i. g., & palavandishili, a. m. (2019). study of local wind field in georgia. journal of the georgian geophysical society, 22(1). https://openjournals.ge/index.php/ggs/article/download/2600/pdf khvedelidze, z., tatishvili, m., zotikishvili, n., samkharadze, i. (2018). the role of mountain-valley terrain in the study of local air flow circulation. georgian electronic scientific journal "physics" (http//gesj. internetacademy. org.ge/physic/; no,1(19) pp. 21-31 khvedelidze, z., tatishvili, m., samkharadze, i., zotikishvili, n. (2023). assessment of the role of local orography in the dynamics of the turbulent air flow of the atmosphere surface layer for certain regions of georgia. proceedings of ihm of gtu, vol.133, 112-116 bianco, l. (2008). the weather research & forecasting model wrf atoc 7500: mesoscale meteorological modeling kutaladze, n., mikuchadze, g., tatishvili, m. (2021). verification of wrf simulated accumulated precipitation annals of agrarian science, volume 19, 1-6 ebert, e. e., damrath, u., wergen, w., & baldwin, m. e. (2003). the wgne assessment of short-term quantitative precipitation forecasts. bulletin of the american meteorological society. https://doi.org/10.1175/bams-84-4-481 khvedelidze, z. (2018). dynamics of regional microcirculation atmospheric processes in the mountainous area, monograph. publishing of ihm of gtu, tbilisi. 2018 p. 101 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3327-2208 https://orcid.org/0009-0009-1793-0873 tatishvili et al. 2024 4(1) 63 khvedelidze, z., samkharadze, i., tatishvili, m., zotikishvili, n. (2020). dynamics of microcirculation movement of air flow and climatic peculiarities in samegrelo-zemo svaneti region. scientific reviewed proceedings of ihm of gtu. vol.129, 113-115 tatishvili, m., khvedelidze, z., samkharadze, i., palavandishvili a. (2019). atmosphere processes and climate parameters variation in river mtkvari basin. int. sc. conf. natural disasters in georgia: monitoring, prevention, mitigation. 117-121. http://dspace.gela.org.ge/handle/123456789/8648 tatishvili, m. r., khvedelidze, z. v., & demetrashvili, d. i. (2020). on some weather forecasting models in georgia. journal of the georgian geophysical society, 23(2). https://openjournals.ge/index.php/ggs/article/view/2727 tatishvili, m. (2017). developing weather forecasting system in georgia. moj ecology & environmental sciences, 2(7). https://doi.org/10.15406/mojes.2017.02.00046 tatishvili, m., bolashvili, n., & palavandishvili, a. (2022). impact of short-term geomagnetic activity on the variability of meteorological parameters. georgian geographical journal. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2022.756 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) some results of the analysis of number of days with strong wind in various regions of georgia in 2019-2022 nazibrola beglarashvili1, mikheil pipia1,2*, nino jamrishvili2, inga janelidze 3 abstract the entire country is at an increased risk of hazardous meteorological events as a result of climate change. this includes a rise in the frequency of strong winds, which represents a substantial challenge to the country's economy. the objective of our research is to identify the locations in georgia that have seen high wind speeds during the past four years. the research examines the spatial distribution of high-velocity winds (defined as a wind speed equal to or greater than 15 m/s) in specific regions of georgia throughout the time frame from 2019 to 2022. analysed and processed wind data from 12 meteorological stations in georgia. by analysing the data from meteorological stations, we created tables and graphs that display the monthly and station-specific numbers for the frequency of strong winds. the study period has revealed the focal points where high wind development occurs. an analysis is conducted on instances of powerful wind as a hazardous meteorological phenomenon in the region of georgia. the rise in the frequency of strong winds has garnered significant attention, particularly within the framework of climate change. keywords: strong wind, climate, dangerous meteorological events, climate change introduction strong winds are a hazardous meteorological phenomenon that causes substantial damage to the economies of nations. the strength of the wind is directly proportional to its velocity; the higher the wind velocity is, the more pronounced its negative impact. a wind is classified as strong when its maximum speed is equal to or greater than 15 m/s. the wind patterns in georgia are influenced by the overall atmospheric circulation, geographical position, and topography. the complex topography of georgia, including plains, hills, valleys, and ridges, causes the occurrence of local winds in the lower layers of the atmosphere. these winds have different speeds and directions compared to the general circulation patterns. furthermore, the uneven distribution of solar radiation on mountainous features leads to significant disparities in their radiation and heat balances, resulting in the formation of local thermal winds with varying speeds and directions [1]. georgia's diverse topography gives rise to varying climate characteristics, such as wind patterns. in flat regions, the climate tends to be relatively stable, while in mountainous areas, microscale changes occur due to the influence of the local topography, including factors such as orography, steepness, and shading. in the mountainous areas of georgia, the number of days with strong winds varies from 0.2 (chrebalo) to 222 (mount sabueti) due to the influence of various factors, including general circulation processes, as well as the magnitude and direction of the average and maximum wind speed. in recent times, numerous studies have focused on investigating strong winds, storms, and tornadoes, leading to the identification of hazardous wind areas throughout the territory of georgia [2-16]. this research examines the occurrence of strong winds (≥15 m/s) in specific regions of georgia for the period from 2019 to 2022. the study period in various locations of georgia has allowed for the identification of the focal points of strong wind production, as well as the analysis of the dynamics and trends of strong winds. methods and materials this part of the paper also includes the study area. all tables should be editable (avoid image files). the title should be written above the table. 1 department of environmental pollution monitoring and forecasting/institute of hydrometeorology, georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia 2 sector of atmospheric physics/m. nodia institute of geophysics, iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 3 georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: m.pipia@gtu.ge mailto:m.pipia@gtu.ge beglarishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) results as a result of processing the above data, we compiled a table (table 1), which allows us to some extent to highlight some regions and municipalities where the threat of strong winds has recently been observed. table 1. average number of days with strong winds in some regions of georgia in 2019-2022 region month annual i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii akhaltsikhe 0 0 0.5 0 1.3 0.3 1 0 0.3 0 0 0 2.4 ambrolauri 0 0 1.3 0.8 0.3 1 1 0.3 0 0 0 0.3 5 bakuriani 16 14.5 5.8 8.8 6.5 10.5 7.8 8.3 2.8 4.5 5.5 8.5 99.5 bolnisi 0.5 2 0.8 0.8 0 0 0.5 0 0.8 0 0.3 0 5.7 gori 2.3 2.8 3 3.5 5.8 3 2.5 2.3 1.5 0.8 1.3 1.3 50.8 mount-sabueti 1.5 2.5 6.8 2 2.8 2.8 1.8 3.3 3.3 4.8 3 4 38.6 photi 5.3 2 1.8 1.8 1.8 0.8 0.3 0.8 0.5 3.5 3.8 4.3 24.9 kobuleti 6.3 5 4.3 2.8 4.5 2 1.8 1.5 3.8 4.3 3.5 3.3 43.1 kutaisi 8.5 6.5 9.3 5.8 5.8 4.3 3 6.5 5.8 9.8 11.5 12.5 89.3 sachkhere 0.5 0 0.8 1 0.5 0.5 0.3 0.3 0 0 0 0 3.9 tbilisi 4.8 5 6 4.8 6.8 3.5 4.8 1.3 2.5 3 3.5 1.3 47.3 zugdidi 1 0.5 0.5 0 0.8 0.5 0.5 0.5 1 0.8 1.5 0.5 8.1 out of the 12 districts listed in table 1, strong winds (≥15 m/s), when their number on average does not exceed 10 days per year, are observed only in 5 districts (akhaltsikhe, ambrolauri, bolnisi, sachkhere, zugdidi), while in 7 districts (bakuriani, gori, mount-sabueti, poti, kobuleti, kutaisi, tbilisi), the average annual number of days of strong wind is more than 24 days, which is a very noteworthy fact. based on table 1, histograms were compiled (figs. 1, 2), showing the distribution of the average number of days of strong winds both by month (fig. 1) and by year (fig. 2) during the study period in some regions of georgia. figure 1. distribution of the average number of days with strong winds (≥ 15 m/s) by month in some regions of georgia (2019-2022) it can be seen from fig. 1 that the maximum average number of days of strong wind according to months will be observed in january and february (bakuriani), 16 and 14.5 days, respectively. additionally, november and december (kutaisi) stand out, with 11.5 and 12.5 days, respectively. june (bakuriani) is also characterized by an indicator of more than 10 days. 0 5 10 15 20 i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi xii day akhaltsikhe ambrolauri bakuriani bolnisi gori mt-sabueti photi kobuleti kutaisi sachkhere tbilisi zugdidi beglarishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 2. average annual number of days with strong wind (≥ 15 m/s) in some regions of georgia (2019-2022) as is clear from section 2, the bakuriani area is outstanding, where the average annual number of strong winds for the research period, when the wind speed is greater than or equal to 15 m/s, is almost 100 days. additionally, kutaisi is outstanding, where the average annual number of days for the research period is almost 90 days. a high rate of the average annual number of strong wind days is also recorded in the territory of gori (60 days), tbilisi (47 days), mta-sabueti (39 days) and black seaside (kobuleti 43 days). for the lowest indicator, the akhaltsikhe and sachkhere districts stand out here, where the average number of strong wind days is less than 5 during the year. discussion our research results show that strong winds (≥ 15 m/s) have been common in recent years. in our opinion, this is due to climate change. since the 1990s, we have been in an active phase of global warming, which has led to the intensification of various dangerous meteorological phenomena, such as drought, hail, frost, and heavy rainfall, including an increase in strong winds. global warming causes changes in atmospheric circulation processes, so the intensity of strong winds is increasing not only in georgia but also throughout the world. climate change has a significant impact on the increase in strong winds and storms, as evidenced by the number of catastrophic storms and hurricanes recorded in almost every part of the world in recent years. for example: • in october 2016, hurricane matthew killed 877 people in haiti [19]. • in september 2021, severe flooding caused by hurricane "ida" killed at least 44 people [20]. • in october 2023, hurricane "otis" killed at least 48 people in the mexican city of acapulco [21]. • in december 2017, the tropical storm "tembin" killed more than 180 people in the southern philippines [22]. in recent years, sudden hurricanes have been recorded in some regions of georgia. the increasing number of such cases encourages us to deepen research in this direction. our goal is to study the current situation with hazardous meteorological phenomena in georgia to facilitate the implementation of appropriate preventive measures throughout the country. conclusion based on the data from the past four years (2019-2022) in the studied regions of georgia, the late autumn and winter months of november, december, january, and february stand out in terms of the frequency of strong winds. during this period, there are an average of 11-16 days with strong winds. based on the research period, two areas (kutaisi and bakuriani) were found with an average yearly occurrence of 90-100 days of strong winds. 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 day beglarishvili et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) based on the study, the majority of locations in georgia experience strong winds for more than 24 days per year on average. this might result in higher economic damage in these areas, affecting both infrastructure and agriculture. climate change increases multiple natural processes, requiring continuing studies to investigate strong winds and other hazardous meteorological phenomena. this will enhance our capacity to mitigate natural disasters. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution n.b. is the author of the idea. performed the analysis of results and supervised the writing of the article. m. p. analysed the database, participated in the analysis of the obtained results and reviewed the manuscript. n j. participated in the calculations, analysis of the obtained results, and review of the manuscript of the article. i j. participated in the calculations and review of the manuscript of the article. acknowledgements the research was conducted with the assistance of the "shota rustaveli national science bond of georgia" [grant number fr-22-2882]. references [1] climate of georgia 8. racha-lechkhumi, kvemo svaneti; transactions of the institute of hydrometeorology: vol.№ 130; elizbarashvili, e. samukashvili, r. meladze, g. 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narovlyansky. climatological processing of meteorological information. //l., gidrometeoizdat, 1989, (in russian) [18] agekyan t.a. fundamentals of the theory of errors. //moscow, science, 1972, (in russian) [19] https://www.ambebi.ge/tag/matthew/?page=1 [20] https://www.ambebi.ge/tag/karishkhali/?page=1 [21] https://www.ambebi.ge/tag/karishkhali/?page=1 [22] https://www.ambebi.ge/tag/karishkhali/?page=2 https://www.ambebi.ge/tag/matthew/?page=1 https://www.ambebi.ge/tag/karishkhali/?page=1 https://www.ambebi.ge/tag/karishkhali/?page=1 georgian geographical journal anthropogenic transformation of landscapes and ecological risk factor assessment zurab seperteladze1, eter davitaia1,* , tamar aleksidze1 , nino rukhadze1 1 ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia *corresponding author: eter.davitaia@tsu.ge introduction at the modern stage of the interaction between nature and society, the interaction of society with nature has reached unprecedented levels, and its results have equalled the geological factor itself. there are almost no natural landscapes left in their original form due to direct or indirect human impact. the research of anthropogenic complexes, in particular the issues of their classification, mapping, and rational use of nature, is relevant. by influencing the nature of human society, various genetic origin complexes—anthropogenic landscapes—are formed. we cannot but agree with the opinion that (milkov, 1978) the role of anthropogenic landscapes in the structure of the earth's landscape envelope is growing at such a pace that in this case the role of the anthropogenic factor in the differentiation of modern landscapes is one of the main problems of landscape science. as for the research of anthropogenic landscapes of georgia, even though the territory has been inhabited by human society since time immemorial and the anthropogenic impact on nature, in the conditions of the mountainous side, is increasingly growing and intense, its theoretical issues have not been fully studied and agreed upon. in this regard, d. is worthy of mention. davit ukleba monograph (ukleba, 1983), where the theoretical, methodological, and constructional issues of the anthropogenic landscapes of the mountain and intermountain bar of georgia are discussed for the first time. the close relationship between natural and anthropogenic factors is covered, and their connection with the main types of land use is shown. the author provides a scientific prediction of anthropogenic changes in landscapes, and measures are set for their more effective (optimal) use in the case of economic impacts. refers to the same issue in the e. davitaya, z. seferteladze textbook (davitaia & seperteladze, 2009) for students of higher education, which represents the first attempt at theoretical and practical research of modified landscapes in the native language. methods and materials georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 48-53 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract all components of the landscape (especially living nature) are affected by anthropogenic effects, which disrupts the relationships established between them over a long geological time and ultimately leads to a change in the natural complex, which in most cases is of a negative nature and determines its degradation. ecologically, anthropogenic transformation of wildlife is particularly harmful, which is carried out by taking advantage of the unreasonable, reckless nature of man, which is based on a purely consumerist spirit. when human society affects nature, a new variety of natural-territorial complexes is formed anthropogenic complexes, which currently occupy a significant part of the terrestrial part of the entire earth. it originated with human society and will exist if there is mankind. therefore, the essence of anthropogenic landscapes, its features, regularities and tendencies of development, productivity; also, issues of sustainability, its potential opportunities and protection against external influences are one of the main tasks of geographical science. keywords: geochemical association, anthropogenic landscapes, anthropogenicity coefficient, ecological problem, total fouling rate citation: seperteladze, z.; davitaia, e.; aleksidze, t.; rukhadze, n. anthropogenic transformation of landscapes and ecological risk factor assessment. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 48-53 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.06 seperteladze et al. 2024 4(2) 49 each type of land use leads to the formation of a special category of anthropogenic landscapes. in addition, landscapes formed by one type of use are noticeably different from landscapes formed by other types of impacts. the degree of transformation of anthropogenic landscapes also varies in a very wide range. on an infinitely large area, man has changed its structure through agricultural, forestry, and agricultural impacts, mining operations, hydropower facilities, expansion of industrial enterprises, road construction, and urbanization. it should be noted here that the role of the human factor in arid landscapes is relatively small; mountain tundra, polar and high mountain deserts, as well as some sections of equatorial forest and northern tundra are practically preserved naturally. however, there are also signs of human expansion: separate industrial hubs and transport routes, as well as the results of the some researchers (preobrazhensk & haase, 2003) believe that the change of natural landscapes and, accordingly, the creation of anthropogenic landscapes occurs at the level of elementary landscape (facies) and microlandscape (urocishche). there is also an opinion that the change of landscapes takes place at other levels of taxonomic units, and not only elementary and micro-landscapes are under anthropogenic influence but also higher-ranked taxonomic units—species (ukleba, 1983; davitaia & kikvadze, 2009) and this is understandable since the landscape the character of one of the main taxonomic units-species and its physiological "face", in addition to zonal and azonal factors, is mainly determined by local physical-geographical conditions and processes, the latter is easily subject to artificial regulation, namely anthropogenic influence. for this reason, as rightly noted by a. ryabchikov (1974), not infrequently, several anthropogenic landscapes of different genetic order are formed within the same natural landscape. as for the higher rank of the landscape—class-type-subtype—their change is hardly subject to the anthropogenic factor. we share this opinion; we point out that until the fundamental change of the geostructure of the territory and the radiation process-landscape-creating main factors by humans, the complexes of the above-mentioned rank will exist in a natural form. here we note that in the rank of anthropogenic landscape, at the level of facies and urochishche, it is possible to consider (in mining-industrial regions and riverside) terrykons, earthworks, korghans, guthagrovi, etc. when studying anthropogenic landscapes, as in the case of studying background (natural) landscapes, different methods are used, more often a complex of methods. since anthropogenic complexes develop in the core of the natural landscape and represent one of the latter's genetic types, we used all the methods used in the study of natural landscapes in their study. in addition, since any kind of anthropogenic and natural complex is dynamic and constantly changing, a historical, retrospective method was used to study the issues of their dynamics, functioning, and further forecasting. when analyzing the topical issues discussed in the article, along with all the above-mentioned methods, it becomes necessary to use such effective research methods of anthropogenic landscapes as landscape-ecological and landscape-geochemical. with the latter method according to the local (regional) features of the chemical "behavior" of the main topomorphic elements, we assessed the environmental situation of several objects in georgia (seperteladze, et al., 2007; seperteladze, et al., 2010). planetary migration of man-made waste, etc. results anthropogenic landscapes are characterized by changes in the exchange and circulation of biophilic chemical elements, disruption of the heat balance, changes in the type and quantity of vegetation and animal world, changes in soil processes, etc. in addition, the transformation of anthropogenic landscapes occurs significantly faster than the self-development of natural (original) landscapes. this indicates, on the one hand, that we should be especially careful and attentive to unwanted changes, which can be catastrophic, and on the other hand, it allows us to regulate and transform them into highly productive cultural systems in a relatively short period of time (one generation of people). man's intervention in the natural environment first disturbed its chemical balance. in this case, both the removal of chemical elements from circulation and their technogenic migration into the natural environment are important. as mentioned above, because of human economic impact, a large number of chemical elements and their compounds reach the earth's surface, which, in case of volatility, move to a dispersed state and engage in intensive migration. the nature of the reaction to the technogenic impact of natural systems depends, first, on the landscape-geochemical situation (state) itself and the geochemical activity of the impact, one of the indicators of which can be considered the clarks of chemical elements (the higher the clark, the more natural these elements are). ability to adapt to systems) and chemical forms of substance accumulation. geochemically inert technogenic flows (neef, 1974) adapt to practically any natural situation, are not seperteladze et al. 2024 4(2) 50 characterized by sharp differences from natural geochemical parameters, and do not cause significant changes. on the contrary, when the technogenic impact is not in agreement with the local conditions, there is a deviation from the state of normal functioning of natural landscapes to the formation of a fundamentally new geochemical situation. one of the main reasons for the breakdown of internal relations in natural-territorial complexes is the specific nature of human impact on nature. this impact (especially on the ecosystem) in a relatively short period of time is often so sudden, strong, and arrhythmic that the living organism cannot adapt to it. the second important problem is the disruption of biogeochemical cycles in anthropogenic landscapes and chemical balance in natural landscapes, which was formed during the long geological period of their development. as a rule, because of human economic impact, there is a deterioration (simplification) of landscapes as a material system, as well as an increase in their productivity, which at the same time is accompanied by a decrease in the complexity and diversity of their structure, both qualitatively and quantitatively. a typical example of simplification of a material natural system is monoculture agricultural landscapes. cultivation of a monoculture, the productivity of which man is interested, is accompanied by monotony of the landscape and deterioration of its balance (disruption). thus, the high specialization of farming ultimately leads to the formation of monotonous, intensive, and cultural, but at the same time, unsustainable, landscapes. therefore, one of the important problems is to develop a mechanism for regulating the productivity and sustainability of anthropogenic landscapes and overcoming the contradiction between human economic activity. in addition, it should be noted that the disturbed forest is poor in species composition; the quality of its wood has deteriorated. however, it should be noted here that it is more resistant to external anthropogenic influences; the species that create it are characterized by the ability to easily adapt to new conditions and a wide ecological spectrum. the growing trend of disturbed forest areas indicates that eventually, the natural forest gives way to secondary forests and forest scrubs. table 1. total indicators of chemical pollution of ore waters of chiatura manganese deposit # points chemical composition formula concentration coefficient coefficient of total chemical fouling 1 akhali darkveti m m2,5 so475hco328 (na +k)62ca27 194,5 188,5 2 akhali itkhvisi m mo,85 so457hco341 ca38mg35(na+k)26 197,85 190,85 3 shukruti m m1,45 so481hco317 ca64mg28 191,45 186,45 4 mgvimevi m m1,44 so473hco325 ca51(na+k)26mg23 199,44 192,44 5 koroxnali m1,97 so480hco318 ca60mg18 187,97 172,97 6 perevisa m0,98 so473hco324 ca63(na+k)22 182,98 176,98 based on the above, it can be noted that the complexes formed by the long-term effects of technogenesis are highly resistant, already adapted, and agreed with the environmental conditions. because of this, the restoration of such soils and landscapes in general is difficult and often almost impossible. one of the necessary characteristics for the landscape-ecological assessment of mining regions and their key areas is the indicator of an anomalous level of concentration of chemical elements. for this purpose, the value of the concentration coefficient (k) was determined—the sum of the indices of the seperteladze et al. 2024 4(2) 51 elements included in the geochemical formula of the ore. the latter gives a certain idea about the qualitative and quantitative assessment of the geochemical association of the mining region. for the overall quantitative assessment of the level of abnormality, the total rate of pollution was determined for each object by the formula (sorokina, 1983). n zc= σ kc(i) (n _ 1) i=1 where n is the numerical value of the number of chemical elements included in the association, kc(i) is the concentration coefficient of chemical elements. according to the mentioned attitude, the total indicators of chemical pollution of ore waters of the chiatura mining region (table 1) are a clear confirmation of the rather severe and anomalous ecological level of the technogenic landscapes formed here of concentration. it is clear from the table that the high concentration of elements and the total rate of chemical contamination are observed directly in the ore mining area (with a radius of 100-200 m). the same regularity is observed in the river kvirila and in the waters of the rion, from the ore body to the mouth kvirila and from the ore body to the confluence in the rion waters (table 2). table 2. chemical pollution of rion and kvirila waters total figures # sampling location chemical composition formula concentration coefficient coefficient of total chemical fouling 1 kkvirila (above chiatura) m m0,23 hco378so415 ca65na31 189,23 184,23 2 kvirila (ander chiatura) m mo,41 hco373so443 ca76mg76 268,41 263,41 3 kvirila (v. shoraphani) m0,23 hco372so421 ca66na26 185,23 180,23 4 kvirila (v. simoneti) m0,27 hco355so425 ca65na26 171,27 166,27 5 rion (under samtredia) hco364so414 m0,17 ca59na30 167,17 162,17 6 rion (above poti) m0,24 hco375so414 ca63mg19 171,24 166,24 it should be noted that we touched on only a few aspects of the geochemical functioning of the landscapes of mining objects (the geochemical functioning of the atmosphere, underground and surface waters and soils under the influence of technogenesis), and as a result of considering the problem with a complex approach that takes into account the human economic impact on the surrounding landscapes of mining regions, it is possible to study them in every way. perfect forecasting of the further transformation and planning of the necessary measures that lead to maintaining the sustainability of the environment even in a highly critical ecological situation. in the process of interaction between man and nature, one of the interesting things is to consider the risk factor. it is generally accepted that risk is an integral part of every living organism. any unwanted human impact is always accompanied by risk. what is the solution? no impact on nature! this is impossible, therefore there is only one solution the "risk" assessment of the possible impact, thereby achieving the minimization of the influence of the undesirable factor (tsaava et al., 2007). the concepts of danger and safety are also related to the concept of risk. ecological danger is the possibility of unwanted processes and events in the environment that worsen the ecological condition of the environment. first, the safety of people and the natural environment is important for us. in its quantitative assessment, a "scale" is used, which is divided into risk units. according to the mentioned scale, g is the averaged unit of ecological safety, and the average life expectancy of a person is taken. seperteladze et al. 2024 4(2) 52 it should be noted that one of the main issues of anthropogenic landscape research and environmental monitoring is situational modeling. when modeling natural systems, first we should achieve sustainable development of natural processes. here, it is interesting how we call development "sustainable". the same system can be sustainable according to one opinion (of the researcher) and unsustainable according to the other opinion. sustainability is one of the fundamental concepts of btk. when we talk about ecosystem sustainability, overtly or covertly, we mean the following: there is an ecosystem that experiences anthropogenic or natural impacts, because of which its components or parameters acquire a certain value (positive or negative). this means that when determining the quantitative characteristics of ecosystem sustainability, both the degree of impact and the critical values of ecosystem parameters or components should be determined according to sumner (2008), an ecosystem's resilience to impacts is its ability to keep its internal structural connections and state or to change to a different type of stable state with different structural connections and state. this can happen when the system is put in a situation that could make it unsustainable. first, it is necessary to assess the amount of risk that brought the system to an unstable state in a certain period. this can happen with strong anthropogenic impacts or with small but frequent explosions. in this case, several scenarios will be played in the model (fig. 1) and an approximate assessment of the transition of the system to an unstable state will be made. the numerical values of this assumption characterize the "risk" of an unstable system. the last stage of risk management is the correlation assessment of ecological damage and economic profit. "risk" management model scenario i natural condition assessment scenario ii assessment of the state of ecocide scenario iii assessing the state of geocide scenario iv correlative assessment of economic gains and ecological damages figure 1. risk management model conclusion an in-depth study of how humans affect the environment and even create landscapes requires first classifying and mapping this system. this needs to be done based on several factors, such as looking at the system in different natural settings, types of farming, the amount of change in created landscapes, their growth, and natural landscapes and how they are connected to human-made changes and others. thus, because of the analysis of the geochemical features of underground and surface waters, soils, and atmospheric air of the landscapes surrounding the objects in an ecologically acute state, it can be concluded that in any region technogenic (mining, water, sedimentary, transportcommunication, tourist-recreational, belligerent, etc.) as a result of the impact, there is a change in the appearance of both individual components and the entire complex and the deterioration of the landscape-ecological situation (condition). a high concentration of chemical elements is observed directly in the "epicenter" of impact (close to the ore body with a radius of 100-200 m), and in the following areal zones, the geochemical activity of elements is slowed down and depleted of ingredients (davitaya, 1990). considering the above, we considered it possible to separate three main landscape-ecological zones on a separate technogenic region: i. ecologically dangerous zone—with significant pollution intensity and strongly expressed zonalcomplex anomalies (area zones of the first order of migration of elements). ii. ecologically less dangerous zone—with average pollution intensity and local-complex anomalies (areal zones of the second order of migration of elements natural-technogenic and partially recultivated landscapes). iii. potentially dangerous zone—with insignificant intensity of contamination and weak anomalies of small component composition (active quarries, bulk complexes and reconnaissance-research areas). seperteladze et al. 2024 4(2) 53 competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. author contribution statements ed and z.s. developed the theory and performed the calculations. z. s. and e. d. supervised the project and conclusions of this work. t. a. and n. r. worked out the technical details and performed the numerical calculations of the proposed experiment. all authors reviewed the results and contributed to the final manuscript. orcid id eter davitaia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1849-9554 tamar aleksidze https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3842-1623 nino rukhadze https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5658-9598 reference davitaia, e. (1990). estimation of the possibility of restoration of technogenic landscapes and their ecological suitability by the method of multifactorial regression analysis (on the example of the chiatura manganese mine). bulletin of the georgian national academy of sciences, 137. no. 2. 329-331. davitaya, e., & kikvadze, t. (2009). optimization problems of technogenic landscapes of georgia. tbilisi. universal. davitaya, e., & seperteladze, z. (2009). anthropogenic landscapes. tbilisi. tsu. milkov, f. (1978). handmade landscapes. moscow. neff, e. (1974). theoretical foundations of landscape science. moscow. preobrazhensky, v., & haase, g. (2003). structure, dynamics and development of landscapes. moscow. ryabchikov, a.m. (1974). structure and dynamics of the geosphere. moscow. seperteladze, z., davitaya, e., machavariani, l., & kikvadze, t. (2010). geoecological state of mountain-ore regions of georgia and optimization of natural environment. bullet. agrarian science. 8. no. 4. 20-26. seperteladze, z., davitaia, e., & kikvadze, t. (2007). natural anthropogenic mining complexes and the problems of their optimization. bulletin of the georgian national academy of sciences, vol. 175, no. 3. 64-66. sorokina, e.p. (1983). mapping of technogenic anomalies for the purposes of geochemcal assessment of urbanized territories, voprosy geografii. no. 120. misl. pp. 43-48 sumner, g. (2005). mathematics for geographers. moscow. tsaava, g., abramya, t., & tsaava, d. (2007). riskology, financial and banking credit managment. tbilisi. ukleba, d.b. (1983). anthropogenic landscapes of georgia. tbilisi. metsniereba. georgian geographical journal mapping of zoonotic diseases in south caucasus tamar chichinadze1,* , zaza gulashvili1 , nikoloz suknidze1 nana bolashvili1 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: tamar.chichinadze@tsu.ge introduction the study area is the south caucasus, located between the black and caspian seas. the south caucasus is bordered by the russian federation to the north, the caspian sea to the east, iran and turkey to the south, and the black sea to the west. politically, it includes three independent states armenia, azerbaijan and georgia (maruashvili, 1978). there is a lot of different nature in the south caucasus because of its location: it covers 190,000 km², its hypsometric height (the absolute height of the surface ranges from -28 m above the caspian sea to 5,208 m in shkhara, georgia) and its position on the border between temperate and subtropical climate zones (because it is mostly mountainous, it is also known as altitudinal climate zonality). high mountains and plateaus occupy more than half of the south caucasus' territory. the main orographic units are the caucasus, the transcaucasian plain, the lesser caucasus, the talysh mountains, and the volcanic mountains of the south caucasus. this geographical feature of the region shapes the natural diversity of the south caucasus, which encompasses almost all natural landscape types. these are: desert landscapes; semi-desert landscapes; dry steppes; moderately dry steppes; wet steppes; humid subtropics; subtropical forest landscapes; mountain forest landscapes; mountain-steppe landscapes; and glacial-nival landscapes (ukleba et al., 1970). due to the diversity of nature, the region often encounters various infectious and pathological diseases. each geographical variable has a great influence on the activation of various infections (climate types) and their spread (runoffs, insects, ticks, rodents, and ungulates). the habitat of the bacteria causing the infection can be a specific type of soil, etc. methods and materials we created about fifty thematic maps to determine the relationship between infection and geographic variables. first, data from seven zoonotic diseases was processed in excel: infection in animals, infection in humans, ticks, and disease outbreak files, followed by a link to them in the arcgis program. files of fleas, rodents, and ungulates, which contribute to the transmission and spread of diseases, were also processed (malania, et al., 2014; kracalik, et al., 2013). in the article, we will talk about only a few variables. georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 66-74 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the presented article relates to geographical studies of the distribution of seven rare animal infections in the south caucasus, digital mapping and geographic and cartographic analysis. the study focuses on mapping infections that are transmitted from animal to animal, from animal to human, and rarely from human to human. all diseases have a cause of spread (bacteria, insects, ticks, fleas) or transmission (mammals, rodents). sometimes the provoking factor of disease and infection is a geographical variable favorable for bacteria (high temperature, humidity, flood, wind, runoff), favorable for bacteria (soil type, acidity or chemical composition of the soil, orography, perspective, landscape), etc. this article focuses on the process and methodology of digital mapping as digital mapping establishes the relationship between geographic variables and the spread of infections. digital maps are also the main means of conducting dynamic research, analysis and further forecasting. keywords: mapping, geodata, infection, cartography, gis analysis citation: chichinadze, t.; gulashvili, z.; suknidze, n.; bolashvili, n. mapping of zoonotic diseases in south caucasus. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 66-74 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.08 chichinadze et al. 2024 4(2) 67 we created digital maps, conducted analysis in arcgis and arcgis pro, and processed the atlas design in adobe illustrator. results during the research process, it is important to prepare a general geographical basis for the study area. the general geographical basis of the south caucasus was prepared in the arcgis at a scale of 1:100.000, however, since the publication of an atlas is planned, a cartographic generalization was made for a3 format. an important stage was the establishment of standards for general elements of the map, hydrographic network, and sorting of roads; the density of settlements was determined according to population census data and others (using digital maps). for maps prepared for publication, the width of lines, size of signs, colour, and others were determined for the above objects in accordance with the scale (fig. 1, 2). it is known that soil is a reservoir for a variety of microorganisms—including bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and viruses—that can be pathogenic to humans and animals. human and animal pathogens in soil can be categorized into four broad groups that reflect their degree of residency in soil: permanent, periodic, transient, and incidental (bultman & fisher, 2013). permanent pathogens are soil inhabitants that spend their entire life cycle in soil and sometimes become infectious for humans and animals. examples include organisms such as clostridium botulinum or clostridium tetani, which produce neurotoxins when ingested in contaminated food or through contaminated wounds, respectively. many zoonotic pathogens also either live in soil or their vectors live or spend part of their life cycle in soil (stefan et al., 2020). periodic pathogens are soil organisms that require the soil environment to complete part of their life cycle. for example, bacillus anthracis, the causative agent for anthrax in humans or livestock, is often found in soils and can survive for long periods as endospores (dragon & rennie, 1995). figure 1. general hydrographic? basis of the south caucasus chichinadze et al. 2024 4(2) 68 it is known that in order to analyze the spread of anthrax, it is important to study soil types (fig. 3) and soil-forming rocks. to do this, we used a soil map of georgia at a scale of 1:500,000 and determined the following parameters in the databases: soil ph, soil chemical elements, moisture index, etc. (agrokavkaz, 2024; matchavariani, 2012). we placed anthrax outbreaks on a digital soil ph map and calculated the frequency (fig. 4). figure 3. soil type, important soil parameter, arcgis figure 2. the general geographic basis of the south caucasus chichinadze et al. 2024 4(2) 69 research has shown that the main foci of anthrax and high levels of intensity were observed mainly where the following type of soil with its own characteristics was observed: 1) alluvial calcareous: soil texture heavy loam, soil organic matter content 3,18 %, soil ph 6,2, average base saturation 20,89mg, average calcium carbonate concentration 2,9%, "soil salinity (ec in microelements/cm)" 115,4, fe in soil 7,66%, not found here cu, mn, zn, ni, as for al in the soil is 15,81%, ti – 0.55. anthrax 155 foci have been identified in the distribution area of this type of soil; 2) cinnamonic: 60 centres of anthrax have been identified in the distribution area of this type of soil. soil characteristics are soil texture light loam, soil organic matter of the content of 4,9%, soil ph 7,4, average base saturation 23,07 mg, average calcium carbonate of concentration 7,5%, "soil salinity (ec in microelements/cm)" 87,0, fe in soil 7,99%, not found here cu, mn, zn, ni; in this type of soil, al makes up 17.07% of the total, and ti makes up 0.57; 3) rendzic leptosols: 51 anthrax centers have been found in the area where this type of soil is found. soil characteristics are soil texture light loam, soil organic matter content 4,95%, soil ph 7,8, average base saturation 28,1 mg, average calcium carbonate concentration 20,13%, "soil salinity (ec in microelements/cm)" 68,8, fe in the soil makes up 12.72% of it; cu, mn, zn, and ni are not found here. al makes up 12.75% of it, and ti makes up 0.68. there are the same number of foci in yellow soils and alluvial acid soils, and then they are spread out in this order: eutric cambisols, chernozems, yellow podzolic gley soils, andosols. red soils, dystric cambisols, mountain forest meadows, and cleysols exhibit the lowest abundance of anthrax. eutric cambisols and mountains have not recorded anthrax (chichinadze et al., 2023). figure 4. anthrax density frequency when studying zoonotic infections, we defined land use at a scale of 1:500.000. overall, global research has shown that the prevalence and incidence of zoonotic diseases are increasing. this increase can be partly explained by changes in land use, including deforestation, urbanization and construction. because after habitat destruction, animal carriers of infections move to different places (bjornstad, 2021). our land use map databases include urban or developed land, agricultural land, grassland, forest, water, wetland, and barren land. we linked a map of land use to a map of anthrax outbreaks, distribution, and frequency. based on the study, anthrax foci in humans are found in cities, foci in animals are found in agriculture, on pastures, farms, and in forests, and foci in soil are found in both urban and rural areas, as well as in forests (fig. 5, 6, 7, 8). chichinadze et al. 2024 4(2) 70 figure 5. land use figure 6. incidence and frequency of anthrax in humans and land use chichinadze et al. 2024 4(2) 71 figure 7. incidence and frequency of anthrax in animals and land use figure 8. incidence and frequency of anthrax in soil and land use in addition to geographic variables, the movement of livestock on roads also contributes to the spread of the disease. for example, we compiled a map of cargo transportation routes and placed anthrax foci in the soil on it. these seasonal routes operate from july to october. a lot of people and places nearby are at risk of getting the disease right now because infected animals leave behind anthrax bacilli in their urine, feces, blood, and other bodily fluids (fig. 9, 10). chichinadze et al. 2024 4(2) 72 figure 9. livestock transport routes, density of domestic animals by municipality scavenger insects that feed on the carcasses of diseased animals can also act as mechanical vectors, causing and spreading the disease. anthrax bacillus makes dormant (non-vegetative) spores when it is exposed to free oxygen. these spores are resistant to environmental conditions and stay infectious and viable in soil, animal fur, water, and plants for decades. (chichinadze et al., 2023). figure 10. cattle tracks, small fragment, kakheti region one of the main factors in the spread of infections is the geographical component – climate. in this regard, climate maps of the caucasus were compiled: elements of the average daily temperature tg, daily minimum temperature tn, daily maximum temperature tx, and the sum of daily precipitation rr. where the database is available on a regular grid of 0.1 and 0.25 degrees, we took long-term daily data (1965-2010) and calculated the long-term average to create the map. since the data on this site can only be viewed below 45 degrees east latitude, we have supplemented the climate maps with data from local weather stations. there was a data grid made from the kriging method's average temperature, chichinadze et al. 2024 4(2) 73 absolute maximum, average annual temperature (calculated from daily maximums), average annual temperature (calculated from daily minimums), and precipitation (multi-year average calculated daily amounts) (fig. 11) (chichinadze et al., 2023). figure 11. intensity of anthrax disease. daily precipitation sum conclusion when drawing up maps is it important: the process involves determining the boundaries of the study area. the task involves creating a large-scale map that outlines the general geographical basis of the study area for detailed analysis. for cartographic generalization, classifying elements of a general geographic map is important. the system should identify the specific thematic map required for a given disease and subsequently present the variables in the databases associated with that thematic map. two things are needed to easily find the link between a thematic map and a certain disease: correlation for a digital map and display of the case for a printed map. it is necessary to update information since all data is constantly processed. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution t.c. and z.g. conceived of the presented idea. n.s. performed the analytical calculations. n.b. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. acknowledgements the authors thank lile malania from the national center for disease control for their exceptional support in supplying the data. funding this research has been supported by defence threat reduction agency (usa), grant #hdtra11910044 “preparation of the atlas of zoonotic infections in south caucasus” orcid id tamar chichinadze https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3741-3485 zaza gulashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9614-314x chichinadze et al. 2024 4(2) 74 nikoloz suknidze https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1792-5260 nana bolashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9854-2614 reference agrochemical characterization of the main types of soils in georgia. (n.d.). retrieved from agrokavkaz.ge: https://agrokavkaz.ge/fermerta-skola/saqarthvelos-dzirithadi-tipis-niadagebis-agroqimiuridakhasiatheba.html bjornstad, a. (2021). the relationship between land use change and disease prevalence. graduate students plan b research projects , open public research access institutional repository and information exchange biology and microbiology, department of biology and microbiology. bultman, m. w., & fisher, f. s. (2013). the ecology of soil-borne human pathogens. in o. selinus (ed.), essentials of medical geology (pp. 477-504). dordrecht: springer. chichinadze, t., gulashvili, z., suknidze, n., malania, l., & bolashvili, n. (2023). mapping and analysis of anthrax cases in humans and animals. georgian geographical journal, 3(1). dragon, d., & rennie, r. (1995). the ecology of anthrax spores: tough but not invincible. the canadian veterinary journal, 36, 295-301. e-obs data access chunks (copernicus.eu). (n.d.). retrieved from climate change service: https://surfobs.climate.copernicus.eu/dataaccess/access_eobs_chunks.php kracalik, i. t., malania, l., tserstvadze, n., manvelyan, j., bakanidze, l., imnadze, p., . . . blackburn, j. k. (2013, september 1). evidence of local persistence of human anthrax in the country of georgia associated with environmental and anthropogenic factors. plos neglected tropical diseases, 7(9). retrieved from www.plosntds.org malania, l., kracalik, i., tsertsvadze, n., manvelyan, j., bakanidze, l., imnadze, p., . . . blackburn, j. k. (2014, february). human cutaneous anthrax, georgia 2010-2012. emerging infectious deseases, 20(2). retrieved from www.cdc.gov/eid maruashvili, l. (1978). history of the study of natural conditions, chapter 1. in physical geography of the caucasus. tbilisi. matchavariani, l. (2012). soils. in national atlas of georgia (p. 71). tbilisi: jsc cartography. samaddar, s., karp, d. s., schmidt, r., devarajan, n., mcgarvey, j. a., alda, a. f., & scow, k. (2021). role of soil in the regulation of human and plant pathogens: soils' contributions to people. national library of medicine. stefan, j., derby, j., & brevik, e. (2020). soil pathogens that may potentially cause pandemics, including sars coronaviruses. current opinion in environmental science & health, 17, 35-40. doi:10.1016/j.coesh.2020.08.005 ukleba, d., jakeli, c., & saneblidze, m. (1970). map of caucasus landscapes. tbilisi. georgian geographical journal assessment of the stability of some landslide bodies in georgia using a numerical-analytical approach levan japaridze1* , nikoloz chikhradze1,2 , tamaz akhvlediani1 , tamaz gobedzhishvili1 , 1 lepl grigol tsulukidze mining institute, tbilisi, georgia 2 georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: levanjaparidze@yahoo.com introduction the history of calculating the stability of landslide-prone slopes dates back 250 years. to date, more than 5000 articles or monographs have been published. most of them are simplified methods for calculating the stability of landslide bodies of assequental and consequental (fig.1, a) type, i.e. without stratification and sliding on stratification planes. in their calculation schemes, the landslide body is divided into vertical blocks, the stability coefficients of the individual block and then of the entire landslide body are determined by solving systems of equations with many unknowns under simplified assumptions. the weaknesses of this type of methods were noted by the authors themselves (janbu, bishop and others). their critical analysis is also given, for example, in (stability modelling with slope/w 2012). these shortcomings remain in a number of recently created computer programs (for example, "rocscience" slide 2, slide 3, slide 6 and others), which are specially designed for landslides and do not consider the stress-deformed state analysis of the landslide body. in contrast to asequential and consequental, the first papers on the stability of block-flexure (fig.1, b) landslides have appeared in recent years, and the first steps are still being taken to develop their stability calculation methods. figure 1. schematic images of a) consequental and b) block-flexure landslides estimating the stability of block-flexure landslide bodies is much more difficult and calculation methods are less compared to consequential ones. as early as 1976, r. goodman and j. bray (goodman & bray1976) wrote that "our knowledge of this type of phenomena is still in its infancy". they compiled possible calculation schemes and identified the forms of collapse: flexural toppling, block toppling, block-flexural toppling (goodman & bray 1976), whose corresponding calculation methods are still in the study and development stage (amini et. al., 2008). georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 14-21 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract numerical-analytical methods of stability of consequential, block-flexure and creep-plastic landslide-prone slopes are being developed at the g.tsulukidze mining institute. these methods have been used: to determine the degree of stability of the landslide-prone blocks remaining after the 2015 landslides in tskneti-samadlo, to calculate the stability of the landslide bodies of m. machavariani and sheshelidze streets in tbilisi, and then to develop their strengthening projects together with the specialists of the german-bavarian bureau of engineering geology and the construction company crp. keywords: numerical-analytical method; stability of consequential blockflexure and creep-plastic slopes. citation: japaridze, l.; chikhradze, n.; akhvlediani, t.; gobedzhishvili, t. assessment of the stability of some landslide bodies in georgia using a numerical-analytical approach. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 14-21 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.02 japaridze et al. 2024 4(2) 15 in the vast majority of the methods developed for the study of landslide events, the stability of the slope is evaluated under the conditions of limit equilibrium, coulomb-moir and similar strength theories, and the influence of the time factor can only be reflected indirectly, according to the studies of recent years, through the limit values of the rock adhesion and the internal friction coefficient, i.e. the strength indicators, at the expense of degradation. this was called the "shear strength reduction factor" and its use in conjunction with the "finite element technique method new era in the theory of landslide stability calculation (rocscience, 2004). consideration of the "shear strength reduction factor" is very important when calculating the stability of block-type slide bodies that maintain a completely stable state for a long time and suddenly lose their stable equilibrium as a result of extreme meteorological challenge or other effects. until then, longterm monitoring of such landslide-prone slopes may not show any significant rock movement. in contrast, creep plastic deformation is more rheological in nature. depending on the intensity of the active forces acting in a particular scheme and the mechanical parameters of the massif, creep deformation can occur very rapidly or very slowly, in periods ranging from a few hours to a hundred years. it is not only the strength (stress, angle of internal friction) but also the deformation characteristics (modulus of elasticity, creep parameters, etc.) of the rock that should be most characteristic. these can be determined by laboratory testing of samples of geological material and/or by processing images obtained from preliminary monitoring. "natural analysis method (back analysis). the means for its full use will be created after the creation and improvement of the apparatus for the direct analysis of selfcreeping plastic landslides. in all these directions, the development of methods for calculating the stability of landslide bodies and anchored constructions is a scientific and technical problem of international level. methods and materials the numerical-analytical version of the method for assessing and calculating the stability of landslide bodies, both unstratified and consequential, was developed at the g. tsulukidze mining institute. this was done by combining a stress analysis apparatus and computer programs, in particular phase2, developed by rocscience not for landslide problems. unlike existing methods, this version makes it possible to simulate design schemes of various forms of possible collapse of landslide bodies, based on an analysis of the stress-strain state of both an unstratified and a consequent structure; the necessary measures to ensure its stability under normal and extreme conditions under the influence of gravitational and seismic forces must be calculated. figure 2. the topographic plan, top view and a section of remained rock block “southern cliff”. the computerised numerical-analytical method for determining the stability of landslide-prone blocks was used to ensure the safety of the remaining blocks after the 2015 landslide events in tskneti-samadlo and is described in (japaridze et. al. 2020). situation images of one example of them are shown in fig. 2. using the calculation diagram and the rocscience phase2 computer program, horizontal (xx), vertical (yy) and shear (xy) stresses caused by gravitational and seismic forces were determined. the corresponding polychromes of vertical and shear stresses are shown in fig. 3. japaridze et al. 2024 4(2) 16 figure 3. finite element model of the "upper cliff" of the 2015 large landslide of tskneti-samadlo the values of engineering geological elements, cohesion (c) and angle of internal friction (φ) for the sliding surfaces of the blocks were determined by preliminary exploration studies (table 1). table 1. the values of engineering geological elements for the sliding surfaces type of discontinuity sliding plane filling cohesion c’ [mn/m2] friction φ [o] slickenside (normal fault) locally fault gouge 0 15-20 join (rough, medium transection) locally clay/silt (0.005) 28 bedding plane in claystone 0.05 22.5 bedding plane in strongly weathered claystone/clay 0.01 20 using rocscience phase2, the values of horizontal (xx), vertical (yy) and tangential (xy) stresses at 30 points of the potential slip planes were determined and entered into excel table 2. at the same points on the slip planes with an angle of θ, the normal n and shear t stresses are calculated according to the following relationships: 𝑁 = 0.5(𝑋𝑋 + 𝑌𝑌) + 0.5(𝑋𝑋 − 𝑌𝑌)𝑐𝑜𝑠2𝜃 + 𝑋𝑌𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝜃 (1) 𝑇 = 0.5(𝑌𝑌 − 𝑋𝑋) 𝑠𝑖𝑛2𝜃 +𝑋𝑌 𝑐𝑜𝑠 2𝜃 (2) where θ is the angle from the positive direction of the x axis to the plane on which the stresses (1), (2) are determined. by inserting them and the rock cohesion c and the coefficient of internal friction  on the sliding surface into the coulomb-maure limit equilibrium formula (3), stability is estimated at each (30) point and then over the entire area of the slope under normal and extreme conditions. [𝑇] = 𝐶 + 𝑁𝑡𝑔𝜑 ≥ 𝑇 (3) the values of the holding stresses [t] are entered into the excel 2 table and the safety factors are calculated at the points of the potential slip surface (fig. 3). for the given natural conditions c = 50 kpa, φ = 22.50, θ = 190, the total safety factor is sf = 6,07 and stability is maintained by a large margin. table 2. excel table for determining safety factors at potential sliding surface points № xx kpa yy kpa xy kpa n kpa t kpa [t] kpa sf 1 1.3 95.4 12.1 19 4.9 15 2.97 2 0.9 92.5 10.8 17 5.0 15 2.90 3 0.6 86.9 9.3 15 4.9 14 2.93 4 1.0 76.9 9.6 15 4.0 14 3.56 5 5.8 66.9 20.7 25 0.6 15 23.93 26 1.3 95.4 12.1 19 4.9 15 2.97 27 0.9 92.5 10.8 17 5.0 15 2.90 28 0.6 86.9 9.3 15 4.9 14 2.93 29 1.0 76.9 9.6 15 4.0 14 3.56 30 5.8 66.9 20.7 25 0.6 15 23.93 japaridze et al. 2024 4(2) 17 due to the possible reduction of the rock strength characteristics in extreme conditions, the results of the calculation for the reduced rock shear strength indicators obtained as a result of additional investigations by the specialists of the bavarian state office for engineering geology are given in table 3, from which it can be seen that with zero cohesion (c=0) and the coefficient of internal friction =150. in this case, the safety factor is less than one (sf=0.88), i.e. the slope will not be stable. appropriate geotechnical measures were therefore recommended. table 3. safety factors due to a possible reduction in the strength characteristics of rocks cohesion c, kpa internal friction φ, (0) safety factor sf 50 22.5 6.07 10 20 2.13 0 15 0.88 the proposed numerical-analytical approach for calculating the stability of a block-flexure landslideprone slope, whose finite element model is shown in fig. 4, reflects the block-flexural toppling mechanism much more accurately than the current kinematic schemes of goodman and bray (goodman & bray 1976). analytical and numerical methods have been developed. it differs substantially from the special computer program "roctopple 1.0" recently developed by the company "rockscience", which literally repeats the idealised calculation scheme of goodman and bray with very important simplifications and assumptions about the stiffness of the blocks, the equal thickness of the layers and their stability shapes. as an example of non-sequential landslides, we considered the landslide-prone areas on the slopes of the orographically left bank of the vere river on the chabua amirejibi road. the stability coefficient of one of the slopes against gravitational and seismic loads was determined (sf=16.5). figure 4. finite element model of block-flexure slope on chabua amirejibi street in a large number of mechanical models describing landslide phenomena, rock masses are considered from the point of view of solid body mechanics. the stability of slopes is assessed under the conditions of limit equilibrium, the coulomb-moire theory and similar strength theories. research in recent years has shown that the influence of the time factor can only be reflected indirectly in these methods by reducing the limit values for rock adhesion and the coefficient of internal friction, i.e. strength indicators. this has been termed the "shear strength reduction factor" and its use in combination with the finite element method has been described as "a new era in landslide stability analysis" (stability modelling with slope/w, 2012). consideration of the 'sliding strength reduction factor' is very important when calculating the stability of block-type consequential and non-stratified landslide bodies, which maintain a stable state for a long time and then suddenly lose equilibrium as a result of extreme meteorological or other effects. until then, long-term mini-tours of this type of landslide-prone slope may show no significant rock movement. creep-plastic deformations occur practically everywhere in rock massifs, and depending on the intensity of the active shear stresses acting in a particular scheme and the mechanical parameters of the massif, creep deformations can develop very rapidly or extremely slowly, in periods ranging from a few hours to hundreds of years. active compressive stresses are mainly those caused by the gravitational forces acting in the rock mass. as far as the mechanical parameters of the massif are concerned, the most characteristic are not only the strength (density, angle of internal friction), but also the deformation characteristics of the rocks: modulus of elasticity, creep parameters. these can be determined by laboratory analysis of samples of geological material taken from the likely landslide-prone slope and/or by processing the image obtained by preliminary monitoring. using the "natural-analytical", i.e. reverse analysis (back analyse) method (japaridze,1987). it should be noted that the means for the full use of the latter will be created in the wake of the creation and improvement of the direct analysis apparatus for creep-plastic landslides, which is still a current problem. 69.15 -308.01 -265.05 -235.78 -210.46 -187.58 -156.67 -156.92 -140.87 -135.04 -122.36 -109.88 -105.55 -104.09 -112.54 -97.86 -88.04 -82.25 -77.17 -70.85 -71.92 -57.64 -55.35 -46.83 -37.18 -33.17 -29.09 0.17 user data tau xy -425.00 -400.00 -375.00 -350.00 -325.00 -300.00 -275.00 -250.00 -225.00 -200.00 -175.00 -150.00 -125.00 -100.00 -75.00 -50.00 -25.00 0.00 25.00 50.00 75.00 40 30 20 10 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 japaridze et al. 2024 4(2) 18 it is difficult to assess the stability of creep-plastic landslide bodies in terms of completeness, accuracy and practical possibility of taking into account the factors, and there are practically no calculation methods. therefore, the modern stage of development of mining massif rheology can be considered only the beginning, when the primary stock of information, ideas, methods and results has been accumulated, but the main researches and practical application of their results are still ahead. in this case, a study on the stability assessment of creep-plastic landslide slopes was considered in order to develop a calculation method which, unlike the method for calculating the stability of a blocktype landslide body, should take into account the elastic-plastic and rheological deformations occurring continuously in the massif containing metamorphic clay rocks and the time factor. this problem is important and relevant both theoretically and practically in general, and also because there are geological formations in many places in georgia where we have "creep-plastic" landslide-prone places. local or large-scale landslides of this type are to be expected in areas with hilly terrain (ministry of environmental protection and agriculture of georgia 2019) if, under the conditions of intensification of infrastructure construction, special attention is not paid to their prevention even at the early stage of design. at present it is possible to determine the functions representing the displacement of the points of the array, to assess the stress-strain state of geotechnical objects taking into account creep, if the analytical solution of the task within the theory of elasticity is known. such tasks include underground structures, namely tunnels, which can be mathematically modelled, for example, using the methods of complex potentials of n. muskhelishvili. however, it is very difficult to do the same when assessing the stability of slopes prone to landslides. the use of finite element methods in a limit equilibrium framework to analyse the stability of geotechnical structures is a significant step forward and has many advantages: − it is no longer necessary to make assumptions about internal stresses (between prisms); − the stability factor is determined after the stresses have been calculated, so there are no iterative convergence problems; − the problem of mobility compatibility is solved; − calculated stresses are closer to reality; − stress concentrations are considered indirectly in the stability analysis; − dynamic stresses resulting from an earthquake can be considered directly under stability conditions. thus, the finite element approach overcomes many of the limitations inherent in limit equilibrium methods. the tools needed to perform stability analysis of geotechnical structures based on stresses calculated by the finite element method are available today, but they also have some weaknesses, and unforeseen problems may arise in the future. such problems are currently the subject of research and will be solved over time as the method is increasingly used in geotechnical practice (stability modelling with slope/w, 2012). due to the great practical importance of the task and the theoretical difficulties of a strict solution, the modelling of the creep-plastic landslide body can also be considered as a so-called "variable module" (nicholson et. al. 1990; technical manual for design and construction of road tunnels, 2009) the results of the research were used in the creep-plastic landslide reinforcement project of tbilisi's vashlijvari district, prepared by caucasus road project llc and the bavarian office of engineering geology, whose plan and section c-c as of the beginning of march 2021 is shown in fig. 5. figure 5. top view and plan of "vashlijvari landslide" with observation points to detect morphological changes in the landslide area, scientists from the university of vienna carried out observations and satellite measurements using the sentinel satellite's interferometric synthetic japaridze et al. 2024 4(2) 19 aperture radar (insar). observation points were placed on the landslide body and beyond (fig. 5). the displacements of the geodetic markers in the direction of the landslide were recorded for 100 days. figure 6. movements of observational geodetic markers in the direction of the landslide the displacements caused by the gravitational forces of the observational geodetic markers shown in fig. 6 make it possible to determine the creep parameters of the entire landslide body massif using the proposed natural-analytical method, the so-called use of time-varying modules. figure 7. polychromy of stresses xx and xy acting in the cc plane when anchors are placed at two levels figure 8. project of anchor reinforcement of the vashlijvari landslide slope and its fragment these data, obtained by the natural analytical method carried out on the landslide body of m. machavariani street, were used for the calculation of the stability of the landslide body, for the preparation of the strengthening project (fig. 7, fig. 8) and its implementation. results 1. the original numerical-analytical version of the method for assessing and calculating the stability of landslide bodies, both unstratified and consequential, was developed. unlike existing methods, this version makes it possible to simulate design schemes of various forms of possible collapse of landslide bodies, based on an analysis of the stress-strain state under the influence of gravitational and seismic forces; 2. proposed numerical-analytical approach for calculating the stability of a block-flexure landslideprone slope reflects the toppling mechanism much more accurately than the current kinematic schemes. as an example of non-sequential landslides, landslide-prone areas on the slopes of the orographically left bank of the vere river were considered. japaridze et al. 2024 4(2) 20 3. morphological changes and displacements of geodetic marks in the direction of a creeping-plastic landslide body in the vashlijvari region of tbilisi were established together with scientists from the university of vienna using the interferometric synthetic aperture radar (insar) of the sentinel satellite. these data were used to calculate the stability of the landslide body using the natural-analytical method, to prepare a project for strengthening the slope and its implementation. conclusion when checking the condition of stability of landslide-prone slopes and calculating their safety factor (sf), the rock mass should be characterised by its long-term shear strength and full deformation expected in all parts of the sliding plane. in cases where the laboratory study of the engineeringgeological material of the object as a result of practically instantaneous tests gives indicators of the peak strength of the rocks, the stability condition cannot be lower than the ratio of the immediate and longterm strength; it is well known that the rock mass passes through different stages of deformation before collapsing and undergoes significant plastic deformations, the magnitude of which depends on lithology, density, moisture, liquefaction during seismic impact and many other indicators. all the rocks that make up the stratified massif and that participate in the landslide event are characterised by different deformation properties. therefore, even if they undergo almost the same deformation at each moment, the stresses acting on them are different. in the less plastic layer, the shear deformation stresses reach the limit, while in the more plastic layer they are still far from the limit. the magnitude of the resistance to slope displacement is not equal to the sum of the resistances of the individual layers at any stage of deformation; the value of the creep-plastic landslide stability coefficient depends not only on the coulomb-mohr strength characteristics, but also on the deformation parameters of the rocks in general, including the creep characteristics; the treatment of displacements caused by the gravitational forces of observational geodetic marks by the proposed "natural-analytical method" compared to the cylindrical dilatometric method indicated in the normative documents of the eurocodes, provides a better opportunity to determine the equivalent creep parameters of the entire landslide body array. due to the great practical importance of the task and the theoretical difficulties of a strict solution, the possibility of modelling a creep-plastic landslide body should be studied by the so-called using the idea of a "variable module". in this case, it is necessary to consider the proposal and development of the "shear modulus reduction" factor similar to the already established "shear strength reduction" factor; the value of the creep-plastic landslide stability coefficient depends not only on the coulomb-mohr strength characteristics, but also on the deformation parameters of the rocks in general, including the creep characteristics; the treatment of displacements caused by the gravitational forces of observational geodetic marks by the proposed "natural-analytical method", compared to the cylindrical dilatometric method indicated in the normative documents of the eurocodes, provides a better opportunity to determine the equivalent creep parameters of the entire landslide body array. due to the great practical importance of the task and the theoretical difficulties of a strict solution, the possibility of modelling a creep-plastic landslide body using the so-called "variable modulus" idea should be studied. in this case, it is necessary to consider the proposal and development of the "shear modulus reduction" factor, similar to the already established "shear strength reduction" factor; geological investigation of a specific landslide-prone site, together with other rock parameters, "naturalanalytical" and/or laboratory methods should determine rock creep parameters, or in extreme cases peak and residual deformation modulus. the quantities are as required, for example, in the "material properties" table of the phase 2.7 program. it should also be noted that the magnitude of the "timevarying modulus" of deformation depends on the stress-strain state of a particular rock mass, i.e. on the overall calculation scheme of the geotechnical situation. similarly, the creep characteristics will not be invariant to stress, since their curves reflect the evolution of both creep and creep-plastic deformation over time. the proposed natural-analytical method has been used: to determine the degree of stability of the landslide-prone blocks remaining after the 2015 landslides in tskneti-samadlo; st. to calculate the stability of the landslide bodies of m. machavariani and sheshelidze streets in tbilisi, and then to develop their strengthening projects together with the specialists of the german-bavarian bureau of engineering geology and the construction company crp. japaridze et al. 2024 4(2) 21 competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution l. j. conceived of the presented idea and performed the numerical-analytical calculations, n. c. conceived of the presented idea, t. a. provided critical analysis, t. g. provided critical analysis and performed the analytic calculations. orcid id levan japaridze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1363-0883 nikoloz chikhradze https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5369-5123 reference amini, m., majdi, a., & aydan, ö. (2008). stability analysis and the stabilisation of flexural toppling failure. rock mechanics and rock engineering, 42(5), 751–782. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-008-0020-2 goodman, r.e., & bray, j.w. (1977). toppling of rock slopes. japaridze, l., neumann, p., & trapaidze, p. (2020). a case study of the slope stability after large landslide in the 2015 flood in tbilisi. tbilisi. japaridze, l. (1987). analytical apparatus for determining rheological parameters by measuring the displacement of the tunnel wall of a circular section driven in an array of elastic-viscous plastic rocks. bulletin of the national academy of sciences, tbilisi. ministry of environmental protection and agriculture of georgia, national environmental agency. department of geology. engineering-geodynamic conditions of the territory of tbilisi and assessment of geological hazards, (2019). tbilisi, pdf. nicholson, g.a. & bieniawski, z.t., (1990). a nonlinear deformation modulus based on rock mass classification. int. j. min. & geological engineering 8, 181-202. rocscience, (2004). a new era in slope stability analysis: shear strength reduction finite element technique. strength reduction. https://static.rocscience.cloud stability modelling with slope/w. an engineering methodology, (2012). geo-slope international ltd.calgary, alberta, http://www.geo-slope.com. technical manual for design and construction of road tunnels civil elements, (2009). us department of transportation federal highway administration, publication no. fhwa-nhi-10-034. december. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-008-0020-2 georgian geographical journal mapping of erosion by wind with rs data and gis (case study of dedoplistskaro municipality, georgia) mariam tsitsagi1,* , lia matchavariani2 , avtandil tsitsagi3 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia 2 faculty of exact and natural sciences, tsu, tbilisi, georgia 3 national agency of public registry, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: mariam.tsitsagi@tsu.ge introduction agricultural soil plays an important role in food production and agricultural development. agricultural soil, including arable land, perennial crops, and pastures, is used for agricultural purposes. the physical and chemical features of agricultural soil determine its suitability for different crops. these soils are usually rich in organic matter, nutrients, and beneficial microorganisms that promote plant growth. agricultural soil fertility is critical for maintaining high yields and ensuring a continuous food supply. the use and protection of agricultural soil include various measures aimed at optimizing its productivity and sustainability. these measures include tillage, irrigation, crop rotation, nutrient application, and erosion control. erosion (water and wind), nutrient depletion, and thus soil degradation are common challenges for intensive agriculture. for example, 42 million hectares of european soils suffer from erosion by wind (klik, 2004). the implementation of erosion control measures such as contour ploughing, terracing, and windbreaks can help prevent soil erosion and preserve valuable topsoil. in georgia, agricultural soil plays a crucial role in supporting the agricultural sector and rural communities. with diverse landscapes and climate zones, georgia has a wide range of agricultural soils that are vital for food production and economic development. however, as in many regions of the world, erosion by wind remains one of the main challenges in georgia, which, among other factors, may affect the productivity and sustainability of agricultural soils. erosion by wind occurs when strong winds carry topsoil particles away, causing loss of important nutrients and organic matter and deterioration of the georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 47-56 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract wind erosion plays a significant role in the degradation of agricultural land. when formulating strategies for mitigating wind erosion, it is crucial to possess precise quantitative data pertaining to the possible soil loss. various types of equations and models are developed for this objective. this article used the weq to quantify the mean annual soil loss resulting from wind erosion on agricultural soils within the dedoplistskaro municipality in eastern georgia. the area of eastern georgia experiences a higher degree of wind erosion because of its specific meteorological characteristics. the agricultural soils in the study area have been identified based on the land use classification provided by the esa in 2021. the climate data for the research area has been obtained from the gwa and modis open-access satellite images. the wsd was used as the primary data source for the computation of the soil erodibility index. to evaluate the impact of vegetation cover, the lai was chosen, which was derived from the yearly average ndvi data acquired using sentinel 2. the width of open plots was determined by applying satellite-based land use and land cover (lulc) open access data as well as data acquired from the ministry of agriculture and environmental protection of georgia. this data specifically pertains to windbreaks and plots that were occupied by perennial crops. the mathematical computations were executed via the web platforms gee and arcmap 10.8. subsequently, a raster file depicting the probable soil loss resulting from wind erosion on the agrarian soils within the dedoplistskaro municipality was obtained. keywords: wind, erosion, weq, rs, gis, georgia citation: tsitsagi, m.; matchavariani, l.; tsitsagi, a. mapping of erosion by wind with rs data and gis (case study of dedoplistskaro municipality, georgia). georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1), 47-56. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.06 received: 19 november 2023 revised: 29 march 2024 accepted: 15 april 2024 published: 1 june 2024 tsitsagi et al. 2024 4(1) 48 soil structure. erosion by wind is particularly common in areas with little rainfall and dry climates, where soil moisture is limited, and vegetation is poor. the lowlands of eastern georgia are particularly affected by erosion by wind, which has a semiarid and continental climate characterized by hot summers and little precipitation. the combination of dry conditions, open plains, and exposed soil surfaces increases the risk of erosion by wind. in addition, the spread of certain agricultural practices, such as extensive cultivation, overgrazing, and inadequate soil conservation measures, further increases the vulnerability of agricultural soils to erosion by wind (ministry of agriculture of the ussr of georgia, 1981). a total of 21.1% of the arable land in eastern georgia is damaged by wind. quantitatively, this number is 102.5 thousand hectares throughout the country (gogichaishvili, 2019). according to previous studies, this number is quite high. according to data from the 1970s, 172,000 hectares of arable land in eastern georgia suffer from erosion by wind. the outer kakheti plateau, sagarejo, gurjaani, and sighnaghi municipalities, and dedoplistskaro municipality are the most affected by wind (ministry of agriculture of the ussr of georgia, 1973). recognizing the importance of erosion by wind as a threat to agricultural soils, there are efforts in georgia (the parliament of georgia, 2023) to implement soil conservation measures and reduce its impact. these measures include the adoption of conservation agricultural practices, such as minimum tillage and contour ploughing, to reduce the risk of soil disturbance and erosion. agrosilvopastoralism and the cultivation of windbreaks contribute to the formation of vegetative barriers that protect fields from strong winds and prevent soil erosion. appropriate land management techniques such as crop rotation, contour farming, and terracing are also encouraged to reduce erosion by wind and maintain soil health. in addition, awareness campaigns and educational programs are being implemented among farmers and landowners to promote sustainable soil management practices. these initiatives aim to promote the importance of soil conservation, the risks associated with erosion by wind, and the adoption of erosion control measures. it is crucial for the government of georgia, agricultural organizations, and interested parties to cooperate in the development of comprehensive soil conservation strategies. this includes conducting research on the development and impact of erosion by wind, implementing monitoring systems, and providing support and incentives to farmers to implement sustainable land management practices. for example, we can cite the resolution of the government of georgia (no. 146, march 24, 2022) on the approval of the rules for restoration, planting, maintenance, protection, and supervision of windbreaks (government of georgia, 2023). these models, accompanied by field and laboratory studies (zou et al., 2015), are actively used in research on erosion caused by wind. these models serve different levels of research, and such research helps those responsible for monitoring and predicting the development of appropriate conservation policies. erosion by wind models varies in complexity (tatarko et al., 2013) depending on the number of variables included in the model. therefore, the selection of the model depends on the objectives of the research and the scale of the obtained result (local, regional, or global). it is also important to have the data available to calculate the variables needed for the model. all erosion models have limitations that lead to some level of inaccuracy in the results obtained. at the initial stage of modelling development, these inaccuracies were much greater; however, the demand for quantitative data was so great that their use did not stop, and over time, along with the refinement of models, the inaccuracies were eliminated. developments in the implementation of geophysical models in geoinformation systems (gis) have made the process of erosion by wind modelling more flexible (rousseva et al., 2016) a quantitative assessment of the risks of erosion by wind is important for the proper implementation of these measures. the first established erosion by wind prediction model was the erosion by wind equation (weq) (woodruff & siddoway, 1965), which calculates the potential soil loss in the study area through factors affecting the development of erosion by wind (climatic, soil erodibility, topography, vegetation). this research aimed to calculate the soil loss due to erosion by wind on the agricultural soils of dedoplistskaro municipality. to achieve the set goal, we must implement the following tasks: a) modelling of the main factors affecting erosion by wind in the study region (climate, soil erodibility, topography, vegetation cover, bare plot length) using open data satellite images and gis analysis. tsitsagi et al. 2024 4(1) 49 b) calculation of the possible loss of soil caused by erosion by wind by collecting the data obtained from the research area and by corresponding arithmetical calculations. methods and materials study area dedoplistskaro municipality is in the extreme southeastern part of the country (fig. 1). the municipality is the second largest in the country by area (2532 sq. km). the study area is the only place in georgia where a semidesert landscape has developed. therefore, the hydrographic network of the study area is poor. in addition to the two main rivers (alazani and iori), there are mainly periodic rivers. there are 4 main climate types in the study area (climate types, 2018): a moderate warm steppe climate with hot summers and precipitation with two minimums per year, a transitional climate from moderate warm steppe to moderate humid climate, a moderate humid climate with moderately cold winters and hot summers and a moderate humid climate with moderately cold winters and prolonged warm summers. the study area is characterized by a wide distribution of fertile soils. according to figure 2, these are kastanozems, leptosols, vertisols, and solontz. kastanozems, which are brown or grayish in colour, are common in the dry steppes of georgia. the vertisols in the study area are relatively younger and belong to the upper tertiary and quaternary ages (matchavariani & kapanadze, 2019). considering the abovementioned natural factors, the study area is particularly vulnerable to droughts (tatishvili et al., 2022). studies based on data from the dedoplistskaro meteorological station have confirmed that rainfall erosivity has increased in recent decades under the influence of climate change (tsitsagi et al., 2018). methods the erosion by wind equation (weq) is an empirical model used to estimate erosion by wind and sediment transport potential. the weq is calculated by the following equation: e = f (c * ℐ * k * l * v) (1) where e is the estimated mean annual soil loss (t ha -1 yr -1); c is a climatic factor, which is calculated based on the mean annual wind velocity and soil moisture; i is the soil erodibility index (t ha -1 yr -1), which quantitatively determines the sensitivity of the soil to erosion by wind; k is the surface roughness factor; l is the unsheltered distance along the prevailing wind (m); and v is the vegetation cover factor, which represents the proportion of the land surface protected by plants. f is a mathematical notation of the functional relationship between erosion by wind and other variables. figure 1. study area – dedoplistskaro municipality tsitsagi et al. 2024 4(1) 50 all the data were processed in arcmap 10.8.1, and the corresponding raster layers were created based on equation 2. 𝐸 = 0.0015 ∗ 𝑟2.718 𝑉 4500 ∗ (𝐼1.87 ∗ 𝐾2 ∗ ( 𝐶 100 ) 1.3 ) ∗ 𝐿0.3 (2) the climatic (c) factor. studies have shown that the movement of soil particles is directly related to the wind velocity and effective moisture, which in turn depends on the temperature and precipitation. areas with higher wind velocities and durations are more prone to erosion by wind. higher values indicate greater potential for erosion by wind. the c factor is determined by the following equation: 𝐶 = 386𝑢3 (pe)2 (3) where u is the mean annual wind velocity (m/s). (pe) is the precipitation-effectiveness index of thornthwite (1936), and 386 is a constant used to adjust local values to the common base. later, thorn white introduced the concept of potential evapotranspiration (pet) (allaby, 2023). in the present study, when determining the с factor, we used the global wind atlas (gwa 3.0) (dtu, 2023) as a source of data on the mean annual wind velocity (fig. 3a). gwa is a free web-based application. pet data (fig. 3b) were obtained by processing the modis images (running, 2017). the mod16a2 v.6 product is an 8-day composite dataset with 500 m pixel resolution. we used 20-year average values of modis-based pet data. after equalizing the pixel resolution of the raster file obtained from the wind atlas and the modis raster file, both raster layers were placed in equation (2) through arcmap's raster calculator, and finally, we obtained a new raster layer representing the с factor (fig. 5a). the soil erodibility index (ℐ) is related to the percentage of nonerodible surface soil aggregates larger than 0.84 mm in diameter (chepil, 1942). it considers soil properties such as texture and organic matter content. clay soils are generally more prone to erosion than sandy soils. soils rich in organic matter and with good structure are more resistant to erosion by wind. the ℐ factor is calculated by the following equation (mandakh et al., 2016): ℐ = 0.31𝑆𝐴+0.17𝑆𝑖+0.33𝐶𝐿 𝑆𝐴−2.59𝑂𝑀−0.95𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3 100 (4) where sa is the sand content (%), si is the silt content (%), cl is the clay content (%), om is the organic matter (%), and caco3 is the calcium carbonate content (%). as a rule, the abovementioned data were obtained through field and laboratory studies. the present study is regional in scope, and in this case, fine-scale data can be used. data on the above soil characteristics were obtained from the world soil database (fao, 2023). the abovementioned database is a global inventory of soils that provides information on the morphological, chemical, and physical properties of soils with a resolution of 1 km. the database did not contain information on organic matter content but instead provided information figure 2. soils in the study area (soils, 2018) tsitsagi et al. 2024 4(1) 51 on soil organic carbon. using formula 4, we calculated the content of organic matter in the soils of the study area. 𝑂𝑀 = 𝑆𝑂𝐶 ∗ 1.72 (5) where soc is the soil organic carbon content (%). the layer obtained from the mentioned database was placed in equation (4) through the arcmap raster calculator, and finally, we obtained a new raster layer representing the ℐ factor (fig. 5b). the roughness factor (k) describes the effect of soil surface roughness on erosion by wind. steep slopes are known to be more prone to erosion than gentle slopes. calculating the same k factor for terrain influence is a rather complicated procedure. in large-scale studies, when the study area is small, it is possible and mandatory to conduct appropriate measurements. in regional studies, k is considered constant and assigned a value of 1. for the length of the unsheltered plot, the same l factor represents the distance along the prevailing erosion by the wind direction. windbreaks, forests, and buildings are perceived as protective barriers. to calculate the l factor, we used the esa land use map (zanaga et al., 2021) and aerial images. studies have shown that the protective function of trees of medium height extends to 20 metres, that of buildings extends to 10 metres, that of orchards extends to 5 metres, and that of vineyards extends to 1.7 metres. through the land use layer, vineyard cadastre, and orthophotos, the distribution areas of each of the abovementioned classes (trees, orchard, cultivation, vineyard) were determined, and after placing the abovementioned distance buffer, we obtained a new polygon, which we assigned a value of 1. in the remaining area, according to the prevailing wind direction (on the kartli plain from west to east, on the kvemo kartli plain from the east, on the iori plateau from the west, and on the alazni plain from the southeast), the length of the plots was measured. the prevailing wind direction in the study area is western. we received data about windbreaks from the agency for sustainable land management and land use (land agency). the vegetation factor (v) quantifies the effectiveness of vegetation in reducing erosion by wind. a higher vegetation cover results in a lower wind velocity at the surface, thereby reducing the wind erosion potential. research has shown a correlation between the normalized difference vegetation index (ndvi) and wind velocity (mao et al., 2013). based on past studies (mandakh et al., 2016; carlson & ripley, 1997), we used the leaf area index (lai) to calculate this factor, which was calculated according to the following equation: lai=2.745*ndvi-0.201 (6) ndvi=((nir-r)/(nir+r)) (7) where nir is the near-infrared band and r is the red band of the electromagnetic spectrum. to calculate the ndvi, we used sentinel-2 10-m resolution satellite images from april-october 2022 (the growing season). using the appropriate algorithm in the google earth engine (gee), we calculated the average values of the mentioned images, and by substituting them into equation (6), we obtained the lai. finally, we used wgs84 and utm38 for all the data. after changing the projection, the raster files representing all the factors were placed in equation (2), and using the arcmap raster calculator, we obtained the final raster image. each pixel in this image contains information about the estimated soil loss due to erosion by wind. figure 3. a – mean annual wind velocity based on wind atlas; b – pet based on modis tsitsagi et al. 2024 4(1) 52 papers reporting something other than experiments, such as a new method or technology, typically have different sections in their body, but they include the same introduction and conclusion sections as described here. results as mentioned above, climatic factors are crucial in the assessment of erosion by wind. in this case, the wind velocity is the main influencing factor. as fig. 4a shows, 42% of the study area has an average annual wind velocity of 0-2 m/s, and more than half of the area is in the zone with an average annual wind velocity of 2-5 m/s. (a) (b) figure 4. distribution of territory (percent) based on wind velocity (a) and pet (b) the second least important climatic factor is soil moisture, which in turn is determined by precipitation and air temperature regimes. according to the modis pet data, the values in half of the study area are greater than 40 mm (fig. 5b), and in the other half, they are 20-40 mm. only a small part of the territory is within 0-20 mm. considering both abovementioned factors, the c factor values (fig. 5a) were spatially distributed in such a way that high values were recorded in the eastern and southwestern parts of the municipality. relatively low values of the c factor are recorded in areas where there is mostly agricultural land. figure 5. a – c factor; b – ℐ factor; c v factor; d – lulc in the study area the results obtained by processing the global data showed that 2 values of the ℐ factor were present in the study area. according to figure 5b, the research area is almost equally divided. a relatively low value of factor i is recorded in the northern part, and a relatively high value is recorded in the southern part. tsitsagi et al. 2024 4(1) 53 table 1. physical and chemical characteristics of the soil in the study area id depth (cm) texture sand (%) silt (%) clay (%) soc (%) caco3 (%) 28044 0-20 clay loam 33 31 36 1.93 0 28045 0-20 clay loam 33 31 36 1.93 0 28046 0-20 sandy clay loam 61 19 20 0.744 0 the results obtained by processing the global data showed that there are three types of soil in the study area. the table shows the soil id in the global database, the depth, and the physical and chemical characteristics of each type. as shown in table 1, id 28044 and 28045 are characterized by a clay loam texture, while 28046 is a sandy clay loam. accordingly, in the case of the first two soils, the percentage of clay is 36%, and in the third, it is only 20%. an important variable in determining soil erodibility is organic carbon, the content of which, in the case of id 28046, is almost 2 times less than that of the other two variables. by placing the mentioned data in the formula, we have 2 values of the ℐ factor. according to figure 5b, the research area is almost equally divided. a relatively low value of the ℐ factor is recorded in the northern part, and a relatively high value is recorded in the southern part. the creation of protective barriers is crucial for controlling erosion by wind, especially in areas occupied by annual crops. considering the protective barriers in the study area, the width of the unsheltered plots in the direction of the prevailing wind was determined. figure 6a shows that the width of the unsheltered plots between the protective barriers is especially large in the central and southwestern parts of the study area. according to figure 6b, 62% of the arable lands in the research area are unheated plots, the width of which is more than 500 meters in the direction of the prevailing wind, and 20% of the plots are within the range of 100-300 meters. vegetation cover has a decisive role in the process of erosion by wind. plant height and leaf area reduce wind velocity, preventing soil particles from being blown up. in dedoplistsakro municipality, high lai values (2 or more) are associated with areas covered by forest (figure). riparian vegetation in the alazni and iori floodplains is associated with medium lai values (1-2), while arable land has low lai values (0-1). the functional relationship of the geophysical variables discussed above showed that the maximum values of annual soil loss in the study area are fixed in the southwestern part of the municipality (fig. 7), while relatively low values are fixed in the main part of the study area. discussions the purpose of this study was to quantify the average annual soil loss on the agrarian soils of dedoplistskaro municipality. the analysis of the main factors of erosion by wind mechanisms revealed that the study area is relatively vulnerable to erosion by wind. this result is confirmed by the resolution of the government of georgia, where the country's municipalities are divided into categories according to the average annual wind velocity. the dedoplistskaro municipality belongs to the first category. in this case, one circumstance is worth noting, namely, the first category of municipalities according to the government's decree were assigned to those where the average annual wind velocity was 9.9 m/s. figure 6. a-unsheltered land width (m), b-spatial distribution (percent) of unsheltered land plots tsitsagi et al. 2024 4(1) 54 according to the data used in our research (gwa), a maximum average annual wind velocity of 5 m/s was recorded in the research area. the reason for this difference may be as follows. the data mentioned in the resolution of the government of georgia (government of georgia, 2023) are based on data from past observations. on the other hand, the results of past research indicate that the average annual wind speed in the research area is within 0-4 m/s (soils, 2018). currently, wind velocity is not measured at most meteorological stations in the country. therefore, global data were selected for the study. here, we assume that the improvement of the observation network in the country will confirm that the global mean annual wind data in the study region are underestimated. the intermittency of the dedoplistskaro meteorological station data prompted us to use modis openaccess data. in this case, the high values of pet (30-48 mm) in the study area are due to local climatic conditions. the study area is characterized by high temperatures (especially in summer) and a low amount of precipitation (this is where the dry pole of the country is located). such a ratio of temperatures and precipitation determines the high values of pet. other studies also prove that there has been an increase in temperature in recent decades, especially in eastern georgia (elizbarashvili et al., 2017). for more concreteness, studies have shown that the study area has the highest average annual amplitude of ground surface temperature in the country (tavartkiladze & kikava, 2021). these conditions, in turn, affect soil depletion, and the depleted and dried soil surface is easily split by the wind. according to global data, three soil types are represented in the study area. based on their physical and chemical features, clay loam soils are characterized by lower erosivity than sandy clay loam soils. the dedoplistsakaro municipality is the main region of grain crops in georgia. accordingly, a large area of the municipality is occupied by arable land. these lands are completely free of vegetation in early spring and late autumn when strong winds are characteristic of the region. of course, there are windbreaks in the research area (unpublished data from the land agency 1550 ha); however, their condition and functionality are separate topics of discussion. therefore, it is logical that the width of the unsheltered plots in the study area is quite large. as repeatedly mentioned, the study area is a region of intensive agrarian practices, and there are few forested areas to which to connect; additionally, the study area is mainly in river floodplains and protected areas. trees and plants on agrarian soils are the aforementioned windbreaks. conclusion in eastern georgia, in the municipality of dedoflitskaro, during the assessment of erosion by wind, it was revealed that the study area is quite vulnerable. the main difficulty in the study was the availability of data needed for model parameters, so the study is based on open-access data, including gwa, modis, esa lulc, and wsd. high-accuracy data are also used in the study; for example, windbreaks in the study area are recorded in the field via gps planning. the combined results showed that although the average annual wind speed (0-4 m/s) is recorded in the research area, low soil moisture, lack of figure 7. average annual soil loss in the study area (t ha -1 yr -1) tsitsagi et al. 2024 4(1) 55 vegetation, and large width of uncovered plots create favourable conditions for the activation of erosion by wind. in the future, it is recommended to include relatively high-resolution data, especially for soils, to obtain more detailed and valid results. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contributions m.t. developed the theory and performed the computations. l.m. aided in interpreting the results and worked on the manuscript. a.t. and l.m. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results, and to the writing of the manuscript. all authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript. funding this work was supported by the shota rustaveli national science foundation of georgia (srnsfg) [fr-21-13962]. orcid id mariam tsitsagi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2874-3749 lia matchavariani https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7151-8566 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(2015). cogitation on developing a dynamic model of soil erosion by wind. science china earth sciences, 58(3). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-0145002-5 https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj/article/view/260 georgian geographical journal development history of the migaria massif karst terrain zaza lezhava1* , kukuri tsikarishvili1 , nana bolashvili1 , tamari tolordava1 , irakli avkopashvili1 , george gaprindashvili1,2 , roman kumladze1,2 , andrei nosenko1 , nino chikhradze3 , lasha asanidze1 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 department of geology, lepl national environmental agency, tbilisi, georgia 3 ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia *corresponding author: zazalezhava@gmail.com introduction georgia is a mountainous country located in the caucasus region, between russia, turkey, armenia, and azerbaijan. as found in many countries in the world, georgia is home to multiple, widespread karst massifs with well-developed karst areas and their associated landforms (asanidze et al., 2017a; asanidze et al., 2019; lezhava et al., 2020; lezhava et al., 2021). different types of karst and pseudokarst features exist in abundance, due to the tectonic influences, nature of the bedrock, geologic structure, and hydrological complexity of the area (tintilozov, 1976; maruashvili, 1971). the migaria limestone massif is part of the medium and high mountain karst in western georgia (tintilozov, 1976; lezhava et al., 2022). it is on the southern slope of the samegrelo (egrisi) range, between the khobistskali and tekhuri river gorges (maruashvili, 1964; gergedava, 1968; gergedava, georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 22-29 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract on the basis of many years of field, experimental and laboratory (dye tracing, laboratory study of bedrocks, data analysis of geological sections, etc.) studies and analysis of available literary sources, the history of karst terrain development was restored on the migaria limestone massif. based on the mentioned materials, it can be said that the karstification on the migaria limestone massif took place throughout the pliocene and partially in the upper miocene, and therefore, the beginning of the formation of the karst terrain can be considered the entire pliocene and possibly the upper miocene as well. the rhodanian orogeny phase (after the middle pliocene, during the cuialnic era), which was continued into the wallachian orophase, led to a new uplift of the caucasus, followed by the activation of karst processes on the surface and underground. new orogenic movements of the early pleistocene enhanced the splitting of limestone suites and the activity of karst formation processes. the same period should be related to the formation of caves (shurubumu, koko, khuru, etc.) developed in the gorges of the rivers of khobistskali, ochkhomuri and their tributaries, namely, the transition from the phreatic to the vadose period and their further development. thus, it can be said that the formation of the karst cavities of the migaria massif occurred mainly before the pleistocene or in the lower pleistocene. in the post-glacial period, along with karst processes, rockfalls, landslides, and mudflows played an important role in the change of the terrain of the study area, as indicated by the displaced boulders of volcanic origin of the bajocian age (tuff sandstone) distributed in the gorges of the khobistskali river and its tributaries, as well as on the terrace steps and verified by our laboratory tests. the bedrocks are found in the upper reaches of the khobistskali river and thay are brought as a result of powerful landslide-mudflow processes. in the last stage of the modern geomorphological cycle, surface and underground karst forms are actively modified by the flows of melted snow and rain water. keywords: karst, cave, limestone massif, georgia citation: lezhava, z.; tsikarishvili, k.; bolashvili, n.; tolordava, t.; avkopashvili, i.; gaprindashvili, g.; kumladze, r.; nosenko, a.; chikhradze, n.; asanidze, l. development history of the migaria massif karst terrain. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 22-29 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.03 mailto:zazalezhava@gmail.com lezhava et al. 2024 4(2) 23 1989; tatashidze et al., 2009; bolashvili et al., 2017; asanidze et al., 2019; lezhava et al., 2022). administratively, the massif is located within the limits of chkhorotsku and martvili municipalities (fig. 1). figure 1. location of the migaria massif on the general map of georgia the massif is separated from other areas by deep gorges: in the north and west it is represented by the gorge of the khobistskali river, and to the east by the gorge of the tekhuri river; to the south it borders the wide depression of the ochkhomuri river, the left tributary of the khobisskali river. the maximum stretch of territory within the mentioned borders is 17 km from west to east, and it reaches 6-7 km from north to south. the massif covers a surface area of approximately 100 km2, with karst phenomena developing on an area of about 62 km2. the crest of the massif reaches its maximum height in the east (2025 m. peak migaria; 1980 m. peak jvari) and gradually lowers to the west, in the direction of otsindale village, up to 650 m. these peaks are separated by deep saddle-like recesses. the northern slope of the massif, which descends into the valleys of khobistskali and its left tributary, is characterized by steep cliffs. to the west of peak jvari, the massif's tectonic zone is made up of two anticlinal hills that are parallel to each other. these hills surround a system of unfilled hollows that have formed in a synclinal structure that is 8 km long and 3 km wide (maruashvili, 1964). as a result, a big part of the migaria massif is made up of a synclinal structure. in the middle of this structure is a closed basin made mostly of barremian rocks. their lowest points are located at a height of 900-1000 m above sea level and are represented by sinkholes, ponors, and underground forms (mainly, wells and shafts). the hollow divides into several secondary hollows, each with its own karst genesis. among them, the tsipuria hollow is notable for its size (length 5.5-6 km, width 2.5 km) and it occupies the western part of the unified hollow. we refer to the system of single hollows mentioned above as the tsipuria hollow. it is much smaller than the tsipuria hollow and is located northwest of the tsipuria basin. it is made up of barremian (urgonian facies) limestones and is closed off from the tsipuria basin (fig. 2). lezhava et al. 2024 4(2) 24 figure 2. geology of the migaria limestone massif (gudjabidze, 2003) the hill of the monoclinic structure is on the southern slope of the migaria massif. it is connected to and sticks to the tsipuria synclinal core, which is made of urgonian facies (barremian) rocks from the migaria massif (maruashvili, 1963; maruashvili, 1973; gorzohon et al., 2004; lezhava et al., 2015; lezhava et al., 2022). it is built with upper cretaceous and paleocene-eocene limestones, and from west to east, its height increases from 1000 m to 1200-1300 m. the mentioned hill is separated from the high syncline massif by dry ravines and uvalas and is fragmented by the gorges of the ochkhomuri river and its tributaries (atamana, vau, khuru, etc.) (fig. 3). figure 3. block diagram of the migaria limestone massif (tabidze, 1966) there are many karst sinkholes in the tsipuria synclinal hollow, on the anticlinal hills that surround it, and on the tops of migaria and jvari peaks. there are also corrie surfaces to be found. with its high energy level (2000 m) and other helpful factors, the terrain supports the active flow of karst processes. this creates caves, wells, shafts, and abysses underground in the core of the massif. the theoretical depth of massif karstification and penetration here is 1500-1600 m. lezhava et al. 2024 4(2) 25 methods and materials the work employs field, experimental, and laboratory research methods. in the research process, the study of existing cartographic and geological material was carried out as well as the field geomorphological and karst-speleological large-scale survey of the territory. in order to study the terrain and identify the karst features, an unmanned aerial vehicle (phantom 4) was used. we identified the composition of the displaced boulder by laboratory examination of its fragment sample, which allowed us to identifie the place of the boulder's break off and, accordingly, the distance of its displacement. we identified the movement routes of underground karst waters and discharge areas using the dye tracing (indicator test) method. it was found that there is a shared karst-hydrological system called the deidzakhi hydrogeological system and separate flows of fissure-karst water. results and discussions it is difficult to argue about the formation of karst cavities in ancient times, especially when the region has been uplifted several thousand meters from its original location and has also been exposed to exodynamic agents for a long time. the development of the karst terrain took place against the background of the geological development of the study area and the formation of the terrain in general (maruashvili, 1963; tintilozov, 1976; lezhava et al., 2019a). it can be said that on the migaria limestone massif, as well as on the massifs of the karst sone of western georgia (lezhava et al., 2019b; lezhava et al., 2019c; asanidze et al., 2021), karst formation and the formation of karst terrain begin in the upper miocene-lower pliocene, when the attic phase of the orogenesis caused a significant uplift of the study area and, accordingly, intensive washing of the surface (edilashvili & gudjabidze, 1954; tsagareli & astakhov, 1971). this process was further influenced and activated in the late sarmatian period, in particular, in the meotian and pontic centuries, which is confirmed by the faunistically dated (meotian-pontic) samegrelo (odishi) foothill sediments washed off from the southern slope of the caucasus, represented mainly by limestone conglomerates. in the cimmerian (middle pliocene), as a result of the sea abrasive action on the southern slope of the migaria massif (also the gaucha massif), the cimmerian sea abrasion flatland is developed, known as the tarzen-otsindale flat surface (level) and currently presented at 700750 m a.s.l. so, the migaria massif went up 700 meters after the cimmerian transgression. this means that by the end of the tertiary period (upper sarmatian age), the massif was at least 1300 meters a.s.l. (maruashvili, 1964). but if we take into account the denudation processes (lezhava et al., 2019d; lezhava et al., 2021), which followed the differentiated uplift and which should have caused its lowering, then it would be much higher. therefore, it can be said that the uplift of the migaria massif and the phase of continental development should have been started at a rather distant moment in the tertiary period, and it is logical that already in the upper sarmatian age, when large-grained molasses (in particular, limestone conglomerates) began to accumulate in the transcaucasian highlands, migaria was hypsometrically on the border of hilly and medium-mountainous terrain (maruashvili, 1964). based on the above, karstification on the migaria massif took place throughout the pliocene and possibly in the upper miocene as well, and therefore, the mentioned period can be considered as the beginning of the formation of the karst terrain. the rhodanian orophase (after the middle pliocene, during the cuialnic era) caused a new uplift of the caucasus (along with the migaria massif), which was followed by the activation of karst processes both on the surface and in the underground (tintilozov, 1976). it was during this phase that the modern structures of georgia's folded mountain system were fully formed. this process continued during the wallachian orophase, which happened at the start of the quaternary period, between the cuialnic and chaudian eras (tsagareli & astakhov, 1971). by our assumption, these phases should be connected with the formation of the migaria deep fault, other fault dislocations, and block tectonics of the entire migaria massif, as a result of which karstified rocks acquire collector properties. among the disjunctive dislocations identified for today, the migaria fault, which passes between the jvari and migaria mountains and extends from the northeast to the southwest, is noteworthy surface (edilashvili & gudjabidze, 1954). as a result of faulting, the barremian, aptian, and albian-cenomanian suites are shorn, and they reach the porphyritic suite. the mentioned fault should create a kind of barrier and make it difficult for the underground karst waters lezhava et al. 2024 4(2) 26 formed in the eastern half of the massif to move westward (representing the watershed of the deidzakhi hydrogeological basin), which is also confirmed by the indicator tests we have conducted. in the mentioned period, along with an important uplift of the study area, destructive processes were revived-weathering and denudation intensified, as well as deep erosion of rivers. as a result of the latter, the area was intensively fragmented. karst processes have intensified. they formed both surface and underground karst features. based on the mutual comparison of the levels developed in the khuru and ochkhomuri river gorges, l. maruashvili (1964) indicates the 3-4 intermittent uplifts of the migaria massif in the recent geological past (in the middle and upper quaternary). the area's periodic upward movement also led to the formation of caves at various hypsometric levels. it seems that the evolution of karst cavities, like other limestone massifs of georgia (asanidze et al., 2017b; asanidze et al., 2017c; asanidze et al., 2017d), was closely related to the action of pressurized waters in the early stage of their development. in the karst cavities of the migaria massif, clear traces of the mechanical and chemical impact of these waters have been preserved so far (smoothed, levelled and perforated surfaces, ceiling corries, rounded arches, deaf pockets and niches). even today, pressurized water plays an active role in the formation of karst cavities (shurubumu, ko, khuru, and other caves) and their systems. early pleistocene (pasadena phase) new orogenic movements enhanced the fissuring of limestone suites and, therefore, the activity of karst formation processes. further evolution of the river network and karst cavities along with it takes place. before the middle pleistocene, l. maruashvili (1964, 1971) indicated different directions of the rivers of the migaria massif. in particular, the ochkhomuri river joined the tekhura river and the skurcha river joined the khobistskali river, and the khobistskali river flowed through the bed of the current shiksha river. in the middle pleistocene (old euxineuzunlan-karangat time) the uplift of the southern slope of the caucasus continues, which naturally affected the activity of groundwater movement and the development of caves. based on the correlation of the terrace levels, l. maruashvili (1964) indicates the uplift at the height of 130-140 meters of the migaria massif after the riss era, which should be connected with the formation of the modern gorges of the ochkhomuri, skurcha, tekhuri, and khobistskali rivers. the formation of caves (shurubumu, koko, khuru, etc.) developed in the gorges of the khobisskali and ochkhomuri rivers and their tributaries should be related to the same period; in particular, the transition from the phreatic to the vadose period and exposure to daylight. thus, it can be said that the formation of the karst cavities of the migaria massif occurred mainly before the pleistocene or in the lower pleistocene. on the southern monoclinal slope of the migaria massif, the widespread depressions devoid of constant flow "dead gorges" seem to have been developed before the last uplift of the massif, which caused the lowering of the karst drainage level. after the deep shifting of the hydro-network, many caves remained completely without water, and in some areas, where there was a significant mass of water moving in depth along the crack, groundwater has produced caves at lower levels and in some cases reached the level of the main river. based on the results of the indicator tests we did on the migaria massif, we can say that the different conditions that led to the formation of caves in the study area showed that separate water streams were formed. in addition, in the modern stage, individual karst caves, shafts, wells and channels of vaucluse springs, formed in the early stages, were united into a single karst aquifer system of "deidzakhi", which is still impenetrable to humans and within which the development of karst cavities is yet underway (fig. 4). figure 4. deidzakhi vaucluses. a) deidzakhi karst streams during the flooding period. b) the junction of the deidzakhi karst streams with the khobistskali river (uav-phantom 4 images) lezhava et al. 2024 4(2) 27 in the post-glacial period, rockslides, landslides, and mudflows played an important role in the change of the terrain of the study area, together with karst processes. this period (in the upper quarternary) should be related to a landslide of grandiose size (more than 1 km wide) that developed on the southern slope of the migaria massif in the vicinity of the village of doberazen. individual areas of the mentioned landslide continue to periodically activate. in general, landslides, rock avalanches, and rockfalls are common events in other parts of the southern slope of the migaria massif as well. here, together with the landslide events in tertiary clays and marls, the limestones are also destroyed and lead to the occurrence of rock avalanches and rockfalls. to the mentioned period should be related developed in the khobistskali river gorge the landslides, rock avalanches and mudslides and huge displaced boulders brought by the latter to the gorges of the khobistskali river and its tributaries. one of these displaced boulders (its mass reaches 150-160 tons) was observed by us on the first terrace level above the left floodplain of the khobistrskali river, at a height of 2-3 m above the river level (298 m a.s.l.), in the distribution zone of the lower cretaceous carbonate rocks (limestones), (fig. 5). figure 5. deidzakhi displaced boulder in the khobistskali river gorge as a result of the laboratory examination of the sample fragment from the boulder, it was identified that it is a volcanic, fine-grained tuff sandstone of bajocian age, the bedrocks of which are found in the upper reaches of the khobistskali river, 4-5 km from the current location of the boulder (it extends for two tens of km in the upper reaches of the khobistskali river). so, the deidzakhi boulder was brought to the direction of the khobistskali riverbed in the limestone distribution zone, at least from 4-5 km. based on the mentioned fact, we can assume that in the upper reaches of the khobistskali river, as a result of a landslide, rock avalanche, or their combination, caused by a strong earthquake, the river bed was completely blocked and a lake appeared; after the accumulation of water mass, its sudden breakthrough took place, and a strong stone-muddy mudflow caused the distribution of boulders and mudflow material on the bed and slopes of the khobistskali river and its tributaries. in this regard, it is particularly noteworthy the lower part of the gvalashara river gorge (the right tributary of the khobistskali river, lugela vicinities) flowing through the middle jurassic-bajocian porphyritic rocks, where the mass of individual smoothed boulders scattered over the flattened right level of the gorge reaches several tens of tons. we observed boulders of similar size in the gorges of other tributaries of the upper stream of the khobistskali river. in the same period, the lower level of the shurubumu cave system should have been filled up with rock avalanches and mudflow materials. it seems that during the mentioned period, some of the karst cavities developed in the migaria massif collapsed and were partially or completely filled with boulders and debris material, or were blocked as a result of the lezhava et al. 2024 4(2) 28 tectonic activity of the region. based on the study of the karst cavities detected so far on the migaria massif, it can be said that the conditions of their conception and evolution in relation to the peculiarities and the hydrological regime of the terrain considerably differ from the contemporary conditions. namely, the evolution of cavities seems to have been more intense in the past, as indicated by the morphological-morphometric indicators of karst cavities, as well as corridors, halls, etc. currently, surface and underground karst features are actively modeled by melting snow and rain water flows. conclusion it is worth noting that according to the scientists (edilashvili & gudjabidze, 1954; maruashvili, 1971; tintilozov, 1976), the leveled surface (tarzen-otsindale step) with the height of 700-750 m a.s.l. belongs to the step formed as a result of the abrasive action of the cimmerian sea at the end of the tertiary period. therefore, it seems that after the cimmerian transgression, the migaria massif experienced an uplift of 700 meters. from this, we can conclude that at the end of the tertiary period, the massif reached at least 1300 m a.s.l. based on the above mentioned, the uplift of the migaria massif and the phase of continental development should have started at a distant moment of the tertiary period (attic phase), and already in the upper sarmatian age, when large-grained molasses (in particular, limestone conglomerates in the mountainous area of odishi) began to accumulate in the transcaucasian intermountains, the hypsometric evolution of migaria should have crossed the edge of the hilly and medium mountainous terrain. thus, we can conclude that the erosion on the migaria massif took place throughout the pliocene and possibly in the upper miocene as well. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution l.z. wrote the manuscript. t.k. b.n. t.t. a.i. g.g. k.r. n.a. a.l. helped to assist general review of the manuscript. c.n. did text and language editing. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. orcid id zaza lezhava https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6236-5174 kukuri tsikarishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5791-9286 nana bolashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9854-2614 tamar tolordava https://orcid.org/0009-0006-8179-2434 irakli avkopashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6749-1735 george gaprindashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6869-9477 roman kumladze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7577-3695 nino chikhradze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8832-2084 lasha asanidze https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7687-4212 reference asanidze, l., chikhradze, n., lezhava, z., tsikarishvili, k., polk, j., & chartolani, g. 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(1963). geomorphological essay of samegrelo. proceedings of the vakhushti institute of geography. v. xviii, tbilisi. (in georgian). maruashvili, l. (1964). geomorphology of migaria limestone massif (odishi). proceedings of the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography. v. χχ, physical-geographical series, tbilisi. in georgian). maruashvili, l. (1971). central caucasus in the book: geomorphology of georgia, tb. (in russian). maruashvili, l. (1973). fundamentals of speleology. publishing house universal, tbilisi. (in georgian). tabidze, d. (1966). models of karst caves. caves and hollows of georgia. 4. tbilisi. (in georgian). tatashidze, z., tsikarishvili, k., & jishkariani, j. (2009). cadastre of karst caves of georgia. "petit", tbilisi. tintilozov, z. (1976). karst caves of georgia (morphological analysis). tbilisi. (in russian). tsagareli, a. l., & astakhov, n. e. (1971). early stage of the neotectonic stage. in the book: geomorphology of georgia, tbilisi., “metsniereba”. (in russian). https://search.proquest.com/pubidlinkhandler/sng/pubtitle/international+multidisciplinary+scientific+geoconference+:+sgem/$n/1536338/openview/2326845611/$b/e4a15a08aca34ea3pq/1;jsessionid=d32aecf51e40ee0e4eea3eec8a5d404d.i-0727d4454794d81c0 https://www.scirp.org/journal/articles.aspx?searchcode=zaza++lezhava&searchfield=authors&page=1 https://www.scirp.org/journal/articles.aspx?searchcode=kukuri++tsikarishvili&searchfield=authors&page=1 https://www.scirp.org/journal/articles.aspx?searchcode=lasha++asanidze&searchfield=authors&page=1 https://www.scirp.org/journal/articles.aspx?searchcode=nino++chikhradze&searchfield=authors&page=1 https://www.scirp.org/journal/articles.aspx?searchcode=giorgi++chartolani&searchfield=authors&page=1 https://www.scirp.org/journal/articles.aspx?searchcode=ani++sherozia&searchfield=authors&page=1 georgian geographical journal hydrological modeling in studies of mountain river basins of central asia olga kalashnikova1,* , jafar niyazov 2 aliya nurbatsina3 1 department of the “climate, water and geoecology”/ central-asia institute for applied geoscience, bishkek, kyrgyz republic 2 laboratory of climatology, glaciology and modeling of water resources / national academy of tajikistan institute of water problems, hydropower and ecology, dushanbe, republic of tajikistan 3 laboratory of water resources/institute of geography and water security, committee of science of the ministry of education and science of the republic of kazakhstan, almaty, republic of kazakhstan * corresponding author: o.kalashnikova@caiag.kg introduction central asia is particularly vulnerable to climate change, as this region is mainly irrigated agriculture, which depends on river runoff formed mainly by snowmelt and glacial waters. mathematical modeling in central asia has been developed since the 1970s at sanigmi (central asian scientific research hydrometeorological institute) in tashkent (borovikova, 1972). mathematical modeling made it possible to move from the use of indirect characteristics of runoffforming factors used in physical-statistical methods to approximate calculations of these factors. water reserves in snow cover, their distribution by height, and other factors influencing the formation of mountain river runoff began to be determined by mathematical expressions. studies have shown that in the tien shan, snow accounts for up to 70 % of the total precipitation and provides 60% of the total river runoff (aizen, 1995). the use of remote sensing data, avhrr satellite images (baumgartner, 1988), and modis has provided information on snow reserves in inaccessible mountainous areas of central asia (gafurov & bárdossy, 2009). over the following decades, hydrological models were developed by various scientific institutes and applied to the different central asian river basins. research work has been carried out for the syr darya and amu georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 38-47 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract nowadays, hydrological modeling is widely used both in the scientific and practical studies of mountain river basins. the purpose of this study is to review the developed and adapted hydrological models in central asian countries. the models have different methodological approaches and peculiarities in data requirements, which the authors describe in more detail in the paper. model calibration and testing results are given for mountain rivers located in kyrgyzstan, kazakhstan, and tajikistan. for the highmountain river basins with small river basin areas (in our study, the average catchment elevation is 2,652-4,170 m.a.s.l. and river basin area starts from 6.6 to 13.7 thousand km2) and availability of the representative meteorological stations, the use of whole hydrological models such as hbv light and hbv-eht show good quality (nse=0.65-0.94, r=0.82-0.97) and practical applicability for rivers runoff estimation. however, such models have a loss of accuracy as they consider the basin a single unit. the snowmelt runoff model (srm) also performed well (r = 0.71), but requires additional input information on snow cover area from satellite images. the soil and water integrated model (swim), as a distributed type of model, uses a partitioning of the basin into hydrotopes, which complicates the calibration of the river basin model but allows a more accurate description of the processes in its basin (has good calibration quality for a river basin nse = 0.88). the water evaluation and planning system (weap) has a user-friendly interface and good calibration quality (nse = 0.61, r = 0.88) for large river catchments (in our case 52.2 thousand km2) and can be applied for water management purposes both at national and regional levels. the paper outlined the main conclusions on the application of these models for research purposes. keywords: hydrological modelling, central asia, mountain river, srm, hbv, weap, swim citation: kalashnikova, o.; niyazov, j.; nurbatsina, a. hydrological modeling in studies of mountain river basins of central asia. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 38-47 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.05 mailto:o.kalashnikova@caiag.kg kalashnikova et al. 2024 4(2) 39 darya river basins, ranging from small river basins such as the ala-archa (hagg, 2006) to rivers with significant basin areas such as the tarim (duethmann, 2016) and ak-shyirak in the high tien shan (hagg, 2018). modeling has been applied both to calculate intraand inter-annual variability of the streamflow (gafurov, 2017) and to calculate individual streamflow components, mainly glacial runoff (hagg, 2007). in addition to research purposes, some hydrological models are used by state organizations (national hydrometeorological services) for practical purposes. for example, hbv light is actively used for river basins in kazakhstan (bolatova, 2018), and in the 2000s srm for rivers in uzbekistan (baumgartner, 2000). several different types of hydrological models have been created so far. these models can predict changes in streamflow with varying levels of accuracy and consider both natural and human-caused changes in the environment. this paper presents hydrological models implemented and tested in various organizations and institutions in central asia (national hydrometeorological services, research institutions, etc.). the authors evaluated the success of these hydrological models on the example of central asian river basins. the presented hydrological models were tested by the authors in previous studies and published in scientific journals and reports for the river basins of kyrgyzstan (kalashnikova, 2023), kazakhstan (nurbatsina, 2019) and tajikistan (niyazov, 2020). the publication presents the main methodological approaches, a brief characterization of hydrological models, and the main conclusions and recommendations obtained by the authors when using them. methods and materials river basins of central asia with basin area from 6,602 km2 to 52,187 km2 with an average catchment elevation of 240 4170 m.a.s.l. were selected as the main study sites. most of the studied rivers (naryn, gunt, and chatkal) have the snow-glacial type of feeding, with a glaciation area of 0.6 4.6 % of the basin area as estimated by konovalov in 1985 (konovalov, 1985) and shabunin in 2018 (shabunin, 2018), with flood peak in june. in addition, two river basins were selected, the headwaters of the naryn river up to the naryn and kyzyl-suu (western, headwaters of the vakhsh river), with glacial-snow type of feeding, with a glaciation area of 7.7-11.9 % of the basin area (konovalov, 1985) with flood peak in july-august, the oba and buktyrma rivers are belonging to the basin of the ertis river (irtysh). basic information on the river basins is presented in table 1. table 1. basic information about the river basins under study*. № name of the gauging station catchment area in km2 mean elevation in m.a.s.l. glacier area mean annual water discharge in m3/s in km2 percentage of the basin area 1 naryn river – tributary to the toktogul reservoir. 52,187 2,851 1063* 2.0 404 2 gunt river – khorog town 13,700 4,170 634 4.6 104 3 naryn river naryn town 10,500 3,570 511* 4.9 92.9 4 oba – shemonaiha village 8,550 1,228 173 5 kyzyl-suu river dombrachi 8,470 3,540 578* 6.8 76.2 6 bukhtyrma – lesnaya pristan 10,700 218 7 chatkal river – khudoydodsay 6,602 2,652 42.3* 0.6 110 note: *glacier area according to landsat images for 2013-2016 (shabunin, 2018). the most widely known hydrological model is hbv. hydrological model hbv light 2.0 were used for runoff model calibration for the upper naryn (naryn town) and gunt river basins. also were used hydrological model hbv3-eth9 for runoff model calibration for the kyzyl-suu and chatkal river basins. the hbv model was developed in 1973 at the swedish smhi (swedish meteorological and hydrological institute) (bergstörm, 1992), has been tested for regions of switzerland (braun, 1992), alpine mountain basins (hottelet, 1993) and further it was improved at the eth zurich. the model has been modified many times, and there are various versions in many countries. currently, the model has a user-friendly interface that allows to visualize data and retrieve them both in graphical form and in the form of tables. the “runoff – precipitation” model hbv3-eth9 we use to calculate runoff of high mountain rivers is an advanced model hbv, which allows us to calculate the daily runoff hydrograph based on meteorological and hydrological ground observation data. the hbv3-eth9 model has a simple non-deterministic structure and does not require a large set of meteorological kalashnikova et al. 2024 4(2) 40 parameters. another model that we use is hbv light 2.0 with semi-distributed parameters, which includes subroutines for meteorological interpolation, calculation of snow accumulation and snowmelt, total evaporation, soil moisture, and runoff generalization to calculate the transformation of water movement across rivers and lakes. data preparation, work with the model, and model optimization were carried out according to the hbv ligh 2.0t user manual (seibert, 2005). the authors of the article used the allowable ranges of the model parameters given in the manual and the materials of previous studies for the mountain rivers of kazakhstan (bolatova, 2018). data preparation, work with the model hbv3-eth9, and model optimization were also carried out according to the hbv3-eth9 user guide (konz, 2003). parameter ranges for model optimization were taken from previous studies prepared for the enylchek of the central tian-shan river (mayr, 2014). the snowmelt runoff model (srm) was developed by j. martinec (1975) first for small european basins and is intended for modeling and predicting daily runoff in mountain basins where snowmelt is a major factor in the runoff. the srm has been successfully tested at wmo for runoff modeling (wmo, 1986) and is partially used for simulated conditions of real-time runoff forecasts (wmo, 1992). the winsrm provides the user with a complete modeling environment in which snowmelt is simulated for mountain basins where snowmelt provides a significant contribution to that runoff. the srm can be used for the following purposes: 1. modeling of daily runoff in a snowmelt season, a year, or a series of years. results can be compared with measured runoff to evaluate model performance and verify model parameter values. modeling can also serve to evaluate runoff patterns in unmeasured basins and under hypothetical climate change. 2. the short-term and seasonal runoff forecast. the microcomputer program includes the formation of upgraded recession curves, which are the ratio of snow-covered areas and cumulative snowmelt depths when srm is calculated. these curves provide the ability to extrapolate snowpack area values manually by the user several days ahead from temperature forecasts so that this input of values is available for runoff forecasts. modernized recession curves can also be used to estimate snow resources for seasonal runoff forecasts. model performance may deteriorate if predicted air temperature and precipitation differ from actual values, but errors can be reduced by periodic upgrades. the srm calibration parameters include: runoff coefficient from snow, runoff coefficient from rainfall, degree-day factor (swarming factor), temperature gradient, critical temperature, rain coverage area, regression coefficient, and run-up time. the srm parameters are not calibrated or optimized with historical data. they can be obtained either by measurement or estimated by hydrologic judgment, considering basin characteristics, physical laws, and theoretical or regression relationships. random successive fits should never exceed the range of hydrologically or physically acceptable estimates. the german hydrological model swim (soil and water integrated model), which was developed at the potsdam institute for climate impact research (germany) by krysanova et al. in 1996, was tested in this study (krysanova, 1996). the hydrological model swim performs calculations using the grass gis software, which is freely available online (geographic resource analysis support system grass gis, 2023). the user manual grass 4.1 was used for working with hydrological modeling (grass 4.1 reference manual, 1993). at the heart of the calculations is the division of the entire study basin into hydrotopes areas with relatively homogeneous conditions and flow indicators, including unified characteristics of soils and land use. in order to put the model into operational practice, it is necessary to thoroughly test it and verify the quality of the results. the following tasks were addressed during the testing: adaptation of the swim hydrological model to the conditions of the studied river; obtaining predictive meteorological information and processing data format in rstudio; conducting model calibration and verification; development of automatic procedures for making forecasts; evaluation of forecast quality. the following meteorological parameters were used in swim for hydrological modeling: maximum, minimum, and average air temperature, precipitation amount, relative humidity, total solar radiation, and average wind speed. the main methodological approach for modeling hydrology in weap (water evaluation and planning system) is the soil moisture method. this method uses a one-dimensional equation that calculates the water balance for the surface soil profile (upper bucket, shallow soil zone) and the deep kalashnikova et al. 2024 4(2) 41 soil profile (lower bucket, deep soil zone) (user's manual weap, integrated water and energy modeling for the syrdarya river basin). the method considers the effect of soil water-holding capacity on runoff, evapotranspiration (et), intermediate runoff, percolation (infiltration), and baseflow. each watershed is delineated based on land use, soil types, and topography. automatic watershed delineation separates catchments based on land use and elevation. land use type and climatic parameters in the soil moisture method together determine how much water infiltrates into the ground, evaporates, or drains to the river. meteorological parameters of the weather stations were used in weap for hydrological modeling: average air temperature, precipitation amount, relative humidity, and average wind speed. the following optimization parameters were considered when evaluating the model calibration for the basin: 1. pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) is an index of the degree of linear relationship between observed and simulated data. it ranges from −1 to 1. if r = 0, no linear relationship exists. if r = 1 or −1, a perfect positive or negative linear relationship exists; 2. pearson’s coefficient of determination (r2) also compares simulated and measured data; it describes the proportion of the variance in measured data explained by the model. r2 ranges from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating less error variance; typically, values greater than 0.5 are considered acceptable. 3. the nash-sutcliffe efficiency (nse) coefficient is commonly used in hydrological modeling to evaluate how well modeled stream flow matches observed streamflow. the ideal value is 1, values of 0.5 are acceptable; most modelers aim for values that are at or above 0.7. 4. the ratio of the root mean squared error to the standard deviation (rsr) is a measure of how much simulated flows deviate from observed hydrographs. an ideal value is zero, but values less than 0.7 are considered acceptable. 5. percent bias (pbias) is a measure of the model’s ability to match the total volume of flow. an ideal value is zero, but pbias of plus or minus 25% of the observed streamflow is considered acceptable. in our study, first of all, the main two parameters were taken into account to evaluate the calibration results of all presented hydrological models for streamflow nash-sutcliffe efficiency (nse) and pearson's correlation coefficient (r). additionally, two morindicators—therratioio of throotomeanasquaredeerroror to the standard deviation (rsr) anpercentnt bias (pbias) are considered. the ideal values and interpretation of these ten embedded statistics are summarized in table 2. table 2. optimize calibration based on visual and statistical assessment. statistical measure ideal and acceptable values interpretation statistical measure ideal and acceptable values interpretation statistical measure ideal and acceptable values interpretation pearson’s correlation coefficient, r if r = 1 a perfect positive linear relationship exists describes the degree of collinearity between simulated and measured data pearson’s coefficient of determination, r2 the ideal value is 1, values of 0.5 to 1 are considered acceptable is an index of the degree of linear relationship between observed and simulated data nash-sutcliffe efficiency (nse) the ideal value is 1; values > 0.5 = acceptable > 0.6 = desired > 0.7 = good > 0.8 = very good how well modeled stream flow matches observed streamflow ratio of the root mean squared error to the standard deviation (rsr) an ideal value is zero, but values less than 0.7 are considered good. a measure of how much simulated flows deviate from observed hydrographs percent bias (pbias) an ideal value is zero, but pbias of plus or minus 25% of is considered acceptable tendency of consistent over or underestimation of flows / match of simulated to observed total volume result the calibration of the hbv-light model. the authors have used data for the naryn river (naryn town) period2010-201919 and for the gunt river (khorog), 2012-2016for thehe calibration of the kalashnikova et al. 2024 4(2) 42 hbv-ehmodell, for the chatkal and kyzyl-suu rivers we used data periods 2012-2016. the data from gauging stations khudoydodsay for chatkal river, dombrachi for kyzylsu river, khorog for gunt riv,er and naryn town for naryn river were used as input data. the weather stations tien-shan, javshangoz, chatkal and sary-tash, which were used focalibration, wereon mainly located in the upper reaches of the rivers. the gauging stations should be located at the exit from the mountain gorge, as well as located above the points of water intake for irrigation and communal services. the data for the calculations were obtained from the historical data archive of the national hydrometeorological services under existing agreements with scientific institutes. preparation of data in gis required a digital elevation model with a spatial resolution of 30 meters (https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov) and shapefiles of modern glaciation, digitized for 2013-2016 using landsat 8 images and randolph glacier inventory 6.0 (2017) (shabunin, 2018). there was a division into altitudinal zones for all watersheds above 200 meters. model hbv3-eth9 calculates in matlab and has the same set of input data as well as glacier mass balance data. we used input data on the simulated mass balance of the abramov glacier for 2012-2016 (barandun, 2018). the hbv-light and hbv-eht models were calibrated for the selected basins. the calibration showed the following results for river basins (fig. 1): naryn nse = 0.84, r = 0.91 (r2 = 0.83); gunt nse = 0.65, r = 0.82 (r2 = 0.67); chatkal nse=0.94, r=0.97 (r2 = 0.95); kyzyl-suu nse = 0.74, r = 0.91 (r2 = 0.82). figure 1. the hbv-light model calibration for the naryn river (sg naryn town) and for gunt river (sg khorog); the hbv-eht model calibration for chatkal river (sg khudoydodsay) and kyzyl-suu river (sg dombrachi). to work with the snowmelt runoff model (srm) necessary to prepare the basin area and altitude zones, for this purpose the basin boundary is defined by the location of the stream gauge on the river and the watershed is identified from the topographic map. for meteorological parameters are needed the air temperature, precipitation and snow cover area data, and for hydrological parameters is needed a water discharge. for the srm model calibrati,on we used hydrological data of the river oba (sg shemonaiha) and meteorological data (mss leninogorsk and ust-kamenogorsk) of the period 2014 2017. the result of calibration is r = 0.71 (fig. 2). kalashnikova et al. 2024 4(2) 43 the comparison of march 2017 flood volumes using the annual analog method. the comparison of march 2017 flood volumes by fourier analysis figure 2. the calibration of the srm model for the oba river basin. to prepare input information for soil and water integrated model (swim), maps of elevation zones, soil types, land use, and vegetation were prepared. a digital elevation model srtm with a spatial resolution of 30m was used to prepare the map of elevation zones. the soil types map was prepared based on data from the fao soils portal (food and agriculture organization of the united nations, 2023). the land use/vegetation maps were based on data from the "global land 30" project for 2014, which used satellite images from the landsat project with 30 m resolution for a multi-year series for the period 2009-2011. in digital format, as of the end of 2015 (www.globeland30.org) land use maps became fully available and contained more detailed division into classes (globeland30. publicly available global geoinformation product, 2023). to calibrate the model swim, we used hydrological data of the river bukhtyrma (sg lesnaya pristan) and meteorological data (mss katon-karagai, national park markakol, ulken naryn, leninogorsk, seleznevka) for the period 2001 2010. the calibration result is a nse = 0.88 (fig. 3). figure 3. the swim model calibration for the bukhtyrma river basin to build the model for the naryn river in the weap software, initial data from the stockholm environment institute (sei) from the water-energy model for the entire syr darya river basin and kyrgyzhydromet data for the naryn river basin were used. the basis for modeling was spatial data from the stockholm environment institute (sei) the hydrosheds digital elevation model with a spatial resolution of 500 meters, glacier area from randolph glacier inventory 6.0 (2017), glacier extent and land use data from the european space agency (esa). kalashnikova et al. 2024 4(2) 44 climatic data for the naryn river basin were interpolated using a temperature and precipitation gradient from weather stations located at the three altitude zones of toktogul (at 983 m.a.s.l.), naryn (2039 m.a.s.l.), and tien shan (3614 m.a.s.l.). water inflow to the toktogul reservoir, data on water discharge and volume were used according to the data of the site of jsc “electric power plants”. calibration of the model was carried out in pest tools. there are four charts we recommend considering in the process of calibration: 1) the monthly time series for observed and modeled streamflow. this chart allows us to observe how well the modeled flow matches base flows, wet weather flows, and seasonality for a range of dry and wet years. 2) annual total of observed and modeled streamflow. the annual total provides a good sense of the general fit of the model over time and of how well the modeled total annual volume of runoff matches observed values. 3) monthly average of observed and modeled streamflow. the monthly average shows how the modeled flow values deviate from the historical record, on average, each annual cycle. 4) exceedance probability for observed and modeled streamflow. the exceedance probability chart ranks each flow measurement by value, the lowest on the right and the highest on the left, for both the modeled and observed streamflow. the values on the x-axis show the percentage of flows that exceed the values of flow. the modeled and observed streamflow should show a close match of exceedance percentages for the two flow records. the monthly time series for observed and modeled streamflow were nse=0.61 and r=0.88. figure 4 shows the results of weap model calibration. a b c d figure 4. calibration of the weap model for the naryn river basin – inflow to toktogul reservoir. a: the monthly time series for observed and modeled streamflow, b: annual total of observed and modeled streamflow, c: monthly average of observed and modeled streamflow; d: exceedance probability for observed and modeled streamflow. blue color: modeled, red color: observed. thus, the study covered 5 main hydrological models (hbv light, hbv-eht, srm, swim and weap) with different methodological and model calibration approaches for the river basin. kalashnikova et al. 2024 4(2) 45 discussion the choice of hydrological models hbv light 2.0 and hbv-eht was due to the fact, that they are freely available and do not require a license. the model has a simple interface and a small set of input data: daily data on air temperature, precipitation and evaporation from a weather station representative of the watershed, and average daily water discharge from a gauging station with natural flow. to prepare the data in hbv-eht, also are needed data on the mass balance of glaciers and the area of modern glaciation in the shape file. calibration of models for small river basins (up to 13,000 km2) with representative meteorological stations in monte-carlo and gap-optimization tools appears to be the simplest and can be successfully supplemented by manual calibration. in contrast to hbv models, the swim hydrological model requires a large amount of incoming spatial data and complete calibration but is flexible in interpreting different situations introduced during scenario preparation. for example, changes in land cover, land use, etc. can be additionally considered. the srm hydrological model, like the hbv models, considers the river basin (as a whole), but requires input information on the spatial distribution of snow cover. the creation of the modsnowtool program (gafurov, 2016) greatly simplifies the acquisition of this data for elevation zones of 200 meters or more. the srm model has a simple interface and does not require a license. the weap software has a user-friendly interface and models river runoff well for large river basins (in our case 52,000 km2), which cannot be modeled in other simpler models, such as hbv, showing low statistical calibration performance. the weap software works in integration with qual2k, modflow, modpath, pest, excel, and gams programs. it is currently actively integrating with leap, nemo, mabia, and macro programs. this integration allows for an integrated approach to the planning of water resources management activities, considering the full range of possibilities of their multipurpose use. conclusion the main task of hydrological modeling is to obtain reliable hydrological forecasts of future water resource change. in the arid conditions of central asia, when irrigated agriculture requires significant water resources in the summer, advance forecasting is important for planning water allocation between upstream and downstream countries. an advance forecast of low water availability during the growing season, to carry out preventive measures for rational water use by water and energy companies, is the most important. assessment of hydrological models’ efficiency, carried out by the authors based on long-term experience, allows using in practice the best models depending on the goals set by users (stakeholders). water availability forecasts based on the developed methods in the presented hydrological models and software, which have good quality and high efficiency, should be used in hydrometeorological services and water management. reliable and early forecasts will allow ministries and agencies to plan water use measures for the growing season, as well as to take timely preventive measures to avoid consequences of low water (water shortage, hydrological drought) and high water (mudflows/floods). authors’ contribution kalashnikova o.yu.: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing original draft, visualization, writing, reviewing and editing, data collection, investigation. niyazov j.b.: conceptualization, methodology, writing original draft, visualization, investigation, data processing. nurbatsina a.a.: conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing original draft, writing, reviewing and editing, data collection, investigation. orcid id olga kalashnikova https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6920-8067 jafar niyazov https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7723-3142 aliya nurbatsina https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4978-5377 kalashnikova et al. 2024 4(2) 46 reference aizen v.b., aizen e.m., melak zh. a. 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(2018). catalog of glaciers in kyrgyzstan. bishkek. www.caiag.kg/phocadownload/projects/catalogue%20%20%20of%20glaciers%20kyrgyzstan%202018.p df water resources of kazakhstan: assessment, forecast, management (2012). water availability of the republic of kazakhstan: state and prospects vol. 21. almaty: arko llp. user's manual weap https://weap21.org/index.asp?action=208 https://water-ca.org/article/kyrgyz-transboundary-rivers-runoff-assessment-syr-darya-and-amu-darya-river-basins-in-climate-change-scenarios https://water-ca.org/article/kyrgyz-transboundary-rivers-runoff-assessment-syr-darya-and-amu-darya-river-basins-in-climate-change-scenarios https://water-ca.org/article/kyrgyz-transboundary-rivers-runoff-assessment-syr-darya-and-amu-darya-river-basins-in-climate-change-scenarios https://cajscr.com/ru/paper/flood-and-flash-flood-risk-assessment-for-sustainable-development-in-the-zhabay-river-basin-kazakhstan https://cajscr.com/ru/paper/flood-and-flash-flood-risk-assessment-for-sustainable-development-in-the-zhabay-river-basin-kazakhstan https://doi.org/10.29258/cajwr/2020-r1.v6-2/1-25.rus http://www.caiag.kg/phocadownload/projects/catalogue%20%20%20of%20glaciers%20kyrgyzstan%202018.pdf http://www.caiag.kg/phocadownload/projects/catalogue%20%20%20of%20glaciers%20kyrgyzstan%202018.pdf https://weap21.org/index.asp?action=208 georgian geographical journal impact of river flow regulation on deltas in the black sea basin vladimir starodubtsev1 , manoni kodua2* ,maryna ladyka1 vyacheslav bogdanets3 1 department of agrosphere ecology and environmental control, national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, kyiv. 2 department of hydro-engineering, georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia. 3 department of geodesy and cartography, national university of life and environmental sciences of ukraine, kyiv * corresponding author: m.kodua@gtu.ge introduction deltas, which form when rivers flow into oceans, seas, and lakes, are of great ecological and economic importance due to their geographical location and rich natural resources—land, water, and biological. however, in the last century and a half, their natural environment has been undergoing obvious degradation due to the construction of huge hydroelectric power plants and reservoirs and increasing diversion of water from rivers for irrigation, industrial, municipal, and drinking water supply, as well as economic development of the deltas. it is the regulation of river flow and intensive economic activity in their basins that lead to significant changes in the natural environment of river deltas. (starodubtsev, 2007) this process is becoming global but manifests itself differently, including wetlands desertification (starodubtsev & petrenko, 2005; starodubtsev & truskavetsky, 2011), depending on the climate of the region, the morphological characteristics of deltas, sediment transport, the volume of runoff and the nature of its regulation, and the intensity of water use and water salinity, as well as several other factors. the conditions in which rivers flow into bodies of water (oceans, seas, estuaries, and lakes) also significantly influence processes in deltas. the most famous in the last century were the strongest processes of degradation and desertification (we use this term not only for drylands but also for wetlands turning into deserts) in delta landscapes. the colorado river is located on the us-mexico border (glenn, 1966). then they manifested themselves catastrophically in central asia and rapidly spread to other climatic zones around the world. to study these processes, large scientific schools were formed in the usa (coleman j.m., vorosmarty georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1), 15-30 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the study aimed to analyse the impacts of flow regulation and economic activity on river deltas in the black sea basin (rioni, chorokhi, kizilirmak, dnieper, dniester, and danube). the relevance of this problem is because changes occurring in deltas significantly affect their natural resources and the prospects for their use. a comparative analysis of the deltas of the basin allows us to show the features and scale of changes occurring in them. the main methods used for this investigation were cartography, gis modelling, and some field expedition routes. natural conditions, delta morphology, sediment transport, flow discharge, and land use shape the features of delta transformation in these rivers. erosion processes are observed as sediment accumulates in deltas exposed to coastal currents and waves (rioni and chorokhi in georgia, kizilirmak in turkey). river flow regulation by reservoirs has reduced the flow of water into the delta and has decreased sediment influx. deltas of the dnieper and dniester rivers in ukraine mostly depend on water releases from reservoirs. it is noticed that both the sea and the river influence the danube delta. the results obtained are useful for the construction and operation of infrastructure in deltas; the use of these areas for recreation, agriculture, and forestry; the protection of ramsar wetlands; and the creation of new human settlements. keywords: river delta, black sea basin, flow regulation, wetlands, coast. citation: starodubtsev, v.; kodua, m.; ladyka, m.; bogdanets, v. impact of river flow regulation on deltas in the black sea basin. georgian geographical journal. 2025, 5(1), 15-30. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.03 mailto:m.kodua@gtu.ge https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7053-2032 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3186-9062 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5164-7117 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0051-1778 starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) c.j., syvitski j.p.m.), in eastern europe and central asia (mikhailov v.n., kovda v.a., borovsky v.m., novikova n.m., etc.), as well as many prominent researchers in other regions, including in georgia, turkey, ukraine, romania, etc., whose works are mentioned in this message. in the black sea basin (fig. 1), we analyse changes in river deltas flowing into the sea and subject to strong influence of alongshore currents and waves (rioni and chorokhi in georgia, kizilirmak and yesilirmak in turkey), deltas formed in long estuaries (dnieper and dniester in ukraine), as well as the danube delta, which has a more complex influence of both sea and river. figure 1. river basins of the black sea: 1 – danube, 2 – dniester, 3 – dnieper, 4 – don, 5 – kuban, 6 – rioni, 7 – yesilirmak, 8 – kizilirmak, 9 – chorokhi economic activities in river basins flowing into the black sea caused a decrease in water flow into the sea by the end of the 20th century from approximately 381 to 348 km3, and sediment from 95 to 52.2 million m3 (jaoshvili, 2002; jaoshvili, 1986). and now this process is actively continuing (mikhailova & jaoshvili, 1998; mikhailova, 2009; berkun, 2015) causing significant changes in land cover in deltas. other factors influencing the formation of landscapes in the deltas of the black sea basin are the economic development of delta plains, including recreational ones, the growth of settlements, and hydraulic engineering construction on the coast and in the water area. sometimes such factors are even environmental protection measures in the delta itself or in the entire river basin. and, of course, the active erosion and accumulative activity of the water masses of the sea remains. methods and materials the main methods used for this investigation were cartography, gis modelling, and some field expedition routes. on the eastern coast of the black sea within georgia, we are considering the deltas of two large rivers, formed in the conditions of mediterranean-type subtropics in the south (chorokhi river) and humid subtropics in the central part of this coast (rioni river) (tsereteli et al., 2011). the chorokhi river basin (22,100 km²) is located mostly in turkey (91%), and only the lower part of the riverbed and delta (9%) are in georgia (fig. 2). dams and reservoirs classify chorokhi as highly regulated. in total, it is planned to build 27 hydroelectric dams with reservoirs in its basin (fig. 3), only one of which is in georgia on the adzharistskali tributary. under such strong regulation by dams, the annual flow of the river decreased from 8.71 km³ (jaoshvili, 2002; jaoshvili, 1986) to 6,824 km³ (sezer, 2009), and the sediment runoff, which amounted (jaoshvili, 2003) to 4,920,000 m³/year (according to other sources, up to 5.8 million m³), decreased accordingly, but we did not find exact values in scientific publications. it was noted that of the total amount of sediment, 2,310,000 m³/year accumulated in the coastal zone, forming a delta and shelf, and 2,610,000 m³/year was carried out to the sea. it was noted that of the total amount of sediment, 2,310,000 m³/year accumulated in the coastal zone, forming a delta and shelf, and 2,610,000 m³/year was carried out to the sea. a rapid decrease in sediment runoff, visible even on satellite images, creates, according to many scientists (jaoshvili, 1986; berkun, 2015; eruz et al., 2005; hay, 1994; mikhailova, 2009) a real threat to the ecosystems of the delta, the erosion of the sea edge, and the destruction of the beaches of the city of batumi. starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) figure.2. basin of the chorokhi (2) and rioni (1) rivers in winter (left, terra satellite image) and geomorphological features of the delta (right, google earth) figure. 3. placement of dams and hydroelectric power stations on the chorokhi river (berkun et al., 2015) indeed, the southern and southeastern coast of the black sea is characterized by the development of erosion and coastal retreat under the influence of regulation of river flow and sediment accumulation in reservoirs (berkun, 2015; hay, 1994; klaphake & waltina, 2011; mikhailova & jaoshvili, 1998). the manifestation of this process in the chorokhi river basin and the interaction of land and sea in the chorokhi delta area became the subject of our research using remote sensing methods. at the first stage of the study, high-quality landsat-5 and 8 images were used for the period 1980-2015 (starodubtsev, 2014; starodubtsev & basarab , 2017a). and at the second stage, the entire period of operation of the landsat 2, 4-5, 8, 9 satellites for 1975-2024 is considered, but these materials have not yet been fully analysed. figure 4. sediment input into the chorokhi river delta in 1987 (left) and 2015 (right) starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) visualization and classification of images (fig. 5) made it possible to approximately assess the processes of some drainage of this delta territory due to the regulation of the river flow and the intensification of its economic development. thus, over the entire territory of 3,730 hectares, the area of water surface decreased from 303 to 251 hectares, the area of wetlands decreased from 594 to 237 hectares, but the area of gardens and meadows increased noticeably from 487 to 921 hectares. the area of forests and built-up areas has not changed significantly. figure 5. the chorokhi river delta in landsat 5 (1987) and landsat 8 (2015) images and their classification: 1 water surface, 2 buildings, 3 impervious areas, 4 wetlands, 5 forests and parks, 6 meadows and gardens. to determine changes in the shoreline of the delta, a shapefile of this delta in the landsat-8 image in 2015 was superimposed on the landsat-5 image in 1987. the results indicate the retreat of the coastline—that is, coastal erosion— in the river mouth and in the area between the mouth and the city of batumi. considering the approximate nature of the values obtained in this way, we note that in the river mouth the coastline shifted to the east over the period 1987-2015 by 120-150 m, and in the area between the mouth of the river and the city of batumi these values were -60-90 m, respectively. within the city of batumi itself, the coastline displacement was mostly less than 1 pixel (30 m) and in a westerly direction. that is, a weak tendency towards sediment accumulation appeared here. this value was clarified using the planet earth mapping service (fig. 6). for this purpose, the function of this service, “change of image over time”, was used, which made it possible to approximately identify the displacement of the coastline towards the sea for the period 2004-2016, amounting to 10-35 m. the same trend of increasing the width of the beach coast in batumi was confirmed in 2018 and then in 2024. to determine specific territories where changes occurred, as well as their areas, the “change detection” function of a specialised program was used (fig. 7). as a result, it was revealed that in the area of the mouth of the chorokhi river, during the period from 1987 to 2015, the areas that most protruded into the sea, covering an area of 14 hectares, were eroded, while at the same time, part of the sediments formed as a result of erosion of the riverbed accumulated at the mouth. in the area from the river mouth to the city of batumi, a one-way directional process of bank erosion was noted over an area of 16 hectares. in the area of the city of batumi itself, sediment accumulation occurred on an area of 20.5 hectares and the coast extended tens of meters into the sea. sediment accumulation was also noted north of batumi (in the bay). starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) figure 6. changes in the coastline in the city of batumi for the period 2004-2018 to ensure the reliability of the data obtained, an attempt was made to analyse images of the landsat space satellites for the entire period of their operation, that is, from 1976 to 2024. however, the images for the period 1976-1986 were of low quality, so the results obtained will be refined. nevertheless, we present them in this message. in the city of batumi for the period 1976-2000 the increase in the beach coast was 45 m over the period 2000-2024 another 30 m, and in total for 1976-2024 75 m. in the middle of the space between the mouth of the chorokhi river and batumi, due to erosion, the coastline retreated to the east in 1976-2000 by 75 m, in 2000-2024 by 50 m, and in total for 1976-2024 by 125 m. at the same time, at the very mouth of chorokhi, the processes of erosion and accumulation alternated in years of different water content. figure 7. changes in the coastline in the chorokhi river delta for the period 1987-2016 results rioni estuaries the rioni river is located in georgia and has a length of 327 km, and a drainage area of 13,400 km2. it begins in the caucasus mountains, and below the city of kutaisi it flows through the fertile colchis lowland with a humid subtropical climate (fig.8) and flows into the black sea near the city of poti. the annual volume of water flow is estimated at 13.37 km3, including 9.62 km3 of water flowing along the northern (new) channel, and 3.75 km3 of water flowing through the southern channel (jaoshvili, 2002). the flow of the rioni is regulated by a cascade of small hydroelectric power stations (lajanuri, gumati 1 and 2, rioni vartsikhe hydroelectric power stations), but due to the small volume of reservoirs, they did not have a significant impact on the river’s water flow. important changes in flow occurred when in 1939 the mouth of the rioni was artificially diverted north of the city of poti to protect it from floods, and in 1959 part of the river's flow was returned to the old channel (fig. 8). the river's water resources are used mainly for energy, water supply and irrigation. starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) figure 8. artificial direction of the rioni flow along the northern channel left and changes in processes on the coast in connection with the creation of a new port (saghinadze et al et., 2024) the formation of the area between the old and new channels of the rioni river (rioni delta) is also significantly influenced by modern changes in the sediment flow of the river (3.54 million tonnes per year) and along-shore sediment flows of the black sea. the natural dynamics of sediment in the river were changed due to flow regulation, but after the reservoirs were filled with sediment, their flow began to return to the natural state (jaoshvili, 2002). the direction of the river flow in 1939 along the northern channel to protect the city of poti from floods had a dramatic effect on the influx of sediment at the mouth of the rioni. as a result, the urban area began to be eroded, so part of the river flow was again returned to the old channel. in 1939, the direction of the river flow along the northern channel had a dramatic effect on the influx of sediment at the mouth of the rioni, protecting the city of poti from floods. as a result, the urban area began to be eroded, so part of the river flow was again returned to the old channel. and in the northern channel, the bank began to grow. the creation of the delta area here and how the river and sea interact were mostly influenced by the movement of sediment along the shore towards the centre of colchic lowland. but with the transfer of the rioni flow along the northern channel, the growth of the coast here led to a shift in the sediment flow to the north (fig. 9). figure 9. sediment movement near the coast of rioni delta (sentinel-2, 2024-06-02) and the process of sediment accumulation between the mouths of the rioni and khobi rivers has intensified in recent decades in connection with the reconstruction of port facilities here and has led to further growth of the coast. it is this process that we studied using modelling methods and remote sensing. the remote sensing technique for the case of rioni was based on a comparison of landsat 2, 5 and 8 satellite images for the period 1975-2016. to compare images from different years, a shapefile (aoi) was created on the 2016 image. it was superimposed sequentially on images from 1975, 1980, 1987, 2000 and 2009, which made it possible to identify an area of the sea that was gradually replaced by land due to sediment accumulation (fig. 10). now such research continues for the period until 2024 using starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) the “change detection” computer technique. the landscapes of the rioni delta were analysed using “unsupervised classification”. the calculation of land and water surface areas within the study area (2943 hectares) showed that the size of the land for the period 1975–2016 increased by 366 hectares (table 1). that is, the rate of land growth during this period averaged 8.93 hectares per year (according to modelling data, land growth towards the sea was 7-8 m/year). it is important to note that in recent decades the rate of land growth has slowed to 6-7 hectares/year. figure 10. changes in the delta coastline for 1975-2016 new lands formed in the coast of the delta are mainly a recreational resource. but it is also important to assess changes in land cover throughout the delta, which serves as a resource for agricultural production, environmental protection measures and the development of the city of poti with all its infrastructure. considering the low quality of landsat-2 images, the assessment of changes in the structure of land cover was made only using the landsat-5 and 8 satellites for the period 1987-2016 (fig.11). table 1. changes in the structure of land cover of the rioni delta within the boundaries of the studied territory for the period 1987-2016, ha land land area, ha сhanges in area, ha 1987 2016 water surface 566 386 -180 buildings (residential, communal, industrial) 668 737 +69 landscape gardening 587 632 +45 forests (including floodplains) 490 682 +192 wet meadows with shrubs 399 279 -120 wetlands 233 227 -6 total 2943 2943 _ in general, changes in the land cover of deltaic region of the rioni river are due to the redistribution of river flow into the northern and southern channels, alongshore sediment flows into the sea and, to a lesser extent, regulation of flow by dams and reservoirs. a study of the dynamics of the delta in time and space based on remote sensing data from landsat satellites showed that for the period from 1975 to 2016. the area of the part of the delta we studied increased by 366 hectares, and the average rate of its increase was 8.93 hectares/year. the protrusion of the delta into the sea occurs in the northern and middle part of this region, in the southern part (the city of poti) the coastline is now relatively stable with tendency to erosion, and to the south there is coastal erosion. the obtained parameters for the increase in the rioni delta can be used for forecasting for the coming years, especially in connection starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) with the construction of a new port. the new lands formed in the delta of the rioni river are mainly a recreational resource. but throughout the delta there is an improvement in the agro-ecological condition of the lands, which serve as a resource for the development of the region. figure 11. changes in the structure of land cover in the rioni river delta. (in both legends: 1 water surface, 2 wetlands, 3 wet meadows. in the legend for the 1987 image: 4 buildings, 5 gardens and parks, 6 forests. in the legend for the 2016 image.: 4, 5 and 8 – individual, communal and industrial buildings, 6 – landscape gardening, 7 – forests delta of the kizilirmak river river deltas on the southern coast of the black sea (within turkey) are formed both under flow regulation by dams and reservoirs and under the influence of powerful waves and latitudinal longshore currents. the largest river here is the kizilirmak, whose delta is of international importance as a wetland for waterfowl habitat. farmland, including irrigated fields and fruit plantations, occupies the flat areas. the length of the river is 1355 km, and the drainage area is 78646 km² (jaoshvili, 2002). it originates in the mountains in inland anatolia; in its lower reaches, it cuts into a plateau to a depth of about 600 m and flows into the sea on a swampy plain near the city of bafra. the river mouth has formed an underwater sandbar (jaoshvili, 2002), which influences the modern processes of coastal erosion. the modern delta, which is a plain dotted with a network of channels and canals, was formed over a period of about 10,000 years (erdoğan, 1970). it lies at altitudes of 0-15 m and ends in a swampy lowland with lagoons, bordered by dunes. today, most of the delta is used for agricultural production, including rice growing. and behind the barrier of sand dunes, the configuration of which was determined by the interaction of the influx of river sediments and alongshore sea currents, lagoons were formed that have unique environmental value (erdoğan, 1970). our research includes an analytical review of published materials on the problem of degradation of delta wetlands, as well as an analysis of temporal and spatial changes in the kizilirmak river delta based on landsat satellite images for 1980–2016 and then until 2024. big changes in the land cover of the delta happen because of 1) erosion and buildup of materials on the sea coast (algan et al., 2000; hay, 1994); 2) less river water and sediment flowing into the delta, which harms the wetland areas; 3) different ways the land is used (like for irrigation, farming, grazing, and protecting wetlands). erosionaccumulation processes on the sea coast depend on the wave activity of the sea and along-shore currents, on the one hand, and the accumulation of river sediments, on the other. in the kizilirmak delta, the amount of river sediment coming in dropped significantly after the altynkaya and derbent reservoirs were built nearby (fig. 12). and the activity in the sea (winds, waves, currents) remained almost the same. therefore, we compared the delta coastline in 2010 and 1980, that is, over 3 decades, as well as in 2014 (fig. 13). starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) figure 12. the kizilirmak river delta before and after the construction of reservoirs in the lower reaches and straightening of the riverbed (landsat images 2 and 8) and the activity of the sea (winds, waves, currents) remained almost the same (fig. 13). therefore, we compared the delta coastline in 2010 and 1980, that is, over 3 decades, as well as in 2014 (fig. 13). an approximate graphical assessment of changes in the coastline for the period 1980-2010. showed that the western coast (fig. 13, site 4) has changed little. erosion here appeared at a distance of 0-60 m, that is, within one pixel on the raster image. erosion was more severe to the east of the river mouth (fig. 13, site 1), spreading here over a distance from 60-120 m to 360-420 m (6-7 pixels). at the same time, on the eastern coast, areas of sediment accumulation were identified, where the sea retreated by 120240 m (site 2) and from 120-180 to 240-360 m (fig. 13, site 3). we compared these results with data from (ozturk et al., 2015), according to which coastal erosion east of the river mouth amounted to 655 m. moreover, special spurs (fig. 14) weaken erosion processes here, but do not prevent them completely. figure 13. changes in the delta coastline for the period 1980-2010 (1, 4 – erosion; 2, 3 accumulation) conclusions: a) reduced water and sediment flow into the kizilirmak river delta and economic activities in it have caused noticeable changes in land cover; b) the interaction of land and sea in conditions of a decrease in the influx of river sediments caused the activation of erosion-accumulation processes in the delta. wave activity and alongshore currents caused coastal erosion mainly east of the river mouth and local accumulation of sediment on the east coast; c) the water surface of lakes and estuaries in the delta has decreased by 1-2 thousand hectares over a 30-year period due to the transformation of water bodies into wetlands. quantitative indicators of the decrease in wetlands in the kizilirmak teka delta need to be clarified by further monitoring. dnieper delta the dnieper river flows through the territory of three countries ukraine, belarus and russia. the total area of the basin is 504 thousand km2, of which: 20% is in the russian federation, 23% in the republic of belarus, and 57% (296,317 thousand km2) within ukraine. the total length of the dnieper is 2,201 km, within ukraine – 1,121 km (vishnevsky, 2011). before the war between the russian federation and ukraine, more than 20 million people lived in the ukrainian part of the dnieper basin, starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) but now this number has significantly decreased. the plowed area of the basin is 69% of its total area, that is, it is quite high. figure 14. protection of the banks from erosion east of the mouth of the kizilirmak river with special spurs created in 1999-2010 (sentinel-2) the degree of regulation of the flow of the dnipro is very high. the river is regulated by a cascade of dnieper reservoirs – kyiv (previously – kiev), kaniv, kremenchuk, kamianske (previously dniprodzerzhynsk), dnipro, kakhovka (destroyed on 6 june 2023). regulation of the dnieper flow began back in 1932 with the construction of the dnieper hydroelectric power station, but this did not noticeably affect the landscapes of the river delta. more significant changes in the water regime of the delta and its ecosystems began in 1956-1957, when the large kakhovka reservoir, created for irrigation, energy, water supply and water transport, was filled. and then, until 1975, a whole cascade of 6 reservoirs was created with a total volume of 43.8 km3, a useful volume of 18.5 km3 and an area of about 7000 km2. during the same period, large canals were built that drain water from the dnieper (north crimean, kakhovsky, dnieper-donbass, dnieper-ingulets, dnieper – kryvy rig), and the consumption of dnieper water for municipal, industrial and agricultural water supply increased. the total area of the water in the reservoirs of the cascade is about 7,000 km2 with a total water volume of 43.71 km3 and useful volume of 18.5 km3. there are some large canals that divert water from the dnieper river: the dnipro-donbas canal, the kakhovsky main canal, the north-crimean canal, the dnipro-kryvyi rih canal and the dnipro-ingulets canal. figure 15. deltas of the north-western coast of the black sea (1 – dnieper, 2 – dniester, 3 – danube) results the average long-term rate of the natural flow of the dnieper previously increased downstream from 593 m3/s at the "nedanchichi" hydropost (the entry point for the territory of ukraine) to 1,690 m3/s at the mouth of the dnieper. now the flow rates are fully regulated by the reservoirs and in the last decade, which was low-water, amounted to 500-600 m3/s. average long-term natural volume of runoff in the estuary was 53.3 km3, and now it has decreased by approximately 11 km3, that is, it has become 20% less than the natural one. inflow of sediments during this period also decreased from 2.6 to 0.6-0.8 million t/year, as they now accumulate mainly in the upper (kyiv) reservoir. it is important to note that starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) at the top of all reservoirs of the cascade, except for the deep and narrow dnieper one, peculiar deltalike hydromorphic landscapes began to form due to the accumulation of solid runoff, organic sediments and the development of wetland vegetation and floodplain forests. however, this process is still at the initial stage due to the small amount of solid runoff from the dnieper in comparison, for example, with the formation of a new delta in the kapchagai reservoir on the ili river in kazakhstan, where the solid runoff exceeds 11 million tons per year (starodubtsev, 2007c). the most active process of such deltalike landscapes formation takes place in the kyiv reservoir, the first in the cascade, which accumulates almost the entire solid runoff of the dnieper on an area of about 20000 ha. it continues in the large kremenchutsk and kakhovka reservoirs, and only fragmentarily in the small kaniv and kamianske reservoirs. these new landscapes have a very large significance for biodiversity, nature protection, recreation, hunting, sport, etc. figure 16. dnieper delta before flooding (2023-06-03) figure 17. the dnieper delta is flooded on the 4th day (2023-06-09) the dnieper delta is formed in a narrow long canyon and ends with the dnieper-bug estuary on the black sea coast. it begins near the village of oleshki, stretches for more than 42 km and ends in the dnipro-buzka estuary. the total area of the delta is estimated at approximately 350 square kilometers. this area is very rich in biodiversity, so it is included in the list of wetlands of international importance protected by the ramsar convention. before the construction of a cascade of dams and reservoirs, the delta gradually grew in the estuary towards the black sea, representing a collection of numerous channels, lakes, islands, swamps overgrown with reeds, and weakly expressed ramparts with shrub and tree vegetation. however, after a flow regulation the influx of water and sediment into the delta has decreased, water quality has deteriorated, and powerful flood spills, which now occur only in recordhigh water years, have practically ceased. the restructuring of landscapes began, accumulative processes and the protrusion of the delta into the dnieper-bug estuary noticeably weakened. stagnation processes, eutrophication of lakes and streams increased. the massive construction of country houses on the levees along the large straits greatly contributed to the processes of eutrophication. our research is carried out in the contour from the antonovsky automobile bridge across the dnieper river to the estuary on an area of 37.4 thousand hectares. schematic zoning of the delta based on ground-based route studies and analysis of landsat satellite images for the period 1975-2013. made it possible to identify areas with different intensity of overgrowing of water bodies with hydrophylic and hydrophytic vegetation, “blooming” of water, and areas of economic use. however, in recent years, there has been a noticeable lack of water on the dnieper and a decrease in water flows from the starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) kakhovka reservoir to the delta, reaching 300-500 m3/s in certain periods. this led to an intensification of the processes of overgrowing the delta with coastal aquatic vegetation and a significant increase in the areas of floodplains with trees and shrubs. the area of settlements, dachas and anthropogenically modified territories is also noticeably increasing, reaching more than 4 thousand hectares in 2015. the “blooming” of water in the estuaries and lakes of the delta has also increased. such trends persisted until 2021, after which changes were caused by the war in ukraine. figure 18. dnieper delta on the 12th day after flooding with destroyed vegetation and covered as the delta changes, the likelihood of fires increases, destroying all unique biota. thus, in the spring of 2016, the consequences of large fires that occurred in the autumn-winter period were revealed. the area of the fires amounted to more than 5 thousand hectares, of which on an area of 2.8 thousand hectares the vegetation was completely burned out, including trees and shrubs, and on an area of 2.2 thousand hectares partially. since 2022, with the outbreak of the war, the area of fires in the territories adjacent to the delta has sharply increased due to shelling and bombing. figure 19. gradual restoration of delta wetlands after 3 months with traces of fires from artillery profound changes in the dnieper delta occurred after the destruction of the dam and power station of the kakhovka reservoir on june 6, 2023. these changes are shown at these satellite images (fig16-19): figure 20. delta of the danube river (landsat-5) starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) danube delta. the danube river is the second largest river in europe with a catchment area of 817,000 km². the danube basin covers the territory of 18 countries, the largest parts of the basin are in romania (28.9% of the area), hungary 11.7%, austria 10.3%, serbia 10.3%. the length of the river is 2857 km. the average annual flow of the danube is, according to various estimates, from 203 to 210 billion m3 (57% of the annual flow of all rivers flowing into the black sea), and the average flow rate is 6500 m3/s. sediment runoff in its natural state was approximately 56-83 million tons every year, but under the influence of economic activity (water regulation and water use) it has significantly decreased (fig. 20). figure 21. our field routs in the ukrainian part of the danube delta the source of the danube is in the mountains in germany, and then it flows along the middle danube lowland to the "iron gate" gorge in the south of the carpathians and on to the black sea. the importance of the danube basin for the european economy is extremely high. when it flows into the black sea, the danube forms a giant delta with an area of 5640 km². the top of the delta is near cape izmailsky chatal, 80 km from the mouth. here, the main channel of the danube first branches into the kiliy estuary, which flows into the sea on the territory of ukraine, and the tulchyn estuary, which 17 km downstream divides into the georgievske and sulinske estuaries, which flow into the black sea in romania. floodplains, with a multitude of canals, lakes, and marshes, primarily cover the area. the delta was quickly pushed into the sea by a large amount of sediment before the flow of the danube was intensively regulated by reservoirs, especially on its numerous tributaries. however, due to hydraulic construction in the basin and the ever-increasing use of danube water in its economy, the total flow of water and especially sediment is significantly reduced. thus, the delta's advance into the sea has slowed, and the processes of accumulation and erosion of the delta's sea edge are clear. a cross-border biosphere reserve, "danube delta," has been created in the danube delta and is included in the world network of biosphere reserves. it includes the 580,000 ha danube delta biosphere reserve in romania and the danube biosphere reserve in ukraine. for now, our research is focused mainly on the ukrainian part of the delta, where the process of the delta's extension into the sea continues), which, however, becomes more complicated from year to year depending on the water level of the year and the peculiarities of the influence of sea currents and waves. in general, our preliminary calculations (starodubtsev, 2013)indicate that in the danube delta, the area of the water surface decreases by an average of 500 ha each year due to the overgrowth of lakes and channels with air-water and water vegetation, economic development of land, and partly due to the increase in the area of the chiliya part of the delta, which we explored by land routes (fig.21). the state of wetlands and their gradual agricultural development, especially in the northwestern part, significantly affects the state of wetlands. as for the sea edge of the danube delta, it changes depending on the inflow of sediments and the influence of sea currents and waves. in the north-eastern and central parts of the delta, the delta is moving slowly into the sea, that is, mineral and organic sediments are accumulating and the area of the delta is increasing, especially its ukrainian part. and in the northeastern part of the delta, erosion and erosion of the shore prevail. starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) a very serious problem for the biodiversity of the huge delta is the frequent and large-scale fires that occur due to natural phenomena, but to a greater extent due to the irresponsible (and sometimes intentional) actions of poachers and even the personnel of the biosphere reserve (fig.22). such fires cause great damage both to the unique colonies of migratory birds and to all species of the delta's animal world. fires cause irreparable damage to floodplain forests and shrubs, which take an immeasurably longer time (years) to regenerate compared to grassy vegetation. figure 22. fires in the northeastern part of the danube delta (sentined-2 satellite images) conclusion the way river flow regulation affects river deltas, and the local economy varies based on the climate, landforms, how the flow is managed, and other natural characteristics of the delta area. in the black sea basin, it's easy to see that changes in the deltas are mainly influenced by how they interact with the sea. in the black sea basin, changes in the deltas can be clearly traced, primarily depending on how they interact with the sea. on the caucasian coast, deltas experience the influence of alongshore flows of sea water and sediments from the north, leading to coastal erosion at river mouths and sediment accumulation north of these mouths. therefore, the erosion of the recreational zone (beach) in batumi remains a topic of discussion now. erosion processes are also taking place in the southern part of poti city, but sediments are actively accumulating in the middle and northern parts of the coast. and their accumulation can create problems for the infrastructure under construction, around the new port. the deltas of the rivers on the turkish coast, particularly the kizilirmak river, are strongly influenced by the alongshore currents in the eastern direction. their western shores have already formed high dune formations that slow down erosion processes. but in the mouths of rivers and on the eastern shores, turbulent flows intensively erode the shores, so special protective structures are already being built here to protect against erosion, although they do not fully protect against it. it is important to note that the circulating water flows along the eastern shore form alternating areas of erosion and sediment accumulation. and this affects personally valuable extensive wetlands and the infrastructure of the coast occupied by recreational organisations and settlements. regulation of the flow of the rivers along the caucasian and turkish coasts in general optimises the water regime of the deltas and promotes their effective use in agriculture, horticulture, and recreation. however, we need to take measures to protect the valuable ramsar wetlands. long estuaries form the deltas of the northern coast of the sea (dnieper, dniester), which do not interact with the sea. therefore, their landscapes have sharply slowed their advance toward the sea and are experiencing stagnant phenomena. to optimise the water regime of ecosystems and support starodubtsev et al. 2025 5(1) fisheries, they need spring flushing releases from reservoirs. they currently face the devastating effects of war. both the river and the sea influence the danube delta. on a huge area of wetlands, there is a tendency to decrease the area under water (lakes, channels) and increase under vegetation at a rate of about 500 hectares per hour. the northwestern part of the delta is being developed for agriculture. on the seacoast of the delta, mineral and organic deposits mainly accumulate in the northern (ukrainian) and middle parts, but erosion occurs in the southern part. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution v.s. made the biggest contribution, conceived of the presented idea, and took the lead in writing the manuscript. m. k. characterized chorokhi and rioni deltas. m. l. characterized dnieper and danube deltas. v. b. performed the cartographic part. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. orcid id vladimir starodubtsev https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7053-2032 manoni kodua https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3186-9062 maryna ladyka https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5164-7117 vyacheslav bogdanets https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0051-1778 reference bayram, a., & kenanoglu, m. 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(2011). crisis intensification of geoecological situation of the caucasus black sea coast and the strategy of risk reduction. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 19, 709-715. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.05.189 georgian geographical journal linguistic-historical study of the toponym ureki nargiz akhvlediani , 1 department of folklore, dialectology and emigrant literature of niko berdzenishvili institute, batumi shota rustaveli state university, georgia, brazil * corresponding author: nargiz.akhvlediani@bsu.edu.ge introduction it is known that the study of toponymy is one of the important opportunities to understand the historical life of a certain territory whenever people have lived there. researchers from a variety of scientific fields (linguists, historians, geographers, ethnographers, etc.) will be interested in studying toponyms. first, in interdisciplinary studies in the last century, the academician iv. javakhishvili added that "...the researcher of toponymy should first of all take into account the specific circumstances of the location and property of this or that place and be surprised..." (javakhishvili, 1950). toponyms are not simply labels that identify certain points of space but rather portals of social change, history, and the use and perception of the environment; as such, they contain facts, reflect hidden landscapes, and have political power and significance (reszegi, 2020). toponymy is a branch of onomastics that studies the meaning and structure of geographical names (village, city, river, etc.) and their geographical distribution. toponymy refers to a geographical object in objective reality. most of the time, the reason for choosing this or that toponym specifies what it means (akhvlediani, 2009). methods and materials starting from the objectives of the research, we will first establish a connection with the given toponym and its significance in the context of scientific literature and languages or dialects. critically, we will analyse existing scientific perspectives. in the process of searching, we will generalise the most specific and concrete knowledge with scientific literature data. through scientifically grounded research with the opportunity for interpretation, we aim to minimise errors and extract relevant findings. while working on the article, we will focus on historical comparisons, descriptions, and analytical methods. the name "kolcheti" was first mentioned by the ancient greek historian hesiod and the poet pindar and later by the greek geographer strabo in the 8th century bc. georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 75-79 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4 science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract in this paper, we present a linguistic analysis of a toponym using a historical comparative method. we provide our interpretation of the toponym "ureki" based on historical data. people have been interested in toponyms—place names and their origins—since ancient times. the majority of geographical objects did not have official names. people named them according to their natural characteristics, which played a significant role in their daily activities and livelihoods. different categories of scholars, such as linguists, historians, geographers, ethnographers, and others, study toponyms of interest. the toponymy of any country reflects soil, water, plants, animals, birds, or any living or nonliving nature, organic or inorganic natural resources, or traces of the inhabitants of that area. a toponym is a geographical name of a place, a word taken from the linguistic material of the collective that created it, and usually contains information about the named object. the toponym is passed down from generation to generation, from era to era, and continues for thousands of years. in this interdisciplinary research, we aim to advance academic studies further by providing an etymological analysis of a toponym. in the article, we analyse a specific toponym, "ureki," located in the northeastern part of batumi, on the black sea coast, within the ozurgeti municipality keywords: toponym, linguistics, etymology, ethno-linguistics citation: akhvlediani, n. linguistichistorical study of the toponym ureki. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1) 75-79. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.09 received: 1 november 2023 revised: 1 march 2024 accepted: 1 april 2024 published: 1 june 2024 akhvlediani. 2024 4(1) 76 it is noteworthy that the first mention of kolchis closely aligns with the historical context of the kingdom's foundation, specifically with the reign of king aeëtes. ancient scholars often refer to it as "aia" in connection with the realm of queen medea. it is essential to note that the first appellation of kolchis corresponds accurately to the official name of the state's ruler: "kulcha || kolchi." the old name "kolcha" is derived from "kulcha," and this toponym has its origins in this region. according to the wisdom of the scholars, the first name of a state should be established when the name "kolchidi" did not yet exist, and at that time, someone else might have referred to this area with different names (such as "gaia," "aia": land, country). results a toponym is a "living heritage" that preserves traces of ancient local culture. in addition to location information, it contains a whole range of identifying information. with the development of critical studies of place names, it has become clear that they can gain knowledge not only about natural factors, such as ethnopedology (the natural science of soils and landscapes) and plant coverage but also about anthropological factors. a place name can also be an indicator of historical situations—what a particular place was like in the past. ureki is a township and sea resort in ozurgeti municipality (fig. 1). it is located on the coast of the black sea, 4 m above sea level, and 24 km from ozurgeti. it is bordered from the north and south by the confluences of the sefa and supsi rivers, and from the east, it is surrounded by tsvermaghala mountain. there is an opinion that urek means a wooded, inaccessible place where hunters have difficulty hunting. the microtoponym in mountainous samegrelo, "na-ek-ura," confirms the definition of urek as a deep, impassable place. archaeological investigations confirm that the coastal areas of urek, i.e., figure 1. study area-ureki figure 2. artefact from study area akhvlediani. 2024 4(1) 77 "nazurgebi," have been settlements since ancient times. it is known that bronze objects were found at different times at the mouth of the supsi river, which is named after the treasure of urek. there is a difference of opinion in dating: bc, ad xviii, bc, xvii century (koridze, 1965; ramishvili, 1974), the first half of the ii millennium bc (o. japaridze), bc xv, bc, xiv century (t. mikeladze). the hoarding of middle bronze age weapons, which contained direct prototypes of colchi axes, is notable. tools with signs of early bronze axes (axes with slats, axes, etc.), early hoes, etc. different types of colchian axes were also found in urek and bc (xvi-xiv centuries). (part of it is preserved in the st. petersburg museum of ethnography and anthropology; the main part is kept in the state museum of georgia named after s. janashia; and a small part is kept in the ozurgeti historical museum.) the hoard is important in terms of the origin and typological evolution of the kolkhir bronze period (tent, 2015). in 1942, items from the black sea coast near diuni were found, suggesting the presence of cultural relics of the same age as those of the 3rd and 4th centuries. these finds include pottery, animal bone fragments, and jewellery (fig. 2). the ureki are characterised by a remarkable archaeological and cultural layer that dates to the end of the 3rd century and the beginning of the 4th century. the main discoveries, except for silver hoard and byzantine coins from the same time period, are related to the late antique style. the cultural layer found on the black sea coast in 1948 included various types of early mediaeval materials, including georgian, colchian, polychrome, and hellenistic ceramic items. in 1948, silver hoards with the following characteristics were discovered in ureki: a silver torque, a necklace, a brooch, two hairpins, and other items. that same year, the same museum received early mediaeval colchian jewellery and a rare necklace. there is also evidence that early mediaeval colchian rings and beads were discovered near ureki. in 1944, the discovery of magnetite began. german prisoners of war living in the urek region mined magnetite for the rostavi metallurgical complex. among these german prisoners was a certain eriks anders, a scientist. he discovered that urek's magnetite had a beneficial effect on human health, and this knowledge led to the liberation of the local population from certain diseases. a magnetic field of natural origin, an important geological feature, can be observed on the ureki peninsula. in 1946, he found himself in urek, bc. treasures of the viii-vii centuries (bronze kolkhur axe, satevari, blade, segmented weapon, wormwood and absinthe, zod, and clay tolcha), which are also preserved in the state museum of georgia named after s. janashia in 1949, 50 km long, were built from kobuleti to poti in the guria maritime strip. long bichvinti pine grove (ushveridze, 1986). it has been established and is no longer in dispute that ureki ceramics contain an excess amount of magnetite, which indicates their local production. the existence of cultural layers from ancient times can also be observed. the intensity of the settlement can be explained by the presence of excess magnetite in the coastal sands. there is an opinion that urek means a wooded, inaccessible place where hunters have difficulty hunting. a microtoponym in mountainous samegrelo, "na-ek-ura," confirms the definition of urek as a deep, impassable place. archaeological investigations confirm that the ureki coastline, or the "backbone" region, has been inhabited since ancient times. in one of his articles, chikobava recognised it as a place name in georgian science. st. senaki (in the last century, a toponym was recorded near the city of tskhakaya: o-reke-sh-i-, sarekisi'' (chikobava, 1942) in the maghrul-georgian dictionary of p. charaya]. the name ureki, "sareki" (gathering place), was a general name in the past, and it was called "nadirtmosarek" (a gathering place for animals). therefore, for example, the toponym of the former makhinjauri village council (in the territory of present-day batumi) has been confirmed: "sarekelai" (the information is kept in the personal archive of az. akhvlediani), which probably meant hunting. the name "sareki" for hunters is also located near sachkheri (gogatishvili, 1968), and this name seems to refer to that place. it is known that until the second half of the last century, there were impassable dense forests around batumi, in which there were always many games. here, in these forests, hunting was not so rare, the organiser of which, of course, would be some nobleman, in whose hunting estate there would be plenty of baziern, marekni, and others. the duty of the latter (marekni) was to call the game in a certain area. the best hunting grounds were the places where marekni rarely visited. the current urek was considered such a place then. the same toponym is confirmed by the names of the guria villages. sarekela: pasture khulo, mr. s., in the village of furtio. "sarekelai" is a rural district in kortok (shuakhevi mn.). cf. :sa mkrev el a'' forest, village of ghurta (shuaakh, mn.). "sa-re ki" is a forest and a rocky place in kidzinidze (a municipality) (kamadadze, 1992). sarekela, derg (dish), is a dish in adjara in which butter is made from dairy products [11]. in this toponym, the root "rek" is isolated. it is not foreign to georgian languages. megr. rekua: rekva means ringing (charaya, 1997), akhvlediani. 2024 4(1) 78 and "u" is prefixed in the toponym. in rachuli, ringing a nut means hitting a nut with a stick (kobakhidze, 1987). "sareki" is found in kizikur with two meanings: 1. sarek: a latan tied to the hands in front of the wheels of the cart so that the buffaloes tied to the head of the cart can hold the cart while going uphill. at the same time, the cart's eye does not fall on gava's legs, and 2. sarek is a place from which those called to hunt at this time called the game sakhundari, that is, samkvdev (n. saba) (menteshashvili, 1943). in tushur, sarekelakh is sarekela, which is reflected in the stone of the mill by khvimir grains (khubutia, 1969). in ureki, located in the ozurgeti municipality, the term 'ureki mareki' is used. 'ureki mareki' refers to the distribution of land, specifically the allocation of land to beneficiaries through the process of land redistribution. in ureki, the local government is aware of this term. it is worth noting that 'ureki mareki' involves the regulated allocation of land to individuals, and discussions about such regulations have been heard from representatives of the guria population. however, it is emphasised that in ureki, a place characterised by such distinct land, the process of land redistribution may not be feasible, except in cases related to 'ureki mareki' (dzneladze, 2011). 'sareki' is the designated area where the allocation of land can take place, and where it cannot occur, it is ureki. the wisdom of local residents regarding their knowledge of the environment or other types of information is crucial to the development of future generations (see the article "the toponym 'batumi – etymology'", where it is discussed how the name of a lost plant was preserved in folk etymology(akhvlediani, 2023), as it prevents the loss of cultural knowledge that contributes to the cultural heritage of society. in the course of generations, the neglect of unique earth wisdom is regrettable, as it can lead to the disappearance of cultural knowledge. in the progression of societies, the neglect of indigenous knowledge can result in ignorance of the intricacies of the land and the principles of sustainable development, as seen through the eyes of the earth's maps and environmental planning. conclusion periodically, many things may disappear, change the relief landscape, or become extinct with the animals, birds, plants, or human tribes living there, but the geographical names of the places can tell us a lot about the earlier world. regarding toponyms, two main questions are asked: "why was it named?" and how was it named?" the answer to the first question lies in the extralinguistic field and concerns the problems of motivation. the answer to the second question belongs to the linguistic field and provides for the determination of the linguistic means of nomination. according to our observations, we can consider the landscape and geographical list of the place "ureki." competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. orcid id nargiz akhvlediani https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3787-0195 reference akhvlediani, n. (2009). zanisms in ajarian toponymy. shota rustaveli state university press, batumi. akhvlediani, n. (2023). the toponym “batumi” – etymology. georgian geographical journal. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2023.03.02.17 charaya, p. (1997). mingrelian-georgian dictionary, sulkhan-saba orbeliani tbilisi pedagogical university's publishing house, tbilisi. chikobava, a. (1942). the ancient structure of the noun stem in kartvelian languages. tbilisi. dzneladze, r. (2011). structural analysis of toponyms of guria and lower ajara, kartvelian onomastics, v, universal publishing house, tbilisi, pp. 278-279. gogatishvili, sh. (1968). tales of geographical names. science and technology, pp. 8-42. javakhishvili, iv. (1950). introduction to the history of the georgian nation, book one: historical-ethnological problems of georgia, the caucasus and the near east, tbilisi. kamadadze, m. (1992). toponymy of above adjara, vocabulary of the adjarian dialect, vol. viii, publishing house,, metsniereba” batumi. khubutia p. (1969). tushuri dialect, tbilisi university press, tbilisi https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3787-0195 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2023.03.02.17 akhvlediani. 2024 4(1) 79 koridze, d. (1965). for the history of colkhian culture, tbilisi. menteshashvili, s. (1943). kiziqian dictionary. publishing house of the academy of sciences of the ussr of georgia, tbilisi ramishvili, a. (1974). from the history of the material culture of kolkheti. soviet adjara reszegi, k. (2020). toponyms and spatial representations. onomastica lxiv tent, j. (2015). approaches to research in toponymy names, 1(63), 65-74. ushveridze, g., gogsadze, e. (1986). georgian soviet encyclopedia, vol. 10, tbilisi batumi shota rustaveli state university, niko berdzenishvili institute of ethnography archives, (1958), batumi. rachian dialect dictionary (1987). materials, compiler al. kobakhidze, publishing house: "metsniereba", tbilisi. georgian geographical journal some questions about the safe operation of short road tunnels omar lanchava1,* , 1 labor safety and emergency management department, mining-geology faculty, georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: o.lanchava@yahoo.com introduction more than 50 new road tunnels are planned to be built in georgia in the next 3-5 years, some of which are relatively short tunnels. according to the building norms and regulations applicable in our country, tunnels less than 150 m long are ventilated only by natural traction; tunnels with lengths ranging from 150 to 400 m should also receive natural traction, but its sufficiency should be proven by a relevant assessment. tunnels longer than 400 m need a mechanical ventilation system (lanchava & javakhishvili, 2021; lanchava & ilias, 2020; lanchava, 1986). england has similar regulations: mechanical ventilation is not required for tunnels less than 400 m long, while according to the german rabt standard, tunnels less than 700 m long do not require mechanical ventilation and are mandatory for tunnels longer than 700 m. in addition, according to many standards, including the rabt and piarc standards, a ventilation system must be designed for 30 mw fires, and the emergency ventilation system must be capable of mitigating the harmful effects of fires. for natural gas, an approximately 25 mw underground fire scenario demonstrated that the maximum heat release rate is attained in approximately 5 s. given that most tunnel fires are controlled by ventilation, this power would be sustained until almost complete combustion of fuel. the modelling results also demonstrated that for short tunnels with natural ventilation, the smoke generated during combustion spreads towards the portals at a velocity of 2.5 m/s, which is very close to the generally accepted value of the critical velocity of 3.0 m/s and somewhat indicative of its numerical value. the issue of fires is a hot topic worldwide, as the general increase in the number of tunnels, which means more intense road traffic, increases the risk of fires. following major tunnel fires in the world, the european union has given particular consideration to the trans-european transport network, in which the safety of existing and future tunnels is a top priority. for tunnels of the network longer than 500 m, the european parliament and the council of europe issued directive ec 2004/54 on the required minimum level of safety. the total length of such tunnels in eu countries is more than 1000 km. the eu countries strongly recommended extending the requirements of the directive to tunnels that are not part of this transport network, with the organizational and technical requirements for tunnels at a minimum. december 2021 was marked by the european commission’s proposal for a new regulation on tent guidelines (com 2021/821), putting the black and aegean seas on the list of newly harmonized georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 11-16 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the article looks at the statistical data on fires in short tunnels. it notes that about a quarter of road tunnel fires are classified as strong ones. the analysis is made according to the standards of the usa, the leading industrial country in the world. underground fire scenarios are analysed and it is shown that for descending ventilation flows, there occurs a strong back-layering on the fresh air jet. the reason for this is an algebraic summation of mechanically and thermally induced underground ventilation flows and the insufficiency of the generally accepted numerical value of critical velocity of 3.0 m/s in the case of a great tunnel slope and strong fires. noteworthy among the fire-fighting measures are equipping the tunnel with measuring devices; training the tunnel service personnel and rescuers; imposing transportation regimes for heavy hazardous cargoes; information support and promotion of the issue. keywords: tunnel fire, critical velocity, fire safety standards, numerical modelling. citation: lanchava, o. some questions about the safe operation of short road tunnels. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1), 11-16. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.02 received: 1 september 2023 revised: 1 april november 2024 accepted: 1 may 2024 published: 1 june 2024 lanchava. 2024 4(1) 12 transport corridors. consequently, the abovementioned road tunnels under construction in georgia should be considered part of the common european transport network. the abovementioned tunnels are commonly built-in mountainous conditions, and the most difficult sections of roads are now traversed through them; however, in the future, with the construction and commissioning of new tunnels, freight turnover and traffic intensity will increase further. an increase in traffic will immediately increase the risk of fires. us fire standards according to paragraph 11.1 of the u.s. national fire protection association standard 502, “emergency ventilation systems and tunnel operating procedures shall be developed to maximize the use of the road tunnel ventilation system for the removal and control of smoke and heated gases that result from fire emergencies within the tunnel” (nfpa 502, 2011). for tunnels less than 240 m long, paragraph 11.1.1 of the said standard provides for safety planning based on engineering analysis, taking into account natural factors, mode of transportation, traffic patterns and other similar indicators and does not provide for not considering the need for emergency ventilation. the standard is one of the best standards in the world, and it is worth considering it, especially if we do not have a similar standard in georgia. the nfpa-502–7 test standard was introduced in 1972. in 1980, the nfpa committee revised the document as a recommended practice and added a chapter on air ventilation, which was introduced in practice at the 1981 nfpa annual meeting, a conference-like event. the 1987 edition included a minor amendment regarding the fire water supply. the 1996 edition included a chapter on the total revision of tunnels, as well as requirements for reviewing the use of new materials in tunnels. the 1998 edition was revised in cooperation with the motor vehicle and highway fire safety committee. specifically, practically all the chapters were critically revised, and a new chapter 7 was added to include research results related to ventilation fire safety testing in the u.s. memorial tunnel. this tunnel was no longer in operation at that time and was categorized as an abandoned tunnel. it is located in west virginia. following the strong fires in european tunnels, to study air flows and smoke movement, temperature distribution and concentration of toxic gases during fires, the mentioned tunnel was equipped with all types of ventilation systems and measuring equipment, and fires of different powers were tested (santoianni & gonzales, 1996). more than 3 million data points were obtained, which were analysed and are presented as graphs and tables in 9 volumes. the 2001 edition focused on emergency lighting and the optimal spacing of emergency exits. some important editorial corrections were made. this edition clarifies the rule for applying the standard depending on the tunnel length. the 2004 edition includes additional requirements for concrete and reinforcement, emergency lighting and emergency exit spacing. appendix a of the same edition presents the results of new studies from around the world. the 2008 edition added specific fire testing requirements for tunnel structural members and clarified the classification of road tunnels; additionally, it discussed proper ventilation, a safe environment, and the transportation of hazardous cargo. annex e also provided a discussion on fixed fire extinguishing systems. the 2011 revision provides more reasonable requirements for tunnel systems (safety) by tunnel categories. chapter 9 on water extinguishing systems was added. the document also added materials on system control and periodic testing and updated the appendix on design factors for saving life and material assets. analysis of the statistical and factual data of tunnel fires according to statistical data of long-term observations of tunnel operation in england and france (bearard & carvel, 2012; perard, 1996), germany (bauberhorde highways department, 1992), sweden (ruckstuhl, 1990) and italy (arditi, 2003), traffic accidents in tunnels are less frequent than those in open highways. this can be explained by the strict control of tunnels, less weather impact, better night lighting and greater attention of drivers when travelling through tunnels, being in an unusual environment—under the ground. in addition, underground fires have more severe consequences than open environments because in open environments, the products of combustion—heat, toxic gases and smoke—are more easily lanchava. 2024 4(1) 13 dispersed. in tunnels, on the other hand, diffusion processes are limited, and there is a need to control them through ventilation. according to french statistics, there are typically 1 or 2 fires per kilometer of tunnel for every 100 million passenger vehicles that pass through the tunnel. similarly, for every one hundred million heavyduty vehicles—the trailers that will pass through the tunnel—under the same conditions, i.e., per 1 kilometer of tunnel length, according to the statistical average, 8 fires will occur, including 3 strong (up to 100 mw) fires, the consequences of which will be disastrous for human life and tunnel infrastructure. based on these statistics, for example, in the elbe tunnel (germany), where 37 million vehicles travel in both directions per year, the probability of a fatal fire is much greater than in the chakvi-makhinjauri twin tunnels in georgia, where a maximum of 200,000 to 300,000 vehicles travel in one direction per year; however, considering the total length of the tunnels and the total number of vehicles, as well as the increase in freight traffic that is bound to occur due to heavy vehicles as a result of the silk road popularization, the risk of fatal fires in our country will significantly increase, and the country must be ready to prevent it. we provide an example of just one fire in a medium-length road tunnel to show that despite a high level of preventive safety, fires cannot be completely avoided, and tunnel services must be prepared to mitigate and completely eliminate the harmful effects of expected fires: in the mont blanc tunnel connecting france and italy, which is 11.6 km long, there have been 18 fire incidents since 1965, i.e., when it was commissioned (lacroix, 2001). the mortality of these fires was the same as that on march 24, 1999. a large truck carrying margarine entered the tunnel on the french side at 10:46 pm. after 7 minutes, the driver noticed white smoke from his vehicle and stopped the truck 6.3 km from the portal. immediately after stopping, the trailer caught fire and emitted black smoke, which started to propagate towards the portal on the french side. the driver immediately ran in the opposite direction. before the emergency closure of the tunnel, 1 motorcycle, 9 cars, and 18 different heavy vehicles entered the tunnel on the french side after the burning truck, and 8 trailers and several cars entered the tunnel from the italian portal. none of the latter were injured, but none of those who entered from the french side survived, resulting in 39 victims (including 27 car drivers). after the fire had raged for 53 hours, a 900 m long tunnel section collapsed, and 34 cars were destroyed. ventilation or communication between the portals was insufficient. this fire could have been easily avoided if normal operating conditions had been provided. later, there was friction between the tire and the truck body. the heat generated dissipated as the truck drove in the open environment, but due to the reduced heat transfer to the environment in the tunnel, the tire overheated and ignited. using the example of the above case, we can visualize the mechanism of the emergency situation, which is very close to the classical definition: there was a deviation from the normal course of a naturally occurring process, an accumulation of an abnormal situation until reaching its culmination, and then relief and damping. fire protection of tunnels less than 400 m long is a problem because they usually do not have a mechanical ventilation system. tunnels up to 700 m long, due to the traction induced by fire, have a greater probability of ventilation system collapse than longer tunnels. the fire traction in this case will increase due to the low aerodynamic resistance of the tunnel and hence the easy provision of an air supply sufficient for complete combustion (lanchava et al., 2007; lonnermark & ingason, 2008). a similar opinion about fire intensification is given in (ingason, 2010; bajwa et al., 2009). in particular, at ventilation flow velocities between 2 and 4 m/s, the fire intensification effect is associated with more intense natural ventilation as the fire attempts to better ventilate, i.e., to obtain oxygen for combustion. for clarity, we should note that the length of the tunnels in the mentioned works is not limited, but only the velocity range is defined. the velocity of the flow caused by the natural traction induced by vehicle traffic will be approximately within the specified range in short tunnels. special attention should be given to fires in short tunnels resulting in human deaths. although we do not yet have long or very long tunnels in georgia, the issue of short tunnels is very important, as confirmed by world experience and evidenced by the following examples: the newhall pass tunnel (usa) between los angeles and san francisco (166 m long): the accident occurred on october 12, 2007, when a truck collided with a sidewall and another truck travelling at high speed collided with it, immediately causing a major fire, which was strengthened by natural traction induced by wind. twentythree people were injured as a result of the accident. despite the shortness of the tunnel, it took 24 hours to bring the fire under control. lanchava. 2024 4(1) 14 an unnamed tunnel on the b 31 highway (germany), 200 m: the accident occurred on christmas day in 2005, when a passenger car collided with an oncoming vehicle and a fire broke out, in which four young people aged 18-23 were burnt and five others died of their injuries (ingason, 2010). the viamala tunnel (switzerland), 700 m: the accident occurred on september 16, 2006, when a bus and two cars collided. a fire broke out immediately, and two more cars caught fire. nine people died, and 5 were seriously injured. the cabin creek hydro power plant (usa), 150 m: on october 2, 2007, a chemical used to purify water spontaneously ignited. five people died as a result of the inhalation of toxic compounds (bajwa et al., 2009). numerical modelling of the critical velocity in longitudinal ventilation, the critical velocity in the emergency ventilation strategy is accepted as the decisive factor in preventing back layering. back-layering is the propagation of combustion products on a fresh air stream. this phenomenon mainly occurs on the descending ventilation flow when there is reverse air movement in the part of the air-supply tunnel where the fresh air should be. this is caused by the high temperature of the combustion products, which results in less density and floating due to buoyancy. this is a very dangerous occurrence in terms of saving lives by evacuation. the critical velocity is the minimum velocity to eliminate back-layering that must be assigned to the ventilation flow. the critical velocity depends on the fire strength, tunnel geometry, type of ventilation system used in the tunnel, and other factors. since the dynamic pressure induced by fire and the similar pressure induced by jet fans are algebraically summed, to avoid smogging the clean jet portion of the tunnel, the clean air jet must have a velocity higher than the critical velocity. therefore, with a longitudinal ventilation system, a jet moving at a critical velocity will drive out smoke and other harmful combustion products from the hearth of the fire to one side only, and there should be fresh air on the other side. many works, including the abovementioned us standard (nfpa 502, 2011; santoianni & gonzales, 1996; bearard & carvel, 2012), indicate that a 3.0 m/s critical velocity is sufficient to prevent backlayering in transport tunnels during fires, which, in our opinion, is incompatible with the scenarios of underground fires, which are realized through numerical simulations (lanchava & ilias, 2020; lanchava et al., 2017). using the clapeyron equation in our work, it was determined that the dynamic pressure induced by a fire at a temperature of 1000℃ in tunnels is 121.6 kpa, which exceeds the atmospheric pressure and is 6 to 8 times greater than the maximum static pressure of the most powerful fans. in this case, the air density drops to 0.277 kg/m3. consequently, in the case of strong fires, it will be practically impossible to control the ventilation flow with fans, and the air direction and supply will be determined by the depression induced by the fire (lanchava et al., 2022a; lanchava et al., 2022b; lanchava & ilia, 2017). this statement is valid considering that mechanically (with the use of fans) and thermally (by fire) induced ventilation flows are algebraically summed up. this statement contradicts the idea of critical velocity. therefore, we carried out an experimental numerical simulation of a tunnel up to 100 m long. the purpose of the experiments was to demonstrate the steady increase in critical velocity as the fire power increased, as well as the unreasonableness of relying on the given concept in the attempt to avoid back-layering in accordance with the numerical modelling. the velocity profiles obtained from the numerical simulations are shown in fig. 1. to illustrate the increase in critical velocity, two jet fans are used to create a descending ventilation flow. the crosssections are given depending on the distance from the lower portal as follows: figure n1 lower portal; figure n2 distance of 20 m from the lower portal; figure n3 distance of 60 m from the lower portal; and figure n4 distance of 80 m from the lower portal. the numbers of the curves correspond to the time intervals from the beginning of the experiment: 1 𝜏= 60 s; 2 𝜏= 80 s; 3 𝜏= 100 s; and 4 𝜏= 120 s. a negative velocity value in all velocity profile graphs indicates the movement of the ventilation flow towards the lower portal, and a positive value indicates the movement of the ventilation flow towards the upper portal. curve 1 in plot 1 of fig. 1 shows that before the fire starts, the air flow moves toward the lower portal, and the velocity epure has a classical shape. two jet fans are running simultaneously at the upper portal. as soon as a fire starts, the situation changes immediately (curves 2, 3 and 4): now, the air direction and intensity are more strongly determined by the dynamic pressure induced by the fire, and the impact of the fans tends to decrease. it should be noted that all the velocity profile plots presented show that lanchava. 2024 4(1) 15 the pressure change propagates at the speed of sound, causing the corresponding results to change at the same rate. based on the above, it is necessary to distinguish the following cases: 1. when it is possible to develop life-saving emergency ventilation designs based on the available classical knowledge; and 2. when the available knowledge is no longer sufficient to realize similar projects, new study results are needed to develop a new approach to the problem. conclusion based on the results of the modelling of fires in short road tunnels and the analysis of statistical indices, it can be concluded that short tunnels, which are allowed to operate without a mechanical ventilation system as per effective standards, need an emergency ventilation system, which will be triggered in the case of fire. training of tunnel maintenance personnel and rescuers should be based on scenarios of fires of various strengths with time-varying rates of heat, smoke and carbon monoxide generation. much attention should be given to strict observance of traffic safety rules; overtaking moving vehicles in tunnels should be prohibited in all instances and should be achieved. at the same time, we consider it advisable to establish a schedule for the movement of hazardous cargo and mandatory inspection of the relevant vehicles before they enter a tunnel. competing interests the author(s) declare that they have no competing interests. funding this work was supported by the shota rustaveli national science foundation of georgia (srnsf) [grant number fr-22-12 949]. title: study of critical velocity and fire-induced back-layering to save lives in road tunnels. orcid id omar lanchava https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4249-9404 reference arditi r. (2003). data presented at: discussion forum 1. 5th international conference on safety in road and rail tunnels. france, marseille. bajwa c., mintz t., huczek j., axler k., das k. (2009). fds simulation of the newhall pass tunnel fire. nfpa world safety conference. usa, chicago. figure 1. velocity profiles of the descending ventilation flow with two operating jet fans. the curves correspond to time intervals: 1 𝜏= 60 s; 2 𝜏= 80 s; 3 𝜏= 100 s; 4 𝜏= 120 s. lanchava. 2024 4(1) 16 beard a., carvel r. (2012). handbook of tunnel fire safety. second edition, thomas telford limited. uk, london. bauberhorde highways department. (1992). statistics on the traffic in the elbe tunnel from the year 1975 to the year 1992. germany, hamburg. ingason h., li y.z. (2010). model scale tunnel fire tests with longitudinal ventilation. fire safety jour. 45. lacroix d. (2001). the mont blanc tunnel fire: what happened and what has been learned. proceedings of the 4th international conference on safety in road and rail tunnels. spain, madrid. lanchava o., javakhishvili g. (2021). impact of strong fires on a road tunnel ventilation system. bulletin of the georgian national academy of sciences 15 (4). georgia, tbilisi. lanchava o., ilias n. (2020). critical velocity analysis for safety management in case of tunnel fire. matec web of conferences 305, 00023. lanchava o.a. (1986) heat and mass exchange in newly driven mine workings. sov. min. sci (engl. transl.); (united states) 21(5). lanchava o., ilias n., nozadze g. (2017). some problems for assessment of fire in road tunnels. quality access to success 18 (s1). lanchava o., ilias n., radu s.m., nozadze g., tsanava d. (2022). analysis of the use of transformable elements in intelligent tunnel ventilation systems. matec web of conferences 354, 00020. lanchava o., ilias n., radu s.m., nozadze g., jangidze m. (2022). preventing the spread of combustible products in tunnels by implementing a divisible system. environmental engineering & management journal (eemj) 21. romania, bucharest. lanchava o., ilias n. (2017). some issues of thermal calculation of ventilation air for the metro. journal of engineering sciences and innovation 2(2). romania, bucharest. lanchava o., ilias n., andras i., moraru r., neag i. (2007). on the ventilation of transport tunnels in the presence of a strong (heavy) fire. in: annals of the university of pertosani, romania, petrosani. lonnermark a, ingason h. (2008). the effect of air velocity on heat release rate and fire development during fires in tunnels. in: proceedings of the 9th international symposium on fire safety science. karlsruhe. nfpa 502, standards for road tunnels, bridges, and other limited access highways. (2011). national fire protection association (nfpa). usa, washington. perard m. (1996). statistics on breakdowns, accidents and fires in french road tunnels. proceedings of the 1st international conference on tunnel incident management. denmark, koras. ruckstuhl f. (1990). accident statistics and accident risks in tunnels. reports on the oecd seminar on road tunnel management. switzerland, lugano. santoianni d a, gonzales j a. (1996). memorial tunnel fire ventilation test program, proceedings of the 1996 rapid transit conference of the american public transit association. atlanta, georgia. https://trid.trb.org/view/485926 georgian geographical journal demographic crisis in the mountainous adjara: challenges and the solutions merab putkaradze1,* , landa putkaradze2 1 batumi shota rustaveli state university, faculty of natural sciences and healthcare, professor of the department of geography 2 tbilisi ivane javakhishvili state university, faculty of social sciences * corresponding author: merab.putkaradze@bsu.edu.ge introduction the tendency of population decline in mountainous regions represents a global trend, shaped by a range of social and economic challenges, while also bearing distinct regional characteristics. in georgia, this issue has long affected the country’s highland areas. however, until recent decades, mountainous adjara stood out as a region with relatively high levels of population reproduction. in recent years, the demographic situation has shifted dramatically, with signs of a demographic crisis becoming increasingly evident. against this background, the problem acquires particular urgency, and its comprehensive study, together with the identification of measures aimed at improving the situation, is of critical importance. the main objective of this research is to examine the demographic development of mountainous adjara, with particular emphasis on identifying both the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of population dynamics, analyzing the mechanisms underlying the current demographic crisis, and outlining potential pathways for its mitigation. to achieve this aim, the study addresses the following specific objectives: • assess the distinctive features of population dynamics in mountainous adjara and identify the key patterns of quantitative change; • examine the characteristics of natural population movement and evaluate the principal causes of the observed shifts; • analyze the quantitative dimensions of migration processes and their role in shaping the regional demographic crisis; • identify the main directions for overcoming the demographic challenges in mountainous adjara. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 30-35 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract due to political and social-economic processes in independent georgia, there are serious issues observed in the demographic development of the country, especially in mountainous regions, where the demographic crisis is obviously shaped. similar problems are observed in mountainous adjara, the population of which decreased from 85.1 thousand to 58.9 thousand (or by 31.8%) during the 1989-2023 years. therefore, a population decrease in the region with high reproduction up to recent years would negatively affect the demographic policy of the country. coming out of this, the topic is quite urgent and needs the evaluation of existing problems and the setting of ways to improve the demographics. via application of traditional and contemporary (modern) research methods, there were assessed the spatial originalities of quantitative indicators of natural and mechanical movement of population of mountainous adjara, including those forced to displace – the ecomigrants. the results of qualitative properties of demographic development were found out, and the main reasons causing the crisis were determined. there are analyses of the challenges (related to sustainable development of the region) due to the decrease of the population of mountainous adjara, and there are solutions set for the demographic crisis. keywords: demography; population; natural movement; migration citation: putkaradze, m.; putkaradze, l. demographic crisis in the mountainous adjara: challenges and the solutions. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 30-35. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.05 putkaradze & putkaradze. 2025 5(5) 31 the study focuses on the municipalities of keda, khulo, and shuakhevi, which collectively represent the highland region of adjara. by using these areas as case studies, the research not only provides an in-depth assessment of the demographic crisis in a specific regional context but also generates insights with broader applicability for addressing demographic challenges across georgia as a whole. methods and materials for determination of demographic crisis of mountainous adjara, the following methods were used: statistical method, field research method, comparative method, space-time analysis method, gis (geographic information system) method and other research methods. research database is based on the data of general population census in 1989, 2002 and 2014, also population estimation data in 2020-2023. besides, the research is based on theoretical sources regarding evaluation of demographic condition of the country (jaoshvili,1996; meladze, 2007; tsuladze et al., 2008). results difference between the standards of living and peculiarities of urbanization processes in the modern world have significantly influenced over the demographic development of mountainous regions. therefore, almost in every mountainous region there is obviously shaped demographic crisis, but researches (coleman, 2008; ehrlich et al., 2021; gretter et al., 2017; mladenov, 2011; thornton et al., 2022), those conducted in direction of evaluation and solution of the problem grant an opportunity to share an international experience for specific region. besides, on the basis of analysis of researches (kohler et al., 2017; meladze, 2007; putkaradze & putkaradze, 2019; tsuladze et al., 2008) performed throughout the country in this regard, there will be developed the solution for demographic crisis in the mountainous adjara. mountainous adjara was one of the prominent regions of georgia for its wide reproduction of population until the recent period, where the population was gradually increasing until 1989. due to political, social and economic changes occurred in the country during the georgia`s independence period, significant decrease of rural population has commenced, which still continues in some particular municipalities of mountainous adjara. as a result of enactment of the law of georgia on the development of high-mountainous regions and due to immigration processes in recent years, slow increase tendencies of population at the study area are observed somehow (see table 1). table 1. population size dynamics of mountainous adjara in 1989-2023 (thousand man); source: table is made according to materials of national statistics office of georgia municipalities 1989 (population census) 2002 (population census) 2014 (population census) 2020 (estimate) 2021 (estimate) 2022 (estimate) 2023 (estimate) keda 20.1 17.0 16.7 16.8 16.7 16.6 16.5 shuakhevi 25.4 18.4 15.2 15.0 14.9 14.8 14.8 khulo 39.6 28.6 23.5 26.3 26.6 26.8 27.6 total, mountainous adjara 85.1 63.6 55.4 58.1 58.2 58.2 58.9 table 1 displays that population number of mountainous adjara in 1989-2023 years decreased by 26,2 thousand from 85,1 thousand to 58,9 thousand or it was decreased by 31,8%. there should be noted that the number of regional population was increasing during the whole twentieth century – up to 1989, but population size started decreasing after the migration flows triggered by natural disasters and the political, social and economic changes occurred in the country. population decrease in the region with special intensity starts in 1989 until 2002 and decreases by 21,5 thousand persons – from 85,1 thousand to 63.6 thousand. the main reason for population`s decrease by that period of time was not only forced displacement due to natural disaster processes, but rural population`s free migration as well, which mainly implemented to coastal region of adjara – the principal direction was batumi city. in 20022014 years, slow decrease of population was observed still (see table 1), but in 2014-2023 years the number of population was increased by 3500 persons, which constitutes unprecedented occurrence putkaradze & putkaradze. 2025 5(5) 32 comparing to other mountainous regions of georgia. if we discuss the topic according to intra-regional standpoint, in 1989-2023 years, the number of population was decreased in all the municipalities, especially in shuakhevi municipality (decreased by 41,8%) but in keda municipality it was decreased in a relatively small amount (decreased by 18%). the mentioned peculiarity is partially explained the fact that keda municipality is located closer to batumi city, the part of the population of which is employed in batumi. as of huge decrease in shuakhevi municipality`s population, it was mainly conditioned by eco-migrants and peculiarities of urbanization processes. as of population dynamics during recent years, quite different situation is observed in khulo municipality, which was decreased by 12 thousand persons (or 30,4%) during the study period, but after 2014, a slow increase tendencies of population are observed herein. in particular, local population was increased by 4,1 thousand persons in 2014-2023 years, that is firstly related to development of social and economic processes in rural areas, existence of the law of georgia on the development of high-mountainous regions (so-called “mountain law”), development of agricultural manufacturing and tourism comparing to other municipalities. during the same period, a positive migration balance was observed in khulo municipality, which was due to return of eco-migrants from meskheti and javakheti regions. positive migration balance was somehow influenced by enactment of the law of georgia on the development of high-mountainous regions (so-called “mountain law”), as a result of which, population consisting of retirement pensioners returned due to the higher pension rates. if we compare the numerical dynamics of the population of mountainous adjara to similar indicators of mountainous regions of the country, we will observe that population decrease is obvious in each mountainous region, especially in racha-lechkhumi (kohler et al., 2017; putkaradze &putkaradze 2019), which is the result of political, social and economic processes observed in the country (jaoshvili, 1996; putkaradze & putkaradze, 2018; putkaradze & abuselidze, 2022; tsuladze et al., 2008). number of population of mountainous adjara until the recent year was absolutely depended on the natural increase. region was on the first place in georgia according to its wide reproduction of population, but during the recent period, on the background of common reproduction of country`s population (where the depopulation is shaped during the several years already), the natural increase is observed still (see figure 1). figure 1. natural increase of population of mountainous adjara in 1989-2023 years; source: table is created according to materials of national statistics office of georgia figure 1 displays that in 1989-2023 years, natural increase indicator of regional population was decreased from 19,0 promille to 1,7 promille. the mentioned peculiarity firstly is related to changes into demographic condition in the country, that by itself is connected to weakening of traditions of large families, worsening the age structure, increase of median age of marriage, migration processes and other factors. if we discuss the indicators of population`s natural increase from an intra-regional standpoint, worsening tendencies are observed everywhere, especially in khulo municipality (see figure 1). if we overview the population of autonomous republic of adjara in the direction of natural movement where an average indicator for 2023 was up to 4,8 promille and the same for the country was 0,7 promille, 0 5 10 15 20 25 1989 year 2000 year 2015 year 2023 year keda shuakhevi khulo mountainous adjara putkaradze & putkaradze. 2025 5(5) 33 then we can see that mountainous adjara (which was the center of wide reproduction of population until the recent years), obviously develops in the direction of demographic crisis. one of the basic reasons for decrease of natural increase indicators of the population of the study area during recent years is related to changes in the age structure, though the gender structure did not worsen. in particular, number of men in 1989 was 49,2% and this indicator increased to 50,0% for 2014. the mentioned peculiarity is more related to immigration processes. as of age structure, noticeable changes of worsening are observed herein (see figure 2). figure 2. age structure of mountainous adjara in 1989-2014 years; source: table is made according to materials of national statistics office of georgia figure 2 displays that 0-14 age group gradually decreases in the population age structure and the population of retirement age increase. the data brought and the factors named above constitute the main reasons of demographic crisis`s formation in the region. population dynamics of mountainous adjara is essentially connected to migration processes. actually, during recent 150 years, region had a negative migration balance, which had a different progress during some particular periods of independent georgia. population of study region increased by 47387 persons as a natural increase in 1990-2023 years. if the population of the region was 85,100 in 1989 and 47 387 persons were added as a natural increase, then a negative migration balance in 1989-2023 years equals to 73587 persons [(85100+47387)-58900] coming out of it. it turns out that annually region was left by 2164 persons in average, or average migration intensity was 31 persons per 1000. migration intensity during the study period was quite different according to separate periods. in particular, as a result of natural disaster emerged in 1989-1990 years, 19138 forced displaced migrants from the region was settled in some other different regions, including the krasnodar kray of russian federation [putkaradze, 1996] migration intensity in 1991-1994 years, was decreased at its minimum due to difficult political, social and economic processes created in the country, moreover – some particular part of the population returned back at their old dwelling places. migration begins to activate with slow pace in 1995-2014 years still, but number of population in 2014-2023 years was increased by 3500 persons (from 55,4 thousand to 58,9 thousand). during the mentioned period, region had a natural increase of 1951 persons. it is obvious, that regional population was increased by 1549 persons in a way of migration, that constitutes an unprecedented occurrence regarding mountainous regions. actually, during the whole 140 years, region had a negative migration balance. the mentioned demographic condition relates only to khulo municipality. in particular, some part of the population settled in meskheti and javakheti regions due to natural disaster processes returned back. besides, some particular part of immigrants are presented by population or retirement age. discussions one of the originalities of modern demographic development of mountainous adjara is also that socalled “hidden migration” is observed in the region, or the number of actual population from the 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 1989 year 2002 year 2014 year 0-14 15-64 65 and more putkaradze & putkaradze. 2025 5(5) 34 permanent population is decreased by 30-35% on average. actually, a big part of the labour resources of the region are temporarily employed in batumi. the mentioned circumstance somehow hinders the rate of application of regional natural resources, which by itself presents one of the hindering circumstances for the development of highlands, the regulation of which in the whole country is quite an important problem, and it requires a separate study.by evaluating the modern demographic condition of mountainous adjara, it is found out that the region actually is under demographic crisis. notwithstanding the fact that recently only in khulo municipality has a population's slow increase been observed, in general the natural increase of the region is decreased at its minimum, and it is at the edge of depopulation. age structure is worsened, where the specific share of the population of young age is obviously decreased. a negative migration balance is observed in keda and shuakhevi municipalities, but “hidden migration” is obviously shaped everywhere, or the present population (compared to the permanent population) is decreased by 30-35%. conclusion in order to stop the demographic crisis in mountainous adjara, the following important measures should be applied: 1. social and economic development of the region should be increased more, and by foreseeing the worsened ecological condition, implementation of effective policy of sustainable economic development should be prioritised; 2. operation of the law of georgia on the development of high-mountainous regions (so-called “mountain law”) should become more effective in the direction of improvement of regional demographic condition. in particular, immigration processes should be promoted with state subsidies, large families should be encouraged with financial assistance and other; 3. in order to stop the migration processes, especially “hidden migration”, it is necessary to create jobs and renovate the sectoral structure of the economy, and tourism should be prioritised in the sustainable development of the region; 4. maintenance and stay of the population in mountainous adjara and its social and economic development should be implemented by issuing low-interest loans and working out an effective taxation system. stoppage of the demographic crisis in mountainous adjara and the measures to be applied in this regard actually will be an effective event implemented in order to improve the demographic policy of the country. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id merab putkaradze https://orcid.org/ 0000-0003-36440-4626 landa putkaradze https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0848-9512 reference coleman, d. (2008). the demographic effects of international migration in europe. oxford review of economic policy: 24(3): 453–477. https://doi.org/ 10.1093/oxrep/grn027 ehrlich d., melchiorri m., capitani c. (2021). population trends and urbanisation in mountain ranges of the world. land. 10(3):1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10030255 gretter, a., machold, i., membretti, a. & dax, t. (2017). pathways of immigration in the alps and carpathians: social innovation and the creation of a welcoming culture. mountain research and development: 37(4): 396-405. https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd-journal-d-17-00031.1 jaoshvili, v. population of georgia tbilisi, 1996. (in georgian) kohler, t., elizbarashvili, n., meladze, g., svanadze, d. & meessen, h. (2017). the geodemographic crisis in racha, georgia: depopulation in the central caucasus mountains. mountain research and development: 37(4):415-424. https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd-journal-d-17-00064.1 meladze, g. (2007). georgia`s demographic challenges. tbilisi. 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(2022) social-economic aspects of potential migrants of mountainous region of georgia: analysis and results. journal of geography, politics and society.vol.12. no.2: 8-15. doi: https://doi.org/10.26881/jpgs.2022.2.02. thornton, j. et al. (2022). human populations in the world’s mountains: spatio-temporal patterns and potential controls. plos ones.17(7). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271466 tsuladze, g., sulaberidze, a., maghlapheridze, n. & mamardashvili, g. (2008). demographic development of georgia: yesterday, today, tomorrow, tbilisi. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0131-1 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0271466 georgian geographical journal differences in socio-economic transformations of rural communities in russian multi-ethnic regions linar imangulov1,* 1 department of economic and social geography of russia, lomonosov moscow state university, moscow, russian federation * corresponding author: е-mail: linar.imangulov.1999@mail.ru introduction in the post-soviet period, rural areas of russia have undergone large-scale transformations associated with the destruction of the collective-state farm system and large-scale depopulation of the rural population due to its migration outflow to the cities. post-soviet transformation processes in rural areas of russian regions have different speeds and spatial coverage (alekseev & safronov, 2017; nefedova, 2012b). georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 54-65 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the article analyzes the differences in the rural communities’ transformation in some national republics of russia. to verify the hypothesis put forward on the basis of a review of sources and field observations, demographic statistics, rural settlement and other indicators characterizing the rural population are analyzed. among rural communities with different ethnic identities, there is a significant differentiation in the share of the rural population, birth rate and settlement structure. differentiation is due to the different involvement of ethnic rural communities in urbanization processes and processes of social modernization. analysis and classification of differences made it possible to identify options (inertial and modernization) and stages ("expansion", "from expansion to compression", "compression" and "disappearance in the previous format") of the post-soviet rural communities transformation. most of the russian rural communities are undergoing active modernization. at the same time, in rural areas of russia, there are still rural communities at the stage of "expansion" (largely dagestani and ingush rural communities). the discussion section presents a classification of ethnic rural communities in russia according to their predominant variant and stage of transformation in the post-soviet period. based on the results of field studies, examples are given that confirm the presence of deviations from the predominant variant and stage of transformation of rural communities. for example, the leading factor in the differences in the variants and stages of socio-economic transformation of the surveyed tatar and chuvash rural communities of the batyrevsky and fyodorovsky districts is the development of the economic base of the region. due to the more active soviet industrialization of the economy of bashkortostan, many communities in the fyodorovsky district are at the stage of "compression" and "disappearance", while in the batyrevsky district only in recent decades has the outflow of population to the cities accelerated. in addition, a comparative analysis of the rural settlement transformation of ethnic groups made it possible to confirm the universality of the stages of rural communities’ transformation. in the batyrevsky district this is expressed, for example, in the temporary lag of depopulation of tatar and chuvash rural communities. keywords: ethnic groups, migration, social modernization, local rural-urban systems, socio-economic transformation, rural areas citation: imangulov l. differences in socioeconomic transformations of rural communities in russian multi-ethnic regions. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 54-65 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.07 mailto:linar.imangulov.1999@mail.ru imangulov 2024 4(2) 55 the socio-economic transformation of rural areas in the national republics of russia has its own specifics (nefedova, 2012ab). in 1992-2020, the share of the rural population living in the national republics of russia increased by 4 percentage points or 0.8 million people, reaching 26% (9.6 million people), despite an overall decrease in the rural population in the country by 5% or 1.9 million people. this illustrates the completely different functioning of rural areas in the national republics of russia in comparison with the regions with predominantly russian population shares. however, the dynamics of the demographic development of rural areas in the national republics is uneven: an increase in the rural population is recorded only in the republics of the north caucasus and some national republics of siberia. the focus of research by russian geographers has traditionally been on zonal features of rural settlement and zonal types of rural areas. works describing the characteristics and problems of rural development in individual regions have become widespread. the rural areas of the central non-black earth region with a historically high share of the russian population have been studied most thoroughly (averkieva, 2021). particular attention is paid to its features of demographic and economic contraction, and then the revitalization of rural areas through the development of dacha recreation (averkieva et al., 2021; fomkina, 2017). ethnocultural differences in rural areas are most often considered as one of the factors of spatial differentiation of rural areas through the prism of demography, economics and lifestyle of the population (nefedova, 2012b). there are also several works describing the ethnically expressed rural areas of russian regions using the example of individual national republics: buryatia (breslavsky, 2013), tuva (gusakov, 2019) and chuvashia (imangulov, 2021). a comparative analysis of the results of post-soviet regional studies of rural areas in russia suggests the existence of prevailing variants of transformation of rural communities with different ethnic population structures. this hypothesis was also voiced by the leading researcher of rural russia, t.g. nefedova: “…a comparison of modern rural communities of some non-russian peoples on the territory of russia with russian demographically full-fledged communities of the beginning of the 20th century does not exclude the hypothesis of identical, but chronologically different phases of the life cycle of rural communities…” (nefedova, 2012b). however, this scientific idea in russian geographical science, despite the presence of studies in the field of ethnic differentiation of the rural population (for example, (alekseev&imangulov, 2022; imangulov, 2023; cherkasov, 2018)), did not receive further development, which emphasizes the relevance of this study. abroad, there are often works describing ethnically expressed rural areas. however, it is extremely rare to find works directly linking the options and stages of development of rural communities and rural settlement. among such works, one can highlight the study (collins-kreiner, 2013), in which the dynamics of the development of a network of villages in the central part of israel is considered using the “product life cycle” model. in the actively industrializing and urbanizing prc, the development of rural communities is considered in interaction with the external (mainly urban) environment, which can lead to the growth, decline, or even disappearance of rural communities (yuheng et al., 2019; hualou et al., 2021). for example, in the northern chinese province of shanxi, researchers identified 5 types of development of rural settlements and, accordingly, rural communities in the context of the active spread of urbanization processes: "growth", "maturity", "flourishing transformation", "stepwise regression" and "decline" (yajing et al., 2022). a review of russian and foreign works did not find studies in which, when studying the development of rural communities, the ethnic structure of the population is considered in relation to the transformation of rural settlement of the population. although the ethnic structure of the population based on the experience of studying local rural areas of russia, is able to classify, for example, different trends in the population dynamics of villages (imangulov et al., 2021) or the dynamics of agricultural production (nefedova, 2012b; fadeeva, 2015). in this regard, the purpose of this study is to verify, based on open statistical data, the hypothesis about the existence of differences in the prevailing variants and stages of transformation of rural communities with different ethnic population structures. the result of this study should be a classification of ethnic rural communities in russia in accordance with their prevailing variants and stages of transformation. imangulov 2024 4(2) 56 methods and materials the titular population of the national republics has a number of aggregate differences from the russian majority in the country. in russia, this is due to the different involvement of ethnic groups in the socioeconomic development trends that are common for the country and the world (demographic, 2006; zubarevich, 2003). in this regard, the transformation of rural communities in national republics is determined not only by, for example, the universal processes of urbanization throughout the world but also by the economic, social, and cultural modernization of the non-russian population, which either partially underwent modernization during the soviet period or is just being drawn into it. the object of this study is ethnic rural communities, by which the author means an ethnic community of people with a certain geographical localization (in a settlement/settlements) and the presence of close social ties between its members. the author in the study distinguishes between the concepts of ethnos and ethnic groups: rural communities of a region as a whole or an ethnos (for example, russian rural communities of the ivanovo region) and a specific rural community of a settlement (for example, the russian rural community of the village of vladimirovka in the ivanovo region). to verify the above hypothesis, the study first (1) analyzes the differentiation of rural communities of the titular peoples of the national republics according to their involvement (a) in urbanization processes and (b) in the processes of social (demographic) modernization of the population. for this purpose, the study uses the following basic indicators of the characteristics of the rural population, which serve as indicators of processes (table 1). table 1: indicators of options for transformation of rural communities and settlement communities characteristics rural communities indicators data sources demographics dynamics of rural population population censuses of the russian federation in 2002, 2010 and 2021 structure of rural settlement birth rate of rural population bdpmo rf migration average size of rural household bdpmo rf rural population share population censuses of the russian federation in 2002, 2010 and 2021 economic labor migration of rural population expert assessments structure of employment of rural population expert assessments further (2) the post-soviet transformation of rural settlement of the ethnic group in rural areas1 is analyzed because changes in the distribution of the rural population across different classes of rural settlements by population may indicate trends in the compression, stabilization or expansion of the settlement of ethnic groups. the study is based on two groups of materials. the first group includes open statistical data, in particular the all-union and all-russian population censuses of 1989, 2002, 2010 and 2020. the second group of materials is represented by the results of expeditions, in particular visual observations, and the results of expert and in-depth interviews with the rural population. in the period from 2021-2024, within the framework of various projects, the author visited and surveyed 24 peripheral/semi-peripheral areas2 with a predominantly rural population in 8 national republics of the russian federation. the surveyed republics: bashkortostan, buryatia, dagestan, ingushetia, mordovia, north ossetia-alania, tatarstan and chuvashia. this sample of national republics almost completely covers the ethnocultural diversity of the main zone of settlement and economic development of russia. the verification of the research hypothesis is carried out on the example of rural communities of the titular ethnic groups of the visited and surveyed republics: bashkir, buryat, dagestan (avar, dargin, 1in the study, the rural settlement of an ethnic group in rural areas refers to the totality of rural settlements in which the share of the corresponding ethnic group in the ethnic structure of the population exceeds 60%. 2the choice of areas with peripheral and semi-peripheral locations for the survey is due to the fact that in areas with a suburban location, completely different socio-economic processes are recorded due to the agglomeration influence of cities. imangulov 2024 4(2) 57 kumyk, lak, lezgin, rutul and tabasaran), ingush, mordvin, ossetian, tatar, and chuvash rural communities. results the spread of urbanization processes determines the transformation of rural communities of any ethnic identity in the post-soviet space. with a systematic increase in the share of the urban population of an ethnic group, there is a "washing out of the population" from rural areas, which ultimately is reflected either in a decrease in the number of rural communities or their disappearance. there is a certain differentiation of the analyzed ethnic groups of russia according to the share of urban and rural population (table 2). a high share of the rural population (above 50%) is found among the dagestani peoples, except for the laks and lezgins, as well as the buryats, bashkirs, and chuvashes (2020). average and low values of the share of the rural population (less than 50%) are found among the mordvins, lezgins, ossetians, tatars, laks, russians and, ukrainians. the urbanization indicator of an ethnic group is primarily influenced by the time of the beginning of large-scale migrations of the rural population "village-city". russians and ukrainians initially have a richer experience of population mobility, especially in the pre-revolutionary period (resettlement to newly developed territories, seasonal migration of peasants to cities, etc.). for other ethnic groups, the key barrier to migration from the village to the city was the lack of knowledge of the russian language. for this reason, non-russian ethnic groups began to migrate to the city with a certain time lag. in the 1980s, more than 50% of the tatar, ossetian, and lak population already lived in urban areas. later, in 1989, more than 50% of the mordvins lived in cities, and in 2020, lezgins. other ethnic groups (chuvash, bashkirs, buryats and other dagestani peoples) never crossed the threshold of 50% of the urban population. in 1989-2020 decrease in the rural population was recorded among ukrainians, mordvins, chuvashes, tatars, and russians; stabilization—among the buryats; growth—among the bashkirs, ossetians, ingush, and dagestani peoples (table 1). in addition to the scale of rural-urban migration, the dynamics of the rural population of ethnic groups is affected by the birth rate, which can, for example, in the republic of dagestan affect the growth of the rural population even in rural areas with migration-related population loss. the maximum value of the total fertility rate of the rural population in 2019 (over 14 per mille) was among the dagestani peoples, with the exception of the lezgins and nogais, as well as the ossetians, bashkirs, and buryats, which indicates that the demographic transition of the rural population is not yet complete. the minimum value of the indicator (less than 10 per mille) is among russians, ukrainians, mordvins, chuvashes, and tatars. the average private rural household indicator gives an almost identical distribution of ethnic groups: the tradition of a large family has been noticeably preserved among the rural population of the peoples of dagestan and ossetia, while among russians, mordvins, chuvashes, and even tatars, the average size of a rural household is less than 3 people. table 2. some indicators of transformation of rural communities with different ethnic population structures indicator rural population share, % dynamics of rural population, % total fertility rate, per mille* average household size, people* year / period 2020 1989-2020 2019 2010 laks 28.5 27.0 14.9 3.8 tatars 32.7 -18.5 9.8 2.9 ossetians 37.5 34.1 15.7 3.7 lezgins 44.8 52.1 11.6 4.2 mordva 48.7 -54.0 6.5 2.8 chuvash 51.0 -38.9 8.4 2.7 bashkirs 51.4 18.4 14.9 3.2 buryats 52.5 -0.2 15.4 no data kumyks 52.8 97.3 20.6 4.6 tabasarans 52.9 31.8 16.0 4.4 rutuls 57.4 43.0 16.0 4.4 avars 62.0 70.4 18.7 3.7 dargins 63.5 59.0 17.8 3.5 nogais 66.3 19.6 11.8 4.5 *note: the table presents average values of indicators for several peripheral mono-ethnic rural areas within the republics in which the ethnic group is the titular one imangulov 2024 4(2) 58 in accordance with the characteristics of the rural population of different ethnic groups, the following groups of ethnic rural communities with similar indicator values are distinguished: group 1: russian, ukrainian, tatar, mordvin, chuvash; rural communities of the first group as a whole have experienced or are still experiencing a significant migration outflow of part of the population to cities. urbanization processes have undermined the demographic potential of most communities. ethnic assimilation has an additional negative impact on the population dynamics of mordvin and chuvash rural communities. group 2: bashkir, buryat; rural communities of the second group have only in recent decades begun to experience a significant migration outflow of the population to cities. rural communities have significant demographic potential for development, as a result of which either an increase in the rural population in the post-soviet period (bashkir) or its stabilization against the background of migration to cities (buryat) is noted. group 3: ossetian, lezgin, lak; rural communities of the third group as a whole experienced a migration outflow of part of the population back in the 20th century. this is illustrated by the indicator of the low share of the rural population of the corresponding ethnic groups in comparison with other ethnic groups of the north caucasus. at the same time, ossetian, lezgin, and lak rural communities demonstrate similar rates of natural growth as other caucasian rural communities, which is reflected in the increase in their population in the post-soviet period. group 4: avar, dargin, nogai, kumyk, tabasaran and rutul. rural communities of the fourth group in recent decades have generally demonstrated an explosive growth in population: from 20-30% to 100%. it is associated primarily with high birth rates, which are capable at this stage of compensating for the migration outflow of the rural population to the cities. differences in some indicators characterizing the demographic development of different ethnic rural communities are due to the different degree of involvement of ethnic groups in the processes of demographic modernization. most ethnic rural communities are currently actively modernizing. at the same time, some rural communities are going through socio-cultural modernization of the eastern type, expressed in the preservation of traditional elements (for example, rural communities of dagestan, ingush, etc.). another part of rural communities is apparently going through modernization of the western type, expressed in the active displacement of traditional elements by modern ones (for example, bashkir, buryat, tatar, chuvash and mordvin communities). at the same time, part of the ethnic rural communities, in connection with their more active social and, in particular, demographic modernization during the soviet period, at the same time, some ethnic rural communities, due to their more active social and in particular demographic modernization during the soviet period (demographic, 2006), are characterized by an inertial version of transformation, expressed, for example, in the preservation of established demographic trends in earlier periods (for example, russian and ukrainian rural communities). ethnic rural communities, in addition to differences in the variants of socio-economic transformation ("inertial modernization"), differ in the prevailing stage of transformation of rural communities. this is most clearly confirmed by the structure of rural population settlement3 in terms of ethnic identity and its post-soviet dynamics. the distribution of the number of settlements by different population classes between ethnic communities confirms the thesis about the more vibrant ethnic rural communities of dagestan from a demographic point of view (table 3). the number of rural settlements with a population in the 5011000 and 1001-2000 classes, on the contrary, is minimal in the ethnic rural communities of the uralvolga region. table 3. distribution of the total number of rural settlements of the corresponding ethnic group by population class, 2002, % less than 50 51-200 201-500 501-1000 1001-2000 2001-5000 more than 5000 settlement in dry steppe and semi-desert zones (500-1000 people) nogais 2.8 16.7 19.4 25.0 25.0 5.6 5.6 large dense settlement in the southern regions (1000-3000 people) 3in this paper, the rural settlement of ethnic groups is understood as the entire set of rural settlements with a share of the corresponding ethnic group in their ethnic structure above 60%. imangulov 2024 4(2) 59 kumyks 0 6.8 6.8 8.5 23.7 35.6 18.6 mountain focal settlement (200-500 people) tabasarans 4.4 13.3 38.9 25.6 13.3 4.4 0,0 lezgins 4.5 14.2 20.6 20.6 21.9 15.5 2.6 rutuls 6.3 6.3 31.3 31.3 12.5 12.5 0,0 dargins 7.2 25.3 26.3 18.1 13.4 7.2 2.5 laks 9.6 35.6 35.6 9.6 6.8 2.7 0,0 avars 10.9 27.4 22.8 15.5 13.6 7.5 2.4 ossetians 33.7 14.0 10.5 8.1 16.3 9.3 8.1 mediumand large-scale settlement in the central zone of russia (200-500 people) chuvash 9.9 44.5 30.3 11.8 2.6 0.8 0.1 tatars 12.1 32.3 36.4 15.2 2.9 0.7 0.4 bashkirs 15.2 34.1 34.2 13.8 2.0 0.3 0.4 mordva 30.2 26.1 26.1 13.3 3.1 1.0 0.2 medium-sized focal settlement (200-500 people) buryats 8.7 24.3 29.6 22.8 12.6 1.5 0.5 the analysis of the transformation of rural settlement patterns of ethnic groups in 2002-2020 (table 4) allows us to draw two important conclusions. table 4. change in the number of rural settlements of the corresponding ethnic group by different population classes, 20022020, % less than 50 51-200 201-500 501-1000 1001-2000 2001-5000 more than 5000 settlement in dry steppe and semi-desert zones (500-1000 people) nogais 3.9 -10.0 13.9 1.7 -5.0 -2.2 -2.2 large dense settlement in the southern regions (1000-3000 people) kumyks 1.5 -5.2 0.9 0.8 -0.7 -7.9 10.6 mountain focal settlement (200-500 people) tabasarans 1,1 4.2 -4.8 0.8 -1,2 0,0 0,0 lezgins 1.3 3.3 -5.7 1.4 0.1 -0.5 0,0 rutuls 16.0 -0.7 7.6 -14.6 -1.4 -6.9 0,0 dargins 1,2 -2.7 -1.7 1.0 -0.2 1.6 0.7 laks 1,1 -4.9 -0.9 3.7 -2.8 2.6 1.3 avars 1.9 -5.1 0.4 2.0 -2.7 3.0 0.4 ossetians 4.2 5.3 -5.5 -0.1 -0.8 -0.6 -2.5 mediumand large-scale settlement in the central zone of russia (200-500 people) chuvash 7.7 5.7 -6.5 -5.7 -1,1 -0.1 0,0 tatars 4.3 5.8 -5.1 -4.8 -0.2 0.1 -0.1 bashkirs 6.1 3.7 -5.4 -5.0 0.3 0.1 0.2 mordva 8.8 3.0 -2.8 -7.2 -1.6 0,0 -0.2 medium-sized focal settlement (200-500 people) buryats 5.3 3.7 -2.6 0.2 -9.1 1.0 1.5 firstly, the simultaneous reduction in the number of medium-sized (201-1000 people) and increase in the number of small settlements (less than 50 people) among the peoples of the ural-volga region, some peoples of dagestan (rutuls, lezgins and tabasarans), ossetians, and buryats is the result of the processes of depopulation and compression of the corresponding rural communities. secondly, the simultaneous increase in the number of medium (201-1000 people) and very large settlements (more than 2000 people) against the background of a decrease in the number of large settlements (1001-2000 people) among the other peoples of dagestan (nogais, kumyks, avars, laks) is the result of a gradual "erosion" of the middle link of rural settlements. it was observed among the peoples of the ural-volga region in earlier periods. discussions differentiation of the surveyed ethnic rural communities of russia in accordance with demographic characteristics and features of rural settlement in dynamics confirms the put forward hypothesis, formulated on the basis of a bibliographic review of sources and visual observations. the diversity of ethnic rural communities in the national republics of russia in the post-soviet period demonstrates different dynamics and directions of transformation. based on the transformation of the rural settlement of the population, it was found that the transformation of rural communities has a certain stage-by-stage nature, which can be reduced to the imangulov 2024 4(2) 60 following stages observed in russian regions: "expansion", "from expansion to compression", "compression", "disappearance (community in the previous format)". taking into account the ethnic structure of the population, the rural areas of russia can be described as a set of ethnic rural communities at different stages of transformation. the "expansion" stage, rarely encountered in russian regions, is quite widespread among the rural communities of the north caucasus. these rural communities are distinguished by a younger age structure of the population, high birth rates, and population growth. this is facilitated by the post-soviet strengthening of the position of religion (islam) among the population, the traditional structure of society, and conservatism. however, some of the north caucasian rural communities do not belong to this stage (for example, ossetian, lezgin and lak). in the case of the lezgins, this is due to the historically higher spatial mobility of the population (rural lezgins actively participated in labor migrations to oil fields in the 19th-20th centuries). lak rural communities were significantly influenced by institutional conditions: the implementation of the program of "settling highlanders on the plain" and the resettlement of laks to the lands of chechens deported during the soviet period. the development of ossetian rural communities is closely linked to the dynamics of the economic base of the republic of north ossetia-alania. during the periods of soviet industrialization, the urban population among ossetians grew. as a result of the degradation of the economic base of the republic in the transition period (in the 1990s), on the contrary, there is an increase in the rural population (some temporary "rollback" to the past), which now, however, has begun to decrease again due to urbanization of a non-industrial nature. the stage "from expansion to compression" is characteristic of the bashkir, buryat, ossetian, chuvash and lezgin rural communities. these ethnic rural communities only began to be actively involved in urbanization processes at the end of the 20th beginning of the 21st centuries, which, for example, in buryatia led to the rapid growth of the suburbs of ulan-ude, and in bashkiria to the "indigenization" of the ethnic structure of the population of the regional capital ufa. at the same time, the demographic potential of most of these ethnic rural communities has already been somewhat undermined, which is expressed in a fairly high share of the urban population (from 40 to 60%). the high migration outflow of the rural population is supported by a decrease in the birth rate and the destruction of traditional ways of life of communities. the "compression" stage is typical for tatar and lak rural communities. it is these rural communities, with the exception of the russian and ukrainian population, that have suffered the most from the urbanization processes. a high proportion of the elderly population and low birth rates generally characterize tatar rural communities. lak rural communities look slightly better against the background of tatar rural communities, but the demographic potential undermined during the soviet period significantly limits their development. in mountainous rural areas with a lak majority (lak and kulinsky districts), abandoned settlements can very often be found. inhabited settlements are characterized by extremely small size, significant seasonal differences in population dynamics, and high values of the share of empty housing stock. the "disappearance" stage of rural communities is less common in the national republics. most often, these are russian and ukrainian rural communities, represented by small settlements with a predominantly elderly population or medium-sized settlements with a minimum share of families with children under 18. it is noteworthy that the abandonment of some settlements is opposed by new city dwellers—former rural residents—who, in the status of recreationists, complement the rural community. however, this still leads to the disappearance of former rural communities with a traditional way of life. this is facilitated by the demographic transition that russians and ukrainians have gone through and the total outflow of population to cities. mordvin rural communities complement the list of these two ethnic groups, despite the fact that in the structure of the mordvins the proportion of the urban population is significantly lower (51.3%). this is due to the extremely active spread of ethnic assimilation. it, coupled with the low birth rate, leads to a significant reduction in the rural population (-54% in 1989-2020) and the depopulation of rural settlements. often in the intercensal periods, one can observe how mordvin villages simply disappear on the map, turning into russian ones. it should be said that behind such a rapid transformation of ethnic identity, even among rural mordvins, there is, for example, the actual disappearance of traditional economic structures and practices (abandonment of traditional gardening for mordvin peasants), transformation of the way of life (disappearance of pagan elements), etc. imangulov 2024 4(2) 61 the above stages of transformation illustrate well how much rural communities are alive at the present time. from the text above, it is clear that in addition to general characteristics (demography, settlement, etc.), a special role is played by whether ethnic rural communities have undergone demographic modernization. this is important since it determines their preservation until the appearance of external actors of influence. accordingly, the transformation of ethnic rural communities in the post-soviet period can be "inertial" or "modernization". the first case is typical for russian, ukrainian, and mordvin rural communities, the soviet and postsoviet development trends of which are identical (the main trend is depopulation and polarization of rural settlement). the second case is typical for other ethnic rural communities, which are not homogeneous within themselves due to different rates of demographic modernization, which gives rise to many variations in the development of rural areas with different ethnic population structures. thus, by correlating the options and stages of transformation of different ethnic rural communities, we can obtain their following distribution (table 5). table 5. prevailing variants and stages of post-soviet transformation of ethnic rural communities options for post-soviet transformation of rural communities "inertial" "modernization" s ta g es o f tr an sf o rm at io n o f ru ra l co m m u n it ie s "expansion" avar, dargin, ingush, kumyk, nogai, tabasaran, rutul "from expansion to compression" bashkir, buryat, ossetian, chuvash, lezgin "compression" tatar, lak "disappearance (of the community in the previous format)» russian, ukrainian mordvins in one way or another, based on data from other ethnic groups in russia, a researcher or reader can supplement this distribution or test the methodology for their own research purposes using another region or country with a different ethnic population structure as an example. above, we discussed the prevailing variants and stages of transformation of ethnically different rural communities. however, when turning to local areas, one can even find in places a complete discrepancy between the variants and stages of transformation of rural communities with the same ethnic identity due to the local context. let us briefly examine the variants and stages of transformation of rural communities that deviate from the general population. to do this, let us compare two pairs of rural districts in the volga region and the north caucasus with a similar ethnic set of rural communities and the same characteristics of the territories. 1. fyodorovsky district of the republic of bashkortostan—batryrevsky district of chuvashia. both the tatar and chuvash populations live compactly in rural districts (table 6). table 6. some socio-economic characteristics of the surveyed areas of bashkiria and chuvashia characteristics year republic of bashkortostan chuvashia republic fyodorovsky district batyrevsky district distance to the regional center, km 214 132 rural population density, people/km2 2020 9,6 (for reference: in the region as a whole 10,6) 34 (for reference: in the region as a whole – 23,9) zonal features of rural settlement continuous development, medium and large population continuous development, smallmedium populated population, thousand people 2020 16,2 32 dynamics of rural population, % 1989-2020 -17,6 -28,1 time of emergence of a stable rural settlement network 1850 1890 xvi-xvii centuries imangulov 2024 4(2) 62 characteristics year republic of bashkortostan chuvashia republic fyodorovsky district batyrevsky district ethnic structure of the population, % 2020 tatars – 31,8 russians – 24,5 bashkirs – 21,8 chuvash – 10,9 mordvins – 9,5 chuvashes – 67 tatars – 30,9 russians – 1,3 mordvins less than 1 average population of rural settlements in the district by ethnic group, people 2020 bashkirs 302 tatars 301 chuvash 156 mordovians 147 russians 48 in the district as a whole 237 chuvashes 487 tatars 1016 in the district as a whole 572 tatar rural communities of fyodorovsky district are at the stage of active "compression", while tatar communities of batyrevsky district are mostly at the stage of "expansion", or "from expansion to compression". such a situation is largely due to the different time of involvement of the rural population in "village-city" migration. tatar communities in fyodorovsky district are distinguished by an elderly age structure of the population: in some villages, young families with children are practically absent or are present in limited numbers (up to 5-10 families). for example, in the villages of akbulatovo and izhbulyak, out of 100200 permanent residents, more than 50% are people over 50 years old. it is noteworthy that despite the demographic crisis of these rural communities, the traditional economic structure is preserved thanks to representatives of older generations (an indicator of social modernization of the eastern type). tatar communities in batyrevsky district, on the contrary, have a comparatively young population structure: in the villages there are many young families with an average number of children of two or more people. the tatar villages of chuvashia are extremely populous (the average size of a settlement in 2020 was 1,016 people, compared to 301 people in the fyodorovsky district4) and extremely religious. the communities are quite closed, traditional and conservative. the same situation is observed in relation to the chuvash rural communities of the surveyed districts. in the batyrevsky district, they are mainly at the stage of "from expansion to compression". in the fyodorovsky district, there are chuvash rural communities of two stages both "from expansion to compression" and "compression". it is noteworthy that the dynamics of the average size of chuvash settlements in the two districts revealed that the chuvash communities of the batyrevsky district are also beginning to depopulate in the post-soviet period, repeating the dynamics of the chuvashes of the fyodorovsky district with a time lag of 30-50 years. it is interesting that the transformation of chuvash rural communities of the same stage "from expansion to compression" in two remote districts proceeds differently. for example, in the fyodorovsky district, the male population began to participate on a large scale in labor migration to the mining regions of siberia to replace soviet employment in collective and state farms. in the batyrevsky district in the post-soviet period, relatively large personal subsidiary farms of the population became a solid basis for family budgets of the rural population. the cases considered emphasize the importance of considering the dynamics of the economic base of the region in which communities live at the stage of active urbanization: in bashkortostan, rural communities underwent active transformation back in the soviet period, while in chuvashia it is only observed, but already in different conditions. 2. levashinsky-botlikhsky districts of the republic of dagestan. levashinsky and botlikhsky districts are in the inner mountain part of the republic of dagestan. dargins and avars inhabit the first district, the second only by avars (table 7). in these mountainous districts, the soviet state program for resettling the mountain population to the plain was not implemented, because of which the districts have an extremely high population and population growth in the post-soviet period. for the avar communities of the botlikh district, the predominant stage of transformation of rural communities is "expansion" (corresponds to the stage of transformation of the avar rural communities of dagestan as a whole). this is due to both a high birth rate and minimal migration of the population 4in the fyodorovsky district, the maximum average population of tatar settlements of 916 people was recorded by the population census in 1926, after which there was a consistent decrease. imangulov 2024 4(2) 63 (the local population works in private subsidiary farms and participates with families in labor migrations outside the republic). at the same time, in some avar rural communities of the levashinsky district (for example, in the village of kutisha), on the contrary, there is a large-scale migration of young people in the direction of "village-city". one of the main reasons is the different degree of competitiveness of the population in the urban labor markets due to differences in the education of the population. a similar situation is observed between the dargin rural communities of the levashinsky district. in some dargin rural communities, due to the extremely high religiosity of the population, it is not customary to send children to school at all or to send them until the 9th grade. parents justify this by the low practical significance of education in the conditions of the availability of more profitable employment opportunities in rural settlements (growing white cabbage and vegetables, transportation, trade, etc.). as a result, some dargin rural communities are distinguished by simply "explosive growth" in population, which outpaces the overall regional growth rates of the rural population. table 7. some socio-economic characteristics of the surveyed areas of dagestan characteristics year republic of dagestan levashinsky district botlikhsky district distance to the regional center, km 94 145 geomorphological region (altitude zone) intramountain region of mountainous dagestan rural population density, people/km2 2020 98,9 87,2 zonal features of rural settlement mountain focal livestock and agricultural settlement population, thousand people 2020 80,4 59,9 dynamics of rural population, % 1989-2020 has grown 2 times increased by 2,2 times time of emergence of a stable rural settlement network approximately one chronological period (more than 300 years) ethnic structure of the population, % 2020 dargins – 77,2 avars – 21,2 others – 1,6 avars – 96,3 others – 3,7 average population of rural settlements in the district by ethnic group, people 2020 dargins – 1128 avars – 1918 avars – 1619 deviations in the stages and variants of transformation of ethnic rural communities of dagestan are associated, among other things, with the level of education of the rural population, which somewhere has a positive effect on the stability of rural settlement. this is because the higher the level of education of representatives of rural communities, the more options they must choose from and, as a rule, the higher their migration mobility, which is reflected in the depopulation of, for example, the same avar village of kutisha. conclusion based on the analysis of the values of demographic indicators and the settlement structure of the rural population of different ethnic groups, it was possible to identify differences in the prevailing variants of the transformation of rural communities with different ethnic structures of the population. in many ways, the recorded post-soviet differences are determined by the involvement of russian ethnic rural communities simultaneously in the processes of urbanization and, above all, demographic modernization. the entire diversity of rural community’s transformations can be described through universal variants of the rural community’s transformation ("inertial" and "modernization"), reflecting the nature of changes in rural communities, and stages ("expansion", "from expansion to compression", "compression" and "disappearance in the previous format"), reflecting their scale of change. the transformation of the majority of the surveyed ethnic rural communities has a modernization character (communities of the north caucasus, the volga region and siberia), only a small number have an inertial character (for example, russians and ukrainians). more significant is the differentiation of ethnic rural communities in russia, according to the current stage of transformation of rural settlements imangulov 2024 4(2) 64 (otherwise rural communities, since the population of each individual settlement is a separate local community). ingush and many dagestani communities are at the stage of "expansion", bashkir, buryat, chuvash, ossetian and lezgin communities are at the stage of "from expansion to compression", tatar and lak communities are at the stage of "compression", and russian, ukrainian and mordvin communities are at the stage of "disappearance in the previous format". the concept of cycles is not applicable to the analysis of the ethnic rural communities’ transformation, since we are talking about a fundamental change in the composition of communities as a result of their modernization. the revival/revitalization of settlements by new city dwellers—recreationists—does not contribute to the restoration of traditional elements and connections. field surveys of rural communities and data on the average size of a rural settlement have shown that there are certain deviations from the prevailing variant and stage of transformation among rural communities of one ethnic identity. they are usually associated with the action of local factors in the development of rural settlements (for example, the development of the economic base, the historical experience of local population mobility, the factor of human personality, etc.). examples of the transformation of tatar and chuvash, avar, and dargin rural communities located within territories with similar zonal characteristics and development conditions confirmed that these rural communities went through the same set of stages of rural community transformation with a certain time lag. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. funding the russian science foundation grant no. 24-17-00107 has provided financial support for this research. orcid id linar imangulov https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6254-2049 reference alekseev, a.i., & imangulov, l.r. 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(2021). study of the ethnocultural factor on the evolution of rural settlement using the example of multiethnic regions of bashkiria and mari el. vestnik moskovskogo universiteta. seriya 5, geografiya, 1. nefedova, t g. (2012). rural stavropol through the eyes of a moscow geographer. diversity of regions in the south of russia. publishing house of saratov state university. nefedova, t.g. (2012). ten topical issues about rural russia: a geographer’s viewpoint. urss. yajing, l., jianhua, h., qiaobing, y., xuesong, k., & miaomiao, z. (2022). linking rural settlements optimization with village development stages: a life cycle perspective. habitat international. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2022.102696. yuheng, l., hans, w., & yansui, l. (2019). why some rural areas decline while some others not: an overview of rural evolution in the world. journal of rural studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.03.003. zubarevich, n.v. (2003). social development of russian regions in the transition period. phd dissertataion. https://doi.org/10.55959/msu0579-9414.5.78.2.11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2022.102696 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.03.003 georgian geographical journal demographic situation in modern abkhazia fact or fiction? giorgi meladze1, 2* , 1 department of geography of georgia and landscape planning, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 department of human geography, tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography. tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: giorgi.meladze@tsu.ge introduction according to the 1989 soviet census, population of abkhazia made up 525 061, including 239 872 ethnic georgians (45.7%), 93 267 – abkhazians (17.8%), 76 541 – armenians (14.6%), 74 914 russians (14.3%) and other nationalities 40 467 (7.7%) (saqartvelos mosakhleobis erovnuli…,1991), among which the greeks and ukrainians stood out in numbers. the military operations in abkhazia began in 1992. the opposing side of georgia was represented by abkhaz, north caucasian mercenaries and units of the russian regular army. it can be said that it was conflict disguised by diplomatic rhetoric between georgia and its former metropolis russia (gachechiladze, 2011). the exact number of those killed during the ethnic cleansing is disputed. according to the georgian government's committee on human rights and interethnic relations, 4000 individuals from the georgian side, both civilians and combatants, were killed, 10000 were wounded, and 1000 are missing. the abkhazian committee for human rights gives the following casualty figures for the "duration of the war," which they set as august 14, 1992 through september 30, 1993: 4040 killed (2220 combatants, 1820 civilians); approximately 8000 wounded; 122 missing in action (georgia abkhazia: violations ..., 1995), more than 20 thousand became refugees (apkhazeti udzvelesi droidan…, 2007). other sources, emphasizing ethnic cleansing, cite the figure for deaths as between 25 000 and 30 000 (derloguian, 1998). nearly 250 thousand georgians were forced to escape blood freezing horrifying humiliations, tortures, shootings. apart for ethnic georgians, nearly 100 thousand persons of other ethnic origin escaped from abkhazia, including ethnic russians, greeks, armenians, estonians. even thousands of abkhazians left native land, unwilling to be the part of the fascist regime (alexidze, 2009). although there are no active hostilities today, ethnic cleansing and genocide continue to this day through various methods. as a result of the tragic events that took place in abkhazia, the number of population sharply decreased, and the ethnic composition changed radically. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1), 41-50 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract in the period after the armed conflict in abkhazia (14.08.1992-27.09.1993), there is no reliable information about demographic data. the first official information about the population published by the department of state statistics (in 2019 was renamed the state committee) of unrecognized republic of abkhazia appeared in 2005. since 2010, the statistical abstract “abkhazia in figures” has been regularly published, which, unlike the 2005 edition, no longer has classified as "for official use". the demographic situation of modern abkhazia is discussed on the basis of official abkhaz sources. the article also uses data from foreign, abkhaz experts and various international organizations, which significantly differ from official data. even such a general indicator as the total number of population is unclear. the opinion was expressed that the official data does not reflect the reality. the theory of demographic transition and the estimated crude mortality rate were used to calculate the population size. according to calculations, the population is in the range of 140-160 thousand. keywords: abkhazia, population, demographic transition, birth, death, migration. citation: meladze, g. demographic situation in modern abkhazia fact or fiction?. georgian geographical journal 2024, 5(1), 41-50. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.05 mailto:giorgi.meladze@tsu.ge https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9116-5203 https://context.reverso.net/%d0%bf%d0%b5%d1%80%d0%b5%d0%b2%d0%be%d0%b4/%d0%b0%d0%bd%d0%b3%d0%bb%d0%b8%d0%b9%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9-%d1%80%d1%83%d1%81%d1%81%d0%ba%d0%b8%d0%b9/for+official+use meladze. 2025 5(1) methods and materials primary sources of data are: scientific works and articles published in the abkhaz, georgian and foreign press. official data from national statistics office of georgia and the state statistics committee of the unrecognized republic of abkhazia, about natural movement and the population censuses conducted in different years. based on research interests, for study and analyze of relevant materials, methods of historical-comparative, descriptive, statistical analysis and expert assessment are used. results population dynamics the last information about the population of abkhazia was published by the social and economic information committee of georgia (currently national statistics office of georgia) in 1993. after that the official publication, which contained information about the population, was published by the state statistics committee of unrecognized republic of abkhazia only in 2005 with a stamp ,,for official use” (abkhazia in numbers, 2005). this publication is based on the results of the 2003 population census. according to the latter, the population of abkhazia made up 214.0 thousand inhabitants (see table 1) and the number of ethnic abkhazians amounted 94.6 thousand. table 1. dynamics of population by nationality. data source (national statistics office of georgia; (abkhazia in numbers, 2005; abkhazian statistical yearbook, 2023) ethnic group in thousands percent 1989 2003 2011 2023 1989 2003 2011 2023 abkhaz 93.3 94.6 122.2 125.4 17.8 44.2 50.8 51.4 georgian 239.9 44.0 46.5 46.9 45.7 20.6 19.3 19.2 armenian 76.5 44.9 41.9 41.4 14.6 21.0 17.4 17.0 russian 74.9 23.4 22.1 22.3 14.3 10.9 9.2 9.1 other 40.5 7.1 8.105 8.047 7.7 3.3 3.4 3.3 total 525.1 214.0 240.7 244.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 in post-war abkhazia, the 2003 population census was carried out unsatisfactorily. as a result of justified criticism, the event received the official name “population registration 2003” (yamskov, 2010). according to experts, during the 2003 population registration there was a double count of the population in both rural and urban settlements (yamskov, 2009). as a result, the population of abkhazia and abkhazian nationality increased artificially. the data of the mentioned event was taken as a basis, which means that in subsequent years, the total number of the population was determined by mechanical addition-subtraction of the current registration of population (birth, death, migration). the shortcomings of the ,,population registration 2003”, were not taken into account during the 2011 population census, moreover, apparently with the double-enumerated population, resided in russia were also registered as residents of abkhazia (piirsalu, 2018). as of the 2011 census, the population of abkhazia made up 240.7 thousand. the number of ethnic abkhazians in the total population amounted to 122.2 thousand. in the period 2003-2011, the population of abkhaz nationality increased by 27.6 thousand (29.2%), which corresponds to an average increase of 3.2% per year. the recorded fact is practically impossible (see figure 1). during the years of the demographic explosion (19501960), the average annual increase of the african population was 2.2%. we also note that during the intercensal period (1959-1989) over 30 years, the number of abkhazians increased by only 32.1 thousand people. before the 2011 census, according to official data, the population of abkhazia in 2003-2010 increased slightly by 2.7 thousand people, in 2007-2008 the population even decreased (see figure 2). according to the mentioned data, the population in 2010 made up 216.7 thousand (abkhazia in numbers, 2010). after the 2011 census, due to the differences between the population figures, state committee of the unrecognized republic of abkhazia on statistics, recalculated the data for the period between 20032011. from 2003 to 2010 the mentioned procedure was probably carried out by interpolation, annually were added 3 338 people. meladze. 2025 5(1) according to the latest data, as of january 1, 2023, the number of populations amounted to 244.0 thousand inhabitants. the share of abkhazians increased and amounted to 51.4%. the share of all other nationalities has decreased (table 1). figure 1. percent change by main nationalities in the period between the censuses in 2003-2011. source: abkhazia in numbers, (2005); abkhazian statistical yearbook, (2023). paradoxes of abkhazian statistics it is hard to find a country in the world where official statistics and expert assessments differed so much from each other. the reason for such sharp differences in assessments can be explained by the interest of the abkhaz government to present the desired as reality. the united nations development programme (undp) estimated the total population of abkhazia to be in the region of 180 000-220 000 in 1998 (world directory of minorities…, 2008). figure 2. number of population before and after 2011 census. source: abkhazia in numbers, 2005; abkhazian statistical yearbook, 2023 according to the estimation of the official sources of georgia, the population of abkhazia in 2002 made up 180 thousand and at the beginning of 2005, 178 thousand (statistical yearbook of georgia, 2005). according to one of the georgian expert ,,the actual population of abkhazia should not exceed 170 thousand“ (archvadze, 2005). in 2005 the president of abkhazia s. bagafsh stated that less than 70 thousand abkhazians lived in the republic (bagapsh speaks of abkhazia’s economy, 2005). speaking at mgimo (moscow state institute of international relations) in 2010, he said that 120 thousand abkhazians live in abkhazia (president of abkhazia, 2010). meladze. 2025 5(1) in january 2005 the electoral roll, probably a more reliable guide to the numbers of those at least of voting age, comprised 129 127 individuals, suggesting an overall population between 157 000 and 190 000 (abkhazia today, 2006). according to the mentioned source, abkhaz are thought to constitute some 35 per cent of the total population of the republic (world directory of minorities…, 2008). in 2006, abkhazian officials stated in an interview with crisis group that 320,000 people lived in the republic, including 110,000 abkhazians (abkhazia today. 2006). according to the authors of the encyclopedia britannica, in 2007 population of abkhazia made up 180 thousand people (encyclopedia britannica. abkhazia). in the report published in 2015 under the auspices of the unrepresented nations and peoples organization (unpo), which is based on the data of the ministry of foreign affairs of the unrecognized republic, noted that -,,abkhazia has a permanent population of around 200 000” (the unrepresented nations and peoples organisation, 2015). during the 2019 presidential election, the number of voters in abkhazia made up 127 232 (results of the elections of the president of the republic of abkhazia on september 9, 2019). in any period, the number of population can fluctuate because only as a result of natural increase (difference between births and deaths) and net migration (the number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants). in 2003-2011, the officially published total population does not correspond to the total population obtained from natural increase of population and migration data. for example, according to official data, the population of abkhazia at the beginning of 2004 made up 214 281 people, if we add and subtract the indicators of natural increase and migration in 2004, the result obtained at the beginning of 2005 differs from the officially published one. attempts to increase number of populations the de-facto government of abkhazia is interested in increasing the population of abkhaz nationality. achieving the mentioned goal by natural increase is unrealistic. one of the ways out of the situation authorities consider the repatriation of the population who left the region as a result of the conflict. the direct descendants of those refugees who left the territory of historical residence of abkhazians (abaza) as a result of the russian-caucasian and russian-turkish wars and other events of the 19th century are considered to be repatriates (konstitucionny zakon respubliki abkhazia) in 1993, the law on repatriation was adopted and the state committee for repatriation was approved, which, as a result of reorganization in 2018, was transformed into a ministry. 7856 repatriates were registered in abkhazia for 23 years (1993-2016). among them 4 427 people from turkey, 550 from syria, 126 from egypt and jordan. according to the head of the state committee for repatriation of abkhazia, only 3 000-3 200 repatriates lived here in 2016 (23 years ago, 2016). between the years 2017 and 2022 the number of repatriates who came for permanent residence in abkhazia amounted to 1138 people. by 2022, 3117 repatriates lived in abkhazia (abkhazian statistical yearbook; 2023). a significant part of repatriates are people from turkey, syria and jordan. despite the efforts of the government of the unrecognized republic of abkhazia, many repatriates left abkhazia due to the unfavorable socio-economic situation. from a demographic point of view, the results of the campaign to attract the population through repatriation are practically negligible. a ban on abortion in abkhazia was introduced in early 2016 (law of the republic of abkhazia). the main purpose of the ban on abortion in abkhazia was to increase the fertility. over the past eight years, there have been no significant changes, in the field of fertility, on the contrary, the birth rate has decreased. women continue to terminate unwanted pregnancies by travelling to neighbouring countries or performing illegal abortions in abkhazia. according to resolution of the cabinet of ministers of occupied abkhazia n170, dated december 28, 2021, for 2022 was developed a short-term target program “demographic development”, the main goal of which was to increasing the number of children of abkhaz nationality among the total number of births (demographic development for 2022). the latter should be assessed as discrimination against other nationalities living in abkhazia. on july 12, 2021, the parliament of occupied abkhazia adopted the law “on the demographic policy of the republic of abkhazia” in the 1st reading. the objectives of demographic policy are: improving the standard of living of the population; increase in fertility; reduction of mortality; https://jam-news.net/category/geography/abkhazia/ meladze. 2025 5(1) strengthening family traditions and relationships; return of abkhazians to the country. despite the measures taken, the desired result was not achieved. natural movement there is scant information concerning the natural movement of abkhazia's population. in the postwar period, we find the mentioned data in a report, which was prepared by staff of the statistical service, at the request of one of the abkhazian journalists, according to which in 1994 1470 children were born in abkhazia and 1730 people died (sharia, 2016). the author of the article explains the excess of the number of deaths compared to the quantity of births with the fact that most of the latter received severe wounds during the ongoing hostilities in abkhazia, which eventually became the cause of their death most of the deceased were seriously injured during the ongoing fighting in abkhazia, which ultimately became the cause of their death. as for the fertility, the conception of the largest part of those born in 1994 mainly coincided with the war period. subsequently, the absolute number of births in the period of 1995-1999 was: 1611, 1551, 1396, 1432 and 1169 newborns. according to the official data in 2002 the crude birth rate made up 7.2‰, which was approximately 2 times less than the identical indicator in 1991(14.3‰). according to official data, the birth rate in 2002-2009 showed tendency to increase (see table 2). table 2. natural movement of the population 2002-2022. source: abkhazia in numbers (2005, 2011, 2016, 2019); abkhazian statistical yearbook, (2021, 2023) years absolute data per mille n um be r o f bi rth s n um be r o f de at hs n at ur al ch an ge c ru de bi rth ra te c ru de de at h ra te n at ur al c ha ng e 2002 1557 1059 498 7.2 4.9 2.3 2003 1816 1142 674 8.5 5.3 3.2 2004 1919 1233 686 8.9 5.8 3.1 2005 1669 1533 136 7.7 7.1 0.6 2006 1715 1493 222 7.9 6.9 1.0 2007 1772 1761 11 8.2 8.2 0.0 2008 1990 1553 437 9.2 7.2 2.0 2009 2207 1699 508 10.2 7.8 2.4 2010 2156 1699 457 9.9 7.8 2.1 2011 2143 1645 498 8.9 6.8 2.1 2012 2258 1723 535 9.3 7.1 2.2 2013 2017 1561 456 8.3 6.4 1.9 2014 2004 1467 537 8.2 6.0 2.2 2015 1927 1654 273 7.9 6.8 1.1 2016 1768 1465 303 7.2 6.0 1.2 2017 1711 1262 449 7.0 5.2 1.8 2018 1430 1282 148 5.8 5.2 0.6 2019 1274 1240 34 5.2 5.1 0.1 2020 1295 1411 -116 5.3 5.8 -0.5 2021 1110 1785 -675 4.5 7.3 -2.8 2022 997 1532 -535 4.1 6.3 -2.2 in 2009, its maximum value was recorded (10.2‰), which was much lower than the level of simple reproduction of the population (15‰), after which the crude birth rate (except for 2011-2012 and 2019-2020) permanently decreased. in 2022, only 997 children were born in abkhazia, the crude birth rate made up 4.1‰. according to the information published by the central intelligence agency (cia), which includes data about 228 countries, no country has such a low birth rate (the world factbook, 2022). if the above-mentioned fertility level is maintained for a long time, each subsequent generation in abkhazia will be approximately 73% less than the previous generation. based on the mentioned fact, a catastrophic situation has been created in abkhazia in the field of fertility. probably the extremely low meladze. 2025 5(1) value of the crude birth rate is related to the problems of registration of births, as well as the unrealistically high number of the population. the current mortality rate is surprising because of its low values. in 2002, its indicator made up 4.9‰, which was one of the lowest rates worldwide (2002 world population data sheet). a country is categorized as an “aged” society when the share of persons aged 65 years and over more than 7 per cent of the total population, in such countries the mortality rates are high. in 2003 the share of people of this age group in abkhazia amounted to 16.9% (abkhazia in numbers, 2005), which was one of the highest rates in europe. in 2002-2007 the mortality rate showed an increasing trend. by 2007 the highest value 8.2‰ was recorded, after that, the mortality rate was mainly characterized by a downward trend. in 2002-2022, despite some fluctuations, the main vector of direction of rate of natural change showed a decreasing trend. since 2020, its negative values have been fixed (table 2), which is mainly the result of the covid-19 pandemic. today a very difficult demographic situation has been created in abkhazia. according to one of the abkhaz specialists the course of demographic processes in the republic is affected by traffic injuries, car accidents, suicides, low fertility, increased mortality, changes in age and sex composition, late marriages, unsatisfactory health status of the population and drug addiction (khashba, 2023). at a meeting of the center for social and economic research, one of the former abkhaz deputies stated ,,abkhazians are endangered nation, which requires a special protection regime (challenges and answers, 2023). migration the problem of migration is very significant for abkhaz society. due to the incompleteness of migration records from the 90s of the last century until 2003, it is impossible to restore a complete picture of migration processes (khashba, 2015). the negative balance of external migration in abkhazia in 2003-2007 changed positively in 20082019 (except for 2014). in the early years of the covid-19 pandemic, emigration exceeded immigration. in 2022, the migration balance was still positive (see figure 3). figure 3. dynamics of migration balance in 2003-2022. source: abkhazia in numbers 2010; abkhazian statistical yearbook 2021, 2022 intensive migration processes from villages to cities are observed in abkhazia. in 2003, the share of the rural population was 55.1% (abkhazia in numbers, 2005), in 2023 this figure was equal to 49.8% (abkhazian statistical yearbook, 2022). the main reasons for migration from rural areas to urban areas are more employment opportunities, the desire to get a better education, better living conditions. according to abkhaz experts, a third of school graduates go to study further outside abkhazia, and not all return. if this trend continues exactly as it is now, the size of each next meladze. 2025 5(1) generation in abkhazia will be one third less than the size of the previous one (sharia, 2022; demographic abyss, 2022). the increasing number of illegal migrants from central asia, armenia and other countries is a serious problem in abkhazia. an attempt to calculate the number of the population officially published information about the population size of abkhazia is clearly far from reality. we will use the theory of demographic transition to determine the estimated number of the population. for the calculation, it is necessary to determine the expected level of the crude mortality rate that corresponds to the current phase of the demographic transition. we focus on the mortality rate because, that unlike the birth rate, this is an indicator which except in extreme situations does not undergo sharp changes. if the total number of deaths and the value of the crude mortality rate are known, it is not difficult to calculate the population size (meladze & tsuladze, 1997). this calculation does not pretend to be absolutely accurate, although the latter is closer to reality than the officially published numbers. since the 1960’s abkhazia and georgia have been in the third phase of the demographic transition, which is characterized by an increasing in death rate as a result of demographic aging (see figure 4). the dynamics of the coefficients shows that they are close to each other. figure 4. dynamics of crude mortality rates in abkhazia and georgia in 1965-1991. source: 1965-1985 abkhazia in numbers, 1986. 1989-1991 – calculated by author, based on national statistics office of georgia materials in the middle of the 1990’s, georgia begins to move into the fourth phase of the demographic transition (meladze & tsuladze, 1997). in this phase, the crude mortality rate continues to increase, reaching approximately 13-14‰ at the end of the phase. abkhazia's mortality rates, officially published since 2002, are clearly far from reality (see figure 5). analysis of the figure shows that in 2002-2022 there are enormous differences between the mortality rates of georgia and abkhazia, in most cases abkhazia’s rates are 2 or more times lower than those recorded in georgia. the fact that the mortality rates in abkhazia in the 1980s were higher than in 2002-2022 (with a few exceptions in 2007, 2009 and 2010), contradicts the knowledge of demographic science. we do not use mortality data for 2020–2022 due to the covid-19 pandemic for our calculations. in abkhazia between 2005 and 2016 the number of deaths is more or less close to reality. the average annual number of deaths in these years is 1604. based on the development of the demographic system and relevant analysis, the estimated crude mortality rate in modern abkhazia is at least in the range of 10-11.5‰. accordingly, the population of abkhazia should be equal to 140160 thousand. meladze. 2025 5(1) figure 5. dynamics of crude death rates in georgia and abkhazia in 2002-2022. source: abkhazia in numbers 2005, 2011, 2016, 019; abkhazian statistical yearbook, 2023; national statistics office of georgia conclusion officially published statistical and demographic information about occupied abkhazia does not reflect reality. -it is necessary to conduct a population census in abkhazia, which has not been carried out since 2011. state statistics committee of the de facto republic of abkhazia publishes only general data about natural movement of population and migration. data required for demographic analysis, such as total fertility rate, age specific fertility rate, age specific mortality rate, life tables etc., are not known to the public, which complicates the assessment of the current situation. -in the near future fertility will decrease, in the field of mortality the opposite process is expected. -the growth of the population from 93-95 thousand to 120 thousand in 1993-2012 is less realistic. -the process of demographic aging of the population is progressing, which will create serious socio-economic problems in the future. -according to our calculations, population size in modern abkhazia among 140-160 thousand. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. orcid id giorgi meladze https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9116-5203 reference abkhazia today. europe report n°176 – 15 september 2006. p. 9. retrieved from https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/23764/176_abkhazia_today.pdf (april 14, 2024). abkhazia in numbers 1985. 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(in russian). 2002 world population data sheet of the population reference bureau. https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-bd&sca_esv=4c59d14f8f776101&q=world+population+data+sheet+2002+pdf+download&sa=x&ved=2a hukewjw7vn_zssfaxxsrvedhsk3cbgq1qj6bag2eae&biw=1366&bih=643&dpr=1 https://unpo.org/downloads/2344.pdf https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/mrgi/2008/en/64817 http://abkhazinform.com/intervyu/item/3388-23-goda-nazad-v-abkhazii-byl-sozdan-goskomitet-po-repatriatsii http://abkhazinform.com/intervyu/item/3388-23-goda-nazad-v-abkhazii-byl-sozdan-goskomitet-po-repatriatsii https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=4c59d14f8f776101&q=world+population+data+sheet+2002+pdf+download&sa=x&ved=2ahukewjw7vn_zssfaxxsrvedhsk3cbgq1qj6bag2eae&biw=1366&bih=643&dpr=1 https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=4c59d14f8f776101&q=world+population+data+sheet+2002+pdf+download&sa=x&ved=2ahukewjw7vn_zssfaxxsrvedhsk3cbgq1qj6bag2eae&biw=1366&bih=643&dpr=1 https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=4c59d14f8f776101&q=world+population+data+sheet+2002+pdf+download&sa=x&ved=2ahukewjw7vn_zssfaxxsrvedhsk3cbgq1qj6bag2eae&biw=1366&bih=643&dpr=1 in 2009, its maximum value was recorded (10.2‰), which was much lower than the level of simple reproduction of the population (15‰), after which the crude birth rate (except for 2011-2012 and 2019-2020) permanently decreased. in 2022, only 997 childre... georgian geographical journal petrology of the rocks composing the shuakhevi hpp engineering structure levan ioseliani1, , giorgi beridze2* , irakli javakhishvili2 1 ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 alexandre janelidze institute of geology, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: giorgi.beridzegeoinst@gmail.com introduction the study area is located in the adjara-trialeti folded zone of the lesser caucasus fold system in the adjaristskali river basin (gamkrelidze, 2000). the basin is composed of volcanic-sedimentary rocks from the middle eocene burnati and kintrishi suites. the engineering structures of the shuakhevi hpp are located in the territory of these suites. petrographic and mineralogical studies of the rocks of the mentioned suites were performed in the last century for geological surveying, and the results are presented mainly as archival materials. the studies included only macroscopic and microscopic studies of rocks and minerals and analysis of the chemical composition of the material—only silicate analysis. however, no other kind of analytical research has been conducted within the framework of the abovementioned suites. during the implementation of the shuakhevi hpp project, a detailed study of the rocks in the hpp building area was needed. our goal was to perform a complex study of the burnati and kintrishi volcanogenic-sedimentary suites. during geological field work and engineering-geological research, rich factual material was obtained, which was studied using both traditional and modern analytical equipment and methods. in addition to detailed petrographic and mineralogical studies, geochemical research has also been conducted. as a result, this work presents a detailed petrological characterization of the rocks composing the kintrishi and burnati suites. study area the research area, which covers ≈170 km2, is located in the mid-stream of the adjariskali river gorge (right tributary of the chorokhi river) (fig. 1). it is structurally located in the central (axial) and southern subzones of the adjara-trialeti folded zone of the lesser caucasus fold system (gamkrelidze, 2000). the geological study of the territory was carried out mainly in the first half of the twentieth century and included regional geological, geomorphological, hydrogeological and petrographic issues (meffert, 1933; gamkrelidze, 1949; beliankin & eremeev, 1935; beliankin et al., 1935). on the basis of studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s (laliev et al., 1970; zirakadze, 1967, 1969, 1973), three suites were distinguished in the middle eocene volcanic formations: 1. zekari (≈1500 m), 2. kintrishi (≈600-700 m) and 3. burnati (≈400 m). the mentioned volcanogens are calcgeorgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 4-10 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the petrology of the rocks in the adjaristskali river basin in the territory of shuakhevi hpp engineering buildings has been studied. the petrographic, mineralogical and geochemical features of the rock material of the middle eocene burnati and kintrishi suites have been studied using both traditional and modern methods. this research confirmed that the mentioned suites are composed of basalt, andesite-basalt and trachybasalt tuffs, tuff-breccias and lavas. these rocks have been investigated for the first time from a geochemical point of view. they were established to be rocks of tholeiitic and calc-alkaline composition of high-k shoshonite origin. the rocks of both suites are characterized by boninitic composition, which is typical for the geodynamic conditions of young island arcs; their origin is related to back-arc tectonic conditions. keywords: shuakhevi hydropower plant, adjaristskali river, petrology, geochemistry citation: ioseliani, l.; beridze, g.; javakhishvili, i. petrology of the rocks composing the shuakhevi hpp engineering structure. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1), 4-10. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.01 received: 9 november 2023 revised: 22 february 2024 accepted: 5 april 2024 published: 1 june 2024 ioseliani et al. 2024 4(1) 5 alkaline rocks represented by andesite-basaltic tuffs, limburgites, trachytes, trachyandesites and trachybasalts. in the upper parts, massive tuff breccias, lavas, lava breccias and tuffs are also found (lordkipanidze & nadareishvili, 1964; lordkipanidze & zakariadze, 1974). lordkipandze and nadareishvili (1964) dated the mentioned suites to the middle eocene. as a result of processing the literary materials found during the design of engineering structures of the shuakhevi hpp, it was established that the petrography and mineralogy of the suites composing the territory of the project engineering buildings were studied only at the level of rock identification, and analytical studies were limited only to silicate analysis of rocks. methods and materials the research methodology includes both traditional and modern analytical methods. field work was carried out in the adjaristskali river basin, as well as in its tributaries, the skhalta and chirukhistskali river valleys. samples were collected from all key locations of shuakhevi hpp engineering buildings (table 1). during the field work, reference sections were selected, rock samples were collected, sampling was accomplished using gps technologies, the points were plotted on geological and topographic maps of different scales, photographs of interesting areas of exposure were taken, informative charts were drawn on the spot, and deformation structures were measured using a geological compass. at the next stage, systematization/sorting/selection of collected and searched material was performed; at the laboratory of complex geological research of the al. janelidze institute of geology, thin sections were prepared. at the same institute, a microscopic description of thin sections was carried out using a polarizing microscope, and petrographic characterization was accomplished. figure 1. geological map of the study area ioseliani et al. 2024 4(1) 6 table 1. coordinates of sampling points selected for geochemical analysis from the territory of the shuakhevi hpp engineering buildings sample № name coordinates x y 1-18 didadjara impounding reservoir 0279569 4615174 2-18 0279659 4615085 3-18 0279714 4615069 4-18 northern portal of skhalta tunnel, adjaristskali basin, left bank 0279891 4614651 5-18 0280021 4614603 6-18 0279986 4614686 7-18 didadjara impounding reservoir, the ghorjomi and the adjaristskali rivers confluence 0279357 4615293 8-18 left bank of didadjara dam 0279357 4615293 9-18 diakonidze tunnel gallery 0277819 4615130 10-19 skhalta impounding reservoir 0281192 4605977 11-19 0280984 4605986 12-19 0280984 4605986 13-19 0280735 4606159 14-19 0281029 4605761 15-19 chirukhi impounding reservoir 0276460 4602529 16-19 0276461 4602527 17-20 didadjara central tunnel (village chanchkhalo) 0268899 4613369 18-20 shuakhevi hpp building 0262935 4613648 for geochemical studies, the 18 most typical samples were chosen from several hundred samples. analysis of major components, res and rees was performed at the complex laboratory of geological research of the al. janelidze institute of geology of iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university. the sample chips were finely powdered using a retsch rs200 vibrating mill. major and trace element concentrations were determined by x-ray fluorescence (xrf) spectrometry using a spectroscout x-ray spectrometer with a cu-rh x-ray tube. results the samples for petrographic study were collected in the adjaristskali river basin, as well as in its tributaries, the skhalta and chirukhistskali river valleys. microscopically, the studied rocks were divided into two types. in particular, the main rock-building minerals of the burnati suite are plagioclase (0.2-1 mm), pyroxene (0.2-0.8 mm in size) and hornblende (0.1-0.9 mm in size). among the secondary minerals, calcite replaces plagioclase, and chlorite, which is an alteration product of hornblende, is notable. zeolite and ore minerals also occur in the rock. the main rock mass is represented by volcanic glass. the rock is characterized by a porphyry structure. petrographic characterization confirmed that the rocks composing the burnati suite are tuffs and tuff breccias with andesite-basalt and trachy-basalt compositions (fig. 2). the main rock-building minerals of the kintrishi suite are plagioclase (0.3-1.2 mm), which is sometimes fine grained, and pyroxene (0.3-0.6 mm). in addition to plagioclase chloritized hornblende (0.3-1 mm), andesites are notable. among the secondary minerals, calcite, which substitutes for plagioclase, and chlorite, which is the alteration product of hornblende, are rather remarkable. zeolite figure 2. burnati suite tuff of trachy-basalt composition, ppl and xpl ioseliani et al. 2024 4(1) 7 and ore minerals also occur in the rock. volcanic glass represents the main mass of the rock. the rock is characterized by a porphyry structure. in andesites, volcanic glass is chloritized. in addition, in the rock, tuff fragments with andesite-basaltic compositions are observed. petrographic characterization verified that the rocks composing the kintrishi suite are tuffs, tuff breccias and lavas of andesite basaltic composition (fig. 3). we conducted geochemical studies of tuffs, tuff breccias and lavas with andesite-basalt and trachybasalt compositions from the burnati and kintrishi suites (table 2). on the na2o+k2o feo mgo diagram (irvine & baragar, 1971; fig. 4a), most of the figurative symbols representing the rocks of the burnati suite are located in the tholeiitic field, and only two symbols plot in the calc-alkaline field; as for the rocks of the kintrishi suite, their symbols are equally distributed in the tholeiitic and calc-alkaline fields. on the na2o+k2o vs sio2 diagram (le bas et al. 1986; fig. 4b), the symbols indicating the rocks of the burnati suite were equally distributed in the basalt and andesite-basalt fields, while those of the kintrishi suite were scattered in the andesite-basalt and basalt-trachyandesite fields; only in one case did the symbol fall into the dacitic field. on the th figure 3. kintrishi suite tuff-breccia of andesite-basaltic compositions, ppls and xpls figure 4. classification discrimination diagrams: a – afm (irvine & baragar, 1971); b na2o+k2o vs. sio2 (le bas et al. 1986); c th vs. co (hastie et al., 2007); d zr/ti vs. nb/y (pearce, 1996) ioseliani et al. 2024 4(1) 8 vs. co diagram (hastie et al. 2007; fig. 4c), the figurative symbols representing the rocks of both suites are located along the dividing line of the high-k shoshonite and calc-alkaline fields, with a well-defined increase in acidity. according to the zr/ti vs. nb/y diagram (pearce, 1996; fig. 4d), the burnati suite rocks are equally distributed in the alkaline basalt and basalt field, and the kintrishi suite rocks are equally distributed in the alkaline basalt and trachyandesite field. on the ti vs. zr tectonic classification diagram (pearce, cann, 1973; fig. 5a), the rocks of the burnati and kintrishi suites occur within the calc-alkaline basalts field. on the na2o+k2o vs sio2 diagram (le bas et al. 2007; fig. 5b), the rocks of both suites are also situated in the boninites field. boninites are known to be characteristic of the geodynamic conditions of young island arcs. according to the zr vs. ti/100 vs. sr/2 diagram (pearce, cann, 1973; fig. 5c), the rocks of both suites are island arc formations, and according to the v vs. ti/1000 diagram (shervias, 1982; fig. 5d), the rocks belong to the back-arc formations. table 2. results of the xrf analysis of the volcanogenic-sedimentary rocks of the adjaristskali river. note: №1-18 – 9-19 and №18-20 burnati suite; №10-19 – 16-19 and №17-20 kintrishi suite symbol 1-18 2-18 3-18 4-18 5-18 6-18 7-18 8-18 9-18 10-19 11-19 12-19 13-19 14-19 15-19 16-19 17-20 18-20 sio2 41.08 41.46 41.20 40.93 42.08 40.77 42.02 40.16 44.77 54.86 48.24 51.69 43.02 49.63 39.20 42.89 48.14 51.95 tio2 1.25 1.26 0.96 0.87 0.68 0.89 0.79 0.89 0.75 0.43 1.17 0.48 0.87 0.84 1.33 1.73 0.97 0.49 al2o3 15.08 15.18 14.90 13.96 15.98 15.56 16.16 15.47 12.54 15.68 17.06 15.59 15.80 15.15 16.02 18.07 14.12 16.75 fe2o3 9.11 9.40 8.59 5.87 6.31 7.02 7.28 6.56 6.91 2.93 7.43 3.26 6.91 6.08 8.18 9.53 6.55 4.87 mno 0.09 0.36 0.14 0.24 0.13 0.09 0.10 0.14 0.18 0.05 0.10 0.06 0.07 0.14 0.11 0.22 0.11 0.09 mgo 5.05 2.98 4.37 3.18 3.83 4.31 2.91 3.98 1.37 0.88 3.71 1.56 1.71 4.89 4.18 3.71 5.40 3.13 cao 5.83 5.95 7.32 12.62 7.97 6.55 9.73 11.82 10.52 3.39 5.35 5.76 7.74 6.11 8.09 8.84 6.21 7.70 na2o 1.92 0.54 1.54 1.08 0.35 0.22 0.32 0.31 1.53 2.54 2.15 2.53 0.48 1.50 1.17 0.14 2.51 0.63 k2o 0.47 1.68 0.85 1.59 1.32 2.03 1.16 0.54 1.34 1.75 2.88 2.86 1.79 0.78 1.16 2.20 2.78 1.94 p2o5 0.45 0.41 0.33 0.27 0.17 0.30 0.26 0.30 0.26 0.26 0.59 0.29 0.29 0.28 0.56 0.80 0.66 0.19 v 218.1 205.4 212.5 194.9 154.8 167.3 175.2 124.6 149.9 37.78 146.9 70.71 165.6 144.1 294.8 315.3 192.90 123.2 cr 169.1 111.3 105.2 88.44 58.45 92.74 87.57 78.85 65.36 15.34 98.83 14.31 76.73 56.59 83.10 28.41 89.19 45.55 co 46.82 48.85 36.48 22.27 33.16 24.61 25.69 28.19 21.30 5.54 24.89 7.02 16.14 17.64 34.32 31.39 19.38 18.55 ni 86.41 89.35 72.43 40.29 41.16 63.62 52.78 42.16 38.92 1.83 44.56 2.65 27.96 31.83 32.50 36.45 41.15 22.58 rb 6.63 26.45 12.67 29.31 21.07 29.83 17.75 7.21 23.89 22.97 52.94 40.86 30.82 11.17 25.63 40.40 50.53 26.69 sr 385.1 387.7 331.1 686.2 264.60 347.90 510.40 473.60 463.40 686.20 696.80 474.90 343.50 651.90 753.00 896.60 1083.00 342.70 y 14.89 18.28 11.88 9.91 9.16 13.02 9.36 13.42 11.43 5.03 14.39 5.28 9.67 8.84 15.31 18.89 10.14 13.64 zr 110.9 109.2 72.31 91.71 87.93 113.8 79.00 100.6 148.8 120.6 166.60 99.99 102.20 137.20 104.10 147.70 131.80 88.48 nb 11.61 16.54 7.51 8.19 7.13 10.84 7.47 9.19 15.25 5.45 15.05 7.39 9.07 12.70 8.35 24.39 12.48 5.06 mo 0.64 0.66 0.63 0.62 0.59 0.61 0.62 0.61 0.63 0.53 0.64 0.54 0.60 0.60 0.64 0.70 0.63 0.59 figure 5. tectonic diagrams: a – ti vs. zr (pearce, cann, 1973); b – na2o+k2o vs. sio2 (le bas et al. 2007); с – zr vs. ti/100 vs. sr/2 (pearce, cann, 1973); d – v vs. ti/1000 (shervias, 1982) ioseliani et al. 2024 4(1) 9 cs 5.73 5.86 5.77 5.50 5.73 5.87 6.46 5.40 5.79 4.96 6.02 9.72 5.30 5.16 5.86 6.72 6.14 5.63 ba 210.5 337.70 211.20 314.70 160.00 201.20 275.70 233.90 295.30 515.80 368.70 420.10 129.70 293.00 207.00 575.30 886.70 782.60 la 9.19 32.52 9.43 8.57 26.19 21.35 18.32 110.80 9.36 9.16 9.63 9.28 8.90 26.85 26.78 42.23 23.13 21.94 ce 46.20 65.12 39.32 18.62 52.93 40.96 30.12 152.10 93.97 81.52 65.21 59.94 30.81 53.68 45.44 87.61 38.29 24.92 nd 104.4 53.43 82.37 42.69 62.10 60.59 74.03 20.05 51.59 42.07 106.50 56.42 86.90 64.70 102.7 150.5 95.95 61.32 hf 2.70 1.39 1.29 1.27 1.19 1.22 1.28 1.25 1.27 1.03 3.13 1.07 1.22 1.20 1.35 3.18 1.29 1.14 w 1.61 1.65 1.59 1.55 1.47 1.49 1.56 1.54 1.55 1.25 1.58 1.30 1.51 1.47 1.64 2.78 1.57 1.40 th 5.28 4.00 3.75 5.76 5.49 6.31 3.62 6.63 8.39 5.83 9.24 5.63 5.89 9.01 7.53 6.40 7.76 6.09 u 0.65 0.87 0.73 0.94 0.77 0.86 0.81 1.78 1.69 0.75 1.44 1.18 0.85 1.43 0.93 1.09 1.13 0.84 conclusion as a result of the research, it was established that the burnati suite within the study area is composed of tuffs and tuff breccias of basalt, andesite basalt and trachybasalt, while the kintrishi suite is composed of tuffs, tuff breccias and lavas of andesite basaltic composition; the rocks of both suites are characterized by similar geochemical characteristics; they have tholeiitic and calc-alkaline compositions, although the rocks of the burnati suite are mostly characterized by tholeiitic compositions; according to the lithological composition, they are calc-alkaline rocks of high-k shoshonite origin; the majority of the rocks of both suites are characterized by boninitic compositions that are typical of the geodynamic conditions of young island arcs; their origin is related to back-arc tectonic conditions. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contributions all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. funding the research [phdf-21-1617] was accomplished with the support of the “shota rustaveli national science foundation of georgia (srnsfg)”. orcid id levan ioseliani https://orcid.org/0009-0004-8951-4637 giorgi beridze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9573-8600 irakli javakhishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3250-3687 reference beliankin d., eremeev v. 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(1967). geologicheskoe stroenie zapadnoi chasti severnykh predgorii adjara-imeretinskogo khrebta v svyazi s eio neftegazonosnostyu [geological structure of the western part of the northern foothills of the adjara-imereti ridge in connection with its oil and gas potential]. ph.d. thesis. 32 [in russian]. zirakadze m.i. (1969). geologicheskoe stroenie gurtinskoi antiklinali v sviazi s perspektivami neftegazonosnosti melovykh otlozhenii [geological structure of the gurta anticline in connection with the oil and gas potential of cretaceous deposits]. proc. v.i. lenin georgian polytechnic institute, 6, 75-86 [in russian]. zirakadze m.i. (1973). k tektonike vostochnoi chasti severnogo sklona adjara-imeretinskogo khrebta v svyazi s perspektivami eio neftegazonosnosti [on the tectonics of the eastern part of the northern slope of the adjara-imereti ridge in connection with the prospects of its oil and gas potential]. bul. geol. society of georgia. t.7, issue 1.2., pp. 1-105 [in russian]. georgian geographical journal phytotoponymschronicler of local flora nana khotcholava-matchavariani1,* , david tchelidze 2 1 arnold chikobava institute of linguistics at iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, georgia 2 ilia university, institute of botany, georgia * corresponding author: mzeshina@mail.com e-mail introduction students are particularly interested in place names derived from plant names. they know such toponyms well, list them with pleasure, ask questions, express their own opinions, and turn to folk etymologies. properly selected, diverse material for phytotoponym analysis provides students with interesting information and knowledge in a number of areas (linguistics, botany, ecology, geography, traditional life, beliefs, etc.). the motivation behind the names of these phytotoponyms, along with the relationship between the designated geographical objects, can transform students' perception of their native environment, prompt them to consider the unfavourable state of ecology, and guide them towards necessary conclusions. we introduced the students to appropriate plants and their unique characteristics. this will facilitate a better understanding of various geographical objects and their respective locations. when discussing issues and presenting a proper presentation, it is necessary for students to get acquainted with certain terms, such as toponym, microtoponym, toponymy, phytotoponymy, name motivation, relict, endemic, "red book," and others. in this case, we are talking about phytotoponymy in detail, and we will give appropriate examples. phytotoponyms are toponyms that arose on the basis of plant names. the names of plants form the basis of phytotoponymy, which, in turn, represent a rich, diverse, and multi-layered area of the language's vocabulary. the use of plant names to designate territories dates back to ancient times. phytotoponyms are the result of deep thinking, observation, and many years of experience with a particular ethnic group. the analysis of phytotoponyms determines numerous factors, such as the flora of a particular geographical area (even in the distant past), the economic and cultural existence of the population, religious destinations, the boundaries of ancient settlements, migrations, and internal migrations, among others. we draw attention to the fact that the georgian language reveals rich and diverse possibilities in the linguistic design of phytotoponyms, which we make visible to students by giving relevant examples. this time, we will take the following presentation material (phytotoponyms) as an example: dzelkviani is the administrative unit of kutaisi municipality since 2014; dzelkviana is one of the districts of ofshkvit village, tskaltubo municipality; dzelkvebi is a plain place in the village of zeda kldeeti, zestafoni municipality; dzelkva is a sowing place in lanchkhuti municipality; and dzelkvavenakhi is a vineyard in the village of lower sazano, zestafoni municipality. when analysing phytotoponyms, it is necessary to discuss more than one issue in a certain order. i. linguistic analysis first, we perform a linguistic analysis of the given material – phytotoponyms. georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 80-83 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract toponymy is a distinctive field of language vocabulary. taking into account the conclusions obtained on the basis of its scientific study is the best way to fully understand the nature, landscape, historical past, migration of ethnic groups of a particular country, since the adventures of the country and the peculiarities of its nature are most succinctly conveyed by toponyms. in kartvelology there are a number of valuable scientific works in the field of toponymy. we consider it necessary to include toponymy achievements in educational programs of general schools. it will be useful in many ways to make it interesting. keywords: phytotoponyms, flora, dzelkva, georgia citation: khotcholava-matchavariani, n.; tchelidze, d. phytotoponymschronicler of local flora. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1) 80-83. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.10 received: 9 november 2023 revised: 22 april 2024 accepted: 5 june 2024 published: 7 june 2024 khocholava-matchavariani & tchelidze, 2024 4(1) 81 dzelkva simple noun, nominative case, singular; dzelkv-eb-i simple noun, nominative case, plural; dzelkv-ian-a derived name, dzelkvstem, ian-a – complex suffix; dzelkvavenakhi (< dzelkva+venakhi) a complex name. the stem of these names is divided into dzelkv-/dzelkva. this is the name of one of the trees (georgian ძელქვა [dzelkva], english "caucasian elm" or "caucasian zelkova"). based on this, the motivation of the name of the given geographical objects is determined the presence of the mentioned tree in these places. here, we will draw the students' attention to the unfortunate fact that, with one exception, there are no longer any caucasian zelkova trees on the mentioned geographical objects. ii. getting to know this plant we try to show and introduce students to this tree from different angles: botanical description, distribution, use, origin of its international nomenclature name, ecology, etymology of the name, etc. for this, we actively use appropriate visual material. “zelkova is agenus of six species of deciduous trees in the elm family ulmaceae, native to southern europe, and southwest and eastern asia. they vary in size from shrubs (z. sicula) to large trees up to 35 m (115 ft) tall (z. carpinifolia)”. common species in georgia is zelkova carpinifolia (pall.) k. koch. it is a tree up to 25-30 m tall with grey-green thick dense bark, growing in moist forests, coastal plains and lower mountain belt. in georgia, it is common in samegrelo, imereti, guria and kakheti (babaneuri nature reserve). it is a relic of the tertiary period and is included in the "red book" of georgia (gagnidze et al., 1975). iii. distinctive properties and use of the plant caucasian zelkova (zelkova carpinifolia) is a fast-growing, rare and beautiful ornamental tree. in many countries it can be found in parks and squares. zelkova trees live for centuries. caucasian zelkova has hard, elastic, highly durable wood, which is superior to oak wood in terms of technical properties. it is a valuable building material, it withstands moisture. in western georgia, houses and wooden churches, as well as fences, were built from it. the wood was also used in carpentry and furniture production, they also made work tools. iv.the name „zelkova“in the international botanical nomenclature the establishment of the name of georgian origin (zelkova) in the international botanical nomenclature has an interesting history: in 1771, a member of the russian academy of sciences, i.a. güldenstedt traveled to the caucasus on a special assignment. in georgia, near the city of kutaisi, he noticed an unknown tree and called it rhamnus ulmoides. güldenstedt wrote in his diary: “...the bumps forced me to have a rest day on august 23rd. here i saw a tree which i had never seen before, and which is here called zelkva... i described it under the name of rhamnus ulmoides." (güldenstedt, 1962). in 1788 p. pallas described this plant and called it rhamnus carpinifolia, in 1819 m. biberstein called it planera richardi. in 1841, e. spach named the genus zelkova after the georgian "dzelkva", and named the species zelkova crenata. in1892 l. dippel called this species zelkova carpirifolia. today this species is presented in the international nomenclature of plants as such zelkova carpinifolia (pall.) c. koch. here we provide students with information about who johann anton güldenstedt was and for what purpose he traveled to the caucasus. anton güldenstedt (1745 1781) was a naturalist, a doctor of medicine, a true member of the russian academy of sciences. he participated in the expedition of the russian academy of sciences of 17681774, which served the subjects of the conquest of russia. his two-volume work contains a faithful account of his journey. v. georgian scientists about caucasian zelkova („dzelkva”) this plant, common in the wild nature of georgia, has always attracted the attention of georgian scientists. they recorded the places where this tree grew, described it, wrote interesting information about the tree, for example: „ ...according to the legend recorded in tsaisi, the genoese, who discovered hot springs, erected three zelkova in this place in honor of this, two of which are still alive today.” (chitaya, 2001). „zelkova is one of the oldest plants on our planet... this means that it was widespread in the past geological era. there must have been its large forests in the caucasus as well… the fact that it was widespread in georgia, apart from its fragmented area, is also confirmed by the fact that the remains of stone slabs from shirak and meskheti (kisatibi fossils) are often found... around lanchkhuti there is a shrubbery, in adjara there is no more of it, in imereti ajametsky reserve we have more or less a good khocholava-matchavariani & tchelidze, 2024 4(1) 82 grove. even more of them have been preserved in yards, under vineyard fences, in cemeteries... in the terzholiy district, in the area of ishkhneli, there is a unique stone pillar, the thickness of which reaches several meters... in the forest of babaneuri there are several very large... zelkova tree. one of them, a good man from babaneur, dimitri gaurashvili, called this tree the head of the forest; he tried to save the tree. on his initiative, babaneuri dzelkviani was declared a nature reserve since 1965" (ketskhoveli, 1980). vi. zelkova in georgian beliefs we are talking about the tree cult in georgian folk beliefs. we note here that along with other iconic trees (oak, lime...) in georgia, dzelkova was also considered a sacred tree and was worshiped. we introduce the students to appropriate ethnographic material, including the ones we obtained during field work. vii. why is this tree called “dzelkva”? the dendronym ძელქვა (zelkva) is a complex word and consists of 2 nouns: ძელი (dzeli) + ქვა (kva). „the name zelkova derives from the native name of z. carpinifolia in the georgian language – one of the kartvelian languages spoken in thecaucasus, as shown by the georgian name, ძელქვა (dzelkva), from ძელი (dzeli) meaning 'bar' or 'pillar', and ქვა (kva) meaning 'rock', 'stone' the tree was often used for making rock-hard and durable bars for building and furniture “. thus, the semantics of this name is related to the strength and durability of the tree's wood. viii. the meaning of the name „dzelkva“in georgian. as a result of the research, it turns out that „dzelkva“in georgian is not only the name of zelkova carpirifolia, but it refers to other trees as well: in dialects of the georgian language, it can refer to celtis caucasica (kartl.) or acer platanoides (mtiul., rach.). „dzelkva“is confirmed in the old georgian texts of the bible, in the new georgian translations of which we have plane tree (rarely, maple, chestnut, elm, ash tree, white poplar) as equivalent to zelkova. in the old georgian dictionaries (xvii-xix centuries), plane tree and zelkova are also presented as synonyms. (compare also: „of the valuable trees that grew in the valleys, we can point to... dzelkva or planertree, which is already rare and superior in quality to all other local tree species” (cgs, 1866). r. eristavi (19th centuary) made a breakthrough in the definition of zelkova and he wrote the name of this tree in his dictionary with international nomenclature (eristavi, 1884). thus, "dzelkva" in georgian is: 1. the official (scientific) name of a certain plant genus (zelcova) and one of its species (zelkova carpirifolia); 2. the name of plane tree (sometimes also of other trees) in old georgian; 3. the name of some trees of another genus (celtis caucasica, acer platanoides) in dialects; 4. the general name of trees with strong wood in dialects. here, we remind the students of r. eristavi's famous poem and explain that he was not only a poet and public figure, but also a scientist and lexicographer. after the presentation, a field study is planned, where the students will see the pillar in nature. this can be tbilisi botanical garden, babaneuri reserve or any of the above-listed places where you can still see this tree. conclusion teaching with project models turned out to be an effective way to learn about georgia's toponymy. for a student, it means not only repetition and reconciliation of the knowledge acquired so far from different subjects, but also enrichment of this knowledge, and, what is especially important, the opportunity to see a number of issues in a new way. the students realized after learning about and discussing the presented issues that phytotoponyms store valuable information and can be considered chroniclers of the local flora. for the teacher, it becomes clear that finding and analysing appropriate toponyms when familiarising oneself with a number of issues makes the learning process more interesting and effective. teachers across various subjects will utilize this resource. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution n.k. and d. t. conceived of the presented idea. n.k. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. khocholava-matchavariani & tchelidze, 2024 4(1) 83 orcid id nana khotcholava-matchavariani https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9749-2648 reference caucasian geographical society. (1866). book 7, tiflis chitaya, g. (2001). works in five volumes, vol. iii, tbilisi eristavi, r. (1884). a short georgian-russian-latin dictionary from the kingdoms of plants, animals and metals, tiflis güldenstädt (1962). güldenstädt's journey to georgia, volume one, published the german text with a georgian translation and added research by g. gelashvili, tbilisi ketskhoveli n. (1980). nature wounded in the chest, tbilisi gagnidze, r., dolukhanov, a., kemularia-natadz, ll., shkhiani, a., gvinianidze, z., ter-khachaturova, s. (1975). flora of georgia. vol. 3. metsniereba, tbilisi georgian geographical journal risks of sustainable environmental management for the purpose of developing regional tourism (on the example of the lankaran natural region) stara tarikhazer1, , irina kuchinskaya2 , elina karimova2* 1 geomorphology and natural risks department, institute of geography of mse, baku, azerbaijan 2 landscape and landscape planning department, institute of geography of mse, baku, azerbaijan * corresponding author: kerimov17@gmail.com introduction in recent decades, recreation has taken a significant place within the economy in the development of the regions of azerbaijan. the main condition for the development of recreation is the assessment of resource potential, taking into account the numerous areas of its use (tarikhazer, 2020). natural and recreational resources are the geological and geomorphological structures of a territory, lithology, seismicity, landscapes, climate, mineral springs, water areas, etc., and are distinguished by limited selfhealing capabilities (solovova, 2007). the biological and landscape diversity of the natural region of lankaran significantly distinguishes it from other regions of azerbaijan — proximity to the caspian sea, humid subtropical climate, the presence of mineral springs (istisu, etc.), relict plants (ironwood, boxwood, chestnut oak, etc.) and many others. in addition, this region is a growing area for citrus fruits, tea and rice. consequently, the natural conditions and resources of this region are favourable for the development of such types of tourism as sanatorium treatment, health and educational tourism, and recreation. however, ensuring the long-term sustainable use of natural resources for the purpose of developing recreation is a problem. it is well known that the tourism sector causes significant damage to landscape complexes, which can ultimately lead to the development of a wide range of exogenous geomorphological processes (egps), specifically landslides (mammadov & tarikhazer, 2023; tarikhazer et al., 2023). the relevance of this problem is that it is necessary to promptly develop plans for the technical and engineering protection of various objects to carry out monitoring work to predict the formation, reduction and even prevention of landslides, which will ultimately reduce risks and reduce material damage (tarikhazer, 2020; 2019). landslide processes in the region under study are the most common but are also the most complex, long-lasting and multifactorial. in the natural region of the lankaran plateau in recent years, the largest georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 17-25 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract currently, reconstruction and redevelopment of inhabited areas is taking place in the natural area of lankaran, and the area of construction work is also increasing in new, previously undeveloped areas, primarily due to the intensive development of the tourism and recreational industry. the high-quality functioning of the territory is unrealistic without taking into account the factors and patterns of manifestation of landslide processes, the dynamics and forecast of their development. during the study, a pattern of expansion of landslide processes was identified and the intensity of their manifestation was analysed. to study landslide processes, in addition to expeditionary geological-geomorphological, landscape work and stock materials, remote sensing data was used. when conducting landslide hazard analysis, high-resolution satellite images (cnes/airbus, maxar technologies (geoeye-1), and medium-resolution sentinel-2a and 2b satellite images were mainly used. visual and semiautomatic decoding (classification with training) was carried out in the arcgis environment. the compiled map for assessing the recreational potential of landscapes is recommended to use as monitoring and timely response to the state of the landscape-geologicalgeomorphological situation in the lankaran natural area. keywords: landslide processes, anthropogenic impact, landslide hazard, arcgis technologies, recreation citation: tarikhazer, s.; kuchinskaya, i.; karimova, e. risks of sustainable environmental management for the purpose of developing regional tourism (on the example of the lankaran natural region). georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1), 17-25. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.03 received: 1 november 2023 revised: 25 january 2024 accepted: 5 march 2024 published: 1 june 2024 tarikhazer et al. 2024 4(1) 18 number of landslide processes in developed or newly populated areas are associated with increased anthropogenic activities (e.g., cutting woody vegetation, pruning slopes, laying linear structures— roads, power lines, gas and water pipes, sewerage networks, expanding existing and establishing new settlements, increasing the area of household plots and crops, and excessive watering and overgrazing of livestock), which are carried out without considering the geological and geomorphological conditions of the area. most of the numerous objects are located in lowand mid-mountain zones, and this requires increased attention to the conditions and areas of formation and potential development of landslides. dangerous road zones include the sadatli landslide section in the jalilabad district, the veri-aliabad section in the lerik region, the goravench landslide section in the lankaran region, the landslide section 17–19 km from the lankaran–lerik road (fig. 1), the gullutepe landslide section in the masally region and many more. in the regions of azerbaijan located in landslide-prone zones, the number of settlements in the lankaran region is 8%, and the number of people is 11.1%. the main conditions and factors for the development of landslides in the lankaran natural area are geological and geomorphological structures, relief and lithology, and climatic and anthropogenic factors. methods and materials in recent years, numerous studies have been conducted to assess landslide hazards in various regions of the world (akgun & bulut, 2007; asadian et al., 2010; guzetti et al., 2005; lee& jones, 2014; metternicht et al., 2005). to study landslide processes, in addition to expeditionary geologicalgeomorphological, landscape work and stock material, and statistical and cartographic sources, we used remote sensing data. when conducting the landslide hazard analysis, high-resolution satellite images (cnes/airbus, maxar technologies (geoeye-1)) and medium-resolution sentinel-2a and 2b satellite images were used. visual and semiautomatic decoding (classification with training) was carried out in the arcgis environment. results geological and geomorphological conditions the large orographic unit of the lankaran natural region is the heterogeneous morphostructure of talysh, which is part of the larger morphostructure of the western asian highlands, which is a complex fold-block mountain system. in general, the relief of talysh is in accordance with the prevailing physical-geographical conditions and geological structure. the formation of the main features of the relief is due to endogenous factors of morphogenesis. volcanic activity played a significant role in the formation of the talysh relief, which experienced its greatest development in the eocene. the block structure of talysh, caused by discontinuous tectonics, is manifested in the step-by-step nature of its relief. the first stage, 800–900 m high, corresponds to the watershed of the burovar ridge, the eastern slope of which is cut off by the pre-talysh deep fault. the second stage, which rises above the first, with a height of 1400–1600 m, occupies the basin of the right tributaries of the river. lankaranchay in its middle reaches. a b figure 1. active landslide processes at 17–19 km of the lankaran–lerik highway (photo 07.03.2021) tarikhazer et al. 2024 4(1) 19 i̇t is limited by a deep fault separating the lerik synclinorium from the astara ridge from the southwest. the third stage, with heights of 700-800 m in the southeast and 2200 m in the northwest, corresponds to the high peaks of the peshtasar ridge. there is also a deep fault in the southwest. the fourth stage, at 2400 m high, corresponds to the talysh ridge, which is limited from the northeast by a deep fault. consequently, the morphostructures of the ridges of the talysh mountains have a block structure, determined by the features of their relief. according to the structure of the surface, talysh is divided into two parts: mountainous, where denudation processes predominate, and lowland, where accumulative processes predominate. the talysh mountains descend stepwise to the lankaran lowland, from which they are separated by a deep fault. the structure of the talysh relief is closely related to the altitudinal zone. there is no high mountain belt here and is represented by individual peaks of the talysh and peshtasar ridges in the watershed strip with heights of 2400–2450 m. here, the slopes of the river valleys are steep, and their bottoms have large slopes. the mid-mountain belt occupies altitudes of 1400–2200 m and is characterized by deep incision of river valleys. the river valleys are narrow and steep, and erosion terraces have developed. the low mountain belt covers a significant part of the territory and is characterized by significantly flattened relief. the river valleys that cross it are wide and flat-bottomed, accompanied by a series of accumulative and erosion-accumulative terraces. here, intermountain basins are characterized by large thicknesses of continental sediments filling them. the main mountain ranges of talysh extend in the northwestern (pan-caucasian) direction and are represented by the talysh, peshtasar, and burovar ranges and the intermountain basins separating them—yardimli, dyman and gosmalyan. the talysh ridge is the highest (kemurkey mountain, 2493 m; gyzyurdu mountain, 2433 m) and longest (length, 100 km; width, 10–15 km). its relief is rugged and characterized by intense erosional dissection. to the northeast, at a distance of 7–10 km in the northwest direction, the peshtasar ridge extends (maximum height of tylykh, 2342 m). due to long-term development, the watershed part and the slopes of the ridge are intensively dissected. on the extreme northeastern periphery of the mountainous talysh, which is more than 70 km long, is the burovar ridge, which is intersected by the valleys of the river. bolgarchay, vilyashchay, etc. the heights of the ridges range from 600–1000 m. within talysh, intermountain basins of erosional, erosional-tectonic and volcanogenic-tectonic origin have developed. within their boundaries, the river valleys are wide and are characterized by better preservation of terrace levels of accumulative genesis. the most expanded sections of river valleys correspond to intermountain basins, where rivers, after forming an erosional base, filled the bottom with loose sediments and then cut into their own sediments and formed their own valleys with a series of nested terraces. landslides are also widespread. the slopes of river valleys are terraced and complicated by landslide processes. landslides developed on the northeastern slopes of the peshtasar ridge and in the zone of its transition to the yardimli intermountain depression. the yardimli basin, most of the northeastern slopes of the burovar ridge, which is composed of sandy-clayey deposits, is characterized by the widespread development of landslide processes, giving the areas of landslide development a typical landslide landscape. figure 2. structure of modern dangerous geomorphodynamic processes within the boundaries of the talysh mountains; processes: eq — earthquakes; c — caves; ls — landslides; k — karst; rs — rockslides; gl —glacial (exaration and accumulation); mf — mudflows; bl — badland; er — erosion; a — avalanches; e — eolian; ab — abrasion; g — gullying; o — other processes. tarikhazer et al. 2024 4(1) 20 the gosmalyan intermountain basin is located in the upper reaches of konjavuchay. the relief is intensively dissected and characterized by good terracing, with a strong accumulation of proluvial and colluvial deposits. in the northwestern part of the talysh range, a large geomorphological element is the dyman intermountain basin, in which the rivers are wide and terraced. the central part is filled with alluvial-proluvial deposits, into which the river valleys are shallowly cut. here, at an altitude of 1480 m, the source of the upper reaches of the vilyashchay river is concentrated. the eastern part of the study region is occupied by the lankaran lowland, which is limited from the west by the steep northeastern slope of the ridge foothills of the burovar range. along the burovar ridge, a narrow intermittent strip stretches a zone of deluvial-proluvial deposits, forming alluvial cones, deluvial plumes, etc. the change in the landscape belts of talysh from humid subtropical regions in the low mountains and adjacent plains to semidesert regions in the northwestern part of the talysh and peshtasar ridges (landscape inversion) determines the vertical azonality of the manifestation of exogenous geomorphological processes (egp) of relief formation. consequently, the development of the egp depends on the altitudinal zone of the relief, the latest and modern tectonic movements (seismicity up to 8 points), slope exposure, climatic conditions, etc. (fig. 2). climatic conditions. relief and the caspian sea have a great influence on the distribution of precipitation in the study area. the difference in precipitation distribution is very large, reaching 1100– 1200 mm. the greatest amount of precipitation falls in the foothills of the southeastern part of talysh (1700 mm). if 1400 mm of precipitation falls in the foothills of talysh, then in the middle mountains, it decreases to 200–300 mm. in mountain depressions (especially in the deman and diabar depressions), up to 300 mm of precipitation falls. the reason for the uneven distribution of precipitation is the mountains. table 1. changes in climate elements by landscape type in the talysh mountains types of landscapes absolute height (m) amount of solar radiation (kkal/sm2) number of hours of sunshine average annual precipitation (mm) average annual temperature (c0) average annual evaporation (mm) dry steppe landscapes of low mountains 200> 120–130 2000–2200 300–450 14–14,7 800–1000 forest landscapes of low mountains 200–700 132–136 <2000 400–1200 12–14 600–700 forest landscapes of the middle mountains 700– 1800– 2000 130–135 2000–2200 600–1600 8–12 600–800 mountain xerophyte landscape of the middle mountains 2000– 2500 125–135 2200–2400 300> 6–8 400–600 the number of sunny hours in the talysh mountains is 2200–2400, and in low-mountain and midmountain areas, it is 2000–2200. the distribution of total solar radiation is 128–132 kcal/sm2 at the peak of kemurgoy-gyzyurdu 140–144 kcal/sm2. the radiation balance decreases from 35 kkal/cm2 during the year to 10 kkal/sm2 towards the high part of the middle mountains (table 1). the average annual relative humidity for the region is 70–80%. the maximum relative humidity is observed in the foothills (table 2). table 2. relationship between moisture conditions and differentiation of landscape types landscape types absolute height in meters average annual precipitation (in mm) average annual evaporation (in mm) humidification coefficient humidification type tarikhazer et al. 2024 4(1) 21 dry steppe landscapes of low mountains 200> 450 1000 0,45 arid forest landscapes of low mountains 200–700 1200 700 1,7 extreme humidity forest landscapes of the middle mountains 700–1800– 2000 1600 800 2 extreme humidity mountain xerophyte landscape of the middle mountains 2000–2500 300 600 0,5 arid in the region under study, landslide processes become more active during periods of heavy rainfall. for example, from november 7 to november 10, 2015, heavy rains occurred in the lankaran-astara zone. in total, 69–122 mm of precipitation fell here (44–72% of the average monthly average). the amount of precipitation in the summer months and early autumn is sometimes 3–4 times greater than the amount of precipitation in the winter and autumn periods, and this increase mainly falls on the share of rainfall precipitation. therefore, it is no coincidence that landslide processes occurred precisely during this period. as noted by madatzade and shikhlinsky (1968), showers are observed in both lowland and mountainous zones. the differences between them lie not in the intensity but in the frequency of rainfall. in the mountainous areas of the lankaran plateau, an inversion of atmospheric precipitation has developed: in the mountains, showers are observed less frequently—especially the most prolonged and intense ones—and in lowland areas—much more often (fig. 3). the role of climatic factors in the development of landslide processes is undeniable. to reveal the role of climatic factors, a graph (fig. 4) of the development of landslides in the lankaran natural area was constructed by month. the maximum number of landslides is observed during periods with the greatest frequency of maximum precipitation, i.e., if the maximum frequency of precipitation occurs in spring and autumn, then the maximum occurrence of landslides occurs during the same period. in addition, a graph of the frequency of landslide processes in the lankaran natural area was drawn (fig. 5). the statistical analysis of the landslides revealed that for the period of 2010–2022. on average, 6 of the most dangerous landslides occur annually. it follows from fig. 5 that the highest frequency of landslides is observed in 2015–2017. the trend line (dynamics) proves this, i.e., in recent years, landslide processes have been intensifying; however, we consider the main reason to be geological and geomorphological factors, as well as increased anthropogenic impacts. however, despite this, the role of climate factors cannot be denied. climatic factors do not form the landslide itself, but they are a kind of trigger. figure 3. change in the annual amount of precipitation with height in the central part of talish (according to a.a. madatzade, e.m. shikhlinsky (1968) tarikhazer et al. 2024 4(1) 22 anthropogenic factors it is known that during the anthropogenic development of a territory, it is of no small importance to assess the stability of the relief, its individual forms, or the risk of the occurrence of exogenous geomorphological processes (egps), in this case, landslides, which pose a danger to human life and the functioning of tourist and recreational complexes. common types of anthropogenic impacts include cutting and overloading of slopes, artificial watering and waterlogging of constituent rocks due to leaks from water pipelines and excessive watering of lands (gulieva et al., 2014). naturally, they are confined to the most urbanized territories and linear infrastructure facilities. for example, unplanned deforestation during the construction of tourist facilities such as the lankaran springs wellness resort and hirkan park hotel led to the formation of landslide processes on the slopes of the mountains of the lankaran natural region. slopes cut as a result of laying road surfaces such as lankaran–lerik, lerik– yardimli, and degedi–pelikesh in the astara region (fig. 6) also led to the formation of new centers for the development of landslides. when analysing the landslide hazard and creating a map for assessing the recreational potential of landscapes, high-resolution satellite images (cnes/airbus, maxar technologies (geoeye-1)) and medium-resolution sentinel-2a and 2b images were used. basically, visual and semiautomatic decoding (classification with training) was carried out in the arcgis environment (fig. 7). in the talysh mountains, the lowest landscape zone begins with forest, followed by mountain steppes and mountain-dry steppe landscape zones. therefore, the main reason for this event is that, on the one hand, the highlands and internal depressions here are under the influence of the arid climate of the iranian plateau, and on the other hand, the mid-mountain peshtasar ridge, which creates a barrier landscape in the talysh mountains and retains moisture generated by humid northeastern winds. thus, moist air masses coming from the caspian sea pass over the narrow lankaran plain and on their way into contact with the steep slopes of the talysh mountains, resulting in a large amount of precipitation (1400–1600 mm). air masses moving in the western and southwestern directions gradually lose moisture, and the amount of precipitation in the highlands sharply decreases. the reason for the formation of landscape inversion in talysh is orography and associated climatic conditions. this led to the formation of unique landscape types at corresponding altitudes (guliyeva, 2018). figure 4. distribution of landslides in the lankaran natural area figure 5. frequency of landslides in the lankaran natural area tarikhazer et al. 2024 4(1) 23 from the analysis of the landscape map, field research and other literature, it is clear that if the forests on the northern slope are dense and highly dense and occupy a large area, then the forests on the southern and western slopes are less dense, occupying a relatively large area. a small area and, in some places, even replaced by forest and shrubs. one of the most important factors determining landscape differentiation in the study area is the formation of river valleys, gorges, and landslides. during your field survey, we observed active landslides on the right bank of the alasha river, including between the villages of sors, aliabad and shingedulag. conclusion in this study, we analysed all the factors contributing to the development of landslide processes in the natural lankaran area. the main factors are the geological and geomorphological structure, seismicity and anthropogenic factors. the remaining factors, namely, climate, are a trigger in the formation of landslide processes. to reveal the role of climatic factors, a graph of the development of landslides in the lankaran natural area was constructed by month. the maximum number of landslides is observed during periods with the greatest frequency of maximum precipitation, i.e., if the maximum frequency of precipitation occurs in spring and autumn, then the maximum occurrence of landslides occurs during the same period. in addition, a graph of the recurrence of landslide processes in the lankaran natural area was compiled. the statistical analysis of the landslides revealed that for the period of 2010–2022. on average, 6 of the most dangerous landslides occur annually. a map was constructed to assess the recreational potential of the landscapes of the lankaran natural region, from which it follows that most landslides are confined to the plain-mountain contact zone, low mountains and middle mountains. monitoring work has shown that in the study region, the number of landslides is increasing every year. based on the results obtained, arcgis technology has advantages over traditional (cartographic) methods for studying landslide processes. based on the above, we believe that the current environmental situation can lead to a decrease in the productivity of natural ecosystems and further restoration potential in the future. this can subsequently lead to a decrease in the attractiveness of landscapes due to their powerful transformation. currently, there is already an increase in environmental tension in the region. it is obvious that it is necessary to switch to a new system of environmental management, which, in the future, will ensure the long-term environmentally sustainable functioning of the lankaran natural area with the aim of developing tourism. figure 6. landslide on the degedi–pelikesh road, astara district (photo may 28, 2023) tarikhazer et al. 2024 4(1) 24 competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contributions all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id stara tarikhazer https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5870-1721 irina kuchinskaya https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7154-3446 elina karimova https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2651-8150 reference akgün, a., & bulut, f. (2006). gis-based landslide susceptibility for arsin-yomra (trabzon, north turkey) region. environmental geology, 51(8), 1377–1387. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0435-6 asadian f., arzjani z., varavipour m. (2010) changes of microenvironment in gilan citydue to landslides./carpathian journal of earth and environmental sciences, #5(1), p. 93–102. figure 7. map of estimation of the recreational landscape potential of the lankaran region (taking in account the landslide hazard of the territory); legend a. temperate-humid mountain-forest landscapes; i. intrazonal xerophytic mountain landscapes (1–6); ii. hyrcan type humid subtropical forests of low and medium highlands (7–13); b. landscapes of medium and low mountains with a temperate-humid climate; iii. forest-steppe, steppe and mountain-meadow landscapes of low and medium highlands (14–16); c. landscapes of temperate-humid accumulative plains; iv. forest, shrub-meadow and foreststeppe landscapes of accumulative plains (17–21;); d. lowland arid and semiarid landscapes; v. dry-desert, desert landscapes of the arid lowland (22–25); vi. lowland arid-forest, forest-shrub and shrub-steppe landscapes (26); vii. dry desert and xerophyte-desert landscapes of denudasion-accumulative plains (27); viii. intrazonal landscapes of accumulative plains (28–31); e. semidesert landscapes of arid and temperate-arid subtropical plains; ix. semidesert landscapes of accumulative plains (32–34) tarikhazer et al. 2024 4(1) 25 gulieva s.yu., kuchinskaya i.ya., karimova e.j. (2014). problems of sustainable development of mountain geosystems of azerbaijan in the conditions of intensive anthropogenic development/geopolitics and ecogeodynamics of regions, simferopol, #10, pp. 490–497. guliyeva i.f. (2018) dynamics of development of modern landscapes of the talysh mountains and their recreation potential assessment. baku, dissertation abstract. guzzetti, f., reichenbach, p., cardinali, m., galli, m., & ardizzone, f. (2005). probabilistic landslide hazard assessment at the basin scale. geomorphology, 72(1–4), 272–299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2005.06.002 kuchinskaya i.y. (2004). landscape and ecological differentiation of mountain geosystems. azerbaijan, baku: victory, 2011. lee, e. m., & jones, d. k. (2014). landslide risk assessment. https://doi.org/10.1680/lra.58019 madatzade a.a., shikhlinsky e.m. (1968). climate of azerbaijan. baku, 341 p. metternicht, g., hurni, l., & gogu, r. (2005). remote sensing of landslides: an analysis of the potential contribution to geo-spatial systems for hazard assessment in mountainous environments. remote sensing of environment, 98(2–3), 284–303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2005.08.004 mammadov s.g., tarikhazer s.а. (2023). aplication of quantitative methods for the assessment of landslide susceptibility of the girdimanchay river basin/news of tula state university, russia, tula, #1, p. 38–67. mardanov i.i., ismailov m.j., tarikhazer s.a., karimova e.j. (2018). the transformations of slope slide landscapes of great caucasus: possibilities of discovering of main factors/selçuk üniversitesi mühendislik fakültesi, bilim ve teknoloji dergisi. turkey, istanbul, #6, pp. 787–797. doi: 10.15317/scitech.2018.168 solovova a.t. (2007). assessment of the recreational potential of the chita region and its use/geography and natural resources, #2, p. 128–133. tarikhazer s.a. (2020). modern landslide processes of relief formation in the greater caucasus (within azerbaijan)/news of tula state university. geosciences. russia, tula, #1, p. 120–136. tarikhazer s.a. (2019). growth of ecogeological stresses in mountainous geosystems in the conditions of activation modern geomorphodynamic processes (on the example of azerbaijan)/the bulletin the national academy of sciences of the republic of kazakhstan. kazakhstan, almaty, #6, pp. 34–43 https://doi. org/10.32014/2019.2518-1467.143 tarikhazer s.a. (2020). the geographical prerequisites for the identification and prevention of dangerous geomorphological processes in the mountain geosystems of the alpine-himalayan belt (on the example of the major caucasus of azerbaijan)/journal of geology geography and geoecology. ukraine, dnipro, #29(1), pp. 176–187 doi:10.15421/112016 tarikhazer s.а., mammadov s.g., hamidova z.a. (2023) application of quantitative methods for the assessment of landslide susceptibility of the aghsuchay river basin/bulletin of the national university of kharkov named after. v.n. karazin, series “geology. geography. ecology". ukraine, kharkov, #58, p. 257–273 https://doi.org/10.26565/2410-7360-2023-58-20 georgian geographical journal the natural resource potential of landscapes in the lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality) elene salukvadze1,* , tamila chaladze1 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: elene.salukvadze@tsu.ge introduction utilization of the environment of a region is related to its natural conditions and resources, as well as the peculiarities of the geographical location of the territory and the historical processes taking place there. environmental conditions, in turn, impact the material and spiritual culture of the population, traditions, features of nature use and settlement style. all this is clearly reflected in the landscapes, as a single (entire) territorial system, which has a certain characteristic potential, e.g., it has the ability to provide people living in it with heat, water, the possibility of rest (recreation), etc. meanwhile, for that purpose, it is necessary to reveal the resource potential of landscapes. lechkhumi (tsageri municipality) is located in the northeastern part of western georgia on the southern slopes of the caucasus. the hypsometric levels of the territory vary from 320 m (tvishi cliff) to 3170 m (mount tsekuri, egrisi ridge). in regard to climate, it is located in a subtropical humid sea climate zone and is distinguished by its variety and complexity of natural components and naturalterritorial complexes (landscapes) as a whole. the peculiarity of the natural conditions and specificity of the geographical location have determined the peculiar structural characteristics and aspects of nature use of the landscapes of the region. the landscapes in the region are useful for agriculture, livestock farming, and recreational purposes in accordance with natural conditions. methods and materials the research was based on the existing published literature and foundation material about the lechkhumi region. these include georgia (saneblidze et al., 1970), the transcaucasus medium-sized landscape map (ukleba et al., 1983), topographic maps (scale: 1: 50 000, 1: 100 000) and statistical data. an important component was the field expedition research conducted in 2022. based on the georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 64-74 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4 science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract to study a region’s natural capital, it is important to classify and describe local landscapes, which, depending on the area they are found in, have different characteristics and vary in terms of natural resources. the mountainous region of lechkhumi (tsageri municipality) has been selected for this purpose. along with relevant literary sources, the research draws on cartographic material, the landscape maps (1970, 1983) of georgia and transcaucasia, and the topographic map (1:50000) as well as on observation records made during the 2022 field expedition in lechkhumi. geo-informative system of lechkhumi landscapes has been created by gis technology. the large scale (1: 50 000) landscape map of lechkhumi region has been made, where landscapes are shown on the level of landscape species. the paper describes the region’s individual natural assets as well as the natural resources available in selected landscapes. data on mineral, climate, agroclimatic, soil and forest resources are provided in the tables and diagrams. the synclinical depression in racha with river terraces (tskhenistskali, rioni, lajanuri) and humus-carbonate soils on the southern slope of the lechkhumi ridge (450-750 m above sea level) provide a favourable micro zone for the cultivation of grapevine species (usakhelauri, tsolikauri, orbeli ojaleshi red and tskhvediani white) used in the production of the widely known naturally semi sweet usakhelouri, tvishi, ojaleshi red and white wines. keywords: natural resources, landscape map, lechkhumi region, tsageri municipality citation: salukvadze, e.; chaladze, t. the natural resource potential of landscapes in the lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality). georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1) 64-74 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.08 received: 9 october 2023 revised: 22 march 2024 accepted: 5 april 2024 published: 7 june 2024 salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 65 obtained material, the lechkhumi electronic map was created (arcgis) on a cartographic basis and several thematic maps. lechkhumi region landscapes have natural and socioeconomic environmental influences. natural conditions and specific geographical locations created the peculiar structural character of the landscape of the region and aspects of natural use. the lechkhumi region, represented by the tsageri municipality, is a region distinguished by its diverse nature. tsageri municipality (1 town and 58 villages) is located in western georgia on the southeastern slopes of the caucasus mountains, in the tskhenistskali and rioni river basins, bordered on the west by martvili and on the north by lentekhi municipalities, on the east by ambrolauri municipality, and on the south by the tskaltubo and khoni municipalities. its area is 756 km2. the region occupies the southern slopes of the folded mountains of the caucasus. it is mainly composed of jurassic and cretaceous shale, sandstone, and limestone and is built from palaeogeneneogene rocks, and the river terraces and the bottoms of the basin are composed of alluvial layers. results lechkhumi is a region with many mountains and a shortage of land. most of the time, 67. six percent of its territory is occupied by mountains and foothills. due to the relief complexity, extreme disintegration and strong inclination (45% of the territory is covered with slopes inclined by 20° and more), the resources of the land for agricultural activities are extremely limited. the agricultural lands occupy 17 146 ha, which is 21% of the whole territory (government of georgia, 2023). lechkhumi is bordered by the egrisi and lechkhumi ridges in the north, the askhi massif in the west and southwest, and the khvamli massif in the south. in the east, the valley of the askhistskali river borders it from the racha region. the lechkhumi ridge is built of lower jurassic sediments, shale and sandstones (in the top part of the lechkhumi ridge); the egrisi ridge and the jonouli river basin are built of the middle jurassic bajocian porphyritic suite; the askhi massif (northern and eastern slopes) and the western part of the nakerala ridge are constructed of lower cretaceous quartz-arkosic sandstones and dolomitic limestones; the khvamli and askhi massifs – with urgonian facies limestones; and the northern part of the khvamli massif, tvishi cliff and lajanuri cliff – with limestones and marls (maruashvili, 2020). an important orographic unit is the tsageri depression, which represents the western part of the racha-lechkhumi syncline. it is built of palaeogene and neogene marls, sandstones, clays and conglomerates. the tsageri depression, which is crossed by the tskhenistskali river, starts from the muri cliff and continues south to the saretskela cliff. to the south of the saretskela cliff, the tskhenistskali river redistributed again and formed the zubi depression in the porphyritic rock. the tsageri depression is separated from the orbeli depression in the east by the mid-lechkhumi hill. to the east in the cretaceous limestones, the rioni river formed the tvishi cliff. the limestone massifs are characterized by sharp erosive and karst landforms, while landslides are typical of depressions. in regard to climate, lechkhumi is located in a subtropical humid sea climate zone. the following climate subtypes are distinguished here: a) damp climate with moderately cold winters and hot and relatively dry summers; b) damp climate with moderately cold winters and long summers (lower belt of mountains); c) damp climate with cold winters and long summers (middle belt of mountains); d) damp climate with cold winters and short summers (1500-2000 m above sea level); and e) damp climate devoid of real summers (the summit zone of the egrisi and lechkhumi ridges and the askhi massif). the average annual air temperature is 11°, the average temperature in january is close to 0°c or is negative, the average temperature in july is 22.5°, and the absolute maximum temperature exceeds 40°. the sum of the active temperatures is 2700-3500°, while the vegetation period lasts for almost 7 months. the annual total precipitation at an altitude of 600-800 m above sea level is equal to 1100-1200 mm. a greater precipitation amount typically occurs in late spring and autumn. the lowest amount occurs in the second half of summer and the beginning of autumn, i.e., when it is most needed for vineyards and fruit. at this time, the humidity coefficient is 0.6-0.8. therefore, watering is required during this period of the year. during the active vegetation period, the amount of precipitation varies from 585-780 mm to 970-1298 mm. the annual precipitation is 1300 mm, and the highest precipitation is 122 mm in october. the number of days with snow cover ranges from 54-138. the maximum thickness of snow cover is 103 sm (tsageri) – 138 sm (lailashi). in the lower zone, the active vegetation process starts on 4-19 april and ends at the end of the third week of october and the beginning of november. in separate years, when the freezing period is too long or starts in early autumn, the vegetation period may decrease by 1 salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 66 month (gobejishvili, 2000; elizbarashvili et al., 2004; elizbarashvili & elizbarashvili, 2021; agroclimatic resources of georgia, 1978). lechkhumi, according to agro-climate zoning, belongs to the moderately humid region of the west caucasus subdistrict of the west georgian district (table 1). table 1. agro-climate characteristics of the lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality) object m. above sea level (m) the sum of active temperatures (100>) absolute minimum temperature (average) (c0) moisture rate annual sum of atmospheric precipitation (mm) duration of frost-free days tsageri 760 3610 -18 1.3 1000 267 -186 lailashi 980 2980 -22 1.5 1300 216 175 in lechkhumi, there is a dense network of mountain rivers, and the main rivers are rioni and tskhenistskali. the main right tributary of the rioni is lajanuri, while its other right tributaries are utskherisghele, minatskarosghele and lakhepisghele. the right tributaries of the tskhenistskali river are janouli, namkashuri, etc. the rivers are characterized by steep slopes and deep, sometimes canyonlike valleys. mixed nutrients are characteristic of these plants because they are fed by rain, snow and underground waters. some of the small rivers have karst regimes, and some have torrential characteristics. the flooding of rivers occurs in spring, while that of torrents occurs in summer-autumn. among the most remarkable lakes are akhalouri lake, mtsvane lake (green lake), babushkino lake and lajanuri reservoir. here, humus-carbonate soils are common (tsageri and orbeli depressions, eastern part of the askhi massif and the khvamli massif) and are alluvial (the bottom of the tsageri depression); other types of soils are dark gray forest soils (in the basins of the lajanuri and jonouli rivers) and mountain-meadow soils (in the highest part of the askhi massif, in the summit zones of the egrisi and lechkhumi ridges). in the mountain-meadow zone, we observe low mountain meadow-peat soils and peat soil, while higher (in the alpine zone) thin primitive mountain meadow soils are observed. alluvial soils are common on the banks of large rivers. in valleys and on slopes where alluvial and humus-carbonate soils are widespread, there are favourable conditions for viticulture and fruit growing. in regard to the economy, forest cover is of the greatest importance. it has a great role in soil protection, climate regulation, water regulation, anti-erosion and recreation in healthcare. the forests of the resort area are especially noteworthy. the most distinguished forests are so-called virgin forests that are preserved in their original form and biodiversity (government of georgia, 2023; salukvadze et al., 2021). forests also have industrial potential. they provide the possibility to fully satisfy the population’s needs for both firewood and timber for industrial purposes. forests are mainly located on the slopes of the branches of the main caucasus range (fig. 1). forests cover 56% of the entire territory of lechkhumi (targamadze & chikhradze, 1973). the forests are located at an altitude of 700-2200 m above sea level. colchian-type forests are observed in the lower part. here, we describe the relics of the tertiary flora of colchis (pontic fir 12% spruce 2% pine 7% beech 48% oak 17% hornbeam 8% chestnut 3% alder 3% figure 1. dominant woody species of lechkhumi region salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 67 rhododendron, laurel, holly, box tree, etc.) as well as the vegetation cover characteristics of the dry climate of eastern georgia, including oak, oriental hornbeam, hawthorn, cornelian cherry, medlar, juniper, pine, etc. in the lower part of the valleys of the rioni and tskhenistskali and alongside their tributaries, we encounter alder trees and colchian forests with evergreen undergrowth (salukvadze, tsitsagi, 2022). in the lower zone of the region, beech and hornbeam trees are dominant, while chestnut, oak and maple trees are also observed. hazelnut, hawthorn, medlar, pontic azalea, etc., are among the undergrowths. among deciduous trees, oak, hornbeam, oriental hornbeam, and beech trees are dominant. for coniferous trees, spruce, fir and pine are present. beech-oak forests and oak forests are observed in the limestone areas (fig. 1). on the slopes of the egrisi and lechkhumi ridges, the coniferous forests are followed by subalpine forests and meadows in the higher belt. alpine meadows occupy only a small area. the massifs of tsekuri, sazamtro and sakeria reach the subnival belt. in tsageri municipality, the best mineral waters are the healing balneological waters of the lashichala resort and the mineral healing water of dzughuri, which are mainly used for the treatment of diabetic patients. the mineral healing waters of alpana, akhalchala, aghvi-tsageri, ladzgveria and usakhelo are also prominent and are used for preventive arthrological, gastroenterological, gynecological, and neurological treatment. due to the lack of relevant infrastructure, the potential of mineral water resources is underutilized. in tsageri, the hydroelectric power station lajanurhesi has a capacity of 112.5 mw. the power station provides the energy supply for the region. small hydroelectric plants can be built at different locations on rivers (jonouli, akhalouri). in the 1980s-1990s, the area of arable land considerably decreased due to the following factors: as a result of the partial land reform, due to the privatization of public land, the infertile land was abandoned. due to the significant steepness of the relief and erosive and landslide processes, certain arable lands have lost their fertility and are currently used for different functions. in particular, favourable agroclimatic conditions in lechkhumi have promoted the development of viticulture, horticulture, and cereal farming, which have been carried out by the population since ancient times. arable lands occupy 1.5 thousand ha, pastures occupy 30.2 thousand ha, meadows occupy 14.8 thousand ha, and perennial crops occupy 0.3 thousand ha (government of georgia, 2023). lechkhumi is a homeland of nearly 30 species of vine (devidze, 1961). the endemic vine species “usakhelouri”, “orbelis ojaleshi”, and “tskhvedianis tetri” are represented here. from these unique vine species, known wines are produced. the vineyards mainly grow in the lower zone on the slopes along the tskhenistskali and rioni rivers and their tributaries. the whole area of vineyards is approximately 233 ha. the vine species here are characterized by high sugariness and corresponding acidity and are distinctly different from one another in terms of their fragrance, colour and softness. the figure 2. viticulture areas of lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality) salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 68 following well-known semisweet and table wines are produced: “usakhelouri”, “ojaleshi” and “tvishi” (table 2.). at different exhibitions, these wines have won several gold and silver medals. according to vertical zoning, industrial vineyards are mainly grown at heights of 400-600 m above sea level. the extreme limit of the vertical distribution is 750-900 m (fig. 2.) table 2. viticulture areas of the lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality) viticulture zone microzone villages grape variety type of wine 1 . t sk h en is ts k a li r iv er v a ll ey 11. zubi okureshi -isunderi. okureshi,zubi, isunderi tsolikauri, usakhelouri usakhelouri 12. tsageri lasuriashi right bank of tskhenistskali river: tsageri,gveso, bardnala, tsiperchi, larchvali tsolikauri, orbelis ojaleshi, tskhvedianis tetra tvishi, ojaleshi left bank of tskhenistskali river: chkhuteli, laskhana, dekhviri, lasuriashi, makhashi, kvemo agvi 2 . l a ja n u ri r iv er v a ll ey 21. orbeli orbeli, usakhelo orbelis ojaleshi, tskhvedianis tetra, tsolikauri usakhelouri, tvishi, ojaleshi 22. lajana lajana, lailashi aleksandrouli, mujuretuli quality red wine 3 . r io n i ri v er v a ll ey 31. alpana ajara zogishi alpana, ajara, zogishi, zeda sairme, kveda sairme aleksandrouli, mujuretuli, tsolikauri quality red wine, tvishi 31. tvishi orkhvi -korenishi tvishi, korenishi, orkhvi green tsolikauri, orbelis ojaleshi tsolikauri of korenishi kvevri, green tsolikauri of orkhvi, tvishi we carried out comprehensive studies of landscapes in the territory of the region. each type of distinguished landscape is estimated in terms of its natural conditions and potential possibility of resource usage. in the territory of tsageri municipality, we distinguished 23 types of landscapes. we will consider several of these landscapes as long as they have significant resource potentials (fig. 3): figure 3. landscape map of lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality) salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 69 the lechkhumi landscapes: 1. lowland erosive depression, with terrace steps, humus carbonate and alluvial soils, with secondary forest shrubs, with landslide processes, rockslides, with river fans, and agro-landscapes (corn fields, vineyards, orchards, and vegetable crops). the tsageri erosive depression is located in the western part of the racha-lechkhumi syncline. the depression is presented as a section of the tskhenistskali valley between the muri and saretskela cliffs and the basin of the right tributary kvereshula of the tskhenistskali river. the bottom of the depression is flat and is located at an altitude of 400-500 meters above sea level. it is distinguished by its typical erosion-accumulation terraces. the tsageri depression is composed of oligocene and miocene rocks, which are represented by clays, marls, sandstones, etc. quaternary alluvium, represented by conglomerates and sandstones, is spread on the bottom of the depression. on the right bank of the tskhenistskali river, the villages of tsagera, gveso, bardnala, tsiperchi and larchvali are distinguished for viticulture and wine production. the terrace steps on the left bank of the tskhenistskali river are flattened and are quite favourable for growing vineyards. on the left bank of tskhenistskali, the following villages are known for their viticulture: chkhuteli, laskhana, dekhviri, lasuriashi, makhashi, and lower aghvi. this area is the main viticulture center in the tskhenistskali basin, where the naturally sweet wine “tvishi” is produced. vineyards located on the right bank of the river produce more wine than those on the left bank. the tsageri depression is one of the microzones of lechkhumi viticulture, where tsolikauri, orbelis ojaleshi and tskvedianis tetra, which are promising grape varieties, are grown. within the landscape, active landslides, erosion processes and rock avalanches are common. 2. cliffs intruded into cretaceous limestones, steep slopes, and outcropped surfaces devoid of soil and vegetation cover. the landscape includes muri cliff, north of tsageri near the border of svaneti, where the river tskhenistskali passes from svaneti to lechkhumi. the muri cliff is a narrow cliff section of the tskhenistskali valley at the northern end of the tsageri depression and intrudes into the upper cretaceous limestone layers of the lechkhumi syncline. 3. lowland erosive calcareous depression, humus-carbonate soils, intense landslides, altered secondary natural vegetation, agricultural beds, fragments of floodplain forest and shrubbery in some places, reservoirs, and swampy areas in some places. the landscape includes the orbeli depression, orbeli village and the villages of lesindi, spatagora, usakhelo and gagulechi located to the south. the orbeli depression is located 600-700 m above sea level. the terrain is composed of oligocene and miocene clays, sandstones, and marls. the orbeli depression has fewer terraces than the tsageri depression. erosive and landslide processes are common. the lailashi plateau, which is located in the eastern part of the orbeli depression, is a large block landslide. in the southern part of the orbeli depression, the lajanuri river has been blocked, and an artificial reservoir has formed. the natural conditions of the landscape are favourable for the development of viticulture. in this regard, the following grape varieties are common here: ojaleshi of orbeli, tetra of racha, aligotte, shardone, tsitska, tsolikauri, tskhvediani tetra, etc., and the species of aleksandrouli and mujuretuli are found in lajana village. the orbeli-lajana viticulture-winery zone, which is located in the orbeli depression, is distinguished by its vineyards of the ojaleshi variety and the production of the dark red wine “ojaleshi”. the natural landscapes have been heavily transformed and mainly include anthropogenic-cultural landscapes, vineyards, orchards, corn fields, highways, and artificial reservoirs. the primary vegetation cover has greatly changed to secondary sparse forest and forest-shrubbery landscapes. 4. low-mountain erosive depression, with dark grey forest soils, oak forests, and agricultural fields. the landscape is spread around lukhvano village, between the jonouli river and tskhenistskali river. it includes the erosive lukhvano depression, the basin of the kvereshula (lukhvanoskskali) river, and the right tributary of the tskhenistskali river. it is composed of oligocene and miocene rocks. landslides are common here, and lakes have formed as a result of landslide processes. here, agricultural landscapes – orchards, corn fields and vineyards – are met. 5. low-mountain erosive depression, with humus-carbonate soils, scattered pine groves (artificially planted), agricultural fields (mainly vineyards), rockslides, mudflows, and ravines. the landscape includes the erosional depression of zubi, which has developed in the outcropped porphyritic rocks formed under the khvamli and askhi massifs. the valley of the tskhenistskali river widens here. the zubi depression is the only way to reach the askhi massif from lechkhumi. the salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 70 zubi-okureshi viticulture-winery zone is located on both sides of the tskhenistskali river, south of the saretskela cliffs. it has been known for producing high-quality wine since ancient times. in the villages of zubi and okureshi, from the naturally sweet grapes of the “usakhelouri” vine species, the dark red semisweet wine usakhelouri is made, which is known for its excellent quality. the soil and climatic conditions are favourable for the development of fruit growing. among natural processes, landslides and rock avalanches are widespread here. 6. low mountains with brown forest soils, with oak, and with colkhian broad-leaved forest. the landscape is spread in the upper part of the valley of the jonouli river (the right tributary of the tskhenistskali river) near the akhalchala resort. it is represented as a relief form of troughs, cirques, moraines, and large erratic boulders formed by old glaciers. the slopes of the jonouly valley are covered with mixed fir-spruce-beech forests and beech forests. resort akhalchala is located 1900 m above sea level, where mineral springs containing carbonic acid and iron are present. 7. low-mountain flat-bottomed valley, with alluvial boulders, humus-carbonate and alluvial soils, broad-leaved forest with evergreen undergrowth, intensive landslides, terraced right and steep, terraced left slopes. the landscape is spread across the valley of the jonouli river above the akhalchala resort in the akhalouri river valley, which collects water from the slopes of high mountain massifs of tsekuri, sazamtro, and tsalmagi of the egrisi ridge. glacial troughs are observed at a height of 2300 m. the lower parts of the slopes are covered with erratic boulders. this proves that in the past, the glaciers descended even further. 8. a low-mountain flat-bottomed valley with alluvial boulders, brown forest and dark gray podzolic soils, beech forest, spruce, and fir-beech forest with recreational resources. the landscape is spread in the middle reaches of the jonouli river (the right tributary of the tskhenistskali river). this part of the valley is characterized by a wide and flat bottom that is significantly inclined in the direction of the river. here, above the village of kulbaki, limestone boulders are scattered and were brought down by a powerful landslide that moved from the northern edge of the askhi massif. the southern part of the jonouli valley is bounded by a slope of the limestone askhi massif, and the karst plateau is covered with karst funnels. 9. steep slopes of the limestone massif, devoid of soil and vegetation. the landscape is presented as the eastern part of the askhi massif, the peripheral part of the plateaus of maidani and sachikvano. in the north and east, it is bounded by a high limestone cliff, which stretches like a wall along the right side of the upper basin of the jonouli river and the right bank of the tskenistskali river. the cliff is extremely high. its crest is several hundred meters above the base. the plateaus and ridges are dotted with karst funnels, karst wells and fissures. 10. low mountain karst limestone, valleys with steep and rocky slopes, oak forest, and oak-pine forest. the landscape presents the valley of the rioni river (within lechkhumi), which has formed in cretaceous and tertiary sedimentary layers. the narrowest and deepest part of the valley is the cliff of tvishi, which intruded into the cretaceous limestones of the southern part of the racha-lechkhumi syncline. in its walls, at a great height above the level of the rioni river, there are karst caves – the verdzistava cave on the right side and the orkhvi cave – on the left side. it is spread on the right bank of the rioni valley up to an altitude of approximately 600-700 m and is characterized by moderately cold, short winters and hot long summers. the annual amount of precipitation is 1000-1300 mm. due to favourable climatic conditions, viticulture and fruit growing have developed since ancient times. it is the usakhelouri-tvishi viticulture microzone, where two types of semisweet wines, “tvishi” and “usakhelouri”, are produced. on the right bank of the rioni river, the landscape includes the villages of alpana and tvishi, while on the left side of the rioni river, the villages of orkhvi, zogishi and tsagera are located. 11. low-mountain erosive depression, built with sands, clays, limestones, brown forest soils, oaks, oak-hornbeam forests, secondary meadows, and agrolandscapes. the landscape is spread across the villages of lailashi, gagulechi, tabori and surmushi. vineyards, fruit orchards and cereal crops (maize) are grown in the territory. the flora consists of oak and oakhornbeam forests. here, landslide phenomena are widely observed, among which the “lailashi landslide” is well known. 12. erosive depressions with steep slopes, oak and pine forests, strongly transformed by anthropogenic factors, and cliffs intruded into cretaceous limestone sediments. the landscape covers the areas of the lower and upper sairme villages and includes the valley of the lajanuri river in the southern region of the lajanuri reservoir at the junction of the lajanuri and rioni salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 71 rivers near the village of alpana. the lajanuri river is one of the largest right tributaries of the rioni river within lechkhumi. within the boundaries of the landscape, its lower reaches have been formed in cretaceous and tertiary suites. the valley of lajanuri is erosive along its entire length. there are deep eroded gorges with steep slopes. steep rocky slopes undergo intense fragmentation, and rock avalanches occur there. the bed of the lajanuri river has been blocked by large limestone boulders. rock avalanches are generated due to the cracking processes occurring in limestones and the great inclination of slopes. the lajanuri basin contains deciduous forest at up to 2000-2100 m; its lower belt is covered with oak, hornbeam and chestnut forests, while beech trees are observed in the upper belt. coniferous forests are not present here. the landscape includes the sairme plateau, the absolute height of which reaches 800-900 m. its relative height from the rioni river is 400-500 m. the plateau is built of cretaceous limestones and marls; karst funnels and wells have developed on the surface. the rioni river follows the tectonic fault line in the sairme area and creates the so-called “narrow pass of sairme” in the cretaceous and eocene limestones. similarly, in the udabno area, in the marl limestones, a pyramidal, truncated cone and pole-shaped landslide relief, called “sairme pillars”, has formed, which looks like a stone forest as a result of erosion. it is a unique geomorphological phenomenon in the form of landslides and erosion. landslides are common here, and the “sairme landslide” is quite prominent. within the landscape, humus-carbonate soils, which are commonly used for fruit orchards and maize, are common, resulting in high yields under favourable terrain conditions. vineyards are also met in some places. 13. middle mountains with brown forest soils, beech and hornbeam-beech forests. the landscape is spread on the right and left banks in the middle reaches of the lajanuri river. within the landscape, the slopes of the lajanuri valley are devoid of terraces and have a wide bottom full of cobblestones. the landslides are mainly related to diluvium deposits. mudflows are common during rains. the landscape is characterized by moderately warm summers and cool winters. among the branches of agriculture, land farming and animal husbandry are mainly developed here. the forests are rich in mushrooms and fruit (crab apple, wild pear, dog rose, cornelian cherry, etc.). 14. middle mountains with extremely steep slopes, dark grey forest soil, beech forests. the landscape is spread in the valley of the lajanuri head river. here, mainly dark grey forest soil is present; a mix of beech, lime, elm and maple trees is observed at some places. 15. middle mountains with brown forest soils, beech-hornbeam forests, pine forests (artificially planted), hornbeam forests and pine-hornbeam forests the landscape covers the extreme western part of lechkhumi and is adjacent to the limestone massif of askhi. the dark grey forest soil is covered with beech-hornbeam, hornbeam and pine-beech forests. man-made pine wood can also be found in the villages of isunderi, makhura, chkumi and kulbaki. 16. middle mountains with karst relief, beech-dark coniferous and dark coniferous tree forests, and evergreen undergrowth. the landscape is spread in the extreme northwestern part of lechkhumi, in the valley of the jonouli river, and in the area of the head river, including the eastern part of the egrisi ridge. it is composed of a mid-jurassic porphyritic suite. the landscape is mainly beech-dark coniferous forests, dark coniferous forests (spruce and fir trees), and evergreen undergrowth (holly, cherry laurel, box tree, and butcher’s broom). 17. middle mountains, built with limestones, with karst relief, humus-carbonate soils with beech and hornbeam-beech forests, with evergreen and deciduous undergrowth. the landscape is spread in the northern part of the limestone massif of khvamli, between the villages of okureshi and nakuraleshi. the kvamli massif is composed of monocline layers inclined toward the north. it presents a double cuesta. within the landscape, the lower northern cuesta, i.e., the upper cretaceous cuesta, unlike the southern cuesta, is relatively less karstic. it is 450 meters lower than the southern cuesta. the northern part of the khvamli massif is covered with beech and hornbeambeach forests, although the main vegetation cover there is leafy shrubbery. 18. the middle mountains are composed of cretaceous limestone with karst reliefs: karst funnels, cliffs, caves, humus-carbonate soils, spruce-fir forests, and dark coniferous and beech-dark coniferous forests. the landscape is located on the khvamli massif between the villages of okureshi and korenishi. on the khvamli massif at 300-400 m above sea level, up to the upper boundary of the forest zone, dark gray soil is present (up to 1000-1200 m), and further (1400-2000 m), dark gray podzolic and podzolic forest soil is spread under the beech-dark coniferous and coniferous forests. 19. subalpine meadow shrubland on a limestone massif with mountain meadow soil. the landscape is met by the khvamli massif. here, mainly mountain meadow soil is spread. in the former shrubbery salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 72 and forest areas, which were later covered with meadow, secondary podzolic soils were present. the plants are used as natural hay meadows and pasture fields, while shrubbery prevents soil erosion. 20. high-mountain subalpine meadow-shrubbery on mountain meadow soils. the landscape is located on the ridges of egrisi and lechkhumi. under harsh weather conditions, mountain meadow soils are dominant on slopes. subalpine tall herbaceous vegetation consists mainly of umbelliferous and complex flowering plants. reach pasture fields are located in the upper part of the lajanuri valley, where subalpine meadows full of various high grasses are spread. 21. high-mountain alpine meadow-shrubbery on mountain meadow and peaty soils. the landscape is spread on the ridges of egrisi and lechkhumi. the alpine meadow territory is characterized by flattened relief, a high mountain climate and dense grass cover and is used as pasture fields in summer. the cover consisting of various grasses creates a dense meadow in the upper horizon of the soil that prevents the denudation of the hay meadows and pasture fields. 22. high-mountain subnival landscape with cliff vegetation and primitive mountain meadow soils (the egrisi and lechkhumi ridges). the landscape includes the highest peaks and summits of egrisi and lechkhumi ridges. here, mechanical erosion intensely occurs. the relief is characterized by a rocky surface. washed-off soils and certain representatives of rock vegetation are observed in some areas of primitive mountain meadows. 23. after they were cut, secondary meadows at former forests met on the egrisi and lechkhumi ridges, on the askhi and khvamli massifs, and in former forests. 24. the reservoir. discussions the goals of this research are to reveal the transformation of the environment of the lechkhumi region, which is affected by both natural and anthropogenic factors; to assess natural resources; to identify separate natural-territorial complexes (landscapes) as landscape types; and to create a geoinformational database. for that purpose, we had a scientific field examination in tsageri municipality (in 2022). observations were made on the landslide and mudflow areas and the landscapes that had changed as a result of their activities. the materials obtained in the field immensely helped us to reveal the natural and anthropogenic landscapes of the region and define their boundaries. we distinguished natural and anthropogenic landscapes and created a geoinformation system of the landscapes of tsageri municipality. we also created a database on the basis of which we constructed a large-scale (1:50000) landscape map of tsageri. during the study of the natural landscapes of the lechkhumi region, the potential of the landscapes was taken into account. it included identifying the set of resources that might be used for the purpose of protection and improvement of living conditions, economic growth, and complex development at present or in the future. in the case of landscapes, this means taking into account the set of properties on the basis of which and according to which a landscape can perform this or that (socioeconomic, ecological) function. it adequately reflects the degree to which a landscape participates in satisfying the diverse needs of society. conclusion as a result of comprehensive studies of lechkhumi by gis technology, a large-scale landscape map (1:50 000) of the lechkhumi (tsageri municipality) region was constructed. we distinguished 23 lowrank landscape entities—landscape types. the distinguished landscapes provide a clear image of the diversity and potential of the natural resources of the study region. it is noteworthy that most (67. 6%) of the landscapes is made of mountain landscapes. certain parts of the distinguished landscapes are useful for agricultural activities; some parts can be used as forest resources, while others can be used for tourism and recreation. most of the agricultural landscapes are located in considerably lower hypsometric zones (400-800 m) in the tsageri depression on either side of the tshenistskalii river. the landscapes (#1, #3, #4, #5, #10, and #11) here play a special role in the development of viticulture and for fruit growing in lechkhumi. the landscapes (#10,12) on the alluvial soils along the rioni river are the most useful for fruit and vegetable growth and cereal farming. the landscapes in the highmountainous subalpine (#19, 20) and alpine (#21) zones are the best pastures and meadows for mowing and are necessary for cattle breeding, with a total area of 24 000 ha. the pastures and hay meadows of lechkhumi have great potential. these findings can aid in the development of livestock breeding in this region. the forest landscapes occupy the dead territory of lechkhumi. they have high value in industry as well as in preserving ecology and biodiversity. here, the landscapes of river-side forests (#2), low salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 73 mountain forests (#9, #10, #11 landscapes) and middle mountain forests (#13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18) are met. among them, virgin forests occupy a considerable area. great touristic and recreational potential has been unlocked in the landscapes (#6, # 13) around the balneoclimatic (lashichala, akhalhala) and balneological (dzughuri) resorts, as well as in resort places (kulbaki, tabori, surmushi) and other significant tourism and recreation objects. among the landscapes of lechkhumi in the tsageri, orbeli and zubi depressions, the boundary landscapes of low mountains, middle-mountainous forests and high-mountainous meadows have changed. in many places, secondary meadows can be observed in former forests. the natural landscapes that existed in the past here include varieties of anthropogenic and natural-anthropogenic landscapes. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contributions e.s. led the writing of the article, distinguished the separate landscapes of the lechkhumi region as landscape types and compiled a large-scale landscape map with a diagram, map: viticulture areas of lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality) and a table: agro-climate characteristics of lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality); viticulture areas of lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality). t. c. compiled a geoinformational database of lechkhumi landscapes in gis and provided an electronic version of the landscape map of the lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality) and a map of the viticulture areas of the lechkhumi region (tsageri municipality). orcid id elene salukvadze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1583-9525 tamila chaladze https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0373-6135 reference agroklimatičeskie resursi gruzii (1978), [agroclimatic resources of georgia] leningrad, gidrometeoizdat, p. 78-124 (in russian). devidze n. (1961) soplis meurneobis ganvitareba da ganlageba rach’a – lechkhumshi//in: vakhushtis sakhelobis geograpiis institutis shromebi #xv [development and arrangement of agriculture in rachalechkhumi ]//in: collected papers # xv, vakhushti institute of geography, tbilisi: metsniereba, p. 142 171 (in georgian). elizbarashvili, e., papinashvili, l., & kartvelishvili, l. (2004). scientific-applied reference book of georgia, part 1: seperate climatic characters. tbilisi: bakur sulakauri pablishing. elizbarashvili, e., elizbarashvili sh. (2021) atmosperuli nalekebi//in: sakartvelos hava, 8. rach’a – lechkhumi, kvemo svaneti. sakartvelos teknikuri universitetis hidrometeorologiis institutis sametsniero referirebadi shromat’a krebuli # 130 atmospheric precipitation//in:climate of georgia, 8. racha – lechkhumi, kvemo svaneti, [scientific reviewed proceedings of the institute of hydrometeorology of the georgian technical university # 130 ], tbilisi: publishing house ⸴⸴technical university”, p. 4148; (in georgian) gobejishvili, r. (2000). rach’a-lechkhumi//in: sakartvelos geograpia, nats’ili i, pizik’uri geograpia rachalechkhumi//in: geography of georgia, part i, [physical geography of georgia], tbilisi: metsniereba, 259-260 p.; (in georgian). government of georgia. (2023, june 1). development strategy of racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti region for 2014-2021. retrieved from government of georgia: https://www.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=geo&sec_id=275&info_id=38379 maruashvili, l. (2020) the natural conditions in the administrative areas of georgia, reference book, tbilisi. sveti, 260-261 p. (in georgian) saneblidze, m., ukleba, d., jakeli, ch. (1970) sakartvelos landshapturi ruk’a. [landscape map of georgia (1: 600 000)], tbilisi-moscow: main department of geodesy and cartography/russia, moscow (in georgian). salukvadze, e., & tsitsagi, m. (2022). environment protection. in geography of the physical environment (pp. 219–227). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90753-2_18 https://www.gov.ge/index.php?lang_id=geo&sec_id=275&info_id=38379 salukvadze & chaladze. 2024 4(1) 74 salukvadze, e., chaladze, t., & gogidze, k. (2021). the natural resources potential and pecularities of their exploitation in moutainous regions (the case of kvemo racha, georgia). georgian geographical journal. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.258 targamadze k., chikhradze v. (1973) sakartvelos ssr tyis resursebi [forest resources of the georgian ssr] tbilisi: “sabchota sakartvelo”, p. 58 – 61 (in georgian). ukleba, d., budagov, b., museibov, m., sokhadze, e., bagdasarov, al. (1983), landšaftnaja karta zakavkazija, glavnyi departament geodezii i kartografii [landscape map of the south caucasus, (1: 600 000)], main department of geodesy and cartography/russia, moscow (in russian). https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.258 georgian geographical journal prospects of tourism development in zemo racha and their reflection among the local society nana nadareishvili 1,2* , mzia tutberidze1 , giorgi khomeriki1 , sofiko dzhvarsheishvili1 , nana kvirkvelia1 , eleonora tchania1 , givi tavadze1 1 department of human geography/vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 department of tourism and marketing/georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: n.nadareish3005@gmail.com introduction racha is one of the most challenging among georgia’s historical-geographical provinces. it is located between the main range of the caucasus mountains and its branches, which makes it distant from the central economic zone of the country. a large part of the territory is mountainous and highland, with only a small amount of arable land for cultivation that is relatively scarce. there is a variety of mineral resources, but their reserves are limited, which makes georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1) 63-73 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract racha is one of georgia’s stagnant historical-geographic regions, with its socio-economic problems caused by several complex natural and social factors. one of the most significant problems of the region is the critical drop in its population. one potential solution to the trend of depopulation, considering the experience of worldwide depressed mountain rural regions, could be the development of tourism. however, international experience also shows that rapid, campaign-style tourism programmes that are not based on in-depth scientific research of possible consequences might negatively impact the local community's situation – change the local community's socio-cultural system, create or deepen economic inequality, harm historical settlement and material culture, and so on. international experience demonstrates that this happens when tourist facilities are built spontaneously, and investments are implemented without considering the interests of the local community. the purpose of this study was to explore the local community's view on tourism development in the oni municipality of racha. to achieve this goal, the research team used methods of surveying and interviewing the local population. the primary tool of the research was a mixed-format questionnaire containing both closed and open-ended questions. the research covered resorts and resort areas located in the oni region, as well as settlements in prospective recreational zones. in august 2023, due to the tragedy in the shovi resort, where a landslide caused the loss of more than 30 people and made the area unsuitable for future recreational and tourism use, it led to a considerable decrease in the number of tourists visiting racha. however, the research shows that despite this, the locals have high hopes for the development of tourism in the municipality. this is evidenced by the opening of numerous new guesthouses. until recently, the tourist region of zemo racha (resorts: shovi, utsera, sortuani) was primarily focused on healing and wellness. currently, the development of the utsera resort is underway. an additional study of the tourist resources has shown that it is possible to establish a mountain skiing complex in mravaldzali. the recently established national park in the municipality should stimulate the growth of ecological, adventure, and speleotourism. however, it should be noted that the local population we interviewed has limited knowledge of the national park's functions. according to the respondent’s opinions, agritourism holds significant potential in the region, with several facilities already operating over the long term in the oni municipality. keywords: problems of mountain areas, racha, oni, tourism, resorts of racha, national park of racha. citation: nadareishvili, n.; tutberidze, m.; khomeriki, g.; dzhvarsheishvili, s.; kvirkvelia, n.; tchania, e.; tavadze, g. prospects of tourism development in zemo racha and their reflection among the local society. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(1), 63-73. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.07 mailto:n.nadareish3005@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2242-0834 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4194-4684 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-4348 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4444-8435 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6722-4453 https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5352-0710 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4475-5355 nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) extraction mostly unprofitable. there is a high unemployment rate among the locals; their incomes are limited. the population is also experiencing a critical decline (kohler et al., 2017; jaoshvili, 1961; stülb & dzhvarsheishvili, 2023). one of the realistic ways to stop depopulation in racha is to enhance tourism activities and improve local community incomes from the tourism sector. zemo racha, which is represented by the oni municipality, holds great potential in terms of both natural and anthropogenic tourism resources. in terms of tourism expansion, it is one of the leading municipalities in the region and is a major tourist attraction centre in the country (nadareishvili & dzidzikashvili, 2023; gogitidze & nadareishvili, 2022; gogitidze et al., 2023). tourism development here began in the thirties of the 20th century, when the shovi resort began operating here (tutberidze, 2021). the significance of the zemo racha tourist region was determined by the natural beauty of the central caucasus, the region’s healthy climate, and its hydro-mineral resources, widely distributed across the whole area of the region, but the springs of shovi and utsera were distinguished by their healing properties. shovi, a climate-balneological resort, is located at 1,600 meters above sea level in the valley of the chanchakhi river and surrounded by coniferous and deciduous forests. shovi’s main therapeutic factor is a healthy climate and the exceptionally long duration of sunshine (2,050 hours per year) (kobakhidze, 1971). including 16 mineral springs of various profiles. the catastrophic natural disaster that happened in august 2023 destroyed the resort's infrastructure, making it impossible for the resort to continue operating. the balneological-climatic resort of utsera began operating relatively later; it’s located in the rioni river valley at 1,150 meters above sea level. its main resort resource consists of three types of carbonated mineral waters, which are used for baths or for drinking to treat pulmonary, allergies, and gastroenterological diseases. the local population calls these waters by various names, such as "kalci" water, which was bottled during the soviet era; "black water"; "napertskala"; and the most popular one, "gverita". utsera’s resort infrastructure is currently represented by the following facilities: the four-star hotel "manino", a 25-room hotel in the former boarding house building, and 16 operated guesthouses. the total capacity of the accommodation facilities is up to 300 places. the radisson chain hotel is being built on the grounds of the old sanatorium. close to oni is the climate-balneological resort sortuani, whose carbonated mineral water is used to treat arthrological, neurological, and gynaecological diseases (legislative herald of georgia, 2005). there is no resort infrastructure here, but it does have some small recreational facilities that locals make use of, just like mineral water. potential centres for health and wellness tourism include the resort areas of bari, skhephuri, kvedi lake, and dzeglebi. there are plenty of resources in the municipality for the development of different tourism directions: for hiking and adventure tourism – lakes (udziro, sakhazo), waterfalls (tskhmori, kvagakhetkila), caves (usholta), and mountains (tsonara, katitsvera); for cultural and educational tourism – churches (mravaldzali, st. gabriel archangel, the saviour, upper bari archangel, st. george of sori), the oni synagogue, the regional studies museum, as well as villages with historical buildings and unique defensive structures (ghebi, chiora). regarding ecological tourism – the newly established racha national park (chichinadze, 2021; khakhubia et al., 2024) – for gastronomic and ethnographic tourism – traditional rachian cuisine and festivals. furthermore, over the last several decades, zemo racha has undergone a considerable population decline (khomeriki et al., 2022). in this regard, it is exceptional among the regions of the country. in recent decades, one of the most real ways to retain the local population is tourism development, job creation in the tourism and hospitality industry and providing employment for local people. on-site research and surveys of the local population have shown that despite the decrease in the number of visitors during the 2024 season due to the august 2023 disaster in shovi, both the local administration and the community have great hope about tourism development in the municipality. this is also confirmed by the recent opening of many new guesthouses. the aim of the presented research is to explore the opinions, attitudes, and interests of the local community regarding the development of tourism in the oni municipality, as well as the local population's stance regarding tourism development. nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) figure1. shovi resort after the landslide research area racha, a historical-geographical province, is located in the northeastern part of racha, a historicalgeographical province, is located in the northeastern part of western georgia. administratively, it belongs to the racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti region, also known as the northern border of georgia (socio-economic geography of georgia, 2003). to the east, it borders with the tskhinvali region; to the west, it borders with the municipality of ambrolauri and the municipality of lentekhi and the russian federation (kabardino-balkarian and north ossetia-alania respublics); and to the south, it borders with imereti. racha includes the municipalities of oni and ambrolauri. currently, the area of the research is mountainous racha oni municipality. due to its economic-geographical location, natural and socio-economic conditions, it was an isolated region for many centuries (neidze, 2007; jaoshvili, 1996; mghvdeladze, 2007). for centuries, the region has been considered a powerful centre of bronze and iron age culture. it was well known for its mining and metal production. the extraction and processing of iron were so important in the daily lives of the inhabitants of tsedisi and neighbouring villages that the region came to be known as the "sarkineti iron region", and those who practised this craft were known as "iron men". administratively, it belongs to the racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti region, also known as the northern wall of georgia (socio-economic geography of georgia, 2003). to the east, it borders with tskhinvali region, to the west, it borders with municipality of ambrolauri and municipality of lentekhi and russian federation (kabardinobalkarian and north ossetia alania respublics) and to the south it borders with imereti. racha includes the municipalities of oni and ambrolauri. currently, the area of the research is mountainous racha oni municipality. due to its economic-geographical location, natural and socio-economic conditions, it was an isolated region for many centuries (neidze, 2007; jaoshvili, 1996; mghvdeladze, 2007). for centuries, the region has been considered as a powerful center of bronze and iron age culture. methods and materials the research was conducted to study the opinions of individuals employed in the tourism sector on the continued development of tourism in oni municipality. a meeting took place with oni city hall representatives, staff from the tourism information centre and approximately 20 respondents engaged in tourism activities were interviewed. the main method for this research selected was personal nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) interviewing. the study covered resorts, resort areas, and settlements within prospective recreational areas. during the field research, essential photo and video records were collected, and illustrative materials were created in the form of diagrams and maps, which are presented in the article. the involvement of people from various villages and the range of collected materials significantly boosted the trustworthiness of the research. a more or less realistic picture of operating a tourism business has been formed. the analysis of this research provides possibilities for developing tourism in the region. in the context of the research, interviews were conducted with residents from different villages of oni municipality who are actively involved in the tourism business. the survey included participants in the tourism business from the villages of utsera, ghari, zudali, mravaldzali, ghebi, chiora, glola and the city of oni. results the data analysis from the field research shows that 77 percent of the respondents were women, indicating that tourism-related activities in the region, especially in the family guesthouse and hospitality sector, are mainly driven by women. this trend can be explained by social and cultural factors, as women have traditionally significant role in managing family businesses and hospitality. at the same time, men's comparatively low participation may suggest that they are more involved in agriculture or other economic activities that require more physical effort and significant time investment. the observed dynamics suggest that gender distribution within the tourism sector reflects both the structure of the regional labor market and the traditional division of roles. the respondents' ages ranges from 30 to 71, which allows for the identification of several age groups: 30.8 percent of respondents are aged 30-40, 46.2 percent are in the 41-60 age group and just 23.1 percent respondents are aged between 61 and 71 (fig. 2). the data analysis from the field research shows that 77 percent of the respondents were women, indicating that tourism-related activities in the region, especially in the family guesthouse and hospitality sector, are mainly driven by women. this trend can be explained by social and cultural factors, as women have traditionally had a significant role in managing family businesses and hospitality. at the same time, men's comparatively low participation may suggest that they are more involved in agriculture or other economic activities that require more physical effort and significant time investment. the observed dynamics suggest that gender distribution within the tourism sector reflects both the structure of the regional labour market and the traditional division of roles. the respondents' ages range from 30 to 71, which allows for the identification of several age groups: 30.8 percent of respondents are aged 30-40, 46.2 percent are in the 41-60 age group and just 23.1 percent of respondents are aged between 61 and 71 (fig. 2). figure 2. distribution of respondents by age groups in percentage analysing the age distribution of respondents indicates that a significant majority of the respondents (46.2 percent) are in the middle-aged range (41-60 years), who are actively involved in both economic and social spheres. this age group represents one of the most important segments for tourism development, as they have the required experience, resources and motivation which contributes to the sustainable growth of the sector. the second significant group includes respondents between the ages of 30 and 40 (30.8 percent), who, due to their younger age, might bring more initiative, innovative mindset and energy. increasing involvement and investment within this age group, both in terms of resources and knowledge, could become a vital aspect of a long-term growth strategy. the older age group (61-71 years) represents 23.1 percent of the respondents. despite their small numbers, this group is vital in maintaining the region’s cultural heritage and transferring their 30,7 46,2 23,1 0,0 10,0 20,0 30,0 40,0 50,0 30-40 41-60 61-71 nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) experience and knowledge. their participation in the tourism sector forms a stable platform, which is of crucial importance for the preservation of traditional forms of local subculture. in the tourism research process, both permanent and temporary residents' views are considered, providing an opportunity for a comprehensive and deep analysis of the community. their varied experiences are diverse, which provides an opportunity for revealing a more complex picture of a deeper understanding of the field of tourism. according to the research data, 85 percent of the respondents are permanent residents, which suggests that their views directly reflect both the ongoing and future challenges faced by the region. the opinions of this group significantly define the main aspects of tourism development. as well, the views of temporary residents (15 percent) are equally significant. although this group are less involved in the daily life of the region, they are comparatively more mobile and have international experience. their viewpoint is equally important throughout the research process. due to their different viewpoints, they may focus on aspects that are less visible from the permanent residents; for example, temporary residents with international experience focus on the need for multilingual staff, the development of modern tourist routes and activities, and the accessibility of internet and digital services. which would provide the region with the opportunity to integrate more successfully into the international tourism market. this kind of approach will assist the region in better adapting to the demands of the international tourism market and integrating more effectively into global trends. every participant in the survey (100 percent) expressed a positive view regarding the development of tourism in racha, which is highly important for the region's economic growth. this collective support demonstrates the local community's willingness and interest in becoming actively involved in tourism activities. furthermore, they express a willingness to take advantage of support provided by both public and private organisations, highlighting the importance of local initiatives and investments. this kind of attitude creates a strong basis for the sustainable and successful development of tourism in the region, which could become a key factor of long-term socio-economic progress. based on the conducted survey, a few main trends and priority issues concerning tourism development were identified by the respondents. 76.9 percent of them highlighted the lack of financial resources, and the same percentage of respondents noted the need for staff training/retraining, while 92.3 percent identified infrastructure improvement as a key priority. all respondents (100 percent) consider it necessary that it is vital to guarantee the prevention of dangerous natural occurrences. 69.2 percent of them consider the establishment of a unified information database about racha's tourism offers to be an important step. only 7.7 percent indicated the need for stronger state support, and incentive actions from the state are necessary, and the same percentage (7.7 percent) emphasised the importance of increasing public awareness. (fig. 3). figure 3. priorities of respondents for measures in tourism development in zemo racha (percentage) based on the survey, 76.9 percent of respondents think that one of the main challenges for tourism development in racha is the lack of financial resources. this indicates that capital investment is crucial not only for infrastructure projects but also for the development of tourism services. this factor indicates that it is necessary to attract either local or foreign investments. 76.9 percent of respondents indicated that professional training/retraining of staff is a key requirement for tourism development in racha. this fact underlines the need to raise the professional standards of employees in the region’s 7,7 7,7 69,2 76,9 76,9 92,3 100,0 0,0 20,0 40,0 60,0 80,0 100,0 120,0 government support and incentive programs increasing awareness unified database of information source for racha's… financial resources staff education and retraining infrastructure organization ensuring measures against complex natural processes nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) service sector. the improvement in tourist service quality is closely linked to the competence of personnel, which will strongly affect the region's image and the increase in tourist flows. it should be noted that there is a labour deficit in the villages, caused by the outmigration of the younger generation. this issue is especially significant during the winter period. without keeping the youth in the region, stable economic development and the complete realisation of tourism potential cannot happen. for tourism development, 92.3 percent of respondents identified the necessity of improving infrastructure. for the development of tourism in the region, it is critically important to improve the basic infrastructure: roads that are currently only partially organised, such as the sachkhere-shkmeri highway, which have made access to oni easier; however, internal village roads are disorganised, and public transportation is limited (in the villages, transportation operates only once a week, which reduces tourists' mobility and makes it essential for them to use their vehicles). improvements in living conditions are necessary (many villages are still without gas, which creates a major barrier to winter tourism), and communication access (connectivity problems in highland villages reduce the region's attractiveness to tourists, since modern travellers need access to both the internet and mobile communication). it is evident that there are insufficient shops and medical centres. racha cannot become competitive without the development of the service sector as well as the tourism services. the municipality is located in a zone characterised by complex exogenous processes, which poses a real threat (gongadze et al., 2024). all of the respondents (100 percent) highlighted the importance of protecting the population from complex natural processes (such as landslides, floods, etc.). in order to prevent different natural challenges, relevant steps should be taken in the region and provide it with preventive equipment. 69.2 percent of respondents noted the need to establish a centralised information database regarding tourism offers in racha. this will improve the availability of information about the region for tourists and make it easier for them to plan their trips. there was already such a precedent in racha several years ago when, under a usaid program, an information database called the 'tourism cluster“ was established, which encompassed accommodation facilities, and the 'food cluster,“ which united restaurant owners, honey and ham producers and others. but with the end of the programme, these websites stopped functioning. based on the survey data, just one respondent highlighted the necessity of state support and the need for incentive programmes. this answer could be interpreted as showing that the majority of respondents pay relatively lower attention to state involvement. additionally, it should be noted that the other respondents mainly consider the role of the state in the context of financial assistance and infrastructure development. this indicates that, in the respondents' view, the government’s involvement should be primarily centred around these specific aspects. only one respondent highlighted the importance of raising awareness of tourism in zemo racha. however, its importance is clear, as recognition directly impacts tourist flows, regional promotion and marketing, all of which are essential for the long-term growth of tourism in the region. it is important to note that all surveyed respondents (100 percent) are actively involved in the tourism service sector. they can offer tourists guesthouses, involvement in agricultural activities, sightseeing of natural and cultural monuments and other activities. based on the analysis of the collected data, we described the types of tourism presented in zemo racha and analysed the level of service diversification. among the respondents were those who returned from the capital city to racha during the covid19 pandemic. they are now considered permanent residents and plan to get involved in tourism activities, which reflect a slight positive influence of the pandemic on migratory processes and the diversification of the region's economy (gogsadze et al., 2022; tsitsagi et al., 2023; bokeria & tutberidze, 2023). as evidence from fig.4 all respondents, without exception, offer to tourists guesthouse services. this indicates that guesthouses represent the central segment of tourism in the region. guesthouses play a vital socio-economic role in racha's tourism, promoting both tourism infrastructure development and employment. the existence of a variety of natural and cultural monuments in the region strengthens tourists’ attractiveness and underscores the value of its cultural heritage. 84.6 percent of the respondents offer tourists to explore natural and cultural attractions. this shows that cultural and ecological tourism is one of the primary directions in zemo racha, which will help attract visitors to the region. nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) among the respondents, 69.2 percent offer tourists local cuisine, while 53.8 percent provide them with the opportunity to taste homemade wine. this shows that both gastronomic tourism and wine culture also play a significant role in attracting tourists. tasting wine is closely linked to the region's winemaking traditions, which strengthen uniqueness of racha's cultural heritage. 61.5 percent of respondents offer tourists the introduction of local traditions. this indicates that the region is paying attention to the development of ethnic tourism, which, in turn, helps promote local heritage, traditions, and lifestyle. 46 percent of respondents offer to tourists horseback riding. as part of adventure tourism, horseback riding services help strengthening the possibilities for active tourism in the racha region. 46 percent of respondents offer to tourists to participate in agricultural activities. this reflects the potential for developing agritourism, allowing tourists to understand agricultural processes, enjoy local produce, and participate in farming directly. figure 4. suggestions of respondents engaged in various tourism activities in zemo racha (percentage) 23 percent of respondents indicate that they are involved in the activities of other people's tourism businesses. this illustrates the trend of creating collaborative networks in tourism, which helps local tourist destinations expand their range of services and increase their tourism potential. 8 percent of respondents noted the offering of car services, indicating that the transportation infrastructure and its development are still represented at a low level, which in turn is caused by imperfect infrastructural conditions. this information shows that the region is not only focused on traditional hospitality, but also includes elements of wellness, eco-tourism, agritourism, gastronomic, cultural, and adventure tourism, fostering the multifaceted development of the region and fully realizing its tourism potential. the analysis of respondents' answers, regarding their economic dependence on tourism confirms that tourism plays an important role in diversifying the income of the local population. from the respondents' answers, it becomes clear that tourism, as an additional source of economic activity, increases financial stability, indicating the region's yet to be explored tourism potential. the research clearly demonstrated significance of tourism and importance of tourism dependence for local population. specifically, 7.6 percent of respondents indicated that their entire income (100 percent) comes from tourism. 15 percent of respondents noted that over half of their income (70 percent80 percent) is earned through tourism activities. in the case of 53 percent of respondents, their earnings from tourism were less than one-third of their total income. 7.6 percent of respondents reported that one-third of their income comes from tourism. moreover, 15 percent of respondents did not respond to this question. the findings of the study indicate that the zemo racha community has different levels of dependence on tourism (fig.5). 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 100 46,2 84,6 69,2 53,8 61,5 46,2 23,1 7,7 nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) figure 5. the share of tourism in the total annual income of owners of tourist facilities (the results of the interviewing)  high level of dependency only 23 percent of respondents have incomes that are directly dependent on tourism services. respondents from this group agree that the development of tourism is important for their financial stability and prosperity. such a stance from this group of respondents is natural, as they gain direct benefits from tourism activities.  low level of dependency this group of respondents accounts for 7 percent of the total respondents. they earn one-third of their income from tourism, indicating that they are partially dependent on tourism, while their main source of income is from other activities.  limited dependency the results of the study demonstrated that 54 percent of respondents receive less than a third of their income from tourism, meaning that for the majority, tourism is an additional source, not the main one. the members of this group, as an additional activity, are involved in agriculture, and some of them are also employed in publicly funded sectors. as a result, they have relatively low interest in tourism development, however, they recognize the benefits and considerable potential of the tourism sector for the economy of the region.  unclear attitude 15 per cent of respondents did not answer this question. they preferred not to reveal their own earnings from tourism, which may be due to the low amount of such income or other motivations. the data above indicates that tourism development in the region is not only a key driver of economic growth but also an alternative source of income for the local population, which could significantly increase with proper infrastructure and service improvements. it is also notable that 61 percent of respondents reported that they receive financial and organisational support in their tourism activities from the government and/or international or local organisations. this nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) suggests the accessibility of resources and funding, which play a crucial role in supporting tourism development. 39 percent of the respondents indicated that they did not receive similar assistance. this may be due to a lack of information about various grant and funding opportunities, a general sense of distrust among respondents or an absence of interest in participating in projects. it is also possible to suggest that their applications were not accepted. the majority of respondents who received grants (around 62.5 percent) mentioned that their support came from the government program “enterprise georgia”. clearly, this programme plays a crucial role in supporting tourism and developing businesses in the racha region. the popularity of this programme can be explained by the fact that it is a large-scale government initiative focused on providing support to small and medium-sized enterprises in multiple regions of the country. it is important for the racha region to be informed about opportunities for grants and financial assistance, as this will promote sustainable tourism development. 92 percent of respondents who reported the negative effects of the shovi tragedy (see fig. 5) on tourism indicate that natural disasters have a direct impact on the tourism industry and the economic situation of the local population in the region. the significant drop in tourist numbers, caused by the fear and sense of insecurity stemming from the tragedy, illustrates how natural disasters influence not just tourism dynamics but also the challenges associated with maintaining the region's tourism reputation. discussions most of the interviewed respondents share the opinion that tourism is the most important part of the development of the economy of zemo racha, and its further development is very important for the region. however, its effective development is associated with many challenges. lack of financial resources, lack of qualified personnel, insufficient infrastructure, and difficult natural conditions were identified as the main barriers to tourism development in the region. this is only a small part of the challenges mentioned by the locals, which require special attention. to fully utilise the tourism potential of zemo racha, it is necessary not only to improve the infrastructure but also to raise the awareness of the region, both at the national and global levels. with the help of targeted marketing strategies and information campaigns, it is possible to effectively present the region's unique tourism resources to the public. in addition, considering the specifics of the domestic and international tourism markets will help racha to strengthen its position on the global tourism map, which will increase the number of tourists and contribute to the development of sustainable tourism in the region. until now, the tourism region of zemo racha had a pronounced healing and healing direction (resorts: shovi, utsera, sortuan); now, in parallel with the further development of utsera, the possibility of creating a mountain-ski complex (mravaldzali) was revealed because of an additional study of tourist resources. in addition, there are settlements and places in zemo racha that have significant tourist potential and are already popular among individual tourists (the village of gona with a special natural beauty; the village of glola, which was the base of the shovi resort in terms of providing employees and accommodation facilities). now it receives tourists). the recently created national park on the territory of the municipality should give impetus to the development of ecological, adventure and speleotourism. however, it should be noted here that there is a lack of knowledge about the functions of the national park among the population. the agro-tourism direction in the region also has a perspective, several facilities of which have been operating in the municipality of oni for a long time. an important prerequisite for the development of gastronomic tourism could be the catalogue of racha dishes prepared by the employees of the tourism information centre. conclusion  the majority of the population considers the field of tourism to be the main direction of further socio-economic development of zemo racha;  the tragedy that took place in shovi affected not only the future of shovi, but also the tourism development of the entire racha region; for the prevention of various natural challenges in the region, it is necessary to take appropriate measures and provide it with preventive devices;  the incomes of 23 percent of the respondents directly depend on tourist services, a third of the income of 7 percent comes from tourism, i.e. partially depends on tourism, and the income of 54 percent nadareishvili et al. 2025(1) is less than a third of all incomes from tourism, these data reveal the importance of tourism for the economy of the region.  all research participants offer accommodation to tourists in a family hotel. in addition, various respondents' suggestions are visiting cultural and natural monuments, tasting local dishes and wine, getting to know local traditions, engaging in agricultural activities, horse riding, etc.  the respondents mentioned important issues for the development of tourism: lack of financial resources, the need for personnel training/retraining, infrastructure regulation.  part of the owners of tourist facilities received financial and organizational support from the state, international or local organizations, but more efforts are needed from the state to uilization the potential of the region. the research showed that the tourism development of zemo racha is not only focused on traditional hospitality, but also includes elements of health and wellness, cultural, ecological, agro, gastronomic and adventure tourism, which will contribute to the multifaceted development of the region and tourism potential. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. orcid id nana nadareishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2242-0834 mzia tutberidze https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4194-4684 giorgi khomeriki https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-4348 sofiko dzhvarsheishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4444-8435 nana kvirkvelia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6722-4453 eleonora tchania https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5352-0710 givi tavadze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4475-5355 authors’ contribution n.n., m.t. and g.k. conceived of the presented idea. all of the authors performed the analytic calculations. n.n took the lead in 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(2021). the georgian resorts as a basis for wellness tourism development. georgian geographical journal, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2021.261 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) analysis of forest cover changes in the dharchula alpine ecosystem, western himalayas, india: in the context of the governance of protected areas bhanwar vishvendra raj singh1*, ravi mishra 2, shailesh yadav3 abstract the heart of biodiversity conservation initiatives are biosphere reserves, national parks, wildlife reserves, and other protected areas (pas). pas are permanent institutions, according to protection policy and practice, although the fragmentation forest habitat indicator is downgrading, downsizing, and degazettement (paddd). in the current context, india has 514 wildlife sanctuaries, while the himalayas have approximately 35 wildlife sanctuaries. however, wildlife sanctuaries in the himalayan range have not been extensively studied using space technology (such as geospatial techniques), so dhar chula tehsil, which is part of the pithoragarh district in uttarakhand, india, was chosen as the study area due to the high density of forests and proximity to the askot wildlife sanctuary. this research will aid in tracking changes in wildlife habitats and demonstrating options for greater biodiversity restoration. the examination of land cover and land-use change includes a substantial concentration of forest habitat change. this study seeks to examine changes in the lulc of dharchula utilising multitemporal satellite data, e.g., landsat 2 and sentinel 2b for 1975 and 2020, respectively, to assess the understanding of forest changes at dhar chula tehsil. the adjustments were validated using numerous indices, including the normalised difference vegetation index (ndvi), the normalised difference vegetation index (rdvi), and the weighted analysis method. as a result, the forest area has expanded marginally over the last five decades, from 130455 hectares to 157140.2 hectares. this is good news for the forest environment. keywords: forest ecosystem, protected areas introduction india is the 7th-largest country in the world. the vastness and complexity of indian landscapes contribute to a diverse ecosystem that faces many problems. forests are home to many species, mostly flora and fauna, and provide abundant resources to our environment [1]. the forest is not only a place to enjoy nature's beauty but also a phenomenon that provides essential needs for humans and society, such as fuelwood, edible materials such as fruits and vegetables, and housing for many herders and farmers [2]. forest areas in india range from temperate to coniferous, evergreen to shrub and deciduous forests, and from tropical forests to cool temperate forests [3]. with different climatic conditions, india is home to a diverse range of flora and fauna, including lions, bengal tigers, white tigers, panthers, one-horned rhinoceros, and lion-tailed macaques. the flora of india ranges from the western himalayas to the country's plains and includes species such as chirping, blue pine, silver fir, and dwarf willow. india is dealing with enormous issues in the forest sector, such as deforestation, degradation, and loss of habitat for both flora and wildlife, as well as extreme climatic conditions and the consequences of forest fires across enormous areas, resulting in carbon escapes back into the atmosphere [4]. forests are critical for ecosystem survival and biodiversity [5]. because of the substantial asset externalities involved at both the global and local levels, deforestation and degradation in the himalayan regions are of considerable concern to all policymakers [6]. the himalayas are the only source of india's three major river systems, which include the ganges, the brahmaputra, and the indus [7]. along with the abovementioned main rivers, there are several tributaries that originate in the himalayas. the himalayas are among the most tectonically unstable, undeveloped, ecologically vulnerable, and dense mountains on the planet [8]. because of continuous uplift, this mountain range is extremely vulnerable to large-scale tectonic movements and landslides [9, 10]. they are the world's most unstable and vulnerable mountain ranges [6]. 1 department of geography mohanlal sukhadia university, udaipur, india 2 kumaun university, almora, uttarakhand, india 3 sahariya govt. college, kaladera, jaipur, india * corresponding author: bhanwarsa28@gmail.com singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) this study is based on locating areas in the askot wildlife sanctuary, which are protected areas that serve as a reservoir of biodiversity in a biogeographical unit; they serve as a refuge for native plants, animals, and microorganisms; and they serve as a laboratory [11], where forest degradation and deforestation have occurred or are on the verge of occurring. conservation of the world's wild genetic resources is becoming increasingly dependent on a limited percentage of land area in natural reserves, particularly as natural areas rapidly deplete [12, 13]. our study is based on the detection of changes in the forest region of dhar chula tehsil (near askot wildlife sanctuary), which is located in the pithoragarh district of uttarakhand, india, in the western himalayan range. there are 279 kinds of fodder, including trees, shrubs, and herbs, according to samant 1998 [14, 15]. the research is carried out using multitemporal satellite data. the primary focus of the research is the application of remote sensing and gis [16, 17]. remote sensing (rs) data, in conjunction with geographic information systems (gis), aid in the analysis, mapping, and monitoring of earth resources for effective and sustainable forest landscape management. remote sensing is a method of gathering data or information about an area without physically coming into contact with an object or study area [17]. gis is a computer system that has been expanded to gather data, store it, analyse it, and then present it as an output result to aid in the solution of a real-world problem [18, 19]. methods and materials dharchula is a tehsil and a nagar panchayat in the uttarakhand district of pithoragarh. in the mediaeval period, dharchula was a key trade town for the trans-himalayan trade routes. the dharchula is surrounded by himalayan peaks and is located at an elevation of 915 metres above sea level. it is located in a valley on the kali river's banks. this city is named dharchula because it is situated on a hill that resembles a stove. pithoragarh is 90 kilometres away. it is located at a distance and is surrounded by mountains. in regard to tourism, the most prominent tourist attraction in this city is manas lake, also known as manasa sarovar. figure 1. study area. sourceprepared by researchers, goi. singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) askot wildlife sanctuary is also included in this tehsil and is located in pithoragarh district on the longitude of 29°46'45"n to 30°27'45"n and latitude of 81°01'53"e to 80°16'25"e. uttarakhand. pithoragarh is approximately 1514 m tall, or 4967 ft [20]. in 1960, the district was separated from the almora district. this is the easternmost district of uttarakhand, which shares borders with nepal in the east and tibet in the north. pithoragarh is another name for "little kashmir" [21]. it is a historical site since it served as the chand kings' seat of authority in the kumaon region. the months of march to june and september to december are ideal for visiting the pithoragarh district [22]. askot was established to protect the endangered musk deer, but it is also rich in flora such as herbs and shrubs. "green paradise" is another name for the askot wildlife sanctuary. this location is 3629 feet above sea level. along the different river streams, the region is covered in a dense forest of deodar and pine. it is also reported to be a significant terrain feature for pilgrims travelling to bhanar, nirikot, kalapani, and adi kailash. the sanctuary region includes passes such as lumpia lekh, lipu lekh, and mankshang lekh. chart 1: methodology chart dharchula tehsil is our research study region because, despite its never-ending natural beauty, it is being degraded by the consequences of forest degradation and deforestation. our research is based on identifying profiles of places where degradation and deforestation have occurred, as well as analysing the impact on biodiversity. aster (dem) relief slope aspect data landsat 2 & sentinel2a pre processing geometric correction radiometric correction post processing indices ndvi rdvi savi image classification land use/land cover lulc 1975 lulc 2020 accuracy assessment overlay/weighted analysis analysis of forest change final result ground truthing google earth satellite imagery singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) this study used a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods of research with geospatial technologies to explore the spatiotemporal dynamic change in the askot wildlife sanctuary. methodology charts this study employed remote sensing data to track changes in forest cover in the study area between 1975 and 2020. erdas imagine 2015 software and arcgis 3.1.0 were used for image processing. this study made use of both primary and secondary data. in the research process, every piece of data is useful and important. landsat mss data image acquisition date 06/12/1975 with four bands; sentinel 2-a data image acquisition date 24/10/2020; and aster dem data 30 m resolution were the major data used in the study. (table 1). table 1. data set used sr. no. data type source spatial resolution (m) 1 landsat 2 mss (1975) & sentinel 2-a (2020) united states geological survey (usgs) 80 10 2 digital elevation model aster 30 for forest cover change detection approaches, landsat imaging preprocessing and supervised classification algorithms were used. images were classified into five lulc groups (table 2): dense forest, shrubland, grassland, companion land, and water body. table 2. land use and land cover classes sr. no land use/land cover type description 1 dense forest area covered by dense forest with high pixels 2 shrub land open forest and bushes, agriculture, and grassland 3 fellow land not in use lands, bank of rivers 4 barren land hilly features and low fertile areas 5 water bodies every pixel contains water like rivers, lakes, streams & ponds, etc. forest cover change detection technique the detection of change entails the use of multitemporal datasets to distinguish areas of land cover change between imaging dates. it is commonly utilised in remote sensing techniques that analyse multitemporal datasets. for any given period, remote sensing technology has the potential to identify numerous types of land cover change. multitemporal landsat data were gathered to track changes in forest ecosystems in 1975, 1990, 2005, and 2020. the raster data were then transformed to vector layers with arc gis 10.2.2 software, and the lulc classes were identified. following the classification of lulcs, maps were created, and the changes in forest cover in the research region were analysed. normalised difference vegetation index this process is used to calculate the ndvi value of the forest between 1975 and 2020 and to compare the ndvi value of each image. ndvi levels indicate forest quality and health. to assess the health of the forest, the ndvi process was used for both images. the difference between near-infrared (nir) and visible red reflectance values normalised to reflectance is the ndvi. the vegetation category's ndvi value varies from 0.1 to 1. a dense woodland region is usually linked with an ndvi value of 0.4 to 1. the ndvi formula is as follows: ndvi = (𝑁𝐼𝑅−𝑅𝑒𝑑) (𝑁𝐼𝑅+𝑅𝑒𝑑) (1) classification accuracy assessment using the error matrix an error matrix was used in the study to examine classification accuracy. it is a square array of integers organised in rows and columns that expresses the number of sample units assigned to each category relative to the real range as revealed by reference data. singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the accuracy assessment reflects the actual difference between the categorisation and the reference map or data. the evaluation may imply that the categorisation results are bad if the reference data are extremely erroneous. to compute the percentage of luluc (%), garai and narayan (2018) compared the original and end lulc area coverage, as indicated in eq. 2 [23]. % change = (𝑉2 − v1) 𝑉1 × 100 (2) where % change is the lulc change percentage, v2 represents the final value, and v1 represents the initial value. the kappa coefficient shows the percentage of agreement obtained after removing the chances of agreement that are likely to occur by chance [24]. the kappa statistic can be used to calculate the degree of agreement between value categories and reference data [8, 25]. landis and koch (1977) classified kappa values ranging from 1 to 1 into three categories: (1) greater than 0.80 indicates robust agreement, (2) between 0.40 and 0.80 indicates mild agreement, and (3) less than 0.40 indicates poor agreement [26]. there is agreement between the classification and reference data. the kappa coefficient typically varies from 0 to 1.00, with the latter indicating sufficient agreement and often being multiplied by a hundred to produce a percentage degree of classification accuracy. land use dynamic degree to evaluate the temporal and spatially shifting aspects of land use, this study used a single dynamic degree index. the single dynamic degree of land refers to the entire amount of change in certain forms of land use in the research area over a specific time period [27]. a single dynamic degree index can be used to quantify the changing rate of regional land usage. this allows for the comparison of regional differences in land-use change as well as the analysis of the changing trend of land use [28]. this can be calculated as follows: {𝐿𝐶(𝐾) = 𝑢𝑏−𝑢𝑎 𝑢𝑎 ∗ 1 𝑇 ∗ 100 %} (3) in this formula, 𝑢𝑏 represents the area of a specific land use category at the end of the research period, and 𝑢𝑎 represents the area of a specific land use type at the start of the research period. t denotes the length of the research period. the dynamic degree of certain types of land use within the study period or time is represented by lc. if the dynamic degrees are positive, it indicates that the number of land use types is increasing with time. similarly, if the dynamic degree is negative, the land use types decrease with time. terrain mapping digital elevation model/elevation: the elevation of the study area is depicted on the elevation map. the elevation ranges from 212 metres to 6461 metres. the elevation map is shown in figure 2 below. aspect: the study area's aspect map in the figure below indicates flat areas with values of 0-39, 4079 as north, 80-120 as north‒east, 130-160 as east, 170-200 as south‒east, 210-240 as south, 250280 as south‒west, 290320 as west, and 330-360 as north‒west. the slope's orientation is measured clockwise in degrees from 0-360, with 0 being north, 90 being east, 180 being south, and 270 being west. aspect values determine the physical slope face direction. the aspect directions are supported by the slope angle. the aspect map was prepared with the help of the digital elevation model (dem). relief: the relief map depicts the contours of landmarks and landscape as a function of size and elevation. they are the most sophisticated type of topographic map. a location's relief is the difference between its highest and lowest altitudes. the study region relief map depicts the shaded region of the slopes using azimuth and sun angular directions. the relief map above displays a low value of 0 and a high value of 254 m. drainage pattern: the drainage map of the study region depicts the river network's streams and flow patterns. the topography of the land, whether a certain area is dominated by hard or soft rocks, as well as the slope of the ground, governs streams and networks. a system is said to conform if its pattern is singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) tied to the structure and relief of the terrain, it flows through. the drainage map is created using dem data and the arc gis software hydrology function. five different stream orders have been discovered. (see fig. 2(d)). figure 2: terrain map of askot wildlife sanctuary a. digital elevation model, b. aspect map, c. relief map, d. stream orders results land use/land cover the area naturally covered by the natural environment, such as forest, farmland, water bodies, and wetlands, is referred to as land cover. whereas land use refers to the development of places by humans for their lives, whether for conservation, hospitals, schools, residential, or other purposes. land cover analysis is the analysis of satellite and aerial data that aids in the identification of terrain across time. figure 3: lulc of 1975 & 2020 singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 3 represents the land use and land cover area of the dhar chula area for the years 1975 and 2020. this figure represents all six classes’ areas and their changes. in 1975, the area of forest was approximately 92528.64 hectares, and it drastically changed in another image of 2020, with 82363.22 hectares. table 3. area of classes and changes in hectares sr. no. class name area, 1975 area, 2020 change (2020 1975) 1 dense forest 92528.64 82363.22 -10165.4 2 water bodies 8642.88 24572.98 15930.1 3 fellow land 56541.96 57057.61 515.65 4 barren land 66653.28 43757.34 -22895.9 5 shrub land 15746.76 13240.45 -2506.31 6 snow area 457365.6 56986.81 -400379 shrubland also decreased by over 2506 hectares. water bodies and neighbouring land have only witnessed good changes. because there is no such high-resolution image available, it is probable that the classification does not clearly define it. as a result, the study selected another depiction method, such as indices, for further investigation and verification. change detection and error matrix change detection aids in the observation of changes over time [29]. table 5 compares the change detection to the years 1975-2020 (figure 10) as well as its accuracy assessment. the study area covers a total of 277985.44 hectares. for accuracy testing, 4000 random points are generated to be checked against google earth for ground truthing. after calculation, it is discovered that the research has an accuracy of 92.85%, which is derived from the following formula: 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝑨𝒄𝒄𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒚 = 𝑫𝒊𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐𝒕𝒂𝒍 ∗ 𝟏𝟎𝟎 (3) where the diagonal total is 3713 and the overall total is 4000. the kappa coefficient is also calculated by using producer accuracy and user accuracy. the kappa value is 0.89 here, which is very much affected, as it is quite close to 1. table 4: accuracy assessment of lulc (1975-2020) 2020 1 9 7 5 lulc classes dense forest water bodies fellow land barren land shrub land snow area row total user accuracy dense forest 1767 0 0 0 76 0 1843 95.87 water bodies 0 75 0 0 0 0 75 100 fellow land 16 0 682 0 0 0 698 97.707 barren land 5 0 59 158 58 36 316 50 shrub land 12 1 0 20 942 3 978 96.319 snow area 0 1 0 0 0 89 90 98.88 column total 1800 77 741 178 1076 128 4000 producer accuracy 98.16 97.402 92.03 88.76 87.54 69.53 diagonal total: 3713 ac 0.31 kappa 0.896 overall accuracy 0.92 (92.85%) land use/land cover change % and single land use dynamic degree (k %) singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) table 5. lulcc in % & single land use dynamic degree (k %) land use/land cover categories change area (%) single land use dynamic degree (k %) dense forest -10.9862 -0.24414 water bodies 184.3147 4.095883 fellow land 0.911978 0.020266 barren land -34.3508 -0.76335 shrub land -15.9164 -0.3537 snow area -87.5402 -1.94534 from lulcc% 1975 to 2020, forest changed by -10.98%, while shrubland and snow area also changed negatively by -15.91% and 87.54%, respectively. with 184.31% and 0.91%, respectively, other land and water bodies had a good positive rate. the declining rates of forest and shrubland over 45 years are slightly lower for the single land use dynamic degree, with -0.24% and -0.35%, respectively. snow area has a significantly negative trend of approximately -1.94% every year, which is rather high when compared to other classes. land and water bodies have increased at a healthy rate of 0.02% to 4.09% every year. figure 4: change over land use/land cover (1975-2020) to check and verify the land use land cover outcome, research has used other indices to rectify and be sure of the result. normalised difference vegetation index (ndvi) the normalised difference vegetation index (ndvi) is a popular metric. it has a value between +1 and -1. the vegetation index is a satellite image indicator that describes the health of vegetation as well as the number of greens. the ndvi calculates the difference between the near-infrared light reflected by vegetation and the red light absorbed by vegetation. singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the highest vegetation index values decreased from 0.97 in 1975 to 0.82 in 2020 (table 6). the darker the green hue in the image is, the higher the ndvi values and the greater the vegetation cover. similarly, the minimum values increased from -0.97 in 1975 to -0.56 in 2020. this suggests that the vegetation conditions in 1975 were better than those in 2020. the outcome can be seen as a dark red colour on the map (fig. 5). the lower the ndvi values and the less vegetation, the darker the red colour, and vice versa. according to this comparison, the highest vegetation cover was recorded in 1975, while the average vegetation cover was observed in 2020. figure 5: ndvi of 1975 & 2020 table 6: ndvi statistics of 1975 and 2020 sr. no. ndvi 1975 2020 1 minimum -0.976 -0.568 2 maximum 0.97 0.827 3 mean -0.171 0.209 4 standard deviation 0.277 0.247 the mean and standard deviation of the two-period images can better explain this comparison. table 6 shows that the mean values grew from -0.171 in 1975 to 0.209 in 2020. this means that the lowest ndvi value in the 1975 satellite image has the least vegetation coverage, while the highest mean ndvi value in the 2018 image has the most vegetation. the standard deviation of the ndvi score, on the other hand, indicates a minor reduction from 0.27 in 1975 to 0.24 in 2020. this suggests that the condition of vegetation changes from its mean ndvi value varies more in the 1975 image than in the 2020 satellite image. hence, the change in vegetation is more average in the 2020 satellite image than the change in vegetation in 1975, according to the ndvi. figure 6: rdvi of 1975 & 2020 renormalised difference vegetation index (rdvi) singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the renormalised difference vegetation index (rdvi) uses the difference between near-infrared and therefore red wavelengths with the ndvi to focus on healthy vegetation. it is used for the most effective result, which is applied to heavily vegetated areas. the maximum renormalised difference vegetation index values grew from 9.6 in 1975 to 59.6 in 2020 (table 7). the darker the green hue in the image is, the higher the rdvi values and the greater the vegetation cover. similarly, the minimum values fell from -12.1 in 1975 to -23.9 in 2020. this suggests that the state of the environment in 2020 will be better than it was in 1975. the outcome is also visible in the map (fig. 6) as a dark purple colour. the darker the purple is, the lower the rdvi and the less vegetation there is, and vice versa. according to this comparison, the highest vegetation cover was observed in 2020, while the average vegetation cover was observed in 1975. table 7: rdvi statistics of 1975 and 2020 sr. no. rdvi 1975 2020 1 minimum -12.1 -23.9 2 maximum 9.59 59.6 3 mean -0.89 10.6 4 standard deviation 1.33 12.8 the mean and standard deviation of the two period images can better explain this comparison. table 7 shows that the mean values grew from -0.89 in 1975 to 10.6 in 2020. this means that the lowest rdvi value in the 1975 image has the least vegetation coverage, while the highest mean rdvi value in the 2020 image has the most vegetation. the standard deviation of the rdvi value, on the other hand, shows an increase from 1.33 in 1975 to 12.8 in 2020. this signifies that the state of vegetation changed from its mean rdvi value in 1975 to 2020. in general, the rdvi values show that vegetation cover has increased in general, and forests in particular have increased throughout time. even if the change was minor, the trend indicated an increase in natural vegetation. soil adjusted vegetation index savi is an abbreviation for the soil-adjusted vegetation index, which depicts the unequal variation within the saturation effect caused by soil moisture, soil colour, and high-density vegetation. huete, a. r. (1988) developed a vegetation index that took into consideration changes in red and near-infrared destruction via the forest canopy [30]. figure 7: savi of 1975 & 2020 the maximum soil-adjusted vegetation index values declined significantly from 1.44 in 1975 to 1.24 in 2020 (table 8). the darker the green colour in the photograph is, the higher the savi values and the greater the vegetation cover. however, the minimum values also decreased, from -1.46 in 1975 to 0.851 in 2020. this signifies that the status of vegetation in 2020 is better than the status of vegetation in 1975. the outcome is also visible in the map (fig. 7) as a dark purple colour. the lower the savi values and the lesser the vegetation, the darker the purple colour, and vice versa. according to this comparison, the highest vegetation cover was recorded in 2020, while the average vegetation cover was reported in 1975. table 8: savi statistics of 1975 and 2020 singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) sr. no. savi 1975 2020 1 minimum -1.46 -0.851 2 maximum 1.44 1.24 3 mean -0.246 0.314 4 standard deviation 0.397 0.37 the mean and standard deviation of the two-period images can better explain this comparison. table 8 shows that the mean values grew from -0.246 in 1975 to 0.314 in 2020. this means that the lowest savi value in the 1975 image has the least plant coverage, while the highest mean savi value in the 2020 image has the most vegetation. the standard deviation of the savi value, on the other hand, shows a minor reduction from 0.39 in 1975 to 0.37 in 2020. this signifies that the status of vegetation changed from 1975 to 2020 based on the savi mean value. in general, the savi values show that vegetation cover has increased in general, and forests in particular have increased throughout time. even if the change was minor, the trend indicated an increase in natural vegetation. because there have been some conflicting results, researchers have decided to aggregate all of the indicators using weighted methods and examine the real forest cover change. weighted analysis the weightage sum tool in arcgis was used to produce the weighted analysis of the indices and variables indicated above. the weighted sum tool allows weighing variables by combining various inputs and integrated analysis. weightage sum analysis, such as overlay analysis, includes numerous inputs with various components for combined weighing analysis. the multiplication of field values for each input in the raster is designed using weighted sum analysis. we aggregate all of the raster inputs to generate the output data for certain weights. figure 8: weighted sum analysis of indices figure 9: final forest cover map table 9: forest cover of 1975 and 2020 singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) 1975 2020 forest cover 130455 157140.2 for weighted sum analysis, the lulc classification, normalised difference vegetation index, normalised difference vegetation index, soil adjusted vegetation index, and digital elevation model were also utilised. following the weighted sum computation, the result is computed using a raster calculator and the output's mean value. after re-examining other criteria, it is determined to be a forest area if it is more than the mean value. discussion community composition patterns, as well as forest composition and diversity, are significant for ecological and anthropogenic variables [31-32]. it is also tied to the current environment. the nature of the forest community is determined by ecological variables such as location, species variety, and the renaissance state of various species [33-34]. the main issues that forests face are erosion and deforestation, which are the primary causes of reduced forest cover and biodiversity loss. as a result, the necessity for a wildlife sanctuary is critical for the protection of endangered species as well as the prevention of natural resources from becoming extinct in the future, which is critical for both animals and humans [35-36]. the himalayas, a global biodiversity hotspot, have undergone substantial changes in forest cover in recent decades, necessitating the establishment of numerous protected areas (pas) to prevent forest degradation. the spatiotemporal characteristics of this forest cover change throughout the region, as well as the effectiveness of its pas, are unknown. governance can be defined as a set of processes, procedures, resources, institutions, and stakeholders that govern how decisions in protected areas (pas) are made and implemented. forest pa governance is currently multilayered and convoluted, encompassing a diverse set of actors, many levels of power sharing, a plethora of statutory and informal regulations, and entrenched interests. however, there is little extensive data on how different local governance structures and day-to-day decision-making processes inside forest pas affect pa performance in terms of attaining targeted conservation outcomes. governance mechanisms and structures that drive social-ecological systems and in situ forest conservation measures such as protected areas (pas) can be crucial for effective management and development of conservation outcomes. despite this, little is known about how different types of local administration and decision-making mechanisms affect the conservation outcomes of forest-protected areas. this is mostly due to a dearth of studies on the relationship between governance regimes and environmental or social effects, and understanding is based on case studies. this research study examines changes in the forest environment in dhar chula tehsil, which is close to the askot wildlife sanctuary. according to the findings of the research study, the southern and southwest parts of this area are the most vulnerable, while the eastern and northeast parts are less vulnerable. the study's findings revealed that a holistic and complete approach can lessen anthropogenic strain by expanding the usage of eco-friendly technology and raising local people's knowledge. the maps were created using remote sensing and gis techniques for the years 1975 and 2020. various indicators, such as lulc, savi, rdvi, ndvi, relief, slope, and aspect maps, have been employed in research. these maps were developed and examined to improve scientific outcomes. others explain the forest covering, height, features, and overall environmental health of this wildlife sanctuary, while others highlight improved utilisation of forest resources for biodiversity richness. this area's forest ecosystem provides a variety of services as well as a significant function in human welfare and subsistence. this research project relied on satellite-collected statistical data. the data analysis demonstrates that the adjacent areas have a tribal and rural population that is directly and indirectly dependent on forest resources. they are almost in touch with nature. it is insufficient to be pleased with a positive result in one region. there are many more areas that are under threat and must be protected. at the government, forest department, and local levels, a threetier sustainable, holistic, and inclusive management plan should be adopted and interconnected. with the collective effort of governments and nongovernmental organisations, the awareness, singh et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) socioeconomic, and employment levels should be raised so that people understand how important forest resources are in the overall development of humans, which will aid in the achievement of sustainable development goals. meanwhile, there are numerous advantages to protecting forest ecosystems. forest conservation includes promoting cultural services, increasing carbon storage and segregation, lowering greenhouse gas emissions, poverty alleviation, watershed protection, natural hazard regulation, maintaining food security and agricultural services, improving medical services, and ecotourism. conclusion forests offer many farmers and herders shelter, food items such as fruits and vegetables, fuelwood, and other essentials for human existence. natural forests are used for mining, oil extraction, dam construction, logging, farming, housing, manufacturing, cattle grazing, and the purchase of wood for fuel and furniture. although determining the specific extent of changes in a hilly terrain such as the study location can be difficult, past research has revealed a favorable trend in vegetation. despite the initial trend of falling taxonomic research in lulc, it was determined after combining all the indicators and classification methodologies that high-density forests still exist in the study region and are developing with rising afforestation. time-series landsat and sentinel images show that the area's forest density has increased over time in terms of ndvi, indicating a positive trend across all regions of study. a 45-year investigation revealed a significant rise in vegetated areas. the amount of forest cover increased over the five decades between 1975 and 2020. from 130455 hectares in 1975 to 157140.2 hectares in 2020, the forest area has risen. the findings of this study are based on an initial assessment enabled by time-series data analysis and other relevant and well-known indicators. in-depth surveys and fieldwork are needed to corroborate the findings and improve the study's accuracy. competing interests the authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. authors’ contribution the offered concept was considered by bhanwar vishvendra raj singh. ravi mishra and shailesh yadav led the composition of the manuscript and performed the analytic computations, methodology, and results. all other authors contributed constructive criticism and assisted in shaping the research, analysis, and paper. acknowledgements it is my proud privilege to express my gratitude to many people who helped me directly or indirectly conduct this scientific research work. i express my heartfelt indebtedness to ness and owe a deep sense of gratitude to my colleagues and my well-wishers for their encouragement. i am extremely thankful to mr. ravi mishra and every member of my family for their sincere guidance and inspiration in completing this project. i also thank all my friends who have more or less contributed to the preparation of this project report. i will always be indebted to them. the study has indeed helped me to explore more knowledgeable avenues associated with my topic, and i am sure it will help me to grow more in the future. references [1] pierotti, r., & wildcat, d. 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[36] groves, c.r., jensen, d.b., valutis, l.l., redford, k.h., shaffer, m.l., scott, j.m., baumgartner, j.v., higgins, j.v., beck, m.w. and anderson, m.g., 2002. planning for biodiversity conservation: putting conservation science into practice: a seven-step framework for developing regional plans to conserve biological diversity, based upon principles of conservation biology and ecology, is being used extensively by the nature conservancy to identify priority areas for conservation. aibs bulletin, 52(6), pp.499-512. georgian geographical journal cartographic heritage of the institute of geography guliko liparteliani1,* 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: guliko.liparteliani@tsu.ge introduction cartographic heritage, encompassing historical maps, atlases, and cartographic documents, plays a crucial role in understanding the evolution of human knowledge, culture, and spatial awareness. these artefacts are not merely tools for navigation; they are rich sources of information that reveal how different societies perceived and represented their world across time. preserving and studying cartographic heritage is vital for historical, educational, scientific, and cultural reasons. first and foremost, cartographic heritage offers a unique window into the past. maps reflect the geographical knowledge and worldviews of the people who created them. early maps often combined mythological elements with physical geography, revealing the cultural and religious beliefs of their time. for example, mediaeval european maps such as the t-o maps placed jerusalem at the centre of georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1), 4-8 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography at ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university preserves a rich and multifaceted cartographic legacy, yet its chronological development and evaluation remain largely unexamined. georgian cartographic traditions trace their roots to the seminal works of vakhushti bagrationi (1696–1756), whose description of the kingdom of georgia and accompanying atlas marked the birth of georgian geographic science. these foundational works, now part of unesco’s memory of the world register, influenced subsequent generations of georgian scholars. in the early 20th century, ivane javakhishvili and aleksandre javakhishvili significantly advanced historical and geographical research through the production of thematic maps, including those representing state borders, natural resources, and agricultural zones. collaborating with topographers such as sergi tskhakaia, they institutionalized georgian cartography through the establishment of the cartography cabinet (1924), which later evolved into the cartographic institute and merged with the newly founded institute of geography in 1933. throughout the soviet era and into independence, the institute expanded its activities, producing numerous thematic, physical, and educational maps, including the 1964 georgian ssr atlas—considered the country's first national atlas. pioneers such as a. aslanikashvili advanced cartographic theory, contributing works that gained international recognition, while the institute contributed to major projects abroad, such as the national atlas of cuba. thematic atlases addressing climate, landscapes, tourism, and socio-economic development have remained key outputs, including recent region-specific publications like the kakheti atlas (2023). technological advancements ushered in the use of gis and digital mapping for both printed and web-based formats, including 3d general maps for educational use. today, the institute continues to integrate traditional geographic knowledge with modern cartographic methodologies, developing regional web atlases and promoting sustainable development through spatial analysis. the evolution of georgian cartography, deeply rooted in historical scholarship and driven by modern scientific needs, reflects a continuous pursuit of geographic understanding and national identity through map-making. keywords: cartographic heritage, mathematical basis, geodesy, cartographer, topographer, maps, scientific direction citation: liparteliani, g. cartographic heritage of the institute of geography. georgian geographical journal. 2025, 5(1), 4-8. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.01 mailto:guliko.liparteliani@tsu.ge https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5915-0488 liparteliani. 2025 5(1) the world, reflecting a theological rather than a purely geographic perspective. through such documents, historians gain valuable insight into the intellectual and social contexts of past civilisations. in addition to offering historical context, cartographic heritage supports the study of territorial and political changes over time. boundaries of countries, empires, and cities have constantly shifted, and historical maps provide records of these changes. they help researchers track the development of borders, land ownership, and geopolitical conflicts. this is particularly important in regions with complex histories, where maps can serve as evidence in legal or diplomatic discussions about territorial rights and cultural claims. moreover, cartographic heritage is invaluable to researchers in many fields beyond history and geography. environmental scientists use old maps to analyse changes in landscapes, forests, coastlines, and water bodies. urban planners and archaeologists examine historical maps to study the growth and transformation of cities, the location of ancient roads or settlements, and patterns of land use. by comparing past and present maps, they can identify trends and make informed decisions about preservation and sustainable development. cartographic documents are also cultural artefacts. they reflect the artistry, craftsmanship, and technological capabilities of their time. many historical maps are visually striking, richly decorated with illustrations, elaborate borders, and imaginative depictions of unknown lands. these artistic qualities make them important pieces of cultural heritage that deserve to be preserved and exhibited in museums and archives. they also have educational value, sparking curiosity and encouraging people to explore the past. in the digital age, efforts to preserve and digitise cartographic heritage are expanding. online map libraries and digital archives make rare and fragile maps accessible to a global audience. this not only protects the physical artefacts from deterioration but also fosters academic research, public engagement, and cultural exchange. in conclusion, cartographic heritage is far more than a collection of old maps. it is a vital record of human thought, exploration, and expression. by studying and preserving these documents, we gain a deeper understanding of our past, a clearer perspective on the present, and valuable tools for shaping the future. the continued appreciation and protection of cartographic heritage is essential to maintaining the richness of our collective memory and cultural identity. vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university has a rich cartographic heritage; however, its chronological research and evaluation have not been done yet. those who set the life goal of love for their homeland and scientific field created this legacy. several sciences, including cartography, have their fundamentals connected to the historical past. under the guidance of the author, the topographer evsevi baramidze transferred the results of ivane javakhishvili's historical research onto the mathematical basis of the georgia map. on these maps, georgia's territory is presented in different aspects: state borders (1919), historical content (1913 and 1923), detailed general geographic content (1922), and botanical and agronomic areas (1930). the active process of construction of georgian geographical maps has begun after the famous anthropologist aleksandre javakhishvili (1875-1973) and the experienced topographer-cartographer sergi tshkakaia (1880-1966) returned to georgia from russia. the collaboration between al. javakhishvili and s. tshkakaia began in 1920, when al. javakhishvili invited cartographer s. tskhakaia and drawer m. kavtaradze. at that time, s. tskhakaia headed the geodesic-cartographic services for transcaucasia and georgia. later he was the head of the topography-cartography department at tsu and the head of the cartography department at the institute of geography. the first georgian language textbooks in geodesy, cartography and topography are his. al. javakhishvili founded modern georgian geography, and s. tskhakaia founded modern georgian cartography. the collaboration of these two scientists left a rich cartographic heritage for the educational and scientific directions of geography in the 20th century. glorious beginning the geographer, historian, and cartographer vakhushti bagrationi (1696–1756) left two immortal works for posterity: the "description of the kingdom of georgia", which includes the history and geography of georgia, and the geographical atlas of georgia in three parts (1735–1745). these works clearly show the exceptionally special education of the author and the thorough knowledge of his country. both works are included in the unesco recollection of the world register (2013). they are translated into french and russian. as a geographer and cartographer, vakhushti bagrationi has no predecessor in georgia; he is considered the founder of georgian geographical science. liparteliani. 2025 5(1) soviet georgian cartographic school the discovery and research of the natural and economic resources of georgia has been the main task of geographical science since the 50s of the 20th century. in order to carry out this mission, al. javakhishvili decided to create geographical institutions upon his arrival in georgia. in 1924 he founded the georgian geographical society and cartography cabinet (javakhishvili, 2015). here, under the leadership of al. javakhishvili and s. tskhakaya, maps of the caucasus were drawn up and published: maps of mineral wealth, hypsometric, orographic, political and administrative, as well as a physical map of georgia, a political-economic map, and a geographical atlas (javakhishvili, 2015). in 1928, the cartographic cabinet was transformed into the cartographic institute to better provide research with maps for scientific and educational purposes. under the leadership of al. javakhishvili and s. tskhakaya, the institute of cartography compiled and published a physical map of the georgian ssr (1:400,000), a geographical atlas of the georgian ssr, a geographic-statistical atlas of georgia (with diagrams and cartograms), and maps of the republics of adjara, abkhazia, and the north caucasus, as well as maps of azerbaijan, armenia, and the ottoman empire. two 12-sheet coloured generalgeographical maps of georgia on a scale of 1:200,000, created according to international standards, deserve special attention. among the sectoral maps, the vegetation map of georgia by the botanist n. ketskhoveli and the colourful thematic maps of al javakhishvili for the school textbook on the geography of georgia (javakhishvili, 2015) are worth mentioning. the current geographical studies required the training of highly qualified researchers in the fields of geomorphology, climatology, hydrology, topography—cartography and economic geography. for this purpose, a scientific research institute of geography was established at tbilisi state university in 1933, which was joined by the cartography institute of the geographical society. as a result, al javakhishvili's numerous efforts to establish a solid scientific foundation for geography were successful. al javakhishvili headed the institute until 1962 (javakhishvili, 2015; aslanikashvili, 1968; vbig 50, 1990; matureli, 1990; jorbenadze, 1968; cheishvili, 1977; kharadze, 2003; aslanikashvili, 1970). in 1945, the institute of geography, named after vakhushti, joined the academy of sciences of georgia, which was created on the basis of tbilisi state university. the name vakhushti was given to the institute in honour of the founder of geographical science, vakhushti bagrationi. three departments were established at the institute: general geography, regional geography and cartography (vbig 50, 1990). since the 1950s, al javakhishvili has collaborated with a. aslanikashvili, whose topographical maps stand out for their high professional level of relief depiction. with the cooperation of al. javakhishvili, s. tshkakaia and a. aslankashvili, methods of depicting the relief of georgia were elaborated, and scientific works were created. under the editorship of al. javakhishvili and a. aslanikashvili, a 1:1,000,000 scale physical map of georgia was published in 1957, which is the best example of relief depiction at that time and to this day. in the 1950s, providing schools and colleges with maps was a priority. georgian scientists made educational thematic wall maps: climate, soils, plants, natural zones, landscape, zoogeography, industry, agriculture, and economics. they were printed in the georgian and russian languages, were used for years and have not lost their importance even today. at the end of the 1950s, al. javakhishvili and a. aslanikashvili developed a complex geographic atlas program of georgia. scientists from the institute of geography and other research institutions of the country worked on the content of the thematic maps of the atlas. the compiled maps were discussed at the scientific council of the institute of geography, which was headed by academician al. javakhishvili until 1962 and then by academician t. davitaia. atlas maps were drawn up and prepared for publication under the leadership of a. aslanikashvili in the cartography department of the institute. in 1964, the georgian ssr atlas, which is actually the first national atlas of the country, was printed in georgian and russian languages at the tbilisi cartographic factory. the variety and high scientific level of the atlas maps represented geography and related sciences well. in 1971, leading scientists of the institute were awarded the state prize. since 1965, the institute, under the leadership of academician t. davitaia, has become a scientificresearch institution responsible for the geographical study of mountainous countries. this goal was reflected in the research directions of cartography: working on theoretical issues, drawing up general geographic and thematic maps, sectoral and regional atlases and preparing them for publication. a. aslanikashvili's monographs on the issues of cartography theory received high international praise: "cartography, issues of general theory" (1969) and "metacartography" (1974). tosimoto kanakuba, a liparteliani. 2025 5(1) japanese cartographer, translated metacartography from russian into japanese, leading to its publication in tokyo in 1998. in 1979, a. aslanikashvili was elected a corresponding member of the georgian academy of sciences. in 1980-1981, he was the director of the institute of geography until his death. climatologists and cartographers of the institute of geography participated in the compilation of climatic and agroclimatic maps of the national atlas of cuba (1970, 1978), for which the director of the institute, acad. t. davitaya, was awarded the state prize of the ussr in 1973. cartographer m. khabazishvili compiled a polarimetric lunar atlas based on the data of the abastumani astrophysical observatory, which, as an important cartographic work, was awarded the f. bredikhini prize. in 1983, an important scientific work—"landscape map of the transcaucasia" (1:600,000)—was created in collaboration with the geography institutes of the south caucasus republic's academies of sciences. its methodical and theoretical foundations were elaborated and implemented in the landscape science laboratory of the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography under the leadership of davit ukleba. in the cartographic department of the institute, in cooperation with the institute of resort studies, the atlas of resorts and resort resources of the ssr of georgia was compiled and prepared for publication (1989). based on the maps of the atlas of the ssr of georgia published in 1964, the educational geographical atlas of georgia was prepared and published (1992). cartography after independence of georgia in 1997, in connection with the 300th anniversary of the birth of vakhushti bagrationi, the result of many years of work in the cartography department of the institute of geography was published— the atlas of vakhushti bagrationi, which included the maps of all three of his atlases. the jubilee edition of the atlas was printed at the tbilisi cartographic factory. in 2006–2009, the second national atlas of georgia (2012) was compiled and published in the cartography–geoinformatics laboratory with the participation of the employees of the institute of geography and invited scientists. after updating the maps of the socio-economic content of the said atlas, within the framework of cooperation with the department of geography of the university of giessen, germany, the atlas was published in english (stuttgart, 2018). the interests of the wider society and the educational sphere required the preparation of the geographical atlas of georgia with a concept different from the traditional one. this was done in the reference destination atlas of georgia, where each topic is presented with a map, text and photographs ("geographical atlas of georgia", 2018). in 1964, plans were made to compile and publish atlases of the regions of georgia according to economic districts, immediately after the publication of the atlas of the ssr of georgia. the eastern economic district (kakheti) was selected as the first region, but the atlas was not published. in the 1990s, atlases of the autonomous republic of adjara and colchis were compiled in the institute, but they were not published either. the institute returned to regional atlas cartography in 2019, and by 2023, the first of this series – a complex geographical atlas of the kakheti region with maps, text and photographs – was prepared for publication. the atlas was compiled in the cartography-geoinformatics laboratory, but other departments and research centres of the institute also participated. to determine the structure of the atlas, it was necessary to combine the traditionally formed structure with modern visions. for instance, the traditional structure considered viticulture and winemaking as the primary economic sector of kakheti. however, this time, one of its components, wine cellars, was transferred to the tourism department in the form of agro-tourism facilities. from the environmental chapters, the protected areas, as ecotourism objects, also moved to the tourism chapters and acquired a different content load—tourist routes are displayed in the protected areas with the appropriate infrastructure, text, and photos. thematic chapters of the regional atlas provide an opportunity to enquire into the individual topics, enriching the atlas with pragmatic content maps. the atlas can be used as an information base to select the priority areas of sustainable development of the region, such as maintaining the population in highland settlements, planting perennial crops, identifying shortages of medical services, resort-tourist assessment of the environment, etc. atlases published since 2012 are prepared using modern gis technologies but are presented in traditional printed form. today, the increased interest in internet information has put new demands on cartography. currently, work is underway on the kvemo kartli region atlas, where the visualisation of natural resources and socio-economic potential should be carried out using modern cartographic liparteliani. 2025 5(1) methodology in the form of a web atlas. we regularly publish articles on the use of the cartographic method in various fields, in addition to compiling and publishing geographical atlases. general geographic 3-dimensional digital maps of georgia (1:500000) and the caucasus (1:800000) were compiled for public schools. maps of various topics and scales have been converted into digital format. conclusion the activity of the institute of geography during the 90 years since its foundation (1933-2023) shows that cartography remains the priority direction of the institute's scientific research. the institute of geography established a fairly rich fund to support sectoral scientific research and provide cartographic services in the educational field. it is worth mentioning that the institute of geography is the only institution in the country where geographical atlases of various contents and purposes are compiled and prepared for publication. the work will be carried out by a team of cartographers, each member of which possesses the latest technological innovations along with traditional methods and enriches the atlases with maps of original design. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. orcid id guliko liparteliani https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5915-0488 reference javakhishvili, a. (2015). biobibliography. tbilisi. aslanikashvili, a. (1968). cartography, issues of general theory. tbilisi. aslanikashvili, a. (1974). metacartography, main problems. tbilisi. metsniereba. cheishvili, o. (1977). short geographical reference. tbilisi kharadze, k. & javakhishvili, sh. (2003) georgian travellers, geographers, explorers of nature. the encyclopedic reference book. tbilisi vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography 50. 1984, tbilisi matureli, i. (1990). cartographic heritage of vakhushti bagrationi. tbilisi jorbenadze, s. (1968). the short history of tbilisi university. tbilisi appendix 1. vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, academy of science of georgian ssr (1964). atlas of the georgian ssr. tbilisi-moscow 2. vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography (1992). educational geographical atlas of georgia. tbilisi: ganatleba 3. vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography (1989). georgian resorts and resort resources. tbilisimoscow 4. vakhushti bagrationi. atlas of georgia, xviii century. jubilee edition (1997). tbilisi: cartography factory 5. tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography (2012). national atlas of georgia. tbilisi: cartography factory 6. national atlas of cuba. havana _ moscow. publishing house gugk, 1970, 132 p. 7. polarimetric atlas of the moon. publishing house “metsniereba”, tbilisi, 1982, 31 p. 8. nana bolashvili (ed.), andreas dittmann (ed.), lorenz king (ed.), vazha neidze (ed.). (2018). national atlas of georgia. franz steiner verlag. https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5915-0488 https://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440529 https://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440529 https://iverieli.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440508 https://iverieli.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440508 https://iverieli.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440483 https://iverieli.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440483 https://iverieli.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440539 https://iverieli.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440515 https://iverieli.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440515 https://www.ign.es/web/catalogo-cartoteca/resources/html/009329.html https://iverieli.nplg.gov.ge/handle/1234/440148/browse?type=subject&order=asc&rpp=20&value=%e1%83%9b%e1%83%97%e1%83%95%e1%83%90%e1%83%a0%e1%83%98%e1%83%a1+%e1%83%9e%e1%83%9d%e1%83%9a%e1%83%90%e1%83%a0%e1%83%98%e1%83%9b%e1%83%94%e1%83%a2%e1%83%a0%e1%83%a3%e1%83%9a%e1%83%98+%e1%83%90%e1%83%a2%e1%83%9a%e1%83%90%e1%83%a1%e1%83%98 https://www.steiner-verlag.de/en/national-atlas-of-georgia/9783515120579 https://www.steiner-verlag.de/en/national-atlas-of-georgia/9783515120579 https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5915-0488 georgian geographical journal occupied territories of sachkhere municipality valeri kekenadze1,* 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography * corresponding author: valeri.kekenadze@tsu.ge introduction while the historical and geographical research of occupied territories of sachkhere municipality special attention has been paid to historical toponymy (villages, old villages and microtoponymy), retrospective of orthographic and hydrographic naming. for this we studied old and new maps, where this territory is given, precision. our attention was payed to the fact that toponyms of the municipality, especially orthographic units on maps and scientific literature is found with different names, also in sachkhere section names of some mountains are not written at all, when all of them are equally important. first, we decided to solve this problem, learnt in detail and marked on the map historical and modern toponyms. for this we separated on the map village, old village, microtoponym, road,historic road, pass, churches, places of old churches, castles, hydrographic network and etc. based on all these it can be said that on our map there are given all the toponyms of research territory as well as historic and modern ones. it should be mentioned that in the process of research works of vakhushti bagrationi were very helpful, also notices of giuldenshtedti and russian versions maps of xix century. we used and compared to each other cartographic works of alexandre and ivane javakhishvili. in the process of research except historical –geographic parts, we presented issued of medical geography. which refers to the local balneological resort lesevs, but there is almost no information about it in the literature that we have learnt. as an example of this it will be enough the ways of treatment of psoriasis by lesevs mud and treating skin and gastrointestinal tract by local acid waters. readers also will get information about the notices of local respondents, which refer to many important issues. research will help the readers who are interested in local history and geography. methods and materials the vakhushti map is of greater importance for restoring the historical and geographical picture of the region, but it is very scarce and due to its scale, does not give a complete picture, nevertheless, its role as a source is immeasurably great. it was the map of vakhushti and his works that helped us to correctly read many toponyms on the map with russian terminology and incorrect translation. it should be noted that the russian map is immeasurably great in restoring the toponymy of the historical settlements of early georgia in the 19th century (map of the caucasus region xix-xx, 1905). the georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 84-91 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the civil war of the 1990s, the weakness of coordination of the newly formed law enforcement agencies of the republic of georgia made it easier for the russian federation to achieve its aggressive anti-legal goals in two large historical regions of georgia the autonomous republic of abkhazia and the northern part of shida kartli (tskhinvali, java, znauri, kornisi).the russianbacked separatist forces managed to escape from the control of official tbilisi by forming their own illegal territorial associations. it is widely known that the activities of the separatist forces are much more active on the side of shida kartli than on the direction of imereti, therefore, most of our citizens do not know that the so-called south ossetia, the russian federation has occupied an important territory in the northeast of the sachkhere municipality of zemoimereti. historically, as well as geographically, this area is practically not studied. based on the current situation, it is practically impossible to study this territory directly in the field, but we tried to obtain several important information from local forced migrants (vitaly bakhturidze, mevludi kusiani). which gives us a basis for important conclusions when summarized together with archival materials. keywords: history, geography, occupied, cartography, border citation: kekenadze, v. occupied territories of sachkhere municipality. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 84-91 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.10 kekenadze. 2024 4(2) 85 materials found on the map of russia were significantly supplemented and enriched with old historical names by the historical map of ivane javakhishvili (javakhishvili, 1923), a map compiled in 1931-1932 (javakhishvili, 1932). edited by alexander javakhishvili and others. comparison of the materials shown on the mentioned maps helped us a lot in restoring a retrospective picture of the toponymy of the occupied territory of the sachkhere municipality. comparison of the materials given on the mentioned maps helped us a lot in restoring a retrospective picture of the toponymy of the occupied territory of the sachkhere municipality. based on the information received, we tried to create an approximate historical and geographical map of the country, which shows villages, microtoponyms, mountains, passes, rivers (with small streams), minerals, historical roads, balneological resorts, churches, parishes, etc. the article also talks about some issues of medical geography (treatment of psoriasis and various skin diseases with the mud of the lesevi resort, etc.). much attention is paid to historical demography (settlement and the number of ossetian and georgian surnames, the history of settlement). particular attention is paid to the ossetian and georgian toponymy. the materials presented above are discussed in synthesis with historical events. results the territory of the modern municipality of sachkhere is geographically represented in a very diverse space, here you will find both complex terrain and mountainous areas, as well as floodplains and wideopen plains. the security of the municipality in the eastern and northern directions during the historical period was determined by the abundance of orographic objects located here. on the eastern side, the mountain system of the likhsky ridge is isolated, which contributed to its relatively better protection. it is a historically known fact that the likhi ridge was an obstacle to the advance of the enemy, who entered eastern georgia, into western georgia. the eastern line of the municipality is crossed by the following mountain system of complex geographical structure: alkhashenda, ribisi (modern lebeuri), biliurta (obolis), kardanakhumi, rustavi, shaharadeti, lokhoni, peranga, mshvildauri (shvildis), dziri, kortokhi, edishvari and mtavakisa.the mentioned mountains were an almost insurmountable barrier for the enemy advancing from east to west of georgia. strengthening the three passes located here, if necessary, was very convenient in terms of geographical location and a great advantage against the enemy encountered. the same can be said about the northern part of the municipality, which is characterized by an even more complex geographical structure due to its mountainous terrain. along the entire border line in the direction of racha there are mountains: veltkegi, ketsebi, didgora, khikhamta, sabvi, phoni, pepeleti (sabugrao), dagverila, sirkhlabirti (tsitelikle). in the specified geographical area there were six difficult passes, the protection of which, if properly fortified, created a very advantageous strategic advantage in the fight against the enemy. in written historical sources we find several important references to the occupied villages: vakhushti bagrationi, johan anton kurt guldenstedt (guldenstedt, 1962) and beri egnatashvili. vakhushti bagration mentions the area above the village of chali: “however, before chalida there were no buildings; garna was built first, where you can see churches and nadabars” (vakhushti bagrationi, 1997) as we see, vakhushti describes exactly the territorial area that is the subject of our study. the northeastern part of the imereti-kartli border, east of mount peranga, was historically part of the kingdom of kartli. describing this area, vakhushti bagrationi notes that above the floodplain it is completely deserted, and there are only nosebleeds and swamps. this lack of population must have been the reason why ossetians moved here in the 18th-19th centuries and created ossetian villages, which subsequently became the basis for the administrative classification of this territory as the administrative district of south ossetia, and not to the sachkhere municipality, while the territory is geographically it is an integral part of sachkhere. moreover, in the 1922 project to create the south ossetian autonomous region, sachkhere was considered as the administrative center of the region instead of tskhinvali, although this project was later rejected. the fluctuation of the mentioned administrative division was corrected during the restoration of independent georgia in the 90s of the last century, and this territory was assigned to sachkhere, although today it is an occupied territory (kekenadze & katsitadze, 2014). geographical boundary. the border of the kartli kingdom often crossed the likhi ridge here, and the geographical border was replaced by a political border. according to vakhushti, the kartl-imereti border will pass above lich near korbouli, along the dzirula river, so that it will enter its borders from the left bank... (vakhushti bagrationi, 1997). beri egnatashvili speaks about this section of the kekenadze. 2024 4(2) 86 kartl-imereti border, who describes the situation of the 16th century, which some scientists consider to be a transfer of its modern borders into the past, but, in our opinion, it was this border that should have become the dividing line between kartl-imereti from the beginning of time, not the 18th century. according to beri egnatashvili, the sachkhere section of the kartli-imereti border looks like this: ,,tsedisi pass and kudaro,and behind mount chali is ertso, and behind mshvildauri and peranga are goradziris-akat, lichi, godora, kefiskhevi and chkheri castle" (berdzenishvili, 1966). as we saw above, the messages of vakhushti and beri coincide with each other. these two researchers are contemporaries of each other. according to güldenstedt, the upper country, the upper region of khvrili, i.e. northeast from sachkhere to the likhsky ridge, looks like this: ,,this is a large part of the imperial slopes of the intersecting ridge, extending south from the alps ( caucasus ridge). the east, i.e. the part located along kartli and on the crest of the ridge, is called saabashion ( life of kartli, 1955). historical roads passing through the occupied territories of sachkhere were studied by n. berdzenishvili. the roads were as follows: 1) sachkhere-chikha-zana-khvi-tamarasheni-tskhinvali; 2) sachkhere – chikha – chala -darka – mtaperanga – kornisi – tsorbisi – erkneti – avnevi dvanibreti; 3) sachkhere – chikha – chala – darka – mtaperanga – gomarta khtana – ozhora – tigva atotsi (berdzenishvili, 1966). when mapping the boundaries of the principalities, we encountered a slight misunderstanding: whether the territories of modern villages: perevi, jriya, kardzmani, tedeleti, jalabeti, khakhieti, choisi should be included in the saabashidzeo estate, whose possessions these territories are directly separated from. on the one hand, our assumption that this territory was part of the principality of saabashidzeo was supported by the general geographical confusion of güldenstdet presented above. none of the mentioned villages appear on the map of vakhushtibagration, which suggests that these villages did not exist then. the historical sources we have traced also do not tell us anything about the ownership of the territory. it is worth noting that we decided to include this territory in the saabashidze estate due to the fact that these villages and territory are not part of the headquarters of shidakartli samachablo, which borders it in the east. geographically, this territory belongs more to the sachkhere municipality; they are sharply separated from the villages of the yavan region by mountains: sirkhlabirti, alkhashenti, ribisi, biliurta, kardanakhumi, rustavi. these villages are geographically adjacent to the territory of the municipality of sachkhere (formerly saabashidzeo) (kekenadze, 2014). due to the lack of old materials, the study of the historical demography of the occupied territories is possible only at the end of the 19th century. since 1886, periodic demographic censuses began in the russian empire, and later in the 20th century in the ussr. population censuses provide information about the number of residents of a particular village, ethnic and religious composition, etc. as we mentioned above, according to vakhushti, in the 18th century the population no longer settled in this territory; we do not have any information that would confirm the presence of any settlement here before 1886, although in the 1886 census we already find one the settlement is the village of tedeleti, whose population is entirely russian. this part of abashidze's satavado especially suffered from ossetian attacks, as local empirical information tells us, it was as a result of the ossetian invasions that the previous settlements in this area, which vakhushti calls nadaburi and nasoflari, were to be destroyed. the local population apparently took refuge in the nearby mountains, where villages appeared: chitaeti (chitadzes), lomureti (lomuridze), davaeti (davadzes) and others.the princes of this part of saabashidzeo are called abashidze mtachale precisely because they did not live in bari, in the valley of the kvirili river. the generally accepted rule in this area was to transfer individual surnames to the name of the village, which suggests that the toponym tedeleti recorded here may come from the ossetian surname tedelevi. there is also no empirical data about this toponym (kekenadze, 2017). according to the 1886 census, the village of tedeleti is included in the sachkhere district of shorapnimazri. the composition of the population is as follows: total households 28; people – 110; woman – 117; the total number is 227 people. the majority of the population are ossetians, all orthodox christians. neither the prince nor any of the clergy is registered in tedeleti. there are 25 houses, 17 horses, 28 oxen and 28 carts. in june-august 1918, an anti-government uprising broke out in the sachkhere region, ethnic bolshevik forces organized an armed uprising under the command of osikharebov and the georgian bagrat khvedelidze (kekenadze, 2013). the newly created independent georgian government under the leadership of general konstantin ishkhneli was able to prevent the exit of the ossetian and georgian kekenadze. 2024 4(2) 87 bolsheviks. the villages of the tedeleti district are mentioned here, since, apparently, at that time the village of tedeleti was presented as the administrative center of the region. during the general census of 1926, the picture completely changed, the district is administratively no longer on the sachkhere side (in 1886 it was part of the sachkhere police district of shoropni-mazri), but as part of the newly created (1922). it is connected with the kudaro and kemultinsky districts of the south ossetian autonomous region. in addition to the village of tedeleti, the following villages are already appearing: sinaguri, khafalgom (khampalgom), khakhieti (kakheti), jalabeti (part of kudaro), tsoisi (choisi, noisi), (part of kemulto). as we can see, the villages in this area have grown significantly over the past 30 years. their numbers and ethnic composition are interesting: tedeleti only 460 inhabitants, 229 men, 231 women, of which 97.6% are ossetians, 3.2% are georgians. as we see, unlike 1886, the ethnic georgian population is now settling in the village; sinaguri only 67 inhabitants, 36 men, 31 women, 80.6% georgians, 19.4% ossetians; khafalgom a total of 172 inhabitants, 84 men, 88 women, the population is entirely inhabited by ethnic ossetians; khakhieti only 96 inhabitants, 56 men, 40 women, entirely populated by ossetians; jalabeti only 165 inhabitants, 81 men, 84 women, all ossetians; choice only 50 residents, 30 men, 20 women. in the 1939 census, the data from previous years was again changed: hamfalgom only 121 inhabitants, 58 men, 63 women (zanian village council); jalabeti total 409 inhabitants, 235 men, 174 women; zemo kardzmani total 345 inhabitants, 175 men, 170 women; kvemo kardzmani total 107 inhabitants, 56 men, 51 women; sinaguri total 98 inhabitants, 51 men, 47 women; tedeleti total 527 inhabitants, 273 men, 254 women; khakhieti total 114 inhabitants, 57 men, 57 women (tedeleti village council). in the 1970 census, quite a lot of changes occur, completely new settlements appear: tbeti, perevi and shua kardzmani, of which shua kardzmani and perev are completely populated by ossetians and belong to the dzhava district of the south ossetian autonomous region. sinaguri a total of 164 inhabitants, 87 men, 77 women. entirely populated by ethnic ossetians; tedeleti a total of 316 inhabitants, 151 men, 165 women. only the ossetian population lives in the village; jalabeti only 139 inhabitants, 73 men, 66 women. the village is completely ossetian; khakhieti only 108 inhabitants, 59 men, 49 women (ossetian village); perev only 36 inhabitants, 15 men, 21 women (ossetian village); kvemo kardzmani only 140 inhabitants, 70 men, 70 women (the village is entirely represented by the georgian population); zemo kardzmani total 103 inhabitants, 45 men, 58 women (ossetian village); shua kardzmani only 71 residents, 33 men, 38 women (ossetian village); tbet only 72 inhabitants, 31 men, 41 women.(the village is completely populated by georgians), (sinaguri village council); hamfalgom a total of 49 inhabitants, 19 men, 30 women (ossetian village), (tsoni village council). according to the 1979 census, shua kardzmani disappears from rural settlements; we have no other significant changes. sinaguri total 204 inhabitants, 104 men, 100 women (ossetians); tedeleti total 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 tdeleti sinaguri khafalgomi khakhieti jalabeti choise georgian ossetian figure 1.ethnic groups in the villages of the study area based on 1926 census kekenadze. 2024 4(2) 88 192 inhabitants, 102 men, 90 women (ossetians);jalabeti total 114 inhabitants, 58 men, 56 women (ossetians); khakhieti total 93 inhabitants, 51 men, 42 women (ossetians); perev only 35 inhabitants, 20 men, 15 women (ossetians); zemokardzmani total 195 inhabitants, 104 men, 91 women (ossetians); kvemo kardzmani total 113 inhabitants, 63 men, 50 women (georgians); tbet a total of 53 residents, 32 men, 23 women (georgians) (sinaguri village council); hamfalgom a total of 24 inhabitants, 10 men, 14 women (ossetians) (tsoni village council). according to the 1989 census, significant changes took place in the ethnic composition, the georgian population appeared in villages inhabited only by ossetians. sinaguri total inhabitants 165, men 83, women 82. georgians 53%, ossetians 45%; tedeleti total inhabitants 146 people, 75 men, 7 women. georgians 58%, ossetians 41%; jalabeti only 53 inhabitants, 25 men, 28 women. the population is ossetian; khakhieti only 61 inhabitants, 27 men, 34 women. population ossetians; perevi only 27 inhabitants, 12 men, 15 women. georgians 77%, ossetians 21%; kvemo kardzmani total of 148 inhabitants, 69 men, 79 women.georgians 48%, ossetians 51%; zemokartsman total 157 inhabitants, 86 men, 71 women. georgians 35%, ossetians 51%; tbet a total of 58 residents, 26 men, 32 women. georgians 74%, ossetians 25% (sinaguri village council); in hamfalgom there are only 11 inhabitants, 6 men, 5 women. ossuria (zanian village council) (geostat, 2024; javakhishvili, 1923) in 1991, the supreme court of independent georgia abolished the south ossetian autonomous region, artificially created under the soviet union without any grounds, thereby restoring historical justice. administratively, the villages confiscated in 1922 were returned to the sachkhere district. unfortunately, after the well-known events of the 90s, this territory was occupied by the ossetianrussian side. it should be noted that there was no armed confrontation between georgians and ossetians in the sachkhere direction throughout the 90s.there was only one moment when the newly created georgian guard (the first georgian guard was created in sachkhere under the command of colonel besiki kutateladze) tried to take some action in the occupied territory of the sachkhere region, which did not lead to any other clashes, except for minor incidents. a small incident was also related to a bunch of goods that were confiscated by the ossetians and distributed to the georgian population, but the local population, on their own initiative, took these goods back to the ossetians. after the occupation of the 90s, only the village of perevi remained under the jurisdiction of the georgian side. in the 2008 war, as well as during the events of the 90s, during the war, unlike shidakartli, there were no hostilities in the occupied territories of the sachkhere municipality, although the russian side occupied the village of perevi, which was previously part of the south ossetian autonomous region. according to the ceasefire agreement reached on august 12, 2008, the village of perevi was to be handed over to the russian army, but the russian army still held this newly occupied territory along with the akhalgori region. on october 14, 2010, during the thirteenth round of karasini-abashidze negotiations in geneva, russian representative karasin stated: “the russian federation has prepared and will soon withdraw the russian border checkpoint from the settlement of perev, which is located 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 tdeleti sinaguri khafalgomi khakhieti jalabeti perevi kvemo kardzmani zemo kardzmani georgian ossetian figure 2. ethnic groups in the villages of the study area based on 1989 census kekenadze. 2024 4(2) 89 on a geographically disputed territory.” soon after the agreement, the village of perevi was transferred to the jurisdiction of the georgian side. it is in perevo that a russian checkpoint has now been established, through which communication with the occupied territories is carried out. the fact that there was never an armed conflict between the local ossetians and georgians led to the peaceful coexistence of the georgian population here in the ossetian-occupied villages, but the russian “peaceful” continent often blocked the road and did not allow the georgian population to move freely. an example of the severity of the situation is the case of the family of vitaly bakhturidze, a resident of the village of zemo kartsman, whose two daughters were unable to cross the russian checkpoint from the occupied territories due to the road being blocked. this is why they were unable to pass the national examinations and were forced to abandon higher education. there are quite a lot of similar cases among the local population, which leads to the fact that the georgian population slowly leaves the occupied territories and moves to territories controlled by the georgian side to live, although they still retain their property in the occupied territories. territory. currently, the following villages operate in the occupied territories of the sachkhere municipality:sinaguri, jalabeti, tedeleti, zemo kartsmani, kvemo kartsmani, tbeti. villages that became rural: fatkudzhina, khafalgom, dzirischala, kheldakheuli, sadarno, choisi, lohoisa, gvizga, gomarta.we tried to present the following local microtoponyms on the map: fizarta, mefistadsomi, pantevi, mokhveula, dimitriasnamoslo, pshanari, magvlar, skhliceri, sachinosaho, sandrosaho, dimnalia, ukvakhe, silion spring. mountains: peranga, lokhon, shaharadeti, rustavi, varkhnis, kardanakhumi, topara, biliurta (obolis), ribis (lebeuri), dagverila, sirkhlabirti (red rock). passes through: peranga, rustavi, ertso, sirkhlabirti, dagverila. minerals: coal, oil, gold. during the flood, gold-bearing rocks were carried out of the kakarak gorge; back in soviet times, it was planned to develop a gold deposit in this area, but due to developments this was no longer carried out. the russian map, published in 1906, also shows coal ores north of the village of tedeleti and mentions oil-bearing rocks in several places.george tsereteli, a nineteenth-century artist, as well as magazines and newspapers of the time provide us with information about the oil available here. churches/parishioners. st. george gomarti, st. george fitsarmti, vahanmti church, makvlis church, pshanari church. rivers and gorges: kvirila, givizga, obolis water, kartli gorge, utsur gorge (utsur waterfall is located here), fizzarti gorge, mariantuli gorge. all of these lakes contain large numbers of trout. ossetian toponyms: darka (large village), jria, tedeleti, sinaguri, fatkudzhina. resort lesev. in the occupied territory there is a balneological resort lesev, famous for its healing mud and acidic waters. since the second half of the 20th century, this place has already become widely known and a small boarding house was founded here. lesevi mud was used to treat skin diseases; it was used to treat such serious diseases as psoriasis, lichen versicolor, etc. currently, the sanatorium is not functioning, but residents of the neighboring village still transport this mud through various channels and use it for medicinal purposes. displaced citizen vitaly bakhturidze recalls: “viktor bagaev had a boarding house in les, where small wooden cottages were built for vacationers. vacationers took both mud baths and were treated in local water baths, taking in acidic waters saturated with minerals. here were the pastures and hayfields of the village of kyrtsmani. from vitaly bakhturidze we also recorded the legend about the toponym heldakheuli: according to legend, queen tamar is buried in heldakheuli. the fighters from heldaheuli will take an oath of silence on fitzarmt, and then kill each other so that no one knows about the location of tamar's grave. conclusion we tried to get information given in historical scientific literature and in cartographic works about occupied territories of sachkhere municipality. after proper analysis we used information found by us, that finally gave us an opportunity to make interesting conclusions. in this research great emphasis is made on retrospective cartography of the side, it can be mentioned that the aim to represent historical and modern toponymy of the side was mostly done successfully. on the map it is separately represented historical toponyms (old villages, microtoponyms), modern toponymy, (villages, microtoponyms and hydrographical network), churches old places of churches, historical and modern roads, passes, castles, etc. except retrospective cartography, we aimed at publishing specific issues of historical geography of the side, in which works of vakhushti bagrationi, who had been on the territory of sachkhere municipality and describes modern or past historic conditions. also, valuable facts were found is kekenadze. 2024 4(2) 90 specific historic sources and scientific literature. in this work much attention has been payed to the issues of historical demography. we showed the change of the local population from 1886 to 1989. after introducing our research to readers it will become clear the flexibility of inhabited places of the side at this period, also ethnic issues and specifics. except wide demographic notice, readers will get information about administrative division, which village belongs to which region or a local community. with historical notices given in the article we tried to show modern condition of the territory, for this reason respondents mentioned in the article helped us a lot, who left occupied territories without their own permission. based on the information of this research we made historical –geographic map, that makes this work more conspicuous and visible. . competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. orcid id valeri kekenadze https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7444-391x references life of kartli. (1955). tbilisi. bagrationi, v. (1997). atlas of georgia. tbilisi. bagrationi, v. (1997). geography of georgia. tbilisi: science. kekenadze. 2024 4(2) 91 berdzenishvili, n. (1966). roads in georgia during the rustaveli era. tbilisi: science. geostat. (2024, january 1). population and demography. retrieved from national statistics office of georgia: https://www.geostat.ge/ka guldenstedt. (1962). trip to georgia. volume i. tbilisi. javakhishvili, a. (1932). map of georgia 1931–1932. tbilisi. javakhishvili, i. (1923). map of georgia, 1923. tbilisi. kekenadze, v. (2013). historical roads of imereti. tbilis. kekenadze, v. (2014). retrospective cartography of the imereti principalities. modern problems of geography and antropology, (pp. 422-428). tbilisi. kekenadze, v. (2017). historical toponym of the sachkhere municipality. collection of works of the onomastic laboratory. kekenadze, v., & katsitadze, t. (2014). anti-government uprising in sachkhere (june-august 1918. tbilisi. map of the caucasus region xix-xx. (1905). georgian geographical journal possibilities and prospects for the development of family wine tourism in georgia ineza vatsadze1,, maia khechikashvili2,* , manana aladashvili1 1 faculty of economics and business, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 st. andrew the first-called of the georgian patriarchate georgian university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: m.khechikashvili@sangu.edu.ge introduction wine tourism is visiting and observing vineyards and wineries, attending festivals and other events dedicated to wine, during which the main motivating factor for visitors is wine tasting and registration. acquaintance with the attributes of viticulture and winemaking (hall & macionis, 1998, hall et al. 2000, carlsen and charters 2006). today, wine tourism is on the rise and is the fastest growing segment of tourism worldwide. according to the international experience, the tourism development strategy considers wine tourism as the most important direction of the regional development of tourism. (taylor, 2006). it plays an important role in the development and marketing of wineries as popular places. (getz & braun, 2006; petrevska & deleva, 2014). wine tourism is a rapidly growing trend of tourist activity in georgia as well, the product of which has motivated consumers and producers. wine tourism, like any economic activity, depends on its environment. the study of this environment is necessary to determine the actual growth and development prospects of wine tourism in the country, and thus it represents an actual economic task. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 41-46 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract wine tourism is considered a sustainable segment of tourism in the world and an important factor of rural socio-economic development. wine tourism is, on the one hand, a type of agriculture-based tourism. therefore, the development of these two fields is related to each other. nowadays, many families who used to produce wine only for themselves have moved on to a new stage and are involved in wine tours and hosting guests. the increase in the number of wine companies has led to a high demand for grapes, which is beneficial for the rural population. therefore, this sector creates new jobs and has a good impact on both the social and economic aspects of the country. like all over the world, family farms dominate the wine-growing area of georgia, which are small-scale farms according to the volume of their activities. when we discuss georgian wine tourism, we consider that the issue concerns small family viticulture and winemaking enterprises. there are unique opportunities for the development of family wine tourism in georgia, of which the relationship between the tourist and the viticulture and wine production staff is important, which is the best opportunity provided by family farms. based on the study of the literature, the main motives for which tourists engage in wine tourism were determined. accordingly, the direction and method of the research were identified. a telephone survey (interview) was used as the research method, and the survey was about the needs of wine tourism product producers. the needs of wine tourism product producers were identified, the solution of which will contribute to the development of wine tourism and meeting the needs of wine tourism product consumers. keywords: wine tourism, viticulture-winemaking, wine tourism product, family farms citation: vatsadze, i.; khechikashvili, m.; aladashvili, m. possibilities and prospects for the development of family wine tourism in georgia. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 41-46. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.07 khechikashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 42 in the conditions of today's globalization, the development of wine production and wine tourism is justified for the country from both a social and a political point of view. on the one hand, wine tourism is a type of tourism based on rural economy. therefore, the separation of these two fields is related to the country. nowadays, many families, who used to produce wine only for themselves, have moved to a new stage, are involved in the wine industry and receive guests. this sector creates new jobs and has a good impact on both the social and economic aspects of the country. in the wine-growing countries of the world, including georgia, wine tourism, which is also a practical activity, aims to provide a wine tourism product and consumption. wine tourism is a relatively new field of business. its development significantly contributes to solving social and economic problems in rural areas. the main goal of the wine tourism business is to systematically increase the efficiency of the wine tourism product delivery and realization, which means, on the one hand, that satisfying the demand for one's tourist product, on the other hand, the production and realization of the tourist product. to increase profits. the identification of existing problems in georgian family wine tourism and the search for ways to overcome them is the main goal of the previous article. methods and materials in order to investigate the problems, we conducted a survey of family wine cellars, for which we used both the google drive application and the common method of quantitative research a mass survey, which was used regularly. we obtained interesting results by means of telephone interviews of producers of wine tourism products in ukraine and by processing specially prepared questionnaires. results georgia, distinguished by the variety of agro-climatic resources and the abundance of historical and cultural heritage, is one of the unique countries in the world. all of this is a sign of the development of the country's wine industry. georgia has all the advantages that are related to the development of wine tourism: the history of winemaking, the uniqueness of wine production. the technology, the simplicity of the grape varieties and the natural conditions that contribute to the production of unique wine. the fact that the method of making kvevri wine was included in the unesco list of intangible cultural heritage is also important (unesco, 2025). according to the 2023 report of the national wine agency, according to the data of january-januaryjune of this year, 43.4 million litres of wine are exported from georgia to 56 countries of the world, an increase compared to the same volume in 2022. it is 27%. wine export income increased by 26% and amounted to 126.2 million us dollars (wine agency, 2025) in recent years, numerous wine-themed festivals, events, exhibitions and competitions have been taking place more and more frequently in georgia, which helps to attract tourists interested in wine tourism. for the second time this year, on the initiative of the prime minister and the organization of the government administration, the festival "wine days 2023" is being held, in which 850 winemakers in 23 municipalities will share one square during which he will participate" georgian wine festival" is being held for the first time together with "meidan group". on october 21, "wine club" within the framework of the georgian wine days, "ghinobistive 2023", which has been holding a festival action for several years with the support of the national wine agency: "a new small men in the big arena in 2023". for the second time, georgia is hosting one of the most prestigious international wine and spirits competitions in the world, iwsc 2024 wine judging in georgia. last year, out of 487 female wines registered at the competition, medals were awarded to 288 wines (16 gold, 63 silver and 209 bronze). it is worth noting that most of the 150 registered enterprises were small and medium-sized wineries (entrepreneur, 2022) festivals, exhibitions and competitions allow family farms to present their products to both georgian consumers and foreigners interested in exporting georgian wine. world winemaking is dominated by family farming (rauhut kompaniets & nilson, 2019). it is the same in georgia, for example. according to kharaishvili, more than 75% of farms employed in viticulture are small-scale (kharaishvili, 2017). farmers do not have information about markets, most of them do not have education in the field of farming, they suffer from a lack of food resources for production. the amount of grape and wine production per unit of land occupied by vineyards is low; in particular, 19 hectoliters per hectare, e. 1,900 liters of wine are produced, while 62 hectoliters are produced in the new countries of viticulture and winemaking, i.e. it is 3.2 times less. the small scale of enterprises severely limits access to financial resources, qualified labor force and other factors, etc. in such a situation, the formation of cooperatives in agriculture and agriculture is relevant. for most of the khechikashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 43 interviewed farmers and winegrowers, the form of cooperatives in the field today is represented by an informal union rather than a legal status. monitoring of family farms and small wineries found that they have low income, which limits access to investments and credits, own or hired technical equipment. the possibility of the distribution of rights, the sale of productive grapes and wine. the researcher believes that the unification of small-scale farms and wine producers into cooperatives in the winemaking sector will lead to: increasing access to local markets, reducing costs during the purchase of large quantities of agricultural resources (fertilizers, chemicals, etc.) (reduction) reduction of purchase costs, the combination of land and technical means will significantly increase productivity. creation of cooperatives in viticulture will significantly reduce dependence on wine companies, especially in terms of wine prices, increase access to export markets, as well as additional knowledge and resources. possibilities of receiving eb, etc. (kharaishvili, 2017). studies have shown that personal relationships between the tourist and the winemaker, as well as the staff of the wine industry, have a significant impact on the impression of the wine tour. tourists are requested to be treated with care during the tour. according to this sign, compared to visiting a large wine factory, tourists prefer visiting small enterprises, where they receive it more warmly, while visiting a wine enterprise good customer service can become a decisive factor for repeat visits to this company (roberts and sparks, 2006). in the study by the same authors, the focus of the interviewees was on the use of wine, some of them were interested in local food products along with wine, and some of them were interested in the handicrafts of the region, for example, wood carving. with working objects. it was found that information about the region is an important factor in terms of strengthening the experiences experienced by the tour for the visitors of the region. respondents pay special attention to three sources of information: print, provided by information centers and popular voices. for the majority of the respondents, the wine tour was interesting not only in terms of wine, but also in the fact that they enjoyed the nature and local beauty, and learned about the history of the region, acquainting yourself with wine and food, talking with the local population, communicating with the employees of the winery, getting to know the need for pairing wine and food, everything together creates pleasant memories of the tour (roberts and sparks, 2006). wine tourism in the wine-growing countries of the world, including georgia, as a practical activity, aims at the production and consumption of the wine tourism product. its development significantly contributes to solving socio-economic problems in the country. the main goal of the wine tourism business is to systematically increase the effectiveness of the production and sale of wine tourism products, which means, on the one hand, increasing the demand for wine tourism products. to satisfy, on the other hand, to increase the profit from the production and sale of the tourism product of wine. according to the data of the national statistical service of georgia, as of october-february 2023, 842 wine enterprises are registered, 6 large enterprises, 27 medium and 809 small enterprises are registered. despite the fact that the questionnaire was sent to all operating companies and wineries, the level of activity was still not great, although problems and ways to solve them were still identified. a total of 144 respondents were surveyed (number of questions 12). two or 1.4% were large enterprises, six enterprises (4.2%) were medium-sized wine companies. 136 (94.4%) family-type enterprises, of which 122 (84.7%) enterprises were engaged in wine tourism, 22 enterprises (15.2%) were engaged only in wine production (although of these, 13 entrepreneurs were thinking of producing wine tourism in the future), so we continued the further survey with wine tourism entrepreneurs. all 122 wineries offered wine tasting to tourists; 93% to visit the cellar and get to know the technological processes of wine production; 91, 8% for vineyard management and participation in the harvest; overnight stay with food service 19.6%; overnight stay without food service 21.3%; other services (only food without overnight stay) 38%. on the question of how many tourists you can receive on average 11.4% can receive 10 people, 37.7% 15 to 20 people, 30.3% 25 to 30 people, 4013% can accommodate from to 50 people, and 7.3% can accommodate more than 70 tourists. when asked whether wine tourism met your expectations, 89% of the respondents answered that it fully met their expectations, 9.8% partially met their expectations, and only one respondent gave a negative answer. to the question, how much is the average cost of the tour per person, the answers were as follows: if they only want a tasting 25-30 gel, a tasting with a meal 70-150 gel, and 26.2% of the wineries could not offer this service. yes, 3.2% answered that the average cost of the tour per person is 150 gel and more. khechikashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 44 tourists were mainly from georgia, the countries of the former soviet union, asia, europe and the united states of america. in response to the question of what effect does the visit of wine tourists have on the sale of wine at the place, 86% of the respondents answered that it has a significant effect, according to 9% insignificant impact, while 4.9% think it has no significant impact. however, all respondents believe that without the tight connection between winemaking and tourism, wine production will decrease significantly. the vast majority of family wineries and wine tourism businesses are run by family members. 72.9% of the surveyed respondents have a problem with qualified labor. wine production and wine tourism bring the same benefits to 80.3%; wine production brings more benefits to 5.7%, and wine tourism to 4.9%; 9% are not sure. (fig.1) entrepreneurs consider the following necessary for the development of wine tourism: financial assistance (89.3%), improving the qualifications of employees (72.9%), improving infrastructure and cheap credit (62.2%) (fig.2). figure 1. the vision of the interviewed wine companies and family wineries in the direction of profits from wine tourism and wine production (%) figure 2. the vision of the interviewed wine companies and family wineries in the direction of promoting the development of wine tourism (%) khechikashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 45 conclusion based on the analysis of the research, it can be seen that tourists prefer to visit a small family business, where they receive them more warmly, compared to visiting a large wine company. one of the important contributing conditions for the development of family wine tourism is the formation of positive attitudes of people. as we have seen, out of 144 surveyed wineries, 122 wineries are engaged in wine tourism, and 89% think that wine tourism fully justified their expectations. it is also important that 86% of the surveyed respondents confirmed that the visit of wine production and wine tourism have the same benefits for -80.3% wine tourists has a significant impact on the on-site sale of wine. wine production and wine tourism have the same benefits for 80.3%. it should also be noted that all respondents believe that wine production will increase as a result of the close connection between winemaking and tourism. in our opinion, family wine tourism is getting bigger and bigger and has great potential for development. the state should be interested in wine tourism as an object of health business, as a strategy for socio-economic development of the village, and more active steps should be taken by small wineries. it helps, namely: • assistance in order of infrastructure; • creation and provision of long-term financing programs adapted to small wineries; • activation of the involvement of the banking sector in the direction of providing low-interest loans to small and medium-sized wineries; • initiation of educational projects for the owners of small wineries (retraining of professional personnel, training in a foreign language). • to raise awareness about georgian wine, create a single electronic platform where video reviews about wineries will be posted. • online stores, which are not easily accessible for wine lovers. this will be a good advertisement and will increase the awareness of family wineries, which will allow family wineries to attract both local and foreigners interested in wine export. for family farms, viticulture is a traditional branch, while tourism is an innovation. wine tourism should be considered as a strategy based on the unity of viticulture and winemaking as a traditional family business and tourism as an innovative activity of a family farm. wine tourism should be considered as a business model of a combination of family farming, family viticulture and tourism. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.kh and m.a., in order to highlight the problems, conducted a survey of family wine cellars by means of a quantitative research method a mass survey and analysis of existing literature. i.v. is responsible for formulating the main terms of the work and developing conclusions and important recommendations based on it. orcid id maia khechikashvili https://orcid.org/0009-0002-6558-2542 reference carlsen, j., charters, s. (2006) global wine tourism: research, management and marketing, london: [ab].112 entrepreneur. (2022, october 19). iwsc jury reveals medal-winning georgian wines. retrieved from entrepreneur.com: https://www.entrepreneur.com/ka/siakhleebi-da-tendentsiebi/iwsc-is-zhiurim/437499 getz, d. and brown, g. (2006) comparison and benchmarking between wine tourism destinations: lessons from a case study of the okanagan valley, british columbia. international journal of wine marketing, 18(2), 78-97 hall, c.m., macionis, n. (1998) wine tourism in australia and new zealand. 267–298 hall, c.m., longo, a.m., mitchell, r. & johnson, g. (2000) wine tourism in new zealand. 150–176 kharaishvili, e. (2017) wine market and competitive models of diversification of viticulture and winemaking in georgia. https://tsu.ge/assets/media/files/7/biblioteka/gvinis% 20baz.pdf https://tsu.ge/assets/media/files/7/biblioteka/gvinis%25 khechikashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 46 petrevska, b. & deleva, s. (2014) empirical investigation on gastronomy and wine tourism, journal of applied economics and business, 2 (4), 3-44. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308037397_empirical_investigation_on_gastronomy_and_win e_tourism rauhut kompaniets, o. & nilson, h. (2019) wine tourism and family enterprises in southern sweden: problems, challenges and potentials, proceedings the 4th annual conference of the international place branding association, department of planning and regional development, university of thessaly, volos, greece, 243-263 roberts, l. and sparks, b. (2006) enhancing the wine tourism experience: the customers viewpoint. global wine tourism: research, management and marketing edited by jack carlsen and stephen charters, pp 47-55 taylor, r. (2006) wine festivals and tourism: developing a longitudinal approach to festival evaluation. global wine tourism: research, management and marketing edited by jack carlsen and stephen charters, 179-195 unesco. (2025, june 1). ancient georgian traditional qvevri wine-making method. retrieved from unesco.org: https://ich.unesco.org/en/rl/ancient-georgian-traditional-qvevri-wine-making-method-00870 wine agency. (2025, june 1). report, 2023. retrieved from wine.gov.ge: https://wine.gov.ge/ge/files/download/15389 georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) place branding: assessing local stakeholders’ participation in the tskaltubo spa resort “branding” process aleksandre shakhnazarovi1*, mzia tutberidze1, giorgi khomeriki1 abstract tskaltubo is a resort with a unique composition of mineral water located in western georgia. in the 20th century, while georgia was part of the soviet union, tskaltubo was a popular tourist destination, and the supply and demand of tourism services were regulated and controlled by the state. in the 1990s, after the collapse of the soviet union and as a result of subsequent fundamental political-economic changes and civil war, the popularity of the resort declined. the resort infrastructure became a safe haven for the idps and gradually degraded. in the last decade, the government of georgia has demonstrated its commitment to restoring the resort and initiated assessment, planning, and restoration activities. in this process, a tskaltubo market and technical feasibility study was conducted, and the vision for tskaltubo development was formed, along with the elaboration of the general and development plans of the city and the introduction of the investment project “new life of tskaltubo." according to the mentioned documents, tskaltubo will transform into an international spa and wellness centre, while the city “brand” is meant to be developed and managed through local engagement and cooperation, and it ought to be attractive to all residents, tourists, and investors. although in the tskaltubo development documents there is no mention of the term “place branding," conceptually, the document analysis reveals the vision of developing the tskaltubo “brand” with local participatory elements. the aim of the study is to assess the level of engagement of local stakeholders, identify the challenges and risks associated with improper participation, and elaborate relevant recommendations to overcome these challenges. to achieve this aim, we employ a mixedmethods approach in the study, and we analyse the issue through the prism of the “participatory place branding” concept. on the one hand, the document analysis revealed the existing challenges and risks in tskaltubo development documents, while on the other hand, the survey and in-depth interviews conducted during the field research made it possible to identify and assess the perspectives of the local stakeholders, namely, the residents, businesses, and tskaltubo self-government. based on the results of the on-site research, there is a high level of motivation and willingness among local stakeholders to actively engage in the process, while the participatory and cooperative/collaborative mechanisms (offered by the parties responsible for the development of the city) are weak and need to be established and/or further developed. in this regard, we highlight the importance of creating tskaltubo dmo and institutional strengthening of tskaltubo lag. keywords: city brand, place branding, tourist destination, local stakeholders, community engagement, participatory mechanisms introduction tskaltubo was a popular tourist destination throughout the 20th century, attracting visitors from all over the soviet union. after the political, economic, and social upheavals of the 1990s, the resort degraded, including its infrastructure. since 2013, the government of georgia and the partnership fund have initiated and supported relevant activities to restore the tskaltubo resort. in 2014, the market and technical feasibility study was conducted to assess the existing challenges and determine development opportunities. the document aimed to transform tskaltubo into an international spa and wellness resort by taking into account local interests as well. in december 2020, at the initiative of the ministry of regional development and infrastructure of georgia, a group of local and foreign experts began to develop a conceptual master plan for tskaltubo. the head of the project team was the italian architect and general planning expert marco ardielli (studio ardielli fornasa); "bau design" worked on the urban planning part; and the economic feasibility of the project was assessed by the international team of cushman & wakefield. in addition, the project group included experts in culture, tourism, and environmental protection. the presentation of the conceptual general plan took place in tskaltubo on august 20, 2021. according to the general plan, the development of tskaltubo should be based on four main strategies: (1) improving the main resource of the city, which is the unique structure and composition of the thermal park; (2) making the city a pleasant place to live, taking into account the interests of its residents; 3) preserving cultural heritage and place memory, strengthening values, and developing functions; and (4) restoring and strengthening the synergistic relationship between tskaltubo and kutaisi [1]. 1 department of human geography, tbilisi state university: vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: aleksandre.shakhnazarovi@tsu.ge mailto:aleksandre.shakhnazarovi@tsu.ge shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) under the general plan, a complete reconstruction of the city centre is planned; the development of small and medium-sized commercial spaces, hotels, and hotel-type accommodation facilities will be promoted and supported. monumental buildings in tskaltubo, following all the rules of conservation and rehabilitation of cultural heritage, will acquire new functions. these buildings will be transformed into modern hotels, medical rehabilitation centres, conference halls, and multifunctional youth hubs. in addition to the existing buildings, the construction of an "outlet mall" and an aquapark is planned on the outskirts of the city [1]. within the framework of the conceptual plan of tskaltubo, to restore and develop the resort, on july 5, 2022, the ministry of economy and sustainable development of georgia presented a large-scale investment project, "new life of tskaltubo," which envisages offering 14 sanatoriums to investors at privatisation auctions. although the concept of the development of tskaltubo as a resort and as a city is well understood in the general plan, the socioeconomic profile of the city looks weak and requires further in-depth assessment, particularly in the context of unforeseen factors such as the covid-19 pandemic, which has changed the public's demand for medical and wellness tourism. in addition, tskaltubo municipality (local self-government) has a vision for development that is reflected in the "medium-term development document of tskaltubo municipality 2020–2023." one of the key objectives of the document is to strengthen cooperation between local stakeholders. therefore, according to the tskaltubo development vision, the city should become an international tourist centre, the "brand" of which will be attractive both for visitors and investors, as well as for the local population. tskaltubo spa resort development documents do not specifically use the term "place branding." however, we believe that the vision, goals, and objectives set in them are an attempt to do so. therefore, in this article, we analyse the planned development path of tskaltubo from the perspective of participatory place branding. methods and materials the aim of the study is to assess the level of engagement of local stakeholders in the tskaltubo development (“branding”) process and to explain the importance of employing participatory mechanisms and techniques in this endeavor. moreover, we also discuss and address the risks associated with the improper participation of stakeholders. with this objective, we review the concept of place branding, with a particular focus on participatory place branding. however, as has already been mentioned, the present research is dedicated to tskaltubo case analysis and not to the identification of gaps in relevant theory. it is important to explain why we chose tskaltubo as the research object. in the 20th century, tskaltubo was a popular resort not only in georgia but also in the soviet union, where a number of diseases were treated on the basis of mineral water of rare composition. by the end of the twentieth century, the political, social, and economic crisis in georgia had caused the degradation and destruction of the resort and its infrastructure [2]. tskaltubo is a unique multiprofile balneological resort with thermal-radon mineral waters that may be used for the treatment of 60 different diseases due to the naturally high temperature and presence of different gases, such as nitrogen. since 2014, assessment, restoration, and reconstruction activities have been initiated and implemented, such as the rehabilitation of the central park, the construction of new accommodation facilities, and the elaboration of the general plan of the city. in this regard, as the city is undergoing significant changes, the issues related to the place branding of tskaltubo are of high importance. the process itself ought to be managed through the active participation of local stakeholders, including residents who know the local specifics and are interested in the progress of the city, the business sector, representatives of governmental and nongovernmental institutions and organisations, and others. to achieve the goal and objectives of the study, we have defined the following key research questions: how effective is local stakeholders’ participation in the tskaltubo spa resort development (”branding”) process? how can we mitigate the risks and improve local stakeholders’ engagement? to assess local stakeholders’ participation, the study employs a mixed-methods approach and relevant research design, the main advantage of which is considered to be its ability to gather or provide “more complete” data for in-depth analysis of the research topic [3]. shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) in the scope of the research, relevant documents aimed at tskaltubo development were studied, such as the general and development plans of the city, the investment project “new life of tskaltubo,", etc. the aim of the document review was to identify participatory mechanisms envisaged in the named documents and development plans. in the next stage of the study, field/on-site research was conducted in tskaltubo. as part of the field research, to assess the perspectives of all local stakeholders, a survey of local businesses and in-depth interviews with representatives of tskaltubo self-government and tskaltubo local action group (lag) were conducted. in the course of the field research in tskaltubo, 16 respondents were interviewed, including 12 respondents from the business sector, 3 respondents from local self-government, and one respondent who was one of the managers of tskaltubo lag. a combination of open-ended and closed-ended questions was employed for the business survey, and nominal and ordinal scales were used for measurement. the economic activity of the surveyed business operators corresponded to section i of nace (nomenclature of economic activities) rev. 2 (classified under divisions 55 and 56), namely, accommodation and food and beverage service activities. to assess the perspective of the business sector and their engagement and participation in the tskaltubo development process, it was considered relevant to survey only active and operational business entities. with this aim, the survey respondents were selected based on the data from the geostat business register and from the list of active businesses provided by n (n) le, “tskaltubo municipality tourism development coordination centre. ". results participatory place branding the concept of “place branding” is widely used and studied in various academic disciplines; however, its development is mainly related to tourism management [4]. the terms “brand” and “branding” have become popular, although despite this, the conceptualisation of the terms is often incorrect. simon anholt highlights three definitions of branding: popular (which is the least precise and is vague), simple (which is related to marketing and to the visual representation of the product—logo, name, and other attributes), and advanced understanding of branding, which, on the one hand, is simple but, on the other hand, encompasses a wide range of actors and processes, such as consumers, stakeholders, behaviour, motivation, communication, etc. the advanced way of defining “branding” focuses on people—stakeholders, employers, employees, and consumers—rather than on money, income, or profit, while branding is a result of people's opinions, interests, and aims. [5]. place branding is not the same as place marketing, as the primary interest of a marketer or marketing manager is to identify and serve the needs of an external market (only from an external market perspective), while branding is a much wider concept and serves a variety of aims and different audiences [6]. place brand is also a wider concept than destination brand, as the latter is associated with the promotion of tourism and tourism services, while this is only a part or one component of a place (city, region, and country). tourism, as a component of a place, can be promoted and sold, but a place cannot, because a place is usually not limited to one product or one specific market [5]. destination branding is often considered to be part of place branding [7]. it is worth noting that in the academic literature and among scholars, there is no consensus on the relationship between place branding and place marketing, and some scholars view branding as part of place marketing, as it “involves wider activities [8]. postnikova attaches a great deal of importance to the geographical attributes and characteristics of a place or city. in her opinion, a “brand of a place (area) is a multidimensional concept (construct) that is based on the complex geographical features and unique symbolic elements of the region and evokes a competitive identity of the area in the public consciousness; its formation takes place through setting goals, establishing communications, and promoting values in a society. as usual, it is reflected in visual, verbal, and practical manifestations: a symbol, a slogan, and a strategy for the development of the territory and the brand itself." for successful place branding, it is necessary to identify all the characteristics of the city on the basis of which it can be perceived positively. among these characteristics, the following are distinguished: 1. complex geographical image of a city (physical landscapes, economic-geographical information, cultural-historical information about a territory); 2. peculiarities of the studied region or city (its uniqueness); 3. information about attractions, accommodations, and catering facilities [9]. shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) place branding is sometimes criticised for being overly politicised, as it marginalises (excludes) certain social groups from the process. highly successful place “brands” are often very popular tourist destinations that attract many visitors, which leads to dissatisfaction, a negative perception or attitude of the population as housing prices soar, local environmental quality declines, etc. moreover, part of the money “leaks out to enormous international companies” that operate accommodation facilities (hotels, etc.). all the above-mentioned factors lead to “tensions and a reluctance,” as the participation of the local population at various stages of place branding is often “undertaken only at a very superficial level” [8]. therefore, to avoid expected controversy, tensions, or criticism, the brand “managers” ought to ensure that as many participatory mechanisms as possible are employed not only at the branddeveloping stage but also at every subsequent stage of branding (implementation, management, etc.). place branding is a complex phenomenon, and one of the main mistakes is to present it as a “linear” process when it consists of many “intertwined, simultaneous processes” [10]. local population and residents are now more often considered an important factor in the process of place branding; however, despite this, there are significant gaps in the theory and relevant practice on how to ensure their engagement and their role in the aforementioned process [11]. as govers (2011) notes, strong internal branding is essential for successful place branding, which envisages multifaceted local involvement in the process, including public, private, and civil society actors. if the interests of the local population are not taken into account in the branding process, it will most likely cause "antagonism" from the locals and may even threaten the existence of the brand [6]. braun, kavaratzis, and zenker (2013) highlight three roles that residents play in place branding. the first role is as “an integrated part of the place brand," which means that the local population (residents), through their communication with each other and outside, creates a social environment, which, together with the material and physical environment, creates a brand. the second role of residents is associated with them being “ambassadors for the place brand,” as the "informal, authentic" information that local residents spread through social networks or other means is important for potential brand customers. the third role is considered "citizens," because the population has "political power" to influence the decision-making process [11]. therefore, to develop a successful place brand, it is of high importance to employ a “bottom-up” approach, which means taking into account the interests of the residents and not focusing only on the interests and wishes of potential customers. the engagement of local stakeholders is very important for successful place branding, but it is associated with many difficulties. the aforementioned difficulty is primarily due to the complexity of both the places themselves and the social structure, because in general, the interests of the business sector cannot be similar to the interests of the economically less active part of the population (who do not own their own businesses), as if the interest of business operators is to increase profit, the interest of other residents may be creating a more tranquil environment, which means, for example, limiting the number of tourists and imposing other measures. however, it is still possible to ensure effective participation of the population, at least by conducting a survey and holding discussions [11], but for more inclusive and effective engagement, it is important to employ other participatory tools and mechanisms. ensuring the engagement of different actors in the process is difficult and does not exclude competitiveness and conflicts of interest, especially considering that stakeholders have different influences on the process; however, participatory branding techniques make it possible to know or discuss different perspectives and points of view; therefore, competitiveness could be transformed into "creative tensions" [10]. in sweden, the study of dals långed brand formation demonstrated how the dmo (destination management organisation) plays the role of a kind of connecting link to deepen cooperation between different actors. the local dmo has cooperation agreements with up to 120 organisations, business entities, or associations, such as museums, companies, shops, and others. the role of the dmo in the branding process is associated with “initiating, maintaining, and developing collaborations” [12]. it is widely accepted in the academic literature that place branding is the opposite of a “top-down” approach and decision-making; therefore, the “managers” of the place branding process are not considered to be the “ultimate decision makers," but rather, they should be seen as facilitators, "leaders of the place brand dialogue," and leaders of dialogue between stakeholders [10]. shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) document review what mechanisms of local participation are envisaged in the vision and plan for the development of tskaltubo spa resort? in 2013–2014, kohl & partner, who was contracted by the “partnership fund," conducted a market and technical feasibility study of tskaltubo to identify and assess the opportunities for the development of a spa and wellness resort. the prepared "technical proposal for the tskaltubo spa resort development" report discussed the prospects for the development of tskaltubo as the "medical and wellness and spa capital of eastern europe," which was assessed as a "completely logical step" based on its characteristics. in the report, the authors argued that the implementation of this rather ambitious goal should be based on the “historical and cultural elements, and especially the extraordinary (exceptional) composition of the mineral water” of the city [13]. the report primarily focused on city planning activities, such as the creation of “certain territorial reserves" and establishing “a car-free zone for ring road 1." however, along with these proposals, the need for integration of internally displaced persons (idps) was noted through reintegration and redislocation programmes [13]. therefore, the document, to a certain extent, addressed the importance of taking into account the interests of the local population, especially vulnerable groups. the establishment of two structures or institutions was proposed to coordinate the implementation of the presented tskaltubo development concept, namely, the tskaltubo development company and destination management organisation (dmo), which were meant to be “owned and managed by the different stakeholders." based on the proposed vision for development, the representatives of the central and local self-government, as well as the civil sector ("community"), should have been members of tskaltubo development company, while in the case of the dmo, private companies, business entities from tourism, and other related sectors of the economy should have been part of it [13]. however, none of the abovementioned institutions have been established yet. with the aim of developing tskaltubo as the "first regional, and later, international, well-known spa destination," kohl & partner conducted swot analysis and reviewed various factors and aspects of tskaltubo, such as history, architecture, climate, mineral water, population, location (proximity to kutaisi airport), attractions, political aspects, and other issues. given the focus of this study, it is relevant that kohl & partner's study identified (1) a "high unemployment rate in tskaltubo and the region" among its strengths, which will not create a labour shortage either in construction (initial stages of the resort development) or in the subsequent provision of tourism services; along with (2) a "touristfriendly attitude of the local population“; “idp’s living in the cultural monuments," namely, former sanatoriums, was identified as a weakness; employment of internally displaced persons was discussed among the possibilities; and as a threat—a negative impact on the population, which may be the result of the development of tourism (overtourism) [13]. however, when discussing the local population and their employment opportunities, it should be noted that the research was conducted before the 2014 population census, and as a result, the data used are outdated, which was realised in the market and technical feasibility study: "the population census of 2014 will give us up-to-date demographic data” [13]. it is important that in the study of the development of tskaltubo health and wellness tourism resort, place is given to its sustainability and that it should balance the "social, cultural, economic, and environmental needs of the current population and visiting tourists, as well as those anticipated to live in and visit tskaltubo in the future" [13]. it is worth noting that the study, while reviewing various aspects of tskaltubo, considers the local population and the business sector as beneficiaries of various development (reconstruction, restoration) efforts, for example, the development of the water supply network and waste management system [13]. however, in the mentioned report, the positioning and role of the local population are quite vague, lack clarity and are related only to their potential participation in tskaltubo development company. this institution is mostly considered a carrier of the state's vision, and the role of local self-government and population in this mechanism is not properly explained. we also think that the challenge of the assessed assessment (the market and technical feasibility study) is the imperfect reflection of local business opportunities and interests. the research pays attention to the evaluation of the regional and international markets, which is positive; however, the perspective of the local business sector is not properly evaluated, even though it is not presented at all, which is its weak side. this may be explained by the fact that during the research (2013), the number shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) of business entities in the tourism sector, as well as the volume of local investment, was small if we compare it to the modern picture of tskaltubo tourism. on september 30, 2021, the concept of the "tskaltubo city general plan" was approved by the council of tskaltubo municipality, on the basis of which the "tskaltubo central part development plan" was developed in 2022. in the development plan, one of the main obstacles to the development of tskaltubo was the monofunctionality of the city, in particular, dependence on the provision of treatment and rehabilitation services, which was discussed as tskaltubo's soviet heritage. according to the authors of the plan, monofunctional cities are "destined to face a certain number of difficulties," for which the development plan was elaborated [1]. for the purposes of the study, the forecast of the development of the tourism sector presented in the development plan and the management issues of tourism infrastructure and products and services are relevant. unlike the market and technical feasibility study that was conducted prior to the 2014 general population census and therefore used outdated data, in the development plan, the tendency of population declines in the city of tskaltubo and the municipality has already been recognised and taken into consideration. at the same time, the number of internally displaced persons was mentioned in the development plan, which is an important aspect to be considered. in particular, in 2021, 1772 internally displaced families were waiting for accommodation [1]. we think that the factor of population decline is particularly noteworthy because, along with the development of new accommodation facilities, there may be a shortage of the labour force. this will primarily have a negative impact on existing local businesses, which are mostly small entities and may find it difficult to compete with new, larger businesses. this in turn will have a negative impact on the perception and attitude of local businesses and potentially threaten the very existence of tskaltubo's 'brand'. this factor is especially noteworthy considering that, according to the authors of the development plan, in 10 years, the total number of beds will exceed 5,000, which requires the accommodation of more than 230,000 people per year to achieve at least 55% occupancy [1]. this may lead to overtourism, which is often the reason for the “dissatisfaction” of residents as well as investors and tourists [8]. it should be noted that the development plan also addresses the diversification of tourism products, and for this purpose, "authenticity, uniqueness, and connection with the community" is considered one of the key issues [1] that, in our opinion, will have a positive impact on the successful creation of the "brand." from a management perspective, the development plan, as well as the market and technical feasibility study, state the need to create a destination management organisation (dmo) that will be based on "cooperation between the private and public sectors" [1]. however, the development plan does not specify the mechanism, structure, or role of local self-government, businesses, or the population in it. according to the "medium-term development document of tskaltubo municipality 2020-2023" that was elaborated in 2019, tskaltubo should become an "economically developed international level (internationally recognised) spa resort" that is attractive for living and working, where various types of tourism are developed and favourable conditions are created for the development of the business sector [14]. it is important that in the document, the existing challenges in this direction are acknowledged, such as the high rate of population decline due to outmigration and, therefore, the outflow of the workforce, the shortage of qualified personnel in the labour market, and the lack of communication and cooperation mechanisms, especially in light of the fact that the development of tourism is named the "main goal/target" of the tskaltubo municipality [14]. the "principle of partnership" is considered one of the bases for achieving the goals and objectives presented in the document, which implies the involvement of all interested parties in the implementation process [14], for example, local residents, business entities, the nongovernmental sector, and others. currently, the tskaltubo local development group (lag) is one of the main cooperation mechanisms of the local self-government, population, and business sectors in tskaltubo municipality. the strategic vision of the "tskaltubo local development strategy 2020-2024" developed by tskaltubo lag implies "enhancing the quality of life of tskaltubo municipality residents and promoting sustainable economic development using local resources" [15]. tskaltubo – local stakeholder perspectives shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) in the business survey conducted as part of the field research, representatives of 12 business entities took part, including 11 representatives of business entities in a leadership position (owner or manager, 1 administrator), whose activities are related to the following activity types of the nace rev. 2 classifier: hotels and similar accommodation facilities (9 out of 12 surveyed business entities); restaurants and food services (3 out of 12 business entities). the majority of surveyed businesses (9 business entities) were, according to geostat methodology, small businesses (the average annual number of employees does not exceed 50), 2 business entities were medium-sized (the number of employees ranged from 50 to 250 people), and one was large. the results of the survey indicate that the willingness and readiness of the business sector to be actively involved in the development process of tskaltubo is high, as 75% of the surveyed businesses participated in the relevant meetings. more specifically, the respondents had participated in the process of discussing the general plan, although, as they recalled, there were only two meetings organised. the respondents also recalled attending the presentation of the investment project "new life of tskaltubo" by the government of georgia in july 2022. additionally, 3 respondents additionally noted the meeting organised by the ministry of infrastructure (bs_respondent_02, bs_respondent_10) and the event organised by the city hall (bs_respondent_09). figure 1. the results of the business survey however, the fact that even a greater share of local businesses, more than 90%, are willing to be involved in the development process and relevant meetings indicates that the interest exceeds the dialogue and discussion opportunities currently being offered to them by the tskaltubo spa resort development "managers." additionally, supporting this is the fact that more than 80% of respondents want to hold meetings at least twice a year where they will have the chance to exchange ideas. the fact that the majority of respondents indicate that the meetings should be intensive indicates that the representatives of the local business sector want to be more active in the process. at the same time, it was noted that there should be an opportunity to receive information at the meetings so that "they do not fall behind the news," and, on the other hand, there should be an "opportunity to discuss or share ideas." however, it is important that the vast majority of businesses indicate that the meeting should have a specific purpose and outcome. as one of the respondents mentioned, his interest is negatively affected by the fact that the previous meetings did not lead to any results or changes: "i do not see the point in participating because i do not think anything will change after the meetings" (bs_respondent_05). overall, the business sector is informed about the development plans of the tskaltubo spa resort, as more than 90% of respondents have "heard" about the "general plan" and the "new life of tskaltubo" investment project, but as a result of in-depth discussions about the issue, it was revealed that the awareness is of a more general nature and lacks details, which could become the basis for alienating the 92% 92% 58% 75% 8% 8% 42% 25% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100% have you heard about "new life of tskaltubo" investement project? do you wish to participate in an event during which tskaltubo development perspectives are discussed? have you ever participated in an event (organized by the government of georgia or other relevant authority) during which tskaltubo development perspectives were discussed? have you ever participated in an event during which tskaltubo development perspectives were discussed? q u es ti o n s yes no shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) "brand" of tskaltubo. the same risks were identified as a result of the in-depth discussions with representatives of local self-government and tskaltubo lag. figure 2. the results of the business survey the fact that every representative of the surveyed business sector deemed the development of tourism "very important" (92%) or "important" (8%) will, in our opinion, facilitate the successful "branding" of the tskaltubo spa resort. this is a significant factor because the support of local businesses and residents for the idea or initiative will have a positive impact on relevant plans that are proposed by the “brand managers”. at the same time, it is worth noting that all the respondents consider the role of mineral water as "very important" for the uniqueness and/or attractiveness of tskaltubo. accordingly, the business sector perceives mineral water as the centre of attraction around which the development of tskaltubo should take place, which should be carefully considered by the "brand managers" of the resort. along with mineral and thermal water, respondents named sanatoriums (5), nature (4), proximity to caves (4), and tskaltubo park (3) tskaltubo's "calling card." during the interviews, it was also noted that even before the implementation of expensive infrastructure projects, tskaltubo still has significant tourism potential. as one of the respondents noted, tskaltubo "needs good advertising and proper packaging" because "many visitors want to see even abandoned sanatoriums," especially since "kutaisi has a great airport," but it is a pity that "you cannot find information there [at the airport] on tskaltubo" (bs_respondent_07). it is particularly noteworthy that more than half of the respondents do not believe that the interests of local businesses and residents are properly taken into account in the resort development process, which potentially poses a risk to the success of the project. however, this can be addressed through more active communication, as the local businesses are willing to cooperate. the attitude of local businesses towards "large investments" (in the article, more than 5 million gel) is positive (more than 90% of respondents). while explaining the positive attitude, the respondents mentioned that "after the investments, tskaltubo will be popularised and local businesses will get better known" (bs_respondent_06), "it will attract more tourists" (respondent_12), "when the competition increases, the service level and quality increase and the salary of service personnel will also rise" (bs_respondent_02), and "it is better to do something than to live in a destroyed city" (bs_respondent_05). it should be noted that local business operators do not perceive large investors as competitors. as one respondent noted, "i do not think that a georgian investor will buy these sanatoriums; more foreign businesses will buy them, and i do not see businesses as competitors in general because there are no two identical hotels; all are individual. the buyer of a former sanatorium cannot be my competitor because if my hotel has three stars, the new hotels will be five-star hotels and even better, and they will attract wealthy tourists" (bs_respondent_07). this is interesting, particularly 9% 83% 8% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% other response at least twice a year once a year how often should the events be conducted during which tskaltubo development perspectives are discussed? shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) considering that the tskaltubo municipality is experiencing a population decline, and after rehabilitation and construction of new accommodation and catering facilities, there may be a demand for labor. several respondents pointed out the mentioned risks: "if the restoration of all sanatoriums is completed, today if i have 100 guests, tomorrow i will have 10... all risks should be considered. "...", "hunting" for personnel will begin; there will be a shortage of personnel; the population is already reduced" (bs_respondent_10), as well as "there should be no price dumping" (bs_respondent_02). figure 3. the results of the business survey regarding the new potential investors, it was noted that they should have an obligation to communicate with the local population/business and consider their interests. more specifically, the respondents indicated that "the needs of the local population/business should be studied and there should be close communication" (bs_respondent_09) and "price/wage policy should be agreed on" (bs_respondent_02). at the same time, the respondents mentioned the obligation to restore the sanatoriums to their original state (bs_respondent_02, bs_respondent_03, and bs_respondent_10). if the interests of the local population/business are not taken into account, "the population will have a negative attitude" (bs_respondent_01), and "the development of local business will be hindered" (bs_respondent_03). the perspectives of local self-government and population in-depth interviews were conducted with the participation of three representatives of the tskaltubo city hall and city council and a representative of the tskaltubo local development group (lag) to study the perspective of the local self-government and the population. during the field research, the respondents from the local self-government noted that the city hall and the city council are currently involved in the process of reviewing the general plan, and in particular, the plan approval procedure is underway. with regard to population involvement, it was noted that two presentations were held with the participation of the representatives of “bau design." at the same time, local stakeholders had the opportunity to submit proposals in writing to the company [bau design], although as one respondent pointed out, "this did not create a working process." as a result, the plan "lacks a local perspective," and "it would be better if a mixed working group was established with the participation of all stakeholders." for example, in the general plan, "some of the plots of land and buildings were placed in zone i and some in zone ii (in certain cases, land plots owned 9% 8% 50% 17% 8% 8% 75% 33% 100% 92% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% what is your perception of the investment projects (accomodation and food and beverage service activities) in tskaltubo that exceed 5 million gel? in yor opinion, to what extent are the interests of the local businesses and residents taken into account in tskaltubo spa & recreation resort development process? in your opinion, how important is the existance of the mineral springs in terms of uniqueness and/or attractiveness of tskaltubo? in your opinion, how important is it to develop tourism in tskaltubo? q u es ti o n s very unimportant/very negative somewhat unimportant/somewhat negative somewhat important/somewhat positive important/positive very important/very positive shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) by the residents were artificially split and placed in different zones)," "which causes a negative attitude in the population". however, as the local self-government representatives noted, "all problems can be resolved if there is proper communication with the population or business sector. ". respondents from the self-government emphasised that "[the general plan] is very important, and if the requests and needs of the population are not taken into account, it will not be effective." in the process of developing the general plan, a working group with the participation of local businesses and community representatives was not created. the residents of the city were presented with the alreadycompleted plan and a number of decisions they did not agree with. for example: 1. if the planned tskaltubo bypass road is implemented, the accommodation of tourists in hotels will become harder and will become a challenge. 2. the removal of trading facilities outside the city limits will lead to a decrease in the volume of trade and, accordingly, revenues; 3. the irregularity of the procedure for receiving compensation delays the use of land previously purchased by the population and the start of construction. in general, the research found that the involvement of the local self-government in the general plan development stage was limited, as was that of the population or business. as the respondent from lag noted, citizens also attended the presentation of the general plan; the information was spread through local social networks, but "the population's interest in community activities is low compared to the representatives of the business sector." regarding the development plans of tskaltubo spa resort directly, "the population is informed about what needs to be done, what is the end point," but the awareness is low about "how it should be done." the general attitude towards investments is positive: "the population knows what tskaltubo was, and everyone, especially the young people, is waiting for restoration." a respondent from lag also noted that "the population wants to preserve the appearance of the former sanatoriums, but i think it will be difficult because these buildings are depreciated and investors may not want to restore them." along with the development of tourism in tskaltubo, promotion of agriculture was also mentioned because "agriculture is very important for the villages of tskaltubo municipality...and today the city of tskaltubo has fallen out of the economic chains and the villages of the municipality sell their products in kutaisi". discussion in the tskaltubo development vision, tourism and the improvement of the tourist service have a leading place, which is actually considered the cornerstone of development. the authors of the article share the vision of the possibilities of the development of the tourism sector in tskaltubo. although we believe that this should not be done with a top-down approach, the interests of the locals (population, business sector, etc.) should be considered more and more effectively. it is also important not to overrely on tourism alone. most scholars believe that the brand of the place should more or less reflect the brand of the country. in this respect, the branding of tskaltubo as a tourist centre is consistent with the presentation of georgia as a country with tourism diversity. however, here, it should be considered that there is a need to diversify tourist products. tourism and relevant services in tskaltubo should not be limited to balneotherapy. speleotherapy can be added to it, the implementation of which has already been attempted in recent decades but failed to develop due to improperly selected speleoobjects. currently, there are alternative facilities where locals are treated in an unorganised manner. in addition, "unique thermal waters can be added to the therapeutic indications: general recovery, wide-spectrum physiotherapy, removal of the "fatigue syndrome, etc. tskaltubo is also a resource for the development of agrotourism (vegetable gardens, including "herbia," where the agrotourism complex "imeruli ezo" has already been created). the number of visitors to the speleoobjects around tskaltubo is increasing. the state should be able to limit its leading position in the branding of tskaltubo and reduce its own role a little so that other local actors can participate more effectively. a vision that considers the development of tourist services as one of the priorities for tskaltubo is in line with the interests of local interested parties. although more information should be provided to the population and the profile of potential tourists should be better studied, what impact will the opening of so many hotels have on the existing businesses? some of the local entrepreneurs do not see new potential investors as competitors because they believe that the businesses located in the former sanatoriums will have more wealthy customers, and as one respondent said, "the guests at my 3-star shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) hotel cannot afford to stay at those new hotels." however, it is important to better assess the impact mentioned, for example, whether it will lead to a shortage of the labour force in the city, as tskaltubo's population is experiencing a significant decline. although tskaltubo may become a centre of attraction for nearby cities and the labour force may be attracted from, for example, kutaisi and other nearby cities and villages, it should be taken into account that the entire imereti region is characterised by a high rate of depopulation, especially rural areas [16]. the tskaltubo development plan states that in 10 years, after all potential hotels are operational, with a 55% hotel occupancy rate, the city should receive more than 230,000 guests annually. this may contain the risks of overtourism, especially since the same study recognises the significant rate of population and therefore workforce decline. the whole spectrum of the local community should be the beneficiary of the “branding” process of tskaltubo and subsequent reconstruction. as skinner points out, "no matter how politically attractive the annual increase in the number of visitors looks, it is important to focus on sustainability, “which makes these places, on the one hand, “more sustainable and resilient to” possible crises (for example, covid-19) and, on the other hand, transforms them into places where life is "better for everyone" to work, study, invest, and visit [8]. conclusion the creation of a place brand is of great importance for the development of the place or city in the right direction because it expresses the uniqueness of the place and helps to strengthen its positioning and attractiveness. it is necessary to involve the population in the development of the brand of the place to use its genetic memory and perspective of the place; as a result of the on-site research, a very high rate of interest in participation in the development of tskaltubo from local businesses was revealed. in particular, more than 90% of the surveyed businesses are willing to participate in any format or mechanism of discussion and cooperation. at the same time, more than 80% of respondents note that meetings should be intensive. the motivation for cooperation is overshadowed by the fact that the previous meetings did not lead to concrete results, and their opinion was not taken into account. the local business sector has knowledge of tskaltubo development documents, although awareness is general and vague. according to the representatives of the local self-government and local action group, the awareness and involvement of the population in the development process of the tskaltubo spa resort is limited and has a "top-down" nature, which is why the documents lack a local perspective, which indicates the need to create participatory mechanisms; the creation of tskaltubo dmo, which will coordinate local interests, can be considered the first stage of establishing local cooperative mechanisms in terms of population involvement in the branding process. we think that the local development group (lag) can play an important role, which can become the "voice of the population" in the process of creating a brand. that is why we also consider the institutional strengthening of lag as an important aspect. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution a.s. conceived of the presented idea. all authors contributed to the design and implementation of the research and to the writing of the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. acknowledgements we would like to thank all the respondents for participating in the survey and in-depth interviews. we are grateful to n(n)le “tskaltubo municipality tourism development coordination center” for providing data on active business entities and organising the meetings. we would also like to thank tbilisi state university: institute of geography for funding the field trip to tskaltubo. shakhnazarovi et al. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) references [1] bau besign. 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(2017). branding the destination versus the place: the effects of brand complexity and identification for residents and visitors. tourism management: 58, 15–27. [8] skinner, h. (2021). place branding—the challenges of getting it right: coping with success and rebuilding from crises. tour. hosp. 2, 173–189. https://doi.org/10.3390/tourhosp2010010 [9] postnikova e. a (2015). territory branding as a tool for increasing the tourist attractiveness of regions (using the example of the small silver ring of russia). st. petersburg state university. https://elar.urfu.ru/bitstream/10995/35049/1/brcy-2015-36.pdf [10] kavaratzis, m. (2012). from ‘necessary evil’ to necessity: stakeholders’ involvement in place branding, journal of place management and development, 5 (1), 7-19. doi: 10.1108/17538331211209013 [11] braun, e., kavaratzis, m., & zenker, s. (2013). my city – my brand: the different roles of residents in place branding. journal of place management and development, 6(1), 18–20. 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(2023). rural depopulation in georgia: regional and municipal levels of analysis. georgian geographical journal, vol. 3 (1). doi: https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2023.01.03 georgian geographical journal evaluation of tourist-recreational resources in the background of climate change in georgia liana kartvelishvili1,3* , avtandil amiranashvili2 , lika megrelidze3 , lashari kurdashvili4 1 georgian technical university, institute of hydrometeorology 2 institute of geophysics 3 national environmental agency of georgia 4 assistant professor, european university. georgia * corresponding author: liana.kartvelishvili@nea.gov.ge introduction the dynamism and sustainability of the tourism industry are inherently linked to the geographical location, topography, vegetation, weather, and climate of a region (becken, 2017). among these factors, weather and climate are particularly significant, as they constitute the primary determinants of a region’s bioclimatic resources, which are essential for the planning, organization, and development of the resort and tourism sector (mieczkowski, 1985; scott et al., 2012). climate exerts both direct and indirect influences on tourism, shaping the attractiveness of destinations and affecting tourist flows and activity patterns (amelung et al., 2007). adverse climatic conditions and climate variability can significantly alter tourism demand, influencing seasonal patterns and the distribution of visitor flows (hall & higham, 2005). such changes have cascading effects on related sectors, making the understanding of tourism seasonality crucial for sustainable destination management. investigating the seasonality of tourism enables researchers and planners to quantify the influence of natural-climatic conditions on tourism product formation, identify georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 36-40 © the author(s) 202 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract environmental protection and the sustainable use of natural resources represent some of the most pressing challenges of the modern era. effective decision-making in both ecological and economic contexts is increasingly dependent on an accurate understanding of environmental conditions. key drivers of environmental degradation include the decline of biosphere components and biodiversity, climate change, and the intensification of damages caused by natural disasters. recognizing these challenges, the world meteorological organization (wmo) and the world tourism organization (wto) have emphasized the need to integrate climate change considerations into the evaluation of tourism and recreational resources. as a full member of both organizations since the 1990s, georgia is required to assess its tourism potential in light of changing climatic conditions. this study examines the impacts of climate and climate change on the development of the tourism sector in georgia, with a particular focus on mountain and ski tourism. for the first time, several tourism climatic indexes were applied to evaluate recreational resources by integrating diverse meteorological parameters. the findings highlight the importance of incorporating climatic variability into tourism planning and tour design across different climatic zones, particularly in relation to the risks posed by negative climatic events. furthermore, longterm changes in snow cover duration were analyzed across multiple mountain and ski resorts by comparing two time periods (1961–1985 and 1986–2015). the results underscore the critical need for climate-informed strategies to ensure the sustainable development of georgia’s tourism sector under changing environmental conditions. keywords: climate change, tourism climatic index, glacier recession, world tourism organization (wto), natural resources, tourism industry citation: kartvelishvili, l.; amiranashvili, a.; megrelidze, l.; kurdashvili, l. evaluation of tourist-recreational resources in the background of climate change in georgia. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 36-40. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.06 kartvelishvili et al. 2025 5(2) 37 key drivers of seasonal variation, and develop targeted strategies to mitigate seasonal inequalities (peeters, 2017). thus, the study of bioclimatic resources and climate-induced seasonality represents a fundamental aspect of modern tourism research, particularly in the context of climate change and evolving tourist preferences. methods and materials climatic indices have long been employed to assess the suitability of tourism and recreational resources. to date, over 200 climate indices have been developed. broadly, tourism climate indices can be classified into three main categories. among these, elementary indices synthesize values from several meteorological parameters; however, they generally lack biometeorological information, which limits their applicability for evaluating tourism and recreational resources comprehensively. to evaluate tourism-recreational resources in georgia for the first time, the tourism climatic index (tci) (kartvelishvili et al., 2023) was applied. the tci integrates multiple meteorological parameters, including air temperature, atmospheric precipitation, relative humidity, and the average duration of sunshine, thus providing a composite measure of climatic suitability for tourism. the tci enables the identification of tourism resource potential across different seasons and months and allows for the calculation of annual values. nevertheless, the tci does not fully incorporate the thermophysiological component essential for a comprehensive assessment of tourism comfort and demand. to address these limitations and to better examine the impacts of climate change on tourism development, the holiday climate index (hci) was adopted in this study. the hci is a more complex climatic index that incorporates a broader range of meteorological variables. its development specifically addresses the deficiencies identified in the tci, taking into account that different destinations require tailored climate information for diverse tourism segments, notably urban and mass tourism. the hci incorporates five key climatic variables: maximum air temperature (t_max, °c), relative humidity (rh), cloud cover (a), precipitation (r_d, mm), and wind speed (w, m/s). the combination of air temperature and relative humidity is expressed as the effective air temperature (t), calculated using a specialized nomogram (japaridze & khazaradze, 2019). the hci is defined as: hci=4×t+2×a+3×rd+w (1) unlike most other climate indices, hci values are expressed in points, allowing for a standardized evaluation of climatic conditions for tourism (table 1). this framework enables a more nuanced assessment of tourism climates, providing a robust basis for both seasonal and annual planning in the tourism sector. table 1. hci categories and rating hci score rating category 90 – 100 1 ideal 80 – 89 2 excellent 70 – 79 3 very good 60 – 69 4 good 50 – 59 5 acceptable 40 – 49 6 marginal 30 – 39 7 very unfavorable 20 – 29 8 extremely unfavorable 10 – 19 9 impossible 30 – 9 10 impossible kartvelishvili et al. 2025 5(2) 38 results georgia’s unique geographical location, complex and highly dissected relief, diverse land cover, and specific climatic conditions result in the presence of nearly every type of climatic zone within its territory. this diversity makes georgia particularly suitable for assessing the spatial and temporal distribution of tourism climates. accordingly, the holiday climate index (hci) was analyzed across various locations in georgia to determine its monthly distribution patterns (fig. 1). in mestia, monthly hci values recorded between 1956 and 2015 ranged from 34 (classified as “unfavourable” in january) to 95 (classified as “ideal” in september–october). the average monthly values over the entire observation period varied from 56.2 (“pleasant” category in january) to 83.5 (“excellent” category in august). analysis of the long-term trend in average monthly hci values for mestia revealed an overall negative tendency (fig. 2). specifically, a significant linear decrease in hci values was observed for january, july, august, and december, as well as during both the cold and warm seasons of the year. these trends figure 1. the distribution of the holiday climatic index of rest according to the months figure 2. average monthly values of hci over the three observation periods kartvelishvili et al. 2025 5(2) 39 suggest a gradual deterioration of bioclimatic conditions favourable for tourism in certain periods, which may have implications for the seasonal planning of tourism activities in the region. to address the limitations of the tourism climatic index (tci), the holiday climate index (hci) was developed. according to its authors, the hci provides a more representative assessment of the climatic suitability of a given area for tourism activities. the term “holiday” was purposefully chosen to reflect the index’s specific focus on leisure tourism, distinguishing it from the broader concept of tourism, which is defined as: “a social, cultural, and economic phenomenon involving the movement of people between countries and places outside their normal environment for personal or business/professional purposes” (amiranashvili et al., 2022). a notable advancement of the hci lies in its well-defined rating scale variables and the component weighting system. these features allow for a more nuanced and accurate evaluation of climatic conditions, thereby improving the capacity to assess tourism potential across different destinations and time periods. conclusion the analysis indicates that the projected climate change in georgia is unlikely to exert a significant impact on its tourism bioclimatic resources. accordingly, it can be concluded that the bioclimatic conditions in georgia have remained relatively stable, with only minor changes in the holiday climate index (hci), corresponding to a one-step variation in category, either upward or downward. to enhance the resort and tourism potential of the country, it is essential to conduct a more focused and differentiated assessment of bioclimatic conditions. such an approach would involve detailed studies of the bioclimatic resources of specific territories, enabling their optimal utilization for different types of tourism and diverse target groups. improving the quality and attractiveness of the resort and tourism industry requires systematic research aimed at understanding the spatial distribution of bioclimatic resources. this will support informed planning and development strategies, thereby maximizing the potential of georgia’s natural resources for sustainable tourism growth. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id liana kartvelishvili https://orcid.org/ 0009-0007-6836-9313 avtandil amiranashvili https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-6152-2214 lika megrelidze https://orcid.org/ 0009-0006-0436-1489 reference amelung, b., nicholls, s., & viner, d. (2007). implications of global climate change for tourism flows and seasonality. journal of travel research, 45(3), 285–296. amiranashvili, a. g., japaridze, n. d., kartvelishvili, l. g., khazaradze, k. r., & revishvili, a. a. (2022). preliminary results of a study on the impact of some simple thermal indices on the spread of covid19 in tbilisi. journals of georgian geophysical society, 25(2). https://doi.org/10.48614/ggs2520225961 becken, s. (2017). sustainable tourism and climate change. in d. weaver (ed.), sustainable tourism: theory and practice, 149–169. routledge. hall, c. m., & higham, j. e. s. (2005). tourism, recreation and climate change. channel view publications. japaridze n., khazaradze k. (2019). studies in the field of the influence of natural and anthropogenic environmental factors on human health in georgia: current status and planned works. int. sc. conf. “natural disasters in georgia: monitoring, prevention, mitigation”. proc., publish house of iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, december 12-14, tbilisi, 201-204. kartvelishvili l., tatishvili m., amiranashvili a., megrelidze l., kutaladze n. (2023). weather, climate and their change regularities for the conditions of georgia. universal, tbilisi mieczkowski, z. (1985). the tourism climatic index: a method of evaluating world climates for tourism. canadian geographer, 29(3), 220–233. kartvelishvili et al. 2025 5(2) 40 peeters, p. (2017). tourism’s impact on climate change and its mitigation challenges: how can tourism become ‘climatically sustainable’?. phd thesis scott, d., hall, c. m., & stefan, g. (2012). tourism and climate change: impacts, adaptation and mitigation. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/bb09542921. georgian geographical journal analysis of spontaneous exodynamic processes in the dghviora river basin taking into consideration the perspectives of the shovi-glola (georgia) tourist agglomeration merab gongadze1,* , george lominadze1 , george khomeriki1 george kavlashvili2 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: merabgogazde@yahoo.com introduction the racha region covers the upper part of the rioni river basin, from the tvishi narrows to the crest of the central caucasus. this includes the entire ethnographic racha and partly the northwestern section of samachablo (the headwaters of the jejora river). the area covers an area 100 km in length and 50 km in width, and the depth of the vertical incision ranges from 500 to 1200 m. absolute heights vary from 350 m (tvishi narrows) to 3780 m (pasi mountain). the region is distinguished by a complex and diverse geological and geomorphological structure, as the entire stratigraphic spectrum, starting with palaeozoic crystalline rocks and ending with quaternary alluvium, is exposed here, and the complexity of the relief is conditioned by the large amplitudes of the absolute and relative heights of its surrounding ridges and the genesis and morphology of the related relief landforms. fragmented by rioni and its tributaries, the cavity is bounded in the northeast by the southern slope of the main caucasus range, in the northwest by the lechkhumi ridge (mt. samertskhle, 3560 m) and its southwestern branches, and in the southeastern border by the racha ridge (mt. khikhamta, 2240 m). the dghviora river is also a left tributary of chanchakhi, the left tributary of the upper waist of rioni, which originates on the northern slope of the shoda-kedela ridge, parallel to the central caucasus. the rocks forming the valley-jurky and lower cretaceous shales, clay shales, sandstones, limestones, and quaternary deluvial, proluvial and partially alluvial layers, together with the slopes of the valley, inclination of its bed and climatic conditions, are the main factors for the creation of exodynamic processes: mountain torrents, rock avalanches, stone falls, and debris cones. the material coming from dghviora and its parallel valleys flows into the chanchakhi valley and forms a large debris cone near georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 26-34 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract river dghviora originates from the much-modified cirque of the vanished glacier on the northern slope of the shoda-kedela mountain range, parallel to the central caucasus. the glacial and erosive-glacial relief of the nival zone is developed here, with clearly defined troughs, moraines, individual erratic boulders. at relatively low hypsometric levels, alpine and subalpine landscapes are represented. the building rocks of the valley, along with the slope of its bed and climatic conditions, are the main factors of the formation and development of exodynamic processes. the material coming from dghviora river, and its parallel valleys flows into the chanchakhi valley and forms a large withdrawal cone at the confluence, on which the village of glola is built. from here, destructive mudflows arise during heavy rains, because of which this and other settlements are damaged. in july 2020, because of heavy rains, due to the overflow of rioni, chanchakhi, its abovementioned and other tributaries, destructive mudflows were formed, which destroyed the infrastructure, highways and bridges of the villages of region zemo racha. the purpose of the article is to analyse the mechanism of occurrence of natural processes and to assess their impact on the tourist agglomeration of shoviglola, as well as to predict the further development of these processes as much as possible and to present preventive measures. keywords: exodynamic processes; rockslides; mudflows; threats to tourism citation: gongadze, m.; lominadze, g.; khomeriki, g.; kavlashvili, g. analysis of spontaneous exodynamic processes in the dghviora river basin taking into consideration the perspectives of shoviglola (georgia) tourist agglomeration. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1), 26-34. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.04 received: 9 december 2023 revised: 1 february 2024 accepted: 5 april 2024 published: 1 june 2024 gongadze et al. 2024 4(1) 27 the estuary. the dghviora valley originates from the highly deformed cirque of the vanished glacier, where alluvial centers have appeared. from here, destructive mudflows arise during heavy rains, because of which the village of glola and other settlements are damaged. in july 2020, because of heavy rains, due to the overflow of rioni, chanchakhi, its abovementioned and other tributaries, destructive mudflows were formed, which destroyed the infrastructure, highways and bridges of the villages of zemo (upper) racha (tsereteli, 1965). spontaneous exodynamic processes in the dghviora river basin the chanchakhi river basin is located on the southern slope of the greater caucasus. the glacial and erosive-glacial relief of the nival belt is developed here, with clearly defined troughs, moraines, and individual erratic blocks. at relatively low hypsometric levels, alpine and subalpine landscapes are represented. the depth of erosive dissection is more than 1000 m in some places, and the inclination of the slopes is 40-600. the absolute height of the highest peak of the shoda-kedela range, shoda, is 3609 m. this high-elevation, deep-valley, erosional-denudation terrain developed on jurassic and lower cretaceous sedimentary rocks. the presence of relatively mild forms of the relief relates to the erosive processes occurring in the liassic, strongly dislocated micaceous sandstones and with the erosion processes occurring in the shale clays. the shape of the valleys is mostly v-shaped, and where clay shales dominate, the rivers form glacial-carved valleys (tsereteli, 1965). at relatively low altitudes, denudation relief occurs with the active development of mudflows and landslide events. in the lower cretaceous sediments, intense tectonic movements produced folded structures. it is dominated by young and old faults of three latitudinal directions, which are complicated by paraclases and rupture dislocations of different directions, which are well defined in the terrain. the geological formations on the northern wing of the upper racha syncline are mainly composed of thick-layered marls of upper jurassic age, carbonate shales, and interlayers of limestones. quaternary eluvial, deluvian, colluvial, alluvial, proluvian and fluvioglacial layers form relatively young sediments (fig. 1). the upper part of the chanchakhi river from the left side joins the dghviora river, whose basin is very peculiar and at the same time typical in terms of the manifestation of natural exodynamic processes in upper racha and in the caucasus (map oh mudflow hazards in transcaucasus and dagestan, 1989; cernomorets, 2006; dokukin et al., 2015). there are two channels near the mouth of the dghviora river—old and new—developed later. the river originates from the northern slope of the shoda-kedela ridge near the summit at an altitude of 2640 m above sea level. the head of the river is a bursiform valley bounded by steep (60-700) slopes, which is probably a deformed glacial cirque (figs. 2 and 3). tectonic and rock lithology are among the most important factors influencing the relief of a valley (adamia & gujabidze, 2004; tsereteli et al., 1985; ovsyuchenko et al., 2011; arefev et al., 2006). figure 1. the head section of dgviora river in the chanchakhi basin. source: google earth gongadze et al. 2024 4(1) 28 according to the tectonic division into districts of georgia, lower cretaceous clay shales and marly shales are intensively folded here. in the sandstone and limestone distribution zone, the relief is sharply dissected and represented by steep ridge and scarp slopes. the area of the river basin does not exceed 6 km2, the length is 5 km, and the average slope of the riverbed varies between 15-170 in the middle and lower parts (fig. 3). fluvioglacial, proluvial and partially alluvial sediments accumulate in the riverbed in different layers. as a result, mudslides, landslides, rock avalanches, and snow avalanches are actively occurring here. figure 2. scheme of the main geomorphological elements of the chanchakhi river basin (georgia, south slope of the greater caucasus range): 1. old glacial cirque, 2. moraine sediments, 3. fragment of old trog 4. wide erosive area 5. relatively stable slopes, 6. alluvial fan (cone), 7. terrace-step of polygenetic origin 8. false terraces along the right side of the dghviora river channel. source: google earth figure 3. profile along the dgviora river gally gongadze et al. 2024 4(1) 29 the dghviora river basin developed because of a complex combination of erosive-denudational, glacial, tectonic, and climatic factors and lithological features of the basin-forming rocks. at the head of the river, there is a deep fault in the northeastern direction, which is complicated by numerous local faults in different directions, which significantly weakens the strength and stability of the rocky rocks against depletion, denudation and erosion (abutidze et al., 2010). additionally, a clearly defined cirque is formed here, which is followed by a small trough of a tub-like shape below. over time, its area decreases, which is related to the erosive processes of the river, particularly reverse erosion. this process gradually consumes the rest of the trough. it should be noted that the holocene layers slightly below the cirque moraine layers are probably preserved. according to the 2010 report of the national environment agency of georgia (abutidze et al., 2010), fossilized ice masses appear under loose sediments, which weakens the stability of the ground when thawing in warm weather, which becomes a contributing factor to the formation of mud flows. below the trough, on a 50-600 inclined slope made of eroded rocks, large boulders can be found, the mass of which in some cases reaches tens of tons. interestingly, at the bottom of the abovementioned steep slope, two water streams join and episodically; due to rock avalanches from above, impounded lakes appear in the valley. as a result of their breakthrough by the accumulated water, mud-flow torrents are released. after the confluence of the watercourses, the riverbed is continuously covered with depleted material. in the middle of the river, both slopes of the narrow gorge are erosive-denudational at 1 km and consist of lower cretaceous shale clays and marly clays, which are also among the main sources of mud-flow streams (fig. 2). further down, in the direction of the flow of the river, almost to the confluence, at 3 km, both. the slopes of the valley are covered with thick dark coniferous forest and are practically free from erosion. the right bank of the river is bordered by a 35-40 m wide pseudoterrace made of colluvial and fluvioglacial material, which consists of several steps. its height figure 4. the head and bed of the dghviora river gongadze et al. 2024 4(1) 30 varies from 3-4 m to 8-10 m. it occupies insignificant areas on the left bank of the river (fig. 3). the thickness of the deposited mass in the bed itself should be at least 12-20 m. two streams, which flow from the steep and weathered slopes of the shoda-kedela ridge, join each other in the upper part of the river and form the main stream of the dghviora river (fig. 4). disintegrated material, mainly in large fractions, falls from the head, and slopes accumulate there, periodically blocking the flow of the river and temporarily creating lakes. over time, this natural dam is breached by excess water, and a torrent is formed. the width of the river floodplain reaches 50-60 m in this section, and the inclination of the bed is 15-200. the accumulated material consists of several fractions: single large boulders of 1.5-2 m in size, small boulders of 20-30%, and small pebbles of up to 70%. in its new bed, at 1.2 km upstream of the confluence with chanchakhi, riv. dghviora has cut its accumulation material in several places. the bottom of one of the trenches (height 1,717 m above sea level, thickness 120 cm, width 250 cm) begins with a sand fraction (less than 0.5 cm), which occupies 15% of the trench volume. then, a slightly larger fraction of less than 5 cm (12%) was observed. these layers are as follows: 5-10 cm fraction 9%; 10-20 cm fraction 12%; 20-35 cm fraction 20%; and 15 cm layer with 10 cm interlayers of pebbles, sand and clay 12%, fine gravel coarse material or less processed 35-50 cm 20% (figure 5). in the middle of the river, 120 m above the bridge, a granulometric polygon (20 m²) was set up to record the horizontal distribution of the solid sediment fractions of the river. the polygon consists of the following fractions: 0.5 m thick sand, clay and fine pebbles—25%, 5 cm thick sand fraction—13%, 5-10 cm sand and gravel fraction—11%, 10-20 cm thick sandy-pebble layer with inclusions of 15-20 cm boulders—10%, 20-35 cm thick boulders—8%, 35-50 cm thick boulders—11%, and 70 cm thick boulders—22% (fig. 6). at the estuary of the chanchakhi river, the dghviora river has created a powerful extraction cone, the length of which reaches 700 m, and the width reaches 60-70 m. as a result of the washing of the alluvial-proluvial layers of the cone by the riv. chanchakhi, a 6-7 m high bare plateau escarpment was formed, where the structure of the material is clearly visible. boulders from 0.4 m to 1.0-1.4 m long are clearly visible here. their amount ranges from 10-15%, and the remaining mass (55-60%) is made up of clayey and marly shale with a sandy filler, as well as a pebble-gravel fraction (20-25%). the surface of the extraction cone is covered with large and medium-sized boulders. while passing the catastrophic floods, the material from the dghviora river completely or partially blocks the bed of the chanchakhi figure 5. typical composition sediments on the right bank of river dghviora gongadze et al. 2024 4(1) 31 river. as a result, the right bank of the river is intensively washed away, where a 10-12 m high and 5060 m long exposure was formed. rough moraine material appears here. the size of the boulders varies from 0.4-0.7 m to 1.8-2.5 m. the dghviora river, at the confluence of the chanchakhi river, creates a modern powerful detrital cone. today, two beds are marked on its surface: one old and the other partially artificially expanded. the new confluence of the dghviora river has moved at 450 m from the location of the old confluence with the chanchakhi river. the expansion of the new bed occurred after the event when, in the early 2010s, a catastrophic mud flow with a volume of 2 million m³ passed through the dghviora river basin, which damaged residential houses and other buildings. the new riverbed begins 700 m above the old mouth. the bottom of the old bed along its entire length was quite quickly covered by perennial vegetation, a circumstance to be considered for the safety of the village of glola. with a 2-3% reproducibility, only one branch of the estuary cannot deal with the catastrophic flow when passing extreme runoff. however, the flow may enter the surrounding coniferous forest and lose energy. it is necessary to clear the bottom of the old branch of the river from dense vegetation to a length of 600 m to ensure the maximum permeability of the flood flow. the modern detrital fan of the dghviora river is joined to a lower 2 km long inclined terrace step of polygenetic origin on which the village of glola is located. the terrace is quaternary in age, and the relatively plain areas surrounding glola are also quaternary in age, apart from the bedrock outcrops. therefore, it is not surprising that in highly mountainous, highly fragmented terrain, people choose more comfortable, relatively flat terrain for settlement. changes in the dghviora riverbed have saved the important village of glola from the ever-increasing threat of mudslides. before the relocation, the continuously cultivated bed of the dghviora river passed through its territory. the village is located on the southern slope of the main watershed of the caucasus, 25 km from oni, at an average of 1,275 meters above sea level; it opens to the west to the rioni valley, and the other three sides are surrounded by mountains covered with coniferous forests. notably, this area is an important section of the northern border zone of georgia (fig. 7). according to the classification by jaoshvili (1996), glola belongs to the seventh type of rural settlement in georgia, which brings together small settlements scattered on mountain slopes that feature extensive agriculture, mainly based on animal farming. such settlements often develop into agglomerated layouts, with glola and shovi also forming this kind of agglomeration. glola is a historical village – sources link an episode of its history with queen tamar. vakhushti batonishvili also provides a brief description of glola (vakhushti, 1973). the past importance of the village was mainly related to its location. for a long time, it represented a crossroad in the middle ages where caravan routes from georgia’s lowland and lower racha passed on their way to upper racha figure 6. granulometric polygon in the bed of dghviora river gongadze et al. 2024 4(1) 32 and svaneti, as well as to ossetia through mamisoni, notsara and other crossings on the caucasus. this gave glola—in particular, its lower roadside part, saglolo—the role of a traffic distributor. starting in the nineteenth century and along with changing trade routes, glola largely lost its function as a transport hub. instead, with the development of the shovi resort, glola acquired the function of the resort's economic hinterland, along with its traditional agricultural role. shovi is a climate and balneological resort located adjacent to glola village at 1,520-1,565 meters above the sea in the chanchakhi river valley, with a pulmonological, allergic and gastroenterological healing profile, healthy air and picturesque landscape that proved very popular between the 1920s and 1980s. (sharashenidze, 1940). since the 1990s, the situation has changed—the shovi resort has lost its social purpose (healthcare for workers), and the state could no longer finance it, leading to a decline in both the resort and glola village. the depopulation processes characteristic of racha villages also developed here. between the 2002 and 2014 state censuses, the population of glola decreased by 27.5% to 279 residents. in recent years, signs of revitalization of shovi have appeared with its adaptation to the conditions of the market economy, activation of the process of commercialization of resort activities and resulting revival of health tourism, which has also been reflected in glola the village reacquired the function of providing accommodation for vacationers in the shovi area. in addition to private apartments for rent, several family hotels (guesthouses) operate here, and a very comfortable and relatively expensive ($120/night) tourist cottage has opened. activities serving tourism in the resort area—trade, supply, services, and transportation—have been stimulated. it is important for local prospects that glola also features its own resources for tourism development – a healthy mountain climate (gavasheli, 1978), coniferous forests, mountain trails for trekking and horseback riding tours, "glola boulders" – granite moraine formations included in the “red book of georgia” – as well as mineral waters and remains of cultural heritage. some authors writing about problems in rural areas consider the development of new, additional functions—e.g., industry, communications, energy, and tourism—for these locations to be one of the most effective means of stopping their depopulation and ensuring support (delgado, 2019). in this regard, glola can improve the services of the shovi resort (in case of its restoration after the disaster of august 2023) and develop its own recreational activities, especially if we take into account the launch of the gomi-oni road in the near future. conclusion along with natural factors, human agricultural activity plays an important role in the changes in the environment of racha, which is manifested in the cultivation of agricultural lands (ploughing the slopes in accordance with the slopes, cutting down forests and growing annual crops in their place, etc.) and, as a result, soil damage (salukvadze, 2022). accordingly, agricultural activity in this zone has both extensive and intensive growth prospects. natural exodynamic processes pose a constant threat to the figure 7. rural agglomeration glola-shovi, emerging as a tourism cluster. in the center of the image, you can see the result of the shifting of the bed of river dghviora to the east, which saved the settled part of village glola from the danger of a catastrophic mudflow. source: google earth gongadze et al. 2024 4(1) 33 regional communications and tourist infrastructure of the village of glola. the prospects for tourism, including international tourism, in this dynamic, natural environment are directly related to ensuring security. accordingly, for the prediction of environmental threats, regulation and protection measures against natural disasters have become even more important. thus, to stop the critical decrease in the population in glola and the surrounding area, it is necessary to activate tourism, which in turn requires ensuring the safety of the environment. accordingly, for the prediction of environmental threats, regulation and protection measures against natural disasters have become even more important, and a positive and successful example of this is the change in the bed of the dghviora river. to ensure the high security of the village of glola and the surrounding area, it is necessary to clear the bottom of the old branch of the river from dense vegetation to a length of 600 m so that the flood flow can pass unhindered. it is also necessary to install an early warning system for natural processes at the headwaters of the dghviora river (tsreteli et al., 2018). the 2023 shovi disaster revealed high risks of natural hazards in this area and serious consequences for resort businesses, such as the failure to consider them. on august 3, at approximately 4:00 p.m., a glacial mudflow descended on the territory of the shovi resort, resulting in the destruction of its builtup area and casualties—the tragedy claimed the lives of 32 people. the main area of the resort was covered by sediment, the total volume of which, according to initial calculations, reached one million m3. cottages built in a manner that neglected natural risks near the banks of the bubistskali river were destroyed, and the very existence of the resort came under question. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contributions m.g. and g.l. conceived of the presented idea and wrote the manuscript. g.k. performed the analytic calculations and created the maps and design. g.k. contributed to the analysis and interpretation of the results and the writing of the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id merab gongadze :https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7905-2525 george lominadze https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0630-2739 george khomeriki https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-4348 george kavlashvili https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5171-043x reference abutidze o., gvadzabia v., gaprindashvili m. 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(in georgian). georgian geographical journal holiday climate index in kvemo kartli (georgia) avtandil amiranashvili1,* , nana bolashvili2 , liana kartvelishvili3 , guliko liparteliani2 , gvantsa tsirgvava2 1 mikheil nodia institute of geophysics, tsu, tbilisi, georgia 2 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tsu, tbilisi, georgia 3 3national environmental agency of georgia, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: avtandilamiranashvili@gmail.com introduction the organization and development of the resort and tourism industry in the region directly depend on its geographical location, topography, vegetation, presence of natural disasters, weather and climate, etc. weather and climate are two main factors that determine the bioclimatic resources of an area. thus, the study of these resources, which are necessary for the organization and development of the resort and tourism industry, plays a major role and requires significant effort. the study of the resort and recreational resources of georgia was founded in the 20 s of the last century, when the “research institute of balneology and physiotherapy” was created. as a result of many years of field, stationary and practical studies of the institute, a trilingual atlas about the resorts and resort resources of georgia was created and published (vadachkoria et al., 1987). this atlas was awarded the state prize of georgia. it should be noted that this work (vadachkoria et al., 1987) provided an impetus for the further development of multilateral research into the resort and tourism potential of georgia. past studies have used many climate indices for tourism (matzarakis, 2006; matzarakis et al., 2021a, b; amiranshvili et al., 2011, 2015a, 2018, 2022, 2019; bolashvili et al., 2016; amiranashvili & kartvelishvili, 2008; lanchava et al., 2021; rutty et al., 2021; kartvelishvili et al., 2023). the most georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(1) 35-46 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract weather and climate are two main factors that determine the bioclimatic resources of a territory and, accordingly, the degree of its suitability for the organization and development of the resort and tourism industry. early studies used a variety of climate indices for tourism. in recent years, the so-called holiday climate index (hci), which is a combination of five climate elements (air temperature maximum, relative humidity, cloud cover, precipitation and wind), has been gaining popularity. determination of hci values for various locations in georgia began in 2020 (tbilisi, kakheti region, 13 high-mountain points, etc.). in this work, an analysis of data on the long-term average values of the holiday climate index (hci) for 8 settlements in the kvemo kartli region of georgia (bolnisi, gardabani, dmanisi, tetri tskaro, marneuli, tsalka, manglisi, rustavi) is presented. the intra-annual distribution of hci values was studied; correlations between individual stations were determined based on average monthly and seasonal hci values; it was found that the regression equations for the intra-annual variation of average monthly hci values for all points of kvemo kartli have the form of a ninth-order polynomial; categories of average monthly and seasonal hci values in the specified settlements of kvemo kartli were determined; a comparison was made of the statistical characteristics of average monthly hci values in 8 points of kvemo kartli with the indicated characteristics in bolnisi, gardabani, marneuli, rustavi (height of stations above sea level h < 1 km) and in dmanisi, tetri tskaro, tsalka, manglisi (h ˃ 1 km), and a corresponding analysis of the repeatability of hci categories was conducted. it is shown that the bioclimatic conditions in kvemo kartli are favourable for the development of the resort and tourism industry for all months of the year. a visual map of the distribution of mean monthly hci categories on the territory of kvemo kartli has been constructed. keywords: climate, bioclimate, resort and tourism industry, cartography citation: amiranashvili, a.; bolashvili, n.; kartvelishvili, l.; liparteliani, g.; tsirgvava, g. holiday climate index in kvemo kartli (georgia). georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(1), 35-46. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.05 received: 1 october 2023 revised: 25 january 2024 accepted: 5 may 2024 published: 1 june 2024 amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 36 widely known index used both in the past and in the present is the tourist climate index (tci), proposed by mieczkowski (1985). in southern caucasus countries, the monthly tci was first calculated in georgia for tbilisi (airanashvili et al., 2008) and then for many other locations in the caucasus (armenia, azerbaijan, north caucasus, etc.) (amiranashvili et al., 2014, 2015b, 2017, 2018a, 2018b; rybak & rybak, 2016; kartvelishvili et al., 2019). the study by mushawemhuka et al. (2020) presents the first tci calculations for zimbabwe. tanana et al. (2021) evaluated the climate comfort of argentina as an intangible resource for tourism. despite the wide application of the tci, it has been subject to substantial critiques (scott et al., 2016). the four key deficiencies of the tci include the following: (1) the subjective rating and weighting system of climatic variables; (2) it neglects the possibility of the overriding influence of physical climatic parameters (e.g., rain, wind); (3) the low temporal resolution of climatic data (i.e., monthly data) has limited relevance for tourist decision-making; and (4) it neglects the varying climatic requirements of major tourism segments and destination types (i.e., beach, urban, winter sports tourism). to overcome the above limitations of the tci, the holiday climate index (hci) was developed to more precisely assess the climatic suitability of tourism destinations. the word “holiday” was chosen to better reflect what the index was designed for (i.e., leisure tourism), as tourism is much broader by definition (“tourism is a social, cultural and economic phenomenon which entails the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes”) (javan, 2017; rutty et al., 220; hejazizadeh et al., 2019). in the same works, comparisons between the hci and tci were made. a comparison of the holiday climate index and tourism climate index at several locations in georgia and the north caucasus (amiranashvili et al., 2020; amiranashvili & kartvelishvili, 2021; amiranashvili et al., 2021) is presented. the article by amiranashvili et al. (2018b) compares the values and categories of the tci and hci in tbilisi. the long-term average hcis for 12 kakheti locations (akhmeta, dedoplistskaro, gombori, gurjaani, kvareli, lagodekhi, omalo, sagarejo, shiraki, telavi, tsnori and udabno) are presented in amiranashvili & kartvelishvili (2021). for 6 stations in this region (dedoplistskaro, gurjaani, kvareli, lagodekhi, sagarejo and telavi), detailed analyses of the monthly, seasonal and annual hcis over the 60-year period (1956-2015) were carried out. comparisons of monthly hcis and tourism climate indices (tcis) for four points in the kakheti region (dedoplistskaro, kvareli, sagarejo and telavi) based on data from 1961 to 2010 were carried out. the results of the comparative analysis of the tourism climate index and the holiday climate index, as well as the ratings of the components of these indices for six points in the north caucasus (kislovodsk, pyatigorsk, essentuki, zheleznovodsk, teberda and nalchik), are presented in (amiranashvili et al. 2021). it was found that there is a high degree of correlation between the hci and tci. however, considering that the tci is calculated for the so-called “average tourist” (regardless of gender, age, physical condition), the value and category of this index are lower than the hci values and categories. in general, based on our estimation, the hci more adequately determines the bioclimatic state of the environment for the development of various types of tourism than does the tci (amiranashvili et al. 2020, 2021; amiranashvili & kartvelishvili, 2021). using the holiday climate index (hci: urban), this research (williams, 2021) examines long-term tourism climate records in tokyo between 1964 and 2019. the findings suggest greater climatic variability and a decrease in the favourability of tokyo’s tourism climatic resources in all three summer months. according to these findings, adaptation and mitigation strategies are recommended, and a japanocentric tourism climate index is proposed. carrillo et al. (2021) noted that the tci and hci are good indicators of the environmental conditions for leisure activities in the canary islands. using the regional climate model, it is shown that by 20302059 and 2070-2099, tourism performance is expected to improve significantly in the winter and offseason but deteriorate in the summer months, including october, in the southeast, which is where hotels are currently located. the aim of this study (araci et al., 2021) is to assess the future hci performances of urban and beach destinations in the greater mediterranean region. for this purpose, hci scores for the reference (19712000) and future (2021-2050, 2070-2099) periods were computed. hci: the urban results showed that the canary islands have suitable conditions for tourism during almost all four seasons and all periods, which will have certain implications when other core mediterranean competitors lose their relative climatic attractiveness. the hci:beach results for the summer season showed that las canteras, amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 37 alicate, pampelonne, myrtos, golden sands and edremit all pose very good to excellent conditions without any humidex risks for the extreme future scenario (2070-2099). detailed information on the variability of the monthly values of the holiday climate index in tbilisi in 1956-2015 is presented in amiranashvili et al. (2020). it also presents data on the interval forecasts of hci variability in tbilisi for the next few decades. amiranashvili et al. (2021) performed a detailed analysis of monthly, seasonal and annual hci values during a 60-year period (1956-2015) for 13 mountainous locations in georgia (bakhmaro, bakuriani, borjomi, goderdzi, gudauri, khaishi, khulo, lentekhi, mestia, pasanauri, shovi, stepantsminda, and tianeti) and compared hcis and tcis of monthly values for three points in georgia (goderdzi, khulo and mestia) based on data from 1961 to 2010. the variability data of the hci in 1986-2015 compared to those in 1956-1985 and the trends of the hci in 1956-2015 are also presented. using mestia as an example, the expected changes in the monthly, seasonal and annual hcis of 2041-2070 and 2071-2100 were assessed. some results of this work were used in (kartvelishvili et al., 2023; fourth national communication of georgia, 2021). it should be noted that the scale of various bioclimatic indices (including tci and hci) is quite consistent with data on public health in various regions of georgia (amiranashvili et al., 2012, 2018, 2021), as well as on the spread of the covid-19 virus in tbilisi (amiranashvili et al 2022). this work is a continuation of previous studies. this study develops a long-term average hci for 8 stations in the kvemo kartli region of georgia (bolnisi, gardabani, dmanisi, tetri tskaro, marneuli, tsalka, manglisi, rustavi), which is known for its historical attractions and resort and tourism resources. methods and materials study area kvemo kartli region of georgia (below kvemo kartli). kvemo kartli is in the southeastern part of georgia. the area is 6 436.2 km2, the population is 442.8 thousand. pers., (including of urban 197.5 thous. pers.), the capital of the region, rustavi (population 132.3 thous. pers.). the natural-geographic conditions of kvemo kartli, as well as natural, cultural and historical monuments, create an opportunity for the development of tourism in the region. the prospective directions of tourism are horse-riding, hunting tourism, eco-tourism, cognitive tourism, family tourism, ethnographic tourism, agro-tourism, medical-rehabilitation tourism, etc. in kvemo kartli, tourists can see settlements dating back to the first millennium bc. the discovery of a prehistoric settlement and human remains in dmanisi is considered a major archaeological discovery. according to experts, a hominid lived in dmanisi 1.8 million years ago. therefore, dmanisi can be considered the earliest settlement in europe and asia. kvemo kartli has more than 650 historical monuments, 300 of which are included in various tourist routes. figure 1. locations of the 8 meteorological stations in kvemo kartli amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 38 methodology studies of 8 locations in kvemo kartli (bolnisi, gardabani, dmanisi, tetri tskaro, marneuli, tsalka, manglisi, and rustavi) were carried out. fig. 1 shows a map of the arrangement of the indicated meteorological stations. table 1 presents information about the coordinates and heights of these 8 meteorological stations, whose data were used in this work. these stations are located 300 to 1458 meters above sea level. table 1. coordinates and heights of the 8 meteorological stations in kvemo kartli location (abbreviation) latitude, n° longitude, e° elevation (h), m, a.s.l. period of observation bolnisi (boln) 41.45 44.55 534 1956-2015 gardabani (gard) 41.45 45.10 300 1956-2015 dmanisi (dman) 41.33 44.20 1309 1961-1990 tetri tskaro (t-tsk) 41.55 44.47 1151 1961-1990 marneuli (marn) 41.48 44.80 432 1938-1960 tsalka (tsal) 41.60 44.08 1458 1956-2015 manglisi (mang) 41.70 44.38 1194 1961-1990 rustavi (rust) 41.55 45.02 332 1949-1960 in this work, the holiday climate index (hci) is used. the following five climatic variables are used for hci identification: air temperature maximum, relative humidity, cloud cover, precipitation and wind (scott et al., 2016; amiranashvili et al., 2020a; amiranashvili & kartvelishvili, 2021; amiranashvili et al., 2021a). the rating scheme and hci categories (scott et al., 2016; amiranashvili et al., 2020a) are presented in table 2. table 2. hci’s category hci score category (abbreviation) hci score category (abbreviation) 90÷100 ideal 40÷49 marginal (marg.) 80÷89 excellent (excellent) 30÷39 unfavourable (unf.) 70÷79 very good (very good) 20÷29 very unfavourable (v_unf.) 60÷69 good 10÷19 extremely unfavourable (ext_unf.) 50÷59 acceptable (acceptable) 9÷-9; -10÷-20 impossible (impos.) in this work, the monthly mean data of the indicated meteorological parameters from the georgian national environmental agency (bolnisi, gardabani, tsalka), famous reference books on the climate of the ussr (issue 14; marneuli, rustavi) and the scientific and applied of georgia climate reference (2020) (dmanisi, tetri tskaro, manglisi) were used. based on these data, the hci monthly average values were calculated. analysis of the hci data using standard statistical analysis methods was carried out (kobisheva & narovlianski, 1978). the following designations are used: mean – average values; min – minimal values; max – maximal values; st dev – standard deviation; cv – coefficient of variation, % (cv = 100· st dev/mean); r² – coefficient of determination; r – coefficient of linear correlation; α – level of significance; h – altitude of the weather station at sea level, meter or km. figure 2. mean hci values at 8 locations of kvemo kartli amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 39 results the results are presented in figures 2-3 and tables 3-8. the long-term mean hci real values at 8 locations in kvemo kartli are presented in fig. 2. as shown in fig. 2, the mean monthly hci changed from 58 (tetri tskaro, rustavi, january, acceptable) to 91 (manglisi, july, ideal). the variability of hci values for individual items is as follows: bolnisi (62, february–84, may, september), gardabani (63, december–85, october), dmanisi (59, february–89, july, august), tetri tskaro (58, january–89, august), marneuli (59, january–87, may), tsalka (59, february–85, july), manglisi (59, january–91, july), and rustavi (58, january–86, may). table 3. linear correlation coefficients between the monthly means and seasonal values of the hci at the separate stations (r min = 0.41, α = 0.15; r max = 0.98, α = ˂0.001) location boln gard dman t-tsk marn tsal mang rust boln 1 0.94 0.68 0.73 0.97 0.65 0.58 0.96 gard 0.94 1 0.49 0.53 0.93 0.44 0.41 0.95 dman 0.68 0.49 1 0.96 0.62 0.97 0.84 0.58 t-tsk 0.73 0.53 0.96 1 0.70 0.98 0.82 0.66 marn 0.97 0.93 0.62 0.70 1 0.62 0.60 0.98 tsal 0.65 0.44 0.97 0.98 0.62 1 0.83 0.57 mang 0.58 0.41 0.84 0.82 0.60 0.83 1 0.53 rust 0.96 0.95 0.58 0.66 0.98 0.57 0.53 1 the data analysis in fig. 2 (table at the bottom of the figure) shows that the linear correlation coefficients between the mean monthly and seasonal hci values at the separate stations change as follows (table 3). bolnisi: 0.58 (manglisi) 0.97 (marneuli); gardabani: 0.41 (manglisi) – 0.95 (rustavi); dmanisi: 0.49 (gardabani) – 0.97 (tsalka); tetri tskaro: 0.53 (gardabani) – 0.98 (tsalka); marneuli: 0.60 (manglisi) – 0.98 (rustavi); tsalka: 0.44 (gardabani) – 0.98 (tetri tskaro); manglisi: 0.41 (gardabani) – 0.84 (dmanisi); rustavi: 0.53 (manglisi) – 0.98 (marneuli). table 4. coefficients of regression equation of the intra-annual motion of hci monthly mean values for 8 points of kvemo kartli equation of regress., coefficients hci = a·x9+b·x8+c·x7+d·x6+e·x5+f·x4+g·x3+h·x2+i·x+j, (x-month) a b c d e f g h i j r² boln 1.50 e-04 8.56e03 -2.06e01 2.72e+ 00 2.15e+ 01 1.05e+ 02 3.12e+ 02 5.48e+ 02 5.12e+ 02 2.53e+ 02 0.993 gard 3.85 e-05 -2.32e03 6.18e02 -9.41e01 8.91e+ 00 5.31e+ 01 1.94e+ 02 4.05e+ 02 4.31e+ 02 1.10e+ 02 0.999 dman 5.14 e-05 2.89e03 -6.97e02 9.45e01 7.91e+ 00 4.21e+ 01 1.41e+ 02 2.84e+ 02 3.03e+ 02 1.87e+ 02 0.996 t-tsk 1.39 e-04 8.16e03 -2.04e01 2.83e+ 00 2.39e+ 01 1.26e+ 02 4.06e+ 02 7.71e+ 02 7.65e+ 02 3.54e+ 02 0.989 marn 2.23 e-06 1.48e04 -1.67e03 -4.61e02 1.36e+ 00 1.43e+ 01 7.49e+ 01 2.01e+ 02 2.57e+ 02 5.93e+ 01 0.990 tsal 1.36 e-05 -8.02e04 1.97e02 -2.62e01 2.05e+ 00 9.78e+ 00 2.82e+ 01 4.60e+ 01 3.68e+ 01 4.90e+ 01 0.996 mang 4.59 e-06 2.98e04 -8.73e03 1.49e01 1.59e+ 00 1.07e+ 01 4.35e+ 01 1.02e+ 02 1.22e+ 02 1.13e+ 02 0.999 rust 6.21 e-05 3.65e03 -8.88e02 1.15e+ 00 8.69e+ 00 3.82e+ 01 9.50e+ 01 1.24e+ 02 7.08e+ 01 6.88e+ 01 0.993 the distributions of the mean monthly values of the tci for 8 locations in kvemo kartli according to the ninth power of the polynomial (r² ≥ 0.989) are described. the coefficients of the equation of the regression of the intra-annual motion of the mean monthly hcis for these points are presented in table 4. table 5 shows the distribution types of the mean monthly hcis at 8 locations in kvemo kartli. table 5. intra-annual distribution types of hci monthly mean values at 8 locations in kvemo kartli location distribution type first extremum (max) second extremum amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 40 bolnisi bimodal may sep gardabani bimodal may oct dmanisi unimodal, flat jul, aug tetri tskaro bimodal jun aug marneuli bimodal may oct tsalka unimodal jul manglisi unimodal aug rustavi bimodal may oct according to this table, a generally bimodal distribution of hcis is observed (5 locations from 8 locations). for the gardabani, marneuli, and rustavi stations, the first and second extrema of the hci distribution occur in may and october, respectively; for the bolnisi station, they occur in may and september; and for the tetri tskaro station, they occur in june and august. table 6. categories of hci monthly means and seasonal values at 8 locations in kvemo kartli during the cold period location jan feb mar oct nov dec cold year bolnisi good good good excellent good good good very good gardabani very good dmanisi acceptable good good tetri tskaro acceptable very good acceptable marneuli good excellent good tsalka good acceptable good manglisi acceptable very good good rustavi good excellent very good for dmanisi, a unimodal distribution of hcis with plateaus from july–august was observed; for tsalka and manglisi, unimodal distributions with maxima occurred in july and august, respectively. table 7. categories of hci monthly means and seasonal values at 8 locations in kvemo kartli during the warm period location apr may jun jul aug sep warm year bolnisi very good excellent very good very good very good excellent very good very good gardabani excellent excellent dmanisi good very good excellent excellent excellent tetri tskaro very good marneuli very good excellent very good very good tsalka good good very good excellent excellent very good manglisi very good excellent ideal excellent good rustavi very good excellent very good very good excellent very good in tables 6 and 7, the mean monthly and seasonal hci values at 8 locations in kvemo kartli during cold and warm periods are presented. as shown in these tables, the categories of the mean monthly and seasonal hcis at 8 locations in kvemo kartli change from acceptable to ideal. table 8 shows the statistical characteristics of the monthly mean hcis at 8 locations in kvemo kartli (all stations); at bolnisi, gardabani, marneuli, and rustavi (h < 1 km); and at dmanisi, tetri tskaro, tsalka, and manglisi (h ˃ 1 km). table 8. statistical characteristics of the monthly mean hcis at 8 locations in kvemo kartli (all stations); at bolnisi, gardabani, marneuli, and rustavi (h < 1 km); and at dmanisi, tetri tskaro, tsalka, and manglisi (h ˃ 1 km). location all station h < 1 km h ˃ 1 km variable hci category hci category hci category min 58 acceptable 58 acceptable 58 acceptable max 91 ideal 87 excellent 91 ideal amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 41 mean 72 very good 73 very good 71 very good st dev 9.8 8.5 11.0 cv,% 13.6 11.7 15.5 as follows from this table, the hcis for stations with h < 1 km change from 58 (acceptable) to 87 (excellent), and for stations with h ˃ 1 km from 58 (acceptable) to 91 (ideal). for both groups of stations, the average hcis are in the “very good” category (73 and 71, respectively). fig. 3 shows the repetition of the monthly mean hci category at 8 locations in kvemo kartli (all stations); at bolnisi, gardabani, marneuli, and rustavi (h < 1 km); and at dmanisi, tetri tskaro, tsalka, and manglisi (h ˃ 1 km). therefore, as shown in tables 6 and 7 and fig. 3, in kvemo kartli, there are favourable conditions for the development of tourism and resorts throughout the year. notably, the research results of this work, in addition to scientific interest, also have practical applications for planning the development of the resort and tourism industry in the kvemo kartli region. finally, in fig. 4, a map of the distribution of mean monthly hci categories in the territory of kvemo kartli (in georgian) is presented. this map was constructed in accordance with previously reported methods (rekacewicz, 2005; rekacewixz &stienne, 2013). such maps are very visual and are intended for a wide range of people who want to receive information about various data, phenomena, events, etc., presented in an easy-tounderstand form. the bioclimatic conditions of kvemo karli are related to the resort and tourism potential of this region. note that a similar map has been prepared for the atlas of the kakheti region (ready for publication) from the series geographical atlases of georgia. the indicated map (fig. 4) will be included in the atlas of the kvemo kartli region (forthcoming) from the same series of geographical atlases of georgia. in both cases, the methodology for constructing maps (rekacewicz, 2005; rekacewicz & stienne, 2013) under georgian conditions was used for the first time. discussions in recent decades, due to the unprecedented rate of increase in air temperature, climate change on our planet has become a particularly urgent problem. at the same time, changes in air temperature and other climate elements have significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity on both global and regional (even the territory of small countries with complex terrain) scales. this problem of climate change is also very relevant in georgia due to the diversity of climatic regions in its territory. moreover, changes in the thermal regime of the atmosphere increase people's vulnerability to external factors. the negative impact of the environment on human health can be mitigated by the development of resorts and the tourism industry, which allows people to undergo treatment, health and rehabilitation activities and to actively relax. therefore, in recent years, special attention has been given to the development of this sector of the economy and, accordingly, to the identification of new bioclimatic resources in existing and promising resort and tourist areas. figure 3. repetition of monthly mean hci category at 8 locations of kvemo kartli (all station) and at bolnisi, gardabani, marneuli, rustavi (h < 1 km) and at dmanisi, tetri tskaro, tsalka, manglisi (h ˃ 1 km) amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 42 therefore, studying the impact of climate change on the variability of various thermal indices, including the tci and hci, is important. the conducted studies once again confirmed the presence of a variety of climatic and bioclimatic conditions in georgia, as well as the characteristics of their temporal variability. it is concluded that it is necessary to conduct a detailed study of climate change (as well as bioclimate) not only on a regional but also on a local scale. conclusion in recent decades, due to the unprecedented rate of increase in air temperature, climate change on our planet has become a particularly urgent problem. at the same time, changes in air temperature and other climate elements have significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity on both global and regional (even the territory of small countries with complex terrain) scales. this problem of climate change is also very relevant in georgia due to the diversity of climatic regions in its territory. moreover, changes in the thermal regime of the atmosphere increase people's vulnerability to external factors. the negative impact of the environment on human health can be mitigated by the development of resorts and the tourism industry, which allows people to undergo treatment, health and rehabilitation activities and to actively relax. therefore, in recent years, special attention has been given to the development of this sector of the economy and, accordingly, to the identification of new bioclimatic resources in existing and promising resort and tourist areas. therefore, studying the impact of climate change on the variability of various thermal indices, including the tci and hci, is important. the conducted studies once again confirmed the presence of a variety of climatic and bioclimatic conditions in georgia, as well as the characteristics of their temporal variability. it is concluded that it is necessary to conduct a detailed study of climate change (as well as bioclimate) not only on a regional but also on a local scale. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contributions figure 4. map of the distribution of mean monthly hci categories on the territory of kvemo kartli. designations on the map. ბიოკლიმატური პირობების შეფასების პუნქტი point of assessment of bioclimatic conditions. name of points: (წალკა tsalka, მანგლისი manglisi, დმანისი-dmanisi, თეთრი წყარო tetri tskaro, ბოლნისი-bolnisi, მარნეული marneuli, რუსთავი rustavi, გარდაბანი-gardabani). წელიადის დროები თვეების მიხედვით (i-xii) times of the year by month (i-xii): გაზაფხული (iii-v), ზაფხული (vi-viii), შემოდგომა (i-xi), ზამთაფი (xii-ii) spring (iii v), summer (vi-viii), autumn (i-xi), winter (xii-ii). დასვენების კლიმატური ინდექსი (დკი): იდეალური, შესანიშნავი, ძალიან კარგი, კარგი, სასიამოვნო holiday climate index (hci): ideal, excellent, very good, good, acceptable. amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 43 a.a. and n.b. conceived of the presented idea. l.k. and g.l. performed the analytic calculations. g.t. constructed the map and edited the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. acknowledgements the work was carried out in accordance with program financing (state budget). orcid id avtandil amiranashvili https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-6152-2214 nana bolashvili https://orcid.org/ 0000-0001-9854-2614 liana kartvelishvili https://orcid.org/ 0009-0007-6836-9313 guliko liparteliani https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5915-0488 gvantsa tsirgvava https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7595-0657 reference amiranashvili a., bliadze t., chikhladze v. 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(2018a). on the connection of monthly mean of some simple thermal indices and tourism climate index with the mortality of the population of tbilisi city apropos of cardiovascular diseases. journal of the georgian geophysical society, issn: 1512-1127, physics of solid earth, atmosphere, ocean and space plasma, v. 21(1), tbilisi, pp.48-62. http://www.jl.tsu.ge/index.php/ggs/article/view/2489 amiranashvili a.g., japaridze n.d., kartvelishvili l.g., khazaradze k.r., matzarakis a., povolotskaya n.p., senik i.a. (2017). tourism climate index of in the some regions of georgia and north caucasus. journal of the georgian geophysical society, issn: 1512-1127, issue (b). physics of atmosphere, ocean, and space plasma, vol.20b, pp. 43-64. amiranashvili a.g., japaridze n.d., kartvelishvili l.g., khazaradze k.r., kurdashvili l.r. (2018b). tourism climate index in kutaisi (georgia).//in the book: int. sc. conf. "modern problems of ecology“, proceedings, issn 1512-1976, v. 6, kutaisi, georgia, 21-22 september, 2018, pp. 227-230. amiranashvili a., japaridze n., kartvelishvili l., megrelidze l., khazaradze k. (2018d). statistical characteristics of the monthly mean values of air effective temperature on missenard in the amiranashvili et al. 2024 4(1) 44 autonomous republic of adjara and kakheti (georgia). transactions of mikheil nodia institute of geophysics, issn 1512-1135, vol. lxix, pp. 118-138, (in russian). amiranashvili a., japaridze n., kartvelishvili l., khazaradze k., revishvili a. (2022a). changeability the monthly mean values of air effective temperature on missenard in batumi in 1956-2015. journal of the georgian geophysical society, e-issn: 2667-9973, p-issn: 1512-1127, physics of solid earth, atmosphere, ocean and space plasma, v. 25(2), pp. 49–58. doi: https://doi.org/10.48614/ggs2520225960 amiranashvili a.g., kartvelishvili l.g., matzarakis a., megrelidze l.d. 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(2020). comparison of the holiday climate index: beach and the tourism climate index across coastal destinations in china. international journal of biometeorology, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00484-020-01979-w, 8 p. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) international mobility as a perspective for young graduates from georgia: analysing employability for the german job market magdalena stülb1, sofiko dzhvarsheishvili2* abstract this paper examines youth unemployment in georgia and opportunities for graduates in the international labour market, with a special focus on germany. it aims to address the challenges faced by young individuals in georgia in accessing employment opportunities and their implications within the global job market context. drawing upon the employability concept and the future skills approach, this study investigates the fit of labour market skills of georgian graduates with competence expectations of companies in germany. methodologically, this paper relies on a literature review and statistical data analysis, while the empirical portion employs a mixed methods approach. building on exploratory qualitative peer-group interviews, a quantitative survey was conducted among students and graduates in georgia. the results of the data analysis show that georgia also experiences alarmingly high rates of youth unemployment among graduates. the depopulation process is further exacerbated by substantial migration of the youth population from georgia, often referred to as the "brain drain”. simultaneously, european countries are witnessing a growing shortage of skilled workers, necessitating well-trained labour to navigate economic transformations. studies project that germany, for instance, may face a deficit of up to one million skilled workers by 2030. the results of the empirical research demonstrate that georgian students and graduates reflect on different skills discourses between their national and international labour markets. they situate these in the specific traditional, historical and cultural contexts of the country and derive specific challenges for themselves. respondents in the quantitative approach answered that they take measures to improve their knowledge and skills in different ways to be more competitive not only for the regional but also for the global market. ultimately, the study concludes by discussing potential recommendations to alleviate youth unemployment in georgia and enhance their prospects in the international job market, focusing on the case of germany. keywords: youth unemployment in georgia, employability, skills and competences, social and cultural fit of skills expectations, international labour market, access to the german labour market introduction for many years, the authors have been conducting joint projects as university lecturers with georgian and german students, aiming to impart skills that provide them with an advantage in the global job market [1]. while the german participants generally view this project as an opportunity to expand their individual skills or, in some cases, as an adventure trip in the caucasus, the participants from the georgian universities often focus on concrete career prospects. international university projects open up opportunities for them to obtain scholarships for studies abroad, which in turn significantly enhance their chances in the international job market. youth unemployment in georgia is extremely high, while the german job market is currently desperately seeking skilled workers, with employers actively recruiting students straight out of university. this represents a serious difference in the career prospects and educational context of young academics. in the context of georgian-german university cooperation, the authors were always faced with the question of whether their project could address the same competencies for all students or whether very different competencies should be taught for both target groups, according to their respective labour market specifics. against the background of these experiences, this paper examines youth unemployment in georgia and opportunities for graduates in the international labour market, with a special focus on germany. it aims to address the challenges faced by young individuals in georgia in accessing employment opportunities and their implications within the global job market context. drawing upon the employability concept and the future skills approach, this study investigates the fit of labour market skills of georgian graduates with competence expectations of companies in germany. the paper raises 1 faculty of business and social sciences/hochschule koblenz university of applied sciences, koblenz, germany, stuelb@hs-koblenz.de 2 department of human geography/vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: sofiko.dzhvarsheishvili@tsu.ge stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) critical questions about global standards for employability skills and the role of national and local social and cultural specifics. considering the exceedingly high unemployment rates among georgian graduates, the inquiry examines how they assess their prospects in the international job market and whether their skills acquired during their studies align with the requirements of companies. consequently, the paper also explores measures to reduce unemployment rates, with a focus on global mobility options. they will be discussed using the example of the german job market. methodologically, this paper relies on a literature review and statistical data analysis, while the empirical portion employs a mixed methods approach. building on exploratory qualitative peer-group interviews, a quantitative survey was conducted among students and graduates in georgia. after the scholarly discourses on the concept of employability have been introduced, an analysis of selected market data from georgia as well as data on the skills shortage in germany will follow. empirical findings will then be discussed and presented in the concluding comments. contextualising employability concepts employability is not a new concept but has changing connotations in recent decades. since the 2010s, numerous publications and studies on this subject abound, and their prioritisations and focus are contingent upon the perspective and discipline they represent, often shaped by the specific economic and political contexts they are situated in. employability can be examined from various angles associated with the requirements and interests of diverse stakeholders, including government, employers, students, and universities [2]. in the 1980s and 1990s, the predominant notion of employability lay in individuals’ productivity and cumulative marketability (income that they can earn) based on human, social, and cultural capital. according to römgensa et al., who aim to integrate research on employability in higher education and the workplace, all definitions of employability ultimately revolve around an individual's (perceived) ability to secure and maintain employment throughout their career [3]. an employee’s expertise, competences, skills and motivation play a major role in this context [4]. this widespread focus of employability on skills and the responsibility of the individual to acquire these skills has been strongly criticised, especially from a globalisation-critical education and economic policy perspective. mcgrath blames globalisation and neoliberal developments for a shift in emphasis away from workplace conditions to personal effort and skills [5]. he argues for a concept of “interactive employability”, which is based on the idea that employers and policy makers interact with individuals to obtain and maintain employment. “while accepting the importance of individual agency, this notion sought to balance personal efforts with structural factors” [6]. knapton, who looks at employability from a critical education perspective, speaks of a "high-jagged concept" [7]. the author criticises the widely used definition of employability as skills, understanding and personal attributes that make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations. she points out that an individual’s socioeconomic contexts will make a difference as to the ability of someone getting a job [7]. both critical approaches agree that contextual factors such as social, economic, or structural factors must be considered in the concepts of labour market readiness. shalini singh and soren ehlers argue in a similar direction. they point out that in recent years, employability has developed as a global norm that has a great influence on the labour market opportunities of university graduates [8]. the authors criticise skills and competences that are constructed in a seemingly culture-free space. in particular, students from the global south are disadvantaged in this respect. singh and ehlers analyse transnational policies on employability and identify the oecd, whose influence was first limited to high-income countries, as the most impactful agent in the field of employability policies. since 2008, unesco and ilo policy recommendations, based on oecd strategies, have included lowand middle-income countries struggling with poverty and unemployment. “while the relatively small numbers of homogenous oecd member countries accepted a clear norm on employability in the beginning, the ilo provided the legitimacy needed to promote it globally by engaging stakeholders from a large number of heterogeneous lowand middleincome countries” [9]. in the context of fundamental changes in the global labour market, a renewed debate about skills is observable. there is a consensus that megatrends pose major challenges for companies and require employees to have skills that enhance their innovation potential. as the education scientist ulf-daniel ehlers points out, society is moving towards a new era, which he calls the postknowledge age and which stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) requires new skills, so-called future skills. future skills are defined by ehlers as “competences that allow individuals to solve complex problems in highly emergent contexts of action in a self-organised way and enable them to act (successfully). they are based on cognitive, motivational, volitional and social resources, are value-based and can be acquired in a learning process” [10]. they are embedded in the discourse around the goal of higher education and employability as, according to ehlers, the goal of any educational process that aims at vocational aspiration of any kind. while ehlers explicitly incorporates the concept of culture into his approach, it primarily pertains to organisational cultures and places less emphasis on the social and cultural contexts of life. nonetheless, he critically highlights that the expectation should not be that all working-age individuals inherently possess the same high level of skills. given the backdrop of international migration flows, the requirements of diverse cultures must also be considered [11]. current social demographic challenges and threats in georgia since 1998, georgia's national statistics office has been compiling labour force statistics using the international labour organisation's methodology [12]. the recent data are indeed alarming. it appears that georgia is currently experiencing a significant decline in its population, which can be termed depopulation [13]. figure 1. population of georgia from 2010 to 2022 (thousand people). data source [14] this decline can be attributed to various unfavourable factors stemming from the nation's political and economic unrest [15]. notably, the surge in unemployment rates [15], a noticeable trend of labour migration [16], and a gradual decline in birth rates [17] have all played a role in this demographic shift. as a result of these demographic processes, the population of georgia in 2022 compared to 2010 decreased by approximately 3 percent and amounted to 3,688,600 people (fig. 1). the global problem of unemployment is widely recognised, and it stands as a crucial indicator for evaluating a country's social security and overall living conditions [18]. fig. 2 illustrates the unemployment rate in georgia over the period from 2010 to 2022. in 2021, unemployment rose by 2.1% to 20.6%, a noteworthy increase over the previous year. this marked the highest level in the past four years. undoubtedly, the pandemic played a significant role in contributing to both the surge in unemployment and the decline in the number of economically active individuals during this period [20]. due to the pandemic, many businesses were forced to use layoffs as a last choice, which led to many workers losing their jobs. these people ultimately experienced financial instability as a result of their struggles to cope with the difficulties of unemployment, and many of them consequently decided to migrate within the country to other regions or outside of their own country [21]. based on the latest available data from the national statistics office of georgia (fig. 2), it was observed that in 2022, georgia experienced a substantial decline in the unemployment rate, which decreased by 3.3% compared with the previous year 2021 and reached a level of 17.3%. this rate represents the lowest level recorded in the past ten years. 3799.8 3773.6 3739.3 3718.4 3716.9 3721.9 3728.6 3726.4 3729.6 3723.5 3716.9 3728.6 3688.6 3620 3640 3660 3680 3700 3720 3740 3760 3780 3800 3820 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) figure 2. employment and unemployment rates in georgia from 2010 to 2022 (%). data source [19] additionally, there was a noteworthy rise in the employment rate, with an increase of 2.5 percentage points in 2022 in comparison to the previous year, resulting in a total of 42.9% (fig. 2). in 2022, a total of approximately 1,283,700 individuals were employed. furthermore, specific employment categories also saw positive changes during the postpandemic period. the number of hired individuals increased by 41,500 people, while the number of self-employed individuals rose by 24,900, reaching 870,900 and 412,100, respectively. in 2022, approximately 68% were engaged in hired employment, while the remaining 32% were self-employed. in the same period of time, the largest proportion of the employed population, amounting to 20%, was found in sectors related to agriculture, fishing, forestry, hunting, and beekeeping. employment in the trade sector, including automobile and household goods repair, accounted for 15%, and the education sector provided employment for 11% of the workforce [19]. the postpandemic period is characterised by the opening of borders between countries and the inclusion of organisations in different activities. all of these factors improved the positive dynamics of the tourism sector, reduced the unemployment rate and contributed to the economic growth of the country in 2022 [22]. it is important to highlight the substantial disparities in unemployment between urban and rural areas in georgia. as is evident from the data provided by the national statistics office of georgia, rural areas have a substantially lower unemployment rate than urban areas. for the year 2022 in urban areas, the unemployment rate reached 18.3%, while in rural regions, it was lower at 15.7% [19]. it should be noted that the share of self-employed people in rural areas is higher 48.8% of total employment. in urban areas, it was only 20.3% because most self-employed people work in the agriculture sector [23]. in comparison to 2021, the employment rate in 2022 rose by 3.2 percentage points in rural areas and 2 percentage points in urban areas [19]. compared to other georgian regions, in 2022, kakheti had a lower unemployment rate – 9%. this is related to the fact that the majority of the local population works in agriculture and that a significant portion is self-employed [24]. the unemployment rate in tbilisi dropped by 4.3% from the previous year to 19.5% in 2022, placing it in third place among all regions [19]. the capital of georgia continues to have a large part of the country’s gdp and foreign direct investment, therefore, the large number of enterprises are open for society in this area [25]. this contributes to internal migration and, in turn, increases the unemployment rate in tbilisi too. georgia's population consisted of 17.2% young people between the ages of 15-29 in 2022. in comparison to the other two age groups, the proportions of young people in the population between the ages of 20-24 and 25-29 are nearly equal at 5.7% and 6.0%, respectively. however, the proportion of young people in the population between the ages of 15 and 19 is comparatively low at 5.6%. females make up 52% of georgia’s population. on the other hand, men aged 15-29 account for 52.2% of the population. young men aged 15-29 make up 18.8% of the entire male population, and young women aged 15-29 make up 15.9% of the total female population [26]. when compared to women, men often have a higher unemployment rate in georgia. this indicator among men for 2022 is 4.7 percentage points higher than the indicator among women for the same year [19]. another important observation is that georgia has a high youth unemployment rate [27]. fig. 3 shows trends in unemployment rates in georgia for different age groups. in general, it can be seen that in all years, the youth unemployment rate surpasses the unemployment rate of the general population (fig. 2). according to the image above (fig. 3), those aged 15-19 in 2022 had the highest unemployment rates at 47.4%, followed by those aged 20-24 at 37.3% and those aged 25-29 at 22.2%. the higher rate of youth unemployment in the age range 15-24 could be explained by enrolment in education and for those 25-29 by a lack of professional specialists. clearly, the present educational system does not 37.5 38.3 39.6 39.4 41.4 43.3 43 42.7 42.7 42.7 41.1 40.4 42.9 27.2 27.2 26.7 26.4 23 21.9 21.7 21.6 19.2 17.6 18.5 20.6 17.3 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 employment rate unemployemnt rate stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) completely reflect the requirements of the modern labour market [28]. in georgia, youth unemployment has remained high and peaked in 2021 as a result of the pandemic crisis. another indicator is the share of young people not in education, employment, or training (neets). neets account for almost 30.7% of the total youth population aged 15-29 in 2022. in comparison with previous years, this indicator has decreased by approximately 4%. there were more neets among women than among men (34.5% and 27.2%, respectively). caregiving obligations for family members are the main cause of being a neet. in addition, a handicap or illness may be to blame [29]. figure 3. unemployment rate by age group from 2020 to 2022 (%). data source [19] georgia is one of the states with the highest percentage of educated workers who are unemployed [21]. the employment rate of recent graduates aged 20-34 in 2022 was 48.2% [19]. this suggests that a high percentage of the youth labour force was unemployed and unable to sustain the country's economy. in georgia, the generation between the ages of 15 and 29 has declined by 10% during the past five years, and in 2022, it reached 634,100 [26]. this occurred due to a combination of factors, including low natural increase and substantial negative migration. the high unemployment rate and poverty in different regions is becoming a major driving force for the young generation to emigrate from georgia [30]. this is a process known as "brain drain", and it is acute and current. this is an extremely negative consequence for the growth and development of the country's intellectual potential, as well as for the retention and increase of a highly qualified workforce [15]. based on the latest available data from the national statistics office of georgia, it was observed that the migration balance significantly decreased from (-194634) in 1994 to (-26376) in 2003 [31]. this means that the number of immigrants in georgia has risen, and the number of emigrants has declined. this situation may be partly attributed to the fact that many fellow citizens who were abroad returned to their homeland after the rose revolution (in 2003), as the socioeconomic situation in georgia improved [32]. in 2020 and 2022, the number of immigrants in georgia surpassed the number of emigrants; in practical terms, we can say that this is the first time in the last twenty years that the migration balance in georgia has been positive. in 2020, the migration balance was 15732, which can be attributed to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic. during the global pandemic, many georgian citizens returned, and the local government provided assistance to facilitate their repatriation [33]. in 2022, the migration balance was 54,509 as a result of russia's war against ukraine, which led to georgia hosting ukrainian refugees [34] and russian deserters seeking refuge in the country [35]. these geopolitical events influenced the migration dynamics in georgia during the specified period of time. emigrants from georgia worked abroad and used their income to support their families at home. according to data from the national bank of georgia, in august 2023, 57.7% of all money transfers came from different countries: 21% came from the russian federation, 15.7% from italy, 14% from the united states, and 7% from germany [36]. the stabilisation of the georgian economy still depends heavily on remittances [37]. 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65+ 43.9 38.3 23.2 19.9 20.8 17.9 14.9 16.1 13.7 10.7 7.3 52.2 41.0 27.8 24.5 20.0 20.4 17.0 17.8 16.0 13.8 6.0 47.4 37.3 22.2 19.9 18.3 18.0 14.3 15.2 13.3 10.9 3.6 2020 2021 2022 stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) the german job market and its requirements in its report "global employment trends", the ilo describes an employment pattern of young people worldwide influenced by the corona pandemic, which is also reflected in the comparison of the two countries georgia and germany.” young people have been disproportionately affected by the economic and employment consequences of the pandemic, and as highlighted in this report, the pace of recovery of youth labour markets in many countries and regions is falling behind that of the labour market for older workers.” [38]. upper-middle-income countries were particularly affected by high youth unemployment rates, while there were almost no effects in high-income countries [39,40]. in many countries of western europe, a completely different set of problems is emerging. european countries are witnessing a growing shortage of skilled workers, necessitating well-trained labour to navigate economic transformations. the lack of skilled workers is already an existential issue for many companies in germany. the latest skilled labour survey indicates that there will be approximately 240,000 more vacancies in 2026 than there will be workers available [41]. studies project that the country may face a deficit of up to one million skilled workers by 2030 [42, 43]. fig. 4 illustrates the continuously declining unemployment rate among youth aged 15-25 in germany from 2005 to 2022. figure 4. development of youth unemployment in germany by age group 15-25 in % (2005 – 2022). data source [44] in september 2022, germany presented the federal government's skilled labour strategy at the skilled labour summit [45]. this initiative is aimed at attracting more skilled workers at home and abroad and focuses on five fields of action. in addition to the education of young people, professional development and training, higher labour force participation, especially among women, and an employee-oriented work culture, a modern immigration policy is an important element of this strategy. it is recognised that germany is reliant on the immigration of foreign skilled workers and that actions should be taken to make immigration attractive to them [46]. in the meantime, germany has concluded so-called recruitment agreements with various countries. there is also experience with georgia, albeit only on a project basis. for example, the programme "strengthening the development potential of the eu mobility partnership in georgia through targeted circular migration and diaspora mobilisation" was implemented from 2013-2016 [45]. under this programme, 28 georgian nurses and hospitality professionals were enrolled, and 27 were placed in germany to improve their skills profile and employability for the georgian labour market through job placement, employment and training in germany [47]. the aim was to promote circular migration. this was defined as "the mobility of people between countries, including multiple temporary or long-term movements, which can be beneficial and developmental for all parties involved (migrants, countries of origin and destination, including the respective societies and individuals) if they are voluntary and linked to migrants' rights and competences and their development, as well as to the economic opportunities of the countries of origin and destination."[48]. the aim was therefore to prevent brain drain in georgia, especially by providing incentives and means to facilitate reintegration of returned migrants, as well as possibilities for continued circular migration schemes [49]. in addition to the legal emigration barriers faced by georgian citizens, one must consider the competency expectations of german companies. key criteria for assessing competence encompass 0.0 2.0 4.0 6.0 8.0 10.0 12.0 14.0 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 12.5 10.8 8.5 7.2 8.0 6.9 6.0 6.0 6.1 5.8 5.4 5.4 5.2 4.7 4.5 5.6 4.9 4.4 stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) professional qualifications, language proficiency, and the ability to adapt culturally. schneider, a member of the council on integration and migration, refers to this challenge as the "matching problem" [50]. inconsistencies, particularly in the realm of skill expectations for higher education graduates, become apparent. the analysis conducted by liu-farrer and shire reveals that despite comparable educational qualifications, foreign graduates experience significantly poorer labour market prospects than german nationals [52]. the authors point out that germany is taking measures to facilitate the entry of foreign university graduates into the job market by allowing a period of 18 months for job searching for non-eu graduates. according to the german foundation “stifterverband” [51], only 25% of foreign students found employment in germany in 2016. the authors explain the difficulty in finding suitable employment by highlighting the construction of skill expectations within national employment contexts. in germany, employers expect foreign university graduates to possess identical skill sets to their german counterparts. "due to culturally inflected selection, a process of labour market segmentation occurs in the primary labour market" [52]. this demonstrates that despite a significant shortage of skilled workers, having the corresponding university degree alone does not guarantee labour market entry for foreign graduates in germany. interestingly, this runs counter to the much-touted idea of diversity, which plays a significant role in companies in germany, both in internal human resource management and in external representation (reputation and prestige), as advocated by the "diversity charta"[53]. immigration patterns of georgian citizens in germany and potential developments according to the foreigners central register at the end of 2022, 44,390 people with georgian citizenship were living in germany [54]. in 2022, georgia ranked eighth among the most common countries of origin for asylum seekers in the eu, with 25,935 applications [55]. in 2023, asylum applicants from georgia ranked sixth in germany, following syria, afghanistan, turkey, iran, and iraq (in 2022, 7,963 asylum applications were filed by georgians in germany, and by april 2023, there were already 3,406 applications; federal agency for civic education: demography of asylum seekers in germany). since 2019, georgia has consistently been among the top 10 countries of origin for asylum seekers in germany. however, since 2020, georgia has also been at the top of the list of destination countries with the most frequent deportations (in 2022: 908 deportations to georgia, with approximately 1,000 in the previous years). according to the national statistics office of georgia, germany is the main destination country for georgian educational migrants [56]. krannich and hunger explain how, with the beginning of the 21st century, a paradigm shift has occurred, no longer considering educational migration primarily as a brain drain for a country in the global south (dependency theories, theories of modernisation). instead, an initial brain drain can result in a brain gain in the long term, as important skills can be acquired through studying abroad and relevant social and professional networks can be established [57]. an oecd report from 2016 also emphasises that "migration is not a precondition for development, yet it can contribute significantly to the development of countries of both origin and destination" [58]. according to bogishvili, the main destination countries for georgian labour migrants are primarily russia, the ukraine, the usa, and european countries [56]. since 2017, access to the european union has been facilitated for georgian citizens. they are exempt from the visa requirement if they stay in the eu for a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period [59]. furthermore, since february 15, 2021, opportunities for unskilled workers have improved, as germany allows georgian citizens to have legal employment in agriculture. however, bogishvili sees only limited chances for migration here since, although the "poorer, less educated, or unemployed part of the population of georgia theoretically gets a chance for seasonal labour migration," they lack the necessary starting capital for travel preparation and application, as well as sufficient german or english language skills [56]. in the context of the shortage of skilled workers in germany and the increasing recruitment and intergovernmental cooperation with various countries in the global south, efforts are being observed to promote skilled migration from georgia to germany. in a podcast by the german government, joachim stamp, the special representative of the federal government for migration agreements with georgia, argues that this is initially motivated by the high number of asylum seekers from this country and the consistently high rejection rates. it is in the interest of both germany and georgia to end irregular migration. regular migration options that are currently being negotiated with countries could play a stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) significant role in achieving this. both sides focus on circular migration, similar to educational migration, which could have positive effects for both georgia and germany [60]. therefore, the question of potential prospects for qualified young people from georgia in the labour market in germany will be examined in this paper. results: employability skills of georgian graduates – self-assessment of intercultural and international competences against the background of the question of how graduates from georgia meet the skills expectations of labour markets in countries with severe skills shortages, the authors conducted two empirical studies. first, explorative qualitative research was conducted with a focus group methodology to capture the self-assessments and experiences of georgian graduates. for this purpose, the topic was narrowed down to diversity experiences and intercultural competences. the second step was a quantitative survey based on this. qualitative focus group interviews between november 2021 and january 2022, three focus group sessions took place. the sample included students and graduates from two universities in tbilisi, georgia. all participants were in business-related disciplines (finance, business administration, marketing), and one was in anthropology. the sampling was carried out through initial contacts with teachers at both universities who emailed their students, through contacts with participants of a georgian-german summer school and, building on this, through snowballing. each focus group discussion lasted approximately 60 minutes. due to the mobility limitations of the covid-19 pandemic, the focus groups took place via video conferences and consisted of 4-5 participants each. the discussions were recorded, transcribed and coded using the analysis software maxqda in an inductive procedure. the aim was to generate insights into georgian students' and graduates' understanding of diversity-related competences as well as their self-assessments of related competences in the national and international labour markets. how the topic of diversity was discussed in the focus groups is summarised in table 1. table 1 overview results of the focus group interviews category summary examples results contexts in which students and graduates acquire intercultural and diversity competence experience abroad: summer schools, international exchange programs, studying abroad, travelling international and intercultural settings in georgia: international students, ethnic minorities, international work experience in georgia: working for international or large corporations in georgia “i was in the plane from turkey to germany and there were a lot of baby’s in the plane, […] and this mothers they were still on the chair and just enjoying the flight and the fathers they had the baby’s with them all the time and they are walking like on the corridor of the plane and (...) helping the child to sleep. they were feeding them and i was so shocked that in georgia you cannot find fathers doing like that.” (fg 2) "however, i would also say that more and more companies in georgia, […] they also start the understating of diversity and they try to some kind of adapt to it and yes, i think that maybe majority of the companies, big companies they have this high understanding and high standards of diversity and accepting the difference. “(fg2) intercultural and diversity experiences are gained by georgian students through study abroad and through contact with international students and ethnic minorities in their own country. during or after their studies, activities in international companies, especially in tbilisi, contribute to the development of intercultural and diversity competences. stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) discourses on ethnic minorities in georgia underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in public discourse mentioned ethnic minorities in georgia: azeri, armenians, russians few contact situations in everyday life, first contacts were mostly made at university or in the workplace ethnic minorities living in specific regions immigration of refugees is critically discussed in public "the first thing that comes in my mind […] is ethnic diversity, because there are many minorities in georgia and their usually kind of underrepresented in public discourse and political sphere.” (fg 3) “we don’t talk about diversity that much … [minorities] try to stay quiet.” (fg3) "it is difficult of integrate minorities, like ethnic armenians and azerbaijanis, who traditionally live in different regions.“ (fk2) "most people are against to accept some immigrants. for example, from afghanistan. it was so that lots of people have to come first to georgia and then from georgia to other european countries or the us. so (...) there was a truly high discussion that we should not accept any like the immigrants from afghanistan. “(fg2) students and graduates reflect different discourses on ethnic minorities. while the arrival of international refugees was discussed rather negatively in georgian society, the attitude towards ethnic minorities in the country, such as azeris, armenians or russians, was described as rather reserved. all in all, the social and political discourse on minorities is described as rather critical to distanced. discourses on gender roles in georgia traditional role expectations of women and men poorer career opportunities for women "there is some kind of pressure against, i guess because maybe in georgia still people consider that women should be in the families, they should not work hard or be manager or something like that. (fg1) "right now, i am learning computer engineering ... coding. in addition, all the time i hear from man and women, that this in only man’s job. in addition, women do not have enough brain for this …” (fg1) "it is fact that the salary of men is much higher. (…) in general, men are more appreciated at the highest career in general, not for all company.” (fg2) young people see themselves caught between the traditional role expectations of society and their own role concepts which are also oriented towards ideals specific to international peer groups. they describe barriers living their own role models, both in their own families and in the georgian working environment. discourses on generational gaps disruptions of political systems causes different value orientation between generations “its a difference between my mother and me because i'm 25. in addition, i just got married right now. in addition, my mother was only 14." (fg1) "if you look in georgian history ... approximately 20 years ago the country was part of the ussr ... and it was communist ... and in communism we had such kind of different thinking, that i cannot understand today. in addition, in communism, our parents were raised and they lived in communism. therefore, this has also a meaning for them.” (fg1) students and graduates show understanding for intergenerational differences, explaining them with the disruptive experiences of their parents' and grandparents' generation. their orientation towards values that were taught in the soviet union differs significantly from their own values. differences between urban and rural areas rural population is more conservative "georgian people are more conservative, so and in the past ages we truly had men-oriented families. we do not have it right now; i mean just in big cities. in villages unfortunately still there are such kind of families. therefore, everything is under males’ supervision and under men’s commands.” (fg3) not only between generations but also between urban and rural areas, students and graduates perceive large differences in value orientations. participants reflect on different diversity discourses (between georgia and other countries), situate them in the specific traditional, historical and cultural contexts of the country and derive specific challenges for themselves. using the example of a participant, referred to as natela, this case aims to illustrate the significance of diversity skills within international corporations. natela holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from georgia and has secured a position within a transnational corporation located in stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) tbilisi. this organisation globally espouses a commitment to diversity values and annually publishes diversity and inclusion reports, emphasising its dedication to nurturing a diverse workforce and creating a collaborative, equitable, and inclusive environment where every individual, regardless of their appearance, origin, or whom they love, is afforded a voice. natela expresses appreciation for the support she receives as a young woman within the company but also finds it disconcerting when an older male colleague does not receive similar support. she reasons that the older colleague has a family to support, while she herself still resides with her parents. additionally, natela highlights discrepancies between societal and corporate values, citing the treatment of homosexuality as an example. she notes that openly acknowledging one's homosexuality in georgia is challenging and is rarely tolerated by society. simultaneously, she observes the company's commitment to accepting diverse sexual orientations through its statements. at times, she finds it challenging to navigate the boundary between her professional and personal life. quantitative survey the results of the qualitative exploratory study were utilised and expanded upon to create a questionnaire. the survey was conducted using google forms and was available online from august 1, 2022, to september 7, 2022. the survey access link was sent to approximately 100 students from faculties of different universities of tbilisi, including those in bachelor's, master's, and phd programs, along with a brief explanation and a request for their participation. the total number of responses received was 46, which could be included in the evaluation. the questionnaire consisted of 37 questions. key characteristics of the respondents: • the age distribution was as follows: 15% were between 18 and 23 years old, 57% between 24 and 30 years old, 24% between 31 and 39 years old, and 4% between 40 and 45 years old. • regional distribution: most of the participants were from the capital city of tbilisi (68%), 13% from imereti, 7% from shida kartli, 4% from kvemo kartli, and 2% each from four other regions of georgia. • educational qualifications: 31% of the participants held a bachelor's degree, 52% held a master's degree, and 17% held a phd. • enrolled at universities: 83% of all participants either currently study or have studied at tsu (tbilisi state university). the remaining participants were distributed across seven other universities in georgia. in total, 87% were associated with business and economics disciplines. • experiences abroad: only half of the respondents had been abroad, 63% of them in germany. the maximum duration of their stay abroad was 2 years, and the minimum was one week. • job experience: 87% of the respondents worked for a company, and 80.4% had a job during their studies. interestingly, after graduation, 93.5% of the respondents found a job. however, only 87% had a job in their field of study or in a position corresponding to their qualification. in response to the question “did you experience barriers in accessing the labour market?”, 43.5% answered “yes”. while 10 respondents awarded 5 out of 10 possible points to assess the difficulty of accessing the labour market, 18 participants indicated higher values and thus greater barriers (fig.5). figure 5. the scale of difficulty accessing the labour market 2 3 5 5 10 3 8 7 2 1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 n u m be r o f re sp on d en ts stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) when asked why they were unsuccessful in finding a job, respondents gave different answers: 60.4% reported a lack of experience, 4.3% a lack of computer skills, 4.3% language barriers and 11% nepotism. it is important to consider the responses in the context of the survey period, which was the covid19 pandemic. thus, more than half made a connection with the economic situation caused by the pandemic. fifty-two percent of respondents thought that covid-19 impacts made it more difficult to find a job because there were fewer vacancies than before, many small companies and businesses no longer existed, many companies had financial problems, and they reduced their costs, so they fired some employees. a total of 10.9% of the respondents lost their job due to the covid-19 pandemic. we asked the participants if they were informed about the reasons for rejections of their job application. thirty-seven percent answered that they lacked specific competences, 10.9% were told that they were not qualified, and 6.5% answered that they lacked networks. a total of 73.9% of the respondents had been invited to job interviews 5-10 times, and 95.7% thought that they met the expectations of the interviewer. when asked “which competences did the interviewer investigate in?” most of the interviewees indicated job-specific competences, communication and technological skills (fig. 6). figure 6. according to their self-assessment, 95% of respondents think that they meet the competence expectations of the national labour market, and only 76.1% think that they meet the competence expectations of the international labour market. approximately 30.4% think that they lack knowledge of foreign languages, 17.4% think that they lack computer programming skills and 6.5% think that they do not have enough knowledge in finance. the participants attribute this to their study programs, which did not provide sufficient skills. when asked to compare georgian students with those from other countries, 52.2% of the respondents are convinced that students from other countries are better qualified for international jobs. in their opinion, other students gain more practical experience in the framework of their education. in addition, georgian respondents consider students from other countries to be better trained in analytical and critical thinking and more independent in what they do. interestingly, another 47.8% expected no differences in the knowledge level of the students from other countries. most of the interviewees think that specific disadvantages for georgian students are the lack of eu residence permission, insufficient funding and support from government. in addition to focusing on perceived deficiencies, 63% of the respondents feel that georgian graduates have skills that are not valued or recognised in international companies, including better technical knowledge 11% specific 39% responsibility 5% no answer 13% communication, knowledge of different languages 22% research experience; analytical skills 4% public speaking, time management 4% knowledge of finance 2% technical knowledge specific responsibility no answer communication, knowledge of different languages research experience; analytical skills public speaking, time management knowledge of finance stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) communication skills than students from other countries, being more open minded, and ready to work hard. almost all respondents answered that they take measures to improve their knowledge and skills in different ways to be more competitive not only for the regional but also for the global market. discussion the results show that students and graduates from georgia describe strengths and weaknesses compared to international peer groups. this became evident during the focus group discussions where participants highlighted varying discourses on the topic of diversity in transnational and georgian companies. they attribute these differences to distinct historical developments and traditional value orientations. they view georgian society as being in transition in this regard. while the older generation is still influenced by their experiences in the former soviet union, the younger generation increasingly aligns with european values. however, participants do not describe coherent processes of change but emphasise the coexistence of different currents. they point out significant disparities between rural and urban regions, between conservative, church-oriented values, and liberal attitudes, even among young people, as well as among ethnic groups. according to the participants, growing up in a so-called transitional society leads to a positioning between traditional roots and cosmopolitan curiosity and openness. on the one hand, they value this as social and cultural capital that enables them to acquire competencies such as mediation skills, empathy, and flexibility for an international work environment. however, they are also aware that this tension can require them to take positions and may lead to breaks with tradition or rejection of so-called "modern" lifestyles. the quantitative survey also indicates that georgian students and graduates perceive different competency expectations between the national and international job markets. while 95% feel well prepared for the national job market, only 76% believe they are adequately equipped for the international job market. this is attributed to the lack of specific competency development in their education, which is more focused on knowledge dissemination. the empirical study confirms that georgian graduates perceive limitations in their competitiveness in the global labour market. they believe that the skills and competencies expected there are not acquired through their education and experiences in the national labour market. the higher education system is primarily called upon to prepare young graduates for the international labour market. it becomes crucial to ensure that young people receive qualifications that correspond to the demands of the labour market. this applies not only to georgian universities. as mentioned at the beginning, the education system is also undergoing transformations in employee-labour markets that are aligned, for example, with concepts such as ehlers' future-skills approach. this significantly stronger focus in university education, which is less centred on the imparting of factual knowledge and more on developing personality-, world-, and organisation-oriented competencies, enables young individuals to cultivate more flexible and future-oriented skills. as the study also shows, international mobility plays a major role in the acquisition of skills. this was emphasised by the students in the focus group interviews, in which they referred to important experiences during a study or project abroad. this points to the question of whether increasing circular labour migration in general may not also be an important prospect for young graduates in georgia. this offers the chance of a qualified job and the acquisition of important professional skills, and it contributes to the reduction of unemployment rates in georgia. here, however, the risk of brain drain must be considered, which requires well-managed circular migration programs. it can be assumed that many people from georgia, who currently live and work in germany or in other countries, have the desire to return to their country of origin at some point to make a contribution there. for example, the german society for international cooperation has launched the migration & diaspora program, which assists migrants in germany in returning to their home country. this programme also encourages businesspeople with migration histories to invest in their home countries. entrepreneurs create jobs and contribute to the economic and social development of their communities by using the knowledge and creative business concepts acquired abroad. therefore, maintaining and improving georgian-german economic and political relations can have positive impacts for both countries. however, georgia should stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) take measures to make the return of labour and education migrants as attractive as possible so that they can bring back the expertise they have acquired abroad. finally, the survey also highlights that participant believe they possess competencies that are not valued in international companies. this is also confirmed by liu-farrer and shire for germany, since they describe from the employers' perspective that "foreign" cultural capital appears to be perceived more as a disruptive factor. this reveals that both employers and globally mobile professionals must develop an awareness of specific cultural capital. only by doing so can diversity be actively harnessed for the benefit of the organisation, and individuals can be valued. conclusion the starting point of this work was the significantly differing labour market conditions for young people with academic degrees in germany and georgia and approaches to concepts of employability. while students from economics and business-related fields in germany represent a coveted and scarce resource in an employee market, this group experiences extreme obstacles in an employer market in georgia in regard to finding a position corresponding to their qualifications. as a result, georgian university graduates exhibit a high willingness to seek employment in the european or international job market. therefore, the question arises of how well georgian universities prepare their students for the international job market and/or how a so-called "skills fit" is represented beyond formal degrees. how do the skills of georgian graduates match the skills expectations of international employers? this question was discussed in this paper with reference to the employability concept and the consideration of social and cultural capital in employer competency expectations, using the german job market as an example. the results from empirical research conducted by the authors with students and graduates from georgia were included. in the literature review, the authors primarily focused on critical perspectives on employability approaches that construct employability skills as a global norm. their detachment from the social and cultural specifics of living and working environments is seen as a disadvantage for graduates from the global south. furthermore, it became apparent that companies also implement ethnocentric recruitment measures. liu-farrer and shire reveal that recruitment and training practices in germany display homophilous tendencies, expecting foreign graduates to possess the same skill sets or act exactly as native workers do. [52] to understand the perspective of employees, an empirical study was conducted with georgian graduates. in both the qualitative and quantitative parts, it became clear that differences were perceived between the local and international labour markets, especially in the area of soft skills. while graduates felt sufficiently equipped for the national labour market, they see deficits with regard to competence expectations of employers in other countries or transnational companies. additionally, some skills were identified as culturally specific competitive advantages but were not recognised as such by international companies. employability concepts in the context of global skilled migration cannot ignore culture. they must first acknowledge that education, whether at the primary, tertiary, or vocational levels, does not occur in a culture-neutral space but is always embedded in societal value systems. even in an increasingly internationalised work environment, country-specific peculiarities persist and must be incorporated into concepts of employability. only then can cultural capital be recognised and valued as a resource of mobile professionals. finally, the authors strongly believe that young people in particular, who experienced social and economic transitions and uncertainties in their lives, definitely gained pronounced components of future skills and are equipped for highly emergent contexts of action. regarding the challenges described for young graduates in georgia, the following educational and labour policy recommendations can be made.: • reinforcing circular migration for young graduates from georgia to avoid brain drain but to grant a return on investment for the georgian government • equipping students with qualifications and competences needed in the international labour market • strengthening international labour mobility of young georgians with economic funding stülb and dzhvarsheishvili. georgian geographical journal 2023, vol.3 (2) since the authors agree with mcgrath’s idea of interactive employability, they also believe companies that hire international professionals have an obligation to adjust their skills expectations. they recommend an increased awareness of cultural capital that can function as a resource for their company culture. finally, we will briefly discuss the limitations of this work. empirical qualitative and quantitative research was conducted during the covid-19 pandemic. these particular conditions of uncertainty and changing global conditions certainly had an impact on the participants' responses. the qualitative group discussions could only take place via videoconference and not in person. for the survey, e-mails were sent to students who were mostly with their families at the time of the survey. here, repeating the survey under nonexception conditions would certainly be useful. in addition, supplementary studies at the direct interface between employers in germany and applicants from georgia would provide further insights. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.s. and s.d. conceived of the presented idea. m.s. and s.d. performed the analytic calculations. m.s. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. references [1] binder, s.; stülb, m. 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(2023): labor migration schemes, pilot partnerships, and skills mobility initiatives in germany. background paper to the world development report 2023: migrants, refugees, and societies. p.17. [51] stifterverband (2016) cited in liu-farrer, g.; shire, k. (2021): who are the fittest? the question of skills in national employment systems in an age of global labour mobility. journal of ethnic and migration studies 2021, vol. 47. no. 10. p.2306 [52] liu-farrer, g.; shire, k. (2021): who are the fittest? the question of skills in national employment systems in an age of global labour mobility. journal of ethnic and migration studies 2021, vol. 47. no. 10. pp 2305-2322 [53] “the charta der vielfalt promotes the recognition, appreciation and integration of diversity in business culture. when organisations make use of their employees’ diversity, they boost their success and are attractive employers.” (https://www.charta-der-vielfalt.de/en/). [54] statistisches bundesamt (destatis) (2020): ausländische bevölkerung. ergebnisse des ausländerzentralregisters. www.destatis.de [55] statista research department 2023: https://de.statista.com/themen/105/deutschland/#topicoverview [56] bogishvili, d. (2021): migration und ihre folgen für georgien. zentrum für osteuropaund internationale studien zois spotlight 15/2021, https://www.zois-berlin.de/publikationen/zoisspotlight/migration-und-ihre-folgen-fuer-georgien [57] krannich, s.; hunger, u. (2022): exit regime for international students: the case of georgia. iol: international migration: 2022. p. 3 [58] oecd 2016, cited in krannich and hunger 2022: 4 [59] european council 2017: aufhebung der visumpflicht für georgier: rat verabschiedet verordnung. https://www.consilium.europa.eu/de/press/press-releases/2017/02/27/visa-liberalisation-georgia/(access 15.09.23) [60] aus regierungskreisen podcast der bundesregierung (2023), folge 61. thema: joachim stamp über seine rolle als sonderbevollmächtigter der bundesregierung für migrationsabkommen. https://www.bundesregierung.de/resource/blob/992798/2187796/1830 ccfd4256a0b84c2bec6f8f9c7e4a/2023-05-03-aus-regierungskreisen-folge-61-transkriptdata.pdf?download=1 (access 03.08.23) georgian geographical journal the scale of the expected largest maximum high water discharges on the rivers of eastern georgia tsisana basilashvili1,* , khatuna basilashvili2, magda janelidze2 1 institute of hydrometeorology, georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia 2 caucasus university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: ts.basilashvili@gtu.ge introduction since the second half of the 20th century, climate warming and increasing anthropogenic pressure on the environment have contributed to the intensification of elemental processes, accompanied by a clear upward trend and the emergence of critical ecological challenges. the complex mountainous landscape of georgia—with its diverse climatic, relief, and soil conditions, and numerous deep river valleys—creates a favourable environment for the occurrence of destructive floods. such events have frequently resulted in the destruction of residential buildings and infrastructure, damage to agricultural land, and significant losses to the land fund. the presented flood photograph serves as documentary evidence of the urgent need for an objective and impartial assessment of flash floods, which is essential for developing recommendations to prevent catastrophic events and mitigate associated damages. floods and high-water events in the rivers of eastern georgia (fig. 1), along with the damage they have caused, are discussed in previous studies (basilashvili et al., 2011; basilashvili et al., 2012), which are based on observational data prior to 1991 and include corresponding estimates of maximum river discharges and their probable values. more recently, under the conditions of ongoing global warming, basilashvili (2024) extended this work by incorporating data from 1991–2021, updating the multi-year characteristic parameters of annual maximum flash flood discharges, and providing an appropriate statistical analysis of observational series spanning 70–100 years. looking ahead, continued climate warming is expected to further intensify natural hazards such as floods, avalanches, landslides, and erosion, often occurring in conjunction with frequent flooding events. given the increasing scale of damage and casualties associated with such phenomena, determining the magnitude of expected maximum river discharges and refining their numerical estimates has become essential. these parameters are critical for the effective planning and management georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 17-21 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract based on a 70–100-year empirical series of stationary observations from 27 principal hydrological stations on the rivers of eastern georgia up to 2023, the probable maximum discharges of high waters have been estimated for exceedance probabilities of 0.01%, 0.1%, 1%, 2%, 5%, and 10%. these correspond to recurrence intervals of approximately 10,000, 1,000, 100, 60, 20, 10, and 5 years, respectively. the derived data provide a valuable resource for scientific, economic, and engineering applications, and should be utilised by relevant organisations for water management calculations. they are essential for the planning and design of hydraulic, civil, and industrial infrastructure—including roads, bridges, pipelines, and communication facilities—located along rivers and within their coastal zones. moreover, these data underpin the substantiation of technical and economic parameters of such projects. the application of these findings will contribute significantly to enhancing the safety of populations, infrastructure, and the environment, thereby reducing the risks of structural damage, environmental degradation, and potential casualties associated with high-water events. keywords: probabilistic value, repeatability, provision, safety citation: basilashvili, t.; basilashvili, k.; janelidze, m. the scale of the expected largest maximum high water discharges on the rivers of eastern georgia. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 17-21. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.03 basilashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 18 of hydroeconomic calculations, and for the development of strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of hydrological disasters. methods and materials to estimate the expected changes in maximum river discharges, probability theory provision curves were applied to determine the scale of anticipated largest flash flood discharges (ukleba, 1967; luchsheva, 1976). this study utilised long-term observational data from 27 hydrological stations in eastern georgia. data prior to 1981 were sourced from published references, including fundamental characteristics (1967, 1977, 1978) and the state water cadastre (1987). more recent observations, up to 2022, were obtained from the national environment agency of georgia (nea). due to the inherent difficulties in measuring water discharges of mountain rivers during flash flood events, some observational records were incomplete. to address these gaps, correlation analyses of discharge relationships between analogous rivers were conducted, complemented by graphical interpolation methods. this approach enabled the reconstruction of missing data points. correlation analysis was performed to establish relationships among maximum river discharges, followed by the formation of descending ranks of multi-year data and the determination of their corresponding exceedance probabilities, in accordance with the methodology proposed by basilashvili (1977), implemented using computer software tools. as a result of this comprehensive research, a robust database of multi-year (70–100 years) empirical series of annual maximum river flood discharges was compiled. the hydrographic and hypsometric characteristics of the river basins monitored at the 27 hydrological stations are presented in table 1. table 1. the hydrographic and hypsometric characteristics of the river basins at the 27 hydrological stations № river point a re a o f b as in l en g th o f r iv er h ei g h t o f b as in w o o d in es s o f b as in h ei g h t o f s o u rc e h ei g h t o f p o in t f al l o f r iv er s lo p e o f b as in s lo p e o f r iv er f km2 l km h m w % hs m hp m h m sb ‰ sr ‰ 1 mtkvari khertvisi 4980 223 2720 1120 1600 2 mtkvari minadze 8010 265 2720 944 1776 3 mtkvari borjomi 10500 315 2720 781 1939 4 mtkvari dzegvi 18000 444 2720 456 2264 5 mtkvari tbilisi 21100 474 2720 391 2329 6 faravani khertvisi 2350 73 2120 0 2080 1120 960 91 13.8 figure 1. gori flooded by flash flood on june 11, 1983 basilashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 19 7 potskhovi skhvilisi 1730 54 1870 11 1231 969 262 32.2 8 kvabliani -mlashe 468 19 1940 38 2540 1162 1378 132 35.0 9 abastumani abastumani 99 10 1830 32 1373 1272 101 360 94.0 10 borjomula borjomi 165 18 1810 65 2400 781 1619 256 50.7 11 didi liakhvi kekhvi 924 59 2100 25 3032 960 2072 373 38.2 12 patara liakhvi vanati 422 41 1940 35 2966 1015 1951 373 46.2 13 ksani – korinta 461 46 1830 50 2820 909 1911 260 45.0 14 aragvi zhinvali 1900 28 1890 45 3126 718 2408 380 35.5 15 white aragvi fasanauri 335 41 2140 22 3126 1035 2091 362 51.2 16 black aragvi shesartavi 235 29 2030 27 3392 1070 2322 416 66.4 17 pshavis aragvi magaroskari 736 38 2060 40 2731 920 1811 452 40.6 18 yori lelovani 484 43 1640 59 2827 1090 1731 262 31.3 19 alazani birkiani 282 9 2200 42 2750 758 1992 469 61.7 20 alazani shakriani 2190 72 1260 61 2750 340 2410 270 26.2 21 ktsia khrami edikilisa 544 51 2040 0 2422 1516 906 135 18.9 22 ktsia khrami dagetkhachini 2150 136 1720 17 2422 526 1896 142 14.0 23 ktsia khrami imiri 3840 171 1510 29 2422 345 2077 147 12.6 24 ktsia khrami red bridge 8260 196 1530 33 2422 265 2157 179 11.3 25 algeti partskhisi 359 40 1320 50 1900 672 1228 191 23.4 26 mashavera dmanisi 570 25 1660 19 1358 795 623 155 43.0 27 debeda sadakhlo 3790 150 1680 18 480 413 67 174 12.0 results to determine the probabilistic values of maximum river discharges, the annual peak discharges from all individual hydro-catchments were arranged in descending order, from largest to smallest. this approach, representing the simplest form of their distribution, demonstrates that a given maximum discharge on a river can occur multiple times during the observation period, corresponding to the number of values exceeding it in the descending sequence. the integration of values arranged in descending order produces the provision curve, with provision typically expressed as a percentage. according to luchsheva (1976), the corresponding percentage value for each member of the descending sequence is calculated using the following formula: p % = ((m – 0.3) / (n + 0.4)) • 100, where 𝑚 represents the sequence number in the descending order of maximum discharges, and 𝑛 denotes the total number of members in the sequence. based on the parameters reported by basilashvili (2024), the coefficients of variation for the maximum discharges of the rivers under study are notably high (𝐶𝑣≥0.5and asymmetry 𝐶𝑠≥2.0). therefore, in accordance with luchsheva (1976), provision curves were constructed using high-asymmetry cells rather than moderate-asymmetry cells to better reflect the statistical characteristics of the data. using the ordinates of the provision curves and relevant calculations, the probable values of the largest maximum discharges at different provision levels are presented in table 2. each probability value corresponds to a specific recurrence interval, indicating the average number of years in which the corresponding maximum discharge is expected to occur at least once. table 2. probable values of the largest maximum discharges (q m3/s) of the rivers of eastern georgia with different provision (%) and frequency (years) № provision (%) 0,01 0,1 1 2 5 10 20 recurrence (years) 10000 1000 100 80 20 10 5 characterization of waterfalls disastrous very strong strong high moderate average 1 mtkvari khertvisi 930 770 610 560 495 445 390 2 mtkvari minadze 1900 1430 1040 920 770 660 540 3 mtkvari borjomi 2280 1780 1350 1220 1050 920 780 4 mtkvari dzegvi 3880 2960 2180 1950 1700 1440 1200 5 mtkvari tbilisi 4080 3220 2460 2220 1940 1700 1450 6 faravani khertvisi 330 255 198 179 154 135 114 7 potskhovi skhvilisi 960 700 490 425 350 298 240 basilashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 20 8 kvabliani -mlashe 450 328 230 204 168 142 115 9 abastumani abastumani 92 64 42 36 28 24 19 10 borjomula borjomi 187 100 64 56 47 43 37 11 didi liakhvi kekhvi 550 432 330 300 260 228 192 12 patara liakhvi vanati 484 300 173 142 105 80 60 13 ksani – korinta 523 376 245 210 158 136 105 14 aragvi zhinvali 1005 960 840 780 660 530 360 15 white aragvi fasanauri 290 235 178 158 133 110 76 16 black aragvi shesartavi 600 420 260 211 155 114 60 17 pshavi aragvi magaroskari 1450 1100 685 540 390 270 160 18 yori lelovani 556 522 470 430 400 350 250 19 alazani birkiani 820 560 340 280 205 150 90 20 alazani shakriani 1560 1100 890 770 623 504 360 21 ktsia khrami edikilisa 200 160 126 117 104 98 92 22 ktsia khrami dagetkhachini 790 594 420 360 285 230 155 23 ktsia khrami imiri 1200 840 580 490 388 306 280 24 ktsia khrami red bridge 2660 1860 1240 1030 790 600 420 25 algeti partskhisi 490 360 240 203 256 123 84 26 mashavera dmanisi 790 540 335 274 200 147 88 27 debeda sadakhlo 880 744 600 555 485 426 346 it should be emphasised that any probable value of maximum discharge derived at a given provision level provides critical information for assessing the safety of structures and other engineering measures under specific hydrological conditions. such estimates are therefore essential for informed decisionmaking in hydraulic engineering and water resource management. discussions probable values of the largest maximum river discharges, based on observational data available before 1981 and 1991, have been published in earlier studies (water resources, 1988; basilashvili, 2017). a comparison of these historical estimates with the values presented in table 2, derived from data up to 2022, reveals a general reduction in the largest maximum discharges of flash floods across nearly all hydro-catchments in eastern georgia. this reduction is particularly pronounced for high-recurrence discharge events. this trend is likely attributable to changes in the precipitation regime in northeastern georgia, notably a reduction in snow cover. in mountainous terrain, snowmelt during melting periods typically contributes meltwater directly to river channels, and under conditions of heavy rainfall, this process can trigger substantial floods. however, climate warming has extended the warm season, and liquid precipitation is increasingly lost to evaporation and infiltration into dry soils within river basins due to higher air temperatures. consequently, the magnitude of flood discharges has diminished. furthermore, in certain river basins, the area of existing glaciers has already decreased, leading to a corresponding decline in glacial runoff, which further contributes to the observed reduction in maximum flood discharges. conclusion thus, based on stationary observation data up to 2022 from 27 hydro-catchments of rivers in eastern georgia, the projected development of the largest maximum flood discharges has been analysed. through rigorous statistical analysis of a 70–100-year empirical dataset of river discharges, updated and refined probabilistic estimates of the largest maximum flood discharges have been obtained for various provision levels (0.01%, 0.1%, 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%), corresponding to specific recurrence intervals of 10,000, 1,000, 100, 80, 20, 10, and 5 years, respectively. these results are of critical importance for hydroeconomic planning, as they provide the basis for justifying the technical and economic parameters of hydraulic structures and other measures planned along rivers and within their floodplains. moreover, such data support informed decision-making in water resource management and help mitigate potential damages from future flood events. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. basilashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 21 authors’ contribution t.b. and k.b. performed the analytic calculations. m.j. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id tsisana basilashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9976-4670 reference basilashvili ts. (1977). statistical analysis of variables and selection of predictors for prognostic relationships. annotated index of algorithms and programs. world data center, obninsk, pp. 43. basilashvili ts., tabatadze j., janelidze m. (2011). catastrophic flooding in eastern georgia. collected papers tsu, institute of geography, new series № 3 (82), proceedings of international conference “environment and global warming”, tbilisi, 241-246. basilashvili ts., salukvadze m., tsomaia v., kherkheulidze g. (2012). catastrophic of flooding, mudflow and avalanches in georgia and their safety. georgian technical university. tbilisi basilashvili ts. (2017). parameters of peak discharges on mountain rivers of georgia, trends of change and the scope development. proceedings of international conference landscape dimensions of sustainable development: science – planning – covernance. tsu, tbilisi, pp. 224-235. basilashvili ts. (2024). specifics of the maximum discharges of floods on the rivers of eastern georgia. https://doi.org/10.36073/1512-0902-2024-135-08-12 luchsheva a.a. (1976). practical hydrology. hydrometeoizdat, leningrad. fundamental characteristics of hydrology. (1967). vol. 9, issued 1, gimiz, leningrad fundamental characteristics of hydrology. (1977). vol. 9, issued 1, gimiz, leningrad fundamental characteristics of hydrology. (1978). vol. 9, issued 1, gimiz, leningrad state water cadastre, vol. (1987). vi, georgian ssr, gimiz, leningrad ukleba n. (1967). general hydrology. publishing house of university, tbilisi water resources of transcaucasia. (1988). hydrometeoizdat, leningrad georgian geographical journal effect of physical and human geographical features on the results of elections-comparative analysis of different countries ivane makharadze1,* 1 webster university * corresponding author: ivikomakharadze3@gmail.com introduction electoral geography is a new and very interesting sub-direction of the human geography field. it is a helpful indicator to predict final results, election winners or outcomes, even in the first hours of vote counting, but for correct predictions, we should know our countries' trends based on the single regions or even single polling stations. in the united states of america, we cannot imagine election nights without electoral maps anymore. especially after 2008, all major cable networks work based on electoral geographical trends, not state by state or even county by county, to predict the final results of their elections. then this sub-direction of human geography spread across other countries in europe and later in developing countries, such as turkey and brazil. unfortunately, electoral geography is not georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1) 109-118 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract electoral geography is a new and interesting sub-direction of human geography. it includes finding out the tendencies that are revealed by electorate at the polling stations. then, election results and tendencies in general, are transferred into geographical space. the main goal of electoral geography is to reach conclusions from pondering these tendencies. these conclusions are interesting for people who work in human geography, also for candidates and political parties and for ordinary people, who are interested in the results of upcoming elections, results can be easily predicted if we know the tendencies of electoral geography of our country. unfortunately, electoral geography as a science is not developed in georgia. that is the main reason why i have decided to choose this topic for our conference. i have also decided to choose georgia as one of the countries while conducting comparative analysis of electoral geography of different countries in this survey. despite being young state, from the electoral map of georgia we can find out some interesting tendencies. i think my decision will be a good donation in the process of developing electoral geography as a science in georgia. my survey will not be only about the dependence of election results on human geographical features such as language, religion of the people, culture and ethnicity, but also on the physical geographical features, such as terrains and proximity to the sea. we will find out if the countries show similar or different tendencies. in this thesis we will use different research methods: historical analysis will be massively used, because while speaking about the electoral tendencies of different states, we need to compare election results of different years to one another. also, we will have a general cartographical description of regions and subdivisions of countries which have been chosen. we will also analyze detailed electoral maps region-by-region, city-by-city. in survey the most important human geographical features of regions will be observed, such as density, literacy rate, average salary, average age of the population, hdi, ethnicity, religion, language…. the method of data comparison will be used, as the aim of the research is to find out electoral tendencies of different countries, we must compare the results of elections of different years and reach interesting conclusions. keywords: elections, geography, turkey, usa, georgia citation: makharadze, i. effect of physical and human geographical features on the results of elections-comparative analysis of different countries. geographical journal 2024, 5(1), 109-118. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.10 mailto:ivikomakharadze3@gmail.com https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4869-0416 makharadze. 2025 5(1) 2 popular in georgia yet; our networks do not have specialists who can explain results from polling stations on a wider scale and, based on it, predict election results. this is a main motivation for me. i do believe that this study field should become popular in our country, especially as we are a developing nation; political parties and organisations should build their campaigns on the awareness of this science. i hope that my survey will be helpful in the process of developing this sub-direction in our country. in this study, we will identify the major trends in electoral geography across different countries. i chose the us because it invented electoral geography and has the most accurate data. turkey – as one of the islamic countries where we have competitive elections – and georgia, as it is our country, and my interest is to make this field more popular than it is right now. we will also have a comparative analysis of the trends of these countries and find out their similarities and differences. we will analyse results of different elections of selected countries, their electoral maps and trends based on geographical features, such as demographics and physical geography. methods and materials as studying electoral geography involves analysing how geographical factors affect electoral outcomes, it requires a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as different materials. in this study we will usually use electoral data analysis, which involves statistical analyses of voting results, voter turnout and turnout of different demographic groups. techniques include regression analysis, correlation studies and cluster analysis to identify trends based on the time and period in history. we will also use gis (geographic information systems); they are essential because of their helpful role in visualising electoral data, identifying patterns, and analysing the impact of geographical factors like urbanisation, terrain, and topography. we will also use demographic and socioeconomic analysis, as it is a main and vital part in terms of people’s behaviour in front of their ballots. case studies – as we have three different countries in this study and different elections to study, we will use a method called case study, as we need in-depth studies of specific regions or elections to provide detailed insights into the influence of geography on election results. materials which are going to be used in this study are voting records, voter turnout data, polls and surveys, and demographics of different regions of the countries, as analysis of election results should be made based on these demographical data. we will also use census data and political boundary maps to find out if the boundaries are correct or if there is a factor of gerrymandering in the outcome. we will also use secondary sources such as government reports and academic articles and books about this issue. results in this survey two tables are used: table 1 and table 2table 1table represents detailed results of 2012 parliamentary elections of georgia. it compares outcomes of 10 biggest urban areas and 10 smallest mainly rural towns to underline the difference between results from these geographical areas. it also compares mountains and seashores to demonstrate how different people in the mountainous regions and seashore cities behave during the elections. table 2table represents detailed results of 2021 local election of georgia. it compares outcomes of big urban areas to the rural towns to demonstrate different electoral results. it also compares mountainous regions to the seashores. table 1. results of 2012 parliamentary elections in georgia party nationwide heavily 10 10 mountains seashore populated biggest smallest by cities towns minorities gd 54.97% 26.6% (61.7% 40% (45% (56% 28.3%) (+6.73) 14.97%) 9.97%) (+1.03%) unm 40.34% 70.8% 36.4% (54% 51% 41% (+30.5%) 3.9%) (+13.6%) (+10.6%) others 4.69% 2.6% (-2%) 2% (6% 4% 3% ( 2.69%) (+2.69%) (+2.69%) 1.69%) makharadze. 2025 5(1) 3 table 2. results of 2021 local elections of georgia general general capital 5 biggest 5 smallest mountains results results cities cities* towns* gd 46.7% 40.39 (39% (52% (53% 6.31%) 7,7%) 5.3%) (+6.3%) pro51.3% 58.01% about 46% (43% ( western (+6.71%) 60% 5.3%) 8.3%) opposition* (+8.7%) others* 2% 1.6% (1% (-1%) 4% (+2%) 4% (+2%) 0.4%) electoral geography, usa in the united states of america, electoral geography as a sub-direction of human geography is very popular. there have not been single election night without big boards and electoral maps. specialists analysing election results state by state and county by county on electoral maps and they conclude major tendencies. this usually happens on all major tv networks, such as cnn, msnbc, fox, and cbs. president of the usa is not directly elected by the people. people in every state elects electoral college delegates and whoever wins a state it takes all electoral votes. number of electoral votes for every state is depend on its population and is calculated by this formula: number of state congressional districts+ number of senators (2 in every state), so for example, california has 52 congressional districts based on 2020 census and 2 senators, so the biggest state of the union has 54 electoral college delegates and usually all of them goes to democratic party. in us we have two major parties (fig. 1). republicans and democrats. majority of republicans are conservatives, they are pro-life, so they support ban of abortion. they were against same-sex marriage, majority of them does not support strict gun control. democrats are usually liberals, they are pro-choice, so they support abortion, they supported same-sex marriage, liberal economies and strengthening alliances around the world to defend democracy from terrorism and states such as iran and russia. today, republicans controlled by maga group aspiring towards more conservatism and democrats becoming more and more liberals, so environment becomes more polarized than it was years ago. as we know ideologies of political parties, now we can see geographical features of us elections and conclude some trends on it. this is electoral map of the us presidential election. blue states are state that always vote for democratic nominee, red states are leaning towards republicans and yellow states are so-called swing states. neither blue nor red states are not enough to earn 270 electoral vote in presidential election without yellow states, so candidate cannot become president by only blue or by only red states. figure 1. us electoral geography. red, blue and swing states. source: (burr, 2024) makharadze. 2025 5(1) 4 which states are blue? blue states are the state which have a great economy, majority of their population lives through coastlines and states in which we have major urban areas or megapolises. for example, california. the biggest state in the us, won by biden by more than 5 million votes and by hillary clinton by more than 4 million votes. california always votes for democrats thanks to major population centers, such as losangeles, san-francisco and san-diego. let’s talk about illinois. which is one of the biggest state in the us (fig. 2). it is clear that majority of counties of illinois has been won by donald trump, but trump has been blown out of the water by hillary clinton. because it is true that majority of the counties are red, but we have one huge blue county in the north-eastern part of the state and it is great city of chicago. hillary clinton earned more than 70% in chicago and that’s why she won illinois by double digit margin. on the other hand, republicans are winning state in which there are no major population centers so urbanization is relatively low (fig. 3). figure 2. illinois 2016 presidential election map. source: (bentle, 2019) figure 3. us electoral map county by county makharadze. 2025 5(1) 5 but in the swing states we have a situation that number of people in a major population centers and people in rural areas are approximately same. so, in these states everything comes down to suburban electorate, they can swing to republicans or democrats depend on the nominees and environment, for example, in 2016 hillary clinton lost because of wisconsin and michigan. in michigan, hillary won detroit by a huge margin, but lost rural areas by double digits, so everything came down to suburban areas, where trump won narrowly and carried this huge state. same happened in wisconsin (fig. 4). if we only see map n1, we will be sure that republican nominee won the election, because 70% of the counties have been won by him, but then we should see the second map. big cities, coastlines and urban areas voting for democrats and in the middle of the country, which is a mountainous region republican is ahead. in these republican counties, population is low, but counties are big by area, density is very low, they are rural counties and that’s why it seems on the first map that red won by a landslide. after analysing electoral maps of the united state, one thing is absolutely clear: nominees of republican party, which are conservatives are winning in mountainous regions, rural and suburban counties and more liberals winning coastlines and big urban areas, states where we have urbanization more than 70%. after the us, we will also review turkey and georgia and find out if the trends are same or different. electoral geography, turkey figure 4. “land does not vote, people do” figure 5. results of turkish presidential election. source: leatherby makharadze. 2025 5(1) 6 while having research about turkish electoral geography, we have a lack of materials and data compare to the united states of america, where electoral geography as a sub-direction of human human geography is the most developed. but we can still make some conclusions based on geographic factors such as division between urban and rural areas and we can compare it to the us (fig. 5). first of all, in turkish politic we have three major parties. one is ak parti, which is led by erdogan. second main opposition, chp party of once mustafa kemal ataturk, which supports ideas of secularism and modern liberal-centrism. we should underline that chp supports modern time secularism and defending of rights of minorities, such as lgbt rights for example, which is very unusual for islamic society. istanbul was the first city of the islamic world, where pride festival has been held, under mayor erkem imamoglu, who received 54.22% in 2019 controversial election of mayor of istanbul. third strong party is pro-kurdish regional party, which is always ahead in southeastern party of turkey (fig. 6). the tendencies of the us elections are that democratic party always wins urban areas and states where percentage of urban population is much more than rural. now we should compare data of turkish election to the outcomes of the us and see if tendencies are similar or different. kemal kilicdaroglu, candidate of chp, backed by liberal and centrist population, wins: istanbul (first biggest city of the nation), ankara (second biggest city of the nation). izmir (third biggest city of the nation), antalya (5-th biggest city of turkey) and other big urban centers such as: mersin, adana, antakya, diyarbakir. to sum these results up in urban areas: (results based on 10 biggest cities of turkey). figure 6. daily sabah election results in 10 biggest cities (daily sbah election results 2023, 2024) figure 7. daily sabah, election results 2023 in 10smallest cities, (daily sbah election results 2023, 2024) makharadze. 2025 5(1) 7 now, we can sum results of 10 less populated towns of turkey: difference is clear. kilicdaroglu won big cities but lost more rural areas heavily (fig. 7). tendencies are absolutely similar to the us. more conservative parties winning in mountainous regions and rural areas, more liberal parties winning in major urban population centers. electoral geography, georgia georgia was back on the political map of the world in 1991. the first competitive election in the country since it regaining independence from soviet empire was held in 2008, where incumbent president mikheil saakashvili was running against levan gachechiladze, who was a nominee of “national council”, badri patarkatsishvili was also running, he was pro-russian candidate. it was a time when mikheil saakashvili was very popular in georgia. he has won this election by avoiding runoff, received 54.7% of the votes, but if we look to the geographical features of this election, we will see that saakashvili won because of landslide victory in regions and southern georgia, where ethnical and religious minorities live and they always support governments heavily. but, it was the first time, when incumbent president lost capital city, we can consider it as the first signal that georgia was inclined towards the tendencies of different countries. opposition candidate was supported by the biggest city of the nation. in 2012, we have the first peaceful transfer of power since regaining independence. unm, party of mikheil saakashvili was defeated by gd, party of bidzina ivanishvili, which was coalition of 6 different parties in 2012 (fig. 8). figure 8. map of 2012 parliamentary elections in georgia. source: (livny, babych, mzhavanadze 2017) figure 9. results of presidential election of georgia 2018: bluegd backed salome zourabichvili, redunm candidate grigol vashadze makharadze. 2025 5(1) 8 we will start detailed analyse of 2012 election map: detailed analyses of the results of 2012 elections shows same trends as in turkey and the us. opposition gd, which was center-liberal party in 2012, standing for human rights, wins big urban cities, capital city and seashores, which are active economically. more conservative opposition unm wins ethnical minorities and small towns, rural areas and is tie with gd in suburban areas. the next election which will be researched in this survey is 2021 local elections of georgia, i skipped 2020 because of untraditional environment because of pandemic. results of presidential election of georgia 2018: salome zourabichvili38.6%, grigol vashadze 37.7%. we have same trends on the map of 2018 presidential election as we had in 2012. difference is that in 2012 government was unm and southern georgia heavily populated with ethnical and religious minorities has been won by the, but now it totally changed as gd took over the power, this region has been won by gd. it proves that southern georgia populated by minorities vote for government and i think it has its reasons. firs, these minorities have feeling that they are not equal citizens as ethnically georgians, so they don’t want to be opposition of government. second, because of different language and informational vacuum, they have no access to every information necessary, news and announcements of political figures. this has its influence on their decision. also, georgia is hybrid democracy and manipulation with the votes of minorities, especially who lives in the rural areas is easy for government (fig. 9). as in 2012, opposition wins in capital city and in major urban areas, but government backed zourabichvili wins in villages, rural areas, mountainous regions and among ethnical minorities. trends are exactly the same, as in 2012. this gives us opportunity to conclude that in georgia opposition, which was more liberal than government in 2012 and which is more liberal than the government now, is strong in the capital city and big urban areas, but they lose because of big margins among ethnical minorities and rural areas. therefore, georgian trends are the same of turkey, which has many similarities to the electoral geography of the united states of america. results of local elections of georgia 2021: we had reached a conclusion above, but to be sure by 100%, i decided to analyse one more election season in georgia, local elections 2021 (i skipped 2020 because it was held under unusual circumstances, which was caused by covid-19 global pandemic). in 2021 we had local elections in georgia. georgian dream received about 47% of the votes, 52% was received by pro-western opposition. (100-47% of alliance of patriots of georgia). but the results were different by urbanization, ethnicity and terrains: 1) pro-western opposition (“unm” + “gakharia for georgia” + “lelo” + “aleko elisashvili citizens”, + “girchimore freedom” + “european georgia” + “elene khoshtaria-droa”, + “girchi” + “labour party of georgia” 2) others: pro-russian opposition parties: “alliance of patriots of georgia” and “nation” 3) 5 biggest citiestbilisi, kutaisi, batumi, rustavi, zugdidi 4) 5 smallets townskazbegi, lentekhi, mestia, oni, aspindza 5) mountainsmountinous regions of georgiasvaneti, mtianeti. with the election of political parties, we had mayoral races in 2021. opposition candidate lead or tied in the second round in 4 out of 5 biggest cities of georgia (unm candidate leaded in zugdidi, batumi, kutaisi. tied in rustavi and was behind in tbilisi). about 80% of municipalities, which has been won by gd candidates by margin to avoid runoff (50%+1), is rural and suburban, without big urban population detailed analyses of 2008, 2012, 2018 and 2021 election proves once more that georgia has its trends in terms of electoral geography. there is a clear contrast between rural and urban areas, coastlines and mountains, majorities and minorities. so, it has similarities to turkey and the united states of america. conclusion in this survey, we reviewed the electoral geography of three different countries and researched major tendencies of the electorate based on their geographical environment. research indicated that geographical division makes a huge controversy on electoral maps. coastlines and cities with ports always lean to more liberal candidates and parties or more diversity in the political process. this has some reasons: first, coastlines usually have a more diverse population than rural areas; such diversity can lead the electorate to more progressive views. mountainous regions are characterised by rural populations that tend to lead conservative, traditional lifestyles, which means that progressive ideas and modern culture require more time to become integrated into their daily lives. the second reason is makharadze. 2025 5(1) 9 economy. industries like tourism, finance, and technology often drive coastal economies. education is the third factor, as educated individuals tend to support progressive ideas more than those without a university education. the fourth reason is urbanisation; coastlines and big cities usually have more universities and urban amenities which are attractive for young people, and these demographics always support progressive ideas and liberal political groups. in contrast, the majority of the rural population in every country are older generations which do not support globalisation, liberal policies and change of lifestyle. research showed us that the hypothesis of our thesis – the results of elections in the democratic countries of the world and regions of these countries directly depend on human and physical geographical features of the nation – has been proven true. election results are largely dependent on geographical features. for example, if turnout is much higher in urban areas and coastline cities, liberal candidates have more chance to earn more support than conservatives; if turnout is higher in mountainous regions and rural areas, conservatives have more chance. we saw the 2016 us presidential election, which was won by donald trump because of huge turnout in rural areas and suburban men, which was considered a “rural revolt” against liberal hillary clinton. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. orcid id ivane makharadze https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4869-0416 reference livny, e., babich, y., mzhavanadze, g. (2017). georgia’s democracy: the puzzle of a red country turning blue. https://iset-pi.ge/en/blog/190-georgia-s-democracy-the-puzzle-of-a-red-country-turning-blue leatherby, l. new-york times, turkey election maps, why erdogan is headed to runoff https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/15/world/europe/turkey-election-results.html bentle, k. (2019). in illinois, chicago-area, clinton votes overtook rest of state. chicago times. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2016/11/09/in-illinois-chicago-area-clinton-votes-overtook-rest-of-state https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4869-0416 https://iset-pi.ge/en/blog/190-georgia-s-democracy-the-puzzle-of-a-red-country-turning-blue https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/15/world/europe/turkey-election-results.html https://www.chicagotribune.com/2016/11/09/in-illinois-chicago-area-clinton-votes-overtook-rest-of-state https://orcid.org/0009-0000-4869-0416 georgian geographical journal 3d model of morphostructure of the crystalline basement of the georgian caucasus levan basheleishvili1 , giorgi beridze1* , badri gogia2 1 al. janelidze institute of geology of iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 rmg gold/copper, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: giorgi.beridzegeolinst@gmail.com introduction in the structure of the upper part of the earth's crust of the caucasus, one of the main structural and tectonic elements is its crystalline basement, which was formed by the processes of pre-alpine tectono-magmatic cycles and in the modern structure represents a rigid basement for the thick, mainly mesozoic-cenozoic sedimentary, volcanogenic, and volcanogenic-sedimentary deposits. georgia is a part of the caucasus, which represents a complicated polycyclic geological structure involving mountain fold systems of the greater and lesser caucasus and adjacent foredeeps and intermountain troughs. paleomagnetic and paleo kinematic, as well as traditional geological data (character of sedimentation and magmatism, geology and age of ophiolites, paleoclimatic and paleogeographic data), indicate that with a typical oceanic crust, which separates the afro-arabian and eurasian continental plates, in the geological past relatively small continental or subcontinental plates (terranes) were situated, having diverse geodynamic nature and characterized by specific lithologic-stratigraphic section and magmatic, metamorphic, and structural features (gamkrelidze, 1997). during the late precambrian, paleozoic, and early mesozoic times, these terranes experienced horizontal displacement in different directions within the oceanic area of proto-paleoand mesotethys (neotethys) and underwent mutual accretion and ultimately joined the eurasian continent. in the caucasian segment of the mediterranean mobile belt, the greater caucasian, black sea-central transcaucasian, baibut-sevanian, and iran-afghanian terranes, which in geological past represented island arcs or microcontinents, are identified. in terms of modern basis, they represent accretionary terranes of the first order separated by trustworthy or supposed ophiolite sutures of different ages. terranes of the first order, in their turn, consist of a great number of subterranes delimited as a rule by deep faults (gamkrelidze, 1997). the territory of georgia covers the southern part of the greater caucasian terrane, the black seacentral transcaucasian terrane, and the northern part of the baiburt-sevanian terrane (somkhitokarabakh subterrane). each of these units is characterized by distinctive rocks that were formed under different geodynamic conditions (gamkrelidze & shengelia, 2005). recently, using u-pb la-icp-ms dating of zircons, the ages of their constituent metamorphites and granitoids have been established. in particular, within the exposed part of the greater caucasian georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 4-13 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract thus, for the first time for georgia and the region, a plasticine model of the morphotectonics of the crystalline basement was created on a horizontal scale of 1:500 000 m and a vertical scale of 1: 200 000, which contributed to a clear visualization of the morphostructure of one of the main structural-tectonic elements of the upper part of the caucasus crust within georgia. the technique for reproducing the plasticine model of the morphology of the relief of a crystalline basement consists in removing the mass of plasticine that corresponded to a thick sedimentary cover below the zero mark, and above this mark, on the contrary, in building up to the required height. as a result, the obtained model clearly shows the modern picture of the relief morphology of the crystalline basement, and its mosaic-block structure. keywords: georgia, crystalline basement, structural geology, 3d model citation: basheleishvili, l.; beridze, g.; gogia, b. 3d model of morphostructure of the crystalline basement of the georgian caucasus. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 4-13. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.01 basheleishvili et al. 2024, vol.4(2) terrane (in the main range zone of the greater caucasus) based on the study of the in situ zircons from metamorphozed and granitoid rocks the following figures were obtained: 1) 626±2 and 627±19 million years, which corresponds to the earliest – cadomian (late precambrian) stage of regional metamorphism, 2) 461±5.3 million years and 457±12 million years, which corresponds to the caledonian (late early paleozoic early late paleozoic) stage of regional metamophism, 3) figures 454±9, 468±5 and 471.7±4.6 million years obtained for granitoid rocks corresponds to caledonian tectogenesis, 4) figures: 312.5±4 and 317.0±8.3 million years correspond to regressive regional associated with late variscan (late paleozoic) tectogenesi,s and 5) figures: 309±8, 310.9, 325±4 ma, 311±5.9 and 357±5.9 ma, corresponding to the formation of synmetamorphic late variscan granitoids. these data are in good agreement with geological and petrological data for the greater caucasus (gamkrelidze et al., 2020). within the exposed part of the black sea-central transcaucasian terrane – in the dzirula crystalline massif, five genetic and age-types of zircons are distinguished: 1) detrital zircon >1200 ma; 2) zircon formed presumably at the grenville stage of regional metamorphism 1000800 ma; 3) zircon developed during the crystallization of quartz-diorite orthogneisses 650-540 ma (baikalian stage); zircon 4) formed presumably during the crystallization of tonalite-granitic series 530-500 ma (late baikalian stage of regional metamorphism) and 5) zircon formed during the crystallization of late variscan granitoids and also under the impact of high-temperature fluids over pre-late variscan rocks – 330-310 ma (gamkrelidze et.al., 2011). in the khrami crystalline massif of the same terrane, the results of age determination of 26 zircon crystals from the late variscan potassic granitoids by u-pb la-icp ms dating show the mean age 325.6±2.3 ma covering the interval 319-332±6 ma. only in one case, in the crystal core, the hereditary age 931±6 ma is determined, which presumably corresponds to the grenville stage of regional metamorphism of the neoproterozoic gneiss-migmatite complex (tediashvili, 2013). in the loki crystalline massif of the baiburt-sevanian terrane (in the somkhito-karabakh subterrane), u-pb zircon age of gneissose quartzdiorites is 370±59-35 ma (bartnitsky et al., 1992; vashakidze, 1999; vashakidze, 2000), but k-ar age of granitoids is 327±6 ma (vashakidze, 2000; dudauri et. al., 1999). these data confirm without a doubt that quartz diorites are pre-late variscan (late devonian) and granites are late variscan formations. on the surface, rocks of the crystalline basement are exposed in the form of salients at different hypsometric levels (the central zone of uplift of the crystalline core of the greater caucasus 35005000 m (fig. 2), dzirula-1000 m, loki, and khrami 1200-1300 m massifs). in the rest of the territory, the crystalline basement is buried under thick meso-cenozoic sediments. according to the available literature data (gudzhabidze & gamkrelidze, 2009; gamkrelidze et al., 2013), the crystalline basement is dissected by latitudinal, meridional, and diagonal faults, which create a picture of its mosaic-block structure. its individual sections are located at different hypsometric levels, where the surface of the basement is located above sea level at a maximum altitude of 5000 m, and below this level it is maximum at a depth of 12000-14000 m (fig. 3). basheleishvili et al 2024, vol.4(2) figure.1. active seismic faults of the territory of georgia basheleishvili et al 2024, vol.4(2) figure.2. pass subzone of the greater caucasus main range zone maximum uplift mark of crystalline substrate from the sea level. dashed line indicates the main thrust zone. figure. 3. guria trough – one of the most subsided areas of the crystalline substrate – 9000 m [22] methodology for creating a model to implement the 3d model, plasticine bars were taken as the main material, and after melting it into a pre-prepared container, a volumetric plasticine briquette with parameters 60 cm 10 cm 110 cm was obtained, where the upper horizontal surface corresponded to zero isohypsum, i.e., sea level. a tectonic map of georgia was drawn on this surface at a scale of 1:500,000 (gamkrelidze et al., 2013). then, because of the analysis of numerous geological and geophysical profiles of the territory basheleishvili et al. 2024, vol.4(2) of georgia, the modern morphology of the crystalline basement was reconstructed where below the zero isohypsum, part of the material that corresponded to the sedimentary cover was removed. further, in some areas where the substrate rises above the zero isohypsum, it was necessary to complete the construction according to the existing geological and tectonic maps (gudzhabidze & gamkrelidze, 2009; gamkrelidze et al., 2013) on which surface outcrops of crystalline rocks are recorded in the area of the central uplift of the main range of the greater caucasus, dzirula, khrami, loki, and gveleti massifs. as a result, a picture of the modern morphology of the surface of the crystalline basement was obtained, the vertical scale of which corresponds to 1:200,000. analyzing numerous literary data on geological and geophysical structure in the form of many profiles, unfortunately, we have to note significant discrepancies between some authors in the interpretation of data on the deep structure, which raises doubts about the choice of an optimally objective profile (gamkrelidze et al., 2013a; krasnopevtsova, 1966; gamkrelidze, 1976; terekhov, 1979; basentsyan et al., 1981; gamkrelidze, 1984; yusupkhodzaev et al., 1986; basheleishvili, 1987; ioseliani et al., 1989; philip et al., 1989; banks et al., 1997; nadareishvili, 2002; pangani et al., 2003; basheleishili & kloshvili 2004; kundadze et al., 2005; gamkrelidze et al., 2013b, jmauvilly et al., 2016; gusmeo et al., 2021; mosar et. al., 2022; gamkrelidze et. al., 2024; cavazza, et al., 2024) we gave preference to those profiles that were compiled based on geological data. lithological-sedimentary, stratigraphic, and thickness data morphostructure of the crystalline basement the formation of the modern morphostructure of the crystalline basement within georgia is largely determined by a fault network of latitudinal, meridional, and diagonal strike, covering different depths of the earth's crust. analysis of the lithofacies and thickness of the sedimentary cover developed within their boundaries indicates their autonomous and inversional nature of development. subsequently, when constructing a model of the surface of the crystalline substrate, we removed the entire mass of the sedimentary cover (fig. 4). as is known, faults in the earth's crust often change their character with depth and become gentler, representing thrusts and nappes. the model we constructed reflects the modern hypsometric position of the basement surface. the most elevated area is the area of the main range of the greater caucasus, from 2000 m to 5000 m. from the south, the marked structure is limited mainly by the main caucasian thrust, the plane of which dips at an angle of 50-60. the total vertical amplitude of this thrust is more than 16 km and can be traced throughout the entire stretch. only to the west of the city of sokhumi does the amplitude decrease to 8-10 km. this thrust is the southern border of the greater caucasus terrane and the northern border of the black sea-central transcaucasian terrane. this kind of subsidence also appears further south, in the zone of the gebi-lagodekhi fault, where the depth of the basement subsidence is 10-12 km. within the georgian block, the crystalline basement is also located at different hypsometric levels, but within its limits, meridional and submeridional faults predominate (gudzhabidze & gamkrelidze, 2009). five blocks are distinguished in the western colchis subsidence zone. of these, the most submerged part (10-12 km) is in the ochamchire-kulevi block. in the eastern direction, the basement rises stepwise, and around the dzirula salient, it reaches the surface at around +1000 m. following to the east, within the kura depression, the basement again sinks stepwise through listric faults (basheleishvili 1993; basheleishvili, 1999), and around the middle kura depression (in the dedoplistskaro area) it plunges to a maximum depth of 12-14 km. within the adjara-trialeti zone, the basement is quite dissected. this is especially clearly expressed in the latitudinal structures, but at the same time, a meridional zonality emerges (gamkrelidze, 1976). its western and eastern parts are immersed at the lowest levels (12-14 km), and the central part rises to zero value, and above this area within the adjara-trialeti corresponds to the transcaucasian transverse elevation of the northwestern strike. this refers to the trialeti cordillera or the peli–uriuli uplift. the crystalline basement within the javakheti highlands is located higher, where, in addition to the surface outcrops of the loki and khrami massifs, at an altitude of 1200-1300 m above sea level, a dive of up to 3000-4000 m is noted. basheleishvili et al 2024, vol.4(2) figure. 4. 3d model of morphostructure of the crystalline basement within georgia (plasticine); scale: horizontal 1: 500000, vertical 1:200 000 (https://obsidian4d.nira.app/a/ca9qqjcctx22s4js-1cknq/1) https://obsidian4d.nira.app/a/ca9qqjcctx22s4js-1cknq/1 basheleishvili et al 2024, vol.4(2) figure. 5. 3d model of morphostructure of the crystalline basement within georgia basheleishvili et al. 2024, vol.4(2) conclusion thus, for the first time for georgia and the region, a plasticine model of the morphotectonics of the crystalline basement was created on a horizontal scale of 1:500,000 and a vertical scale of 1:200,000, which contributed to a clear visualization of the morphostructure of one of the main structuraltectonic elements of the upper part of the caucasus crust within georgia. the technique for reproducing the plasticine model of the morphology of the relief of a crystalline basement consists of removing the mass of plasticine that corresponded to a thick sedimentary cover below the zero mark and, above this mark, on the contrary, building up to the required height. as a result, the resulting model clearly shows the modern picture of the morphology of the relief of the crystalline basement and its mosaic-block structure. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution l.b., g. b., and b.g. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank mrs. tamar tsutsunava, director of the alexandre janelidze institute of geology, for the financial support of the work. orcid id levan basheleishvili https://orcid.org/ 0009-0002-6286-7710 giorgi beridze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9573-8600 badri gogia https://orcid.org/0009-0005-9686-6363 reference banks, c. j., robinson, a. g., & williams, m. p. 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[model of the lithosphere of the crimean-caucasian-central asian region (along the varna-tbilisi-chardzhou-tashkent geotraverse)]. ussr, moscow, nauka. georgian geographical journal assessment of the climate change impact on the characteristic parameters of freezing in georgia by regions naili kapanadze1,* , marika tatishvili1,2* , irine mkurnalidze1 , ana palavandishvili1,2 1 weather forecast and disaster modeling department of institute of hydrometeorology of georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia 2 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: m.tatishvili@gtu.ge introduction agriculture is widely recognized as one of the most vulnerable sectors to climate change across the globe. variations in temperature and precipitation regimes, evapotranspiration rates, and soil moisture—along with the increasing frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts, floods, and heavy rainfall—lead to soil degradation, erosion, and nutrient depletion. these processes reduce agricultural productivity and negatively impact both the quantity and quality of food production. in georgia, complex topography, diverse meteorological conditions, and significant anthropogenic pressures create particularly favourable conditions for the occurrence of various natural hazards. recent decades have seen a marked increase in the frequency of such events, driven by deviations from longterm climatic norms in precipitation, air temperature, humidity, and other meteorological parameters. these deviations amplify the occurrence of catastrophic processes within the broader context of global climate change. among the hydrometeorological hazards affecting georgian agriculture, frost represents one of the most significant threats. notably, frost—despite its substantial impacts—has not been included in the internationally standardized classification of hazards established by the united nations in the 2015 sendai framework for disaster risk reduction (sendai framework 2015–2030) (ndrr / isc sendai hazard definition and classification review, technical report, 2019; kapanadze et al., 2023). nonetheless, frost continues to inflict considerable damage on agricultural systems in georgia, as well as in many other countries worldwide (mkurnalidze et al., 2023). given this context, there is growing scientific interest in assessing the impacts of contemporary climate change on frost characteristics across different regions of georgia. such assessments require the analysis of observational data from individual meteorological stations, which are located within diverse climatic zones and may therefore exhibit variations in frost dynamics under changing climatic conditions (kapanadze et al., 2023; kapanadze et al., 2024). accordingly, the central objective of this study is to quantify changes in the frost-free period—a key temperature-based indicator of climate change—and to determine the average timing of the last spring frost and the first autumn frost across different regions of georgia. this regional approach will allow georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 12-16 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the change tendency in the duration of the frost-free period in the territory of georgia is analysed by comparing the last 16 years of data (2007-2022) with the similar one of the previous periods (1951-1965). the early, average and late values of the last spring and first autumn frost dates in the study regions were evaluated. it was revealed that in the period 2007-2022 compared to 1951-1965, the average values of frosts shifted earlier for the last spring frost and later for the first autumn frost, which led to frost-free periods increasing and, accordingly, the length of the vegetation period. the map depicting the duration of increased frost-free periods is presented, the trend of increasing frost-free periods under climate change is revealed, and the dependence of these periods on the north atlantic oscillation is also fixed. keywords: spring and autumn freezing, frost-free period, growth trend, north atlantic oscillation citation: kapanadze, n.; tatishvili, m.; mkurnalidze, i.; palavandishvili, m. assessment of the climate change impact on the characteristic parameters of freezing in georgia by regions. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 12-16. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.02 kapanadze et al. 2025 5(2) 13 for a more nuanced understanding of how frost regimes are shifting in response to ongoing climatic transformations. methods and materials to address the research objectives, data from 26 meteorological stations of the ground observation network operated by the national environmental agency of georgia were utilized, covering the period 2007–2022. based on these observational records, the frost-free periods and the dates marking the onset and cessation of freezing were calculated for each region. to assess the influence of climate change, these calculated values were compared with corresponding long-term averages derived from historical climate records (handbook on the climate of the ussr, 1967; handbook on the climate of the ussr, 1971). given that frosts are most pronounced under clear, calm conditions during the incursion of arctic air masses from dry latitudes, it is important to consider broader climatic drivers. one such driver is the arctic oscillation (ao), a key indicator of arctic climate variability that governs the state of atmospheric circulation in the high latitudes. the ao index, available from the climate prediction center (cpc, 2025) was therefore incorporated into this analysis to explore potential links between global climate variability and regional frost dynamics in georgia. the arctic oscillation refers to an atmospheric circulation pattern over the mid-to-high latitudes of the northern hemisphere, whose most notable manifestation is the latitudinal shift of the mid-latitude jet stream. the ao strongly influences weather and climate patterns in north america, europe, and asia, particularly during winter. during the ao’s positive phase, surface air pressure is lower than average over the arctic and higher than average over the northern pacific and atlantic oceans. this configuration shifts the jet stream farther north, redirecting storm tracks and generally reducing the occurrence of cold air outbreaks in the mid-latitudes of north america, europe, siberia, and east asia. conversely, in the ao’s negative phase, surface air pressure is higher than average over the arctic and lower than average over the northern pacific and atlantic oceans. this causes the jet stream to shift toward lower latitudes, facilitating the penetration of frigid polar air into the mid-latitudes and increasing the likelihood of severe frost events. for example, higher frequencies of coastal storms, such as nor’easters in new england, have been linked to the ao’s negative phase. the ao index quantifies these dynamics by measuring surface atmospheric pressure anomalies at 1000 hpa across latitudes 20° n to 90° n. these anomalies are projected onto the ao loading pattern, defined as the first empirical orthogonal function (eof) of monthly mean 1000 hpa geopotential height. the resulting time series is normalized by the monthly standard deviation of the index. variations in the ao index thus directly reflect the degree of arctic air penetration into middle latitudes, with a positive ao index corresponding to stronger zonal winds that confine cold arctic air to the polar region, and a negative ao index corresponding to weaker zonal winds and greater incursions of polar air into temperate regions. by comparing the ao index with frost-free period data from georgia’s regions, this study aims to elucidate potential connections between large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns and local frost dynamics under contemporary climate change. results in spring, advection of warm air masses from the southwest frequently occurs, often persisting for extended periods. this process triggers the premature termination of plant dormancy and initiates the onset of vegetation. however, during this transitional period, arctic and siberian anticyclones frequently invade the entire territory of georgia from the northwest almost simultaneously. such incursions result in sudden cooling and intense frosts, significantly increasing the risk of damage to thermophilic crops. the timing of plant vegetation onset and frost impacts on newly formed organs varies from year to year. identifying these critical timings is essential, as they provide valuable information for predicting the likely dates of frost onset and cessation. this knowledge is crucial for farmers and agricultural practitioners to develop targeted strategies to prevent or mitigate frost-related damage. table 1 presents the average dates marking the beginning and end of frost-free periods for two study intervals (1951–1965 and 2007–2022) across various regions of georgia. the data reveal notable spatial and temporal variations. in samegrelo, the frost-free period begins earliest (march 13 and march 1 for periods i and ii, respectively) and ends latest (december 7 and december 23). this region is followed kapanadze et al. 2025 5(2) 14 by shida kartli, where the average frost-free period spans from march 28 to november 21 in the first period and from march 16 to november 25 in the second period. imereti and adjara-guria follow with slightly shorter frost-free durations. table 1. average dates of the beginning and end of frost-free periods region 1951-1965 2007-2022 shida kakheti 28 iii 21 xi 16 iii 25 xi gare kakheti 7 iv 9 xi 27 iii 25 xi shida kartli 7 iv 4 xi 4 iv 8 xi kvemo kartli 17 iv 27 x 16 iv 30 x mtskheta-mtianeti 18 iv 20 x 18 iv 27 x samtskhe-javakheti 9 v 7x 5 v 12 x imereti 1 iv 20 xi 22 iii 5 ii samegrelo 13 iii 7 xii 1 iii 23 ii adjara-guria 1 iv 24 xi 26 iii 29 xi racha 21 iv – 24 x 13 iv 2 xi conversely, the latest onset of frost-free conditions occurs in samtskhe-javakheti, where average dates for the beginning of frost-free periods are in the first decade of may (may 9 and may 5 for periods i and ii, respectively). the frost-free period in this region ends by october 7 and october 12, yielding the shortest vegetation period of approximately 150–159 days. such variations in frost-free periods across regions underscore the influence of local climatic conditions on agricultural cycles and highlight the importance of region-specific frost prediction for sustainable crop management. overall, in the period 2007–2022, these shifts in frost timing have resulted in a notable increase in the duration of frost-free periods across most regions (fig. 1). this pattern provides empirical evidence of the influence of contemporary climate change on key frost-related climatic parameters. it should also be noted that during the second study period (2007–2022), compared to the earlier period (1951–1965), the average dates of spring frosts tend to occur earlier, while autumn frosts occur later. this shift contributes to a general lengthening of the frost-free period. however, this trend is not uniform across all regions, as some local meteorological data reveal deviations. specifically, at the tsalka station in kvemo kartli and the gori station in shida kartli, the second period records later average dates of spring frosts and earlier dates of autumn frosts compared to the earlier period.fig. 2 shows the distribution of arctic oscillation indices and the duration of frost-free periods averaged by region as a temperature characteristic of climate change in the territory of georgia in the 2007-2022 period. figure 1. change of frost-free periods according to regions 1951-1965 and between 2007-2022 kapanadze et al. 2025 5(2) 15 discussions as illustrated in the figures, a pattern similar to that observed in graphs of frost-free period duration at individual stations (kapanadze et al., 2023; kapanadze et al., 2024; kapanadze, tatishvili et al., 2024) is evident across the regions. specifically, a minor phase shift is observed until approximately 2013, after which each positive phase of the arctic oscillation (ao) corresponds to a relatively extended frost-free period (fig. 2). this consistent relationship suggests that the climate of georgia is, to a notable extent, influenced by global climate variability. conclusion based on the analysis of our results, it can be concluded that contemporary climate change exerts a discernible influence on the key parameters of freezing. this influence is manifested in shifts in the average dates of frost occurrence and an extension of frost-free periods, which correspond to an overall lengthening of the vegetation period. however, changes in the length of the growing season may have both positive and negative implications for crop productivity. an extended growing season can alter the functioning and structure of regional ecosystems, potentially changing the distribution of animal species, facilitating the spread of invasive plants or weeds, and increasing irrigation demands. conversely, a longer warm period may offer agricultural benefits, enabling farmers to obtain multiple and more diverse harvests from the same plots. this could enhance the productivity and stability of agriculture, supporting higher and more reliable yields of crops in specific regions. these contrasting effects highlight the importance of region-specific strategies for adapting agricultural practices to evolving climatic conditions. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution n. k. and m. t. conceived of the presented idea. i. m., a. p. performed the analytic calculations. n. k. and m. t. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id naili kapanadze, http://orchid/0000-0001-7790-8867 marika tatishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3327-2208 ana palavandishvili http://orchid.org/0000-0002-7254-685x irine mkurnalidze http://orchid/0009-0005-5071-4225 figure 2. distribution of the durations of frost-free periods averaged according to regions and arctic oscillation indices in the territory of georgia in the 2007-2022 period http://orchid/0000-0001-7790-8867 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3327-2208 http://orchid.org/0000-0002-7254-685x http://orchid/0009-0005-5071-4225 kapanadze et al. 2025 5(2) 16 reference cpc. (2025, january 1). arctic oscillation. retrieved from cpc.ncep.noaa.gov: https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/cwlink/daily_ao_index/ao.shtm ndrr / isc sendai hazard definition and classification review, technical report, 2019, kapanadze n., tatishvili m., mkurnalidze i., palavandishvili a. classification of hazardous events according to international standards. international scientific conference "geophysical processes in the earth and its envelopes". tbilisi, georgia, november 16-17, 2023. 175-180.isbn 978-9941-36-147-0 mkurnalidze i., kapanadze n. methods for protecting vineyards and orchards from early frosts. scientific reviewed proceedings of the institute of hydrometeorology of the gtu, v.133, 2023, pp. 124-128, issn 1512 – 0902, doi.org/10.36073/ 1512 – 0902. kapanadze, n., tatishvili, m., mkurnalidze, i., palavandishvili, a. anomalies of frost characteristic parameters in the territory of eastern georgia in the background of current climate change. international scientific conference "geophysical processes in the earth and its envelopes", tbilisi, georgia, november 16-17, 2023, 175-180. kapanadze, n., tatishvili, m., mkurnalidze, i., palavandishvili, a. impact of climate change on the freezing characteristic parameters in the samtskhe-javakheti region. transactions ihm, gtu. -2024. -vol.135. 1923. handbook on the climate of the ussr, vol. 14, part i. air temperature. gidrometeoizdat, leningrad, 1971. handbook on the climate of the ussr, vol. 14, part ii. air and soil temperature. gidrometeoizdat, leningrad, 1967. kapanadze, n., tatishvili, m., mkurnalidze, i., palavandishvili, a. impact of current climate change on frost characteristic parameters in western georgia using 2007-2022 year meteorological data. journal of the georgian geophysical society, e-issn: 2667-9973, p-issn: 1512-1127 physics of solid earth, atmosphere, ocean and space plasma, v. 27(1), 2024, pp. 42 – 51 https://ggs.openjournals.ge/index.php/ggs/article/view/7982 georgian geographical journal seasonal ice caves of georgia tamaz karalashvili 1,*, nana bolashvili 1 kukuri tsikarishvili 1 vakhtang geladze 1 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: tamaz.karalashvili@tsu.ge introduction seasonal ice caves occur in various regions of georgia and differ in both origin and morphological characteristics. existing scientific research on seasonal ice caves (natural freezers) within the territory of georgia is predominantly descriptive in nature (kipiani, 1976; kiknadze, 1963; rakviashvili, 1965; tsikarishvili et al., 2010; ukleba, 1960; pirpilashvili, 1960). such caves were documented in georgia as early as the 18th century. in description of the kingdom of georgia (1745), vakhushti bagrationi discusses aspects of the practical use of seasonal ice caves. in particular, during hot summer periods, ice was cut into blocks and transported to the royal palace for various purposes, including the storage of food supplies for the army. despite their long-standing historical and scientific significance, the existence of these natural phenomena remains largely unknown to the general public. most of the seasonal ice caves visited during the present study were found to be collapsed, filled with debris, and difficult to access. this highlights the urgent need for their systematic registration and documentation in order to preserve these natural features for future generations. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(3) 30-33 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract this article examines the seasonal ice caves of georgia, unique physical and geographical formations in which ice forms during summer and melts in winter. similar phenomena, known as seasonal ice caves, occur in many countries worldwide and are characterised by ice accumulation during warm periods and comparatively higher internal temperatures during cold winters. this unusual behaviour has not yet been fully explained scientifically and is therefore often described by local populations as “mystical”. the study presents case analyses of the khorkhebi, khiza, and khikhadziri seasonal ice caves. the aim of the article is to raise awareness of the existence of seasonal ice caves among both the scientific community and the general public and to provide a foundation for potential future research collaboration. keywords: natural freezers, seasonal ice caves, mystical caves citation: karalashvili, t.; bolashvili, n.; tsikarishvili, k.; geladze, v. seasonal ice caves of georgia. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(3), 3033. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.03.04 figure 1. coudersport ice mine https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9854-2614 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5791-9286 karalashvili et al. 2025 5(3) 31 a similar seasonal ice cave was discovered in pennsylvania in 1894. the cave is approximately 121 m deep, 2 m wide, and 3 m long. the ice that forms on its walls, often in the form of icicles, is generally clear and sparkling (patowary, 2016). initially, this cave-freezer was used for food storage; since 1900, it has been transformed into a tourist attraction and continues to be used for this purpose today (fig. 1). methods and materials in 1987, tavartkiladze and kuznetsov developed a mathematical model of the physical process responsible for ice formation in seasonal ice caves, based on the spatial orientation of cave openings in relation to solar radiation (tavartkiladze, 1987). however, these theoretical calculations were not supported by field observations. to validate the model empirically, continuous meteorological observations were required, which proved difficult at the time due to the absence of automatic weather stations. many years later, at the initiative of professor tavartkiladze, a group of scientists from the institute of geography (the authors of the present paper) conducted field investigations in three seasonal ice caves located in different physical–geographical and climatic conditions: the khorkhebi, khiza, and khikhadziri freezers (fig. 2). these field visits were carried out between 2009 and 2012 and enabled direct observation of the processes involved in ice formation (fig. 3). results the results of the initial visual observations indicated that ice formation occurs under varying physical–geographical and geomorphological conditions and develops as a result of the combined influence of climatic factors. despite their scientific importance, the existence of these natural phenomena remains largely unknown. most of the seasonal ice caves examined during fieldwork were found to be collapsed, filled with debris, and difficult to access. this underscores the urgent need for their systematic registration and documentation to ensure their preservation for future generations. all seasonal ice caves examined are developed within upper pliocene dolerite lavas and were formed as a result of tectonic or gravitational processes (fig. 4). a particularly notable seasonal ice cave is located in tetritskaro municipality, within the ktsia– khrami valley, approximately 2.5–3 km from the village of kldeisi. the cave entrance is situated on the southern slope of the bedeni plateau. it is formed within upper pliocene dolerite lavas, among large lava blocks with volumes of 30–40 m³, created by tectonic or gravitational processes. numerous narrow openings occur in this area. one of them—a relatively narrow (0.5–1 m wide) and low passage approximately 10–12 m long—leads to a small chamber 2–2.5 m high. beyond this chamber, a narrow opening connects to a confined space of 3–4 m², where thick ice layers (0.4–0.5 m) are formed. narrow passages between the boulders facilitate the accumulation of cold winter air masses. in summer, water vapour condenses as warm external air mixes with cold air retained between the rock figure 3. khorkhebi natural seasonal ice caves karalashvili et al. 2025 5(3) 32 openings, resulting in the formation of crystal-clear ice blocks on the cave floor and ice crystals on the walls due to low temperatures. during the expedition conducted on 5 august 2009, the air temperature at the cave entrance was 17.4 °c. at a distance of 7 m from the entrance, the temperature decreased to 7.2 °c, while in the iceformation zone it reached 1.0 °c. in summer, ice is also present in other cavities between the boulders. condensation and meltwater drain approximately 0.5 km from the cave, forming a spring locally referred to as a “glacial spring”, with a water temperature of 6.0 °c. discussions according to some researchers, heavy cold air masses accumulate in the depths of the cave in the winter, which freeze the latter when they touch the raised ground water level in the summer and form ice blocks. however, it is not clear how the correlation between ice strength and atmospheric air temperatures can be explained. our opinion is that narrow passages between boulders help to accumulate layers of cold winter air. in addition, by mixing warm air from outside and cold air trapped between the holes, water vapor condenses, creating ice boulders on the bottom of the freezer and ice crystals on the walls due to low temperatures. conclusion it is assumed that the conditions for ice formation in seasonal ice caves depend on the topography and climatic characteristics of the area. disruption of any of these components alters the natural rhythm of ice formation and its contributing factors, which can lead to the loss of this rare natural phenomenon and the potential destruction of the monument itself. a scientific explanation of the processes occurring in seasonal ice caves and the development of a theoretical framework could, in the future, support the creation of energy-efficient refrigeration infrastructure. the practical implementation of the research results opens broad prospects for the development of energy-saving cold storage facilities, which can bring both public and social benefits. moreover, technological advancements in this field do not require above-ground construction or major alterations to the natural landscape. this approach can have a positive impact on both the environment and household economies. research in this field carries significant scientific and economic value; therefore, it is essential to promote and support further investigations in this area. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. figure 4. entrances to the seasonal ice caves karalashvili et al. 2025 5(3) 33 authors’ contribution t.k. and k.ts. took the lead in writing the manuscript. n.b. was responsible for editing the manuscript v.g. collected the historical materials. all authors participated in the field trip, provided critical feedback, and contributed to the research, analysis, and preparation of the manuscript. acknowledgements the authors are grateful to the local residents for their support and guidance in finding the ice cave locations. orcid id nana bolashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9854-2614 kukuri tsikarishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5791-9286 reference bagrationi, v. (1997). geography of georgia. tbilisi. (in georgian) kiknadze, t. z. (1963). formation of cave ice in the karst abyss of vakhushti bagrationi. proceedings of the academy of sciences of the gssr, 31(2), 325–331. (in russian) kipiani, sh. (1976). patterns of distribution of ice and snow caves in georgia. caves of georgia, 91–99. (in georgian) patowary, k. (2016, september 19). a mysterious ice cave that produces ice only during summer. amusing planet. https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/09/a-mysterious-ice-cave-that-produces-ice.html pirpilashvili, p. (1960). the natural ice chamber of skhvara village. bulletin of the georgian academy of sciences, 25(4), 790–798. (in georgian) rakviashvili, k. sh. (1965). some issues in the study of georgia’s ice caves. caves of georgia, 3, 48–51. (in russian) tavartkiladze, k., & kuznetsov, a. (1987). phenomenological model of ice formation in caucasus valleys during summer. bulletin of the georgian academy of sciences, 130(3), 545–548. (in russian) tsikarishvili, k., bolashvili, n., janelidze, z., karalashvili, t., & kutateladze, l. (2010). ice and snow caves and natural ice chambers of georgia. science and technology, 7–9, 28–34. (in georgian) ukleba, d. (1963). the sabatsminda ice chamber. nature of georgia, (6). (in georgian) https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9854-2614 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5791-9286 https://www.amusingplanet.com/2016/09/a-mysterious-ice-cave-that-produces-ice.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com georgian geographical journal supervised machine learning in drought evaluation ana palavandishvili1,2 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia 2 department of engineering physics/informatics and control systems, gtu, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: ana.palavandishvili@tsu.ge introduction big data is a rapidly generated amount of information from a variety of sources and in a different format. data analysis is the examination and transformation of raw data into interpretable information, while data science is a multidisciplinary field of various analyses, programming tools, and algorithms, forecasting analysis statistics, as well as machine learning that aim to recognize and extract patterns in raw data. the applicability of big data techniques is also significantly enhanced by the novel tools that support data collection and integration. the interoperability of the systems can be improved by data warehouses and the related etl (extract, transform, and load) functionalities that can also be used to gather information from multiple models and data sources. artificial intelligence (ai) and machine learning (ml) are also the key enabler technologies of big data analysis (tatishvili et al., 2022a). analysis of big data combines traditional methods of statistical analysis with computational georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 30-37 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract among natural disasters, drought is one of the most common threats to many regions of the world and to georgia as well. the monitoring and prediction methods of drought and precipitation distribution, the possibilities of their application in the reality of georgia are considered in proposed work. simulation methods such as machine learning (ml), namely supervised machine learning (sml), optimal for similar complex tasks are presented as the alternative research methods. to conduct research, 1960-2022 period data were taken from database of national environment agency and the reanalysis data of the 1960-1990 copernicus era5 rainfall, which were compared with the data of the stations on the territory of georgia for the validation purpose. standardized precipitation index (spi) was selected as the research parameter. using the prediction model and algorithm, drought-vulnerable areas in the kakheti region were identified. as a result of comparison, lowest correlation rate was 0.309 at shiraki, maximum was 0.657 at omalo; minimum mean absolute error 1,662 at udabno, the maximum 3,041 in shilda. the smallest standard deviation 4,047 was fixes at udabno, largest 7,624 at lagodekhi. by analyzing stations data and satellite sources, it was determined that using the regression method of machine learning, it is sufficient to evaluate 19602000 period data for learning and 2001-2022 period data for training. the training time of bagged trees optimized algorithm was recorded as 326.21 sec, prediction speed ~ 7900obs/sec, rmse 0.5046, r2-0.64, mse-0.25466, mae-0.38065, training process minimum leaf size 19, and 40 iterations are assigned for optimization. chirps satellite data were taken for next generation of the model. for prediction, it was necessary to calculate linear regression equation for each station. in the first case of forecast scenario, the amount of precipitation was determined from 0 cm to 10 cm. gurjaani was highlighted, where forecast assumed spi value from -0.008 to -0.901, and kvarelithe spi value from -0.002 to -0.138. the use of the presented ml model and algorithm for the analysis of precipitation distribution, drought monitoring and prediction is appropriate for kakheti and other regions too in conditions of proper observation data base (60 years). it is recommended to use obtained results in early warning system for drought monitoring. keywords: drought, machine learning, big data, early warning system. citation: palavandishvili, a. supervised machine learning in drought evaluation. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 30-37 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.04 palavandishvili. 2024 4(2) 31 approaches. the analysis of big data is a synthesis of quantitative and qualitative analyses. climate computing combines multidisciplinary research regarding climatic, data, and system sciences to efficiently capture and analyse climate-related big data as well as to support socio-environmental efforts (tatishvili et al., 2022). the significance of big data in climate-related studies is greatly recognized, and its techniques are widely used to observe and monitor changes on a global scale. it facilitates understanding and forecasting to support adaptive decision-making as well as optimize models and structures. drought is a climatic event that cannot be prevented, but interventions and preparedness to drought can help to: be better prepared to cope with drought; develop more resilient ecosystems; improve resilience to recover from drought; and mitigate the impacts of droughts. methods and materials drought indices have been developed in large numbers and are widely used in drought evaluation, monitoring, and forecasting. machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence. machine learning (ml) algorithms are a set of commands that allow systems to learn and improve from prior data without requiring complex programming. ml techniques have been used to implement prediction or forecasting of drought. these algorithms work by simulating a model from input datasets known as test sets and then using the model findings to forecast, predict, or make various types of judgments in various application domains. various machine learning techniques are extensively used in the prediction of drought. in order to conduct research, available data from the nea database is used. unfortunately, databases aren’t perfect: data series aren’t continuous and are less reliable, which is a big problem for index calculation and machine learning. therefore, era5 reanalysis data were selected for historical data. based on the comparison of satellite chiprs and imerg information, it was determined that chirps has a good correlation with the data of the stations in the territory of georgia (tatishvili et al., 2023). those stations where 50% of the data were missing or did not correspond to reality were not subjected to analysis. als, the satellite cannot perceive the mountainous region; the sea is not subject to observation because a filter (mask) has been applied, so in many cases it is impossible to obtain satellite data on the coastline; in this case, a nearby grid box of another grid must be selected. figure 1 shows a list of stations with insufficient data and whose data were not subjected to statistical analysis, and figure 2 shows the results of the inventory of all (50) stations made using the program rinstat and covers the 2000-2020 period. figure 1 shows a list of stations with insufficient data and whose data were not subjected to statistical analysis a comparison of chirps and station data was made, for which the systematic error (bias) was calculated, which refers to the estimation of the difference between the monthly totals of precipitation measured from the satellite and the ground station. results figure 1. 2000 2020 list of stations that were not subjected to statistical analysis. palavandishvili. 2024 4(2) 32 figure 2 shows the results of the inventory of all (50) stations made using the program r-instat and covers the period 2000-2020. the spei index was calculated for 1960 – 2022 period using the software package r—programming language climpact2. because data on daily precipitation and maximum and minimum temperature are needed to calculate this index, sufficient data for calculations were found for only 4 stations out of 17. as for the calculation of spi, the total precipitation data of each month is required; the data of 10 stations that have at least 40 years of data series have been subjected to the analysis. when calculating the three-month spi, the index for the first january and february of the time series does not exist; to recover it, it is necessary to take the average of the month of january or february of each year of the entire series (tatishvili et al., 2022b). correlation for the observations entire period, for all months and years, mean absolute errors and standard deviation were also calculated according to the same principle. the counting results are presented in table 1. table 1. calculated statistical parameters station correlation mean absolute error standard deviation correlation spi3month_chirps correlation imerg spi_3month correlation spi3 month _chirps check akhalqalaqi 0.66759 28.7 26.84318 0.416248 0.291970887 0.443102744 akhaltsikhe 0.460294 38.1 33.55621 0.352573 0.484119499 0.352572913 batumi airport 0.58213 83.2 112.5929 0.448736 0.340454562 0.448736396 borjomi 0.641079 24.1 25.26509 0.244318 0.310999227 0.244318316 chokhatauri 0.578691 46.6 66.39357 -0.07615 0.165519382 -0.076151789 gori 0.600696 18.8 23.40047 0.374053 0.424890006 0.374053213 khashuri 0.602859 20.7 25.35372 0.384062 0.356057737 0.384061993 manglisi mta-sabueti 0.331451 41.3 51.98547 0.300716 0.31919611 0.300716118 mukhrani 0.670568 22.5 24.8989 0.235464 -0.102300227 0.235464432 pasanauri 0.633913 33.4 42.5678 0.290633 0.309023193 0.290632874 poti 0.456032 72.8 111.9462 0.344086 0.375124979 0.344085861 qeda qobuleti 0.623388 77.5 102.4052 0.286832 0.363684022 0.286831685 qutaisi 0.66483 35.2 45.62226 0.483474 0.201479561 0.483474128 sachkhere 0.592227 26.6 34.78904 0.27458 0.441969055 0.27458026 sagarejo 0.619239 27.7 37.34099 0.076687 0.233896552 0.076687323 senaki 0.647958 47.3 60.19786 0.747709 0.544157721 0.747709077 shovi 0.717298 30.0 36.37001 0.440142 0.34740251 0.440141859 stephantsminda tbilisi 0.678032 21.1 28.35372 0.208955 0.236983184 0.208954519 telavi 0.693299 26.0 35.45118 0.271435 0.362963042 0.271434581 tianeti 0.588555 22.0 31.88968 0.191648 0.321092386 0.191647776 figure 2. inventory of 50 stations, the absence of data is marked in red, brown dry period, blue precipitation palavandishvili. 2024 4(2) 33 tsalka 0.504015 32.4 39.38712 0.285891 0.353743633 0.285890812 zugdidi 0.603897 51.9 62.13524 0.477354 0.417972195 0.477354223 the calculations showed that in those stations where more than 50% of the data from the observation period are missing, for example, in manglis, it is impossible to conduct a statistical analysis. a total of nine such stations were identified. from the analysis of the calculation of statistical characteristics, it is clear that the lowest correlation values are 0.33 at the mta-sabueti station and the maximum is 0.72 at the shovi station; the minimum average absolute error is 18.8 at the gori station and the maximum 83.2 at the batumi station; the smallest standard deviation is 23.4 at the gori station; and the largest 118.46 at mirveti station, which is understandable considering the coastal and mountainous terrain. a high correlation coefficient better expresses the agreement between satellite and station data. r instat software was used to calculate pearson's correlation and other statistical parameters. stations that were omitted could not be analyzed. historical precipitation data from 1961–1991 were compared with era5 precipitation reanalysis data. 19 stations were selected for the kakheti region. of course, those points where there was insufficient data were not subjected to the analysis (tatishvili et al., 2022c). in the result of the data comparison, the lowest correlation index (0.309) was revealed at the shiraki station, the maximum (0.657) at the omalo station. the minimum average absolute error (1.662) was recorded at udabno station, the maximum (3.041) at shielda station. the smallest standard deviation (4.047) is at udabno station, the largest (7.624) at lagodekhi station. by comparing the historical and era5 reanalysis data of the station for 1961 – 1991 period, reanalysis data can be used as an alternative database for the model, both in kakheti and in the entire territory of georgia. table 2. comparison of station and era5 reanalysis precipitation1961-1991 data stations standard deviation correlation mean abs. error akhmeta 5.76054943 0.5936142 2.22960019 artana 6.81349292 0.58776933 2.34396992 birkiani 7.62295759 0.63601722 2.50106601 dedoplistskaro 5.177286 0.57295248 2.34935663 gombori 5.48090201 0.57076494 2.1249113 gurjaani 6.29609913 0.61040494 2.13628114 kachreti 5.37111452 0.5144723 2.64170272 khvareli 7.51038719 0.58870058 2.30064283 lagodekhi 7.62411052 0.55838778 2.39522353 lechuri 7.26083196 0.48469664 2.65489445 omalo 5.06645709 0.65703807 2.28134972 sabue 7.18089762 0.5644877 2.44340144 sagarejo 6.09202268 0.60668778 2.295695 shilda 6.35923532 0.48506866 3.04148853 shiraki 5.45504798 0.30906783 2.58658036 tsiauri 4.83284442 0.5361194 1.87135863 telavi 6.16741437 0.61484533 2.13956842 tsnori 5.19081531 0.62222577 1.96229826 udabno 4.04739384 0.51336395 1.66217209 discussions at the initial stage of machine learning, the station coordinates, station name, year, month, monthly precipitation total, and 3-month precipitation index were included in the training (mastering machine learning). a 30-year observation period was analysed at all. as a result of counting, we got a good result only for those stations that are located close to each other and the overfit for the stations located at a relatively long distance, e.g., omalo, akhmeta. palavandishvili. 2024 4(2) 34 figure 3. comparison of the model created by the svm optimized algorithm with the real data. true data values are marked in blue and values generated by the model in yellow the parameters for estimating the model generated by the support vector machine (svm) of the first model are: rmse 0.58848, r2 _0.64, mse_0.34631, mae_0.45479, prediction speed ~430000 obs/sec (observations per second), training time 30,296 s, minimum leaf size 45 (optimized parameter), hyperparametric search ranking: minimum leaf size_1-3420. all these parameters are needed to estimate the model. to avoid excessive adjustment, 30 additional stations in the kartli region were added. figure 4. comparison of the model generated by matlab and the actual observation data palavandishvili. 2024 4(2) 35 figure 4 shows a visual comparison of the actual and predicted results generated by matlab. actual data value is marked in blue, predicted data value in yellow. bagged trees assembled by an optimized algorithm showed the best results in regression algorithm training. learning time is 326.21 s, prediction speed ~ 7900 observations/second, characteristic parameters: rmse 0.5046, r2 0.64, mse 0.25466, mae 0.38065. figure 5. prediction response generated by matlab figure 5 shows the observation points and the best forecast. based on the analysis of this drawing, we can judge what kind of model it is. if the data (points) are very scattered, this indicates underfitting, while points that are close to the prediction curve (line) indicate overfitting (mchanay, 2014). when many points are gathered in one area, it can be concluded that the model is a good fit, i.e., satisfactory. figure 6. learning process of optimized bagged trees generated by matlab palavandishvili. 2024 4(2) 36 figure 6 depicts the optimized bagged trees learning process. the minimum leaf size is 19, with 40 iterations instead of 30 iterations assigned for optimization. estimated minimum mean square deviation is marked in blue, observed minimum mean square deviation in blue. the learning rate is 0.27325. after the training stage, the model was subjected to fitting to the data of 2001-2022 for further processing. it is also worth noting that for the adjustment and forecasting process, those stations that operated between 2001 and 2022, at least for several years, were selected. they were then filled with chirps satellite data (palavandishvili, 2021). to perform the prediction, it was necessary to calculate a linear regression equation for each station using the polyfit function in matlab space. after calculating the coefficients, polynomials were calculated in the matlab space with the polyval function. y=ax+b from the parameters included in this equation, the following were selected: a the standardized precipitation index calculated by the model, x the value of the sum of the monthly precipitation for a specific scenario, b the standardized value of the actual precipitation. in the first case of the forecast scenario, the amount of precipitation was determined from 0 cm to 10 cm because we are interested in the process of drought development in the case of a small amount of precipitation. table 3. standardized precipitation index (spi), 0 cm to 10 cm inclusive precipitation forecast for some regions of kakheti precipitation forecast (sm) dedoplistskaro sagarejo gurjaani khvareli lagodekhi omalo telai 0 -0.270 -0.336 -0.008 0.002 -0.524 0.270 -0.568 1 -0.021 -0.057 -0.097 -0.012 -0.269 0.429 -0.325 2 0.227 0.220 -0.186 -0.026 -0.014 0.587 -0.083 3 0.475 0.498 -0.275 -0.041 0.240 0.746 0.159 4 0.724 0.776 -0.365 -0.054 0.495 0.905 0.402 5 0.973 1.054 -0.454 -0.068 0.750 1.064 0.645 6 1.222 1.333 -0.543 -0.082 1.005 1.222 0.888 7 1.470 1.611 -0.633 -0.096 1.260 1.381 1.131 8 1.719 1.889 -0.722 -0.110 1.514 1.540 1.374 9 1.968 2.167 -0.811 -0.124 1.769 1.698 1.617 10 2.217 2.445 -0.901 -0.138 2.024 1.857 1.860 conclusion the analysis showed that gurjaan and kvareli are more vulnerable to a small amount of precipitation, and less vulnerable regions were also identified: dedoplistskaro, sagarejo, and lagodekhi. when analyzing these results, station altitude and humidity should be considered, as well as the fact that in the case of artana and melaani stations some satellite data were not found; that’s why the model could not cover the full kakheti region. to increase the accuracy of such research, it is necessary to determine additional parameters— temperature, humidity, soil moisture, and indices calculated from the satellite—their validation and adjustment for the machine learning algorithm. also, the period of education and training should be determined separately; the appropriate method for forecasting will be selected, by means of which we will get the regression equation. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution a. palavandishvili conceived of the presented idea, performed the analytic calculations, and took the lead in writing the manuscript. orcid id ana palavandishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7254-685x reference begalishvili, n., robitashvili, g., & tatishvili, m. (2005). the investigation of precipitation efficiency of convective clouds. bulletin of the georgian academy of science. palavandishvili. 2024 4(2) 37 guidelines on the definition and characterization of extreme weather and climate events, world meteorological organization (wmo). 2023, 36 pp., isbn 978-92-63-11310-8. https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=11535 mastering machine learning, a step-by-step guide with matlab, mathwork production. 22 pp., mastering machine learning: a step-by-step guide with matlab matlab & simulink (mathworks.com) mathwork matlab statistics and machine learning toolbox documentation (2016). stats.pdf (mathworks.com) mathwork statistics and machine learning toolbox release notes rn.pdf (mathworks.com) mastering machine learning, a step-by-step guide with matlab, mathwork production. 22 pp., mastering machine learning: a step-by-step guide with matlab matlab & simulink (mathworks.com) mchanay, r. (2014). understanding computer simulation, bookboon, ebook company. palavandishvili., a. (2021). structural data set in environmental issued. the regional student scientific and practical conference digital transformation in engineering human-computer interaction, georgian technical university (gtu), faculty of informatics and control systems. tatishvili, m., palavandishvili, a., tsitsagi, m., & suknidze n. (2023). the big data for drought monitoring in georgia. springer, cham. 131-142 tatishvili, m., palavandishvili, a., tsitsagi, m., & suknidze, n. (2022a). the use of structured data for drought evaluation in georgia. journal of the georgian geophysical society, physics of solid earth, atmosphere, ocean and space plasma, 25(1), 45-51 tatishvili, m., palavandishvili, a., tsitsagi, gulashvili, z., m., & suknidze, n. (2022b). drought evaluation based on spei, spi indices for georgian territory. international conference of young scientists “modern problems of earth sciences”. proceedings, publish house of iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, november 21-22, 119-121. tatishvili, m., palavandishvili, a., & samkharadze, i. (2022c). disaster risk reduction and climate resilience in nature based solutions using in-situ and satellite data for georgia sustainable development. international conference of young scientists “modern problems of earth sciences”. proceedings, publish house of iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, 116-118. tatishvili, m., palavandishvili, a., & samkharadze, i. (2022). disaster risk reduction and climate resilience in nature based solutions using in-situ and satellite data for georgia sustainable development. international conference of young scientists “modern problems of earth sciences”. publish house of iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university. 116-118. tatishvili, m., megrelidze, l., & palavandishvili, a. (2021). study of the mean and extreme values, intensity, and recurrence variability of meteorological elements based on the 1956-2015 observation data. journal of the georgian geophysical society, physics of solid earth, atmosphere, ocean, and space plasma, 24. 73-77. https://library.wmo.int/doc_num.php?explnum_id=11535 georgian geographical journal geographical area of meskheti according to the ottoman records of the xvi-xix centuries dali nikolaishvili1* , davit sartania2 nikoloz meskhishvili2 ana arsenashvili1 1 ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 museum of ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia *corresponding author: arsenashviliani@gmail.com introduction ottoman defters of the middle ages (xvi-xix centuries) contain valuable information not only about the social-economic situation of the ottomans but also about the countries conquered by them. in these defters, a certain part of the territory of georgia is described, which is quite a large area. within meskheti, it includes not only the territories of modern (samtskhe, javakheti, adjara), but also the territories of historical georgia (artan, erusheti, klarjeti, kola, tao, shavsheti), the basins of the upper mtkvari and the middle chorokhi rivers and their tributaries. according to the defters, a certain part of the works was dedicated to the research of the territories conquered by the ottomans (jikia, 1958; nikolaishvili et al., 2021; shashikadze, 2006; shengelia, 1960; svanidze, 1984), however, this issue has not yet been fully studied and analyzed. the issue of the territorial coverage of political/administrative units of different ranks depicted in the defters is particularly unclear. the low level of study of the mentioned issue is due not only to the fact that only a small part of these documents has been translated into georgian today but also to the fact that these documents have not been studied in various aspects, even from a geographical point of view. with a few exceptions (aslanikashvili, 1953; nikolaishvili et al., 2021), nor were they fully mapped cartographically. due to these reasons, the geographical area of the political/administrative units depicted in the books and the tendency of their transformation over time are unknown. and if this area is determined, it will give us the opportunity to: ▪ to avoid the mistake of considering different administrative units, which have the same name in different periods of time, as the same territory. an example of this is the province of gurjistan, which in the records of 1574 and 1595, with some exceptions, includes a different territory. ▪ to carry out a social-economic analysis of different administrative units, on the one hand, by comparing the conquered territories and, on the other hand, the unconquered georgian parts, in georgian geographical journal, 2024, 4(2) 75-83 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract a certain part of the territory of georgia was described in the ottoman defters of the middle ages. this is quite a large territory, which includes not only modern, but also historical georgia. the aim of the research is the geoinformational cartography of the georgian cultural heritage according to the ottoman defters of the xvi-xix centuries and showing the geographical area that was described in these recors. from this point of view, 9 defters were processed and analyzed. as research has shown, these defters include the territories of georgia that the ottomans: 1) only conquered and tributed; 2) it was conquered and could not be fully preserved and today it is in modern georgia and 3) it was conquered and it is still within the borders of turkey. some parts of the depicted areas in the defters covering each other’s. their detection is important for studying the dynamics of social-economical, traditional natural management, onomastic and a number of other issues. however, the territorial overlaps are not so large. for example, the defters of 1574 and 1595, both of which describe the province of gurjistan, coincide only in a small fragment. the 1574 defter of big artaan liva territorially coincides with the 1595 big artaan and fanak liva. keywords: ottoman records, historical georgia, meskheti, gurjistani citation: nikolaishvili, d.; sartania, d.; meskhishvili, n.; arsenashvili, a. geographical area of meskheti according to the ottoman records of the xvi-xix centuries. georgian geographical journal 2024, 4(2). 75-83 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.02.09 nikolaishvili et al. 2024 4(2) 76 order to make possible a retrospective analysis of the unified situation of the settlement of the georgian nation. ▪ to determine the dynamic change of the georgian substrate through the study of traditional natural management, toponymical, anthroponymical and a number of other issues, i.e. the process of transition to the "ottoman rule" or, on the contrary, the process of preserving the georgian substrate. therefore, it is very important to determine the territorial coverage of the political/administrative units recorded in the ottoman records. the present work deals with this problematic issue. the aim of the research is to determine the geographical area described by the georgian translations of the ottoman records of the 16th and 19th centuries. methods and materials the main research method is retrospective cartography and comparative geographical analysis by using gis technologies. accordingly, the data in the databases were identified, systematized, and classified, and a gis database was created. identification of objects was carried out on the basis of mutual agreement with other sources, for which comparative, semantic, retrospective cartography, and other methods of research were used. a field-expeditional research was also conducted within the borders of modern georgia (adjara, samtskhe-javakheti) and the republic of turkey (artvini and artaan provinces). the field research was mainly based on surveys and questionnaires of the local population. obviously, field research could not be carried out completely on the entire studying area because it required a lot of time and money. therefore, the field work was carried out on such a scale that a modern picture of the facts recorded in the old defters could be presented in general terms. the fact that a significant part of the data is kept in archival funds of other countries (russia, turkey, romania, bulgaria and others) with limited access, so this fact also created some difficulty. the object of our research was 9 ottoman defters: 1. grand and short defters of ajara liva of 1566-1574. 2. the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet of 1574. 3. the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet of 1595. 4. the grand defter of artanudji of 1595. 5. jaba defter of childir vilayet of 1694-1732. 6. grand defter of tbilisi vilayet of 1728. 7. defter of shavsheti of 1835-1836. 8. defter of machakheli (crdili vilayet) of 1836. 9. defter of satleli liva (crdili vilayet) of 1836. in the ottoman defters are recorded just conquered territories by the ottomans, because conquered territories were described in order to impose taxes on them. naturally, this conquest did not happen all at once. the ottomans had separated georgia from some side or part of it, and then georgia had taken some of them back. during the years, these territories were lost again with new invasions. due to the frequent change of the political owner, it is impossible to restore an exact sequence picture. because defters depicted exact moments, it became possible to present a general picture for certain periods of time. as the analysis and comparison of historiographic works and ottoman defters had shown, according to the ottoman power, the territory of georgia can be divided into three parts, namely, the territories that the ottomans: 1) marched and conquered (but did not manage to completely conque)r. their political subjugation lasted for a certain period. such is the wester,e largest part of georgia); 2) they were conquered for a certain period of time, but they could not keep i,t and today it is within the borders of modern georgia. such is eastern georgi,a and 3) conquered and incorporated these territories (such is the largest part of southwestern georgia in the basin of the mtkvari and chorokhi rivers). the ottoman influence was less on the territories that were directly separated from georgia, which was not conquered by the ottomans. this mainly concerns the northern part of samtskhe-saatabago (samtskhe, the northern part of javakheti, adjara, shavsheti, klarjeti), which is within the borders of modern georgia. as for the rest of samtskhe-saatabago, located further south (kola, artaan, erusheti, artanuji, etc.), the ottoman influence was much more here (nikolaishvili et. al., 2021). our research includes the territory of meskheti, incorporated by the ottomans. part of this territory is located in modern georgia, and another part is in turkey. nikolaishvili et al. 2024 4(2) 77 from the historiography, it is known that within meskheti were located: artaani, erusheti, klarjeti, oltisi, samtskhe, speri, tao, potskhovi, shavsheti, javakheti, and others. but there are also parts whose territorial affiliation is debatable and needs some clarification, for example, borjomi valley, kaikuli, and chaneti. ivane javakhishvili wrote that georgia consisted of several "countries", whose names and borders had been changed over time, which was the result of political-national growth, but still there were permanent, native borders of each country. we investigate only those borders and territory that are included in the "permanent" borders of meskheti. according to the latest studies, the "permanent" borders of meskheti include: soeri (upper river of chorokhi), tao (middle river of chorokhi with right and left tributaries: parkhalistskali, tortomi, oltis), klarjet-shavsheti and adjara (lower river of chorokhi), kola, artaani, erusheti, javakheti (incl. ninotsminda, akhalkalaki, aspindze municipalities), samtskhe and potskhovi valleys (incl. akhaltsikhe and adigeni municipalities), tori (borjomi municipality) and others. (abashidze et al., 2014). according to the ottoman defters of 1728, tori, so borjomi valley, is in gori liva, although it, together with shida kartli, did not experience the same long-term influence of ottoman rule as samtskhe and other parts of georgia conquered by the ottomans. but it is also known that the border of south georgia started from tashiskar and extended to the south. it is the same with the modern administrative division. therefore, it was included in our research. chaneti, also known as lazeti, was a bordering region of meskheti. politically, in a certain period, he was included in its area. lazeti became one of the first incorporated parts of georgia by the ottomans. moreover, if we trust vakhushti bagrationi, meskheti extended to the borders of chaneti (vakhushti bagrationi, 1941). we find a similar opinion in many scientific works. therefore, it could not be included in our research. adjara was also a part of meskheti, but batumi and kobuleti sides were not included in it. today, kobuleti is a part of the autonomous republic of adjara, although in the middle ages this area was part of the guria, which was captured by the ottomans. the population was converted to islam and seperated from guria. kayikuli is mentioned in historical sources as abotsi. it is reported in the defters of 1728. due to the change of the political situation, it sometimes belonged to kartli and sometimes to meskheti. ivane javakhishvili had mentioned that kaikuli was in meskheti, but he also noticed that it was in the south of javakheti. there was a community located between meskheti and kvemo kartli, and sometimes it belonged to meskheti, but often, in particular, in the xvii-xviii centuries, it was within the borders of kvemo kartli. (javakhishvili, 1998). however, there are different opinions; in particular, v. nozadze marked that kaikuli was in meskheti (nozadze, 1989). as for pavle ingorokva, when he discusses the issue of the territorial dispute between georgia and armenia, he says that abotsi (the same as kaikuli) belongs to georgia and adds that abotsi is geographically located between the districts of meskheti and bambak [ingoroqva, manuscript]. here, we should emphasize one important physical-geographic circumstance (nikolaishvili et al., 2021). historically, it is known that javakheti and kvemo kartli are bordered by an important orographic barrier—the javakheti ridge. today, the northern part of the javakheti ridge, which is located in georgia, is a main orographic border. therefore, due to orographic conditions, abotsi belongs more to kvemo kartli than to javakheti. based on the above, the geographical area of our research is limited to the historical territory of meskheti, or the "natural border", which was spread from tashiskar to karnukalaki, but did not include kaikul (abots), chanet (lazet), nor batumi and kobuleti. results according to the "defters of the province of gurjistan" of 1574 and 1595, the province of gurjistan included the basins of the upper mtkvari and the middle of the chorokhi rivers. in particular, the right side of chorokhi with tributaries (oltissistskal, banisstskal, bardusstskal, sevriststskal, torthomistskal, artanujitsskal). the upper part of mtkvari was surrounded by the vilayet on both sides. according to the "defters of the province of gurjistan" in 1574, the province of gurjistan was divided into 4 parts: artanuji, great artaan, tortomi and oltis. a total of 19 nahie were united in the vilayet. according to the 1595 "defters of the province of gurjistan", there are 9 livas and 41 nahie named in the province, although s. jikhia also writes that oltis liwa is a later inscription (the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet of 1595, 1941), i.e. it does not belong to the 1595 register. nikolaishvili et al. 2024 4(2) 78 figure 1. georgian geographical journal figure 2. geographical area of meskheti according to ottoman defters (xvi-xix centuries) nikolaishvili et al. 2024 4(2) 79 the mutual comparison of administrative units showed us that the province of gurjistan, according to the 1574 and 1595 records, did not have the same territorial coverage, and only on a small fragment they coincided territorially (pic. 1): didi artaani liva of the 1574 record (districts: mzvare, mishe, sheti, kiamkhisi, fanaki, fanaskert) territorially coincides with the 1595 livas of didi artaan (nahiyes: mzvare, tgiani, shiti) and fanak (nahiyes: kiamkhisi, fanak, fanaskerti) (table 1). this means that in the 20-year period, there was more division of administrative units—didi artan liwa was divided into didi artaan and fanak livas—but there was no more division of lower-ranking administrative units—nahiyes. the total area of this contiguous territory was 3353 square meters. it's not a big area. if we compare modern georgia, it is slightly larger than the municipality of mestia. as for the "short (ijmal) defter of childir vilayet" (xvi century) and "jaba defter", the available information about the administrative arrangement of the vilayet is very scarce. the reason for this is that it is compiled based on a big database and contains brief information. it should be determined for which large books they are compiled. according to the current sources, it is impossible to give an exact answer to this question. moreover, there are later inscriptions in defter, which the georgian translators date from 1590 to 1622 ("ijm. david.", p. 5). we can only make assumptions, namely, the ottoman notebooks of the same period are connected to each other, and the data entered in the short notebooks should not belong to one notebook. obviously, it is difficult to generalize this to all ottoman books, although it is confirmed by the books we have. what gives us the opportunity to say that? first of all, the "short (ijmal) defter of chrdili province" and "short defter" include villages from 1595 and the extensive defter of livy of zemo adjara (tab. 2). table 2. compliance of some villages according to different defters short list of childir vilayet 1595 great defters of the province of gurjistan wide defters of zemo adjara villages sum of taxes villages sum of taxes villages sum of taxes table 1. administrative arrangement of provinces of georgia according to the records of 1574 and 1595 livas nahiye big artaani * mzvare * mishe * chrdili * kiamkhisi * fanaki * panaskerti * tortomi tortomi kudrusuri pertegreki oltisi anzavi bardisi gobi marsasori mzvari chrdili artanudji artanudji ishkhani taoskari khacheni livas nahiye big artaani * mzvare * tkiani * chrdili * fanak * kiamkhisi * fanak * panaskerti * akhalkalaki akshehiri tmogvi nialisyure akhaltsikhe aspindza atskuri mzvare okroscikhe otskhi ude kvabliani chrdili djadjaraki petre petre kashveti potskhovi mzvare chrdili chrdili mgeltsikhe kanarbeli djanbazi khertvisi buzmareti forest djavakheti khertvisi matches are marked with an asterisk (*) nikolaishvili et al. 2024 4(2) 80 zarzma 11 600 sersem(?) 11 600 tsaghveri 15 200 tsaghveri 15 200 samda sakhuri 13 000 samzisokhevi 13 000 handakiri/hakidi 30 000 ? 30 000 ghordjomi 29 999 ghordjomi 2999 * dabagha akhra 15 000 big adjara 15 000 doskho 15 002 potskho 15 002 alme 29 999 alme 2 999 * * – probably, we have to deal with incorrect data collection "jaba defter of the chrdili province" 1694-1732. it is a different type of document from the large (extensive) and short records, which records the changes in the lands (khasi, ziameti, timari) granted by the sultan. all material is arranged by geographical point, not chronologically. there is information about the following lives of akhaltsikhe sapasha (chrdili province): artanuji, akhaltsikhe, akhalkalaki, adjara, great artaan, small artaan, mamirvan, oltis, livana, fanak, potskhovi, fertekreki, chrdili (childiri), shavsheti, and khertvisi. moreover, peter's liva is not verified in the chrdili vilayet. this is explained by the fact that with the truce of 1639, this area (from kvishkheti to atskuri, i.e. borjomi valley) no longer belongs to ottomans and is still part of the kartli kingdom ["jaba davtar", p. 81]. it is interesting how to belong the small artaani to the province of livy, i.e., the chrdili of kola. this issue is unclear due to the fact that the same nahiyas (khojevan, sheti, mzvare) of the mentioned livy, often with the same villages, are included in both defters of chrdili and karsi. this strange case wasn’t considered a chancellery mistake by abuladze. the "double" affiliation is also confirmed by the report of katib chelebi ("jaba davtari", p. 72). today it is very difficult to explain how the same administrative unit was managed by different governorates. today it is very difficult to explain how the same administrative unit was managed by different governorates. this issue can be resolved by finding new records; however, in our case, the territorial affiliation of the small artaan liv, or kola, was determined by the chrdili province. according to the big defter (xvi century) of the upper adjara liva, this one included almost the entire basin of achariskali (middle and upper parts). administratively, it was divided into two nahiye: zemo and kvemo adjara. the territory of liva mostly coincides with the borders of modern administrative units (shuakhevi and khulo municipalities), although there are differences between them. in particular, the eastern border of liva had passed on the top of the arsian ridge, and the upper part of kvabliani and ghrmanistskali did not enter within the border. (as well as modern adjara) (nikolaishvili & sartania, 2011). even in the short story of adjara liva (xvi century) there are only reports about the nahiyes of kvemo and kvemo adjara. it seems that, territorially, it coincides with the data of the extensive defter of livy of upper adjara. according to the 1728 "tbilisi vilayeti big defter", the territory of the vilayet was quite extensive and included almost the entire territory of present-day eastern georgia, except kakheti. the western parts of modern azerbaijan and the northern parts of armenia also entered the mentioned vilayet. this makes us think that the defter describes the whole kartli at that time. the issue about the name of the vilayet is also interesting. the ottoman name "gurjistan" meant the whole of georgia, and that's what they called the territories they conquered as well. since by the 18th century there was already an administrative unit under the name of the province of gurjistan, the newly joined territory (kartli) could not be given the same name due to its large territorial coverage because it could not be merged with it. that’s why the newly conquered territory (kartli) was separated as an administrative unit, and its name comes from its important center (city) tbilisi. from the administrative point of view, tbilisi vilayet was divided into 5 livas (table 3). from here, only 2 nahiye of gori liva came into meskheti: petre and gujarati. a comparison with the 1595 "gurjistan vilayet defter" showed us that during the 16th-18th centuries, certain changes occurred in the administrative arrangement of the territory of georgia conquered by the ottomans, in particular, in the 16th century, the borjomi valley had a higher administrative status and was included in the georgian vilayet under the status of peter's liva. at the beginning of the 18th century, the borjomi valley (already with the status of 2 nahiyes) was included in the gori liva of tbilisi vilayet, although the territory of the nahiyes did not change. defter of petre and kashveti nahiyes of 1574 corresponds to davtri petre and gujarat nahiyes of 1728. nikolaishvili et al. 2024 4(2) 81 it should also be noted that, according to the 1728 decree, the exact determination of the territory and intra-territorial division of the vilayet turned out to be quite difficult since there are many inaccuracies in it. a more detailed study of the issue is necessary. table 3. administrative unites of tbilisi vilayet, 1728 livas nahiyas tbilisi tbilisi, avlabri, sabaratiano, dmanisi, baidar, kaikuli gori satsitsiano, mukhran, saamilakhvro, shavi aragvi and ksni eristavi, trialeti, petre, gomareti, gujarati somkhiti armenia, tashir, fanbak akhcha kali akhcha kali kazaki anchi, javad, ahsabad, terki today, it is very difficult to determine why the borjomi valley was transferred from one province to another. this is a matter for the future, but some consideration can be given to moving it to a lower administrative status. it is known from historiography that from the 16th century to the 18th century, borjomi valley was gradually almost completely deserted. part of the population died in the fight against the invaders, and part of them moved to other parts of georgia. georgian material cultural monuments were significantly destroyed; the economy was disrupted. this is discussed in many scientific works (abuladze, 1983; berdzenishvili, 1985; kudjadze, 1969; makalatia, 1957). therefore, the cancellation of peter's livy should have been a completely logical decision. today, it is very difficult to determine why the borjomi valley was transferred from one province to another. this is a matter for the future, but some consideration can be given to moving it to a lower administrative status. it is known from historiography that from the 16th century to the 18th century, borjomi valley was gradually almost completely deserted. part of the population died in the fight against the invaders, and part of them moved to other parts of georgia. georgian material cultural monuments were significantly destroyed, and the economy was disrupted. this is discussed in many scientific works (abuladze, 1983; berdzenishvili, 1985; kudjadze, 1969; makalatia, 1957). therefore, the cancellation of peter's livy should have been a completely logical decision. conclusion as it is clear from the above-mentioned differences, the territorial similarities are not so small, but not many. here it is important to find out which defters match each other—long or short notebooks. it is much more informative, matching according to extensive definitions, which gives us an opportunity to discuss several social-economical and onomastical features in a dynamic perspective. according to extensive data, we have territorial matching in the following geographical areas: didi artaan, fanak, petre, and machakhli livas. because this coincidence includes different historical-geographical provinces (artaani, tori, machakhela), it also gives us the possibility to find similarities and differences between these provinces. however, it is also clear that these provinces have different areas. the borders of big artaani and fanak are the largest areas (3432 km2), where according to the 1595 register, there are 200 villages and 86 villages. petres liva has a relatively small area (944 km2), where we see only 8 villages and 41 villages. the area of machakhli liva is much smaller, although according to the 1835 register, the number of villages is more here (21 villages). despite the small area of territorial coincidences, it provides a good opportunity to discuss the onomastic and social-economic situation from a dynamic perspective. if we compare the matching geographical area by the decades of 1574 and 1595, we will see an interesting picture. in 1574, there were 120 families in this area; between them, 114 were christians and 6 were muslims, and after 20 years, this picture changed significantly: the total number of families decreased to 36, and 34 of them were christians and 2 were muslims. what caused the population decline is difficult to say. however, the economic structure has not changed. the population had continued to grow agricultural crops (wheat, barley, millet, etc.) as before. despite the decrease in population, it is strange that taxes have increased slightly. this side in 1574 used to pay 380 akhchas, but in 1595 it was increased to 500 akhchas. the reason for this could be inflation or increased taxes to accelerate the process of islamization. because we do not have a territorial overlap according to the above-mentioned defters, and it is difficult to talk about the change of the demographical and economic picture, but the general trend nikolaishvili et al. 2024 4(2) 82 would be clear: it is an indicator of the irreversible process of the transition of the confessional issue from christianity to islam, which was also a factor in reducing the consciousness of ethnic belonging. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution d.s. and n. m. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the manuscript. were involved in planning and supervised the work. a.a. and d. n. performed the analytic calculations. a.a. translated this paper from georgian into english. d.n. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. acknowledgements the authors cordially thank the shota rustaveli science foundation for support, under whose financial aid it became possible to accomplish the present work within the project “mapping and to analyze georgian cultural heritage of south-west georgia according to old turkish population census books”, grant #he-18-448, 26.07.2018). the authors also cordially thank members of the project (avtandil ujmajuridze, darejan kirtadze, manana kvetenadze, tedo gorgodze). the authors also thank zaza shashikadze for translating some parts of these documents and sharing this data. funding this research [#he-18-448] has been supported by shota rustaveli science foundation orcid id dali nikolaishvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6540-3682 davit sartania https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5248-2801 ana arsenashvili https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3859-2437 reference abashidze, z., vashakidze, v. (2014). whole georgia (historical borders of the georgian state from ancient times to the present day). tbilisi. (in georgian). abuladze, v. (1983). past and present of borjomi valley. tbilisi. soviet georgia. (in georgian). aslanikashvili, a. (1953). map of gurjistan vilayet, drawn up according to georgian translation of grand defter of gurjistan vilayet. ed. s. jikia. tbilisi, scale: 1:300,000 (in georgian). berdzenishvili, d. (1985). essays on the historical geography of georgia. zemo kartli tori, javakheti, tbilisi. (in georgian). javakhishvili, iv. (1998). 12part, vol. 12, 1998. (in georgian). grand and short defters of ajara livam. translations by z. shashikadze (2011). tbilisi. (in georgian). the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet” of 1574. tbilisi. transklated by n. shengelia. (2016). (in georgian) the grand defter of gurjistan vilayet of 1595. (1941). vol. 2. translated by s. jikia (in georgian). jaba defter of childir vilayet of 1694-1732. translated by ts. abuladze. (1979). tbilisi. (in georgian). grand defter of tbilisi vilayet of 1728. translated by n. shengelia. (2009). tbilisi. (in georgian). grand defter of zemo ajara. (2011). (in georgian). khujadze, g. (1969). borjomi valley: guide. tbilisi. soviet georgia. makalatia, s. (1957). borjomi valley (historical-ethnographic essay). tbilisi. sakhelgami. (in georgian). nikolaishvili, d., sartania, d., ujmajuridze, a., kirtadze d., & kvetenadze m. (2021). meskheti according to of old turkish defters. tbilisi. universali. (in georgian). nozadze, v. (1989). the struggle for the restoration of georgia because of meskheti, [ed. c. it is a manor. tb.: sat. union of theater workers. (in georgian). shengelia, n. (1960). ottoman taxes and obligations according to grand defter of gurjistan vilayet. collection works of tbilisi state university, # 91: oriental studies series, ii, tbilisi. 277-304. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6540-3682 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5248-2801 nikolaishvili et al. 2024 4(2) 83 shashikadze, z. (2006). villages and settlement of adjara valley in second half of xvi c. naxevarsi. j.: „cveneburebi“. short defter of ajara liva short defter (ijmal defter) of childir vilayet. translated by z. shashikadze. (2008). (in georgian). svanidze, m. (1984). agriculture of south-west georgia in xvi c. tbilisi: „metsniereba“. (in georgian). jikia, s. (1958). grand defter of gurjistan vilayet, vol. 3, description of the manuscript, geographical and toponymical notes was done by s. jikia. tbilisi: publishing house of georgan academy of science. vakhushti bagrationi. description of the kingdom of georgia. tb., 1941 georgian geographical journal exodynamic processes in upper racha merab gongadze1 , george lominadze1,* , giorgi khomeriki1 , giorgi kavlashvili1 , nikoloz suknidze1 , gela talakhadze1 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: georglomin@yahoo.co.uk introduction racha, located in the mountainous regions of western georgia, represents one of the country’s most picturesque yet geologically complex landscapes. the region is distinguished by the high frequency and intensity of exodynamic processes, which exert significant impacts on both the environment and local communities (salukvadze, 2022). these processes, including riverine erosion, mudflows, denudationgravitational phenomena, and snow avalanches, are integral to the geomorphological evolution of the region and warrant comprehensive investigation to understand their underlying mechanisms, triggers, and spatiotemporal patterns. a salient feature of racha’s geodynamics is its high seismicity. situated within a seismically active zone, with earthquakes reaching magnitudes up to 9 on the richter scale, racha is highly vulnerable to earthquake-induced geomorphic instability. seismic events frequently act as catalysts for catastrophic exodynamic phenomena, amplifying the hazard potential of the terrain. moreover, the region’s steeply georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 4-11 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract upper racha is among the most geologically and environmentally challenging regions of georgia due to the frequency and intensity of exodynamic processes and the significant damage they inflict on the environment and local population. the southern slope of the central caucasus, encompassing the shoda-kedela and lechkhumi ranges, is characterised by complex and diverse relief. the upper part of the territory lies within high-mountainous subalpine, alpine, and nival zones. the southern portion of upper racha is dominated by deeply incised erosional valleys of the rioni river and its tributaries, with some valleys exhibiting incision depths exceeding 1,000 metres and slopes ranging between 40° and 60°. this erosional-denudation relief has developed on jurassic sediments and is shaped by active exodynamic processes affecting strongly dislocated rocks of liassic age. these processes give rise to a range of geomorphological phenomena, including erosion, riverine and lateral erosion, mudflows, landslides, rockfalls, and snow avalanches. the region’s high seismicity and abundant atmospheric precipitation further exacerbate these dynamics. a striking example of these processes occurred in late july 2023, when upper racha experienced alternating periods of extreme heat and torrential rainfall. combined with the active ablation of the buba glacier, these conditions significantly increased the saturation of moraine material with liquid water, disrupting the gravitational stability of the slope. this triggered a catastrophic landslide that destroyed buildings at the shovi resort, resulting in the tragic loss of 35 lives. this study aims to investigate the exodynamic processes in upper racha, identify their driving factors and development patterns, analyse the mechanisms behind such natural events, assess their impact on the formation and sustainability of the shovi–glola tourist hub, predict the future deve lopment of these processes, and propose effective preventive measures. keywords: exodynamic processes, nival zone, moraine material, taluses, flowing landslides, mudflows citation: gongadze, m.; lominadze, g.; khomeriki, g.; kavlashvili, g.; suknidze, n.; talakhadze, g. exodynamic processes in upper racha. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 4-11. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.01 gongadze et al. 2025 5(2) 5 dissected relief, combined with abundant precipitation, intensifies the occurrence and scale of such processes. this interplay of tectonic activity, climatic conditions, and relief complexity necessitates a multidisciplinary approach for effective hazard assessment and mitigation. this study focuses particularly on the upper rioni river basin, with detailed attention to the chanchakhi, jejora, gharula, sakaura valleys, and their tributaries. the chanchakhi river basin lies on the southern slopes of the central caucasus, between the main caucasus range and its southeastern branch, the shoda-kedela ridge. this area exhibits considerable geomorphic diversity and also possesses substantial tourism potential, owing to its unique natural resources—coniferous forests, mountain trails conducive to trekking and equestrian activities, and the “glola boulders” (granite moraine formations listed in the red book of georgia)—in addition to mineral springs and cultural heritage sites (gavasheli, 1978). anthropogenic influences further compound the environmental dynamics of racha. agricultural activities—such as slope ploughing, deforestation, and annual crop cultivation—have significantly altered land cover and soil stability, contributing to erosion and increased vulnerability to exodynamic processes (salukvadze, 2022). these human-environment interactions underscore the importance of integrating socio-economic factors into geomorphological and hazard assessments. geologically, the northern flank of the upper racha syncline is dominated by thick-bedded marls of upper jurassic age, carbonate shales, and interbedded limestones. lower cretaceous tectonic activity has generated folded structural formations, while the area is intersected by both young and ancient faults oriented along multiple latitudinal directions. these structures are further complicated by strike-slip and discontinuous dislocations, which strongly influence the morphology and stability of the terrain. quaternary sediments—including eluvial, deluvial, colluvial, alluvial, proluvial, and fluvioglacial deposits—form a significant component of the surface cover, influencing hydrological dynamics and slope processes (fig. 1). this research aims to systematically analyse the mechanisms driving these exodynamic processes, assess their spatial and temporal distribution, and develop predictive models to guide hazard mitigation and sustainable land-use strategies. such integrated research is crucial for the preservation of both the environmental integrity and socio-economic resilience of racha. figure 1. glaciers tbilisa and buba. photo by m. gongadze gongadze et al. 2025 5(2) 6 methods and materials in the field studies, we utilized a combination of geomorphological and geological methods. the morphological method was used to identify the primary landforms in the study area, as well as their contours and spatial arrangement. the morphometric method was employed to measure the dimensions of these forms, while the morphostructural method helped to clarify the relationship between the landforms and underlying geological structures. additionally, various geological techniques were applied, including lithological analysis of materials, determination of the sequence of sedimentary layer formation, and examination of granulometry and material rounding. in the office, we conducted a literature review and analyzed relevant cartographic materials. based on the results from these methods, the conclusions presented at the end of the article were drawn. results relief types and morphostructural characteristics of upper racha upper racha exhibits two principal types of relief, each distinguished by specific morphostructural and lithological characteristics: 1. nival high-mountainous relief the first type is nival high-mountainous relief, displaying clear signs of both ancient and modern glaciation, notably in areas such as zopkhito, laboda, tbilisa, buba, and chanchakhi. this relief type develops predominantly on sedimentary and metamorphic formations of jurassic age (fig. 2). erosion and denudation processes are particularly active here, shaping the terrain into steep slopes, sharp ridges, and deeply incised valleys. morphostructurally, this zone is characterized by denudational forms bounded by major fault systems to the north and south. the presence of easily erodible flysch formations contributes to relatively subdued topographic forms and the development of deep erosional valleys. figure 2. exodynamic processes in upper racha. map created by the authors a distinct morphological feature in this region is the transverse uplift of the buba river, which connects to the bubistskali river valley through upper pleistocene moraine deposits. at relatively lower elevations within this relief type, denudational forms are accompanied by active manifestations of mudflows and landslides. gongadze et al. 2025 5(2) 7 the southern slope of the central caucasus, including the shoda-kedela and lechkhumi ranges, presents highly diverse relief forms. the uppermost parts of this area belong to the high-mountainous subalpine and alpine zones, with elevations ranging from approximately 3,500 to 4,000 m above sea level and are dominated by nival-glacial and glacial-erosional morphologies. the lower slopes are deeply dissected by the rioni river and its tributaries, with valley incisions exceeding 1,000 m in depth in certain locations and slope inclinations ranging between 40° and 60°. erosion-denudation relief in this context develops on a substrate of jurassic sediments. the relatively smooth nature of some relief forms is determined by the impact of erosion-denudation processes acting upon strongly dislocated igneous sandstones and shales of liassic age. valley profiles are typically vshaped; however, where slopes consist of shale, ravine-shaped valleys predominate. for example, near the village of ghebi, the width of the rioni floodplain is approximately 150 m, widening to 280 m between ghebi and chiora, and narrowing to 230 m near chiora. 2. erosion-denudation relief of medium-mountainous terrain the second type is erosion-denudation relief characteristic of medium-mountainous terrain, marked by valleys with erosional dissection ranging from 300 to 600 m in depth and slope inclinations between 30° and 45°. this relief type is widespread in the central and southern parts of upper racha and represents the eastern extension of the racha-lechkhumi synclinal depression. it develops primarily on clayey-sandy and carbonate rock formations from the upper jurassic, cretaceous, and tertiary periods. this zone contains abundant remnants of ancient landslide forms, and contemporary landslide activity remains significant. such processes are particularly active along the slopes of the rioni and jejora rivers and their tributaries, where intense mudflow activity is also observed. villages most affected include khideshlebi, mazhieti, somitso, skhieri, kristesi, and khirkhonisi. slope profiles in these locations often display stepped and wavy configurations, indicative of ongoing landslide movements. in areas where massive chalk limestones are exposed, prominent cornices reaching heights of 20–50 m are common (e.g., in khirkhonisi and skhieri). colluvial soils at the base of these cornices facilitate erosion and slope instability, thereby promoting further landslide development. additionally, relict river terraces occur along the slopes of river valleys, notably in the vicinities of skhieri, kristesi, somitso, and komandeli. the first terraces situated approximately 1.5–4 m above the current riverbed, extend along the rioni river, and the town of oni itself is established upon one such terrace. in areas dominated by cretaceous and tertiary limestones, active karst processes are widely observed, resulting in the formation of karst poljes, sinkholes, and cave systems. these features are particularly abundant in regions underlain by extensive barremian limestones of lower cretaceous age, including the northern sector of the northwestern slope of the racha ridge and localities such as khikhat, khirkhonisi, shkmere, usholta, kharistvali, mravaldzali, futieti, and skhvava, as well as the lower bari, upper bari, and mukhli areas (gavasheli, 1978). the valleys of the right and left tributaries of the rioni river develop under comparable geomorphological, geological, and microclimatic conditions. this results in sharply inclined valley beds and steep, often denuded slopes, fostering intense erosion, denudation, and slope failure processes. these conditions, when coupled with periods of intense precipitation, create favourable conditions for catastrophic mudflows. a significant example occurred between 26 and 27 july 2020, when precipitation exceeded the daily norm, reaching 120 mm according to the hydrometeorological department of the national environmental agency. this extreme rainfall event resulted in extensive damage, including the destruction of tens of kilometres of highway embankments, as well as the impairment of bridges and agricultural infrastructure across the affected region. notably, heavy precipitation was recorded not only in the lower reaches of the rioni gorge but also at higher altitudes. field observations above the village of chiora (altitudes between 2,200 and 2,600 m above sea level) confirmed evidence of intense atmospheric precipitation during this event. the chanchakhi river is characterised by a bifurcated bed, consisting of a main channel and a secondary channel activated during high-flow events. the incision depth of the main channel reaches up to 1.5 m, while both banks accumulate proluvial deposits containing organic matter such as wood and plant debris. boulder sizes within the riverbed range from 0.2 to 0.7 m, with bulk deposit thicknesses reaching up to 1.5 m. river islands densely vegetated with alder trees exhibit clear evidence of historic mudflows (fig. 3). during the july 2020 rainfall event, significant overflow occurred in the rioni and chanchakhi rivers, including their tributaries, resulting in destructive mudflows that severely damaged infrastructure, highways, and bridges within upper racha’s villages (tsereteli, 2020). gongadze et al. 2025 5(2) 8 further downstream, the chanchakhi river receives inflow from the left bank via the dgviora river. this tributary originates from a heavily deformed glacial cirque on the northern slope of the shodakedela range, oriented parallel to the central caucasus. the region exhibits distinct glacial and erosional-glacial features, including sharply defined trough valleys, moraine deposits, and isolated erratic boulders. alpine and subalpine landscapes extend to comparatively low elevations. in this system, the bedrock lithology, slope gradients, and prevailing climatic conditions serve as primary controls on the development of exodynamic processes. the confluence of the dgviora and chanchakhi rivers generates a substantial sedimentary cone, upon which the village of glola is situated. this depositional feature is particularly susceptible to destructive mudflows during periods of heavy precipitation, frequently inflicting damage upon glola and adjacent settlements. the july 2020 event again exemplifies this dynamic, with extreme rainfall leading to significant river swelling and consequent destructive mudflows across the chanchakhi and rioni basins. quantitative geomorphological analysis was conducted using lithofraction counting within systematically established 5 × 5 m polygons in the beds of the gharula, mushuani, and dgviora rivers. these measurements identified alluvial-proluvial layers comprising between six and seven size fractions, with particle dimensions ranging from 1 cm to 1.5–2 m. subsequent stratigraphic analysis of riverbed cuts enabled reconstruction of the timing and provenance of transported material, thereby distinguishing between natural and anthropogenic drivers of exodynamic activity. these findings are essential for developing targeted preventive strategies against such events. the sakaura river, entering the rioni river from the right approximately 3 km upstream of oni, extends over a gorge approximately 13–14 km in length, incised primarily within middle and upper jurassic clay-shale and sandstone sequences. the floodplain and riverbed lithology are dominated by unprocessed large-fraction proluvial boulders (approximately 70%), supplemented by fine alluvial gravel and pebbles. boulder sizes within the riverbed range between 0.4 and 1.2 m, with deposit thicknesses between 2.5 and 3 m above the river surface. in the upper reaches above khideshlebi, the left bank of the sakaura is artificially reinforced with a 60 m long, up to 2 m high boulder wall. in the midsection of the river, near the bridge, intense incision has produced a deep, narrow erosional gorge, characterised by extensive proluvial boulder fields. near the village of mazhieti, the sakaura’s largest left tributary joins its bed. in 2020, mudflows entering this tributary washed away a bridge, which was rebuilt within the same year; remnants of the destroyed piers and the extensive proluvial boulder fields remain as evidence of this event. shovi catastrophe the chanchakhi river basin is situated on the southern slope of the central caucasus, occupying a geomorphologically complex position between the main caucasus range and its southeastern branch, the shoda-kedela ridge. the northern flank of the upper racha syncline is predominantly composed figure 3. profile along the dghviora river gully gongadze et al. 2025 5(2) 9 of thick-bedded upper jurassic marls, carbonate shales, and interbedded limestones. these lithological units have been significantly deformed by intense tectonic movements during the lower cretaceous, resulting in intricate folded structures. the structural framework of the region is dominated by both young and ancient faults oriented along three principal latitudinal directions. these faults are further complicated by strike-slip dislocations and discontinuous faults of various orientations, all of which are clearly expressed in the regional relief. the quaternary sediments in the basin include eluvial, deluvial, colluvial, alluvial, proluvial, and fluvioglacial deposits, which together form a diverse and dynamic sedimentary cover. the bubistskali river, originating from the buba glacier, is a major tributary of the chanchakhi river, joining it from the right near the shovi resort (fig. 4). below the alpine zone, the bubistskali gorge is deeply incised into jurassic and lower cretaceous sedimentary sequences, forming a sharply defined erosion-denudation relief. on 3 august 2023, this gorge was the site of a catastrophic geomorphological event: a flash flood that rapidly transformed into a mudflow and subsequently developed into a high-velocity landslide. this event, hereafter referred to as the “shovi catastrophe,” was the result of a complex interplay of climatic, topographic, and geological factors. over recent decades, the buba glacier has undergone significant retreat due to accelerated melting associated with climate change. this retreat has exposed extensive moraine deposits at the glacier’s front, base, and lateral margins. these moraine bodies, reaching tens of metres in thickness and extending several hundred metres in length, consist of unprocessed, angular boulder material of varying size, interspersed with trapped snow that persists through the summer season. the bubistskali river, incising through this moraine complex, has been unable to fully mobilise and transport the accumulated debris due to its relatively gentle gradient and reduced hydraulic energy. this sediment accumulation increased the susceptibility of the system to blockage and sudden failure. under conditions of intense rainfall and rapid snowmelt, the entrainment of moraine material triggered the cascade of processes that culminated in the flash flood, mudflow, and landslide observed in august 2023. the shovi event represents a striking example of the interaction between glacial retreat, moraine sediment dynamics, and extreme meteorological conditions, highlighting the growing hazard potential in high-mountain environments under climate change. detailed geomorphological and sedimentological analysis of the bubistskali-chanchakhi system offers critical insights into the mechanisms governing such hazardous events and provides a basis for risk assessment and mitigation strategies in similar alpine catchments. figure 4. river bubistskali gorge in the shovi section before the disaster. source: esri. maxar. earthstar geographics and the gis user company gongadze et al. 2025 5(2) 10 figure 5. river bubistskali gorge in the shovi section after the disaster. source: esri. maxar. earthstar geographics and the gis user company at the end of july 2023, upper racha experienced extreme heat followed by torrential rains, leading to a critical event in early august. the intense rainfall and melting snow increased the saturation of the moraine material, surpassing its critical threshold. this destabilised the gravitational equilibrium of the solid material, causing rainwater, melted snow, and a swollen river flow to mobilise a large number of debris. as it moved downhill, the mass uprooted coniferous vegetation and quickly advanced towards shovi. the bubistskali river, being short in length, was covered by the catastrophic mudflow in just 20 minutes (fig. 5). years earlier, an artificial barrier was built on the lower bubistskali river, altering the course of the chanchakhi river, and cottages were constructed in the area. unfortunately, this region, along with the cottages, was hit by the mudslide. eventually, with debris from the river's middle section, the mudflow turned into a landslide, burying the cottages and the plain in the centre of the resort under several metres of debris. tragically, those in the cottages and nearby areas perished almost instantly. only those in the older resort buildings and vacationers in the nearby forests survived. the shovi tragedy highlights the complexity and unpredictability of natural processes, as well as human negligence and ignorance towards these processes. thankfully, buildings from the 1930s and 1940s were strategically placed in safe areas, allowing them to withstand the disaster. in contrast, the owners of cottages in the bubistskali area were not as fortunate. conclusion exodynamic processes, based on their development characteristics, can be classified into three main groups: those that occur constantly, periodically, and catastrophically, both in general and specifically in upper racha. ongoing processes include erosion and denudation, which affect the entire territory of upper racha. however, erosion is more pronounced in the nival zone, while deeper erosion predominantly occurs in the upper reaches of the rioni river tributaries. lateral erosion is notably evident in the rioni river valley below the village of saglolo. denudation processes primarily occur on steep slopes (25°–30° and greater), which are often sparsely vegetated. on such slopes, where vegetation cover is minimal, talus cones and rock avalanches are common. periodic processes include mudflows, which form due to a combination of heavy precipitation, the accumulation of depleted material in valleys, and the steep gradient of valley beds. landslides also occur periodically, typically on deluvial slopes with gradients exceeding 25°, where the lower part of the slope is eroded by river flow. catastrophic natural processes are extreme manifestations of exodynamic processes. they occur as a result of the interaction of specific meteorological conditions such as intermittent heavy rains and increased melting of glaciers. additionally, large amounts of weathered material accumulate in troughs gongadze et al. 2025 5(2) 11 and valleys, with rain seeping through cracks on slopes and surface waters contributing to these processes. the catastrophic mudslide in shovi on august 3, 2023, which ultimately transformed into a landslide and completely engulfed the resort area, was a direct result of the confluence of these factors. the mudslide destroyed the cottages designated for vacationers, significantly disrupting tourism activities in the region. an important factor hindering the development of resorts and tourism in racha is the increased risk of natural disasters. a tragic example of this is the mudslide that occurred in the resort of shovi on august 3, 2023. it originated from the gorge of the river bubustskali and covered the entire resort area. cottages in the bubistskali region were destroyed, and 35 people lost their lives. initial estimates suggest that the total volume of the brought proluvial material reached 1 million m³. the disaster dealt a severe blow to the resort, putting its operation in question. the restoration and preservation of the shovi resort are crucial not only for the economy of shoviglola but also for the future of tourism development in racha (gongadze, 2024; nadareishvili, 2024). this aspect should be the subject of further detailed research. the government has also expressed its intention to restore the resort. it is important to consider the nature of the exodynamic processes in the shovi-glola area when planning the restoration, with a focus on natural hazard factors. safe zones for development should be designated based on data from pre-project studies and monitoring of natural hazards, as well as the implementation of containment and protection systems. the authors suggest that the restoration of the resort should involve the removal of the accumulated landslide mass, which can then be used as construction inert material. this material holds special value in the current construction boom. this process will result in a cleared resort area, essential for the resort's operation. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution merab gongadze. and giorgi khomeriki. conceived of the presented idea. george loninadze. and giorgi kavlashvili. performed the analytic calculations. nikoloz suknidze and gela talakhadze. took the lead in writing the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id merab gongadze https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7905-2525 george lominadze https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0630-2739 george khomeriki https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-4348 george kavlashvili https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5171-043x nikoloz suknidze https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1792-5260 gela talakhadze https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7505-6115 references gavasheli, a. (1978). upper racha and its natural resources. 54. gongadze, m., lominadze, g., khomeriki, g., & kavlashvili, g. (2024). analysis of spontaneous exodynamic processes in the dghviora river basin taking into consideration the perspectives of the shovi-glola (georgia) tourist agglomeration. georgian geographical journal, 4(1), 26–34. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2024.04.01.04 nadareishvili, n., tutberidze, m., khomeriki, g., dzhvarsheishvili, s., kvirkvelia, n., tchania, e., & tavadze, g. (2025). prospects of tourism development in zemo racha and their reflection among the local society. georgian geographical journal, 5(1), 63–73. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.07 elene salukvadze. (2022). environmental and anthropogenic factors in the development of geodynamical processes in racha. georgian geographical journal, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2022.753 tsereteli, e. e. (n.d.). engineering and geological zoning of georgia according to the degree of development of hazardous geological processes. russian. https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7905-2525 https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0630-2739 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7264-4348 https://orcid.org/0009-0004-5171-043x https://orcid.org/0009-0007-1792-5260 https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7505-6115 georgian geographical journal administrative-territorial organisation of the states in the caucasus region in the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century givi tavadze1 1department of the human geography, tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: givi.tavadze@tsu.com introduction despite numerous cultures in the caucasus and the political-geographic separation of the region, the various physical-geographic, historical-geographic, and ethnic facts, as well as the political and economic facts, help us to determine it as the entire region. even though political geography owns the main role when we speak about the state and the internal regional frontiers. the political geography of the caucasus changed in the 20th and the beginnings of the 21st centuries. the basis for these changes was formed in the very beginning of the 19th century when russia’s state adamantly based itself in the north and south caucasus. despite many successful conflicts, the russian empire could not occupy the entire ethnic and historical-geographic region of the caucasus, so it was divided among three empires at the beginning of the 20th century. the russian geopolitical terms “кавказ” and “закавказье” occupied only russia’s territory of the caucasus. “the north caucasus” and “the south caucasus”, which replaced those two terms, also occupy only russia’s caucasian territory and the caucasian territory liberated from this state. as a result, the caucasian lands of the persian empire/iran and the ottoman empire/türkiye remained out of the native region (ismaylov & papava, 2007). they occupy the historical “adarbadagan”, which name is one of the steps in the forming of the toponymy “azerbaijan”, whereas the land is unofficially known as “the south azerbaijan” or “iran’s azerbaijan”. they also occupy the historical georgian and the armenian lands, a part of which remained in the ottoman empire at first, and then an even larger part was given to the republic of türkiye by 1921 year’s agreements in kars and moscow (metreveli, the history of caucasus – part 1, 2023). the february revolution in 1917 in russia led to the formation or restoration of new states in the caucasus. their administrative and territorial organisation was based on the laws of the russian empire. the multicultural region became the centre for the different interests and the mutual and the internal conflicts, which were successfully used by soviet russia, and the caucasus remained divided among three states once again in 1921. the administrative and territorial organisation of the soviet georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1) 88-109 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj citation: tavadze, g. administrativeterritorial organisation of the states in the caucasus region in the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(1), 88-109. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.09 abstract eurasia comprises numerous self-sufficient and, in many ways, important regions. one of the most polyethnic, polyconfessional and, as a result, culturally varied caucasus, on the border of europe and asia, is one such place. the region is divided into two political-geographic parts: “north caucasus” and “south caucasus”. these terms represent the modern geopolitical transformation of the russian terms "кавказ" and "закавказье," which were formed in the 19th century. it is important that these two terms did not occupy the whole area of the caucasus and separate about ¼ part of the territory from the region; according to modern political geography, this land is part of the middle east. though, according to the various physicalgeographic, historical-geographic and ethno-geographic sources, this land is part of the caucasus. eldar ismailov, an azerbaijani scientist, and vladimer papava, a georgian scientist, defined the caucasus region and developed a theory that divides it into three parts. the determination of the internal political-geographic structure during the close past and the modern time is the main goal of this article. keywords: north caucasus, central, caucasus, south caucasus, region, province mailto:givi.tavadze@tsu.com https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4475-5355 tavadze. 2025 5(1) caucasus remained under the influence of the russian imperial order for a long time and was gradually rearranged in the new soviet system. this soviet system became the base for the modern administrative-territorial organisation when the caucasus comprised six states, in 1991. this research aims to identify the situation that best illustrates the structure of the caucasus as a complete geographic region, along with its historical context and modern political organisation. methods and materials the main sources for the theory of this article are eldar ismailov’s and vladimer papava’s monograph: “central caucasus: essays on geopolitical economy” and two-volume edition of the georgian national academy of science: the history of caucasus. besides, the various important issues like the frontiers of the states and regions or their changing during the years have the own georgian and foreign sources. the analysis of the maps is widely used in the article too (gachechiladze, 2023). results frontiers the geography of the frontiers in the caucasus region (fig. 1), including the internationally admitted ones, is complex and varied. the dispute and the conflicts about the state frontiers form the important problems for the countries of the caucasus. as for the borders of the entire region, they may be drawn as on the physical-geographic as on the political-geographic lines. these lines coincided with each other or not on the various parts of the entire border. the western border of the caucasus region is situated along the coast of the azov and the black seas from the town of yeysk in the north to the trabzon city in the south. though, the different source widens this part of the frontier from the estuary of the don river in the north to the ordu city in the south. according to the opinion of the author, trabzon city may be included in the caucasus region, as the physical-geographic, historical-geographic, and ethnic facts give us such a possibility. on the other hand, there is room for debate regarding the relocation of the borders to the don river and the ordu city. besides, the writing sources do not confirm these borders. the eastern border starts at the estuary of the kuma river in the caspian sea and continues along the coast until the talish mountains and the iranian part of the mughan plain. various sources suggest that the western part of the alborz mountains moves this frontier to the southeast. physicalgeographic and historical-geographic facts allow the entire territory of the mughan plain to enter the caucasus region. it is important that this plain was the land which had been used for the controlling of the caucasus by the various empires that owned iran during many centuries. in contrast, the alborz mountains and their inhabitants lack a direct physical, historical, or ethnic connection to the caucasus region and its people. this moved border is not confirmed by the writing sources. the northern border of the caucasus region starts at the town of yeysk on the coast of the azov sea and continues to the east by the eya, yegorlik, west manich and east manich rivers; also, the manich lake and the lower basin of the kuma river till the caspian sea. according to the different source, the frontier is slightly moved to the north and draws the border line on the lower basin of the don river, the manich river, the kuma-manich depression and the lower basin of the kuma river. numerous maps show us that only the autonomous republics of “the north caucasus"—the”members of the russian federation, comprise this region. but this idea banishes “the krasnodar kray” – the basin of the kuban river – and “the stavropol kray” – the basin of the kuma river – from the caucasus region. the southern border is situated along the east pontus mountains, the armenian highlands, and the anti-caucasus mountains east of lake van; the region also comprises the karadag ridge and the iranian part of the mughan plain. though the southern frontier of the caucasus is problematical (there are not such clear physical-geographic lines in this direction as in others,) another physicalgeographic fact is important. the entire basins of the mtkvari (kura,) aras and chorokhi rivers are parts of the caucasus, whereas the basin of the euphrates river is not, though the east euphrates or murat river starts in the anti-caucasus mountains too. it is important that the physical map in “the geopolitical atlas of the caucasus” [relief, page 12] formed by jean radvanyi and nikoloz beruchashvili mainly coincide with the frontiers told in “the history of the caucasus” with one important difference. this map does not comprise the caucasian territories of the republic of türkiye and the islamic republic of iran (radvanyi & beruchashvili, 2009). tavadze. 2025 5(1) figure 1. the physical-geographic map of the caucasus region (caucasus, 2018) according the written information, the caucasus region mainly comprises georgia, azerbaijan and armenia; the administrative-territorial parts of the russian federation: the adygea, karachaycherkessia, kabardino-balkaria, north ossetia, ingushetia, chechnya and the dagestan autonomous republics, the krasnodar and the stavropol krays; the ostans of the islamic republic of iran: west azerbaijan, east azerbaijan, ardebil and gilan; the ills of the republıc of türkiye: artvin, rize, trabzon, ardahan, kars, igdir and the northern part of erzurum. though, there can be the different ideas about the caucasian territories of russia, iran and türkiye (fig. 2). figure 2. territory of the caucasus region and its sovereign states the state frontiers in the caucasus are as complex and varied as the borders of the entire region. they are based as much on the orographic as on the hydrographical objects. the de jure and the de facto frontiers have been often changed during the 20th-21st centuries, which forms the important tavadze. 2025 5(1) internal and the foreign problems. the republics of turkey, armenia, and azerbaijan, as well as the russian federation, are neighbours of georgia. the length of georgia’s frontier with türkiye comprises 240.8 km, with armenia – 194.4 km, with azerbaijan – 402.2 km, and with russia – 915 km. the neighbours of azerbaijan are not only georgia but also the russian federation, the republics of armenia and türkiye, and the islamic republic of iran. the length of azerbaijan’s frontier with russia is 390.3 kilometres, with türkiye – 9 km, with armenia – 1007.1 km, and with iran – 765 km. türkiye and iran are the neighbours of armenia, with georgia and azerbaijan. armenia shares a frontier of 311 km with türkiye and 44 km with iran. türkiye and iran share a long state frontier that measures 499 kilometres. interestingly, türkiye’s section of the caucasian frontier with iran is quite short, located only within the territory of the igdir ill. in contrast, the entire frontier between iran and türkiye is located in the caucasus region, specifically within the territory of west azerbaijan ostan (goishvili & chkheidze, 2001). krasnodar krai, karachay-cherkessia, kabardino-balkaria, north ossetia, ingushetia, chechnya, and the dagestan autonomous republics are the bordering territories of the russian federation in the caucasus. all of them are the neighbours of georgia’s one or more administrative territorial regions, and only dagestan a.r. is the neighbour of azerbaijan’s two unofficial administrative regions. the krasnodar krai has the frontier with the occupied abkhazia autonomous republic, georgia. the karachay-cherkessia a.r. has the frontier with the abkhazia a.r. and the samegrelo – upper svaneti region, whereas the kabardino-balkaria a.r. has the frontier with the samegrelo – upper svaneti region and the racha-lechkhumi and lower svaneti regions. north ossetia has the frontier with the racha-lechkhumi and lower svaneti region, the occupied tskhinvali region and the mtskheta-mtianeti region. the ingushetia a.r. has the frontier with the mtskheta-mtianeti region; the chechnya a.r. has the frontier with the mtskheta-mtianeti and the kakheti regions, whereas the dagestan a.r. has the frontier with only the kakheti region. the administrative-territorial districts (provinces) of azerbaijan are collected in wider “economic regions”. russia’s dagestan autonomous republic has the frontier with two of them: shaki-zaqatala and quba-khachmaz. the kvemo kartli, samtskhe-javakheti regions and the adjara autonomous republic are the bordering territories of georgia too. these regions and kakheti have a state border with the various regions of azerbaijan, armenia, and türkiye. kakheti bordered the shaki-zaqatala and the ganjadashkasan economic regions of the azerbaijan republic; kvemo kartli – with the kazakh-tovuz economic region. the kvemo kartli region also shares a border with the tavush, lori, and shirak "marzes" (regions) of the armenian republic. samtskhe-javakheti is bordered by the shirak marz too. this region of georgia also has the frontier with türkiye’s ardahan ill. the adjara autonomous republic has the frontier with the ardahan and artvin provinces, both bordering regions of türkiye with georgia. the republics of armenia and turkey, and the islamic republic of iran, are the neighbours of the azerbaijan republic, along with georgia and russia. 8 economic regions of azerbaijan have borders with the various regions of these states. four economic units, namely the kazakh-tovuz, ganjadashkasan, east zangezur regions, and the nakhchivan autonomous republic, share a state border with six marzes of armenia: tavush, gegharkunik, vayots dzor, syunik, ararat, and armavir. the nakhchivan a.r. has the shortest border with the republic of türkiye. the same autonomous republic, also the east zangezur, karabakh, mil-mughan, shirvan-salyian and the lankeran-astara economic regions, have the state frontier with the ostans of the islamic republic of iran: west azerbaijan, east azerbaijan, ardebil and gilan. four marzes of the republic of armenia—shirak, aragatsotn, armavir, and ararat—share a state border with various provinces of the republic of türkiye. shirak has the border with the ardahan and kars ills, aragatsotn – with only the kars ill, armavir – with the kars and the igdir ills, ararat – with only the igdir ill. the syunik marz of the armenian republic has a state border with the east azerbaijan ostan of the islamic republic of iran. 4 ills of the republic of türkiye: igdir, agri, van and hakkari have the state frontier with the only ostan of the islamic republic of iran, west azerbaijan. among these regions, türkiye’s igdir and iran’s west azerbaijan are part of the caucasus. the establishment of state frontiers and internal borders became a long-term process. it lasted for about two centuries and became painful for the various states of the caucasus region. regrettably, we have not yet completed this challenging process. tavadze. 2025 5(1) administrative-territorial organisation of the caucasus region in the beginnings of the 20th century at the beginning of the 20th century, the russian, ottoman, and persian empires divided the caucasus region. “the caucasian viceroyalty” of the russian empire comprised 13 various governorates, oblasts and the okrugs. besides, the caucasus region comprised the stavropol governorate, which was not part of “the caucasian viceroyalty”, and also the trabzon and the erzurum vilayets of the ottoman empire, as well as the azerbaijan and the gilan khanates of the persian empire (metreveli, the history of caucasus – part 2, 2023). the large administrative-territorial regions of russia—the governorates and the oblasts (regions)— were divided into smaller provinces: the uezds, okrugs, districts, and "otdels". they were also subdivided into “the police districts”. “the north caucasus” comprised the stavropol and the black sea governorates and the kuban, ter, and dagestan oblasts. it's crucial to note that the modern abkhazia autonomous republic occupied the south-eastern region of the black sea governorate, stretching from the bzipi river basin to the psou river, as depicted on the 1913 map of the black sea province. formated in 1847, the stavropol governorate (fig. 3) underwent internal territorial changes from 1910 to 1917. the governorate comprised 5 uezds and 2 districts until the collapse of the russian empire: the alexanderevskoe, medvejye, blagodranoe, and stavropol uezds and the sviato krest uezd, which had the same names, as well as the turkmen and achikul districts. figure 3. stavropol governorate in 1913 (stavropol governorate, 1913) in 1896, the black sea governorate came into existence. novorossiysk city was its centre. novorossiysk, tuapse, and sochi were the three okrugs that divided the region. the sochi okrug comprised the northwestern part of the modern abkhazia autonomous republic. in 1860, the kuban oblast came into existence. the city of ekaterinodar (modern krasnodar) was its centre. in the beginning of the 20th century, the region comprised seven "otdels": bataplashin, yeysk, ekaterinodar, kavkasky, labin, maykop, and temryuk. “the temryuk otdel” was renamed as “taman” in 1910. only 3ut of 5 owned the towns as the centres at that period: ekaterinodar, labin and maykop. the centres of the bataplashin, yeysk, kavkasky and taman otdels were only the stations: bataplashin (the modern cherkessk,) umman, kavkasky and slavyansk (the modern slavyansk on the kuban) (kuban region, 1913). in 1860, the terek oblast came into existence. vladikavkaz city was the centre of this region. the oblast comprised five okrugs and three otdels at the beginning of the 20th century: the vladikavkaz, grozny, nalchik, pyatigorsk, and khasavyurt okrugs; the kizlar, mozdok, and sunja otdels. 5 territories owned the towns as the centres at that period: vladikavkaz, grozny, pyatigorsk, kizlar and tavadze. 2025 5(1) mozdok. the centres of the nalchik and khasavyurt okrugs as well as the sunja otdel were the stations. it is important that nalchik and khasavyurt are the towns of the russian federation today, whereas sunja is a village (map of the terek region, 1913). the dagestan oblast was formed in 1860. the town of temir-khan-shura (now buynaksk) was its centre. at the beginning of the 20th century, the region comprised nine okrugs: avarskiy, andiyskiy, gunibskiy, darginskiy, kazikumukhskiy, kaytago-tabasaranskiy, kyurinskiy, samurskiy, and temir-khan-shurinskiy. their centres were the villages: khunzakh, botlikh, gunib, levashi, kumukh, madzhalis, kasumkent, akhty, and the town of temir-khan-shura (map of the dagestan region, 1913). “the central caucasus” comprised the tbilisi, kutaisi, yerevan, elizavetpol and baku governorates, the zaqatala and sokhumi okrugs, and partly the batumi oblast. the russian empire began the conquest of "the central caucasus" in 1801, gradually forming its parts over a long period of time. this ultimately led to the formation of the tbilisi governorate in 1846. it comprised 9 uezds in the beginning of the 20th century: tbilisi, borchalo, akhalkalaki, akhaltsikhe, gori, dusheti, tianeti, telavi and sighnaghi. the centres of 7 uezds were the cities or towns with the same names, whereas tbilisi was also the capital of the entire "caucasian viceroyalty." only the centres of the borchalo and the tianeti uezds were the villages, shulaveri and tianeti. the zaqatala okrug, the province under the military power, was part of the tbilisi governorate until 1903. this province was separated from the governorate and formed as the individual territory into “the caucasian viceroyalty”. the kutaisi governorate was formed in 1847, and the region comprised 7 uezds at the beginning of the 20th century: kutaisi, shorapani, racha, lechkhumi, senaki, zugdidi and ozurgeti. the centres of the kutaisi, senaki, zugdidi and ozurgeti uezds were the towns with the same names. the centres of the shorapani, racha, and lechkhumi uezds were the villages: kvirila (the future chiatura), oni, and tsageri. according to one map, the town of shorapani was the capital of the shorapani uezd in 1914. the sokhumi okrug, the province under military power like zaqatala, was part of the kutaisi governorate until 1903. then, it broke away from the region and became its own independent territory. the batumi oblast was part of “the central caucasus” more or less. it comprised the batumi and artvini okrugs, with the centres of the same names. this oblast was part of the kutaisi governorate till 1903 and then separated from it. the kars and the moscow agreements between soviet russia and kemalist türkiye, 1921, drew the modern line between “the central” and “the south caucasus”. according to these agreements, the largest part of the batumi okrug (the modern adjara autonomous republic) remained in the central part of the region, whereas the entire artvini okrug with the southwestern part of the batumi okrug became the parts of “the south” (georgia at the end of the 19th century, 2012; sanadze, beradze, & thopuria, 2009). the yerevan governorate (erivan province, 1913) was formed in 1849, whereas the region comprised seven uezds at the beginning of the 20th century: alexandropol, nakhchivan, novo baiazet, surmalin, sharuro-daralagez, yerevan, and echmiadzin. 5 of them had the centres in the face of the towns with the same names. only the centres of the surmalin and sharuro-daralagez uezds, igdir and bash-norashen, were the villages. in 1921, türkiye received only the surmalin uezd, while the majority of this governorate remained in the central caucasus. later, that territory formed the igdir ily. the elizavetpol (the ganja-city) governorate was formed in 1867, whereas the region comprised eight uezds at the beginning of the 20th century: aresh, jevanshir, elizavetpol, zangezur, kazakh, jebraiyl, nukha, and shusha. it is important that the centre of jebraiyl uezd moved to karyagino in 1905; as a result, the name of the province was changed too. only 3 uezds owned the towns as the capitals: elizavetpol, nukha and shusha. the centres of the aresh, jevanshir, zangezur, kazakh and karyagino provinces were the villages: agdash, terter, gerusy, kazakh and karyagino. the baku governorate was formed in 1859, whereas the region comprised six uezds at the beginning of the 20th century: baku, geokchay, javad, kuba, shemakha, and lenkoran. the capitals of all 6 provinces were the towns of baku, geokchay, salyan, kuba, shemakha and lenkoran (ethnographic map of the baku governorate, 1901) (fig. 4). tavadze. 2025 5(1) figure 4. the caucasus region and the caucasian viceroyalty in the beginning of the 20th century “the south caucasus” mainly comprised 5 large administrative-territorial regions in the beginning of the 20th century: the kars oblast of the russian empire, the trabzon and the erzurum vilayets of the ottoman empire, the azerbaijan and the gilan khanates of the persian empire. the kars oblast (fig. 5) was formed in 1878 and comprised 4 okrugs in the beginning of the 20th century: ardagan, oltis, kars and kagizman. the centres of all four were the towns by the same names. this part of the russian empire became the territory of the kemalist türkiye in 1921, as the result it went to “the south caucasus.” figure 5. kars oblast in 1913 (administrative map of kars oblast, 1913) tavadze. 2025 5(1) the administrative-territorial organisation of the ottoman empire was changed during “the tanzimat,” the reforms in the state, 1864. the large territorial units – “eyalets” were replaced by smaller regions – “vilayets.” they were divided into “the sanjaks” which were subdivided into “the kazas.” the ottoman empire kept only two vilayets in the caucasus after the russia-ottoman war in 1877-1878, trabzon (fig. 6) and erzurum (fig.7). the trabzon vilayet comprised 4 “sanjaks” in the beginning of the 20th century: trabzon, lazistan, gumushhane and samsun. the cities and towns of trabzon, rize, gumushhane and samsun were their centres. the erzurum vilayet comprised 3 sanjaks in the beginning of the 20th century: erzurum, erzincan and bayezid. the towns with the same names were the centres of these provinces. figure 6. trabzon vilayet (cuinet, vilayet of trebizond, 1890) “the south azerbaijan” or “iran’s azerbaijan” was one of the largest khanates of the persian empire, but the information about the administrative-territorial system of this state in the beginning of the 20th century is very poor. we know just two important administrative changes about the northern iran. “the qajar dynasty” made the tabriz-city, the capital of “the south azerbaijan,” the ruling centre for the successors of their throne in beginning of the 19th century. but we do not know if this reform continued the existing during the second half of the century and especially in the beginning of the 20th or not. it is important that the russian empire and the united kingdom formed the agreement which finished the forming of “the antanta” in 1907. according to this agreement, the northern iran, including “the south azerbaijan” and the gilan regions, went under the influence of the russian empire. figure 7. erzurum vilayet (cuinet, erzurum vilayet, 1890) caucasus from the empire till the soviet epoch tavadze. 2025 5(1) the two new states were formed in "the north caucasus" after the collapse of the russian empire in 1917: "the mountainous republic of the northern caucasus" and "the kuban people's republic." “the mountainous republic” declared independence in 1917, according to the collapse of the russian empire, and existed till 1919. this confederative state primarily occupied the territories of the former dagestan and terek oblasts. the town of temir-khan-shura was its capital. the confederation was composed of seven ethnic countries: dagestan, ingushetia, chechnya, alania, circassia (which also included adygea), karachay-balkaria, and nogai. “the mountainous republic of the northern caucasus” had the claim for abkhazia, the part of georgia’s first republic, too (hille, 2010). “the kuban people’s republic” existed during 1918–1920 on the main territory of the former kuban oblast and the black sea governorate. the ekaterinodar city was its capital. the state comprised the former otdels and okrugs of these regions: bataplashin, yeysk, ekaterinodar, kavkasky, labin, maykop, taman, novorossiysk, tuapse and sochi. though, the south-eastern part of the former sochi okrug, from the basin of the bzipi river to the psou river, returned to the georgian state. “the soviet russia” conquered “the kuban” and “the mountainous” republics during 1919-1920. the second state was temporarily replaced by “the north caucasian emirate” (1919-1920,) but the russian state defeated and occupied this country too. the collapse of the russian statehood in the caucasus started after the revolutions in 1917. “the south caucasian federation” declared independence in april 1918, though this confederation was separated into the georgia, armenia and azerbaija sovereign states in may of the same year. it is important that the ottoman empire occupied a large part of “the central” and “the south caucasus” with the brest-litovsk peace agreement formed on march 3, 1918. but it had to leave the territory soon because of the failure in ww1 (kazemzadeh, 2016). “the first republic of georgia” (fig. 8) declared independence from “the south caucasian federation” on may 26, 1918. the state comprised the former tbilisi governorate, kutaisi governorate, batumi oblast, sokhumi and zaqatala okrugs, as well as the historical georgian land of the former kars oblast. the tbilisi city was the capital of the state. figure 8. the territories demanded by the first republic of georgia in 1920 (the map of the territories demanded by georgia in 1920, 2024) the administrative-territorial organisation of georgia was the same as during the imperial epoch with some differences. the east georgia, or “the tbilisi governorate”, comprised the tbilisi, borchalo, akhalkalaki, akhaltsikhe, gori, dusheti, tianeti, telavi, and sighnaghi uezds. the west georgia, or “the kutaisi governorate”, comprised the kutaisi, shorapani, racha, lechkhumi, senaki, zugdidi and ozurgeti uezds. the artaani and oltisi okrugs were in the south of the state, though georgia could not control the oltisi okrug. the abkhazia (the former sokhumi okrug,) zaqatala, and “the muslim georgia” (the former batumi oblast) regions were in the bordering parts of the state. the tavadze. 2025 5(1) government of “the first republic” was planning to form the autonomous republics on these lands, but it could not fulfil the plan. it is important that the basin of the bzipi river returned to the georgian state during the period of the first republic. the territorial formation of “the first republic of armenia” (fig. 9) became the complex process. the aggression of the ottoman empire and the caucasian interests of the united kingdom were hindering it. additionally, armenia was involved in military conflicts with its two closest neighbours, georgia and azerbaijan. the territory of the state gained its main form in 1919 when armenia occupied the former yerevan governorate and the historical armenian land of the former kars oblast. this land comprised the uezds and the okrugs of the collapsed empire: alexandropol, nakhchivan, novo baiazet, surmalin, sharuro-daralagez, yerevan, echmiadzin, kars and kagizman. besides, “the first republic of armenia” occupied the part of “the nagorno-karabakh” by the armenia-azerbaijan war. this land comprised the parts of the former elizavetpol, jevanshir and zangezur uezds in the former elizavetpol governorate (administrative map of elisabethpol governorate – 1913, 1913). yerevan was the capital of “the first republic of armenia”. this is important: according to the treaty of sèvres in 1920, which the defeated ottoman empire formed with the winner states, armenia should have gained about 100,000 km² of former ottoman territory, so-called “west armenia”. but this project was not done because of some reasons, such as armenia’s occupation by soviet russia, the kemalist movement in türkiye and the alliance of the kemalists and the communists. figure 9. the first republic of armenia according to the paris peace conference in 1919 (armenian delegation on paris peace conference, 1919, 2024) the georgia and the armenia states were restored in face of the republics in “the central caucasus,” may 1918, whereas the sovereign state with the name of “azerbaijan” – “the azerbaijan democratic republic” was formed for the first time at the same period. the ganja-city, which returned its historical name, was the capital of the state till the september of the same year as baku was occupied by “the bolshevik.” the capital of azerbaijan moved into this city for good after the banishing of “the red.” this is important that this state had the territorial claims to both closest neighbours, the georgia and the armenia democratic republics. “the azerbaijan democratic republic” occupied the former baku and elizavetpol governorates of the collapsed empire. besides, it was controlling the southern part of the former yerevan governorate tavadze. 2025 5(1) till 1919. azerbaijan had the claim for the zaqatala okrug, the territory of “the first republic of georgia,” too. “the azerbaijan democratic republic” comprised the former uezds of the collapsed empire: baku, kuba, shemakha, goychay, javad, lenkoran, ganja, kazakh, nukha, aresh, jevanshir, shusha, garyagin and zangezur, as well as the sharuro-daralagez and the nakhchivan uezds on the territory of the former yerevan governorate, till 1919. figure 10. administrative-territorial organisation of the republic of türkiye in 1927 (ana vatan : [turkey], 1927, 2024) “the red army” of “the communist” conquered the azerbaijan and armenia democratic republics in the april and the december of 1920. they also occupied “the first republic of georgia” in the february 1921. figure 11. the persian empire in 1920 (persia, 1920) as of “the south caucasus” during the 1920s, the earliest source about the administrative-territorial organisation of the republic of türkiye is dated by 1927 (fig. 10). this is the map where the topolymy is still written by the arab script as well as the document of türkiye’s first census of the population in the same year. both show that the caucasian territory of this republic comprised four ills entirely and two – partly in the end of the 1920s. the whole territory of the kars, artvin, rize and trabzon ills were part of the region at that time, as well as the northern part of the erzurum ill and the tavadze. 2025 5(1) north-eastern part of the bayezid (later agri) ily. as for iran (persia till 1935), (fig. 11) this state was divided into 12 “ostans” till 1950, whereas the caucasian territory of this state comprised two of them: azerbaijan and gilan. caucasus during the soviet epoch “the north caucasus”, (fig. 12) the territory of “the russian soviet federative socialist republic,” comprised the dagestan and the mountainous autonomous republics, the kuban-black sea and the terek autonomous oblasts in 1922. the dagestan a.r. kept its self-government. “the mountainous autonomous republic” was separated into the karachay-cherkessia, kabardino-balkaria, north ossetia, chechnya and the ingushetia autonomous oblasts. the kuban-black sea oblast was separated into the adygea a.o. and into the krasnodar and the stavropol krays after some administrative-territorial formations. the numerous territorial changes as well as the changes of the administrative system had a place in “the north caucasus” during the soviet epoch. the exile of the north caucasian ethnics (the kabardian, chechen and the ingush) during ww2 and their emancipation in 1957 had an important influence on these changes too. as the result, “the north caucasus” comprised 8 administrativeterritorial units at the end of the soviet epoch, 1989: the krasnodar and the stavropol krays, the kabardino-balkaria, north ossetia, chechnya-ingushetia and the dagestan autonomous soviet socialist republics, the adygea and the karachay-cherkessia autonomous oblasts (soviet union administrative divisions, 1989, 2024) figure 12. the north and the central caucasus during the soviet epoch (administrative map of caucasus in ussr, 19521991, 2024) georgia, armenia and azerbaijan formed “the south caucasian soviet federative socialist republic” after “the red occupation” of these countries. this state became one of four founders of “the union of soviet socialist republics” in 1923. though, the federation of “the central caucasus” was separated into three individual soviet socialist republics in 1936. tavadze. 2025 5(1) it is interesting that the administrative-territorial changes of georgia were continuing from the 1920s till 1968 during the soviet epoch. the country lost quite a large territory after the occupation. it was distributed among türkiye, armenia, azerbaijan and russia. according to the map dated by 1928, the administrative-territorial organisation of georgia comprised the systems of the russian empire, the first republic and the soviet union. the tbilisi uezd kept its territory in east georgia, whereas the part of the borchalo uezd was given to armenia. the town of luxemburg (the modern bolnisi) was the centre of the other part. the akhalkalaki and akhaltsikhe uezds had the same borders as during the imperial epoch, whereas the northern part of the gori uezd was comprised of “the south ossetia autonomous oblast” at that time. this territory also occupied akhalgori and several communes in racha and imereti. the dusheti uezd was located north of tbilisi, but we cannot see tianeti province on this map. though, according to unspecified information, this territory was abolished during 19291930 with other uezds. the telavi uezd occupied the former territory of tianeti on this map, and the sighnaghi province was situated south-eastern from it. west georgia comprised the kutaisi, shorapani, racha, lechkhumi, senaki, zugdidi, and ozurgeti uezds, as well as the upper svaneti uezd from 1921. the abkhazia and adjara autonomous republics were the individual territorial units in georgia. they were the legacy of “the first republic”. though, the adjara a.r. had twice the smaller territory than “the muslim georgia”, as the other part was given to the republic of türkiye. the active administrative-territorial reform took place during the beginnings of the 1930s, so the imperial uezds were replaced by “the districts”. the map dated 1938 is badly distinguishable, but it has the list of these districts, and we can group them according to the modern regions of georgia. in 1938, the modern kakheti region comprised the sagarejo, gurjaani, telavi, kvareli, lagodekhi, sighnaghi, and tsitelitskaro districts. the modern akhmeta municipality (district of province) was part of the telavi district until 1951 at first and then during 1963-1964. only in 1964 did it officially become an independent district. in 1938, the modern mtskheta-mtianeti region comprised the dusheti, kazbegi, and tianeti districts. the modern kvemo kartli region – the karaiazi (gardabani,) borchalo (marneuli,) aghbulaghi (tetritskaro,) luxemburg (bolnisi,) tsalka and bashkicheti (dmanisi) districts. in 1938, the kaspi, gori, and khashuri districts formed the modern shida kartli region, with the kareli district forming as early as 1939. gori and khashuri divided its territory prior to that date. the modern samtskhe-javakheti region comprised the same six provinces in 1938 as today: the borjomi, adigeni, akhaltsikhe, aspindza, akhalkalaki, and bogdanovka (ninotsminda) districts. figure 13. the georgian soviet socialist republic during 1944-1957 (georgian ssr, 1944 1955, 1954) the modern imereti region comprised the orjonikidze (kharagauli,) zestaponi, chiatura, tkibuli, chkhari, kutaisi, baghdati, vani, tsulukidze (khoni) and samtredia districts in 1938. the sachkhere district separated from chiatura and the tskaltubo district from kutaisi as soon as in 1939. besides, tavadze. 2025 5(1) the territory of the chkhari district became the terjola province because of chkhari’s demotion in 1950. the modern samegrelo – upper svaneti region comprised the abasha, gegechkori (martvili,) tskhakaia (senaki,) khobi, poti, zugdidi, chkhorotsqu, tsalenjikha and upper svaneti districts in 1938. poti is the self-governing city today, whereas the largest part of its district was given to khobi. the modern regions of racha-lechkhumi and lower svaneti, as well as guria, comprised the same provinces in 1938 as today. the first one, the ambrolauri, oni, tsageri and lower svaneti districts; the second one, the lanchkhuti, makharadze (ozurgeti) and chokhatauri districts. tbilisi was the individual district in 1938. the modern mtskheta municipality was part of the tbilisi district in the 1930s. as for the autonomous regions, the abkhazia assr comprised the gali, ochamchire, sokhumi, gudauta and gagra districts in 1938. the gulripshi district separated from sokhumi in 1946. the adjara assr comprises the batumi, keda and khulo districts. the territory of the batumi district became the khelvachauri province in 1968, whereas the city is self-governing today. the shuakhevi district separated from khulo in 1952, joined it again in 1963-1964 and separated for good in 1965. the south ossetia autonomous oblast comprised 4 districts in 1938: staliniri (tskhinvali,) leningori (akhalgori,) znauri and java. important territorial changes happened in the georgian ssr during 1944-1957 (fig. 13). georgia received a portion of "the north caucasian" territory following the exile of the local population. it was the klukhor district in the west and the akhalkhevi district in the east. the last province joined the dusheti district in the beginnings of the 1950s. these lands were returned to the northern caucasians after their emancipation and the returning home. figure 14. the georgian soviet socialist republic in 1981 (administrative-territorial organization of the georgian ssr in 1981, 1981) changes happened in the administrative-territorial nomenclature of the georgian ssr during the 1930s – 1950s. according to one source, the upper svaneti district was named mestia as soon as 1930. the mtskheta district separated from tbilisi during 1930-1934 and then after 1938 for good. aghbulaghi became tetritskaro and baghdati – mayakovski in 1940. karaiazi became gardabani, bashkicheti – dmanisi and borchalo – marneuli in 1947. the kvemo svaneti district was named lentekhi in 1957. other changes were formed too. as a result, we see the administrative-territorial tavadze. 2025 5(1) organisation of the georgian ssr on the map dated 1981, which can be considered the base of the administrative formation for independent georgia (fig. 14). armenia like georgia was under the influence of the russian imperial administrative system and was divided into 9 uezds during the 1920s: leninakan, lori-pambak, dilijan, ejmiatsin, yerevan, nor bayazet, daralagyaz, zangezur and meghri. it is important that 3 of them: dilijan, meghri and loripambak were formed after the soviet occupation. 37 districts and the self-governing cities were established in the armenian soviet socialist republic during 1929-1937. two more were formed during the 1970s and the 1980s. figure 15. armenian soviet socialist republic (soviet armenia, 2024) the shamshadin district was formed in the eastern part of the country, 1929. 24 districts were established in 1930: kotayk, aghbaba, aparan, vedi, ghamarlu, artik, ashtarak, basargechar, goris, gharakalisa, dilijan, daralagez, ijevan, nor bayazet, kafan, martuni, meghri, kurdukulin, akhta, sisian, stepanavan, talin, alaverdi and vagharshapat. the pashalu district was formed in the south of armenia, 1931. 11 districts were established in 1937: agin, alagyoz, duzkend, ghukasyan, kalinino, gharabaghlar, krasnoselsk, zangibasar, noyembrian, sevan and spitak. the nairi district was formed in 1972 and the baghramyan district, 1983. the first was established in the central part of the country, the second – in the south-western part. the yerevan-city – the capital of armenia was the individual district. 20 districts of the armenian soviet socialist republic changed their names as during the soviet epoch as after the finishing of this age, during the beginnings of the 1990s. two of them made this twice or more times. 14 provinces changed their names during the soviet epoch, 7 – after its finishing during very beginnings of the 1990s. 19 districts formed during the various years never changed their names: aparan, ashtarak, baghramyan, goris, dilijan, ijevan, gharabaghlar, krasnoselsk, martuni, meghri, nairi, noyembrian, sevan, sisian, spitak, stepanavan, talin and shamshadin (fig. 15). the information about the administrative-territorial organisation of the azerbaijan ssr (fig. 16) can by highly arguable as unfortunately, the author could not find the just sources in face of the literature or the well-distinguishable maps. according to the unspecified information, this soviet socialist republic comprised 13 administrative regions. though, we can exactly say that azerbaijan comprised the nakhchivan autonomous soviet socialist republic and the nagorno-karabakh autonomous oblast during the soviet epoch. the caucasian territory of the republıc of türkiye comprised 6 regions entirely or party in 1927. this number became 4 in 1935. the caucasian land of “the agri ill” joined to “the kars ill” – the part of “the south caucasus.” the artvin and the rize ills united and formed “the chorokhi ill.” as the result, the turkish part of “the south caucasus” had being comprised the chorokhi, trabzon, kars ills tavadze. 2025 5(1) and the northern part of the erzurum ill. the chorokhi ill was separated during the 1950s, whereas the new administrative-territorial changes happened in türkiye during the 1990s (statistic organization of türkiye, the census of the population in 1927, 2024); (statistic organization of türkiye, the census of the population in 1935, 2024). the caucasian territory of iran comprised only two regions, azerbaijan and gilan, in the beginning of the 20th century. the azerbaijan region was divided into two parts during the 1940s where the soviet union formed the puppet governments. neither of them existed for a long time. these ostans formed in “the south azerbaijan” were named as “the west azerbaijan” and “the east azerbaijan” during the 1960s. figure 16. azerbaijani soviet socialist republic (map of the azerbaijan ssr, 1928) the modern epoch “the north caucasus” became the epicentre of the great conflict after the collapse of “the soviet union” in 1991. chechnya declared the independence from russia in 1991, whereas ingushetia separated from “the chechnya-ingushetia autonomous republic” the next year. the chechen warriors were heroically fighting against the russians during “two chechen wars.” they gained the victory in the first one, 1994-1996, but were defeated in the second, 1999-2000. the russian federation organized the new administrative-territorial reforms in 2000. the state was divided into 8 unofficial “federal districts.” they exist to monitor the consistency between the federal and the regional powers, also to ensure the governmental control over the civil service and the judiciary in the regions. “the north caucasus” was divided between two federal districts: “the southern” with the capital in rostov-on-don and “the north caucasian” with the capital in pyatigorks. the region comprised 9 federal subjects. the krasnodar kray – the capital in the krasnodar-city and the republic of adygea – the capital in the maykop-city became the parts of “the southern federal district.” “the north caucasian federal district” comprised other subjects: the stavropol kray – the capital in the stavropol-city, the republic of karachay-cherkessia – cherkessk, the republic of kabardino-balkaria – nalchik, the republic of north ossetia or alania – vladikavkaz, the republic of ingushetia – nazran till 2002 and magas after that, the republic of chechnya – grozny and the republic of dagestan – makhachkala. according to some sources, “the north caucasus” comprises the southern parts of two more russia’s territories: the republic of kalmykia and the rostov oblast. the regions and the countries of the russian federation are subdivided into the districts. tavadze. 2025 5(1) “the central caucasus” also became the epicentre of the great conflicts in the 1990s. the internal conflicts of georgia became the main obstacle to solve the problem of the administrative-territorial organization for good. according to the state’s constitution of 1995, this problem must be decided when georgia restores the control over its entire territory. abkhazia and adjara kept their autonomy into the georgia’s state. other territory was divided into 9 non-official “regions” under the state authority. their function is to maintain the coordination and consultation between the state and the municipality governments. these regions are kakheti, mtskheta-mtianeti, shida kartli, kvemo kartli, samtskhe-javakheti, imereti, racha-lechkhumi and lower svaneti, samegrelo-upper svaneti and guria. tbilisi, the capital of the state, is independent of all regions (fig. 17). figure 17. the modern administrative-territorial division of the north caucasus (walker, 2024) the south ossetia autonomous oblast was officially abolished in 1991, though “the south ossetia temporary administration” was formed in 2007. its government was situated in the village of kurta. it has been exiled in tbilisi since the russia-georgia war of 2008. this territory was officially divided into six parts: akhalgori, eredvi, tigva, kurta, java municipalities and the tskhinvali-city. as for municipalities, georgia was divided into 72 units (fig. 18), including 5 self-governing cities: tbilisi, rustavi, kutaisi, poti and batumi, 2020. the kakheti region comprises 8 municipalities: sagarejo, akhmeta, telavi, gurjaani, kvareli, lagodekhi, sighnaghi and dedoplistskaro. telavi is the administrative centre of the kakheti. the mtskheta-mtianeti region comprises 5 municipalities among which 1 – akhalgori is occupied. mtskheta, dusheti, tianeti and kazbegi are other provinces. mtskheta is the centre of this region. the shida kartli region comprises 4 municipalities: kaspi, gori, kareli and khashuri, though some changes had been organized there when the state restored the independence. this region was officially divided into 5 municipalities in 1991-2007, before the creation of “the south ossetia temporary administration.” java was the fifth municipality, whereas the territories of the former tskhinvali and znauri districts were the parts of gori and kareli municipalities. gori is the administrative centre of the shida kartli. the kvemo kartli region comprises 7 municipalities: gardabani, marneuli, tetritskaro, bolnisi, tsalka, dmanisi and the rustavi-city. the last one is the centre of the region. the samtskhe-javakheti region comprises 6 municipalities: adigeni, akhaltsikhe, aspindza, akhalkalaki, ninotsminda and borjomi. the akhaltsikhe-city is the centre of the samtskhe-javakheti. the imereti region comprises 12 municipalities: sachkhere, chiatura, kharagauli, zestaponi, terjola, tkibuli, baghdati, vani, tskaltubo, khoni, samtredia and the kutaisi-city. the last one is the tavadze. 2025 5(1) administrative centre of the imereti region. the racha-lechkhumi and lower svaneti region comprises 4 municipalities: ambrolauri, oni, tsageri and lentekhi. ambrolauri is its centre. the samegrelo – upper svaneti region comprises 9 municipalities: abasha, senaki, khobi, zugdidi, martvili, chkhorotsqu, tsalenjikha, mestia and the poti-city. zugdidi is the centre of this region. the guria region comprises 3 municipalities: lanchkhuti, ozurgeti and chokhatauri. ozurgeti is the centre. the abkhazia autonomous republic comprises 7 municipalities: gali, ochamchire, gulripshi, sokhumi, gudauta, gagra and azhara. the territory of the azhara municipality was the only one under the georgian control till 2008. it was officially formed in 2006. the term “upper abkhazeti” was established as its other name too. the sokhumi-city is the capital of the abkhazia a.r. though its official government is exiled in tbilisi. the adjara autonomous republic comprises 6 municipalities: kobuleti, khelvachauri, keda, shuakhevi, khulo and the batumi-city. batumi is the capital of the adjara a.r. the significant changes were made in the naming of the municipalities and their centres after the collapse of the soviet union. cities and towns returned their old names, so their territories’ names also changed. tsitelitskaro in the kakheti became dedoplistskaro, leningori in the mtskheta-mtianeti – akhalgori. the town of kazbegi in the same region returned its old name stepantsminda in 2006, but the municipality kept the former name. the former znauri became kornisi in the shida kartli. bogdanovka returned the old georgia name ninotsminda in the samtskhe-javakheti. three changes were made in the imereti region: orjonikidze became kharagauli, tsulukidze – khoni and mayakovski – baghdadi again. besides, gegechkori became martvili, tskhakaia – senaki and makharadze – ozurgeti in samegrelo and guria. the names of the tbilisi districts were changed too. the last crucial administrative-territorial change was made in 2017, when seven self-governing cities lost this right: telavi, mtskheta, gori, akhaltsikhe, ambrolauri, zugdidi and ozurgeti. all of them are the centres of the regions and the municipalities at the same time. the own government was kept by tbilisi and those cities which are the centres of the regions, but not the municipalities, except poti. figure 18. the administrative-territorial division of georgia (administrative division, 2018) the main administrative-territorial division of armenia has two steps like in georgia. the state is divided into 11 regions, 10 “marzs” and the capital yerevan-city. the marzs are ruled by “the marzpets” appointed by the central power. the capital is ruled by the mayor elected by the population. these marzs are shirak, lori, tavush, aragatsotn, kotayk, gegharkunik, armavir, ararat, vayots dzor and syunik. tavadze. 2025 5(1) according to the administrative reforms of armenia during the 2010s-2020s (fig. 19), the shirak marz is subdivided into 6 municipalities: gyumri, artik, ani, akhurian, amasia and ashotsk. gyumri is the centre of the region. the lori marz comprises 57 municipalities. vanadzor is the centre. the tavush marz has 24 municipalities with the centre in ijevan. the aragatsotn marz is subdivided into 9 municipalities: alagyaz, aparan, arevut, ashtarak, metsandzor, shamirman, talin and tsaghkahovit. ashtarak is the centre of the region. the kotayk marz comprises 42 municipalities with the centre in hrazdan. the gegharkunik marz is subdivided into 5 municipalities: chambarak, gavar, martuni, sevan and vardenis. gavar is the centre of the region. the armavir marz comprises 7 municipalities: araks, armavir, baghramyan, khoy, metsamor, parakar and vagharshapat. armavir is the centre. the ararat marz has 5 municipalities: ararat, artashat, masis, vedi and verin dvin with the centre in artashat. the vayots dzor marz comprises 5 municipalities: areni, jemruk, vayk, yeghegis and yeghegnadzor. the last one is the centre of the region. the syunik marz is subdivided into 8 municipalities: goris, kajaran, kapan, meghri, sisian, gorayk, tavet and tegh. kapan is the centre. figure 19. the administrative-territorial division of armenia in 2021 (provinces of armenia, 2024) the administrative-territorial division of the azerbaijan republic (fig. 20) had one main step until 2021, when the new “economic regions” were formed in the state. though this system gained two levels after that, they are less connected to each apart from the administrative-territorial stages in georgia or armenia. there are 67 districts and 11 cities in the azerbaijan republic. besides, the nakhchivan autonomous republic comprises 7 more districts and 1 city. all these provinces are distributed among 14 economic regions, which were mainly formed according to their geographic and economic similarities: baku, absheron-khizi, ganja-dashkasan, shaki-zagatala, lankeran-astara, quba-khachmaz, central aran, karabakh, east zangezur, mountainous shirvan, nakhchivan, qazakh-tovuz, mil-mughan, and shirvan-salyan. the baku economic region comprises only the capital and its district, which are the main economic centres of the state. the absheron-khizi economic region includes the absheron and khizi districts as well as the sumgait city. the quba-khachmaz economic region is formed of 5 districts: shabran, khachmaz, quba, qusar and siyazan. the mountainous shirvan economic region comprises 4 districts: agsu, ismaiyly, gobustan and shamakhi. the shirvan-salyan economic region includes 5 districts: bilasuvar, hajigabul, neftchala, salyan and the shirvan city. the lankeran-astara economic region is made of 5 districts: astara, jalilabad, lerik, yardimli and lankeran. the milmughan economic region comprises 4 districts: beylagan, imishli, saatly and sabirabad. the central aran economic region includes 7 districts: agdash, goychay, kurdamir, ujar, yevlakh, zardab and mingachevir city. the shaki-zagatala economic region comprises 6 districts: balakan, qakh, qabala, oghuz, zagatala and shaki. the qazakh-tovuz economic region includes 5 districts: aghstafa, gadabay, gazakh, shamkir and tovuz. the ganja-dashkasan economic region is made of 6 districts: dashkasan, goranboy, goygol, samukh, the ganja and naftalan cities. the karabakh economic region comprises nine districts: agjabadi, aghdam, barda, fuzuli, khojaly, khojavend, shusha, tatar, and khankendi city. the east zangezur economic region includes 5 districts: jabrayil, kalbajar, qubadli, lachin and zangilan. and finally, the nakhchivan economic region comprises 8 districts of the autonomic republic: babek, julfa, kangarli, ordubad, sadarak, shuahbuz, sharur and the nakhchivan city. tavadze. 2025 5(1) the administrative-territorial changes took place in türkiye and iran, in the parts of “the south caucasus”, during the 1990s. the republic of türkiye is unofficially divided into 7 regions, whereas the parts of “the south caucasus” are distributed among two of them: “the black sea region” and “the eastern anatolia region”. the ardahan and the igdir ill separated from the kars ily in 1992 and 1993. as a result, türkiye’s “south caucasus” comprised 6 ills entirely and 1 partly: artvin, rize, trabzon, ardahan, kars, igdir and the northern part of erzurum. the first three are the parts of “the black sea region”; the other four – the parts of “the eastern anatolia region”. it is important that the ills, the provinces of the republic of türkiye, are subdivided into “the ilches” or districts. as a result, the artvin ill comprises 9 ilches, the rize ill – 12 ilches and the trabzon ill – 18 ilches. the ardahan ill is subdivided into 6 ilches, the kars ill – into 8 ilches, and igdir – into 4 ilches. the erzurum il is subdivided into 20 ilches. though it is difficult to say how many of them the parts of the caucasus region are. the northern part of this province may contain up to eight districts. figure 23. the economic regions of the azerbaijan republic in 2021 (economic regions of azerbaijan, 2024) the ardebil ostan separated from the east azerbaijan region in iran, 1993. so, iran’s “south caucasus” comprised 4 regions or “ostans:” west azerbaijan, east azerbaijan, ardebil and gilan. the regions of the islamic republic of iran are subdivided into “the shahreatans” or the oblasts. as the result, the west azerbaijan comprises 20 “shahrestans,” the east azerbaijan – 23 “shahrestans,” ardebil – 12 and gilan – 17 of them. conclusion the diverse caucasian region is the land of the richest history. the history does not stand but actively moves here. the state and the internal borders move according to it even during our age. it is interesting that the administrative-territorial systems of all 6 states are similar, though there are the sharp differences too. the admitting of the new borders and the new dividing of this region would supposedly abolish the russian imperial terminology and its legacy. the international relationships in the caucasus are also significant. azerbaijan, georgia and türkiye, the states of “the central” and “the south caucasus”, are the closest economic partners. besides, azerbaijan and türkiye are the closest political allies too. russia, armenia and iran, the states of “the north”, “central” and “the south caucasus"—are”also the closest economic and political partners to each other. these two trade alliances have the global role of two major lines from the west to the east and from the north to the south, the successors of the ancient and mediaeval trade routes. though armenia and azerbaijan are adversaries, both are dependent on georgia’s sea ports and vice versa, so these ports have the important role. the turkish private companies actively work not only in the allied georgia and tavadze. 2025 5(1) azerbaijan but also in the opponent armenia. at the same time, the russian private companies own a large part of the economy of the adversary – georgia. the state of “the central caucasus” – georgia tries to have a close cultural relationship with the republics of “the north caucasus”, the members of the russian federation. all these relations, also the role of the global trade routes in all parts of the region, interweave the three parts of the caucasus into each other and confirm that the dividing of the entire region is just conditional. we do not need to go far for the rough comparison: the caucasus ridge, situated on about 1500 kilometres and the territories of three sovereign states, is 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(2024, october 1). eurasian geopolitics. retrieved from eurasiangeopolitics.com: https://eurasiangeopolitics.com/north-caucasus-maps/ references georgian geographical journal spatial thinking in primary geography education: a design-based intervention in georgia manana ratiani1,* , maia madzgharashvili2 1 associate professor, ilia state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 teacher, galaktion tabidze public school no. 51, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: manana.ratiani@iliauni.edu.ge introduction spatial thinking is an essential component of human cognitive development, enabling individuals to understand relationships between objects and space while visualising, interpreting, and predicting spatial patterns (nrc, 2006). developing these skills is particularly crucial in geography education, where spatial representations form the basis for both information analysis and decision-making. international educational research demonstrates that establishing spatial thinking foundations at the primary level is critically important for students' subsequent subject-specific and metacognitive success. however, in the georgian educational environment, this component is insufficiently integrated into both standards and textbooks. consequently, students often struggle with map reading and recognising spatial connections between environmental elements. this deficit undermines the teaching-learning process and hinders students' ability to solve real spatial problems. teachers are frequently forced to develop appropriate activities independently, as existing resources provide insufficient support. this article presents a pedagogical intervention designed to develop spatial thinking competence using problem-based learning (pbl) methodology. the article describes the design research process, frameworks and tools used, presents data analysis and discussion, and offers recommendations to policymakers and educators for improving instruction in this area. conceptual framework developing effective instructional design requires robust theoretical foundations, especially when cultivating complex skills such as spatial thinking. this study relies on three primary theoretical frameworks: problem-based learning (pbl), the geographic reasoning framework, and designbased research. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 58-67 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract students' spatial thinking and problem-solving skills are crucial components of modern primary education. while the georgian national curriculum emphasises spatial representations and environmental perception skills, significant challenges exist in their practical implementation. textbooks often lack tasks that engage students with real spatial problems and develop argumentative thinking. this article presents design research conducted in a fifth-grade class at a tbilisi public school. the study aimed to improve students' spatial thinking and decision-making skills using the problem-based learning (pbl) model. five interventions addressed real geographical situations, including settlement planning, protected area selection, and infrastructure placement. results showed that targeted and consistent work on spatial tasks significantly improved students' abilities to read maps, recognise spatial relationships, and make rational choices. despite progress, certain difficulties persisted, particularly in aligning self-assessment with actual performance and developing analytical thinking components. the article examines contradictions between standards and textbooks, identifying characteristics of pedagogical practice that either facilitate or hinder spatial skills development. keywords: spatial thinking, primary level, problem-based learning, standard, design research, geography education citation: ratiani, m.; madzgharashvili, m. spatial thinking in primary geography education: a design-based intervention in georgia. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 58-67 https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.10 ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 59 1. problem-based learning (pbl) pbl is a constructivist approach where learning is based on real and multifaceted tasks. in this model, the student becomes an active learner who tries to define issues, find information, analyze, evaluate, and solve problems (barrows, 1986). in geography education, pbl is particularly effective because it allows students to consider realworld geographical problems. 2. geographic reasoning framework gersmehl and gersmehl (2011) propose a geographic reasoning model consisting of seven components: identifying location, analyzing spatial distribution, explaining patterns, understanding movement patterns, evaluating connections, comparing regions, and making decisions. using this framework allows students to conduct structured spatial analysis. 3. design research (dbr) is one of the most promising methodologies in education research, especially when the goal is to solve practical problems and improve teaching. according to arthur bakker (2018), design research has a clear structure, theoretical basis, and practical purpose. key aspects of design research (bakker, 2018): • problem-oriented approach: design research begins by identifying urgent educational problems. it seeks to solve real problems through innovative means rather than merely describing existing practices. • interconnection of theory and practice: this methodology integrates theory and practice. products developed during research (learning materials, activities, frameworks) are built on theoretical foundations and enrich theory in return. • interventionist nature and innovative design: design research involves creating and testing interventions to improve learning environments. interventions can include new teaching methods, structured activities, or technological tools. • iterative cycles: the research process is characterized by repetitive cycles—design creation, testing, analysis, and revision. this enables continuous improvement and refinement in real contexts. according to bakker's approach, design research is a rich, theoretically grounded, and practiceoriented methodology that is particularly powerful when learning standards inadequately support student cognitive development. during this research, all three frameworks were used interactively. literature review: spatial problem-solving in primary geography education spatial thinking is increasingly recognized as a fundamental competence in geography education, especially at the primary level, where it enables students to engage in critical analysis and decisionmaking about their environment. research indicates the importance of creating learning experiences that are not only age-appropriate but also address shortcomings in learning standards and textbooks (bakker, 2018; buckley et al., 2018). spatial skills development begins in early childhood with topological concepts (e.g., "near," "inside," "around") and gradually progresses to more complex spatial-projective concepts such as scale, symbols, and coordinates. research by national geographic shows that primary school students (especially grades ii-iv) begin understanding maps but still need support in interpreting spatial connections and symbols (national geographic society, 2016). cognitively, buckley et al. (2018) emphasize that spatial skills are multifactorial and include visualization, orientation, mental rotation, and spatial perception—all directly related to academic achievement, especially in stem disciplines. these skills develop through targeted tasks and activities such as understanding directions, creating maps, or making decisions about specific spatial problems— which directly aligns with primary geography education contexts. fiveable (2024) clearly states that spatial thinking extends beyond map reading to encompass a full cycle of geographical inquiry: asking spatial questions, acquiring and organizing information, analyzing connections, and making relevant decisions. this approach is compatible with problem-based learning models that promote active student engagement and encourage thinking development. nevertheless, spatial thinking remains incompletely integrated into primary education standards. textbooks often emphasize memorizing facts and technical map reading rather than spatial-cognitive tasks. a learning design-based approach can address this gap, especially when linking students' real needs with evolving research strategies (bakker, 2018). ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 60 primary geography education focused on spatial problem-solving requires both recognizing the diversity and developmental potential of spatial skills and implementing research-based instructional design. the synthesis of various academic disciplines—cognitive psychology, educational design, and practice—creates a solid foundation for developing spatial thinking and problem-solving skills in students. methods and materials this research is based on design-based research (dbr) methodology, which aims to develop innovative educational practices and test them in real contexts. dbr involves cyclical planning, implementation, evaluation, and redesign of educational interventions (anderson & shattuck, 2012). this approach is particularly important when developing complex skills in resource-limited conditions. the study was conducted in the academic year 2024-2025 in a fifth-grade class at tbilisi public school no. 51, with 23 students. teacher maia madzgharashvili was involved as an equal partner and active observer. student teachers from the training programme, mariam gagua and keso kankia, conducted the interventions. student teacher involvement proved particularly effective, as students felt comfortable with younger facilitators, experienced less stress, and could ask questions freely. this approach promotes more active student involvement and reduces barriers between teacher and student. data collection the instruments used included: o standard and textbook analysis o analysis of student work (maps, tables, arguments for choices) o student self-assessment forms o interviews with the teacher intervention design each intervention included the following structure, shown on the scheme the study included five interventions, each planned at three-week intervals. each intervention was based on the pbl model and represented a task based on real geographical contexts, such as: • planning a prototype settlement • selecting the location of a protected area • analyzing infrastructure placement (school, clinic) • assessing natural disaster risk and planning routes • planning recreational zones considering residents' interests figure 1. design elements ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 61 data analysis data analysis divided information according to three main components: • map reading and spatial identification ability • reasoned decision-making ability • accuracy of self-assessment qualitative and quantitative data analysis was conducted using excel. student work was evaluated according to a rubric (satisfactory, partially improved, incompetent) and analyzed after each intervention. participant selection for analysis important note on sample size: while 23 students are in the class, only 9 students attended all five interventions and were included in the final analysis. this reduction was necessary to maintain data integrity, as the cyclical nature of the interventions required consistent participation to track skill development progression. absenteeism poses particular challenges for this age group (fifth graders) as they are not yet independent learners. unlike older students, fifth graders cannot effectively review missed spatial thinking activities at home, especially since these activities are not part of licensed textbooks. the hands-on, collaborative nature of the interventions—involving map work, group discussions, and guided problem-solving—cannot be replicated through traditional homework assignments. students who missed interventions lacked the foundational skills needed for subsequent activities, making it methodologically inappropriate to include incomplete data sets in the analysis. this limitation highlights the importance of consistent attendance for cumulative skill development in primary education. ethical considerations with parental and school agreement, all students participated anonymously. materials used contain no names and strictly adhere to confidentiality principles. the teacher and school received summarized analysis results. analysis of standards and textbooks the georgian national curriculum (moe, 2018) defines compulsory achievements for students in "our georgia," which includes geographical components alongside history. although the document generally addresses spatial connections between environmental elements, it lacks specific instructions for developing spatial thinking as a separate competence. the standard presents terms such as "recognizing spatial connections," "map reading," and "representing the environment," but these are not accompanied by relevant explanations, minimal indicators, or task typologies, increasing the risk of multiple interpretations. consequently, teachers often remain unclear about what teaching these competencies means in practice. despite the georgian national curriculum's stated emphasis on developing spatial representations and environmental perception skills, practical implementation faces significant challenges stemming from current educational materials' shortcomings. a typical exercise from the widely used "our georgia" textbook (avtandilashvili et al., 2018) asks students: "what is the location of kartli on the map of georgia? which historical-geographical regions of georgia border it? are there more hills or plains in kartli?" similarly, page 52 asks students to "list, with the help of the map, which regions of georgia border imereti?" these tasks, and many others like them, are purely descriptive and extractive, requiring only direct information retrieval from maps rather than fostering genuine problem-solving or analytical engagement with spatial data. this reliance on rote recall rather than critical thinking fundamentally hinders true spatial reasoning development. the root of this issue lies in the national standard's generalized directives, which fail to compel textbook authors to create situation-based problems demanding analytical map work. for instance, within the "space" concept, the standard merely requires students to "discuss the reasons for the diversity of landscapes characteristic of georgia." this level of abstraction falls far short of fostering robust spatial thinking. in contrast, by fourth grade, national geographic's standards expect students to "analyze geographic contexts in which current events and issues occur," exemplified by tasks like describing "geographic ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 62 factors that would influence the decision on where to locate a new school in the local community" (national geographic society, n.d.). this disparity highlights a significant competency gap, where georgian primary students engage with spatial concepts at far less complex and practical levels than international peers, ultimately impeding their ability to apply spatial thinking to real-world scenarios. furthermore, comprehensive visual resources (diagrams, maps, pictures) essential for developing spatial representations are often absent in textbooks. this resource lacks forces educators to find or create materials independently, increasing teacher workload and leading to teaching quality inconsistencies. the discrepancy between standards and textbooks was highlighted during intervention planning. it became clear that standard minimum requirements do not correspond to skills students need. for example, understanding spatial sequences between water, forest, village, and mountain objects on maps and formulating reasoned choices is required by neither the standard nor textbook tasks. teacher interviews revealed the need for clear guidelines for spatial task work and practical examples aligning with national curriculum goals. one educator noted: "i rarely have the opportunity or time to create spatial tasks myself. the textbook focuses more on factual knowledge." the analysis indicates a systemic challenge—current standards and textbooks at georgia's primary level do not ensure development of spatial thinking competencies essential for modern education. this discrepancy creates barriers to learning effectiveness and increases individual teacher workload. design description and its use as a problem-solving tool the design developed within this study was based on the spbl (spatial problem-based learning) model and aimed to overcome difficulties caused by the lack of spatial thinking components in standards and textbooks. the combined integration of pbl and the geographic reasoning framework allowed us to create tasks based on real contexts, considering spatial relationships, natural-geographical factors, and reasoned decisions. one main innovation was the interventions' cyclical nature. each intervention combined problem presentation, data comprehension, map reading and spatial reasoning, alternative comparison, and reasoned decision-making. all five interventions relied on active student participation, cognitive stimulation, and self-assessment. each intervention followed a structured five-step process designed to guide students through comprehensive spatial problem-solving (see fig. 1): step 1: problem presentation students were presented with an authentic geographical scenario that required spatial decisionmaking. for example, they might receive a scenario stating: "a group of early humans needs to establish a permanent settlement. as their advisor, you must help them choose the best location from three possible sites." the problem was introduced through storytelling to engage students and establish the real-world relevance of their task. step 2: data analysis students examined multiple information sources including topographic maps, climate data, resource availability charts, and contextual information about the geographical area. they were guided to identify key spatial elements such as water sources, elevation patterns, vegetation cover, and proximity to resources. this step required students to extract relevant information from visual and textual sources systematically. step 3: alternative evaluation students worked in small groups to compare multiple location options using predetermined criteria. they used evaluation matrices where each potential site was assessed against factors such as water accessibility, defensibility, resource availability, climate suitability, and transportation routes. students assigned numerical scores to each criterion and calculated total scores for each alternative, fostering analytical thinking and systematic comparison. step 4: reasoned decision based on their analysis, students selected their preferred location and constructed written arguments justifying their choice. they were required to explain not only why their chosen site was optimal but also why they rejected the alternatives. this step emphasized the development of argumentation skills and required students to synthesize their spatial analysis into coherent reasoning. step 5: reflection/self-assessment students assessed their decision-making process and outcomes through structured self-evaluation forms. they considered questions such as: "which factors were most important in your decision?" ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 63 "what additional information would have been helpful?" and "how confident are you in your choice?" this metacognitive component helped students understand their own learning processes and identify areas for improvement in future spatial problem-solving tasks. tasks were designed so students genuinely considered the appropriateness of placing various objects according to specific criteria, such as where primitive humans should settle; which area is most appropriate for creating a protected area; where a school building or alpine base should be built. tasks involved comparing several parameters—proximity to water, terrain, climate, safety, infrastructure accessibility, and others. students worked with tables, evaluating each parameter with points, then made in-depth reasoned choices. another important design element was map use. each task began with a schematic map that students needed to read to analyze spatial characteristics. map work offered visual and analytical links between problems and environmental elements, enabling skill development in determining location, estimating distance, distinguishing directions, and establishing object connections. starting from the fourth intervention, students began working on spatial problems where their chosen locations were based on strong argumentation and alternative comparison. the design's consistent development was precisely the factor contributing to competency deepening. the teacher used reflection stages after each task, where students evaluated their decisions and explored how better choices could have been made. the design solved several significant problems: • gap between standard and tasks: pbl interventions created alternative spaces for working in real geographical contexts • teaching monotony: tasks diversified student activities • teacher challenge: the design was easily reproducible and adaptable by teachers • lack of self-assessment and reflection: integrated self-assessment modules ensured metacognitive skills development as a result, students not only gained better understanding of geographical concepts but also developed decision-making, argumentation, and spatial visualization skills, contributing to their overall academic development. the research clearly showed that using this design type effectively overcomes shortcomings caused by standard generality and resource scarcity at the primary level. results analysis of design research results clearly showed that students' spatial thinking and reasoned decision-making skills significantly improved as a result of interventions. this progress is reflected in student work, teacher reflections, and self-assessment forms. figure 2 shows evaluation results comparing preliminary and final stages across key competencies. this clearly demonstrates that students made progress in each competence. of these competencies, the figure 2. competency development from preliminary to final stages ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 64 least progress was recorded in visual elements use, indicating that students had already developed this competence substantially and could use it as needed. understanding instructions for multi-stage tasks was initially problematic. textbook analysis showed that most tasks were one or two-stage, preventing students from concentrating on topics for extended periods. therefore, incomplete or unsuccessful task completion initially raised questions about whether this was due to student competence deficiencies or instruction comprehension problems. thus, explaining instructions and presenting tasks was critically important. figure 3 presents the progression of student performance across all five interventions, showing steady improvement in spatial reasoning abilities. the data shows the evaluation results of 9 students, as only 9 students attended all interventions. under conditions of incomplete attendance, drawing conclusions based on participants' competencies becomes difficult. in general, absenteeism is a problem that reduces the effectiveness of planned and implemented activities. in the georgian reality, such a study, which examines the impact of absenteeism in this context, does not exist. self-assessment data showed that most students initially assessed their work with maximum scores, despite errors. however, by the fifth intervention, as a result of active teacher feedback and group discussions, students' self-assessments aligned with actual performance in over 70% of cases. this indicates progress in metacognitive skills—students learned how and why to assess their own learning. figure 4 illustrates the alignment between student self-assessment and actual performance across the intervention period. figure 3. student performance progression across interventions figure 4. convergence of self-assessment and actual performance ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 65 data confirms that with design progress, students' approaches to tasks and instruction understanding changed. while the first intervention was characterized by template-based perception and difficulty in functional map use, from the third intervention students began better perceiving information and reasoning. for example, on given map territories, they evaluated not only geographical factors but also environmental impact (e.g., roads running through forests requiring maintenance). according to the teacher, student engagement significantly increased during proposed tasks when decisions depended on them rather than just finding correct answers. this reflects pbl approach effectiveness—interest and motivation increase when students are responsible for thinking and choice. analysis also revealed several challenges, as represented in figure 5. for some students, map orientation remained problematic—especially correctly reading scale and symbols. however, the main challenge was argumentation, the clear, academic formulation of their results. these difficulties indicate that teaching spatial thinking should include not only problem-solving but also consistent work on developing appropriate domain-specific vocabulary and argument formation. according to the teacher's assessment, students who had self-confidence deficits in teamwork struggled with analysis and justifying their positions, but over time, they began formulating arguments better. this confirms that, under supportive environment conditions and consistent stimulation, spatial thinking competence is accessible to a wide range of students. the intervention's consistent nature proved to be an important success factor. while first tasks were based on simpler scenarios, each subsequent intervention increased demands—parameter numbers became more complex, conflicting choices were added, and argumentation required refinement. thus, progress was conditioned not by one-time activities but by structured and adapted intervention sequences. the ability to make reasoned choices, which initially was based primarily on single-sentence evaluations (e.g., "it's a good place"), gradually evolved into multi-factorial reasoning: "the selection of this territory is due to its proximity to water, high elevation, and forest protection, which creates a safe environment for a primitive settlement." finally, analysis clearly shows that through effectively planned and consistent interventions, it is possible to develop complex skills that empower students not only in subject knowledge but also in general thinking and self-reflection. this research demonstrates that, given appropriate design, students begin to think spatially—not mechanically, but consciously, critically, and argumentatively. conclusion the main findings clearly demonstrate that developing spatial thinking and problem-solving skills at the primary level is possible if teaching is based on problem-based, consistent, context-oriented design. the interventions revealed students' increasing progress not only in map reading and identifying spatial relationships but also in argumentation quality, decision-making processes, and self-assessment accuracy. figure 5. comparison of how the analytical competence developed ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 66 findings: • clear discrepancy exists between standards and practice—standards are general and do not define minimum levels for spatial skill competencies • textbooks are dominated by superficial, descriptive tasks that induce neither critical thinking nor reasoned choice • problem-based interventions create learning environments that develop spatial thinking with both subject-specific and metacognitive components • student engagement significantly increases when they are allowed to work on real problems and make decisions independently • teacher support and professional development are critically important for designing tasks that meet students' evolving needs recommendations: for policy makers: • revise the national curriculum to include clear formulation of spatial thinking competencies and definition of key indicators; develop frameworks to measure spatial reasoning rather than factual recall • create platforms for schools to exchange experiences and design examples based on practical interventions for publishers: • include age-appropriate examples of problem-based, multi-factorial tasks in textbooks, along with maps and visual analytical resources • develop supplementary materials that support spatial thinking development for teacher training: • prioritize intervention strategies based on design research foundations and spbl model mastery in teacher training programs • support teachers in developing skills for creating and adapting spatial problem-solving tasks for schools: • ensure all students have access to visual materials and opportunities to practice spatial interpretation skills; create supportive environments for spatial problem-solving • address absenteeism issues that particularly affect cumulative skill development this research confirms that spatial thinking-based learning is possible; it requires only the right approach, consistent intervention, and strong theoretical foundations that provide subject-oriented and critical thinking-oriented teaching and learning. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.r. conceived the study, designed the research methodology, and took the lead in writing the manuscript. m.m. facilitated the implementation of the research intervention and assisted in the data validation process. both authors have read and approved the final manuscript. orcid id manana ratiani https://orcid.org/0009-0006-6368-427x reference anderson, t., & shattuck, j. (2012). design-based research: a decade of progress in education research? educational researcher, 41(1), 16–25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x11428813 avtandilashvili, g., medzmariashvili, e., elizbarashvili, n., & topchishvili, r. (2018). our georgia. clio bakker, a. (2018). design research in education: a practical guide for early career researchers. routledge. barrows, h. s. (1986). a taxonomy of problem-based learning methods. medical education, 20(6), 481–486. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1986.tb01386.x buckley, j., seery, n., & canty, d. (2018). a heuristic framework of spatial ability: a review and synthesis of spatial factor literature to support its translation into stem education. educational psychology review, 30(4), 947–972. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-018-9432-z fiveable. (2024, august 20). spatial thinking and geographic reasoning. https://fiveable.me/social-studieseducation/unit-8/spatial-thinking-geographic-reasoning/study-guide/wt03euveoe4nei34 https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x11428813 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.1986.tb01386.x https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-018-9432-z https://fiveable.me/social-studies-education/unit-8/spatial-thinking-geographic-reasoning/study-guide/wt03euveoe4nei34 https://fiveable.me/social-studies-education/unit-8/spatial-thinking-geographic-reasoning/study-guide/wt03euveoe4nei34 ratiani & madzgharashvili. 2025 5(2) 67 gersmehl, p. j., & gersmehl, c. a. (2011). spatial thinking by young children: neurologic evidence for early development and "educability." journal of geography, 109(4), 181–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221340903409510 ministry of education (moe). (2018). national curriculum of georgia. tbilisi. national geographic society. (n.d.). geography standard 1. retrieved from https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/geography-standard-1/ national research council. (2006). learning to think spatially. the national academies press. drafting and editing supported by openai chatgpt-4, june 2025. https://chat.openai.com https://doi.org/10.1080/00221340903409510 https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/geography-standard-1/ https://chat.openai.com/ georgian geographical journal using digital technologies in the geography lesson maia bliadze1,2* , manana sekhniashvili3,4 1 faculty of law, humanities and social sciences, teacher training program, tbilisi, georgia 2 geography expert-consultant at the national center for teacher professional development 3 geography teacher at tbilisi public school no. 126 4 geography trainer at the national center for teacher professional development * corresponding author: bliadze.maia@eu.edu.ge georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 53-57 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract rapid advances in technology have profoundly transformed daily life and all spheres of human activity, including education. in this context, one of the central responsibilities of geography teachers is the development of students’ geographical information competence, or geographical literacy, which is inseparable from digital and media literacy. the integration of digital technologies in geography lessons facilitates the presentation of educational material in diverse forms and formats, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the learning process and optimizing student engagement. the multimedia nature of digital resources makes it possible to visualize geographical phenomena, processes, objects, and locations, effectively creating virtual journeys to various regions, countries, cities, or villages. such technologies thus provide powerful learning environments that enrich students’ educational experiences. given that smartphones, computers, social media, and the internet are already integral to students’ daily lives, leveraging these tools provides access to a wide range of geographic information sources and strengthens geographical competence and literacy. a variety of digital resources are commonly employed in geography teaching, including multimedia products, digital educational platforms, websites of scientific and educational institutions, electronic interactive maps, online calculators, digital simulations, and educational computer games. in recent years, the integration of artificial intelligence (ai) into education has become increasingly widespread, offering unique opportunities to improve learning quality, foster engagement, and support personalized education. within geography education, ai not only expands the pedagogical toolkit available to teachers but also enables students to acquire deeper and more interactive knowledge. personalized learning pathways, interactive and virtual environments, data-driven analysis, and audiovisual resources all contribute to richer and more engaging learning experiences. the application of ai in geography lessons significantly enhances teaching effectiveness and student motivation. with the assistance of ai-based tools, students can explore diverse geographical objects and their characteristics, examine the scale and dynamics of geographical processes and events, generate forecasts, and apply acquired information to conduct geographical research. moreover, the use of digital technologies supports teachers in assessing students’ knowledge and skills, organizing and consolidating learning outcomes, managing classroom time more efficiently, and presenting instructional content in a vivid and engaging manner. keywords: teaching geography, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, education citation: bliadze, m.; sekhniashvili, m. using digital technologies in the geography lesson. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 53-57. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.09 bliadze & sekhniashvili. 2025 (2) 53 introduction as lambert notes, “geography in education has a reputation for being an early adopter of technologies – after all, it is an information-rich subject with an intrinsic interest in a rapidly changing world, and information is now instantly available at the touch of a button; indeed, we are soaked in information” (walshe & healy, 2020). rapid technological advances have transformed virtually every aspect of modern life, including education (selwyn, 2017). digital technologies have reshaped pedagogical practices, creating new opportunities for interaction, collaboration, and information sharing (redecker, 2017). within this evolving educational landscape, geography education has increasingly embraced digital tools to foster geographical literacy—a competency that encompasses the ability to acquire, evaluate, and apply geographic information (lambert, 2019). geographical literacy today is inseparable from digital and media literacy, as these skills enable students to navigate, interpret, and critically assess digital information sources (hobbs, 2017; buckingham, 2013). the integration of digital technologies in geography lessons has been shown to enhance teaching effectiveness by presenting educational content in diverse formats and enabling richer learning experiences (jenkins et al., 2009; goodchild, 2010). multimedia resources, including interactive maps, virtual simulations, and audiovisual materials, allow students to visualize complex geographical phenomena and processes, effectively creating virtual journeys to different regions, countries, or environments (demirci et al., 2013). such approaches foster engagement and support deeper conceptual understanding by providing immersive and experiential learning opportunities. given the centrality of smartphones, computers, social media, and the internet in students’ daily lives, geography teachers are increasingly encouraged to leverage these tools as authentic learning resources (selwyn, 2016; warschauer & grimes, 2007). digital platforms and resources—such as educational websites, online calculators, gis applications, and interactive simulations—offer rich opportunities for accessing geographic data and fostering critical thinking skills (voogt & roblin, 2012). in recent years, the integration of artificial intelligence (ai) in education has emerged as a transformative trend. ai provides personalized learning pathways, adaptive feedback, and advanced data analysis capabilities, thereby enhancing both teaching and learning processes (luckin et al., 2016; holmes et al., 2019). within geography education, ai-powered tools such as spatial data analysis software, immersive vr platforms, and intelligent tutoring systems enable students to explore geographic objects, analyse spatial processes, and model geographic phenomena at unprecedented levels of depth (batty, 2018; goodchild, 2010). these capabilities not only enrich students’ engagement but also strengthen their geographical competence by facilitating the integration of real-world data into learning activities. furthermore, digital and ai-based technologies support teachers in planning, assessing, and delivering geography lessons more effectively. they offer tools for monitoring student progress, organising learning materials, and optimising classroom time (redecker, 2017; jisc, 2019). interactive digital environments, simulations, and data visualisations allow for more vivid and meaningful presentations of geographic content, thereby fostering deeper learning and critical inquiry (demirci et al., 2013). thus, the growing body of research underscores that the effective integration of digital and ai technologies into geography education not only enhances instructional quality but also equips students with the knowledge, skills, and critical capacities necessary to navigate the complexities of a digitally mediated and interconnected world (lambert, 2019). within this context, one of the central responsibilities of geography teachers is the development of students’ geographical information competence—or, more broadly, geographical literacy (bliadze, 2015; bliadze, 2020a; bliadze, 2020b). this competence encompasses the ability to independently locate, select, analyze, process, and apply geographic information, as well as to communicate findings effectively through oral, written, and digital means. methods and materials the development of geographical literacy in contemporary education is inseparable from digital and media literacy, which encompasses not only knowledge and skills but also attitudes. when guided by legal and ethical principles, this literacy enables the effective and purposeful use of digital technologies through the acquisition, organization, evaluation, and creation of information. in the modern classroom, the global information network is a shared space for both teachers and students. consequently, teachers are expected to possess not only adequate computer literacy but also bliadze & sekhniashvili. 2025 (2) 54 a solid grounding in pedagogy and child psychology. professional experience in schools serves as a filter that allows teachers to select, adapt, and integrate information effectively. combined with tailored teaching materials, the internet thus provides valuable opportunities to design engaging and innovative geography lessons. rather than prescribing a fixed set of methods, digital resources contribute to more flexible and creative instructional practices, supporting the development of meaningful learning activities. the integration of digital technologies allows educational content to be presented in multiple formats, thereby improving the efficiency of the learning process and optimizing students’ participation. digital resources can make geographical phenomena, processes, and locations more visible, offering students the opportunity to virtually “travel” across regions, countries, cities, and villages. as smartphones, computers, social media, and the internet are already central to students’ daily lives, leveraging these tools in the classroom provides access to diverse geographic information sources while simultaneously strengthening both geographical competence and literacy. digital resources also support personalized and individualized learning, enabling teachers to design flexible learning pathways that encourage innovation and creativity. in geography lessons, technologies are employed with two primary aims: (1) to enhance the effectiveness of teaching through technical means and (2) to provide students with opportunities to adapt learning content and create digital products of their own. depending on the topic and objectives of a lesson, geography teachers may utilize a wide range of digital tools, including hardware (cameras, recorders, scanners, printers), software (office applications, media editors, gis programs, associative mapping tools), and online resources for searching, publishing, and sharing materials. sequencing these tools strategically ensures novelty and sustained engagement; for instance, students might begin by creating tables or graphs, progress to using digital mapping software, and ultimately produce presentations, interactive maps, or multimedia projects. such activities encourage students to compile original outputs that synthesize knowledge around specific topics. digital technologies further allow for the rapid manipulation of maps, graphs, and data at varying scales, which greatly enhances students’ analytical skills. applications such as google earth, worldmapper, and gapminder provide interactive opportunities to reframe perspectives on global and regional issues, fostering critical engagement with spatial information. unlike static printed maps, electronic tools not only present material more dynamically but also empowers students to become active creators of learning resources. they are equally valuable in project-based learning, especially in the preparation of final presentations. platforms such as adobe spark, canva, and microsoft powerpoint allow the integration of maps, images, videos, and text into coherent, visually engaging outputs. collaborative tools such as google my maps and arcgis storymaps further enable students to co-create digital maps, annotate content, and share results in real time, reinforcing teamwork and digital collaboration skills. ✓ a wide array of resources can be employed in teaching geography, including: ✓ multimedia products (documentaries, films, animations, audio recordings). ✓ educational websites (e.g., national geographic, khan academy). ✓ websites of academic and research institutions (e.g., world resources institute, gebco, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university). ✓ interactive maps (e.g., google earth, national geographic mapmaker, earthquakes & volcanoes, un sdg dashboards). ✓ online calculators (e.g., co₂ footprint calculators, water use calculators). ✓ digital simulations (e.g., phet, our world in data). ✓ official databases (e.g., census bureau, geostat, datalab). ✓ websites of international organizations (e.g., world economic forum, unicef, nato/eu information center, national environmental agency of georgia). ✓ blogs and specialized geography portals (e.g., geography.ge). ✓ educational computer games (e.g., world geography games, geojigsaw, purposegames). together, these tools enrich geography education by fostering creativity, critical thinking, and digital competence, while also broadening students’ spatial awareness and global perspective. results in recent years, the use of artificial intelligence (ai) in education has gained considerable popularity. ai offers unique opportunities to enhance learning quality, foster student engagement, and support personalized instruction. bliadze & sekhniashvili. 2025 (2) 55 the integration of ai into geography education provides substantial benefits for both teachers and students. in geography lessons, ai not only expands the range of teaching tools available but also enables students to acquire deeper and more interactive knowledge. personalized learning pathways, immersive virtual environments, advanced data analysis, and the incorporation of audiovisual resources contribute to richer and more engaging educational experiences. as a result, the integration of ai into geography lessons significantly improves teaching effectiveness and strengthens student motivation. through modern technologies and instruments, ai can collect, process, and analyze vast amounts of geographic data, allowing students to explore diverse aspects of geography—from the geological structure of mountains and climate dynamics to demographic trends, cultural traditions, and settlement patterns. this capacity enables a comprehensive and multi-layered understanding of both natural and human processes. opportunities of ai in geography education personalized learning: ai-powered systems such as intelligent tutors, adaptive platforms, and individualized study plans provide tailored support aligned with students’ prior knowledge, learning pace, and needs. for instance, systems like ibm watson can generate personalized curricula that adjust dynamically to students’ progress. interactive and virtual environments: the combination of ai and virtual reality (vr) creates unique opportunities for experiential learning. tools such as google earth vr and national geographic vr allow students to virtually explore different regions, observe climate change impacts, and gain firsthand insights into natural processes. data analysis and visualization: ai tools facilitate big data analysis and visualization, which are crucial for geographical research. platforms such as tableau and power bi enable students and teachers to examine trends in climate change, population dynamics, and resource distribution. audiovisual resources: ai applications in speech and image recognition, such as google voice and amazon rekognition, can enrich lectures, webinars, and digital teaching materials, making them more interactive and accessible. interactive maps: ai-powered mapping tools such as esri arcgis enable students to analyze realtime geographic data, track environmental and demographic changes, and engage in spatial problemsolving. geographic simulations: simulation platforms, such as those developed by unigis, allow students to model and explore natural and human processes, thereby deepening their understanding of environmental and social interactions at both global and local scales. challenges of ai integration the implementation of ai in geography education is not without challenges. successful integration requires careful curriculum planning, comprehensive teacher training, and equitable access to technology. in georgia, particularly in rural areas, many public schools remain inadequately equipped with technical resources. limited internet access further restricts the use of digital and ai-based tools. additionally, not all students have access to personal computers or laptops at home, creating disparities in opportunities for digital learning. language barriers present another significant obstacle. geographic information resources in the georgian language remain limited, while a large proportion of teachers and students lack proficiency in english or other languages, restricting their access to high-quality international materials. the role of technology in geography education despite these challenges, technology plays a crucial role in supporting teachers. it assists with assessing students’ knowledge and skills, organizing and consolidating learning outcomes, optimizing lesson time, and presenting content in a vivid and dynamic manner. however, the integration of educational technologies should not replace traditional teaching methods. rather, digital tools should complement established pedagogical approaches as part of a balanced methodology. when planning the use of ai and other technologies, teachers must consider three key factors: (1) students’ level of digital competence, (2) the availability of technical infrastructure, and (3) the specific objectives of the lesson. while the preparation and effective use of technology-based resources can be time-consuming—requiring teachers to identify, adapt, and evaluate online materials—the benefits in terms of student engagement and learning outcomes make this investment worthwhile. bliadze & sekhniashvili. 2025 (2) 56 ultimately, ai and digital technologies, when used thoughtfully and inclusively, have the potential to transform geography education into a more interactive, personalized, and meaningful learning experience, equipping students with the skills and knowledge necessary to understand and navigate the complexities of the modern world. conclusion therefore, incorporating technology into geography lessons enables teachers to create dynamic, interactive learning experiences that enhance student engagement while deepening their geographical competence and understanding of the world’s diverse environments. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.b. and m. s. conceived of the presented idea. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id maia bliadze https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000 manana sekhniashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0000-0000-0000 reference batty, m. 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(2020). geography education in the digital world: linking theory and practice (1st ed.). routledge, 212 p. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429274909 georgian geographical journal main geographical factors of settlement patterns and natural resource use in mountain region: the kvemo (lower) svaneti (lentekhi municipality) case elene salukvadze1* , tamila chaladze1 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: elene.salukvadze@tsu.ge introduction the geographical peculiarities of mountain regions significantly influence the structure and location of settlements and the development of socioeconomic processes in mountainous landscapes. the northern highlands of georgia, including kvemo (lower) svaneti (lentekhi municipality), are among the highest elevations in the country. the dominant type of agriculture is traditional animal husbandry, with occasional farmlands in intermountain depressions and fluvial terraces. the region also has a developed forestry and recreational tourism industry. the informativeness of large-scale landscape maps is critical for analysing natural resources, agricultural activities, and their relationships with nature. based on kvemo (lower) svaneti (lentekhi municipality), large-scale landscape research created by authors shows that 15 landscape types are located in the lentekhi municipality area, with mountainous landscapes being the majority. the landscapes of lentekhi municipality's large-scale map (1:100,000) reflect the variety of individual components and their agricultural usage. as the result of landscape research, the lentekhi landscape geodatabase was created with arcmap 10.8. the research revealed that both natural (geodynamic processes) and anthropogenic factors (overgrazing, deforestation) played a crucial role in the dynamics of landscapes. kvemo (lower) svaneti (lentekhi municipality) is one of the sparsely populated regions of georgia. most of the villages are situated in a linear pattern on the terraces along the tskhenistskali, kheledula, and laskadula river gorges. small villages with up to 200 people represent most (83%) of the settlement georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1), 31-40 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the environmental exploitation of a region requires the study of its natural conditions and resources, as well as its geography and the related historical processes. in turn, the study of environmental conditions sheds light on material and non-material culture and traditions, as well as the patterns of natural resource use and settlement preferences. this research aims to evaluate natural resources in kvemo (lower) svaneti (lentekhi municipality), identify the types of the natural-territorial complexes (landscapes), create a geo-informational database for the region, and establish the structure of the land resources and land use. the key outcome of this research is figuring out the landscape resources in the region, which was done by creating a geo-informative system for kvemo svaneti (lentekhi municipality) landscapes using gis technology, based on materials from the 2023 expedition, aerial and satellite images, and topographic maps. a largescale landscape map (1:50,000) of kvemo svaneti (lentekhi municipality) was created using gis technology. the process identified 15 units of lowerlevel landscapes. according to the research findings, geographical conditions and the character of natural resource use in the region significantly influence landscape transformations, settlement preferences and farming. 43% of the territory is situated over 1000 m above sea level. overall, kvemo svaneti is one of the sparsely populated regions, with 83% of its population living in small villages, each with up to 200 dwellers. the number of abandoned villages has increased (lamanashuri, ghobi, tsana, and koruldashi villages). in some villages (bavari, benieri, buleshi, zeskho, mananuri, kheria, etc.), the number of permanent dwellers ranges from 2 to 11. tlivestock farming is the primary form of agriculture in these areas, with pastures and haylands accounting for 92.4% of the total agricultural land. traditional practices contribute to the development of animal farming. the upper hypsometric threshold of crop farming is 900 m. keywords: natural resources, landscape map, kvemo (lower) svaneti region (lentekhi municipality), settlement patterns citation: salukvadze, e.; chaladze, t. main geographical factors of settlement patterns and natural resource use in mountain region: the kvemo (lower) svaneti (lentekhi municipality) case. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(1), 31-40. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.04 mailto:elene.salukvadze@tsu.ge https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1583-9525 https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0373-6135 salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) areas, with kheledi being the largest with 258 people. the number of abandoned and desolate villages has increased in the highlands and the high slopes of gorges (e.g., villages lamanashuri, ghobi, tsana, and koruldashi). the number of settlements in lentekhi municipality according to height above sea level has been calculated. we display the natural features of the landscape at different heights and assess their importance for farming, climate, and tourism. methods and materials the research has been conducted using stationary, semi-stationary, and field methodology (expeditionary, comparative, and statistical methods). the research draws on scientific literature about kvemo svaneti and cartographic maps, including "landscape map of georgia" (saneblidze et al., 1970) and "transcaucasus medium-sized landscape map" (ukleba et al., 1983), as well as topographic maps (scale: 1:50 000, 1:100 000) and statistical data. an important component of the resources is the field expedition conducted in 2023. we created an electronic landscape map (arcgis pro) for the lentekhi municipality based on the expedition findings and several thematic maps. both natural and socioeconomic factors influence the landscapes of kvemo svaneti. the region’s peculiar landscape structure and the characteristic use of natural resources are determined by its natural conditions and specific geographical location. kvemo svaneti is in the northwestern part of georgia, on the northern slopes of the svaneti range (along the caucasus ridge) and the southern slopes of the greater caucasus ridge, in the tskhenistskali river basin, its hypsometric levels ranging from 450 m (the tskhenistskali gorge) to 4547 m (the ailama hill on the greater caucasus). it is bordered by chkhorotsku and martvili municipalities in the west, mestia municipality and the kabardino-balkarian republic (the russian federation) in the north, amblorauli municipality in the east, and tsageri municipality in the south (salukvadze et al., 2021; salukvadze & chaladze, 2024). there is one administrative unit in kvemo svaneti, lentekhi municipality (area 1344 sq. km), represented by 1 township, 8 rural districts (communities), and 60 villages. the population amounts to 4386 people (the level of population density is quite low, 3.3 per sq. km). 29.3% of the population of lentekhi municipality lives in urban areas and 70.7% in villages (lentekhi municipality priority…, 2024). results the territory of kvemo svaneti is mainly confined to the middle and lower basins of the tskhenistskali river, which are drained by tskhenistskali and its tributaries: kheledula, laskadura, zseskho, gobishuri, leusheri, khopuri, and others. in the north, the region is locked by the svaneti and the greater caucasus ranges; in the west and southwest, it is bordered by the egrisi range, while in the east and southeast, it is bound by the lechkhumi range. these ranges, and their extensions, occupy the main part of the kvemo svaneti territory. kvemo svaneti is a mountainous region with highand medium-altitude mountain reliefs, and 43% of its territory is over 1000 m above sea level. the region has a complex geological structure, which plays a major role in the diversity of its landscapes. the lower part—riverbanks and terraces— is built of quaternary alluvial deposits. the southern slopes of the egrisi and lechkhumi ranges are largely built of bajocian porphyrites and tufa deposits. the relief is comparatively steep and rocky. the axial parts of the egrisi, lechkhumi, and svaneti ranges are mostly built of jurassic rocks, occasionally combined with flysch sequences and nonkarstic limestone. these rock layers are linked to strong mountain streams found in the lechkhumi and svaneti ranges, while the southern sides of the greater caucasus are mostly made up of older paleozoic granitoids and crystalline rocks (tatashidze et al., 2000). kvemo svaneti has deposits of arsenic (not mined), quartz, barite, copper (the zeskho ore), marble (choluri village), lead-zinc (rtskhmeluri village ore), and coarse sand-gravel (kheledi-khacheshi ore) (khazaradze & salukvadze, 2022). the lentekhi region is rich in chemically diverse mineral waters. mineral springs can be found all over the kvemo svaneti territory, and their number exceeds 20 (lentekhi municipality vision and..., 2024). lentekhi municipality has abundant water resources (drinking water springs and rivers). tskhenistskali is the main river of the municipality. its tributaries are kheledula, laskadula, koruldashi, ghobishuri, zeskho, khopuri, and other big or small rivers, together totalling 40. the region has remarkable hydropower potential and rich drinking water supplies. hydropower is the region’s most important natural resource. tskhenistskali stands out for its high discharge rate and a long high-water period, which significantly increases the estimated economic efficiency of hydropower arrangements on the river. a large (64%) part of the area is covered by forests, which is an important asset in svaneti’s natural capital (kharaishvili, g., 1988; lentekhi municipality priority, 2024). the climate is elevation-dependent because of the mountain relief, ranging from humid subtropical to salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) continental. the lower area is characterised by humidity, cold winters, and long, cool summers. long, warm summers are characteristic of a brief section of the tskhenistskali gorge. the average annual temperature in mountain forests (up to 1900–2000 m) ranges between 3.2 and 9.4: 3.20 in korulda (1943 m above sea level) and 9.40 in lentekhi (760 m above sea level). hence, the average temperature is 6.91.80 in january and 12.9-200 in july. the lowest and highest recorded temperatures are -330, -260, and -320-390, respectively. annual precipitation ranges between 1250 and 1400 mm; above the forest zone, there is a humid mountain climate with cold winters and short, cool summers. the snow cover duration is 80 days in lentekhi and 170 days in koruldashi (meladze & meladze, 2012). the region has a broad hypsometric spectrum, which accounts for its diverse climate. we can distinguish the following types of climate (mumladze & lomidze, 2018). · humid climate with cold winters and long cool summers; · humid climate with long cold winters and short summers; · humid high mountain climate with no real summer; · humid mountain climate with abundant snow and glaciers. according to agro-climatic zoning, the following sub-zones of the moderate belt are distinguished in kvemo svaneti: moderately warm, humid; moderately cold, with high humidity; and moderately humid, with moderate-to-high humidity. in agro-climatic terms, kvemo svaneti belongs to the moderately humid district of western georgia’s western caucasus sub-region (gagua, 2018). in the lower zone, intensive vegetation starts from april 4-10-19 and continues to the end of october and beginning of november (table 1). in years with early-fall and late-spring frosts, the vegetation period can be one month shorter (meladze & meladze, 2012; elizbarashvili et al., 2004; elizbarashvili & elizbarashvili, 2021). table 1. agro-climate characteristics of the kvemo svaneti region (lentekhi municipality) object m. above sea level (m) the sum of active temperat ures (100>) absolute minimum temperature (average) (c0) moisture rate annual sum of atmospheric precipitation (mm) duration of frost-free days lentekhi 760 3030 -26 8.6 1250 189 koruldashi 1940 1070 -33 6.2 1390 130 in the lower part of the region, there are narrow strips of alluvial soil along riverbanks, first grey-brown and further typical grey-brown forest soils, while at a higher hypsometric level, under the canopy of dark conifers, there are podsolic ashen grey soils. mountain forest-meadow soils are frequent in the high mountain zones, between 2000 and 2250 m above sea level. at a higher elevation, they are replaced by mountain-meadow soils and even higher—by primitive soils. the region stands out for its diverse flora and is characterised by a structure typical of the colchian floral province. the kvemo svaneti's natural flora is mainly represented by oak, hornbeam (carpinus caucasicus), beech, and pine. the region’s flora includes fir, spruce, chestnut, alder, and birch. colchic flora, represented by colchic holly and ruscus (butcher’s broom), can be found in the region’s westernmost part. alder forests are common on the riversides up to the upper zone, as well as in highly humid landslide geosystems. former agricultural sites often contributed to the spread of fir trees. beech forests are mostly found at mid-altitude, being occasionally replaced by dark conifers. dark conifers are widely spread in the murgouli, koruldashi, and devashi gorges; the largest stock is in the kheledula river gorge. dark conifers are often mixed with birch trees. high mountain forest areas are common from 1700 m to 2000 m, reaching 2350 m. they are represented by litvinov birches, high mountain sycamores, and, occasionally, beech forests. here, mixed forests mostly include birches, rowans, and goat willows. tall herbs, such as rhododendrons and occasionally junipers, vacciniums, and other shrubs, represent the higher sub-alpine zone. this zone reaches 2650-2700 m and is gradually replaced by the alpine zone, which in turn is followed by subnivean and nivean zones. the forests have climate-curative, soil-protecting, and water-conservation functions and therefore belong to landscapes with high ecological value (salukvadze et al., 2022). the dark conifer forest landscapes at mid-elevation are scarcely populated and are distinguished by their natural resource potential. they also have significant touristic and recreational potential: the buashi climatic-balneological resort and the ailama mountaineering camp are set up in this landscape zone. settlement types vary in the conditions of the extensive elevation range of the populated area (1430 m) and highly heterogeneous reliefs. most of the villages are situated in a linear pattern on the terraces along the main river gorges of tskhenistskali, kheledula, and laskadula. high mountain villages at the top of the vertical scale of settled areas are not large. the number of abandoned and desolate villages salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) has increased in the highlands and the high slopes of gorges (e.g., villages lamanashuri, ghobi, tsana, and koruldashi). in some of them (bavari, benieri, buleshi, zeskho, mananuri, kheria, etc.), the number of permanent dwellers ranges from 2 to 11. the tskhenistskali middle basin gorge has an elevation range of 540 to 640 metres. rtskhmeluri, gvimbrala, kvedreshi, and tsiplkakia are the villages with the lowest altitude (540 m), while makhashi has the highest altitude (1560 m). overall, kvemo savneti is one of the sparsely populated regions, as most of the settlements (83%) are small villages (up to 200 dwellers). the largest village (258 people) is kheledi. according to the altitudinal scale, 17 villages, which make up 28.3% of the total kvemo svaneti villages, are situated between 540 and 1000 m above sea level, 33 villages (55%) are found between 1040 and 1500 m, and 10 villages (16.7%) are between 1560 and 1970 m (fig. 1). figure 1. number of settlements in lentekhi municipality according to height above sea level scarcity of cultivated lands and large settlement areas, underdeveloped transportation networks and industry (arsenic is no longer mined in tsana village), and underutilised recreational resources result in a low level of agriculture and unfavourable conditions, which is associated with a low level of settlements. it should be noted that migrations in the last two decades have had a significant adverse effect on the region’s settlement—specifically, migration from the highlands to small towns, then to the cities or abroad (to spain, germany, italy, greece, and russia), which was also confirmed by responses to the socioeconomic questionnaire specially designed for the field expedition. apart from severe natural conditions, the settlement curve in the highlands is also influenced by natural disasters—avalanches, landslides, lahars, floods, etc. natural disasters lead to a decrease in population in svaneti. between 1988 and 1991, avalanches and landslides left dozens of families without roofs, forcing them to resettle primarily in the western regions of georgia. as a result, the level of the highland population sharply declined. the following trend has been revealed in the migration of the rural population: young people most often abandon villages with scarce usable lands, limited agricultural opportunities, low income, and poor standards of living (as compared to modern standards). according to the 2002 general population census, the population in lentekhi municipality totalled 6984, while according to the most recent census (2014), the figure decreased to 4386, which marks a 37.1% decline. there can be individual as well as group resettlements, the latter being associated with natural disasters. for example, due to avalanches, several families in kakhura village, liskadura gorge, migrated to a different part of the same village as well as to the neighbouring village melura. land resources are distributed across different zones. the following altitudinal zones can be distinguished above sea level: 500-1000 m—with natural croplands, developed livestock farming, and vegetable, potato, and grain harvesting; 1000-1500 m—with pastures and arable/hay farming; 15002000 m—with hay farming; above 2000 m—with lands unfit for agriculture. the region’s relatively severe climate and complex relief account for the shortage of arable lands, which in turn limits opportunities for intensive and comprehensive development of agriculture. the locals mostly grow maize and potatoes and have gardens. the most common fruit trees are apples, pears, and plums. grapes are less common and are mainly grown in the lower zone, 800 m above sea level. according to the 2022 data, the total land resources equal 105.758 ha, of which 1.560 ha (1.1%) are arable land, perennial plants make up only 140 ha (0.2%), haylands ha (4.1%), and pastures ha (11.7%). a large area is covered with forests, bushes, and shrubbery (83.215 ha), which is more than a half (61.9%) of the total area. other types of land cover a total of 28.642 ha (see fig. 2): salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) figure 2. the structure of lentekhi municipality land resources in % (2022) the main agricultural and settlement zone is situated 1000-2000 m above sea level, which is approximately 1/3 of the total area of the region. due to severe soil erosion resulting from unsustainable use of land resources, unregulated use of pastures, and other socioeconomic reasons, a significant area of land has been wasted or become less fit for intensive cultivation. different species of perennial plants are spread over the following areas (fig. 3): grapes—32 ha; acinaceous fruit trees—87 ha; and juglandaceae—21 ha. of grape species, white jvarisa grapes commonly grow in the lower zone (villages kheledi and the kheledula gorge), and kachichi is spread in the higher zone (the tskhenistskali gorge). gardening is underdeveloped in the municipality due to overgrown trees and low prices on fruit. gardening is more common for highland villages of the region. if we invest in building a processing plant, the branch will flourish. fruits grown in this region are fully organic and, by taste, are not inferior to fruits grown in other regions. 52% (11,691 ha) of agricultural lands are state-owned, while 48% (10,821 ha) are private property. figure 3. the structure of agricultural plots in lentekhi municipality severe winters and the geography of the region do not allow the development of multi-branch and multifunctional agriculture (fig. 4). market access is a problem for local farmers. on the other hand, the natural environment and agricultural lands are preconditions for developing livestock farming, potato farming, and apiculture. lower-zone villages of lentekhi municipality (rtskhmelura, gvimbrala, nanari, and khopuri) have a market gardening potential as well. the most marketable crop in the region is the potato. it is quite popular and highly demanded on the market. potatoes are mainly transported to the kutaisi market or sold to local traders. salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) figure 4. structure of agricultural crops in lentekhi municipality the following changes occurred in agricultural land areas between 1972 and 2022 (fig. 5): figure 5. land use changes in lentekhi municipality (1972-2022) the total area of pastures insignificantly declined during the period; however, the 2022 figure is 2.3 times lower as compared to 1972. hayland areas gradually grew at the expense of pastures; however, the 2022 figure is twice as low as in 1999. the area of arable land insignificantly (by 264 ha) grew between 1972 and 1999 but decreased by 420 ha relative to 1999. perennial plantations had a declining trend during the period, with a 140 ha decrease recorded in 2022. because of natural, socioeconomic, and historical factors, as well as by virtue of the traditional practices, animal farming has always been a leading branch of agriculture in the region. it is a traditional branch in lentekhi municipality and has always been the main source of income for local farmers. the following table shows livestock counts in the municipality (table 2). table 2. livestock counts in lentekhi municipality as of 2018. cattle 5191 swine 500 goats and sheep 50 cattle breeding plays a leading role in the region. the locals own 5191 cattle heads, including 2500 cows. other home-farmed cattle in the municipality include 500 heads of swine and 50 goats and sheep. the total number of poultry is 10,000 (lentekhi municipality vision &..., 2024). cattle numbers have sharply decreased in the last few decades due to low production capacity, homemade manufacturing of dairy products, and challenges related to market access. given the region’s remarkable potential for cattle breeding—hayfields, pastures, basic traditions, and experience—the existing cattle count would significantly increase if all available resources were used. the increase in 69% 23% 7% 1% pastures haylands arable lands perennial lands salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) turn would result in higher volumes of meat and dairy products, which are always in high demand. furthermore, locals use cattle, specifically oxen, as draught animals. thus, animal farming has much greater potential for development. only in the summer do farmers move their cattle to highland pastures. in other seasons, the locals use nearby pastures or fodder (in winter). beekeeping has been a traditional practice in svaneti. the high quality of honey was determined by the abundance and diversity of trees and sub-alpine and alpine plants in lentekhi municipality, which speaks of the high potential of the branch in the region. currently, there are 230 beekeepers in the municipality, with a total of 1800 hives. a significant part of the forest area in lentekhi municipality survives pristine. forests in the region are distinguished by biodiversity and multifunctionality. apart from their role in industry, forests protect soil and regulate climate and water. they also are the source of firewood and timber for the population. for now, industry remains rather underdeveloped in the region, being mainly represented by wood processing (6 small and 1 medium-sized mill). another prominent branch of industry is food processing— mostly the processing of fruit and agricultural products. the region’s geography, scenery, climate, fresh air, abundance of fir and deciduous forests, cultural monuments, mineral waters, and other natural resources create unique conditions for tourism (autotourism, hiking, hunting, ecotourism, etc.). of special note are the climatic-balneological resorts muashi and zeskho, which have the potential to become ski resorts. as a result, zeskho will be able to receive visitors all year round and, importantly, contribute to the socioeconomic growth of the region. koruldashi village, likewise, has all necessary conditions for the development of a ski resort. the municipality also has balneological potential, as it is rich in spring waters that are favourable for rheumatic diseases and arthritis. there used to be recreational facilities in the region, which no longer exist. the current structure and performance of the landscapes are directly associated with geological factors, as well as the type and scale of human activities. in the region, landform-shaping factors include the prominent hypsometric curve, the diverse lithological structure, and orographical units. exogenic processes—mechanical and chemical weathering and accumulation, landslides, mudflows, etc.—play a major role, as they account for the mesoand micro-relief diversity. in mountainous regions, their intensity primarily depends on factors such as absolute height, relief exposition, and declension. we carried out comprehensive studies of landscapes in the territory of the region. we estimate each distinguished landscape type based on its natural conditions and potential resource usage. in the territory of lentekhi municipality, we distinguished 15 types of landscapes (fig. 6): the lentekhi municipality landscapes: 1. medium mountains, erosive-denudative, built with bayosian porphyrites, clays, and sandstones. in some places (in the lower part), beech and hornbeam-beech forests coexist with beech-chestnut forests, characterised by deciduous undergrowth and elements of evergreen undergrowth on brown forest soils. it includes the extreme eastern part of the egrisi ridge and the slopes of the extreme western end of the lechkhumi ridge. it is located near the villages of naghomari, kverdeshi, and rtkhmeluri. 2. medium mountains, built of liassic shales and sandstones, with beech, chestnut-beech, and beechhornbeam forest, in some places with dark evergreen forest elements and scattered evergreen undergrowth, on brown forest soils. the landscape extends to the tskhenistskali river to the left and the khledula river to the right, south of lentekhi. 3. medium mountains with erosive-accumulative relief, built of leasian shales and sandstones with quaternary fluvioglacial deposits, with beech-chestnut-hornbeam and oak forests and their derivatives, with deciduous undergrowth and shrubs, partly with agricultural fields and populated areas. the landscape extends to the river. the landscape encompasses both the right side of tskhenistskali and the river itself. the landscape can be found on the left slope of kheledula, as well as in the extreme lower part of laskadura, specifically in the areas of lentekhi, kakhura, tsanashi, lesema, and babili. 4. middle mountains, erosive-accumulative relief, built of liassic shales and sandstones and quaternary alluvium, clays, and conglomerates; oak and oak-hornbeam; and on the northern slopes with hornbeam-beech, beech-chestnut, and beech forest; evergreen undergrowth; agricultural fields; and pastures on alluvial and brown forest soils. extends to the river the kheledula valley stretches from tsanashi to tskhumaldi. 5. middle mountains, built up of quaternary layers, liassic clay shales and sandstones, and middle mountains, with oak and oak-hornbeam forests and their derivatives, strongly transformed as a result of human activity. it spreads in the eastern part of the kvemo svaneti depression, from the river cholshura to the river kheshkuri. on the right slope of tskhenistskali, in the areas of the villages tekali and sakdari. salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) figure 6. lentekhi municipality landscapes salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) 6. middle mountains, with an excess of terraces, beech, birch, and alder forests—in some places with oak— on brown forest soils. it extends to the river on the right slope of the tskhenistskali river, to the east of the mouth of the koruldashi river. 7. middle mountains, with beech-coniferous and coniferous forest. the landscape is characterised by deciduous and occasionally evergreen undergrowth, brown forest, and dark grey podzolic soils. the landscape extends to the devashi river valley, on the eastern slopes of the egrisi ridge and the southern exposure of the shvi ridge, and the river in the valleys of the right tributaries of kheledula. 8. middle mountains, built with triassic shales and liassic layers, and beech-fir forest extend the landscape to the river tshenistskali, from lentekhi to the murgouli river, on the slopes of the northern exposure of the lechkhumi ridge. this is the northern exposure of the lechkhumi ridge. 9. middle mountains, built with jurassic layers, steep and rocky slopes with coniferous and birchconiferous forests, deciduous undergrowth, brown forest and dark grey podzolic soil. the landscape extends to the river in koruldashi and zeskho valleys, above sea level (1400-2100 m). 10. high mountains, built of liassic shales and sandstones, with birch and beech-birch forest, with dense vegetation on mountain forest-meadow soils. the landscape extends to the slopes of the southern exposure of the svaneti ridge in its western part, along the rivers in the valleys of khledula, skiliri, and lascadura. 11. high mountains, built with crystalline rocks and jurassic layers, with birch forest and mountainforest-meadow soils. it extends to the extreme eastern part of the svaneti range and the southern slopes of the main caucasus range, in the upper parts of the rivers koruldashi, zeskho, and tskhenistskali. 12. high mountains, built of jurassic sandstones, shales and crystalline rocks, with subalpine meadows, with fragments of crooked birch and with subalpine shrubs, on the mountain-meadow soils. it extends to the southern exposure of the svaneti ridge and the slopes of the main caucasus ridge (ailama peak), above sea level at 2650 m, also on the ridges of egrisi and lechkhumi. 13. high mountain alpine meadows, in some places with the participation of rhododendrons, are shrubs. it is spread in a continuous strip on the south of the greater caucasus range, the lechkhumi ridge, as well as on the south of the svaneti ridge and on the slopes of the northern exposure of the egris ridge, from approximately 2650 m to 3000 m above sea level. 14. high mountain subnival landscapes are spread on the crests of the greater caucasus range, lechkhumi, svaneti, and egris ranges, at 2950-3500 m above sea level. 15. glacial-nival landscapes northeast of lentekhi on the greater caucasus, with glaciers and eternal snow. discussions the goal of the research is to assess natural resources, identify separate natural-territorial complexes (landscapes) as landscape types, and create a geo-informational database. for that purpose we had scientific fieldwork in lentekhi municipality (in 2023). we observed the natural and anthropogenic factors in the landscapes, which had undergone changes due to human activities. the materials obtained in the field immensely helped us to reveal the natural and anthropogenic landscapes of the region and define their boundaries. we distinguished landscapes and created a geo-information system of the landscapes of lentekhi, lentekhi municipality. conclusion thus, geographical factors, including relief, climate, and soil, significantly influence the structure of natural resource use and the settlement patterns in the kvemo svaneti region. 43% of the total territory, drained by deep-set rivers, is over 1000 m above sea level. the terraces along the tskhenistskali, kheledula, and laskadula river gorges host most of the villages in a linear pattern. most (83%) of the settlement areas are represented by small (up to 200 people) villages, the largest one being kheledi (258 people). 28.3% of kvemo svaneti villages are situated from 540 m to 1000 m above sea level, 55% are between 1040 and 1500 m, and 16.7% are between 1560 and 1970 m. by their natural conditions, kvemo svaneti landscapes are especially fit for livestock farming, crop farming, and recreational tourism. the biggest part (92.4%) of agricultural lands is pastures and haylands. only 7.1% of agricultural lands are arable, with perennial crops accounting for only 0.2%. arable lands are found up to 800 m above sea level. annual sunshine duration is more than 2200 hours. the region is rich in mineral waters and forest areas (64%), which determine its touristic and recreational potential. as a result of the physicogeographical study of kvemo svaneti (lentekhi municipality), a large-scale (1:100,000) map of lentekhi municipality was created, with 15 landscape sub-types. the types of landscapes identified reveal the natural diversity and potential of the region. the majority (76.7%) of salukvadze & chaladze, 2025 5(1) the region consists of mountainous landscapes. of the landscape types identified, some are fit for agricultural activities, some for forest resource management, and some for recreational purposes. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution e.s. led the writing of the article, distinguished the separate landscapes of the kvemo svaneti region as landscape types, and compiled a large-scale landscape map and a diagram: number of settlements in lentekhi municipality, according to height above sea level: the structure of lentekhi municipality land resources in % (2022); the structure of agricultural plots in lentekhi municipality; structure of agricultural crops in lentekhi municipality: land use changes in lentekhi municipality (1972–2022). t. c. compiled a geoinformational database of kvemo svaneti (lentekhi municipality) landscapes in gis and provided an electronic version of the landscape map of kvemo svaneti (lentekhi municipality). orcid id elene salukvadze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1583-9525 tamila chaladze https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0373-6135 reference gagua, g. 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(1983). landšaftnaja karta zakavkazija, glavnyi departament geodezii i kartografii map of the south caucasus, (1:600,000)], main department of geodesy and cartography. russia, moscow. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1583-9525 https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0373-6135 https://lentekhi.gov.ge/ https://lentekhi.gov.ge/ https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1583-9525 https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0373-6135 georgian geographical journal 79 protected areas policy and geopolitics in georgia: convergence of ecological governance and spatial strategy tamar chichinadze1,* , khatuna tsiklauri2 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 national environmentagency, ministry of environment and agriculture of georgia, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: tamar.chichinadze@tsu.ge introduction georgia, with its unique geographical location and rich natural resources, is an important region where nature conservation policies and geopolitical strategies are closely linked. the system of protected areas, which includes national parks and reserves, aims to preserve biodiversity, protect ecosystems, and promote sustainable development (paichadze, 2014). abstract the history of the protection of natural areas in georgia dates back centuries. as early as the 12th century, queen tamar issued royal decrees aimed at safeguarding specific natural territories. five hundred years later, vakhtang vi’s “collection of laws” identified the korugi territory as a protected area, where logging and unregulated access were prohibited and the site was guarded. in mountainous regions, so-called “khati forests” functioned as strictly protected sacred reserves. the first official state reserve was established in 1912 in kakheti with the foundation of the lagodekhi reserve. during the 20th century, the network of reserves and protected areas gradually expanded throughout the territory of georgia (bude, protected areas of georgia, 2007). following the restoration of independence, the policy of protected areas acquired new significance, shifting toward sustainable development, tourism, local community involvement, and alignment with international standards. the geopolitical dimension of this process is particularly important. protected areas are no longer perceived solely as instruments of environmental protection; they have become mechanisms of spatial management and determinants of state interests. georgia’s geographical location at the crossroads of eurasia, where ecological, economic, and political boundaries intersect, makes nature conservation closely linked to territorial strategy. the interplay between ecological governance and geopolitics has become especially evident in recent years, as the state has introduced new formats, including geoparks, into the framework of protected area policy. as an international instrument, geoparks integrate the conservation of natural and cultural heritage with education, sustainable tourism, and geopolitical identity. in this way, ecological governance in georgia is gradually transforming into a spatial strategy that intertwines environmental, economic, and diplomatic interests. analyzing these processes provides insight into how protected area policy has evolved into a key aspect of geopolitical thinking, demonstrating how environmental protection goals intersect with state representation and regional dynamics. this paper examines the theoretical foundations of this convergence and its impact on contemporary nature protection policy in georgia. keywords: protected areas, geoparks, ecological governance, spatial strategy, geopolitics, biodiversity conservation, sustainable development. citation: chichinadze, t.; tsiklauri, k. protected areas policy and geopolitics in georgia: convergence of ecological governance and spatial strategy. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(3), 79-85. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.03.09 georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(3) 79-85 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3741-3485 https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0467-8684 chichinadze & tsiklauri. 2025 5(3) 80 geoparks, as a new concept, are a tool for protecting geoheritage and developing geotourism. in addition, they contribute to the economic development of local communities and the strengthening of geopolitical identity (zhuang a., 2024). the integration of ecological governance and spatial strategy is an important aspect of modern nature conservation policy. this approach involves not only protecting natural resources, but also ensuring their sustainable use, which includes the creation of ecological corridors, the assessment of ecosystem services, and the consideration of natural factors in spatial planning processes (elizbarashvili, 2019). the development of a network of protected areas in georgia requires consideration of not only ecological, but also social and economic factors. it is important to involve local communities, take into account their needs and interests, so that protected areas do not become just a tool for nature protection, but also a platform for sustainable development (elizbarashvili, 2019). the development of geoparks in georgia is an important part of this process. geoparks are not only a tool for protecting geoheritage, but also contribute to the promotion of local cultural and natural heritage, which has a positive impact on the development of tourism and the strengthening of the local economy (elizbarashvili, 2021). it is important to note, however, that the policy of protected areas and geoparks should not be isolated. there should be close coordination and cooperation between them to ensure the effective management and sustainable use of natural resources. an important role in this process is assigned to state institutions, international organizations and local communities. this article will discuss the interdependence of the policy of protected areas and the development of geoparks in georgia. special attention will be paid to the processes of integration of ecological governance and spatial strategy, their impact on nature conservation policy and sustainable development prospects. georgia’s context and political evolution protected areas policy in georgia has gradually evolved since the restoration of independence, addressing the legacy of soviet centralized governance while adapting to new environmental challenges. the law on the system of protected territories (parliament of georgia, 1996) established the legal basis for the creation and functioning of protected areas, integrating the principles of sustainable development and the protection of both natural and cultural heritage. the subsequent law on the status of protected areas (kakabadze, 2012) and complementary legal acts refined definitions, zoning, and management procedures. in recent years, the georgian government has worked to strengthen governance mechanisms, develop long-term management plans, and enhance local community involvement. the first management plans in georgia were developed for the borjomi-kharagauli, lagodekhi, and vashlovani protected areas, establishing the foundation for integrated conservation planning. in 2022, updated management plans were approved for the borjomi-kharagauli protected areas, ktsia-tabatskuri managed reserve, and goderdzi phosphorized forest natural monument, integrating natural and cultural values, ecotourism potential, traditional livelihoods, and ecosystem services (georgian government, 2022). international commitments and global framework: georgia’s protected areas policy is closely aligned with international environmental frameworks. the country is a signatory to the convention on biological diversity (cbd), which calls for the expansion of protected area networks and the implementation of ecosystem-based management principles (mepa, 2018) georgia is also a party to the ramsar convention, which defines the mechanisms for the protection of wetlands of international importance (ramsar secretariat, 2018), furthermore, georgia participates in the unesco world heritage and emerald network programs, which integrate the country into european biogeographical conservation systems (council of europe, 1979; council of europe, 2019; unesco, 2023). these frameworks support not only nature conservation but also the protection of cultural landscapes and the strengthening of mutual trust in regional cooperation (council of europe, 2019; unesco, 2023). the growing role of geoparks and spatial strategy geoparks have recently become a vital extension of georgia’s protected areas policy serving as platforms for the convergence of ecological, cultural, and geopolitical objectives. research indicates that georgia has multiple potential geopark areas that could serve simultaneously as environmental, educational, and economic assets (gamkrelidze, 2021). chichinadze & tsiklauri. 2025 5(3) 81 potential locations for conservation and geotourism initiatives include the racha region, samegrelo (tsalenjikha, village mukhuri), kakheti, javakheti, kvemo kartli, and kazbegi. significant natural features such as the vashlovani protected areas with the “areuli” erosion complex, paleontological objects of elephants and mollusks, takhti-tepa volcano, and the lagodekhi protected areas with two large waterfalls, a high mountain lake, and gorges have been documented in previous conservation reports (council of europe, 2020). in addition, the dariali glacier complex national geopark represents both national natural heritage and opportunities for transboundary cooperation. geopark initiatives are particularly promising in samtskhe-javakheti, kvemo kartli, and kakheti—regions where natural and cultural heritage are closely intertwined with border geopolitics. challenges and development pathways: the convergence between protected areas policy and geopolitics in georgia is accompanied by a complex set of systemic, institutional, and spatial challenges that directly determine the effectiveness of the country’s ecological governance. the first and perhaps most critical issue concerns the deficit in protection effectiveness. although the total area of protected territories in georgia has expanded considerably in recent years, internal management remains largely formalistic. many areas of high endemic and ecological value are still outside the official protected areas network or receive only nominal protection the so-called “paper parks.” research demonstrates that a significant portion of high conservation value (hcv) areas remains vulnerable to the combined pressures of climate change, unsustainable land use, and the spread of invasive species (slodowicz, 2018). simultaneously, intensive natural resource exploitation including logging, mining, and hydropower development often conflicts with the principles of ecological sustainability. this highlights the urgent need for comprehensive spatial planning and the full application of environmental impact assessments (eia) across all development sectors. and the boundaries and information of geoparks need to be included in the strategic development documents of the regions and the management plans of the administrations of protected areas and the strategic plans for the development of protected areas of georgia. the second challenge lies in legal and institutional inconsistencies. despite the existence of a comprehensive legal framework, management structures in georgia still suffer from fragmentation. the ministry of environmental protection and agriculture, the forestry agency, and the agency of protected areas maintain overlapping mandates, complicating the implementation of unified policies. land tenure and delineation remain legally ambiguous particularly in emerging initiatives such as the erusheti national park, where community property rights continue to lack clear legal definition (mepa, 2023). furthermore, the limited involvement of local populations in decision-making processes generates a deficit of trust and slows the democratization of environmental governance. a third difficulty involves financial and technical constraints. funding for protected area management continues to rely heavily on international donor assistance, which undermines long-term sustainability. the lack of basic infrastructure including access roads, monitoring stations, and educational centers hampers the development of sustainable tourism and environmental education. under these circumstances, the establishment of a national and transboundary geopark network emerges as a key opportunity for economic diversification, linking nature conservation, tourism, and cultural heritage within an integrated management framework. the fourth and increasingly relevant dimension pertains to geopolitical and transboundary complexities. georgia’s geographic position within the south caucasus a region marked by political sensitivities and competing interests creates both opportunities and constraints for cross-border environmental cooperation. the establishment of transboundary geoparks, such as david gareja– gobustan (georgia–azerbaijan) and javakheti-arpi (georgia–armenia) (ten years ago, the country began working with azerbaijan to create the lagodekhi-zakatala transboundary protected area). requires mutual trust, functional coordination mechanisms, and clear legal agreements. yet, ongoing border delimitation issues with azerbaijan and differing legal regimes with armenia pose tangible challenges to implementation. meanwhile, participation in the unesco global geoparks network demands adherence to international standards that integrate geological heritage protection, education, and community-based development (eder, 2019). a fifth emerging challenge involves the intensifying impacts of climate change. rising temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and the increased frequency of extreme weather events have created new environmental threats, particularly in mountainous and semi-arid regions. existing management plans often lack climate adaptation and risk assessment components, limiting their resilience and long-term effectiveness (iucn, 2020). however, it is noteworthy that over the past 3 years, the management chichinadze & tsiklauri. 2025 5(3) 82 plans of 7 protected area administrations have included information and planned activities on climate change, adaptation, and mitigation measures. from a development perspective, georgia must transition toward an integrated governance model that unites nature conservation, geopolitical stability, and socio-economic sustainability. key strategic priorities include: 1. implementation of geographic information systems (gis) to improve monitoring and spatial decision-making; 2. enhanced community engagement in the management of national parks and geoparks; 3. institutionalization of transboundary cooperation, especially in southern and eastern regions; 4. expansion of educational and research programs to strengthen national expertise and capacity. ultimately, the path forward for georgia’s protected areas policy and geopolitics depends on the country’s ability to transform its management paradigm from one of “regulatory protection” toward a model of “shared socio-ecological stewardship.” in this model, conservation goals are embedded within spatial strategies and cross-border cooperation, turning natural heritage into both an environmental and geopolitical asset. 1. policy and governance dimensions the evolution of georgia’s protected areas system reflects a gradual transition from a conservation model rooted in post-soviet environmental management to a modern governance framework that integrates sustainability, participation, and spatial equity. while early institutional efforts were focused primarily on biodiversity preservation, recent reforms have expanded the political and social role of protected areas as instruments of regional development and environmental diplomacy (dudley, 2018; iucn, 2020). the establishment of large-scale management plans, the inclusion of cultural landscapes, and the increased attention to ecosystem services all mark a shift toward more adaptive and inclusive management paradigms. however, despite these improvements, governance effectiveness remains limited by overlapping administrative mandates, fragmented coordination between agencies, and inconsistent implementation of international obligations (mepa, 2023). 2. the geopolitical perspective the geopolitical dimension of protected areas in georgia extends beyond ecological management. it encompasses the strategic use of territory in maintaining sovereignty, facilitating cross-border relations, and stabilizing frontier regions. in this regard, georgia’s location between the black and caspian seas and along the south caucasus corridor creates a unique interface between conservation, national identity, and regional security (eder f, 2019). protected areas situated near borders such as vashlovani, lagodekhi, and javakheti serve as both ecological buffers and symbolic representations of state presence. the management of these territories must, therefore, balance environmental priorities with geopolitical sensitivities. in regions adjacent to disputed or sensitive borders, protected areas often function as instruments of “soft diplomacy,” fostering cooperation through ecological science, cultural exchange, and shared management frameworks (council of europe, 2019). yet, the potential for cross-border collabora.tion is uneven. relations with armenia are relatively stable and institutionally supported, making transboundary cooperation particularly within the javakheti-arpi ecological complex more feasible. conversely, the georgian-azerbaijani frontier remains politically sensitive, constraining the development of the david gareja-gobustan geopark concept, despite its exceptional cultural and geomorphological potential. 3. the role of geoparks in policy and spatial strategy geoparks in the contemporary world represent a significant instrument that integrates environmental governance, regional development, and cultural diplomacy. they create a bridge between nature conservation, education, and sustainable tourism, while in border regions they often facilitate political cooperation. in georgia, several areas are identified as important for geopark planning, with the racha region being one of the most significant. located in the northwestern part of georgia on the southern slopes of the great caucasus, racha represents a prospective segment for geopark development. the region has undergone geomorphological zoning and comprehensive relief studies, with the central part featuring chichinadze & tsiklauri. 2025 5(3) 83 cambrian and paleozoic crystalline substrates (gneisses, migmatites, crystalline schists) and granitoid intrusions of varying ages. the great caucasus and higher massifs are composed of granitoid, gneissic, and metamorphic schists, the oldest rocks (600 million years) are observed in the highest peaks. due to hypsometric effects, the age of rocks decreases in the lower areas (70–30 million years) (chichinadze, 2022). the geological structure of racha shapes karstic, erosional-denudational, volcanic, and periglacial reliefs, including caves, valleys, canyons, glacial and rocky lakes, waterfalls, deep gorges, and mineral springs. this diversity has significantly influenced the formation of ancient settlements and cultural development in the region, particularly near the sources of the rioni river, where natural deposits of iron, gold, and copper supported early human societies. a particularly important component of the geopark planning is the microzone of viticulture and winemaking, where traditional vineyards and wine production practices have maintained economic and cultural significance from the past to the present. in addition, the upper racha archaeological sites oni, brili, tevresho, and ghebi contribute additional cultural value and provide opportunities for integrated cultural tourism within the geopark (chichinadze, 2021). regarding cross-border regional cooperation, the kakheti-shaki-zagatala region stands out for its high biodiversity and rich cultural heritage. existing protected areas (lagodekhi protected area, zagatala state reserve) and territorial stability provide a solid foundation for the creation of a joint geopark, promoting sustainable tourism, scientific collaboration, and strengthening cross-border trust. the javakheti and arpi plateau represents a potential cross-border geopark aimed at conserving volcanic and lake ecosystems within the framework of georgia-armenia cooperation. all of these initiatives integrate ecological, social, and political objectives, supporting tourism, local community engagement, education, and sustainable development strategies. international experience confirms the effectiveness of such approaches: in europe, the teruel–aliagas geopark (spain) and the hațeg geopark (romania) combine nature conservation, multi-sectoral governance, and active local community participation. georgia's geopolitical realities, particularly border restrictions with azerbaijan, require an adapted governance model. the optimal approach may involve a hybrid structure that simultaneously integrates national coordination and bilateral technical committees. this model creates a realistic basis for the development of transboundary geoparks and facilitates a safe, sustainable, and cooperation-based spatial strategy. 5. toward a georgian model of geopark governance based on comparative european experiences and georgia’s own institutional context, an optimal national model for geopark governance would combine the following principles: 1. polycentric management — a framework where local, regional, and national authorities share decision-making responsibilities; 2. participatory governance — ensuring meaningful engagement of communities, universities, and ngos in management processes; 3. scientific integration — involving research institutions in geological mapping, monitoring, and risk assessment; 4. cross-border coordination mechanisms — bilateral working groups or joint commissions for data sharing and heritage protection; 5. economic diversification — aligning geopark strategies with regional development and ecotourism planning. such a model would enable georgia to strengthen its environmental diplomacy and position itself as a regional leader in sustainable landscape governance. the geopark initiative, if effectively institutionalized, could become a symbol of cooperation across political boundaries and a new dimension of “green geopolitics” in the south caucasus. conclusion in conclusion, the history of protected areas in georgia spans more than a century. the evolution of the policy reflects a shift from post-soviet conservation practices to an adaptive model that integrates ecological protection, sustainable development, and geopolitical awareness. protected areas now encompass a diverse range of natural and geological features, many of which have the status of natural monuments. chichinadze & tsiklauri. 2025 5(3) 84 in addition to their primary functions of protection and management, these areas support scientific research, environmental education, public engagement, and institutional collaboration. such activities highlight the growing convergence between traditional protected area management and geopark initiatives, highlighting their common principles, complementary goals, and potential for integrated conservation and sustainable development. overall, georgia’s protected areas continue to serve not only as reserves of biodiversity and geodiversity, but also as strategic spaces where ecological, cultural, and diplomatic interests intersect. this combination of natural and geological heritage creates a solid foundation for future geopark programs, while maintaining conservation mandates and strengthening the country’s role in regional cooperation and environmental governance. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution both authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. orcid id tamar chichinadze https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3741-3485 khatuna tsiklauri https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0467-8684 reference bude, protected areas of georgia. (2007). tbilisi. chichinadze t. (2021, november 17). the role of traditional viticulture and winemaking in the development of the geopark in racha region. open journal of applied sciences. chichinadze t. (2022, march 10). geomorphological structure and geological evolution of the racha region. open journal of geology, pp. 179-187. council of europe. (1979). convention on the conservation of european wildlife and natural habitats (bern convention). bern: council of europe. council of europe. (2019). cross-border cooperation and environmental governance in the south caucasus. strasbourg: council of europe. council of europe. (2019). emerald network and unesco world heritage sites in georgia. council of europe. council of europe. (2019). merald network of areas of special conservation interest: progress and implementation report. strasbourg, france: council of europe. council of europe. (2020). report on the on-the-spot expert appraisal of the vashlovani protected areas. strasbourg: council of europe. dudley n., s. s. (2018). the role of protected areas in governance and sustainable development. london: routledge. e., k. (2012). protected areas of georgia situational analysis. georgia. eder f. (2019). transboundary geoparks and international cooperation: challenges and best practices. global geoparks journal, 8(2), 45–62. eder f. (2019). transboundary geoparks and international cooperation: challenges and best practices. global geoparks journal, 45–62. elizbarashvili n., d. g. (2019, march). selection principles and focuses of landscape planning of protected areas. international journal of geoheritage and parks, pp. pages 33-44. elizbarashvili n., l. n. (2021). geographical diversity of georgia and perspectives of planning of geoparks (geo heritages). springer. elizbarashvili n., m. g. (2015, july 1). some urgent issues of georgia's geography. earth sciences, 23285974. gamkrelidze r., o. n. (2021). potential geoparks of georgia: environmental, cultural, and economic opportunities. springer nature. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3741-3485 https://orcid.org/0009-0004-0467-8684 chichinadze & tsiklauri. 2025 5(3) 85 georgia, m. o. (2018). cbd fourth national report – georgia. tbilisi: secretariat of the convention on biological diversity (cbd). georgia, p. o. (1996). law on the system of protected territories. tbilisi: parliament of georgia. retrieved from https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/geo22866eng.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com: https://faolex.fao.org/docs/pdf/geo22866eng.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com georgian government . (2022). management plans for specific protected areas. tbilisi: georgian government. iucn. (2020). climate change and protected areas: guidance for resilient management. gland, switzerland: iucn. iucn. (2020). climate change and protected areas: guidance for resilient management. gland, switzerland: iucn. mepa. (2023). report on protected areas and community engagement in national parks. tbilisi: mepa. mepa. (2023). report on protected areas and community engagement in national parks. tbilisi: mepa. paichadze, l. m. (2014). ecological corridors and spatial organization for protected areas of the small caucasus, georgia. geoconference on ecology, economics, education and legislation. bulgaria, albena: sgem. ramsar secretariat. (2018). national report of georgia to the ramsar convention on wetlands. ramsar: ramsar convention secretariat. slodowicz l., k. r. (2018). high conservation value areas under threat: assessment of biodiversity and land use pressures. journal of environmental management, 215, 100–112. unesco. (2023). world heritage list and programmes overview. paris, france: unesco. zhuang a., s. a. (2024, june 14). the complex governance of protected areas: insights from geoheritage and geopark management in china. environmental policy and governance: volume 34, issue 6, pp. pp. 679690. rural depopulation in georgia’s mountain regions: research priorities in the context of the 2024 population census editor-in-chief’s note the depopulation of rural and mountain regions represents one of the most serious long-term challenges facing georgia’s spatial, social, and economic development. among these regions, racha stands out as an area where population decline has been both rapid and persistent, affecting settlement viability, local economies, and cultural landscapes. the relevance of this issue is underscored by the completion of georgia’s 2024 population census, the first comprehensive demographic assessment conducted in the country in a decade. the census provides an essential empirical foundation for reassessing demographic trends, regional disparities, and development challenges across georgia. for mountain regions such as racha, the new census data offer an unprecedented opportunity to align scientific research with updated national evidence and policy needs. in this context, the research project “the depopulation of rural settlements in racha: spatiotemporal changes and modern problems”, implemented at the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography with the support of the shota rustaveli national science foundation of georgia, addresses one of the most pressing territorial challenges of our time. by combining statistical analysis of long-term demographic change with interdisciplinary fieldwork conducted directly in rural communities, the project seeks to move beyond descriptive population figures and toward a deeper understanding of the social, economic, and spatial mechanisms driving depopulation. preliminary insights from the research reveal a complex picture. on the one hand, limited economic diversification, infrastructural constraints, and sustained youth out-migration continue to undermine population retention. on the other hand, the relatively high educational level of the remaining population indicates the presence of significant, yet underutilized, human capital. these findings highlight that depopulation is not solely the result of geographical remoteness but also reflects structural development gaps that require targeted, evidence-based interventions. the georgian geographical journal considers research on rural depopulation and mountain regions to be of strategic importance, particularly at a moment when new census data allow for more precise and policy-relevant analysis. future research directions should focus on spatial modelling of demographic change, comparative studies across mountain regions, and the integration of census data with local-scale qualitative research. by fostering dialogue between empirical research and national demographic monitoring, this journal aims to contribute to a more informed and balanced discussion on regional development, territorial cohesion, and the future of georgia’s rural landscapes. editor-in-chief georgian geographical journal nana bolashvili georgian geographical journal recreational landscapes and load norms in the coastal zone of adjara nazibrola phagava1,* , tsira kamadadze1 , khatuna chichileishvili1 , maia ananidze1, melano chagalidze1 1 batumi shota rustaveli state university, batumi, georgia * corresponding author: nazibrola.phagava@bsu.edu.ge introduction tourism and recreation are increasingly recognized as key drivers of regional development, contributing significantly to economic growth, social well-being, and cultural exchange (unwto, 2020). coastal zones, in particular, possess high tourism potential due to the concentration of natural and recreational resources, including favourable climatic conditions, sea access, mineral and thermal waters, diverse vegetation, and visually appealing landscapes (gössling & hall, 2006). these factors collectively create unique opportunities for the development of sustainable resort and recreational industries. the coastal zone of adjara, located in southwestern georgia along the black sea, exemplifies such a resource-rich region. the relatively gentle terrain frequently generates favorable microclimatic conditions, which, in combination with abundant natural assets, have established adjara as one of georgia’s leading tourist destinations. in recent decades, both the coastal and mountainous areas of the region have experienced steady growth in the number of vacationers, reflecting broader global trends of increasing tourism demand (sharpley, 2020). the coastal zone of adjara, georgia, is endowed with abundant tourist and recreational resources. its mild and relatively gentle terrain contributes to the creation of a “comfortable climate” during certain periods of the year. significant natural endowments—such as the climate moderated by the black sea, mineral and thermal waters, rich vegetation, and attractive landscapes—serve as key factors fostering tourism and recreation development in the region. in recent decades, adjara has experienced a steady increase in vacationers in both its coastal and mountainous territories (tourism institute, georgia; cushman & wakefield georgia, 2023). batumi, as the coastal centre of adjara, illustrates this rising demand: its humid subtropical climate, substantial sunshine hours, warm sea temperatures, and lush vegetation make it an appealing all-season destination (travel in georgia: climate – adjara; gobatumi). however, such growth has led to observable stress on the natural-territorial complex, particularly through high densities of recreational use. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 47-51 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the coastal zone of adjara represents one of georgia’s most resourcerich regions for tourism and recreation, owing to its favorable climatic conditions, proximity to the black sea, availability of mineral and thermal waters, diverse vegetation, and aesthetically valuable landscapes. the relatively gentle terrain further contributes to the formation of a comfortable climate that enhances the attractiveness of the region for visitors. in recent years, the number of vacationers in both coastal and mountainous areas has been steadily increasing, placing considerable pressure on recreational landscapes. estimates indicate substantial variation in recreational load: from approximately 10 people per hectare in less crowded areas such as the akhalsofli plain, to 100 people per hectare in heavily utilized areas such as batumi. in hilly regions, the carrying capacity depends on slope steepness, with loads averaging 25 people per hectare on slopes up to 10°, and decreasing to 10 people per hectare on slopes of 20–35°. these values are relatively high and point to significant overuse of the recreational natural-territorial complex, raising concerns about longterm sustainability. the findings highlight the need for balanced management strategies to ensure both the preservation of natural resources and the continued development of tourism in adjara. keywords: recreation, vacationer, resort, climate, visitor citation: phagava, n.; kamadaze, t.; chichileishvili, k.; ananidze, m.; chalagidze, m. recreational landscapes and load norms in the coastal zone of adjara. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 47-51. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.08 pagava et al. 2025 5(2) 48 this research builds on prior and related work. for instance, putkaradze et al. (2023) examined tourism challenges and resource usage in mountainous adjara (beshumi resort), emphasizing the need for sustainable management of natural recreation resources; likewise, studies of rural tourism development recovery in adjara after covid‐19 (beridze, kordzaia, diasamidze & beridze, 2020) highlight growing demand and attendant pressures on infrastructure and environment. these precedents underscore the urgency of quantitatively understanding load capacities across different terrain and usage regimes for coastal adjara, particularly as tourism continues to expand. however, this growth has also introduced significant challenges, most notably the overloading of recreational landscapes. current estimates indicate that the recreational load varies considerably across adjara: approximately 10 people per hectare in relatively low-use areas such as the akhalsofli plain, around 30 people per hectare on average, and up to 100 people per hectare in highly concentrated destinations such as batumi. in hilly areas, the carrying capacity is strongly influenced by slope inclination, with acceptable loads estimated at 25 people per hectare on slopes up to 10°, but only 10 people per hectare on slopes between 20° and 35°. these figures suggest that certain areas may be experiencing considerable overuse, which could lead to environmental degradation and long-term disruption of the natural-territorial complex if left unmanaged. the aim of this paper is to examine the recreational use of the coastal zone of adjara, with a particular focus on assessing recreational load and its ecological implications. by evaluating load norms in relation to landscape characteristics, this study seeks to identify thresholds that will help preserve ecological balance while supporting the continued development of the resort and tourism industry in the region. addressing these issues is essential for ensuring that tourism growth in adjara remains both environmentally sustainable and economically beneficial. methods and materials this study is based on a combination of qualitative and quantitative research approaches, integrating geographical and statistical methods to ensure a comprehensive analysis of tourism and recreational resources in the coastal zone of adjara. a complex methodological framework was employed, which included comparative–geographical analysis, statistical analysis, and synthesis of secondary data. the research relied on diverse sources of information. existing literary and scientific publications formed the theoretical foundation, while cartographic materials were used to examine spatial patterns and regional differentiation. in addition, digital and online resources provided updated datasets and complementary information relevant to the study objectives. official statistical data and reports obtained from the department of tourism and resorts of the autonomous republic of adjara were also incorporated, serving as a key empirical basis for assessing the dynamics and current state of tourism development in the region. all collected data were systematically processed, compared, and interpreted within the framework of geographical analysis. the comparative–geographical method allowed for the identification of spatial and temporal variations in tourism–climatic resources, while statistical techniques facilitated the evaluation of quantitative indicators and trends. this integrated methodological approach ensured the reliability and validity of the research findings. results analysis of statistical data obtained from the department of tourism and resorts of the autonomous republic of adjara reveals a dynamic pattern of growth in tourism over the past two decades, alongside notable fluctuations influenced by socio-political and global factors. between 2005 and 2020, the total number of tourists visiting adjara exhibited significant growth. in 2005, the region welcomed 147,000 visitors, predominantly domestic tourists (120,000), with international arrivals accounting for 27,000. by 2006, this figure had risen to 250,000, comprising 182,523 domestic and 67,447 international tourists, marking a substantial growth of approximately 70% within one year. notably, armenia, turkey, and azerbaijan were the primary sources of international visitors in this period. in 2007, the upward trend continued, with total arrivals reaching 352,085, representing a 19.1% increase compared to 2006. domestic tourism grew strongly (239,786 visitors), reflecting increased local mobility and interest, while international tourism reached 112,299 visitors. early 2008 also saw growth, with august data showing a 25% rise in total arrivals compared to the same period in 2007. however, the escalation of geopolitical tensions following the russian aggression led to a decrease in total visitors by the end of 2008, which dropped to 285,000. this decline was driven primarily by pagava et al. 2025 5(2) 49 reductions in both domestic and international flows, although notable increases were observed from certain countries, including israel (+82%), the usa (+45.3%), and great britain (+80%). by 2009, tourism numbers rebounded sharply to 554,150, indicating strong recovery and sustained growth. turkey and armenia remained the leading sources of international visitors, followed by azerbaijan and israel. this recovery reflects adjara’s resilience as a tourism destination, supported by diverse recreational offerings and improved infrastructure. over the following decade, tourism continued to expand significantly, with a notable surge in 2017, where visitor numbers increased by 98% compared to 2016. key attractions such as the machakhela and mtirala routes, wine cellars in keda, and cultural heritage sites in khulo emerged as popular destinations. table 1. number of visitors to adjara (materials of the department of tourism and resorts of adjara 2024) 2019 2023 2024 (januaryjune data) change % 2019-2024 change % 2023-2024 visits by foreign visitors 768 427,1 995 630, 3 932 267, 4 21,3% 6,4% internal visits 824 855 ,7 910 917, 3 1 001 101, 4 21,4% 8,8% sum 1 593 282,83 1 915 547,61 1 933 368, 77 21,3 % 0,9% the covid-19 pandemic (2020–2021) caused a sharp decline in tourism, consistent with global trends. however, preliminary data from the first half of 2024 indicate a strong recovery (table 1), with 1,993,282 visits recorded — a 1% increase compared to the same period in 2023, and a 21.3% increase compared to the same period in 2019. this recovery underscores the continued attractiveness of adjara as a tourist destination and suggests a return to pre-pandemic growth trajectories. spatial analysis of the coastal area of adjara reveals significant variation in recreational capacity of natural-territorial complexes (ntcs). three categories were identified (table 2): high recreational capacity: these areas are characterized by diverse recreational resources, favourable topography, rich vegetation, accessibility, and high tourist attractiveness. notable examples include the batumi coastline from gonio to kvariati beach. these areas host high tourist concentrations and well-developed infrastructure but are vulnerable to environmental pressures such as coastal erosion and infrastructure damage due to sea-level changes. medium recreational capacity: areas with moderately favourable recreational conditions, often altered by human activities and including cultural–historical elements. examples include upper makhinjauri, known for sulphurous thermal waters, chakhati, gvara, machakhela gorge, and mtirala national park. these sites offer balanced opportunities for nature-based tourism and cultural experiences. low recreational capacity: landscapes with high levels of agricultural use and less diversity in recreational resources. these include certain hilly and floodplain areas with dense population settlements, where tourism potential is limited. table 2. recreational load norms (from 20-30 m to 200 m above sea level in the coastal zone of adjara) recreational areas area in ha slope of the area in degrees load per ha total load batumi 250 ha 250 15 people 3750 people mahindjauri 220 ha 200 20 people 440 people chakvi hill hills 300 ha 18,50 25 people 7500 people green cape 280 ha 160 25 people 7000 people hutcubani hill hills 320 ha 150 25 people 8000 people nobokvati 359 ha 220 15 people 6250 people pagava et al. 2025 5(2) 50 alambari, muhaetate hill hills 600 ha 12150 30 people 18000 people hills of akhalsopli and gonio 800 ha 30-350 10 people 8000 people salibauri hill hills 450 ha 15,50 30 people 13 500 people cape of tsikhisdziri 750 ha 250 15 people 11250 people based on slope analysis, norms for recreational load in the coastal area of adjara were developed to guide sustainable tourism planning. the expansion of tourism in the region has been supported by investments in infrastructure, including modern hotels, improved picnic areas, designated tourist facilities, and marked mountain-biking trails. additionally, cultural and recreational events such as the summer festival, rural tourism festival “gandagana”, and the international bird watching festival have strengthened adjara’s tourism appeal. overall, the results demonstrate that adjara has experienced sustained tourism growth over the past two decades, punctuated by occasional declines due to external disruptions. the diverse natural resources, cultural heritage, and strategic development of recreational facilities have collectively contributed to the region’s resilience and attractiveness. however, continued monitoring of visitor flows and environmental impacts remains essential to ensure sustainable tourism development and the preservation of adjara’s unique natural–territorial complexes. conclusion the analysis of tourism development in the coastal zone of adjara demonstrates that the region possesses abundant and diverse recreational resources, including a favorable climate, varied terrain, rich natural and historical heritage, and valuable mineral waters. these resources are effectively utilized for tourism and recreation, supported by well-developed infrastructure, and present significant potential for further development. the study highlights those certain areas, particularly the black sea coastal plains and the hilly natural– territorial complexes (ntcs) of adjara, experience excessive recreational loads, often surpassing sustainable limits. this overloading poses potential risks to the ecological integrity of the region and underscores the need for proactive environmental management. to preserve the sustainability of these landscapes, measures such as soil loosening, afforestation, herb sowing, and erosion control should be systematically implemented. based on the assessment of terrain structure, load intensity, and the ecological capacity of the territory, the following zoning of recreational load is proposed: high recreational load zones: plains and hilly areas, particularly park-like landscapes, where permissible loads may reach up to 30 people per hectare. in certain high-demand urban locations, such as batumi, loads can reach up to 100 people per hectare. moderate recreational load zones: hilly terrains with slopes up to 10°, where the recommended load is approximately 25 people per hectare, and slopes between 20°–35° where loads should not exceed 10 people per hectare. low recreational load zones: forest–park landscapes where the permissible load should not exceed 3 people per hectare. the determination of maximum recreational loads is grounded in ecological capacity assessments, ensuring a balance between tourism development and environmental sustainability. the continued growth of tourism in adjara, especially in batumi, requires careful planning that respects the natural and climatic conditions of the region. this approach will not only protect recreational landscapes but also optimize the economic benefits of tourism. sustainable tourism development in adjara must be guided by the principles of rational resource use, integrating proper marketing strategies and effective management practices that preserve the ecological potential of the region. ultimately, the success of tourism in adjara will depend on harmonizing the needs of visitors with environmental preservation, ensuring that the natural and cultural wealth of the region remains a foundation for long-term tourism growth. pagava et al. 2025 5(2) 51 competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id nazibrola pagava https://orcid.org/0009-0000-5337-0353 tsirsa kamadadze https://orcid.org/0009-0009-8762-6033 khatuna chichileishvili https://orcid.org/0009-0006-5038-2168 reference beridze, r., kordzaia, i., diasamidze, m., & beridze, n. 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(2020). international tourism highlights, 2020 edition. madrid: world tourism organization. georgian geographical journal gis served car travel times to maternity hospitals in the kvemo kartli region, georgia mariam elizbarashvili1* , shalva elizbarashvili2, bela kvirkvelia1 , elizbar elizbarashvili2, tamar khuntselia1 , nino chikhradze1 1 faculty of exact and natural sciences, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 climatology and agroclimatology department, institute of hydrometeorology, georgian technical university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: mariam.elizbarashvili@tsu.ge introduction timely access to medical care during pregnancy, labour, and delivery is crucial to ensuring the mother’s and baby’s health and well-being (pacagnella et al., 2014). international studies (grzybowski et al., 2011; ravelli et al., 2011b) have shown that travel time to the maternity ward is associated with increased intrapartum and neonatal mortality and morbidity risks. according to some authors (blondel et al., 2011; dietsch et al., 2010), travel time and unplanned out-of-hospital deliveries also have a positive association. out-of-hospital deliveries are also associated with a higher risk of perinatal mortality than in-hospital births. according to combier (2013), significant positive associations exist between travel time to the nearest maternity unit and critical risk factors for perinatal mortality, morbidity, and unexpected out-of-hospital deliveries. a study carried out in the netherlands showed that women who have 20 minutes or more of car travel to the nearest maternity hospital are at higher risks for harmful outcomes and mortality (ravelli et al., 2011a). similar results were reported in france (blondel et al., 2011) and in other international studies (grzybowski et al., 2011; lisonkova et al., 2011; tromp et al., 2009). research conducted in various countries worldwide indicates that patients who require longer travel times to reach a healthcare facility are less likely to seek care at these facilities when needed (syed et al., 2013). regular check-ups are vital for monitoring the health of the woman. women may miss or delay these crucial appointments if the maternity hospital is far away, leading to potential health problems that go unnoticed. in recent years, driven by the impact of covid-19, people have grown georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(2) 22-29 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract this study aimed to evaluate car travel times to maternity hospitals in the kvemo kartli region of georgia, with the objective of identifying underserved areas and informing priority interventions to reduce spatial inequalities in access to maternal healthcare services. the isochrone map showing car travel times to the maternity hospitals was created using geographical information systems (gis), taking into account the location of the maternity hospitals, the length of the roads, and data on the maximum allowed speeds of the vehicles. the research highlights discrepancies in women's access to maternity hospitals in the kvemo kartli region. all three maternity hospitals are located in the most densely populated areas, close to each other. access to maternity hospitals is markedly constrained across large parts of the kvemo kartli region, particularly in areas characterised by lower population density. overall, 51% of women aged 15–49 reside within adequately served zones (car travel time < 30 minutes), while the remaining 49% live in underserved zones (car travel time > 30 minutes). this spatial disparity underscores substantial risks to maternal and infant health, highlighting the urgent need for targeted interventions to improve healthcare accessibility. the most effective solution for reducing inequality in women's access to maternity hospitals is to either establish a new maternity hospital or relocate one of the three existing facilities to bolnisi. keywords: isochrone, inequality, sustainable development citation: elizbarashvili, m.; elizbarashvili, sh.; kvirkvelia, b.; elizbarashvili, e.; khuntselia, t.; chikhradze, n. gis served car travel times to maternity hospitals in the kvemo kartli region, georgia. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(2), 22-29. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.02.04 elizbarashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 23 increasingly concerned with the quality of hospitals in their living environment. as a result, hospital accessibility has become a key factor in determining housing prices (chen et al., 2022). access to health services is a key indicator of sustainable development at both urban and regional levels and should be ensured for everyone equally and fairly (soltani et al., 2019). this study is linked to several sustainable development goals (sdgs), primarily: sdg 3: good health and well-being: improving access to maternity hospitals can reduce maternal mortality and guarantee access to reproductive healthcare services (https://sdgs.un.org/goals) sdg 10: reduced inequalities: aims to reduce inequalities (https://sdgs.un.org/goals). by identifying "served" and "underserved" areas regarding access to maternity hospitals, interventions can be prioritized to reduce inequalities in healthcare access. sdg 11: sustainable cities and communities: https://sdgs.un.org/goals improving access to healthcare facilities, including maternity hospitals, contributes to creating more inclusive and resilient communities. sdg 17: partnerships for the goals: https://sdgs.un.org/goals. this goal emphasizes the importance of partnerships in achieving the sdgs. collaborative efforts between governments, healthcare providers, and community stakeholders are essential to improving access to maternity hospitals and achieving the related sdg targets. achieving the sdgs is crucial because it represents a global commitment to creating a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous world for all people, now and in the future. every individual is entitled to quality healthcare, so medical services must be strategically allocated. prioritizing sufficiency and accessibility as key spatial dimensions of healthcare access will facilitate the effective distribution of health facilities to meet growing demand. identifying areas with inadequate access to healthcare facilities can also support proactive hospital site selection. this data-driven approach could be integrated into regional healthcare planning, promoting both equity in access and sufficiency, ultimately contributing to greater health equity. our objective was to create an isochrone map illustrating car travel times to the nearest maternity hospitals to identify underserved areas, prioritize interventions to address inequalities, and contribute to achieving multiple health and sdgs. methods and materials case study according to yin, case studies are a valuable and valid research approach, particularly for examining complex real-world phenomena (yin, 2014). research using case studies on travel time to maternity hospitals allows for an in-depth exploration of specific cases, offering detailed and insightful findings that may be difficult to achieve with other research methods. this thorough analysis can enhance our understanding and provide a valuable means of gaining deep insights into the complexity of this issue, informing policies and interventions aimed at improving access to maternity care. figure 1. a map of settlements, maternity hospitals, and the road network in kvemo kartli note: the bold black lines on the map represent the municipal boundary for the case study, we selected one of the border regions of georgia kvemo kartli (elizbarashvili et al., 2024a). to the north of the country's capital, tbilisi, to the southeast, it is bordered by the republic elizbarashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 24 of azerbaijan, and to the south, by the republic of armenia. the administrative center of kvemo kartli is rustavi. apart from rustavi, it includes the following municipalities: bolnisi, gardabani, dmanisi, tetritskaro, marneuli, and tsalka. the region's area is 6,528 km2, 10% of georgia's total area. according to the georgian national statistics office, the population of kvemo kartli is 428,799, which is 11.42% of the population of georgia. the kvemo kartli region features industrial centers and farmlands. the industrial cities in the area are rustavi and marneuli. within kvemo kartli, the population density varies extensively (elizbarashvili et al., 2024b). there are three maternity hospitals in the kvemo kartli region, all located close to each other in the key industrial city of the region – rustavi. figure 1 shows the settlements, maternity hospitals, and the road network of kvemo kartli. based on all these features, the kvemo kartli region is a representative geographic area for the case study. the research will give us a broad idea of how access to maternity hospitals changes for women living in different areas in kvemo kartli, what contextual factors affect this, and what measures need to be taken to reduce inequalities and contribute to achieving multiple sdgs related to health and sustainable development. by studying car travel time to maternity hospitals and identifying underserved areas, interventions can be targeted to improve healthcare access, reduce inequalities, and contribute to achieving sdgs related to health and sustainable development. data collection data for medical stations were obtained from both official government sources: "ministry of internally displaced persons from the occupied territories of georgia, labor, health, and social protection", web pages of medical institutions, and direct fieldwork, including visits to medical institutions in the kvemo kartli region (elizbarashvili et al., 2024a, elizbarashvili et al., 2024b). mapping and calculations in this study, we used the 1:10000 scale geographic information system of the healthcare infrastructure of the kvemo kartli region, which includes information on settlements, population, roads, bridges, healthcare facilities (hospital, emergency medical care, pharmacy network, dental clinics, diagnostic centers, etc.), data on the maximum allowed vehicle speeds on each road segment (elizbarashvili et al., 2024a). based on this gis, the isochrone map showing the car travel times to the nearest maternity hospital was compiled, and the percentage of women aged 1549 years living within different traveltime intervals to the maternity hospitals was calculated. results the isochrone map showing the car travel times to the nearest maternity hospital the isochrone map presented in figure 2 shows the spatial distribution of (red, yellow, blue, green, purple, and light brown) areas, which correspond to the following car travel time intervals: 0-8 min, >815min, >15-30 min, >30-45 min, >45-60 min, >60 min. figure 2. an isochrone map showing the car travel times to the nearest maternity hospital people living in the red area will reach the nearest maternity hospital by car within 8 minutes, it will take 8 to 15 minutes for people living in the yellow area to reach the nearest maternity hospital by car, elizbarashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 25 15 to 30 minutes for people living in the blue area, 30 to 45 minutes for people living in the green area, 45 to 60 minutes for people living in the purple area. people who live in the brown area will need more than 1 hour to get to the nearest maternity hospital by car. the brown area covers a large part of the kvemo kartli region. women of reproductive age living within the different travel time intervals women of reproductive age are usually considered to be in the age range of approximately 15 to 49 years old. this age range is chosen because it encompasses the years during which women typically experience menstruation, ovulation, and the potential for pregnancy. according to data from the "national statistical service of georgia," 103,758 women of this age live in the kvemo kartli region, which is slightly more than 24% of the total population of kvemo kartli. figure 3. distribution of the percentage of women aged 1549 years in the kvemo kartli region according to the different travel time intervals to the nearest maternity hospital based on gis analyses, it was assessed that about 32 % of women aged 15-49 years of kvemo kartli live within the 8 min car travel time to the nearest maternity hospital, about 4 % live within > 8-15 min car travel time, about 15% live within the >15-30 min car travel time, 12 % within the >30-45 min car travel time, 12 % within the >45-60 min car travel time and almost 25% life outside the 60 min car travel time (figure 3). such a percentage distribution is determined by the location of maternity hospitals and the region's population density change. table 1. the density of women aged 15-49 years municipality the density of women aged 15-49 years, people/km² rustavi 448.82 marneuli 24.86 gardabani 20.58 bolnisi 16.99 tsalka 4.54 tetritskaro 4.24 dmanisi 3.28 there are three maternity hospitals in the kvemo kartli region. however, all of them are located in rustavi, the most highly populated area where the density of women aged 15-49 years is the highest in the region. rustavi is followed by marneuli municipality, where the density of women aged 1549 years is nearly 20 times lower than that of rustavi. the density decreases in the gardabani and bolnisi municipalities and significantly decreases in the tsalka, tetritskaro, and dmanisi municipalities (table 1). discussion travel time to maternity hospitals according to this study, many women in the kvemo kartli region face challenges in reaching the nearest maternity hospitals on time. specifically, 68% of women aged 15 to 49 cannot reach the nearest maternity hospital within 8 minutes, a critical time frame for emergencies. 64% of women aged 15 to elizbarashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 26 49 cannot access the nearest maternity hospital within 15 minutes, 49 % of women aged 15-49 cannot access the nearest maternity hospitals within 30 minutes, 37 % of women within 45 minutes, and 25% within 60 minutes. figure 4 shows the distribution of the percentage of women aged 1549 years in the kvemo kartli region according to the reaching not reaching the nearest maternity hospital within different travel time intervals. logically, more women face challenges when reaching maternity hospitals without a car, as public transport is not developed in kvemo karli. figure 4. distribution of the percentage of women aged 1549 years in the kvemo kartli region according to the reaching not reaching the nearest maternity hospital within different travel time intervals for pregnant women, it is essential to have convenient access to healthcare facilities. delays in accessing care can lead to birth complications and hurt both maternal and neonatal outcomes (pacagnella et al., 2018). longer travel times may contribute to delays in receiving necessary medical attention, which can be critical during childbirth, particularly in emergencies. the labor process can sometimes progress rapidly and can lead to accidental out-of-hospital births. without appropriate medical assistance, it can pose risks to both the mother and child (blondel et al., 2011). quick access to healthcare can help prevent complications and ensure safe deliveries. the study conducted in the rural region of france in burgundy showed that a travel time of 30 min or more to maternity units could delay the delivery of the baby, increasing risks of fetal heart rate anomalies, out-of-hospital births, and pregnancy hospitalization (combier et al., 2013). the finding related to travel time from home to the hospital in the netherlands and its association with adverse outcomes in pregnant women suggests that a longer travel time, specifically 20 minutes or more by car, is linked to an increased risk of mortality and other negative outcomes (ravelli et al., 2011a). according to the belgian national geographic institute, over 99% of women aged 15 to 49 can reach one or more maternity services within a 30-minute drive under typical traffic conditions. additionally, 92.3% of women in the same age group can access maternity services within a 15-minute drive (lefèvre et al., 2019). in the kvemo kartli region, only 36% of women aged 15 to 49 can access maternity services within a 15-minute drive. approximately 51% of women aged 15 to 49 can access maternity services within 30 minutes by car. research conducted in northern sweden shows that 40% of women need more than 20 minutes to reach maternity hospitals. the same study shows that in 2013, approximately 90% of women could reach their nearest maternity hospital in northern sweden within one hour, compared to around 80% in 2019 (elin, 2019). in the kvemo kartli region, about 75 % of women can reach the nearest maternity hospital by car within one hour. on the map presented in figure 3, the red, yellow, and blue areas where it takes 30 minutes to reach the maternity hospital by car were evaluated as "served"; approximately 51% of women aged 15 to 49 live there. green, purple, and light brown areas, where it takes more than 30 minutes to reach the maternity hospital by car, are classified as "underserved;" 49% of women aged 15 to 49 live there. addressing pregnant women's healthcare access in rural kvemo kartli: limitations of maternity waiting homes and the need for localized solutions https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/authored-by/ravelli/acj elizbarashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 27 to address the challenge of long distances to healthcare facilities for pregnant women, many countries have established maternity waiting homes (mwhs) near maternity units. these facilities (stekelenburg et al., 2006, sialubanje et al., 2015) are designed for women living in remote rural areas. mwhs allow these women to stay close to a hospital during the final weeks before delivery, ensuring timely access to care when labor begins. additionally, in rural areas, mwhs can provide a respite from strenuous fieldwork, which may otherwise contribute to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications (agbla et al., 2006). however, we believe that mwhs cannot work in the kvemo kartli region due to the cultural characteristics and mentality of the population. the opening of mwhs also fails to ensure regular visits of pregnant women to maternity hospitals for prenatal check-ups, which are essential for monitoring the health of both the mother and the baby. therefore, we consider it most optimal to create a new maternity hospital or move one of the three existing maternity hospitals to bolnisi, which is in the "underserved" area and where the density of women aged 1549 years is the highest after rustavi, marneuli, and gardabani. such a change will improve the current situation to some extent. bolnisi borders marneuli municipality and is also close to rustavi, where the population density is highest; on the other hand, bolnisi municipality borders dmanisi and tetritskaro municipalities, which are also in the "underserved" area. it is essential to develop roads and public transport in the kvemo kartli region, which will help women to go to maternity hospitals for regular check-ups and examinations. limitations and strengths of the study this study has important limitations. firstly, we have made all discussions and conclusions considering all 15to 49-year-old women who live in the kvemo kartli region. however, the level of accessibility to maternity hospitals can be more crucial in some situations than in others, one of which is childbirth. secondly, isochrone maps are a valuable tool in planning as they visually represent accessibility within a certain time frame. however, isochrone maps have limitations, as they simplify travel time calculations and do not consider real-world factors such as traffic conditions, road closures, or weather. however, the strength of our research lies in the use of gis with the road layer created at a larger scale of 1:1,000 and the maximum permissible car travel speeds in each segment along the road between two places. the advantage of using the maximum permissible car travel speed is that it already considers road surface conditions, terrain, steep bends, or other real-world difficulties that may affect real-time travel (elizbarashvili et al., 2024a, elizbarashvili et al., 2024b). conclusion the research underlines disparities in women’s access to maternity hospitals in the kvemo kartli region. it helps us understand what contextual factors affect this situation and how to address it. • all three maternity hospitals are located in the most densely populated areas close to each other, which means that access is significantly limited in a large part of the kvemo kartli region, where the population density is significantly lower. • this study identifies key regions in kvemo kartli where maternity hospitals are lacking, based on driving travel time distance assessments. 51% of women aged 15 to 49 live in the served area (car travel time < 30 min), while 49% (50,332 women) live in the underserved area (car travel time >30 min). the mapped findings could have policy implications and be valuable for future decision-making and analysis. • the most optimal solution to reduce inequality in women’s access to maternity hospitals is to create a new maternity hospital or move one of the three existing maternity hospitals to bolnisi. • regarding population density, kvemo kartli is slightly behind only one region of georgia and much higher than the population density of the rest of georgia. this makes it clear that the accessibility problem will be even more acute in the other regions, where the population is much more sparsely distributed than in the kvemo kartli region. low population density areas may have fewer hospitals or healthcare facilities due to lower demand, leaving residents underserved. therefore, creating an isochrone map illustrating car travel times to the nearest maternity hospitals in other regions of georgia is crucial. this map can help identify underserved areas and support the development of targeted interventions to improve healthcare access, reduce inequalities, and contribute to achieving various sdgs related to health, equality, and sustainable development in georgia. the information obtained from the study can serve as a basis for policy recommendations and interventions aimed at improving access to maternity care in the kvemo kartli region. policymakers, elizbarashvili et al. 2025 5(2) 28 healthcare professionals, and other stakeholders can use these data to develop targeted strategies that address specific challenges and improve the general well-being of mothers and babies in the region. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.e. conceptualization, methodology, writingoriginal draft preparation supervision. b.k. data curation, writing original draft preparation. sh.e. software, investigation. n.ch. and e.e. writing reviewing and editing. t.k. visualization, software, validation. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. funding this work was supported by shota rustaveli national science foundation of georgia (srnsfg) grant number fr-19-14993. orcid id mariam elizbarashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8060-3615 bela kvirkvelia https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-7470-1980 tamar khuntselia https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1338-3637 nino chikhradze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8832-2084 reference agbla, f., ergin, a., boris, n.w. 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(2014). case study research design and methods (5th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. 282 pages. georgian geographical journal stochastic modeling of the process of realization of the precipitation-strong wind complex in the territory of georgia mariam elizbarashvili1,* , elizbar elizbarashvili2 1 faculty of exact and natural sciences, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, georgia 2 department of climatology and agroclimatology, institute of hydrometeorology, georgian technical university, georgia * corresponding author: mariam.elizbarashvili@tsu.ge introduction the dangerous and natural meteorological phenomena, such as extreme temperatures, heavy rains, hail, blizzards, fog, strong and hurricane winds, etc., create extraordinary situations, causing significant material damage and, often, even human casualties (world, 2023; noaa, 2023; wmo, 2023). some of these phenomena often co-occur, overlapping each other, thereby aggravating the situation (ali et al., 2023; mcphillips et al., 2018; zscheischler et al., 2018). such compound meteorological extreme events can involve various combinations of weather extremes, such as: georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1), 9-14 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract georgia is characterised by dangerous natural meteorological events— extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall, blizzards, fog, strong and hurricane winds, etc., which create emergencies, cause significant material damage, and often cause human casualties. these events frequently occur together, compounding their effects and worsening the situation. the simultaneous occurrence of such events, in particular, strong winds and heavy rainfall, has not been studied for the territory of georgia. this article looks at the likelihood of the most dangerous combinations of heavy rain and strong winds using probability theory, including the chances of these events happening at the same time, the chances of one event happening, the chances of both events happening if one occurs, and how these chances change over time and space in georgia. the duration of recurrence periods of catastrophic rainfall and hurricane risk in the different physical geographical conditions of georgia is also studied. the research utilised observational data from 21 weather stations of the national environmental agency, spanning from 1961 to 1990, to analyse strong winds and hurricane-related precipitations. it was identified that the maximum probability of the simultaneous occurrence of a complex of heavy rain and storms on the territory of georgia is on the likhi range (mt. sabueti) and is 15-23%; the minimum is in june and july, and the maximum is in september, while the probability of only one of the events on the likhi range varies within 65-75% during the year. when one of the events occurs, the probability that the second event occurs in the likhi range varies between 42–55%, with a minimum in september and a maximum in march. the highest average annual probability (15-20%) of the realisation of a storm in a complex with heavy rainfall is observed in the likhi range – about 70 days a year. in the territory of georgia, the recurrence period for catastrophic rainfalls and hurricanes is shortest on the black sea coast and kolkheti lowland, at 45 years. the obtained results are important for improving disaster preparedness and resilience in different regions of georgia. keywords: precipitation, catastrophic precipitation, strong and hurricane winds, probability, recurrence. citation: elizbarashvili, m.; elizbarashvili, e. stochastic modeling of the process of realization of the precipitation-strong wind complex in the territory of georgia. georgian geographical journal. 2025, 5(1), 9-14. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.02 mailto:mariam.elizbarashvili@tsu.ge https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8060-3615 https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5442-2372 elizbarashvili and elizbarashvili, 2025 5(1) 1. heavy rainfall and strong winds: for example, intense rainfall can occur alongside strong winds, leading to widespread damage from both, flooding and wind-related destruction. 2. heatwaves and drought: prolonged periods of extreme heat can exacerbate drought conditions, leading to severe water shortages, increased evaporation rates, and heightened stress on ecosystems and agriculture. 3. extreme temperature and precipitation: a sudden drop in temperature followed by heavy snow or rain can cause freezing rain events, leading to ice storms that disrupt transportation and power supplies. 4. high temperature and humidity: heatwaves combined with high humidity levels can result in dangerous heat indices, significantly increasing the risk of heat-related illnesses and fatalities. 5. storm surge and heavy rainfall: coastal areas can experience storm surges from cyclones or hurricanes while receiving heavy rainfalls simultaneously, leading to severe coastal and inland flooding. the compounded nature of these events can magnify their impacts, making them more challenging to predict, manage, and mitigate. understanding and addressing compound meteorological extreme events are essential to enhancing disaster preparedness and resilience. worldwide, in the context of global warming, the social and economic costs of natural disasters related to weather and climate have increased significantly over the past 50 years (noaa, 2023). to reduce the negative consequences of these complex phenomena, it is necessary to know their probability characteristics in each area. the study of a two-dimensional precipitation-strong wind complex, which poses the greatest threat to georgia, is the focus of this article. the way independent weather events happen is random, so they can be analysed using the rules of adding and multiplying probabilities from probability theory (agekyan, 1972). the probability of the most dangerous combinations of precipitation and strong wind, the probability of simultaneous occurrence of independent events, the probability of one of the events, the probability of the occurrence of a complex if one of the events occurs, and the duration of the periods of recurrence of the risk of catastrophic precipitation and hurricane winds were studied. the next section of the article considers the study area, method, and data used. the results are then presented and discussed. finally, conclusions and recommendations for future research directions are presented. methods and materials georgia is a mountainous country characterised by complex physical-geographical and landscapeclimatic conditions. characteristic radiation and circulation processes of the atmosphere contribute to the formation of a wide variety of climates. most climate types observed on the globe are found here (bolashvili et al., 2018). georgia is characterised by dangerous and natural meteorological phenomena – extreme temperatures, heavy rainfall, hail, blizzards, fog, strong and hurricane winds, etc. (elizbarashvili et al., 2017a; elizbarashvili, 2017b; elizbarashvili et al., 2022a; elizbarashvili et al., 2022b). according to the main principles of probability theory (agekyan, 1972), the probability of the occurrence of two independent events, a and b, can be calculated using the multiplication rule of probability: 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝐵𝐵) = 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴) × 𝑃𝑃(𝐵𝐵), (1) the probability of the occurrence of at least one of the events is determined by the addition rule of probability: 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜 𝐵𝐵) = 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴) + 𝑃𝑃(𝐵𝐵) − 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝐵𝐵), (2) where р(а) – is the probability of event а, and р(в) – is the probability of event в. if we consider the complete system of events аi, where i i= 1,2,3,.....n, then the probability of the event аi, given that event в has occurred, is calculated according to bayes’ theorem: 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴 | 𝐵𝐵) = 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴)×𝑃𝑃(b | ai) ∑ 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴)×𝑃𝑃(𝐵𝐵 | 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴)𝑛𝑛 𝑗𝑗=1 (3) p (ai | b) is the posterior (conditional) probability: the probability of event ai, given that event b has occurred. p(ai) is the prior probability of ai – the initial belief about the probability of event ai before observing b. p (b | ai) is the likelihood of observing b given ai. the denominator represents the total probability of b, summed over all possible events aj, where j=1,2,...,n. elizbarashvili and elizbarashvili, 2025 5(1) the probability of the most dangerous combinations of precipitation and strong wind in different physical and geographical conditions of georgia was studied based on the formulas of the theory of probability. the duration of recurrence periods of catastrophic precipitation and hurricane wind risk in different physical and geographical conditions of georgia was evaluated. data from observations at 21 weather stations by the national environmental agency, covering the period from 1961 to 1990, on strong and hurricane winds and precipitation, were used as the starting material. results fig. 1 shows the annual course of the probability of precipitation-strong wind combinations in various physical and geographical conditions of georgia: samtredia (28 m), located in the central part of the kolkheti lowland; tbilisi (403 m), characterising the lowland areas of eastern georgia; and mt. sabueti (1,242 m), located on the climate-dividing likhi range. figure 1. annual course of the probability of the most dangerous combinations of precipitation-strong wind in various physical and geographical conditions of georgia: a) the probability of simultaneous 0 5 10 15 20 25 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 samtredia tbilisi mt. sabueti% months a) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 samtredia tbilisi mt. sabueti% months b) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 samtredia tbilisi mt. sabueti% months c) elizbarashvili and elizbarashvili, 2025 5(1) occurrence of independent events; b) the probability of occurrence of one of the events. c) probability of occurrence of the complex, if one of the events has occurred. 1 samtredia; 2 tbilisi; 3 – mt sabueti fig. 2 shows a map of the distribution of average annual probabilities of the occurrence of the precipitation-strong wind complex, calculated using formula (1). figure 2. geoinformation map of the distribution of average annual probabilities of the precipitation-strong wind complex (elizbarashvili et al, 2019) if we consider a complex of catastrophic precipitation, when more than 50 mm falls per day, and a hurricane wind, when its speed exceeds 32 meters per second, then the probability of the complex implementation decreases significantly. this is confirmed by table 1, which presents the relevant materials for various regions of georgia. table 1. probabilities (p) of combinations of catastrophic precipitation and hurricane winds by regions: 1 black sea coast and kolkheti lowland; 2 plains and foothills of eastern georgia; 3 likhi and adjara-imereti ranges; 4 southern georgian highland; 5 greater caucasus probability regions of georgia 1 2 3 4 5 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝐵𝐵) 0.004-0.006 0.0002-0.0016 0.0005 0.0012-0.0022 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 + 𝐵𝐵) 1.3-1.8 0.3-11 0.6 0.8-1.3 0.9 figure 3. recurrence of risk of catastrophic precipitation and hurricane winds by regions and years fig. 3 shows the minimum durations of the recurrence periods of the risk of catastrophic precipitationhurricane wind for the entire sample in georgia’s various physical and geographical conditions. discussions it follows from fig. 1 that the probability of simultaneous occurrence of strong wind and precipitation 𝐴𝐴𝑎𝑎on the kolkheti lowland (samtredia) during the year fluctuates on average from 0.4%.4 to 5%, with a minimum in summer and a maximum in december-january or march, while on the plains of eastern georgia (tbilisi) the probability of the same complex is 1-3%, with a minimum in august and 0 50 100 150 200 1 2 3 4 5 years regions elizbarashvili and elizbarashvili, 2025 5(1) november, and a maximum in may. the probability of a precipitation-strong wind complex on the likhi range (mt. sabueti) increases significantly, amounting to 15-23%, with a minimum in june and july, and a maximum in september. the probability of occurrence of one of the events of the precipitation-strong wind 𝑃𝑃(𝐴𝐴 𝑜𝑜𝑜𝑜𝐵𝐵) complex phenomena on the kolkheti lowland fluctuates within 38-51% during the year, with a minimum in august and a maximum in december-january, on the plains of eastern georgia it is 28-53%, with a minimum in january-february and a maximum in may, and on the likhi range it fluctuates within 6575%. when one of the events of the precipitation-strong wind complex occurs, the probability of occurrence of its second component during the year p (a | b) ) on the kolkheti lowland fluctuates between 37 and 50%, with a minimum in november-july, and a maximum in december-january and march; on the plains of eastern georgia, the probability of the corresponding event is 20-40%, with a minimum in december-august and november, and a maximum in march and may, and on the likhi range it fluctuates between 42-55%, with a minimum in september and a maximum in march. the highest probability of the complex occurring in a year (15-20%) is observed in the open likhi range (about 70 days during the year). in the eastern part of the southern slope of the greater caucasus, the probability of the same complex is 10-15% (35-50 days). on the black sea coast of georgia, the probability of the precipitation-strong wind complex occurring is 2%, and in a significant part of the territory of the southern georgian highland and the plains of eastern georgia, it does not exceed 1%, which corresponds to 7 and 4 days (fig. 2). from table 1 it follows that the probability of the occurrence of one of the events of the catastrophic precipitation-hurricane wind complex over a large territory does not exceed 2%; the probabilities of the occurrence of a complex of phenomena are also small and change little across the territory, increasing somewhat on the black sea coast and the kolkheti lowland (0.004-0.006%). the shortest duration of the recurrence period of the risk of catastrophic precipitation hurricane wind is on the black sea coast and the kolkheti lowland, and it is 45 years. on the plains and in the foothills of eastern georgia, the duration of the risk recurrence is maximum, amounting to about 170 years. on the likhi and adjara-imereti ranges, the risk recurrence is about 150 years, and on the southern georgian highland, more than 120 years. in the greater caucasus, the complex of catastrophic precipitation hurricane wind has not been recorded according to available data (fig. 3). conclusion the obtained results can be used in planning activities to reduce the negative consequences of the impact of a complex of dangerous meteorological events on the territory of georgia. the stochastic approach allows us to study the physical process of the simultaneous occurrence of two independent dangerous meteorological events and quantitatively assess the conditional probabilities of its development. the tested approach will be used in a detailed study of the processes of occurrence of the most dangerous meteorological events in georgia’s conditions. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution m.e. and e.e. conceived of the presented idea. e.e. performed the analytic calculations. m.e. took the lead in writing the manuscript. e.e. reviewed and edited the manuscript. all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. orcid id mariam elizbarashvili https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8060-3615 elizbar elizbarashvili https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5442-2372 references ali, j., wahl, t., enriquez, a. r., rashid, m. m., morim, j., gall, m., & emrich, c. t. (2023). the role of compound climate and extreme weather events in creating socio-economic impacts in south florida. weather and climate extremes, 42, 100625. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2023.100625 agekyan, t.a. (1972). fundamentals of the theory of errors. moscow: nauka. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8060-3615 https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5442-2372 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2023.100625 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8060-3615 https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5442-2372 elizbarashvili and elizbarashvili, 2025 5(1) bolashvili, n., dittmann, a., king, l., neidze, v. (eds.) (2018). national atlas of georgia; franz steiner verla: stuttgart, germany, 137p, isbn 978-3-515-12183-5 elizbarashvili m., gaprindashvili, g., elizbarashvili, e., dvalashvili g., chikhradze, n., khuntselia, n., rikadze, z. (2022a) extreme geological and hydrometeorological events in the border regions of the central caucasus – kazbegi, dusheti, tianeti and mtskheta. tsu, georgia, 200 pages. elizbarashvili, e., elizbarashvili, m., elizbarashvili, sh., kvirkvelia, b., khuntselia, t. (2022b). climatic risks created by dangerous weather phenomena in kvemo kartli. annals of agrarian science, 20, 28-33 elizbarashvili, e., elizbarashvili, m., tatishvilic, m., elizbarashvili, sh., chelidze, n. (2019). investigation of simultaneous occurrence probabilities of some dangerous and spontaneous meteorological phenomena for various physical and geographical conditions of georgia using multiplication and addition theorems of probabilities. annals of agrarian science, 17, 197 – 203 elizbarashvili, m., elizbarashvili, e., tatishvili, m., elizbarashvili, s., meskhia, r., kutaladze, n., king, l., keggenhoff, i., khardziani, t. (2017a). georgian climate change under global warming conditions. annals of agrarian science, 15, 17–25 elizbarashvili, e. (2017b). climate of georgia. georgian technical university, institute of hydrometeorology: tbilisi, georgia, 360 pages. available online: https://www.ecohydmet.ge/geo%20climate.pdf (accessed on 6 march 2024) (in georgian) mcphillips, l.e., chang, h., chester, m.v., depietri, y., friedman, e., grimm, n.b., kominoski, j.s., mcphearson, t., méndez-lázaro, p., rosi, e.j., shafiei shiva, j. (2018). defining extreme events: a crossdisciplinary review. earth's future, 6 (3), 441-455, https://doi.org/10.1002/2017ef000686 noaa national centers for environmental information (ncei) u.s, billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, (2023), 10.25921/stkw-7w73, https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/ world economic forum, the global risks report 2023, retrieved from https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-risks-report-2023/in-full world meteorological organization, atlas of mortality and economic losses from weather, climate and water extremes, (2023), retrieved from https://public.wmo.int/en/resources/atlas-of-mortality zscheischler, j., westra, s., van den hurk, b.j.j.m., seneviratne, s.i., ward, p.j., pitman, a., aghakouchak, a., bresch, d. n., leonard, m., wahl, t., zhang, x. (2018). future climate risk from compound events. nature climate change, 8 (6), 469-477, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0156-3 https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=g2gung0aaaaj&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=g2gung0aaaaj:08zzubdj9fec https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=g2gung0aaaaj&sortby=pubdate&citation_for_view=g2gung0aaaaj:08zzubdj9fec https://doi.org/10.1002/2017ef000686 georgian geographical journal 62 svaneti at a crossroads: socio-economic challenges and opportunities for regional development nana kvirkvelia1,* , mariam tsitsagi1 , elene salukvadze1 , tamila chaladze1 1 tsu, vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: nana.kvirkvelia@tsu.ge introduction mountain regions occupy approximately 27% of the earth’s terrestrial surface and support more than 1.1 billion people, while providing vital ecosystem services—such as freshwater resources, biodiversity protection, and cultural landscapes—to billions more living in adjacent lowlands (fao, 2015). georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(3) 62-78 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract svaneti, the most mountainous historical-geographical region of georgia, is characterized by its exceptional natural conditions and culturally rich anthropogenic landscape. the region encompasses the municipalities of mestia and lentekhi, whose distinct physical environments, historical heritage, and socio-cultural traditions shape divergent trajectories of socioeconomic development. in the summers of 2023–2024, a sociological survey was conducted within the framework of the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography’s field expedition to evaluate contemporary socio-economic dynamics in the region through active engagement with local residents. a total of 35 respondents participated, enabling a comparative assessment between mestia and lentekhi and facilitating the identification of key development constraints and emerging opportunities. the survey was complemented by cartographic materials, statistical diagrams, and photographic documentation. the results reveal severe challenges related to depopulation, limited employment opportunities, and pronounced outmigration—issues particularly acute in lentekhi, where sustained emigration has resulted in the closure of kindergartens and schools in several villages. although livestock breeding continues to represent a traditional economic activity, tourism has become an increasingly important sector, with a majority of respondents expressing interest in acquiring the skills necessary to participate more effectively in tourism-related services. nevertheless, infrastructure remains unevenly developed: while major transportation corridors have been improved, rural road networks require substantial reconstruction, and deficiencies persist in telecommunications, healthcare provision, and commercial services. tourism infrastructure, including accommodation facilities and visitor information centres, also remains insufficient and requires systematic, state-supported development. the analysis further indicates that migration pressures are more pronounced in lentekhi than in mestia, driven by a complex interplay of economic, infrastructural, and demographic factors. addressing these challenges will require integrated regional policies aimed at strengthening population retention, diversifying employment, and balancing tourism-driven growth with the needs of agriculture and traditional livelihoods. given the limited availability of arable land and other natural constraints, sustainable development in svaneti cannot rely solely on agriculture; instead, it must be underpinned by targeted job creation, improved infrastructure, and enhanced state involvement across multiple sectors. keywords: highland developments, socio-economic vulnerability, mountainous region, svaneti, agriculture, migration, tourism. citation: kvirkvelia, n.; tsitsagi, m.; salukvadze, e.; chaladze, t. svaneti at a crossroads: socio-economic challenges and opportunities for regional development. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(3), 62-78. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.03.08 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6722-4453 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2874-3749 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1583-9525 https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0373-6135 kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 63 extending from the alps and himalayas to the andes and the caucasus, these regions are marked by highly diverse geographies, distinctive cultural systems, and rich biocultural heritage. despite their global ecological and strategic significance, mountain territories remain among the most vulnerable and socio-economically marginalized environments worldwide (jodha, 2005; price, 2013; messerli & ives, 1997). in europe alone, mountains cover approximately 36% of the continent and host 16% of its population, reflecting the considerable demographic and territorial importance of upland regions across the continent (moretti et al., 2023). yet chronic environmental fragility, geographic isolation, infrastructure deficits, and the accelerating impacts of climate change continue to undermine pathways toward sustainable development (beniston, 2003; unep, 2012). understanding the future of mountain communities requires context-sensitive, place-based strategies that acknowledge local socio-ecological systems, settlement histories, and cultural identities. the socio-economic challenges facing mountain regions are rooted in both physical constraints and long-standing structural marginalization. rugged terrain and seasonal climatic barriers hinder mobility, complicating access to education, healthcare, and national markets. many highland regions—including those in nepal, kyrgyzstan, and georgia—continue to experience seasonal isolation, with roads closed for months during winter, reinforcing patterns of social exclusion and limiting engagement in broader political and economic processes (price, 2013; debarbieux & rudaz, 2015). mountain communities also frequently contain ethnic and linguistic minorities whose representation remains limited within centralized governance frameworks. outmigration, particularly among younger cohorts, is widespread and contributes to demographic ageing, cultural erosion, and the weakening of traditional knowledge systems essential for sustainable land management. economically, mountain regions face multiple structural disadvantages, including limited agricultural potential, ecological fragility, and underdeveloped infrastructure. steep slopes, shallow soils, and short growing seasons constrain agricultural productivity and render mechanization difficult or economically unviable (unece, 2019). consequently, subsistence farming, pastoralism, seasonal labour migration, and remittances remain central livelihood strategies in many upland communities. persistent deficits in transport, telecommunications, education, and healthcare infrastructure further entrench marginalization and restrict access to markets and services (jodha, 2005). tourism has emerged as a significant economic alternative in numerous mountain destinations such as the alps, the andes, and parts of the caucasus; however, its benefits are often unevenly distributed, weakly regulated, and vulnerable to seasonality and external shocks. moreover, unplanned tourism development may intensify environmental pressures and cultural commodification if not embedded within integrated regional planning (khartishvili et al., 2019). georgia and the wider caucasus region exemplify many of these challenges and dynamics. svaneti— one of georgia’s most mountainous, remote, and culturally distinct regions—offers a compelling case for examining the interaction between natural-geographical conditions, demographic processes, and socio-economic development. situated along the northwestern flank of the greater caucasus, svaneti consists of two municipalities, mestia (upper svaneti) and lentekhi (lower svaneti), each shaped by contrasting topographies, altitudinal gradients, and economic specializations. while mestia is dominated by high alpine landscapes, with over 96% of its territory situated above 1,000 meters and nearly two-thirds above 2,000 meters, lentekhi features more moderately elevated terrain that supports a more diverse range of agricultural activities, including fruit cultivation and viticulture. these differences significantly influence settlement patterns, agricultural potential, and diversified livelihood strategies. the region’s development prospects are further influenced by its peripheral location and limited transport connectivity. svaneti is accessed primarily through the enguri and tskhenistskali river valleys, with additional routes constrained by natural barriers. scarcity of arable land, steep slopes, and challenging soil–climatic conditions limit agricultural productivity and mechanization, while extensive natural hayfields, pastures, and forests dominate the regional land fund. demographic decline, persistent emigration, and the underutilization of local labour resources exacerbate socio-economic pressures, especially in lentekhi, where depopulation is more acute and widespread. nonetheless, svaneti possesses considerable potential for sustainable tourism development. its unique combination of high mountain landscapes, unesco-recognized cultural heritage, and distinctive ethnographic traditions has increasingly positioned the region as a key destination for adventure and cultural tourism. mestia has emerged as a regional tourism hub, benefiting from recent infrastructural investments, while lentekhi is beginning to promote its natural attractions—including the kheledura and mananauri gorges and the ailama peak and glacier. ongoing projects, such as road reconstruction kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 64 and resort rehabilitation, illustrate expanding state and private-sector interest in the region. however, socio-economic surveys reveal significant remaining challenges, including limited employment opportunities, insufficient healthcare access, uneven tourism development, and the need for more sustainable land-use planning. this study examines the socio-economic processes shaping contemporary development trajectories in svaneti, with particular emphasis on the interrelations between physical geography, demographic trends, and local livelihood strategies. through a comparative analysis of mestia and lentekhi municipalities, the research identifies convergent and divergent patterns in economic activity, population dynamics, infrastructure, and development priorities. drawing on sociological field surveys conducted in 2023–2024 by the vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, the study integrates local perspectives to assess both the opportunities and the structural constraints shaping sustainable development in the region. by situating the findings within broader debates on mountain development, the research contributes to a deeper understanding of the pathways and policy mechanisms necessary to support resilient, inclusive, and sustainable futures for highland regions of the caucasus. study area svaneti is located on the southern slope of the central caucasus in the upper part of the enguri and tskhenistskali basins. it occupies 4388.9 sq. km (6.2% of the country's territory). the most characteristic feature of svaneti's location is its isolation. it is bordered on all sides by high ridges: to the north rises the main caucasus range, which reaches the highest hypsometric level in the territory of svaneti. here is located the highest peak of svaneti and at the same time georgia, shkhara 5203 m. to the west, svaneti is bordered by the kodori (highest peak moguashirkha 3847 m) and akibi (lowest peak akibi 2811 m) ranges, to the south by the egrisi range (lowest peak tsekuri 3486 m), to the southeast and east by the lechkhumi range (lowest peak samertskhle 3584 m). figure 1. study area (created by authors) the geographical feature of svaneti lies in its division into two parts: lower svaneti (lentekhi municipality) (fig. 2) and upper (mestia municipality) (fig. 3) svaneti. they are separated by the svaneti range (lowest peak lahili or laila, 4008 m). which is a watershed between the enguri river (upper svaneti) and the tskhenistskali river (lower svaneti). the svaneti ridge is difficult to cross and represents a kind of barrier between the two parts of svaneti, there are passes on it, through which upper and lower svaneti are connected to each other. in the svaneti section, all the passes of the caucasus are located above 3000 meters (khazaradze &. salukvadze, 2024). upper svaneti has difficult natural conditions, is very remote from other regions of georgia and is connected by the only, difficult transport route, which follows the enguri river valley through the jvari kldekari. lower svaneti is somewhat better located. it is hypsometrically lower, due to which its natural conditions are less severe, secondly, the distance from the plain regions is not so great, but the kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 65 fragmentation of the relief here is almost the same as in upper svaneti, due to which the scarcity of land resources is sharply expressed. in svaneti, agricultural lands occupy 31% of the entire territory, with a large abundance of natural forage. cultivated lands occupy only 1% (salukvadze & chaladze, 2025). figure 2. lentekhi (photo: m.tsitsagi) figure 3. mestia (photo: m. tsitsagi) methods and materials this study was conducted in the mountainous region of svaneti, focusing on the municipalities of mestia and lentekhi and their respective settlements, including tekali, khacheshi, melura, leksura, paki, bavari, kakhura, gulida, panaga, chikhareshi, chvelieri, tvibi, kveda chvelieri, sasashi, mele, kheledi, chazhashi, heshkili, iskari, and cholashi. these localities were selected through purposive sampling to ensure representation of both upper and lower svaneti and to capture the geographical, socio-economic, and cultural variability across the region’s highland landscapes. the selection strategy aimed to reflect differences in altitude, accessibility, demographic dynamics, and livelihood structures. a qualitative research design was employed to achieve a comprehensive and reliable understanding of socio-economic conditions in svaneti. following creswell (2014) and bryman (2016), the integration of qualitative and quantitative components allowed for methodological triangulation, enhancing validity and reducing bias. the primary instrument of data collection was structured personal interviewing, supported by standardized questionnaires commonly used in sociological and humangeographical field research (bernard, 2017). in total, 35 respondents participated in the survey, representing diverse age groups, occupations, and settlement types across the region. kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 66 fieldwork included systematic photographic and video documentation to support qualitative interpretation and to generate a visual archive of settlement morphology, infrastructure, and landscape features. these materials provided contextual depth and aided the verification of observational data. all collected information was organized in a digital database to facilitate subsequent coding, categorization, and comparison. geospatial analysis constituted a central component of the methodology. the study utilized geographic information systems (gis) to produce thematic maps illustrating settlement patterns, infrastructure distribution, accessibility, and land-use characteristics. mapping procedures followed established cartographic and geospatial analysis standards (longley et al., 2015). the integration of social survey data with spatial datasets aligns with contemporary approaches in socio-environmental research, which emphasize the value of gis for linking human perceptions, demographic indicators, and environmental conditions (pfeffer et al., 2005). quantitative results were visualized through statistical diagrams, while qualitative findings were analysed thematically. the convergence of multiple data sources—including interviews, questionnaires, visual documentation, and geospatial mapping—strengthened the robustness of the findings and allowed for a nuanced interpretation of regional socio-economic processes. this methodological framework ensured a realistic depiction of the conditions shaping development in svaneti and supported the formulation of context-specific recommendations for enhancing regional sustainability. results the sociological survey conducted in the municipalities of mestia and lentekhi provides insights into the demographic, economic, and infrastructural conditions shaping contemporary socio-economic development in svaneti. a total of 35 respondents participated in the study, allowing for an indicative, community-level assessment of trends characteristic of upper and lower svaneti. demographic structure and migration trends the age composition of respondents reveals pronounced demographic ageing (fig. 4). elderly residents (65+) constitute 35% of respondents, nearly equalling the middle-aged working population (32%). in contrast, young adults (18–29) represent only 3% of the sample, reflecting significant youth outmigration. this pattern aligns with broader demographic trends in mountain regions globally, where young people frequently migrate to urban centres in search of education and employment, resulting in aging rural communities (ives & messerli, 1989; macdonald et al., 2000). figure 4. percentage distribution of respondents by age gender composition shows a strong predominance of women (77%) over men (23%) (fig. 5). this imbalance is consistent with established migration dynamics in the caucasus and other mountainous areas, where men migrate seasonally or permanently for work, leaving women and elderly residents as the primary population remaining in rural settlements (unep, 2012; debarbieux & rudaz, 2015). 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 18-29 30-45 46-65 65+ % age kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 67 daytime data collection likely also contributed to the overrepresentation of women, as men were more likely to be engaged in agricultural, construction, or tourism-related activities. figure 5. percentage distribution of respondents by gender permanent residents constitute 66% of the sample, while 34% are seasonal residents (appendix a) who spend most of the year in urban centres or abroad. temporal means that they spend most of the year in tbilisi or kutaisi, working or studying there, and only return in the summer. this category also includes eco-migrants who live in other regions of georgia but return to svaneti in the summer. migration remains a major socio-economic issue: 26% of respondents (appendix a) reported having at least one family member living abroad, with spain representing the most common destination. these findings reflect the broader georgian context, where labour migration plays a major role in household income strategies, particularly in peripheral mountainous regions (salukvadze, 2022). comparative evidence from other mountain regions shows that youth departure is not universal: in parts of the european alps and carpathians, young people express greater willingness to remain in highland communities when local economic prospects improve (ivasciuc & ispas, 2023). this contrast underscores the importance of targeted policies for youth retention in svaneti. similar studies have been conducted in several mountainous regions. a study conducted across europe has shown promising results, in particular the surveys covered italy, france, norway, poland, romania, and spain revealed that young people want to stay in the mountains because they enjoy both the quality of life and the natural environment. young generation respondents also mentioned that they want to be entrepreneurs and act against climate change. in romania, the mountain area is particularly attractive to young people (ivasciuc & ispas, 2023). educational attainment and human capital in our study area, most respondents (61%) have higher education, which clearly reflects the positive attitude of the region's population towards education; this fact indicates that there is a significant intellectual resource for the development of the region. the educated population plays an important role both in the process of rural development and in the introduction of innovations and improving decisionmaking. their involvement is especially important, as higher education helps them to consciously direct their efforts towards the social, economic and cultural development of the region. in addition, the educated population can effectively engage in initiatives aimed at identifying and solving the problems of rural settlements. accordingly, this group is an important asset for the further development of the region. however, the second question is how much educated people want to return to their usual environment and realise themselves where they see no prospects. as illustrated by fig. 6, respondents with secondary education (33%) are a large group. their involvement in the activities of the region, through continuing education or retraining programmes, will potentially increase their work capacity. persons with incomplete secondary and basic education make up 6% of the surveyed population. this 77.1 22.9 female male kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 68 group is relatively small, although their presence may be associated with barriers to access to education in the past. for most respondents (61%), having higher education and a significant number of persons with secondary education (33%) indicate the educational potential of the region's population. figure 6. education level among respondents (percentage distribution) data in appendix b suggest foreign-language knowledge also reflects the region’s socio-economic history and emerging needs. russian remains the most widely spoken foreign language (46%), reflecting soviet-era educational legacies. meanwhile, knowledge of english (24%) and german (10%) is rising, likely due to increased tourism and international exposure. however, 20% of respondents do not speak any foreign language, highlighting a need for targeted language training to support tourism development and strengthen economic diversification. employment patterns and land ownership as we can see in appendix c, a significant part of the respondents (39%) is employed in the private sector, and 25% in the public sector. the low rate of leaving their place of residence for employment (3%) indicates the desire for stability among the local population, despite the existing difficulties. more than 88% of property is privatized as detailed in table 1. the fact that 88% of respondents have privatised their land indicates stable land ownership, which is a good basis for long-term investments and development. however, the unpayment of land tax by 67% may indicate a certain financial burden for the population and require a review by local governments. as a result of land privatization after the collapse of the soviet union, landowners do not pay taxes on agricultural land. given that (especially) in lower svaneti, there is less resale of agricultural land, it is logical that the number of lands taxpayers is also lower. similar patterns of smallholder land ownership but limited commercial use are found across the caucasus (unece, 2019). table 1. percentage of privatized property and population paying taxes housing has been privatized (%) pays land tax (%) yes 88.6 33.3 no 5.7 66.7 do not know 5.7 at the same time the high rate of negative attitude towards the alienation of land to foreigners (88%) indicates the sensitivity of the local population to this issue and the importance of land as a cultural and economic resource (appendix d). the negative attitude of the svaneti population (88%) towards the alienation of land to foreigners is due to several deep-rooted factors. their attitude is likely based on historical, cultural and economic considerations. in svaneti, as in the mountainous regions of georgia, land is not simply an economic resource. it is the heritage of ancestors, a spiritual and cultural value that is closely linked to the identity of the family, clan and region. its alienation is perceived as a betrayal of cultural heritage and roots; due to the mountainous terrain of svaneti, the area of land for agricultural 61% 33% 6% higher secondary non-complit secondary kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 69 purposes is limited (as in mountainous regions in general). the loss of this limited resource poses a direct threat to the economic future and existence of the local population; there is a fear that the land transferred to the ownership of foreigners will lead to a change or loss of the traditional appearance, architecture and way of life of the region. svan towers and unique villages are part of their cultural identity; the local population, often dependent on agriculture and tourism, fears that foreign investment and large landowners will reduce their competitiveness and ultimately take away their livelihoods; increased demand for land by foreigners may lead to a disproportionate increase in land prices, making it completely unaffordable for local youth and the population. this, in turn, will contribute to increased migration from svaneti. in addition, it is doubtful that foreign owners will use the land effectively and rationally, considering local interests. also, land, especially in border regions, is often perceived as an integral part of the country's sovereignty and security. the transfer of a large part of it into foreign hands may be considered a threat to national interests. it is important that the development of the area and the management of resources remain under the control of local government and the community, and not external actors. tourism: perceptions, participation, and uneven development the priority given to future tourism development (table 2) by most respondents (60%) demonstrates the potential of this sector in the region. this may be related to the opportunities for increasing income, creating new jobs and promoting the region. the response received confirms the situation not only in svaneti but also in the mountainous regions of georgia. in recent years, tourism has become one of the main sources of transformation of the population's economic activities, and the strongest competitor to agriculture in the mountainous regions of georgia (salukvadze, 2022). in a pre-pandemic survey, respondents generally had positive attitudes towards the impacts of tourism development. regarding economic impacts 96.8% believed that tourism development would provide more jobs for local people, 85.5% noted that the tourism industry would play a major economic role in the community. the pandemic has reduced these numbers and locals have clearly seen the need for economic diversification. table 2. percentage of the respondents according to the priority sectors and future training priority sectors for the future would like training in livestock 27.5 % 5.6 % horticulture 5 % industry 5 % tourism 60 % 55.6 % greenhouse farming 19.4 % all the above 2.5 % none of the above 19.4 % the high percentage of those willing to undergo training in the field of tourism (56%) once again emphasises the great interest in the development of this sector. the presence of those interested in greenhouse farming (19%) and livestock farming (6%) also indicates the potential for development of various branches of agriculture. the presence of respondents (19%) who do not believe that they need training in any field may be related to their existing knowledge and experience. some of the studies carried out (studies conducted by the ndi organization) show that examples of successful cooperation between citizens and municipalities are very rare. the main reason for the passivity of the population, along with the lack of information, is the feeling of community members that they cannot influence decisions, and, as a result, citizens are indifferent to cooperation (public attitudes…) (gogorishvili & zarandia, 2021). agriculture: scale, practices, and constraints table 3 reveals that, 80% of respondents do not use fertilizers in agriculture, 14% do, and 6% refrained from answering. the high rate of use of machinery in agriculture (60%) indicates a certain modernisation of this sector, although the high rate of non-use of fertilisers (80%) may be related to financial difficulties or traditional approaches. table 3. use of machinery and fertilizers in the study area use of machinery in agriculture (%) use of fertilizers in agriculture (%) kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 70 yes 60.0 14.3 no 37.1 80.0 seldom 2.9 no answer 5.7 table 4 summarises that, 61% do not sell products grown on site. they use them themselves. the main sales markets are kutisi (17%), mestia (8%), lentekhi (5%), and tskaltubo (3%). the low rate of sales of local products indicates a problem with the market, or the harvest is so small that the population refrains from selling it, consuming it themselves. respondents use trade facilities in different cities. among them: lentekhi (37%), kutaisi (30%), mestia (24%), and tsageri (9%). the geography of use of trade facilities indicates the importance of regional centres (lentekhi, mestia) and larger cities (kutaisi) for the local population. table 4. main marketplaces for the respondents buy goods (%) sell goods (%) kutaisi 30.3 16.7 lentekhi 36.4 5.6 mestia 24.2 8.3 tsageri 9.1 tskaltubo 2.8 do not sell 61.1 other 5.6 according to the given statistics, the difficulties of the agricultural sector of svaneti were identified: the fact that 61% of the respondents do not sell their products and only consume them for their own consumption indicates that the agricultural sector of svaneti has problems with scale and effective access to the market; the low sales rate of local products may be due either to the small harvest, which does not allow for the creation of sales stocks, or to the infrastructural and logistical difficulties of the sales market; for the sale of products, the population of svaneti is forced to rely on relatively distant markets, such as kutaisi (17%) and tskaltubo (3%), which increases transportation costs and logistical challenges, which is especially difficult for a mountainous region; respondents mainly use shopping facilities in lentekhi (37%), kutaisi (30%), and mestia (24%), which emphasizes the vital importance of these regional centers for the local population, but at the same time indicates internal economic weakness in the area (village). figure 7. offer for tourists 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 % kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 71 appendix e displays that, 86% of respondents express a positive attitude towards the development of tourism in the region. 8% express a negative attitude, while 6% do not know whether it is good or bad. 8% of respondents are precisely those people who, during the pandemic, clearly saw the negative consequences of switching completely to tourism, when a boom in tourism resulted in abandoned agricultural lands and reduced products (sharia, 2019). 31% do not benefit from tourism, while 69% do. the high rate of positive attitude towards tourism development (86%) indicates the great potential for the development of this sector and the willingness of the local population to engage in this process. however, a significant number of people who do not benefit from tourism (31%) indicate that the benefits are not distributed equally and more inclusive approaches are needed. the diversity of tourist services (fig. 7) offered by the local population (hotel, meals, horse riding, guides, souvenirs) reflects the diversity of the region's tourist potential. when it comes to the benefits derived from tourism, it is imperative to highlight the stark difference between the two municipalities in this regard. it is no secret that mestia municipality (lower svaneti) far exceeds lentekhi municipality (lower svaneti) in terms of the number of tourists and the corresponding services. appendix f shows that 4 hotels operate in this municipality, while in mestia municipality this number is 178. this is mainly due to the greater development and popularity of mestia as a tourist center. mestia is the administrative center of upper svaneti and has been developing intensively over the years as a major hub for mountain-skiing and adventure tourism (e.g. hatsvali, tetnuldi, museums). this has led to significant investments in tourism infrastructure (hotels, family houses, catering facilities) and a sharp increase in their number, due to the large influx of tourists. lentekhi (lower svaneti) is less developed on the tourist map and, accordingly, the number of hotels and accommodation facilities is much smaller at present. figure 8. socio-economic challenges infrastructure, services, and quality of life as listed in fig. 8, mountainous regions are characterised by many socio-economic problems. the surveyed population is concerned about the lack of roads (15%), lack of electricity (10%), lack of gas (22%), lack of water (1%), lack of cleaning services (4%), unregulated sewage system (12%), lack of internet (14%), lack of telephone connection (5%), lack of satellite dishes (3%), inadequate medical services (9%), and lack of access to education (4%). surprisingly, 1% stated that they are not concerned 1 0 5 10 15 20 non education medical services tv broadcasting cellular communication internet sewage system cleaning service water supply gas elecrisity roads kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 72 about any of the above socio-economic problems. the list of socio-economic problems identified by the respondents (no roads, no electricity, no gas, no water, no cleaning service, unregulated sewage system, no internet, problems with telephone connection, access to medical services, access to education) clearly reflects the infrastructural and service problems in the region. as mentioned above, the population of the study area is elderly, and therefore their medical needs are diverse. it is logical that the respondents 94% use medical services, while 6% do not use these services. they mainly use them in lentekhi (44%), kutaisi (2%), mestia (32%), and the local medical station (16%). from table 5 43 per cent of the respondents consider the number of medical stations and doctors sufficient. the high rate of use of medical services (94%) and access mainly to regional centres and local stations indicate the challenges in this area. table 5. use and satisfactory rate of medical services use medical services are there enough medical facilities and doctors? yes 94.3 43.2 no 5.7 56.8 most respondents (80%) consider the number of schools and kindergartens sufficient to be a positive factor; against the backdrop of acute migration and depopulation, schools and kindergartens are indeed sufficient. however, the dissatisfaction of 20% requires study. in this case, we can assume that these respondents are not permanent residents and did not fully understand the question asked. energy perceptions and environmental concerns rational use of natural resources is important in mountainous regions. our respondents noted that the construction of hydroelectric power plants in the region is important, although dangerous; therefore, they consider the construction of hydroelectric power plants wrong (54%). however, 54% believe that it is necessary. some (20%) do not know and cannot understand this issue. it would be good to raise awareness among the local population in this direction. 83% of respondents support the use of renewable energy, while 17% do not. table 6. percentage distribution of population by use of new hydropower plants and renewable energies build new hpps in the region (%) is the use of renewable energy acceptable? (%) yes 28.6 82.9 no 51.4 17.1 do not know 20.0 the mixed attitude towards the construction of hydroelectric power plants (54% in favour, 54% against) and the lack of awareness of 20% of the population on this issue indicate the need to improve communication with the public. support for the use of renewable energy (83%) creates a perspective for the ecological sustainability of the region. the local population considers the natural conditions and resources (nature, fresh water, mineral springs, forests, wood), ecologically clean environment and products, historical past and cultural heritage to be the region's strengths. according to the local population, the following factors hinder development: harsh geographical environment, poorly maintained internal rural roads, low population, employment problems, unresolved social problems, no gasification, no internet, unregulated sewage system, and lack of sports fields. in their opinion, for the development of tourism, it is necessary to arrange ski slopes and cottages and improve winter resorts. it is necessary to improve the resort of muashi (fig. 9) with an entertainment area for children and swings. creation of a rafting infrastructure on the river. improvement of public gathering places, promotion of education, promotion of a healthy lifestyle, construction of a ritual hall. development of farming, gardening, greenhouse farming, production of wild fruits, and potato growing. factors identified by the local population as the strengths of the region (historical past and cultural heritage, ecologically clean environment, water resources, and potential for tourism development) create a solid foundation for the sustainable development of the region. the identified negative factors (unmaintained roads, harsh winters, low population, employment problems, social problems, lack of internet) require a systematic and consistent solution. initiatives considered as development prospects (creation of ski slopes, improvement of resorts, development of farming, improvement of tourism infrastructure, arrangement of public spaces, promotion of education) reflect the local population's vision of the future of the region. kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 73 figure 9. resort muashi (photo: m. tsitsagi) local perceptions of strengths, weaknesses, and development priorities residents identify the following as the region’s key strengths:  pristine natural landscapes and clean environment  abundant water and forest resources  cultural heritage, including svan towers and unique architecture  untapped tourism potential this mirror widely recognized attributes of mountain cultural landscapes (debarbieux & rudaz, 2015; price, 2013). key constraints include:  poor internal roads and winter isolation  depopulation and outmigration  limited employment opportunities  insufficient social and public services  lack of gasification and inadequate internet  underdeveloped tourism infrastructure in lentekhi  residents prioritize several development directions, including:  improved tourism infrastructure (ski slopes, resorts, cottages)  rehabilitation of muashi resort  development of rafting and other adventure activities  enhancement of education and public spaces  expansion of farming, gardening, greenhouse production such locally grounded priorities align closely with contemporary concepts of place-based rural development, which emphasize integrating local knowledge, cultural identity, and environmental sustainability (ray, 1998; oecd, 2020). conclusion kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 74 the findings of this study demonstrate that svaneti is undergoing significant demographic transformations, characterized by population ageing, youth outmigration, and a gender imbalance driven largely by male-dominated labor migration. these trends pose substantial risks to the region’s long-term demographic sustainability and social cohesion. seasonal mobility and the fragmentation of family structures reflect broader socio-economic vulnerabilities that are typical of peripheral mountain regions. despite these challenges, svaneti retains considerable human capital. the high proportion of residents with higher education indicates an important resource for future development, although the mismatch between educational attainment and local employment opportunities continues to contribute to outmigration. foreign language proficiency—particularly in english—remains insufficient for the effective expansion of the tourism sector, underscoring the need for targeted capacity-building programs. tourism is widely viewed by the local population as the primary avenue for economic development, and its growth has already reshaped livelihood strategies in parts of the region. however, the benefits of tourism remain unevenly distributed, especially between mestia and lentekhi, and more inclusive development models are required to avoid deepening intra-regional disparities. agriculture is undergoing gradual modernization, yet structural constraints—including limited market access, smallscale production, and infrastructural shortcomings—continue to limit its economic potential. enhancing market linkages for local products could play a significant role in improving household incomes. the land question emerged as a particularly sensitive issue, reflecting the cultural, historical, and economic significance of land ownership in svaneti. strong opposition to land alienation to foreigners highlights concern regarding cultural preservation, long-term security, and equitable development. similarly, attitudes toward hydropower projects reveal ambivalence and a need for improved communication, transparency, and community engagement. in contrast, strong support for renewable energy indicates an opportunity to advance environmentally sustainable development pathways. svaneti’s unique natural landscapes, cultural heritage, and traditional knowledge systems constitute major assets for its future development. however, realizing this potential requires addressing persistent infrastructural deficits—such as inadequate roads, limited telecommunication networks, and insufficient healthcare services—that constrain mobility, economic diversification, and quality of life. a comprehensive regional development strategy should therefore integrate local perspectives, support community-driven initiatives, and ensure that development interventions align with the needs, values, and aspirations of the population. overall, the study underscores the critical importance of place-based, participatory, and multi-sectoral approaches for promoting sustainable development in svaneti. strengthening human capital, improving infrastructure, diversifying economic opportunities, and ensuring equitable distribution of tourism benefits will be essential for fostering resilience and enhancing the socio-economic well-being of this distinctive mountain region. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. acknowledgements we would like to thank all the respondents for participating in the survey and in-depth interviews. we are grateful to tbilisi state university, institute of geography, for funding the field trip to the kakheti region, which was critical for gaining a proper understanding of the “situation on the ground”. orcid id nana kvirkvelia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6722-4453 mariam tsitsagi https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2874-3749 elene salukvadze https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1583-9525 tamila chaladze https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0373-6135 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6722-4453 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2874-3749 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1583-9525 https://orcid.org/0009-0007-0373-6135 kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 75 reference bernard, h. r. 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(2018). case study research and applications: design and methods (6th ed.). sage publications. https://wedocs.unep.org/20.500.11822/8693 kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 77 appendix a: residential status (left), percentage distribution of respondents who have a family member in emigration (right) appendix b: knowledge of foreign language appendix c: employment appendix d: privatized residential area 66% 34% permanent seasonal 26% 74% yes no 24% 10% 46% 20% english german russian non 39% 18% 25% 11% 3% 4% public sector private sector farmer housewife unemployed student kvirkvelia et al. 2025 5(3) 78 appendix e: attitude towards tourism development in the region (left); benefits from the tourist (right) appendix f: number of hotels municipality number of hotels lentekhi 4 mestia 178 sum 182 3% 88% 3% 6% positive negative do not know refrain from answering 86% 8%6% positive negative do not know 31% 69% yes no georgian geographical journal transformation of social spaces: international labor migration from georgia ia iashvili1,* , pikria jinjikhadze2 , tinatin gvenetadze3 1 direction of human geography, faculty of social and political sciences, iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 department of geography, faculty of exact and natural sciences, akaki tsereteli state university, kutaisi, georgia 3 department of sociology, faculty of social and political sciences, iv. javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: ia.iashvili@tsu.ge introduction the concept of space is crucial and fundamental in geographical science. spatial thinking is a basic ability that geographers use to comprehend the arrangement of objects across terrain (rubenstein, 2010). this concept encompasses a range of events or activities occurring within a significant geographical area, adding a spatial aspect to it. geography began by looking at how people moving (either for a short time or permanently) affects social and economic changes, including things like language, culture, and how people adapt to new places (fouberg et al., 2015). the concept of space has a multifaceted meaning, ranging from the physical location of a place to its political, socio-economic, and cultural dimensions. examples of such dimensions include, for instance, the post-soviet space, the tourist-recreational space, the emigration/immigration and diasporic space, the virtual space, etc. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1), 51-62 © the author(s) 2024 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract the concept of space has a multifaceted meaning in geographical science, ranging from the physical location of a place to its political, socio-economic and cultural dimensions. migration creates new social space while transforming the social, economic, political, institutional, psychological or physical environment. our research aims to explore how international mobility transforms and restructures the social spaces of georgian labor migrants at their immigration destination. this change has been examined across multiple dimensions: the socio-economic transformation and economic disparity, migration trends and patterns, transnational connections and social networks, household structure and gender roles, as well as cultural, linguistic, ethnic, religious and institutional affiliation. the primary objective is to determine the types of spaces that can emerge because of georgian labor migration, considering it as a dynamic process that fundamentally shapes the nature of transformation. our study employs qualitative research methods, utilizing semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted both in person and online. the desk research method is employed to analyze secondary data, whereas discourse analysis method has been used for interviews. the research spans the period from 2010 to 2024. the target groups are georgian migrants residing in the usa and in some eu countries. the survey’s main findings highlighted the heterogeneity of immigrant social spaces and the active participation of georgian migrants through various activities within these spaces, namely: the space where labor activity is transformed (downgraded) professionally, the diasporic space consisting of georgian congregations in georgian orthodox churches, the ethnic-religious and recreation space with the solemn celebration of national or religious holidays, the culturaleducational space with sunday schools and georgian cultural centers and the virtual communication space with family members left behind. the results acquired will contribute novel insights to the research on georgian labor migration, which remains relatively limited. keywords: transformation of social space, transnational family, georgian labor immigrant women, qualitative research, usa citation: iashvili, i.; jinjikhadze, p.; gvenetadze, t. transformation of social spaces: international labor migration from georgia. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(1), 52-62. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.06 mailto:ia.iashvili@tsu.ge https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9983-928x https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5963-0285 https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4814-931x iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) however, practitioners in many professions may interpret each name differently. consequently, each of these terms requires its own distinct explanation (liszewski, 2006). migration creates a new social space while potentially transforming the physical, economic, political, institutional, social, or psychological environment. human geography, with other social sciences, surveys the formation of transformed identities in various locations, which serve as points of destination for mobile populations. human geography examines the shifting patterns of human activities across space as well as their selfidentification with particular places and regions (domosh et al., 2013). this science studies the dynamic processes of population development across spatial and temporal dimensions, with a particular focus on migration. mobility, which directly indicates the population's movement across areas or countries, exemplifies the relationship between human geography and migration. from this perspective, this article discusses the problem of labour migration from georgia and its impact on migrants’ perceptions and adaptations to the immigration space. over the past 30 years, this international move has presented significant challenges for both the migrants and their family members, greatly shaping their shifted reality. problem statement, research goal and objectives the post-cold war transformation established an entirely novel political, socio-economic, cultural, and psychological landscape. numerous eastern european and post-soviet states began this era with surprising optimism and aspirations. they were establishing a new democratic state, confident in the rapid success of the nation and its society. however, neither people nor governments anticipated that the transition phase encompassing the entire post-soviet space would be so unclear, difficult, and prolonged (castles & miller, 2003). to escape the current situation, individuals sought alternative paths, resulting in many discovering a new reality—the realm of emigration. the process involved adjusting to a new geographical area, establishing new socio-economic spaces, and adapting accordingly. our research aims to explore how international mobility transforms and restructures the social spaces of georgian labour migrants in their immigration destinations. these changes have been examined across multiple dimensions: socio-economic transformation and economic disparity; migration trends and patterns; transnational connections and social networks; household structure and gender roles; as well as cultural, linguistic, ethnic, religious, and institutional affiliation. the primary objective is to determine the types of spaces that can emerge because of migration, considering it as a dynamic process that fundamentally shapes the nature of transformation. bringing up the topic in this manner is particularly crucial in the context of irregular female labour migration from georgia, as the migrants’ existing legal state already leads to violations of their labour rights, restricted communication and cultural interaction, and a highly subjective perception of the transformed spaces. the paper tries to answer the following key questions: is a migration space homogenous, or do multiple migration spaces exist? what types of spaces can be generated because of migrants' transfer as a dynamic process? what are these spaces/subspaces, and which of them embody the essence of migration as a transition? liszewski (2006) defines space as an infinite and unrestricted expanse where all physical phenomena occur. this definition encompasses several processes. the focus of our research examines the position of migration within this context as a dynamic social phenomenon, the significance it embodies, and the role of the migrant in this process. methods and materials our study employs qualitative research methods, utilising semi-structured, in-depth interviews conducted both in person and online. we refer to statistical methods and gis technology for visualising quantitative data. the desk research method is used to analyse secondary data, whereas the discourse analysis method is utilised for interviews. the target groups are current georgian immigrants of both genders residing in the usa and eu countries and returning female migrants from europe. the selection of these target groups was influenced by the extensive network of georgian labour migrants in both the us and eu countries, as well as the diverse migration experiences of current immigrants and returnees. our research encompasses the period from 2010 to 2024, when the authors initiated a pilot study including adult offspring of migrant mothers in georgia. the research continued directly with georgian immigrants of both genders in the usa. female respondents are engaged as homemakers or carers, whereas males are employed as taxi or truck drivers. in 2015, under the auspices of the fulbright iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) program, extensive research was conducted by the primary author to examine transnational migration in both the east coast and western states of the usa. in 2016, the co-authors conducted a project on transnational families in georgia. the subsequent phase of the 2020-2022 survey encompassed georgian migrant women residing in europe, with whom comprehensive online interviews were conducted. in 2023 and 2024, we encountered returned migrant women who operate their small family enterprises in georgia. the total number of respondents exceeds 70. all respondents were over 18 years old. the irb (institutional review board) approval was issued by rutgers university (usa). all in-depth interviews were audio-recorded while ensuring complete confidentiality. the record and the paper do not disclose the participants' names. we secured oral consent from the respondents prior to the interview, after informing them of the study's objectives. the discussion plan for both gender groups encompassed enquiries regarding their adaptation to the new environment, initial qualifications and professional transformation in the host country, the quality of familial connections, economic advantages, and social challenges; additionally, the strategy for their repatriation was a focal point of interest. we employed snowball sampling for recruiting the respondents. most of them complied with our request to engage in the research with empathy and goodwill. we conducted the interviews in georgian. theoretical background geographers analyse the spatial distribution of individuals and activities, seeking to understand the reasons for their specific arrangements across different spaces (rubenstein, 2010). they possess a strong interest in comprehending the characteristics of terrestrial space and the interactions between individuals and their environments within this context. geography fundamentally examines "why and where". another aspect related to this interest is its "significance" (johonson et al., 2015). in the context of transnational labour migration, our article examines the importance of a specific location—the country of destination—for georgian immigrants. the presented survey is based on the theoretical framework developed by liszewski (2006) and feist et al. (2013). the first author categorises geographical spaces into three types. these types are associated with the movement of individuals or groups for purposes of recreation, leisure, and travel. the author examines the approach to spatial division and "occupation of space" in the tourism industry, highlighting the concepts of “imaginative,” “access-restricted,” and “real” spaces (liszewski, 2006). different motivations drive migration and tourism, which naturally vary in duration. however, if we acknowledge that both social phenomena involve the movement of individuals within a physical space (such as relocating to a new home or adjusting to a different environment temporarily), we can possibly extend this pattern of the spatial division concept to the realm of migration as well. feist's and his colleagues' idea of social space is directly linked to the concept of transnational migration. the theoretical framework of "transnationalism", established by glick schiller et al. (1995), was posited as an alternative to the prevalent notion of assimilation (johnsson, 2016). immigrants are perceived not as displaced individuals but as individuals who link across international borders and reside simultaneously in more than one state (glick-schiller et al., 1995). migrants establish transnational links by their engagement in socio-economic, cultural, or political processes with their family members left behind. these connections do not diminish over time; rather, they intensify and have an institutional structure. feist et al. (2013) observe that such relationships ultimately create transnational social spaces, characterised by organised networks spanning at least two nations. it is a robust but dynamic category that, crucially, does not align with state boundaries. participants in such a social space include both individuals and groups (e.g., diasporas), as well as organisations (p. 14). while there is no definitive theory of transnationalism, the concept of transnational social spaces facilitates migration interactions and activities beyond international borders (p. 53). social ties encompass not only familial and personal connections but also functional systems, including socio-cultural, economic, and political dimensions. when the social connections of migrants and less mobile individuals interlink regularly and reliably, one might refer to transnational social spaces. feist et al. argue that "transnational lives themselves may become a strategy of survival and betterment" (p. 55). our empirical analysis demonstrates the extent to which the structure of georgian labour mobility aligns with the concept of transnational social spaces. results during the soviet era, georgians were characterised by limited mobility. as per the 1979 census, 96.5% of this ethnic group's population resided permanently in their homeland, a figure that remained iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) largely stable in the 1989 census, reflecting only a 1.5% decline (gachechiladze, 1997). presently, among georgia's overall population of 3.7 million, over 800,000 individuals have emigrated, with 51% being women and 49% men (migration strategy, 2020, 8). the tendency to leave the country is growing, and georgia maintains a negative net migration rate (geostat, 2025; geostat: emigration from georgia, 2024; idfi, 2024) with the exceptions of two years, when 23,000 georgian nationals returned from abroad due to the consequences of the covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and then in 2022, the following inflow of slavic asylum seekers resulting from the russo-ukrainian war1 (migration profile: georgia, 2023, 2) (table 1 and fig. 1). table 1. georgia’s population net migration (number and rate) source: geostat, 2025. years net migration per thousand, ‰ 2013 -2,606 -0.7 2014 -6,543 -1.8 2015 -3,408 -0.9 2016 -8,060 -2,2 2017 -2,212 -0.6 2018 -10,783 -2.9 2019 -8,243 -2,2 2020 15,732 4.2 2021 -25,966 -7.0 2022 54,509 14.7 2023 -39,207 -10.6 in addition to the spatial change, georgian labour emigration is characterised by structural (professional) transformation of migrants, temporary separation of nuclear family members for an undefined duration, reliance on remittances from emigrants, and the prevalence of single-parent households. frequently, another or older family member(s) assume the parental position (iashvili et al., 2014). fuller-thomson (2005) refers to this particular family structure as a "skipped generation household" (p. 331). our research focuses on two distinct spaces—the host state and the country of origin where the migrants' transnational household engages in their simultaneous activities. transnational migration from georgia should be considered as a phenomenon that extends outside the context of its borders. since the early 1990s, labour migration between affluent and developing nations to sustain families has become a persistent issue. ho & bedford (2008) define transnational migration as a familial strategy for risk mitigation. in developing countries, during crises, family members decide to engage one of their members in migration to enhance or stabilise income levels. transnational migrants possess multiple residences in geographically distinct locations, thereby sustaining enduring economic and emotional connections to their household (p. 43). consequently, our nation, as a component of the aforementioned realm, is not an exception. however, although the presence of georgians abroad as labour migrants is temporary, on the one hand, the irregular status of most of them and, on the other hand, the less attractive environment for the continuation of labour activities in the homeland make the prospect of migrants’ return completely uncertain (migration profile, 2023). as mentioned above, liszewski identifies three categories of space, the first of which is the „imaginative“ space. it is constructed by the potential migrant's cognition based on previously observed, read, communicated, or other information. the readiness of the human intellect is influenced by specific motivations, which are essentially the push and pull factors that drive migration. one of our respondents remarks that what you anticipate beforehand is always euphoria... regardless of the accuracy of the information provided, you remain convinced that your circumstances would improve in that 1 despite the absolute number of emigrants in 2022 (125 269 individuals) surpassing that of the previous year (99 974 individuals) in 2021, the influx of population due to the war between russia and ukraine resulted in a positive migration balance in georgia (geostat, 2025). iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) location; however, when confronted with reality, one realises that the aspirations brought forth collapse, yet retreat is no longer an option. male, in his late 40s. monroe (ny), usa, 2010. several respondents indicated that they believed they possessed comprehensive knowledge of their immigrant family member; however, those did not align with reality: my year-long stay in cyprus with my mom for work has significantly transformed me. i wish you understood how i previously wasted her remittances; i didn’t have regrets and was unaware at the time... currently, my father and i consistently endeavour to avoid wasting cash irrationally. female in her early 20s. tbilisi, georgia, 2010. figure 1. georgia’s population net migration rate (‰) liszewski (2006, p. 9) identifies two subspaces inside the imaginary realm: virtual and perceived. the first is a comparatively recent term that denotes “artificial reality”. the significance of the virtual space notion has been shaped by the information and communication technology established over the past two decades and the worldwide internet network. georgian transnational migrants establish a distinct virtual environment with family members remaining in their homeland, facilitated through social networks. it is not unusual for some migrant mothers to participate in assignment preparation via social networks. according to one of our return research participants: in greece, there exists a designated period of afternoon inactivity, during which everyone rests. i have been assisting my children's education via the internet for that couple of hours. without this opportunity, i would not have remained there for three years. female in her mid-40s. kutaisi, georgia, 2022. the second is the perceived subspace, denoting the impression formed by prior observations and experiences. in other words, it assesses the impact of the actual circumstances as perceived by the individual. the experiences of each migrant serve as both personal assets and valuable information for prospective migrants, aiding them in constructing an imagined reality. our abovementioned respondent, with previous experience as a carer in greece, mentioned her repeat leaving: i am aware that i am heading into exploitative labour and humiliation again, but my family still requires it for survival. female in her early 40s. kutaisi, georgia, 2019. fortunately, this woman is one of those rare exceptions who successfully attained the minimum objective and rejoined her family after three years: my children required my presence now as much as they needed me to depart at that time. i am pleased to have accomplished it. female in her mid-40s. kutaisi, georgia, 2022. -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 20 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 r at e ‰ years iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) adaptation to the immigration environment is defined by criteria such as the migrant's view of current events (positive/negative, optimistic/pessimistic), self-esteem, health perception, and problem-solving abilities (durglishvili, 1997). georgian migrants residing in america exhibit a markedly favourable disposition towards the current order in the country. the rule of law is frequently acknowledged as a source of significant comfort: the rule of law is paramount; i wish i had witnessed this in my country. the officer issued me a ticket for violating traffic regulations. in such instances, i refrain from engaging in disputes with them; they do not impede me in any kind. most significantly, i am aware that both i and the american guy are equal under the law. male in his early 50s. new york, ny, usa. 2015. what contributes to my comfort in this environment? i am more mobilised and organised than ever before. i possess self-respect, maintain employment, and exhibit calmness. health issues? indeed, there exists a similar situation, although i would encounter the same and additional issues in georgia. female in her early 60s. new york (ny), usa, 2015. georgian migrants returning from europe describe their time there as "planned and safe", with the vast majority believing they learnt essential skills for organised employment (badurashvili, 2012). the perceived immigration space for return migrants is associated with the development of skills such as rapid problem-solving, independent decision-making, effective time management, and a responsible work ethic. they also report increased energy, determination, and punctuality (tukhashvili, 2012). the aforementioned sorts of space and their interaction are virtually limitless, as migration is a process of global magnitude involving millions of participants, but not in all cases. the emigration space may not be uniformly available to all individuals, and at times, it may prove to be “access restricted” (liszewski, 2016), which can be categorised into sub-spaces constrained by natural, political, economic, and socio-cultural reasons (p. 16). a parallel can be established with the migration context. the aforementioned variables, in certain instances, restrict the entry of migrants into the emigration domain. the majority of georgian migrants choose the atlantic coastal plain states and cities for settlement, specifically new york city, washington d.c., new jersey, pennsylvania, and maryland. despite being situated at similar latitudes (approximately between 40° and 43°) as georgia, the meteorological conditions in these states are significantly distinct. while the greater caucasus range diminishes the influence of the cold latitudes, in north america arctic air often descends southward through the lowlands in winter, resulting in severe cold in the northeastern united states (bradshaw et al., 2012). however, our respondents do not perceive these natural conditions as a restricted factor. as for the research participants residing in san francisco, california, within a mediterranean climate zone, they reported exceptionally comfortable climatic circumstances, similar to the subtropical climate of georgia: the temperature here ranges from 20°c to 25°c throughout the year. the climate is pleasant. there is a daily breeze ... so, you always need a light jacket to have with you; you are neither hot nor cold. the fog surrounds the vicinity of the golden bridge daily at noon… it is a fascinating picture that never fails to engage my attention. hydrangeas also bloom here, evoking memories of adjara... a female in her late 50s. san francisco (ca), usa, 2015. liszewski (2006, 14) considers the visa regime as an official limiting political factor. since 2011, georgia has participated in the readmission and visa liberalisation agreement with the european union, facilitating the return of its citizens residing abroad unlawfully (visa facilitation, 2011; ministry of internal affairs, 2013; migration profile, 2021). however, the aforementioned agreement simplifies entry into the european union for some groups of persons. despite the agreement permitting only tourist visas, georgian female migrants continue to secure temporary low-skilled employment as care providers in private residences. one of our responders, a proprietor of a family hotel in georgia, stated: i reside here during the summer season, and in winter i travel to italy. all revenue generated there is reinvested in our tourism industry. it significantly benefits my family. i own this itinerary after the commencement of visa-free travel to europe. female in her late 60s. gordi, georgia, 2024. according to the ministry of internal affairs of georgia, more than one thousand georgian nationals have been readmitted from europe in the last three months of 2023. of the total 1074 individuals, 696 citizens were readmitted from germany, while france accounted for 136 deportees. iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) the list proceeds with switzerland, greece, poland, spain, and italy. germany, currently at the forefront, has lately committed to intensifying its initiatives aimed at addressing irregular migration, resulting in anticipated increases in deportations from the eu in the future (over a thousand georgians, 2023). despite the strict visa regulations implemented by the usa, georgian respondents perceive the american environment as the friendliest upon entry into the country. they perceive america as a welcoming nation for immigrants, characterised by minimal bureaucracy and accessible employment opportunities for irregular individuals. the local population exhibits a varied attitude towards immigrant workers, particularly those with irregular status, such as the majority of georgians. based on multiple studies, ilias & fennely (2008) note that about sixty percent of americans perceive irregular migration as a significantly more pressing issue than legal migration. another survey indicates that 61% of americans favour granting legal status to temporary migrants instead of deporting them to mitigate irregular migration. some experts argue that "americans may typically harbour negative sentiments toward illegal immigrants yet exhibit sympathy for individuals they are personally acquainted with" (pp. 744-745). the economic development of the immigration region considerably influences the attractiveness for migrants (pull factor). the impact of the economic variable is especially apparent in the american context, where distance is not a critical consideration for georgian migrants and appealing economic incentives take priority. our research revealed that more than half of our research participants residing in the usa chose america due to greater pay, while others were influenced by their network of acquaintances in the destination country. however, the opportunities for utilising the professional abilities of migrants are somewhat constrained. with few exceptions, the educational qualifications that georgian emigrants possessed prior to their departure for foreign countries remained unrealised for european and american markets (iashvili et al., 2016). consequently, specialists refer to emigration from georgia as "brain waste" rather than "brain drain" (badurashvili, 2012). merely 3% of repatriated migrants reported possessing qualifications obtained abroad (tukhashvili, 2012). the limiting social component is the lack of language proficiency, which constitutes a deficiency in social capital, hindering georgian immigrants' adaptation to a foreign environment. i. badurashvili (2012) notes that whereas 57% of respondents believe it is easier for an immigrant skilled in the language to secure employment, only 10% enrolled in language study courses. we highlight an additional aspect – ethno-religious constraining space encountered by a segment of georgian immigrants in the usa. orthodox jews constitute a significant portion of the population in the town of monroe, new york. interactions with host communities require considerable effort from newcomers. employers rigorously safeguard and often prioritise their ethno-religious norms, which they insist on maintaining during labour relations, presenting challenges for georgian immigrants. this is particularly applicable to women, who frequently serve as carers, housekeepers, or cleaners. we regard such a setting as a restrictive space. table 2. money transfers from the usa, selected eu and post-soviet countries and israel in georgia (inflow, share in total volume) * money transfers until september 2024. source: money transfers, 2024. national bank of georgia. www.nbg.gov.ge years total usa greece italy germany russia kazakhstan israel other countries thousand usd share % % % % % % % % % 2017 1,387,250.0 100 10.24 10.23 10.72 2.46 32.83 0.99 8.59 23.96 2018 1,579,664.9 100 10.1 10.82 12.21 2.62 28.94 1.02 9.59 24.71 2019 1,733,317.7 100 10.29 11.11 13.8 2.87 24/7 1.54 9.38 26.31 2020 1,885,981.9 100 11.58 11.62 15.78 3.93 19.3 1.04 8.31 28.42 2021 2,349,563.7 100 12.1 10.22 16.42 4.82 17.51 2.63 7.95 28.37 2022 4,372,409.0 100 7.48 5.12 9.87 3.76 47.29 3.43 4.55 18.18 2023 4,146,593.6 100 11.1 5.93 12.61 5.6 36.86 4.8 5.19 17.92 2024* 2,245,012.4 16.37 7.6 16.66 7.58 18.26 3.81 7.22 the real emigration space is complex. it is a synthesis of geographical, socio-economic, political, religious, or ethno-cultural subspaces. iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) the primary incentive of georgian migrants for establishing economic space is the financial support of family members staying in their country of origin. the main domain for immigrants is the realm of labour, which constitutes their principal activity and where they allocate the majority of their time. figure 3 illustrates the key countries that consistently generate the most remittances. families dependent on remittances is a characteristic aspect of georgia's migration trend. table 2 and figure 2 show the proportion of remittances from top countries in the overall transfers to georgia. the high rate of money transfers in 2022 and 2023 from russia relates to the mass arrival of its citizens due to the russiaukraine war and, accordingly, the transfer of their own funds to our country. these figures only partially reflect the sums remitted by georgian immigrants to their family members. remittances from italy, the usa, israel, and kazakhstan have risen (national bank of georgia, 2024). since 2019, total money transfers from eu countries (excluding 2022 and 2023) substantially surpass those from the post-soviet states (table 3). figure 2. money transfers to georgia from top remittances-sending countries (share in total volume, %), source: national bank of georgia. www.nbg.gov.ge the emigration processes from georgia are influenced by macro, meso, and micro factors: firstly, the global demand for low-skilled labour; secondly, migrant networks that encourage and maintain migration to specific geographical areas; and thirdly, the individual or collective decisions made by a migrant or her family members aimed at improving household welfare through enhanced earning opportunities. in numerous instances, the role of a migrant has become increasingly relevant for women, partially due to prevailing macro trends in western nations, such as population ageing and women's active participation in the skilled labour market. the process is often referred to as the feminisation of migration (iashvili et al., 2024). liszewski (2006) argues that the establishment of an authentic tourist-recreational area primarily implies the "occupation" of geographical space. this is especially true in migration studies. migrants inhabit not only the geographical territory of the host nation but also infiltrate the analogous domains of the indigenous population with their socio-cultural, religious, and psychological values. the perception of this coexistence by local people is a subject of interest for numerous study disciplines. over the past two decades, georgian immigrants have successfully established georgian cultural spaces in america in the form of cultural centres such as the dancing crane company (dancing crane, 2023), the georgian theatre of new york (georgian theatre, 2023), pesvebi (roots) (pesvebi, 2023), etc., which serve as hubs for georgian traditional arts in brooklyn and aim at assisting young professionals in promoting georgian culture in the united states. since 2005, an increasing number of georgian orthodox churches have been operational in america. georgian congregations were progressively established in new york, pennsylvania, washington, chicago, and los angeles (georgian orthodox church, 2024; st nino mission, 2024), creating 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 sh ar e % countries 2017 1 387 250$ 2018 1 579 664.9$ 2019 1 733 317.7$ 2020 1 885 981.9$ 2021 2 349 563.7$ 2022 4 146 593.6$ 2023 2 245 012.4$ http://www.nbg.gov.ge/ iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) confessional-communication spaces. all these churches possess large, active, and expanding congregations. as one of our research participants recalls: during the covid-19 pandemic, our parish members helped each other greatly. we are a family … well, it was like that before, but our attitude became more cordial during this crisis. we managed to stream every week's liturgy online. only the priest, two singers and i, one person as a parish member, remained in the church. because people from distant states were unable to attend, we [the mobile group] delivered easter gifts to their homes. female in her mid-50s, tbilisi-new york (online), 2023. the sunday schools also operate alongside these churches, teaching the second generation of georgians born in america their native language. table 3. share of money transfers in total volume in georgia according to the country groups (inflow, %), source: national bank of georgia. www.nbg.gov.ge years total % eu countries cis countries other countries 2015 100 29.69 44.56 25.75 2016 100 30.55 38.02 31.43 2017 100 29.85 36.37 33.78 2018 100 33.81 33.16 33.04 2019 100 37.34 30.70 31.96 2020 100 40.48 25.18 34.34 2021 100 40.67 26.95 32.38 2022 100 24.44 58.03 17.53 2023 100 31.53 45.36 23.13 2024 100 41.86 26.48 31.66 the georgian parish offers a recreational space as well, where all orthodox christian and national festivals are celebrated with formal gatherings or picnics outside the city. figure 3. map of top money transfers to georgia in 2023 (inflow, share in total volume, %). source: own work based on national bank of georgia. www.nbg.gov.ge nonetheless, georgian immigrants often find themselves lacking in certain areas. most often, it is a familial and educational environment for professional advancement. this deficiency primarily results http://www.nbg.gov.ge/ iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) from their irregular status, limited financial resources, and, as previously noted, insufficient language skills. a minimal number of our respondents succeeded in acquiring or enhancing professional abilities. this segment comprises migrants who presently possess lawful immigrant status in the us or are us citizens. their spaces of action are considerably more heterogeneous; unlike their undocumented compatriots, they possess the ability to visit their homeland. the prolonged disconnection from family adversely affects both the migrant and the relatives remaining behind. the irregular status of georgian migrants prevents collaboration with official authorities and the execution of employment contracts with employers; hence, it perpetuates the risk of significant rights violations. according to experts, georgian female migrants work an average of 58 hours per week (badurashvili, 2012). according to the latest survey (migrant women, 2024), the majority of female georgian immigrants experience a decline in professional status in the host country. they find employment as nurses in healthcare facilities, caretakers in households, or domestic workers not involved in elder care. in case of equivalent compensation, they would choose to work in georgia (p. 24). this last point is critical. despite a significant enhancement in the quality of material interactions, the prolonged separation of married couples creates substantial issues in both marital dynamics and the dependency between parents and children. the division of the family is frequently perceived as a social cost among the transnational household members (iashvili et al., 2024). undocumented status also contributes to the presence of georgians in the host country and the uncertainty surrounding their repatriation. half of our respondents declared that family members anticipate her/his homecoming, while one-third contended that the family has accepted her/his absence; some others asserted that household members still require financial support from overseas. we believe that the ambiguity regarding the issue of return, coupled with the "guaranteed" employment of migrants in the host nation and the "guaranteed" remittances to their homeland, would result in a prolonged remigration process. the greatest concern for returned migrants is the reality they encounter in their homeland upon remigration. experts note that migrants experience culture shock when the disparity between their acquired social and cultural experiences during immigration and the realities they must adapt to in their hometown becomes evident (badurashvili, 2012; feminism of migration, 2022; mataradze et al., 2024). furthermore, the current lack of adequate possibilities for socio-economic reintegration in the country of origin compels re-migrants to desire to return back to the immigration country (socioeconomic stability, 2023). consequently, the formulation of a robust emigration strategy is an essential imperative for georgia. conclusion the varied and strong transnational spaces established by georgian migrants indicate that the framework of modern georgian labour migration aligns with feist and his colleagues' concept of transnational social spaces. our endeavour to generalise liszewski's approach, from tourism to migration studies, also showed the heterogeneous structure of the immigration landscape for georgian migrants. the immigrants indicate that their "imagined" reality diverges from the actual environment, significantly hindering their adaptation process. the "access-restricted" space stems from the irregular status of the majority of georgian migrants, which limits their participation in educational and professional endeavours. the economic sphere serves as the primary domain for immigrants, despite the potential for professional regression. in this context, remittances from both the usa and other european nations are increasingly being sent to georgia. despite numerous challenges, georgian immigrants successfully established ethnic, cultural, and confessional spaces, including orthodox christian churches, sunday schools, and georgian cultural institutions. these areas serve as supplementary communication and leisure venues for first-generation immigrants while providing an educational environment for second-generation young georgians. for the majority of migrant mothers lacking a familial support system in the host nation, virtual communication is essential for maintaining emotional connections with family members, particularly with their children. the return plan lacks clarity. in the absence of a robust migration policy by the georgian government, which should be a guarantor for dignified repatriation, the lengthy stay of georgian migrants in host countries would be prolonged even more, adversely impacting the already diminished gene pool of our nation. competing interests iashvili et al. 2025 5(1) the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution the first author recorded the interviews in the usa. the other two engaged in the research by conducting in-depth interviews in georgia and online, offering valuable input. interviews were transcribed by all participants and translated into english by the first and third authors. the visual content was produced by the second author. all authors contributed to the composition of the article, with the final edition completed by the first author. acknowledgements the authors thank the fulbright program, faculty of social and political sciences at ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university (tsu) and the erasmus+ programme for their support in the implementation of the presented research. funding this research has been supported by the department of state in 2015, the faculty of social and political sciences at tsu in 2016 and the eu in 2021. orcid id ia iashvili https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9983-928x pikria jinjikhadze https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5963-0285 tinatin gvenetadze https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4814-931x reference badurashvili, i. 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https://www.oca.org/parishes/oca-ny-brosnm https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290379135_socio-economic_problems_of_return_migration_in_georgia https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290379135_socio-economic_problems_of_return_migration_in_georgia https://ei-lat.ge/en/uvizo-mimosvlis-perspeqtivebi/ georgian geographical journal 14 integrating gis and kernel density estimation for multi-hazard risk assessment of potential onshore pipeline failures aslan e. babakhanov1 , zaur t. imrani1* 1 department of tourism and recreational geography, ministry of science and education, institute of geography named after academician h.a. aliyev, baku, azerbaijan * corresponding author: zaur_imrani@mail.ru introduction strengthening the durability of azerbaijan’s oil and gas infrastructure against natural disasters is a critical priority for researchers and industry stakeholders. pipelines that transport hydrocarbons, while integral to national and transnational energy supply, are especially vulnerable due to the volatile nature of their contents. a failure can lead to irreparable environmental damage, human casualties, and costly socioeconomic disruptions (lerche et al., 2014). the growing reliance on pipelines for interregional energy exchange, coupled with the apparent increase in natural disaster frequency, has underscored the need for comprehensive risk assessments (krausmann et al, 2011). these assessments must extend beyond purely technical criteria to include geopolitical and environmental considerations, reflecting the international implications of pipeline failures and the cross-border nature of catastrophic events. climate change adds further complexity by intensifying extreme weather events and altering hazard patterns, placing critical infrastructure under unprecedented levels of stress (zio, 2016). as natural disasters become more frequent and severe, safeguarding pipelines requires a flexible and forwardlooking framework capable of integrating diverse data sources, advanced modeling, and predictive analytics. this forward-thinking perspective enables risk assessments that anticipate future scenarios rather than merely responding to current conditions. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(3) 14-29 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract this paper introduces a newly developed risk-assessment framework that combines kernel density estimation (kde) with geographic information system (gis) technology to analyze multiple hazards, including earthquakes, floods, landslides, mud volcanoes, and soil erosion, for the baku-tbilisiceyhan pipeline in azerbaijan. by integrating hazard-specific parameters into a unified risk matrix, each hazard’s contribution is weighted, refined, and aggregated to produce a spatially explicit, combined risk map. kde smooths hazard intensities and reveals overlaps among different risk factors. the resulting high-resolution maps enable more targeted prevention and response measures, guiding planners and stakeholders toward effective pipeline protection strategies. although the model can demand computational power, it remains scalable and flexible, allowing for adaptation to additional hazards or expanded geographical areas. furthermore, the methodology underscores the importance of cross-validation in setting kde bandwidth and in calibrating hazard weights to ensure reliable outputs. preliminary testing indicates that this integrated model improves the clarity of risk data, highlights areas needing immediate attention, and supports resilience planning across the pipeline corridor. this work can be applied more broadly to critical infrastructure projects in regions where multiple hazards coincide, thereby aiding decision-making processes for disaster risk reduction and sustainable development. future research will focus on refining statistical models for inter-hazard correlations and incorporating machine learning for predictive analytics. the framework stands as a tool to maintain pipeline integrity in the face of evolving environmental threats. keywords: gis, kernel density estimation, risk matrix, pipeline integrity, multi-hazard risk. citation: babakhanov, a.e.; imrani, z.t. integrating gis and kernel density estimation for multi-hazard risk assessment of potential onshore pipeline failures. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(3), 14-29. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.03.02 mailto:zaur_imrani@mail.ru https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8790-7945 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0606-3753 babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 15 developing robust methodologies to quantify and mitigate these risks is thus an imperative, particularly in regions like azerbaijan where seismic activity, floods, landslides, and mud volcanoes pose substantial threats (othman et al., 2023). with pipelines traversing extensive distances across varied terrains, even localized disruptions can have extensive consequences. consequently, the scientific community must invest in innovative tools and interdisciplinary strategies that address physical vulnerabilities, regulatory complexities, and cross-border interdependencies. adopting a multi-hazard approach allows for a holistic understanding of pipeline resilience, thereby guiding more effective risk management, informed policy-making, and international collaboration. notably, specific natural disasters recognized in azerbaijan can directly impact onshore pipelines, highlighting the urgency for targeted, data-driven solutions (amirova‐mammadova, 2018; bagirov et al., 2019): 1. earthquakes: azerbaijan experiences substantial seismic activity due to its location in an earthquake-prone zone (alizadeh et al., 2017). sudden ground movements or shifts can displace or fracture pipelines. any rupture in a pipeline carrying hydrocarbons may cause leaks and, in severe instances, lead to explosions or fires. 2. floods: flash floods or prolonged heavy rainfall can result in rapid water accumulation and significant soil erosion1. high-velocity water flows may directly damage exposed pipeline segments, while erosion can undermine the structural support of buried pipelines, increasing the risk of bending or rupturing. 3. landslides: in mountainous or hilly terrains, landslides can occur, particularly following intense precipitation or seismic events2. the downward movement of rock and soil can bury pipelines or exert forces beyond their design limits, leading to material failure. 4. mud volcanoes: azerbaijan is well-known for its numerous mud volcanoes (kadirov et al., 2005). these geological formations can erupt violently, expelling hot mud and gases capable of overheating, encasing, or fracturing adjacent pipelines, ultimately causing leaks or more severe accidents (panahi, 2005). 5. soil erosion: continuous erosion, often accelerated by flooding or heavy rainfall, can gradually expose pipelines designed to remain buried (othman et al., 2023). without adequate coverage, pipelines become vulnerable to external impacts and stress that can lead to cracks or breaks. 6. corrosion (environmental degradation): while not considered a conventional natural hazard, corrosion is a significant environmental threat to pipelines. humid or saline conditions accelerate metal deterioration (cheng, 2015), and if not detected, corrosion can thin pipeline walls, resulting in leaks or complete structural failure. 7. extreme weather conditions: severe weather events—such as powerful storms, lightning strikes, or extreme temperature fluctuations—can damage pipelines directly or trigger secondary hazards like landslides or floods (katopodis et al., 2019). while pipelines are built to withstand local climate norms, unusually harsh conditions can exceed their tolerance thresholds. 8. wildfires: high temperatures from wildfires can damage pipelines and their protective infrastructure (novacheck et al., 2021). moreover, the burning of nearby vegetation may contribute to soil erosion, further exposing pipelines to potential mechanical stresses. 9. ground subsidence: this phenomenon, caused by natural geological activity or human practices (e.g., mining, groundwater extraction), results in the gradual sinking of the ground surface (oruji et al., 2022). uneven subsidence can place bending stress on pipelines, increasing the likelihood of ruptures. typically, the practice is to represent the impact and risk values for each hazard individually on separate maps. a risk matrix serves as a visual aid, facilitating the evaluation of the cumulative risk level associated with different occurrences, including natural disasters. this matrix is instrumental in pinpointing the probability and potential impact of a given event, thereby allocating it a precise risk rating. however, the variety of natural disasters differs by location, resulting in a diverse set of risk maps. this diversity can introduce complexities in managing and interpreting the array of maps (samany et al., 2022). 1 pipeline safety: potential for damage to pipeline facilities caused by flooding, river scour, and river channel migration (2019). https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/04/11/2019-07132/pipeline-safety-potential-for-damage-to-pipelinefacilities-caused-by-flooding-river-scour-and-river 2 guidelines for constructing natural gas and liquid hydrocarbon pipelines through areas prone to landslide and subsidence hazards (2009). https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/34640 https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/04/11/2019-07132/pipeline-safety-potential-for-damage-to-pipeline-facilities-caused-by-flooding-river-scour-and-river https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/04/11/2019-07132/pipeline-safety-potential-for-damage-to-pipeline-facilities-caused-by-flooding-river-scour-and-river https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/34640 babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 16 using a combined approach helps streamline this complexity by integrating multiple risk factors into a unified visual representation, simplifying analysis and decision-making (falcone et al., 2022). to derive a combined risk value encompassing all-natural disasters, one could consider aggregating the distinct risk values (fotios et al., 2022) for each disaster. however, this method presupposes that all these incidents occur independently, a condition that might not always hold true. the overall risk assessment can be significantly swayed by the interrelations and mutual influences existing between various natural disasters. recognizing these interdependencies is essential in accurately determining the combined risk value. to maintain the integrity of all assessed risk values, the individual combined risk scores are connected to beforehand computed and proportionately weighted risk values for each type of natural disaster. a critical initial phase involves quantifying the risk (gemma et al., 2022) tied to each possible natural disaster. this could involve analyzing historical data on the frequency of natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, wildfires, and so on, within a targeted area to gauge their probability. the core objective is to create a robust, multi-dimensional risk assessment model that not only identifies potential risks but also quantifies them in a meaningful and actionable manner (rasouli & imrani, 2023). to achieve this, we will employ a risk rating matrix grounded in rigorous mathematical formulations, enabling a detailed and nuanced understanding of risk levels. this matrix will integrate various risk factors listed above to generate a composite risk score for pipeline systems in the context of natural disasters. by combining the spatial analysis capabilities of gis with the mathematical rigor of risk score calculations, this research endeavors to offer a novel and practical tool for policymakers, engineers, and disaster management professionals. the ultimate goal is to enhance decision-making processes, facilitate proactive risk mitigation strategies, and contribute to the resilience and safety of pipeline infrastructures in the face of increasingly unpredictable natural events. methods and materials in this research, we utilize adjusted risk matrices that correspond to each relevant hazard type encompassing both classical natural disasters (e.g., earthquakes, floods) and environment-based threats (e.g., corrosion). each hazard is weighted according to its relative impact on pipeline integrity. these weighted factors are then refined using kernel density estimation (kde) techniques, converting the collected risk scores into a 2d array (gramacki, 2017). the data assigned to each cell within these matrices can be stored in any relational database (nasser, 2018) or in straightforward file formats such as comma-separated values (csv) or json. this flexibility enables seamless integration with popular gis tools like esri arcgis or qgis, where the 2d risk arrays can be visualized, analyzed, and used to inform decisions on pipeline protection and maintenance. 2.1 area of observation this research area (fig.1) situated within azerbaijan, known for its susceptibility to various natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, floods, and mud volcanoes. this region is identified as the "valley of mud volcanoes" moreover, satellite imagery revealed the presence of strong wind patterns and noticeable geological faults in the area. 2.2 risk matrix when analyzing the effects of natural disasters on pipeline systems, employing a risk matrix is an essential step for illustrating the degree of risk. this study utilizes a standard 5×5 risk matrix (figure 2), which classifies threats according to their likelihood (ranging from rare to nearly certain) and potential consequences (spanning from negligible to disastrous) (blokdyk, 2018). by adopting a fivetier system, each hazard can be systematically plotted on the grid, where higher probability and severity correspond to higher risk values. although summing the individual risk values for all-natural disasters can yield an overall, aggregated risk score, this approach assumes complete independence among events, which is not always accurate. correlations and interdependencies between different types of natural disasters can significantly alter the true combined risk. accordingly, such factors must be considered when determining an aggregated risk value. babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 17 figure 1. area of observation in spatial terms, each risk factor is mapped onto polygonal zones varying from as small as 50×50 meters to areas of several square kilometers (han et al., 2010). these zones are categorized by risk level according to the matrix. table 1 outlines a distribution framework for assigning integer or categorical values (e.g., “low,” “moderate,” “high”) to each zone based on local hazard intensity. this classification is a cornerstone for subsequent calculations in a gis environment, ensuring that risk values can be systematically integrated with geospatial data. as a result, risk maps visualize both individual and aggregated hazards, thereby aiding in pipeline safety assessments and informing targeted mitigation strategies. figure 2. risk matrix of 5x5 elements table 1. distribution of risk levels according to nd factor natural disaster risk level (1-5, 5 is highest) description color landslides 4 soil shifts in hilly or mountainous regions that have the potential to disrupt or harm pipelines. yellow earthquakes 5 seismic activity or ruptures leading to significant damages red flooding 3 lead to erosion or the accumulation of sediment yellow babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 18 corrosion from soil chemistry 3 specific soil environments may extend the corrosion, resulting in the deterioration of pipeline materials yellow 2.3 determining the risk values to address numerous hazard events, the contributions from each are consolidated into a unified risk score. we begin by computing the separate risk scores (𝑅𝑖) for every hazard, following the formula: 𝑅𝑖 = 𝐿𝑖 × 𝐶𝑖 where 𝐿𝑖 represents the likelihood and 𝐶𝑖 denotes the impact of the 𝑖𝑡ℎ hazard. after determining the individual risk scores for each hazard (𝑅1, 𝑅2, …, 𝑅𝑛), the average risk score (𝑅𝑎𝑣𝑔) is computed by the subsequent method: 𝑅𝑎𝑣𝑔 = 1 𝑛 ∑ 𝑅𝑖 𝑛 𝑖=1 in this scenario, n represents the total count of hazards or events under evaluation. averaging these values is one of several methods to consolidate the risk data, and it is particularly effective for the purposes of mapping. it's important to note that the risk scores will be visually differentiated using a color-coding system: scores ranging from 1 to 6 will be marked in green, indicating low risk; scores between 7 and 12 will be highlighted in yellow, signifying medium risk; and scores from 13 to 25 will be denoted in red, representing high risk. additionally, each specific value within these ranges could be represented by varying shades of the respective color, providing a gradient effect for more nuanced visualization fig. 2. indeed, the method of calculating an aggregate risk score, as previously described, presumes that each hazard is independent and of equal importance, an assumption that might not hold true in more complex scenarios. to address this, our approach will integrate a weighting system, which allows for the differentiation in the significance of various hazards or the interdependencies between events. in this system, each hazard is assigned a weight (𝒘𝒊) reflecting its relative importance or impact. these weights are typically values ranging from 0 to 1, with the sum of all weights equaling 1. this ensures that the overall significance of all hazards is proportionately distributed. following the assignment of weights, the next step involves calculating the weighted risk score (𝑅𝑤𝑖) for each hazard. this is achieved by: 𝑅𝑤𝑖 = 𝑤𝑖 × 𝑅𝑖 to obtain the comprehensive risk score (𝑅𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙), the process involves summing all the weighted risk scores for each hazard: 𝑅𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 = ∑ 𝑅wi 𝑛 𝑖=1 this total risk score is then categorized using the designated color-coding system based on its value: 𝐶𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑟(𝑅𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙) = { 𝐺𝑟𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑖𝑓 1 ≤ 𝑅𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ≤ 6 𝑌𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑖𝑓 7 ≤ 𝑅𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ≤ 12 𝑅𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑓 13 ≤ 𝑅𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ≤ 25 this weighted approach enhances realism by recognizing that certain hazards (e.g., high-magnitude earthquakes) may be far more consequential than others (e.g., minor flooding). however, neither the averaging nor the weighted-sum methods inherently capture potential correlations among hazards— such as how an earthquake might trigger a landslide or how floods may exacerbate soil erosion. capturing these interdependencies typically requires more advanced statistical or probabilistic models (e.g., copulas, bayesian networks, or multi-variate correlation matrices3). despite these limitations, weighted risk calculations represent a practical, gis-friendly means of consolidating disparate hazards into a single metric. by overlaying the final risk values on geospatial layers, decision-makers can pinpoint pipeline segments requiring greater inspection, maintenance, or protective measures. this approach also aligns well with advanced techniques, such as kernel density estimation, which can further smooth risk values spatially and highlight high-risk clusters within the study region, supporting more robust and proactive risk management. 2. 4 evaluation of 2d risk scores using gauss kernel method the 2d risk score for natural disasters can be evaluated using geospatial parameters, such as the magnitude of previous events (for earthquakes, landslides, etc.), proximity to fault lines, soil type, slope, 3 multivariate correlations, https://numericalexpert.com/tutorials/statistics/multivarcorr.php babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 19 and rainfall data (for floods and soil erosion). the method also assumes that each type of disaster has its own unique contributing factors. a gauss kernel function4 is often used in spatial data analysis because it is smooth, symmetric, and its value decreases with distance together with kernel density estimation (kde). kde is a non-parametric technique for estimating the probability density function of a random variable. when applied to risk levels, it allows you to smooth the risk measurements and find areas of high and low risk density. the equation (equation 1.2) provides a smoothed estimate of the risk level distribution. from this, you could estimate probabilities of specific risk levels, find modes of risk (most common risk levels), or perform other analyses based on selection of kernel function for the kde (equation 1.1). the gaussian kernel is a common choice due to its smoothness and nice mathematical properties. k(u) is the gaussian kernel function, which decreases with the square of the distance from the center of the kernel (u), and f(x) is the kernel density estimate, which is an average of the kernel functions centered at each data point (xi), with the bandwidth h which controls the amount of smoothing: a large h leads to more smoothing and a smaller h leads to less smoothing. to apply this to measured risk levels, the data points (xi) would be the measured risk levels, and the estimated density f(x) would give an estimate of the probability density of risk levels at each point in the risk range. equation 1.1: the equation for a gauss kernel 𝐾(𝑢) = 1 √2𝜋 𝑒− 1 2 𝑢2 equation 1.2: kde equation 𝑓(𝑥) = 1 𝑛ℎ ∑ 𝐾 ( 𝑥 − 𝑋𝑖 ℎ ) 𝑛 𝑖=1 after collecting the data on historical nd, we can then calculate the risk scores per disaster category using minimal set of crucial input parameters: 1. earthquakes: variables:  magnitude (m) of the past earthquakes.  distance (d) to the epicenter of past earthquakes. the risk score for earthquakes can be calculated as follows: 𝑅(𝑥, 𝑦) = ∑ 𝑀𝑖 𝑖 ⋅ 𝑒 − 𝑑𝑖 2 2σ2 2. landslides: variables:  slope of the terrain (s).  soil moisture content (m).  distance (d) to previous landslides. the risk score for landslides can be calculated as follows: 𝑅(𝑥, 𝑦) = ∑ 𝑆𝑖 𝑖 ⋅ 𝑀𝑖 ⋅ 𝑒 − 𝑑𝑖 2 2σ2 3. flooding: variables:  precipitation (p) in the area.  distance (d) to water bodies such as rivers or lakes. the risk score for flooding can be calculated as follows: 𝑅(𝑥, 𝑦) = ∑ 𝑃𝑖 𝑖 ⋅ 𝑒 − 𝑑𝑖 2 2σ2 in these equations, σ is the standard deviation, controlling the spread of the gaussian kernel, (x, y) are the coordinates for a specific grid cell in the gis maps, r(x, y) is the calculated risk score at point (x, 4 the kernel cookbook, https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~duvenaud/cookbook/ babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 20 y), and the summation i is over all the relevant events or factors within a certain radius around point (x, y). 2.5 applying the minimal safe distances the minimal safe distance to the object (here the minimal distance to the linear part of pipeline) is a starting point to identify the way we calculate the offset for risk values. minimal distance is a geometrical distance, a straight line. it varies from disaster factors, so let’s integrate it (dmin) into our equations: 1. earthquakes: variables:  magnitude (m) of the past earthquakes.  distance (d) to the epicenter of past earthquakes.  minimal safe distance to the epicenter of earthquakes (dmin). the risk score for earthquakes can be calculated as follows: e(𝑥, 𝑦) = ∑ 𝑀𝑖 𝑖 ⋅ 𝑒 − (𝑑𝑖−𝐷𝑚𝑖𝑛)2 2σ2 ⋅ 𝐻(𝑑𝑖 − 𝐷𝑚𝑖𝑛) here, h (di dmin) is the heaviside step function. it is equal to 0 for di < dmin (indicating no risk inside the safe distance), and 1 for di >= dmin. 2. landslides: variables:  slope of the terrain (s).  soil moisture content (m).  distance (d) to previous landslides.  minimal safe distance to previous landslides (dmin). the risk score for landslides can be calculated as follows: 𝐿(𝑥, 𝑦) = ∑ 𝑆𝑖 𝑖 ⋅ 𝑀𝑖 ⋅ 𝑒 − (𝑑𝑖−𝐷𝑚𝑖𝑛)2 2σ2 ⋅ 𝐻(𝑑𝑖 − 𝐷𝑚𝑖𝑛) 3. flooding: variables:  precipitation (p) in the area.  distance (d) to water bodies such as rivers or lakes.  minimal safe distance to water bodies (dmin). the risk score for flooding can be calculated as follows: 𝐹(𝑥, 𝑦) = ∑ 𝑃𝑖 𝑖 ⋅ 𝑒 − (𝑑𝑖−𝐷𝑚𝑖𝑛)2 2σ2 ⋅ 𝐻(𝑑𝑖 − 𝐷𝑚𝑖𝑛) these equations will yield risk scores that are higher for locations closer to the dangerous object (beyond dmin), and zero for locations within the safe distance. the more sophisticated approach is considering a gradual decrease of risk within the safe distance, instead of a sudden drop to zero (section 2.5). the results of evaluated risk scores (rs) of a single contributing factor for each type of disaster (e.g., a single earthquake, a single previous landslide, a single water body) using above equations can be found on table 2: table 2. risk scores per factor, 500 meters, 5 steps distance (m) earthquake rs (m=5, σ=500) landslide rs (s=2, m=0.5, σ=500) flood rs (p=100, σ=500) 200 0.891 0.577 19.2 700 0.706 0.353 14.12 1200 0.367 0.184 7.34 1700 0.135 0.067 2.7 2200 0.033 0.017 0.66 here, m is the earthquake magnitude, s is the terrain slope, and m is the soil moisture content for landslides (not to be confused with m for earthquakes). p is the precipitation level. σ is the spread of the gauss kernel, which is the same for all three types of disasters. babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 21 the risk scores were calculated using the updated equations from the “section 2.4”, with dmin equal to 200 meters. note that for the distance of 200 meters, the risk scores are 0 because of the safe distance factor. the risk scores for distances beyond dmin were calculated by substituting the given values into the equations. the calculations assume a specific value for each parameter, and the actual risk scores may vary greatly depending on these values. the total risk function r(x, y) at location (x, y) would be the sum of these three functions: 𝑅(𝑥, 𝑦) = 𝐸(𝑥, 𝑦) + 𝐿(𝑥, 𝑦) + 𝐹(𝑥, 𝑦) the function r(x, y) will give us a single risk score for each location (x, y) that we can visualize on a 2d map. we can calculate this function for each cell in a 5×5 grid, and then color each cell based on its risk score to create a 2d risk map. this is used as a model for single cell area and actual risk maps would probably use a more sophisticated model and a much larger grid. 2.6 splitting and scaling the grid in multi-hazard gis-based risk analyses, subdividing the area of interest from larger cells (δx,  δy) into smaller ones can greatly enhance the precision and interpretability of results. each cell 𝐺𝑖, 𝑗 represents a discrete spatial unit for modeling hazard intensity, vulnerability, and other relevant parameters. adopting a finer cell size (δ𝑥small ,  δ𝑦small) has several advantages: increased spatial resolution. smaller grid cells capture more localized variations in elevation, land cover, infrastructure density, and other critical attributes. in mathematical terms, the number of cells 𝑁 in a given region of area 𝐴 scales approximately as 𝑁 ∝ 𝐴 δ𝑥×δ𝑦 . hence, decreasing cell size yields a larger 𝑁, facilitating higherresolution risk modeling. improved risk assessment. by refining each cell’s spatial dimensions, the risk matrix (or any comparable index) can more accurately depict local hazards. for instance, in a flood risk scenario, slight changes in elevation or land cover within a 2×2 km cell may significantly affect water flow and flood extent. a coarser 10×10 km cell (δ𝑥large,  δ𝑦large) would mask these localized variations, potentially underestimating or overestimating the actual risk. localized analysis. disasters such as landslides or urban flash floods often affect small areas with disproportionately high severity. a finer grid enables targeted analysis of these hotspots, capturing the nuances of topography and land use that can influence the severity of impacts. this capability is crucial for large-scale disaster management strategies where local conditions can markedly change risk levels. detailed mitigation planning. high-resolution grids reveal specific locations most prone to damage, supporting more efficient mitigation measures. authorities can use these refined data layers to plan structural defenses (e.g., levees or retaining walls), allocate evacuation routes, and prioritize response resources, thereby reducing both immediate and long-term risk. enhanced accuracy of predictive models. many computational models in hydrology, seismology, and other hazard-related fields use grid-based inputs. smaller cell sizes often improve the fidelity of simulations, though at the cost of greater computational demand. by employing a grid of fine resolution, models can represent spatial heterogeneity more accurately, thereby yielding more reliable predictions of hazard behavior. however, adopting smaller cells increases the computational burden, as the total number of cells n and the associated data complexity grow. additionally, finer spatial resolution demands correspondingly detailed data inputs (e.g., higher-accuracy digital elevation models, land use surveys). in practical applications, the grid cell size is often a compromise between accuracy and available computational or data resources. babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 22 figure 3. the area of interest with 3x2 cells, each 10x10 km for example, figure 3 may represent a coarser grid where each cell is approximately 10×10 km, capturing large-scale trends but providing only a coarse view of localized risk. conversely, figure 4 might illustrate a finer grid (2×2 km cells), capturing nuanced variations yet increasing both data density and processing time. calibrating grid size becomes essential for balancing computational feasibility with the desired level of spatial detail. in many multi-hazard pipeline risk assessments, a moderate cell size is often chosen initially, followed by targeted refinement in critical zones where hazards overlap or infrastructure vulnerability is high. this approach ensures that risk maps reflect realistic spatial gradients without overwhelming computational or data-storage capacities. figure 4. the area of interest with 17x12 cells, each 2x2 km 2.7 smoothing risk scores by categories when plotting discrete or granular risk values directly onto a map—especially when each value is subdivided into finer sub-scores—visual representations can appear patchy or irregular. to obtain a smoother, more continuous distribution of risk values across a two-dimensional space, kernel density estimation (kde) offers a robust solution. under this approach, probability density functions are approximated for each designated risk category (e.g., green, yellow, red), focusing attention on smaller, localized zones that require further scrutiny. in this study, risk values lying outside the specified range of a given category are effectively excluded (or treated as zero) during computation. for instance, when constructing kde surfaces for greencategory data, only points whose risk scores lie within the “green” interval are included. similarly, babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 23 yellow and red categories are handled in separate density estimations, thus preventing extraneous data points from skewing results. mathematically, for the c-th category, where 𝑛𝑐 data points (𝑥𝑖 (𝑐) , 𝑦𝑖 (𝑐) ) satisfy that category’s risk range, the two-dimensional gaussian kde can be written as: equation 2: 2d risk score using gauss kernel 𝑓𝑐(𝑥, 𝑦) = 1 𝑛𝑐ℎ2 ∑ 1 2𝜋 𝑛𝑐 𝑖=1 𝑒 − 1 2 [( 𝑥 − 𝑥𝑖 (𝑐) ℎ ) 2 + ( 𝑦 − 𝑦𝑖 (𝑐) ℎ ) 2 ] here, categorized risk levels per impact, where (𝑛𝑐) is the number of data points in the (i)th category, (h) is the bandwidth parameter, (e) is the base of the natural logarithm and 𝑥𝑖 (𝑐) and 𝑦𝑖 (𝑐) are the nth pair of 2d data points. this formulation assumes x and y (the spatial coordinates) are independent variables in the gaussian kernel, allowing for straightforward, radially symmetric smoothing. the choice of the bandwidth h is pivotal: smaller h values yield highly localized densities at the expense of potential overfitting, whereas larger h values give smoother distributions that may obscure important local variations. bandwidth selection often leverages cross-validation or rule-of-thumb heuristics (silverman, 2018). by performing this kde procedure separately for each risk category, the method generates multiple “layered” density surfaces that can then be visualized independently or composited. the resulting smoothed risk surfaces help highlight areas of greatest concern within each category and avoid the abrupt color transitions that simple, cell-by-cell risk mapping might produce. consequently, decisionmakers and analysts gain a clearer view of spatial risk concentrations, which supports more informed planning and more targeted mitigation strategies. 2.8 data processing to streamline the risk analysis within a specified area of interest (aio), a systematic methodology was devised, as summarized in table 3. the determination of the aio’s minimum size which was initially set at 1 km² drew on a preliminary review of notable natural disaster events within azerbaijan, ensuring that smaller-scale events would be captured. however, the aio dimension is not fixed and may be recalibrated for different regions or urban areas where hazard intensity or infrastructure density warrants finer resolution. adapting aio dimensions typically involves additional analytical steps. first, detailed hazard datasets (e.g., seismic zonation maps, flood extents, or landslide susceptibility layers) are reviewed to confirm the spatial extent and granularity of the events. second, the potential impact radius of each hazard is considered particularly if one hazard (e.g., flooding) tends to spread over a wider area compared to another (e.g., localized ground subsidence). finally, socioeconomic or administrative factors, such as population centers or critical infrastructure corridors, may also inform the selection of a larger or smaller aio. within each aio, risk levels are determined by referencing previously established matrices for natural hazards (earthquakes, floods, landslides, mud volcanoes, etc.), environment-based hazards (e.g., corrosion), and their associated weights. the resulting risk scores are then aggregated spatially, allowing analysts to pinpoint critical hotspots. by adhering to the structured workflow shown in table 3, one ensures uniformity across different aios, thereby facilitating consistent comparisons even when hazard profiles differ. through this stepwise approach, researchers and decision-makers can maintain a clear audit trail of how risk scores are derived, updated, and mapped onto each aio. this enables rapid re-evaluation if new hazard data emerge such as revised seismic models or recent flood records -and fosters an adaptable framework suitable for a variety of planning or operational needs. table 3. processing steps for a single aio step description 1 determine the aio: the aio should be centered around the pipeline to ensure accurate and proportionate gis visualization of the event area and the pipeline's linear section 2 identify (nd) and adjust aio size: identify nds that could impact the aio. the aio's dimensions may be modified if an nd has a wider impact area. concurrently, determine the risk parameters for each event and their relative weights concerning the pipeline. 3 calculate risk matrices per event: develop risk matrices for each identified event, considering the specific risk parameters and weights. babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 24 4 combine risk scores: combine the individual risk scores from each event into a comprehensive risk score matrix. this methodical approach ensures a thorough and systematic assessment of risks within a given aio, allowing for a nuanced understanding of potential impacts on pipeline infrastructure. 2.9 aggregated risks while the aggregated risk score provides a high-level view of the overall risk, it is still tied to the individual risk scores, and these can be used to understand the specific hazards in more detail. it's beneficial to consider both the aggregated and individual risk scores when planning interventions and communicating about risk. in terms of visualization of risk details in an aggregated form, the individual risk being stored as an entity within the relational database. many gis frameworks providing the automation facilities (here arcmap, qgis and etc.) via scripting languages like python, javascript. so, by adding the referential output per aggregated risk value (here individual colored cell) we can get the detailed information on certain cell of interest in a form of table 4 or other ways, like popup tooltips. table 4: aggregated risk score for each location location earth-quake risk land-slide risk flood risk mudflow risk aggregated risk a 5.6 4.2 7.3 6.4 23.5 b 7.1 2.3 8.5 5.6 23.5 c 3.4 6.7 6.2 4.5 20.8 d 6.9 4.8 8.1 5.3 25.1 e 4.3 3.5 7.8 6.7 22.3 this table clearly shows both the individual and aggregated risk scores. by comparing the aggregated scores, we can see that location d has the highest overall risk, even though it may not have the highest risk for any individual disaster category. this is a good example of how aggregated risk scores can provide a different perspective than individual risk scores. 2.10 kde and risk colors the kde method can be used to generate the smoothed, continuous distribution of the aggregated risk scores. in this context, it would provide a way to understand the distribution of aggregated risk scores across the area of interest, identifying areas of high or low risk density. this could help to inform more granular risk management strategies or interventions, by focusing efforts where the density of high-risk locations is greatest. figure 5. histogram of gaussian aggregated risk score the fig. 5 is a smoothed histogram (i.e., a probability density function) of the aggregated risk scores using a gaussian kernel. the resulting plot shows the distribution of risk scores, with the y-axis representing the estimated density of each risk score. babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 25 this can help us to visualize how the risk scores are distributed and could potentially inform how we define the ranges for the 'green', 'yellow', and 'red' risk rankings. then, the distribution of colours on the histogram be colorized based on colour ranges per risk score. on the example of given aggregated values from the table “table 4”, the risk ranking fall into ‘red’ coloured risk score and be smoothed as a gradient of ‘red’ colour. following the calculation of the probability density function using the gaussian kernel density estimation (kde) technique, we visualize the distribution by creating a color-coded histogram plot (fig. 6). those gradients then be used to map smoothed aggregated risk values on final gis maps. this results in a spatial map where each location is coloured based on its normalized risk density, as estimated by the kde. darker colours indicate regions with higher risk densities. in practical applications, this spatial risk map can be overlaid with other geographical features such as roads, buildings, and natural landmarks to provide a comprehensive view of the risk landscape. this can aid in identifying high-risk areas and prioritizing interventions. figure 6. gradient histogram of gaussian aggregated risk score 2.11 assessment challenges in the process of assessing risks to pipeline infrastructure due to natural disasters, several challenges arise, particularly in accurately characterizing the impact of these events. a key aspect of this challenge is the need for a comprehensive definition of risk, which encompasses a clear understanding of the probability and dimensions of potential impacts. the challenges, listed in order of increasing complexity, include: 1. identification and evaluation of risk parameters: this involves pinpointing specific risk factors and assessing their potential impact. an example is evaluating the effects of earthquakes on pipelines, including subsequent natech events (krausman et al., 2016). 2. determining appropriate risk weights for each parameter: assigning the correct weight to each risk parameter is crucial for accurate risk assessment. 3. choosing the correct granularity for the area of interest: this is essential to avoid oversimplification and ensure detailed risk analysis. 2.12 general steps for risk visualization to visualize the spatial distribution of aggregated risk scores using the colorized histogram, we can employ a gis framework. this allows us to map the risk scores onto a 2d map representation of the study area. a. define the study area: determine the extent and boundaries of the study area where the risk scores will be visualized. b. obtain the risk scores: collect or calculate the aggregated risk scores for each location within the study area. c. create a grid: divide the study area into a regular grid of cells. the size of each cell depends on the desired resolution for the visualization. babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 26 d. interpolate the risk scores: assign each cell in the grid a risk score based on interpolation techniques such as inverse distance weighting or kriging. this step ensures that risk scores are assigned to locations that fall between the actual data points. e. colorize the grid: assign a color to each cell based on its risk score. use a color scale or colormap that represents the risk levels of interest. for example, a colormap with shades of red can be used, where lighter shades represent lower risk and darker shades represent higher risk. f.generate the risk map: plot the colored grid onto the gis map, overlaying it on relevant base layers such as roads, topography, or satellite imagery. this provides spatial context and aids in the interpretation of the risk distribution. g. include a legend: create a legend that clearly explains the color scale and risk levels associated with each color. this helps viewers interpret the risk map accurately. h. optional: add additional features: to enhance the visualization, you can incorporate other geographical features such as administrative boundaries, water bodies, or infrastructure that may be relevant to the risk assessment. by following these steps, the colorized histogram-based visualization of aggregated risk scores can be extended to a gis environment, allowing for a comprehensive and visually appealing representation of spatial risk distribution. results the outcome of this study includes the successful implementation of gis tools to create detailed visualizations of aggregated risk. a significant enhancement in our visualization technique was the incorporation of buffered zones along the pipeline route, which provided a more distinct delineation of risk areas (petersen, 2020). the series of figures, from fig. 7 to fig. 10, illustrate the progression of refined combined risk scores (crs) derived from various natural hazards within a relatively small region. the smallest unit of analysis, the aio, covered approximately 2 km², while the entire region under assessment spanned about 100 km². the risk matrices developed were informed by a combination of data on recorded earthquakes, identified geological faults, and mud volcanoes. the tools utilized for these visualizations were esri arcmap 10.8 for mapping, output files generated (csv files) with python 3.8. discussions in this study, we have navigated through the multifaceted challenges of assessing the risk to pipeline infrastructure from natural disasters. our approach has been to meticulously identify and evaluate risk parameters, determine appropriate risk weights, and select the optimal granularity for the area of interest. implications of findings: our findings underscore the complexity inherent in assessing natural disaster risks to pipelines. the use of a three-dimensional risk assessment plot, as demonstrated in figure 7 for earthquake impacts, provides a nuanced visualization of risk. this method allows for a more detailed understanding of how different risk parameters interact and affect the overall risk profile. figure 7-8. coarse, crs (left), kde based, refined crs (right) babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 27 the color-coded risk categories further enhance the interpretability of these risks, making the data more accessible for decision-makers. the application of this methodology to other natural disasters reveals its versatility. however, it also highlights the increasing complexity when more parameters are involved. each additional parameter requires careful consideration and integration into the overall model, underscoring the need for a robust and flexible risk assessment framework. challenges and limitations: one of the primary challenges encountered in this study is the sensitivity of the kde and color mapping to the choice of parameters, especially the bandwidth h. the selection of h is critical and must be tailored to the specific characteristics of the data and the objectives of the risk assessment. this sensitivity points to a broader challenge in risk assessment: the balance between accuracy and generalizability. furthermore, our approach assumes the independence of risk factors, which may not always hold true in real-world scenarios. future directions: looking ahead, there are several avenues for further research. first, exploring methods to incorporate the interdependencies between different risk factors would likely yield a more comprehensive and realistic risk assessment model. this could involve the development of more sophisticated statistical models or machine learning algorithms capable of handling complex, interrelated datasets. second, the adaptation of our model to a wider range of natural disasters would be beneficial. each type of disaster brings its unique set of challenges and risk factors, and a versatile, adaptable model is essential for broad applicability. lastly, engaging with experts in geology, meteorology, and disaster management could provide valuable insights and data, enriching the model's accuracy and relevance. conclusion this study has illuminated several key challenges in determining risk weights, which are crucial for accurate risk assessment in the context of nd and their impact on infrastructure. these challenges are summarized below: 1. complexity of risk interactions: nd often triggers or coincides with other events, complicating the assessment of combined risk impacts. example: an earthquake increasing the likelihood of a landslide. 2. data scarcity: the lack of sufficient data for rare or unprecedented risks introduces significant uncertainty in estimating probabilities and impacts. 3. risk of oversimplification: simplifying risk assessments can lead to underestimating the complexity and interactions of risks, potentially skewing the actual risk levels. 4. model dependence: the accuracy of risk weights is directly linked to the efficacy of the risk assessment model. inaccurate models can result in misleading risk weights. 5. subjectivity in risk weighting: risk assessments can be influenced by individual or organizational risk tolerance, which varies widely. balanced risk weighting often requires collective input from professionals or subject matter experts. 6. evolving risk landscape: risks change over time due to environmental, technological, regulatory, and other factors, necessitating regular updates to risk weights. 7. perception bias: decision-makers' biases in risk perception can lead to overestimating or underestimating certain risks, influenced by factors like visibility, recency, or familiarity. figure 9-10. kde based, smaller scale crs (left), kde based, fine-tuned crs (right) babakhanov & imrani 2025 5(3) 28 8. quantifying qualitative risks: some risks are qualitative and difficult to quantify, such as reputational risks or the impact of regulatory changes, posing challenges in numerical risk weighting. advantages the utilization of aggregated risk scores in assessing various types of risks offers several advantages, as outlined below: 1. simplicity in visualization and interpretation: aggregated risk scores streamline the process of understanding risks by condensing multiple risk factors into a single, comprehensive score. this simplification aids in easier interpretation and visualization. 2. enhanced comparability: these scores enable straightforward comparisons of overall risk across different locations or regions, which is invaluable for decision-makers in resource allocation and prioritization. 3. holistic risk understanding: aggregated scores offer a broad overview of risk, capturing the cumulative effect of individual risks, especially when they interact or compound. 4. effective communication: communicating a single aggregated risk score is often more straightforward and accessible to stakeholders and the public than explaining multiple individual risk components. furthermore, the aggregated risk score can be tailored to align with the risk tolerance or appetite of the concerned entity. this adaptability allows for a more relevant and targeted risk assessment. using a risk matrix for aggregation effectively consolidates risks from various natural disasters into a single value. this comprehensive view is crucial for effective risk management, disaster preparedness, and resource allocation. however, it's essential to periodically update the risk matrix to reflect changes in the risk landscape due to factors like climate change, urban development, and population growth. it's also important to recognize that the aggregated risk score is an indicative tool meant to guide, but not solely dictate, decision-making processes. factors such as societal values, financial constraints, and political considerations should also be factored into risk management strategies. despite the challenges, our study successfully visualized risk in an aggregated form, using a single map with finely tuned risk scores. regular review and updating of risk weights, expert involvement, and careful consideration of risk interactions are key components of this approach. one notable finding is the model's applicability to other risk assessments using the same matrix representation and weight calculations. the flexibility of the model is further enhanced by the potential integration of the kernel density estimation (kde) method for fine-tuning outputs and the implementation of algorithms like the moore neighborhood (ilachinski et al., 2001) for relative aio region risk score determination. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution all authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis and manuscript. orcid id aslan e. babakhanov https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8790-7945 zaur t. imrani https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0606-3753 reference alizadeh, a.a., guliyev, i.s., kadirov, f.a., eppelbaum l.v. 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(2016). critical infrastructures vulnerability and risk analysis. eur j secur res 1, 97–114. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41125-016-0004-2 https://doi.org/10.1108/k.2003.06732dae.007 georgian geographical journal 50 the role of agritourism in rural economy diversification: do georgian farmers fully leverage its potential? mzia tutberidze1 , aleksandre shakhnazarovi1* 1 department of human geography, tbilisi state university: vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: aleksandre.shakhnazarovi@tsu.ge introduction agritourism is an emerging segment of tourism that creates opportunities to diversify the income of farms by adding new activities, attractions, and experiences, allowing these rural households to break into new markets, attract more visitors, and reduce the risks associated with overreliance on a single activity (wu et al., 2024). as various studies have shown, agritourism has a positive impact on farm income, and the income growth rate of farmers engaged in agritourism is higher than that of nonagritourism farms (grillini et al., 2023), from the perspective of service providers, agritourism is a source of higher and more stable income for not only exclusively agritourism service providers but also in the broader community, on regional level, in general, as the increased number of tourists positively influences the turnover of local businesses, groceries, museums, etc. (martinus et al., 2024). in addition, there is a growing scholarly interest in this phenomenon. as ndhlovu & dube's bibliometric search and content analysis have shown, an increasing number of studies are devoted to the relationship between agrotourism and sustainable development. however, on the one hand, there are signs of the "north-south dichotomies", expressed in a quite uneven distribution of studies conducted in developed and developing countries, and, on the other hand, the studies tend to focus on economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability and to a lesser extent on socio-culturalhistorical aspects of agritourism (ndhlovu & dube, 2024), while one of the key components of agritourism is storytelling. georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(3) 50-61 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract agritourism development is considered to be an effective way to raise the income of rural households and address their vulnerabilities associated with overdependence on agricultural activities by proposing additional activities on the farms. this has incentivized farmers and governments to introduce and invest in developing so-called “non-agricultural” undertakings, including under eu cap. however, as various scholars have identified based on economic analysis, agritourism demonstrates quite varying results as regards farm size, output, experience, location and other factors. its complex and varying nature has only been exacerbated by the non-existence of a single definition and cross-cutting nature causing confusion with rural tourism. in light of the newly adopted law of georgia “on tourism” and proposed tax cuts for agritourism service providers, this research aims to identify agritourism service providers in georgia and the activities they offer to the visitors by conducting qualitative in-depth interviewing and on-site observation enabling to elaborate recommendations to better manage and address the needs of rural households in diversifying their income and making effective use of the existing agritourism potential. in addition, the research contributes to the everlasting challenge to define agritourism as it is essential prerequisite to develop adequate and needs-based policy framework for agritourism, allowing to provide tailored support to rural households in a long run. in this regard, local context should serve as the cornerstone. keywords: agritourism, rural tourism, rural economy, diversification, policy framework for agritourism. citation: tutberidze, m., & shakhnazarovi, a. the role of agritourism in rural economy diversification: do georgian farmers fully leverage its potential? georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(3), 50-61. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.03.07 mailto:aleksandre.shakhnazarovi@tsu.ge https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4194-4684 https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2920-611x tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 51 at the same time, the number of tourism service providers in georgia is increasing, who promote their services and position their destinations as agritourist destinations, accompanied by increased state engagement to regulate and support the industry. in 2023, the law of georgia “on tourism” was adopted, which defines agritourism (law of georgia “on tourism”, 2023), while the tax code of georgia envisages a special tax regime for agritourism service providers (operators). in light of the abovementioned developments, it should be noted that there is a lack of consensus among scholars regarding the definition of agritourism, as the concept fully or partially overlaps with rural tourism, gastronomic tourism, cultural, heritage, and historical tourism. this research aims to identify and further analyse agritourism destinations in georgia and their proposed activities, and to develop recommendations for diversifying farms and increasing income. we defined the units of observation as the agritourism destinations listed in the elkana and agrogate databases, as well as those found through personal contact. moreover, we tried to collect observations not only from agritourism service providers and study the activities they carry out, but also, a secondary objective of our inquiry was to assess the perspectives of tourists and visitors themselves who are receiving such services. to achieve the aim of the study, the following two research questions were defined: what types of agritourism activities are offered to visitors/tourists in georgia? what is needed to utilise georgia's agritourism resources and potential efficiently? methods and materials given the nature of the research topic and the ambiguity in the definition of agritourism, the research was conducted in two stages. in the first stage, we conducted an in-depth analysis of relevant literature to conceptualise agritourism and articulate an appropriate conceptual definition. this was essential to avoid confusion between agritourism and rural tourism, enabling proper selection for the survey. considering that there is no official (officially recognised) list of agritourism facilities in georgia, which could have served as a basis for quantitative research, it was considered appropriate to conduct an in-depth qualitative study. several non-probability sampling techniques were used to select the respondents for the survey, in particular, quota and purposive sampling (neuman, 2014). as part of the selection, in the first stage, we selected relevant cases that, to a certain extent, aligned with the study's purpose. this sample was drawn from the elkana and agrogate databases and from personal contacts. afterwards, quota sampling was conducted based on three criteria: gender, location, and the services/activities offered. this was important, especially for the service/activities category, as the study was mainly conducted in a wine-producing region of georgia, and we tried to avoid surveying 'only wineries', which would have biased the study. finally, based on the literature review and survey results, recommendations were developed to better utilise agritourism potential in georgia's rural areas. study area as mentioned earlier, there is still no unified list of agritourism destinations in georgia, making it difficult to identify relevant service providers. therefore, obtaining generalizable results at the national level is difficult. consequently, given the research budget and other limitations, it was decided to focus the research on two regions of georgia: kakheti and racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti. more precisely, we focused on the zemo (upper) racha part of the racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti region. it is also worth noting that kakheti, according to information obtained from elkana and agrogate databases and personal contacts, is characterised by a high concentration of agritourism destinations compared to other regions of georgia. results conceptualizing agritourism one of the most obvious challenges of the relevant scientific literature on agritourism and tourism is the lack of clarity and improper definition/conceptualisation of key terms and concepts. agritourism is one segment of rural tourism, although, for some scholars, the two terms have the same meaning. for example, brandth and haugen use “farm tourism” and “agritourism “(brandth & haugen, 2010) interchangeably. grillini et al. consider agritourism part of rural tourism, which involves agricultural activities and attracting visitors to the farm (grillini et al., 2023). considering agritourism's complex tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 52 and overlapping nature, some researchers refer to it as "enigmatic" (martinus et al., 2024), reflecting the challenges associated with its conceptualisation. "rural tourism" or "tourism in rural areas (activities that are carried out in rural areas)" can include various activities and types of tourism services, such as agri, ecological, ethnographic, cultural and cognitive, medical, and some types of sports tourism. rural tourism development began in the 1970s in spain, italy, the us, france, and other countries, while in developing countries it commenced later, in the 1990s. in today's world, rural tourism is considered an alternative way to stimulate entrepreneurship and rural economic development, helping revive lagging rural areas and local economies and transferring capital and jobs from cities and developed areas to non-industrial areas (khartishvili et al., 2019). it is also noteworthy that currently, rural tourism accounts for 15% of europe’s tourism industry (kusters & khartishvili, 2019). the prerequisites for the development of rural tourism are the need of city residents for recreation in a new, ecologically clean environment and a new way of life, which is due to the growth of urbanization; low prices for recreation in rural areas; the possibility of consuming ecologically clean products; various opportunities for organizing rest; engagement in agricultural activities on the farm and familiarization with local culture, gastronomy, and customs (aleksandrova, 2010). rural tourism is considered one of the priority destinations of tourism by the world tourism organization, and to encourage it, every year the tourist village of the year is named (in 2023, mestia was the best tourist village in the world). the organization for economic co-operation and development (oecd) (1994) describes rural tourism as "tourism that takes place in rural areas" and specifies that rural tourism is a complex, multifaceted activity; it is not just farm tourism. it includes farm stays, ecotourism activities, hiking, horse riding, adventure, sports and wellness tourism, hunting and fishing, educational travel, art, cultural heritage tourism, and, in some cases, ethnographic tourism (development committee on tourism secretariat, 1994). according to another definition (comox valley, 2010), “rural tourism” is travel from an urban environment to rural areas for the traveler to enjoy and experience natural beauty, the tranquility of small towns, the richness of culture, and escape from the pressures of urban life to have pleasant experiences and improve the quality of life" (khartishvili, 2020). rural tourism in georgia is a relatively new type of tourism, although it has important traditions. due to the close familial ties between the urban and rural populations of georgia in the 20th century, it was common, especially in the summer and sometimes in the winter, to rest in rural areas with relatives or in their own homes or rented apartments, especially for families with children. “tourists” mainly rented homes in those villages that served as resorts or resort areas and had facilities for the treatment and recovery of the population, since there were not enough accommodations in those resorts, and the distribution of trips there was carried out under conditions of a centrally planned economy. since the 1970s, this phenomenon has been supplemented by the transfer of garden plots in the outskirts of large and medium-sized cities a very low prices to employees of enterprise institutions. this form of recreation was closer to today's concept of rural tourism, since the owners of garden plots were themselves involved in agricultural activities on their family farms, rather than the previously discussed forms of stays with relatives or in rented apartments, which involved less involvement in village life and farming. most such settlements, especially near big cities, still serve their original functions. agritourism is a special form of tourism that combines organised and unorganised recreational activities for tourists in rural areas to connect with rural nature, lifestyle, and agricultural traditions. this type of tourism is distinguished by special forms of spending free time, such as taking care of cattle, working in a garden, a vegetable garden, or a vineyard, tasting local cuisine, walking, and arranging picnics in rural areas (aleksandrova, 2010). in the law of georgia “on tourism” that was adopted in 2023, agritourism is defined as a type of tourism, the activities of which are carried out on a farm and encompasses receiving tourists, providing meals, sharing /familiarizing with a rural lifestyle, local traditions, and sights, engaging tourists in agricultural activities, providing them with locally produced agricultural products and performing other activities related to tourism and agriculture (law of georgia “on tourism”, 2023). as evidenced by this definition, it covers a wide range of activities, including other tourist services that are not directly related to agritourism. however, it is geographically limited because, according to the definition, agritourism is carried out only on farms. the mentioned definition is mainly consistent with the definition provided by martinus et al (2024), which is also shared by the authors of this article, according to which, agritourism is “economic tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 53 exchange via a range of on/off-farm and authentic/staged experiences directly or indirectly related to agriculture” (martinus et al., 2024, p. 3). the local context should also be taken into account when conceptualising. among agritourism facilities in georgia, wine cellars are the most sought-after, primarily destinations for gastronomic or wine tourism rather than agritourism; however, many of these destinations offer accommodation and host tourists who often participate in harvest and wine-pressing activities. figure 1. defining agritourism (based on a literature review) the results of the survey as part of the survey, 17 respondents were interviewed in two regions of georgia, namely kakheti and racha-lechkhumi and kvemo svaneti (in particular, zemo (upper) racha–oni municipality) through face-to-face in-depth interviews. the geographical distribution of the respondents in terms of the municipality was as follows: akhmeta municipality (6 respondents), telavi municipality (3 respondents), gurjaani municipality (2 respondents), one respondent each from sighnaghi, kvareli and sagarejo municipalities and three respondents from oni municipality (zemo (upper) racha). the varying levels of agritourism activity explain such a distribution of respondents and are largely proportional to the geographical distribution of the agritourism destinations. the results of the survey in kakheti region kakheti region, both from the historical perspective and at the current stage, is the centre of viticulture and winemaking in georgia. according to the 2023 data, out of the 221.2 thousand tons of grapes processed in georgia, 204 thousand tons of grapes were processed in the kakheti region; at the same time, more than 81% of the income from the sale of grapes comes from kakheti (national wine agency of georgia, 2023). therefore, one of the criteria for selecting respondents for the survey was their activity and location, so the research was not limited to the perspective of winery owners, who are quite a few in kakheti. the question of whether the agritourism destination was located on the "wine route" served as a filter/contingency question. as a result, of the 14 selected respondents, only 6 own an agritourism destination located on the “wine route”, which enabled us to draw conclusions about the challenges facing the agritourism sector in the region and to develop relevant recommendations. in selecting respondents, it should be noted that before the face-to-face interview, we did not ask detailed questions about their activities and limited ourselves to more general questions, for example, "do you consider your activity as agritourism?" "are you currently engaged in agritourism activity?" these questions allowed us to exclude from the initial list the agrotourism destinations that no longer considered their activities to be agrotourism and/or did not express a willingness to discuss their experience. as a result, 14 respondents were interviewed face-to-face, and the general information about them is summarised in table 1. tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 54 gender male 14% female 86% age 18 -34 21% 35 54 36% 55 and over 43% household size 1 0% 2 4 64% 5 and more 36% educational level graduate (at least bachelor's degree or equivalent) 100% table 1. the general information about the respondents of the survey in the kakheti region the majority of respondents (84%) have been engaged in tourism activities for at least 5 years and have been providing "agritourism" services, 8% of respondents had 3-4 years of experience in delivering agritourism services. therefore, the interviewed agritourism service providers had significant practical experience in this area, which enabled us to ask detailed questions about their activities, existing challenges, and opportunities. since the public's perception and understanding of "agritourism" are not uniform or accurate, before asking detailed questions about their activities, it was important for us to understand how our respondents perceive agritourism and whether the “agritourism” services they provide align with their understanding of the phenomenon. for this purpose, during the survey, we asked the respondents to name 3-5 words or phrases that they associate with agritourism, and the results of this exercise are summarised in figure 2. figure 2. word cloud how do the respondents understand "agritourism"? after this, we asked the respondents to evaluate how their activities correspond to the vision of agritourism they described, and we got the following result: 14% of the respondents believe that their activity "corresponds to some extent", 57% believe that their activity "corresponds", and 29% believe that their activity "fully corresponds". it should be noted that one of our respondents (respondent_10) considered that her destination was closer to being ecotourism than agritourism, although she did not substantiate her answer. while describing agritourism and the activities she offers, she used words/phrases such as "family environment" and "tranquillity/quietness", and "close/direct contact with tourists", which, in our opinion, are elements of agritourism. in terms of employment, the survey results show that tourism activities, including agritourism, are a source of income for many people living in rural areas. most of our respondents (73%) are assisted by at least one household member in delivering agritourism activities. in addition, it is significant that each of our respondents employs at least one person (excluding household members) with varying intensity. respondent_11 mentioned that during the summer-autumn season, in addition to household members, she employs seven people in agritourism activities. however, as already mentioned, this usually has seasonal/episodic character and largely depends on the demand and the type of service that tourists tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 55 request (respondent_12 mentioned that she periodically employs a cook when there is a demand from tourists for a master class in cooking local dishes, and respondent_10 mentioned that she periodically employs a neighbour when there is a demand for a horse tour). agritourism activities require specific education/experience on which to base the business's success. as highlighted by martinus et al. (2024), respondents engaged in agritourism service provision had „deep prior experience in agriculture“ (p. 3), which served as a basis for their subsequent activities. therefore, an important part of our questionnaire was devoted to the experience and support (in terms of education or material-technical assistance) that our respondent agritourism service providers received in starting or expanding their businesses. before the start of agritourism activities, agriculture (primary production or processing) was the main activity of only 33% of the respondents. in comparison, the main activity for 67% was nonagricultural. the majority of respondents were employed in the public sector, predominantly in the field of law, and their activities did not intersect with tourism or agriculture. in addition, from an educational perspective, we can consider the education of only 29% of respondents to be in line with their current activities, namely, tourism, viticulture-winemaking, food technology, and agribusiness. the results of our research provide a different picture in this respect compared to the results of martinus et al.’s study, which was conducted in western australia. the words "spontaneously", "by chance", "personal initiative", and "own imagination" predominated in the answers of the majority of respondents to the question "what prompted you to start your agritourism business?". as a result, we can conclude that the majority of agrotourism service providers surveyed in kakheti did not have a prior clear vision of their tourism business development when they started their activities, and according to their answers, the initiation of tourism business and the formation of relevant service types are mainly the result of random processes. all respondents indicate that they get information from different sources to expand their agritourism activities. these sources include: information available on the internet in open access, personal or family members' travel/living abroad and services received there, and services/activities requested by tourists. 86% of the surveyed agritourism service providers in kakheti benefited from "state or international/non-governmental organisation grant/co-financing or other assistance, and most of them benefited from various financial assistance schemes. it should be noted that the majority of respondents found it difficult to accurately recall all the assistance they received to start or expand agritourism activities, as most participated in 3 or more projects, indicating a high level of investment in this segment of economic activity. another block of questions was devoted to the types of provided agritourism services and the profile of visitors/tourists. from a service point of view, it should be noted that the vast majority of respondents offer a wide range of services to visitors/tourists. the clarifying questions revealed that the majority of surveyed agritourism service providers do not offer a standard set of services to guests and use a very flexible approach. this approach involves pre-arranging the types of services in agreement with the visitor/tourist or the connecting travel company, and planning the services accordingly. for example, respondent_08 mentioned that "tourists agree on the service in advance and the tour is planned accordingly", and respondent_12 mentioned that "they always know exactly who is coming, when and what service they want". the services provided by the respondents are diverse; however, it is noteworthy that when we asked whether they involved their guests in farming activities, only half (50%) offered such services, while 79% of the respondents had a farm and engaged in agricultural activities (primary production). therefore, despite having a farm, some of the agritourism service providers preferred not to engage the guests in their farming activities, for example, respondent_12 has several varieties of grapes planted in her vineyard, and despite the request of tourists to participate in the process of picking grapes, she says no, because “tourists may not pay attention to what kind of grapes they are picking", which will damage the quality of her wine. according to the survey results, the most popular services are serving local dishes/drinks (93% of respondents), involving guests in the preparation of local dishes (71%), and getting to know the ethnic characteristics (71%). in addition to activities and master classes related to viticulture and winemaking, such as wine pressing, churchkhela preparation, etc., as well as khinkali master classes (such services are provided by more than half of the respondents), about a third of our respondents offer quite unique food/beverages to guests, such as mulberry leaf tea, khinkali made from nettle leaves, etc. about a third tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 56 of the respondents also use the harvest from their vegetable gardens/plots for cooking, and about 20% involve guests in the picking process. in our opinion, to fully share the agritourism experience, service providers need to accommodate guests, as more extended stays facilitate sharing this experience through storytelling. accordingly, we inquired whether the respondents had accommodation and how much time on average they spent communicating with visitors/tourists. based on the survey results, 64% of agritourism service providers can accommodate guests. in addition, only 36% of respondents spend more than 3 hours a day in direct contact with tourists. in terms of average visit duration, two groups of agritourism service providers were distinguished. the first group mainly focuses on short visits, and the average visit duration with these respondents is less than 6 hours. the second group offers a broader range of services to customers, including accommodation. this group of respondents (50% of respondents) named 1-4 days as the average duration of the visit. concerning storytelling, only 29% of the respondents indicated that their service provision involves telling stories about local traditions and ethnic characteristics. we can consider the mentioned aspect as the main challenge of the interviewed agritourism service providers, as, in our opinion, a close connection should exist between agritourism services and storytelling. regarding the profile of visitors/tourists, first, it should be noted that the absolute majority (over 90%) of the surveyed agritourism service providers received more than half of their visitors/guests from abroad (i.e., non-residents). only one destination (respondent_07) was predominantly visited by citizens of georgia (up to 60% of visitors), but the pandemic significantly changed their visitor profile, with 80% of guests being foreign residents by 2020. this dynamic coincides with the tendency mentioned by another respondent (respondent_05) that "the number of local tourists significantly increased after the pandemic (covid-19)". despite this trend, the general conclusion is that the surveyed agritourism destinations in the kakheti region are less popular with the population of georgia, as respondent_03 noted, "i do not even remember the last time i received a guest from georgia. we also asked our respondents to recall the "countries from which they received the most guests" and "the farthest settlement or country from which they received a guest". the results were quite impressive as the respondents were able to recall visitors from japan and the usa (respondent_08), canada (respondent_07), south korea (respondent_05 and respondent_06), new zealand, australia, the usa, canada and japan (respondent_11). in the case of respondent_04, the host had collected banknotes (national currency) of "all the countries of the world", most of which had been left by the visitors. as for the most visitors, according to our respondents, tourists mostly visited from european countries, mainly germany, poland and france. it should be noted that, although russian citizens predominate among international tourists in georgia, only one of our respondents (respondent_05) listed russian tourists among their main guests. we did not ask the respondents to explain our observation, only during an in-depth interview with one respondent (respondent_12), she touched on this issue and explained, "i am also surprised that i do not have russian tourists... maybe it is the result of high prices. however, in the case of another respondent (respondent_06), who allowed visitors to leave their initials and the name of their hometown/country on the walls, we noticed many inscriptions referring to several russian cities, including during the last year, although the respondent did not name tourists from russia as the main country of origin. another issue we touched upon during the in-depth interviews was the means of promoting agritourism destinations/services and the significance of the location of the respondent's "agritourism destination". in terms of advertising their services, the majority of respondents use a wide range of communication channels and involve almost all household members who can do so. it should also be noted that those members of the respondent's household who are fluent in english or other foreign languages (respondents_04, _08, and _12) are particularly actively involved in communication with potential customers. in the case of respondent_07, she used "sign language" to communicate with a french tourist who visited her tourist attraction without prior reservation. while assessing the importance of location for the success of agritourism activities, more than 80% of respondents consider the location of their destination to be "very important or important". challenges and opportunities of agritourism in kakheti region the perspective of our respondents as a result of the survey, a wide range of impending circumstances was revealed, ranging from the personal/household level to current processes in the region and the world, which, according to the tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 57 respondents, negatively impact their activities. when answering this question, the respondents also remembered funny stories. one female respondent mentioned that her family member told her the following when she started agritourism activities: "you harm my image/reputation by taking money for food" (respondent_04). apart from these relatively “funny” moments, about 20% of female respondents found "stereotypes" to be a challenge, though this was less about the female role than about ethnic aspects. "massive influx of non-resident guides" (respondent_03), "non-existing tax benefits" (respondent_05), and "political situation in the region and the world" (respondent_11) were named as other hindering factors. most of the respondents named "access to finance" as an obstacle; however, at the same time, they mentioned the help they received through various state, international, and other aid instruments. as mentioned in the survey, almost 90% of respondents have benefited from various financial assistance mechanisms, and the majority have participated in more than one support scheme. regarding the contributing factors, the most frequent answers were: "location", "support from the family", "knowledge of languages", "tradition of hospitality", and "authenticity". speaking about prospects, the majority of respondents mentioned the need for greater financial support for business expansion and for government regulation of the agritourism sector. the results of the survey in zemo (upper)racha region zemo (upper) racha region was chosen as the study area to assess the trends, challenges, and opportunities of agritourism development in georgia from a “non-traditional” agritourism region perspective. zemo (upper) racha is currently characterised by quite severe socio-economic conditions, with growing depopulation accompanied by complex natural processes that hinder tourism development in the region. as mentioned, kakheti is the centre of winemaking and viticulture in georgia; at the same time, it has a higher concentration of farms than zemo (upper) racha, and its proximity to the capital should be considered a contributing factor to the development of the agritourism industry in kakheti. despite the different geographical and socio-economic characteristics, the research conducted in zemo (upper) racha region revealed largely similar, and in some respects identical, results. out of the 3 agritourism service providers whom we interviewed, 2 respondents have more than 5 years of experience, and one has been delivering agritourism services for about a year. therefore, they have significant practical experience in agritourism. however, similar to the results in kakheti, before starting the agritourism business, 2/3 of respondents in the zemo (upper) racha region had no prior experience in agriculture or agritourism (or related fields); in particular, they were employed in a public institution (i.e., public servants). from the service types perspective, it is worth noting that, as in kakheti, the interviewed agritourism operators in zemo (upper) racha offer tourists a wide range of services. however, they do not offer guests a standard set of activities that adequately reflect the true identity of their agrotourism destination. as respondent_16 pointed out, a tourist's request for specific services is crucial. as a result, in our opinion, the identity of the agritourism destination is to a certain extent compromised. the questions asked about the profile of visitors/tourists also showed us similar results, in particular, international tourists accounted for the most significant part of the income of 2 out of 3 respondents, while in the case of one respondent (respondent_16), the distribution was essentially equal. in the case of zemo (upper) racha, the agritourism destinations mainly were visited by guests from european countries (similar to the results from kakheti), and the respondents used various means of communication to contact international tourists. in the case of respondent_17, whose agritourism destination was mainly visited by polish tourists, a member of the household of polish origin played a crucial role in communication with international visitors. the level of investment and access to financial resources should be considered as the main differentiating circumstances revealed as a result of the survey conducted in the two target areas. in particular, only one of the three interviewed respondents (respondent_15) had used a grant/cofinancing from the state or an international/local organization or other financial instruments to start or expand his or her agritourism business. in contrast, 86% of the surveyed agritourism service providers in kakheti have benefited from such assistance and most of them have participated in at least 3 different support schemes. discussions tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 58 questions about the motivation for starting agritourism activities revealed that respondents' decision was not driven by the decline in agricultural activities, consistent with a study by wu et al. in taiwan. this study found that farm diversification was driven more by the desire to generate additional income and use existing resources more efficiently than by reducing "traditional" farming activities (wu et al., 2024). the survey conducted in both kakheti and zemo (upper) racha clearly showed that the surveyed agritourism destinations depend to a significant extent on income from international tourism, thereby increasing the vulnerability of these service providers to global political, economic, or social processes, especially crises. the economic analysis conducted by bacsi and szálteleki (2022) shows that agritourism is characterized by similar trends in farm output and income during the financial crisis (such as a 2008 financial crisis), however, in the case of the covid-19 crisis in 2020, farm incomes from agricultural production have been largely stable, while agritourism incomes have declined by 35% in 2019-2020 (bacsi & szálteleki, 2022), indicating the acute sensitivity of agritourism to mobility-related constraints. concerning the income of surveyed agritourism destinations in kakheti and zemo (upper) racha regions, according to the results of the survey, a visitor spends on average less than 1000 gel per visit in the surveyed agritourism destinations; a more detailed distribution is presented in figure 3. figure 3. on average, how much a visitor/tourist spends per visit (service providers' perspective) the success of agritourism as a business activity is significantly influenced by "farm identity" (brandth & haugen, 2010), which encompasses not only the farm's location and proximity to natural and cultural attractions but also the farmers themselves. as one of the respondents of brandth and haugen's (2010) research pointed out, they become part of the tourism product willingly or unwillingly (brandth & haugen, 2010). however, location remains one of the most important factors shaping a visitor's experience (martinus et al., 2024). this opinion is confirmed by our research results, as mentioned, more than 80% of respondents in kakheti consider the location of their destination "very important or important". the popularity of the agritourism product and the willingness to repeat the visit are also significantly influenced by "engagement", which is manifested in the host's ability to create a pleasant and friendly environment for the visitor, to ensure their involvement in farming activities and to share the rural lifestyle and experience (martinus et al., 2024). the role of the host involves storytelling, telling a unique story related to a village or a farm to the visitors, preparing dishes based on local recipes or engaging guests in their preparation, as well as carrying out farming activities in a traditional way, not through modern technologies (brandth & haugen, 2010). storytelling is considered one of the key elements in the context of the visitor experience, enhancing the sense of authenticity and belonging/connection to the place, which in turn ensures repeat visits to the farm; however, this requires „a holistic and coordinated approach“ (martinus et al., 2024). despite the recognised role and importance of storytelling in agritourism, our survey revealed that less than a third of our respondents employ storytelling techniques as part of their agritourism experience. both internal and external factors influence farm diversification. the results of the study by wu et al. (2024) highlighted the importance of external factors in this process, in particular, the attractiveness 30% 60% 10% mean expenditure of one visitor/tourist during one stay less than gel 199 gel 200 499 gel 500 999 tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 59 of agritourism service (demand for this type of service in the tourist market), improvement of transport infrastructure and technological progress in the field of communication were named as determining factors (wu et al., 2024, p. 8), which brings these destinations closer to consumers and increases the motivation to invest. the survey conducted as part of our study showed that the majority of agritourism service providers actively use various communication channels, which may increase tourists' interest, including international tourists'. it is also important to note that most respondents have used various available financial assistance schemes to improve/expand their agritourism businesses. when discussing the importance and promotion of agritourism, its economic and social aspects should be adequately considered. a study by grillini et al. (2023) in the austrian-italian border region, examining the intersection of agritourism (atfs) and non-agritourism (non-atfs) farms with sustainability, revealed differences in sustainability outcomes. in particular, the results differed across the three indicators of sustainability (economic, social, and environmental). from an economic perspective, the income of agritourism farms has been increasing, but their agricultural output has been decreasing, which may ultimately negatively impact food security. from a social perspective, relationships between people within the farm are strengthened. however, communication among community residents is reduced, and, from an environmental perspective, agritourism farms rely more on agri-environmental-climatic practices, thereby making their production more sustainable in this regard (grillini et al., 2023). based on bacsi and száteleki's (2022) study, the relationship between agritourism income and farm output/performance was not straightforward. however, medium-sized farms in the eu were more involved in agritourism service provision and therefore received more income from these activities (bacsi & szálteleki, 2022). as for the state's support of agrotourism, it is important to analyse both its positive and negative aspects. grillini et al (2023) consider that when planning to support agritourism, support should be limited to farms with limited potential for agricultural development, for example, smallholders, areas with an unfavorable climate, or other hindering factors that have little effect on agricultural production (grillini et al., 2023). martinus et. al. (2024) consider the lack of visitors' and users' perceptions/impressions as a limitation of their research and a promising direction for further research (martinus et al., 2024) because it could reveal different tendencies and factors, rather than studying the issue from the perspective of tourism service providers. the present study sought to fill this gap in the literature, although in most of the agritourism destinations we visited, tourists were absent. in those agritourism destinations where services were provided to tourists, the service was either not agritourism in nature or, in other cases, our intervention could have hindered agritourism service delivery to consumers. conclusion agritourism, first of all, means diversifying the agricultural activities of farms in rural areas by adding non-agricultural activities. this is aimed at reducing the overdependence of farms and farmers on primary agricultural production and the risks associated with it. agritourism creates additional income and employment opportunities in rural areas and reduces the risks associated with seasonality, which was confirmed by our research. as mentioned, agritourism intersects with various types of tourism, including gastronomic, cultural heritage, and adventure tourism. in our opinion, the starting point for agritourism services should be raising tourists' awareness of farming practices through demonstrations and/or storytelling, and increasing the country's population's interest in the countryside in general. on the other hand, the experience of the agritourism service provider is important. our survey showed that the majority of people involved in agritourism lack a clear vision for developing their agritourism business. more than half of the respondents also offer accommodation to guests, facilitating direct contact with tourists, although only a third employ storytelling strategies, a key element of agritourism. according to our survey results, the main challenge for agritourism destinations is the risk of authenticity and excessive dependence on international tourism. research conducted in kakheti and zemo racha highlighted the sector's excessive reliance on income from international visitors, leaving agritourism operators vulnerable to international political developments. in addition, the mix of different tourist services, in our opinion, reduces the likelihood of an authentic agritourism experience. at the same time, as various studies indicate, the farm's identity is essential for repeat visits to agritourism destinations. in our opinion, this challenge can be addressed by offering a niche agritourism product/service. tutberidze & shakhnazarovi 2025 5(3) 60 the fact that the agritourism destinations included in this study are not attractive to local tourists suggests a lack of authenticity in the surveyed destinations. in other words, the agritourism destinations participating in the research and their products/services are authentic with respect to georgia, that is, they express the national identity, and are a visiting card of georgia, but are not authentic on the farm/destination level. to increase georgian tourists' involvement, it is necessary to understand better the state of play and study agritourists' perceptions and impressions. the respondents of the survey consider that the factors contributing to the development of their agritourism destination include a good location, family support, language proficiency, the tradition of georgian hospitality, and the authenticity of the tourist attraction. certain stereotypes, the absence of economic benefits, and the global and regional political situations were identified as obstacles. by generalising these factors, we think that, in parallel with the development of agriculture in georgia and through financial and other incentives provided by the state, further successful development of agritourism is possible. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution a.s. conceived of the presented idea. both authors contributed to the design and implementation of the research and the writing of the manuscript. both authors provided critical feedback and helped shape the research, analysis, and manuscript. acknowledgements we would like to thank all the respondents for participating in the survey and in-depth interviews. we are grateful to tbilisi state university, institute of geography, for funding the field trip to the kakheti region, which was critical for gaining a proper understanding of the “situation on the ground”. orcid id mzia tutberidze https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4194-4684 aleksandre shakhnazarovi https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2920-611x reference agrogate. list of agritourism destinations. https://agrogate.world/ aleksandrova, a. 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(2024). authenticity, interaction, learning and location as curators of experiential agritourism. journal of rural studies. 108.103294.10.1016/j.jrurstud.2024.103294. national wine agency of georgia. annual report 2023. https://wine.gov.ge/ge/reports ndhlovu, emmanuel & dube, kaitano. (2024). agritourism and sustainability: a global bibliometric analysis of the state of research and dominant issues. 100746. 10.1016/j.jort.2024.100746. neuman, w. (2014). social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches (seventh edition). pearson education limited tax code of georgia (consolidated version). 2024. https://matsne.gov.ge/ka/document/view/1043717?publication=224 wu, t., chen, c., hsu, a. y., & wall, g. (2024). farm diversification through agritourism: innovation synergies. international food and agribusiness management review, 27(3), 509-525. https://doi.org/10.22434/ifamr2022.0167 georgian geographical journal examining the impact of natural disasters on tourism in highland destinations: insights from shovi tatiana sitchinava1,* , mariam sharia2 1 assistant researcher at the institute of demography and sociology, ilia state university, tbilisi, georgia 2 tourism and hospitality management/ faculty of economics and business, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: tatiana.sichinava@iliauni.edu.ge introduction tourism is widely recognised as one of the most dynamic sectors of the global economy. yet it remains highly susceptible to various external factors, including pandemics, economic fluctuations, political instability, and natural disasters. among these, natural disasters present a particularly formidable challenge, especially for highland destinations, where unique geographic and climatic conditions often amplify the risks. the increasing frequency and unpredictability of such hazards highlight the urgent need for a nuanced understanding of their impacts on tourism, particularly in regions that are both environmentally fragile and economically dependent on the sector (becken, 2017). while much of the existing research on tourism and disaster management focuses on coastal or urban destinations, highland regions face distinctive challenges due to their topography, isolation, and dependence on tourism as a primary economic driver (prideaux et al., 2003). the shovi landslide of august 2023 in georgia’s racha region serves as a timely case study, illustrating the vulnerabilities of highland tourism to natural disasters. it underscores the necessity of developing comprehensive disaster management strategies that not only address immediate recovery but also build long-term resilience. georgia, a country renowned for its dramatic mountainous landscapes, is increasingly becoming a popular destination for domestic and international tourists. approximately 65% to 70% of the country is covered by mountains, offering exceptional opportunities for tourism—ranging from hiking and abstract the tourism industry is profoundly influenced by various external factors, including pandemics, natural disasters, geopolitical tensions, economic crises, and climate change. each of these factors presents unique challenges, necessitating tailored risk management strategies. this study investigates the impact of natural hazards on highland destinations, using the shovi landslide that occurred in august 2023 in georgia as a case study. given the vulnerability of highland regions to natural disasters, a comprehensive analysis is essential. this research employs a triangulation methodology that combines a systematic literature review, statistical data analysis, and an online questionnaire to assess tourists' perceptions of safety and their behavioural responses following the landslide. findings indicate that natural disasters have multidimensional impacts—financial, infrastructural, human, and environmental—significantly affecting the tourism industry. the study highlights the necessity of effective management and mitigation strategies to bolster tourism resilience in the region. by situating the shovi landslide within the broader context of highland tourism, this research contributes to the academic discourse on disaster impacts and recovery. it identifies critical gaps in the literature and offers empirical evidence for developing crisis management frameworks tailored to highland destinations. this study aims to advance understanding of the interplay between natural disasters and tourism dynamics, providing a foundation for future scholarly inquiry in this field. keywords: tourism, natural disasters, crisis management, highland destinations, shovi landslide, georgia, racha. citation: sitchinava, t.; sharia, m. examining the impact of natural disasters on tourism in highland destinations: insights from shovi. georgian geographical journal 2024, 5(1), 74-87. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.01.08 georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(1) 74-87 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj mailto:tatiana.sichinava@iliauni.edu.ge https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5021-6246 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5716-6149 sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) mountaineering to skiing and cultural exploration (kalandadze, 2020). destinations such as kazbegi, mestia, and gudauri have seen significant growth in recent years, positioning georgia as an emerging player in the global mountain tourism market. however, these regions are also highly vulnerable to a range of natural disasters, including avalanches, snowstorms, earthquakes, and landslides. the steep slopes, heavy rainfall, and seismic activity of georgia’s highlands create an environment where landslides, in particular, pose a persistent threat to both infrastructure and human lives (chelidze, 2019). the shovi landslide is a stark reminder of how such events can disrupt local economies, damage infrastructure, and, most critically, undermine the region’s tourism industry. highland tourism destinations, such as shovi, are particularly vulnerable to natural hazards due to their remote location and dependence on tourism for economic stability (mccool et al., 2015). the inherent risks of these regions—ranging from landslides to earthquakes—can have devastating consequences for the tourism infrastructure and the communities that rely on tourism for their livelihoods. a single disaster event can precipitate a rapid decline in tourist arrivals, financial instability for local businesses, and significant damage to essential infrastructure. the cyclical relationship between natural hazards and tourism dynamics underscores the need for destination managers to incorporate disaster risk reduction (drr) strategies into their planning processes (faulkner, 2001). additionally, the economic and social consequences of such disasters extend far beyond physical damage. psychological factors, including tourists' perceptions of safety, play a crucial role in shaping recovery efforts. studies have shown that even after the infrastructure is rebuilt, tourists may continue to avoid destinations perceived as unsafe, leading to longer-term declines in visitation (ritchie, 2008). these behavioural shifts highlight the complexity of postdisaster recovery and the importance of not only rebuilding physical infrastructure but also restoring confidence in the destination. this research aims to explore the broader implications of natural disasters for highland tourism, with a focus on the shovi landslide as a case study. by adopting a triangulation methodology that includes a systematic literature review, statistical data analysis, and an online survey of tourists’ perceptions, this study seeks to provide a comprehensive analysis of the immediate and long-term effects of the disaster on tourism. this approach allows for an in-depth exploration of the economic, social, and psychological dimensions of disaster impacts on tourism, offering valuable insights into how destinations can better manage risks and recover from such events. the findings will contribute to a deeper understanding of the vulnerabilities of highland tourism and highlight the need for effective risk management strategies that can enhance resilience in these fragile regions. the literature on natural disasters and tourism has grown extensively over the years, with much research focusing on disaster management and recovery frameworks (becken & hughey, 2013; hall & page, 2016). however, most of this work has focused on coastal and urban destinations, which present different challenges compared to highland regions (prideaux et al., 2003). while disaster risk management (drm) frameworks have been developed for more accessible areas, highland destinations require tailored approaches that address their unique geographic and logistical challenges. recent studies have emphasized the role of resilience-building in tourism destinations, advocating for the development of disaster risk reduction strategies that integrate local communities and stakeholders into the recovery process (pennington-gray, 2018; ritchie & jiang, 2019). yet, there remains a gap in the literature regarding the application of such frameworks to highland regions, where the risks are often compounded by their isolation and dependence on tourism. this study seeks to fill this gap by providing a focused analysis of disaster impacts on highland tourism, using the shovi landslide as a case study, and offering practical recommendations for destination managers and policymakers. in the context of global environmental change and the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, this research is especially timely. as climate change exacerbates the occurrence and severity of natural disasters (pforr, 2009), understanding the interplay between natural hazards and tourism dynamics becomes even more crucial. this study aims to offer empirical evidence from a highland region, contributing to the broader academic discourse on disaster risk management and tourism. furthermore, by developing a framework for tourism resilience and recovery, this research will provide actionable insights for policymakers and destination managers, helping them create more effective disaster preparedness and recovery strategies. by improving our understanding of the vulnerabilities faced by highland tourism destinations like shovi, this study not only fills a critical gap in the literature but also provides a foundation for future research on the sustainability of tourism in an increasingly uncertain world. sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) methodological approach the research design incorporates three interrelated components: a systematic literature review, structured interviews with experts (n=10), and an online survey of tourists (n=412). the systematic literature review provides the theoretical foundation for the study, situating it within existing scholarly debates on the interplay between natural disasters and highland tourism. it examines relevant theoretical and empirical studies, focusing on disaster risk reduction, crisis management, and resilience in tourism contexts, while also drawing on global tourism crisis management frameworks applicable to georgia's highland destinations. the primary objective of the online survey with georgian tourists was to gather insights into their perceptions of destination safety and their behavioural patterns. to ensure a comprehensive perspective, the survey employed both open and closed-ended questions. the questionnaire was administered via google forms. to prevent multiple submissions from a single individual and ensure the uniqueness of each response, the survey was linked to gmail accounts and limited to one response per account. a total of 412 respondents completed the survey. to gather expert opinions on functional mitigation strategies for georgia, we conducted structured interviews. these interviews included both open-ended questions and a 5-point likert scale. experts were selected through purposive sampling from both the tourism and natural science sectors. the questionnaire was sent to 35 experts, and 10 responded, completing and returning the survey. data analysis was conducted using excel, maxqda, and spss. by integrating these methods, the study addresses the research problem from multiple angles, ensuring a comprehensive assessment of the landslide’s implications for the tourism sector in shovi. this robust methodological approach aims to produce findings that are both academically rigorous and practically applicable, offering valuable insights for disaster management and sustainable tourism development in highland destinations. disaster risk reduction and crisis management in tourism the field of disaster risk reduction (drr) in tourism has evolved significantly over the past two decades, largely driven by the increasing frequency and intensity of natural disasters, a trend exacerbated by climate change. drr frameworks emphasise proactive risk assessments, infrastructure resilience, and effective emergency communication to mitigate the impacts of disasters on tourism (becken & hughey, 2013). these strategies must be integrated into long-term planning by tourism destinations to ensure both visitor safety and the continuity of tourism services post-disaster. the research agenda on disaster management (dm) in tourism began to take shape in the 1990s, addressing topics such as the role of tourism in disaster planning (murphy & bayley, 1989), the intersection of disaster recovery and media response (milo & yoder, 1991), and the development of tourism-specific disaster planning strategies (drabek, 1995), alongside broader crisis management processes (young & montgomery, 1997). these pioneering studies provided the foundation for subsequent frameworks and practices in tourism disaster management. faulkner’s (2001) comprehensive disaster management framework underscores the key phases of preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation. although initially developed for coastal destinations, this framework has been adapted for various disaster contexts, including those specific to highland regions. faulkner stresses the importance of pre-disaster strategies that focus on reducing vulnerabilities, such as strengthening infrastructure and raising awareness within local communities. furthermore, ritchie (2004) highlights the significance of the recovery phase, which goes beyond physical rebuilding to also include the restoration of tourists' confidence through transparent communication and targeted marketing that focuses on the safety measures taken. in highland tourism, where infrastructure is often underdeveloped and access is more restricted compared to urban or coastal areas, drr and crisis management frameworks must be tailored to local conditions (hall & page, 2016). common threats such as landslides, avalanches, and seismic activity pose significant risks to both physical infrastructure and tourists' perceptions of safety. given these unique challenges, adapting drr and crisis management strategies to the specific vulnerabilities of highland regions is critical. highland regions are increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters, particularly landslides, floods, and earthquakes, as a result of the intensifying effects of climate change. the unique geographical features of these areas—steep slopes, erosion-prone soils, and isolated communities—amplify the impacts of these hazards (prideaux et al., 2003). studies from various highland tourism destinations, including sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) nepal, the andes, and the alps, have documented how natural disasters disrupt local economies, damage critical infrastructure, and alter tourist behaviour (mccool et al., 2015; chelidze, 2019). natural disasters have significant and far-reaching implications for tourism. firstly, they damage tourism infrastructure, making destinations temporarily inaccessible (huang & min, 2002). secondly, disasters disrupt transportation networks and influence source markets by altering consumer perceptions of safety (prideaux, laws, & faulkner, 2003). the media play a crucial role in amplifying these impacts, creating a "ripple effect" that spreads the negative consequences of disasters both geographically and across sectors (handmer & dovers, 2007). this ripple effect can delay recovery by fostering negative perceptions, which hinder the inflow of tourists and foreign exchange, thus prolonging the recovery process (ritchie, 2004). as a result, the "response" and "recovery" stages of disaster management have been focal points in tourism research (mair et al., 2016). landslides, in particular, are a recurrent risk in mountainous regions and present both immediate and long-term challenges to tourism. beyond the physical damage they cause, landslides significantly affect tourists' perceptions of safety and the destination’s overall appeal. mccool et al. (2015) argue that tourists’ risk perceptions are shaped not only by the immediate aftermath of a disaster but also by the effectiveness of the destination's response. in highland areas, where recovery is often slow due to difficult terrain and damaged infrastructure, restoring tourist confidence becomes particularly critical. landslides, defined as the downslope movement of soil or rock due to instability, are common natural hazards in mountainous regions. such events often result from a combination of steep slopes, semi-permeable glide layers beneath the soil, and significant water content, which increases the weight of the soil mass (sunarta et al 2018). landslides are most likely to occur in areas with slopes between 15° and 45° and high rainfall intensity. beyond these natural factors, human activities such as deforestation, agricultural expansion, urbanization, mining, and road construction can exacerbate the risks of landslides, further disrupting the landscape and increasing vulnerability (fao, 2013). resilience in tourism: strategies for disaster management and sustainable recovery in the tourism industry, the environment—both natural and human-made—is foundational to the success of many destinations. natural landscapes, such as mountains, forests, and coastlines, are central to tourism products, making their preservation crucial for sustaining tourism. the initial relationship between tourism and the environment can be characterised as one of "coexistence", where both systems support and benefit from each other. however, this delicate balance is often disrupted by natural disasters which pose significant threats to both tourism infrastructure and the local economy. the concept of resilience, which originated in the fields of ecology and engineering (berbésblázquez & scott, 2017), refers to the ability of a system to return to its normal state following a disturbance. in the context of tourism, resilience can be understood as the capacity of destinations to recover from the impact of natural disasters and environmental changes. research has shown that the resilience of tourism destinations depends on the resilience of all subsystems within the destination, including infrastructure, local communities, and economic structures (hall et al., 2018). community-based approaches are integral to effective disaster recovery, particularly in areas where tourism is a key economic driver. empowering local communities not only accelerates recovery but also ensures that tourism can support livelihoods during the rebuilding phase (faulkner, 2001; prideaux et al., 2003). engaging local communities in the recovery process ensures that their needs are addressed, and that tourism development is aligned with local priorities, enhancing the long-term sustainability of the sector. government agencies and tourism boards play pivotal roles in disaster recovery. effective coordination between local businesses, government entities, and international organizations is often crucial for a successful recovery process. studies have demonstrated that post-disaster marketing emphasizing resilience and ongoing development efforts can effectively attract tourists back to affected regions (ritchie, 2008). by focusing on restoring critical infrastructure and enhancing the destination's resilience, government entities, and tourism boards can mitigate the long-term negative impacts of disasters on the tourism industry. the world bank’s guide on maintaining tourism resilience during disasters outlines five key aspects of disaster management in the tourism industry: (1) risk understanding, which involves identifying and assessing potential disaster risks that threaten tourism destinations; (2) planning and prioritization, which focuses on strategically planning and prioritizing sustainable tourism development to minimize negative impacts; (3) mitigation and preparedness, which includes both structural (infrastructure) and non-structural (communication systems, disaster risk financing) sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) measures to prepare for disasters; (4) response and recovery, which aims to minimize disruptions and maintain competitiveness post-disaster; and (5) long-term resilience, which involves planning for the sustainability of tourism through climate change mitigation and other long-term strategies (world bank, 2020). crisis management in the tourism sector generally follows two primary approaches: reactive and proactive. the reactive approach to crisis management focuses on rehabilitating the consequences of a disaster that has already occurred, whereas the proactive approach envisages the implementation of activities that will contribute to mitigating the consequences of the disaster and facilitating rehabilitation (nair & dileep, 2020). according to kyoo-man ha, disaster management in the tourism industry is analyzed from four different perspectives: tourists, the tourism industry, regional governments, and international organizations. the author believes that each party should reorganize its management strategies from a reactive response to a proactive approach (ha, 2023). other authors share this opinion, believing that proactively reducing disaster risks and minimizing negative effects is more effective than a passive response to disasters (becken & hughey, 2013; todman-lewis, 2017; stoffelen & loannides, 2022). integrating resilience-building strategies into tourism development and disaster management planning is essential for destinations that are increasingly vulnerable to environmental threats. by adopting a proactive approach that includes improving infrastructure, empowering local communities, and developing comprehensive disaster recovery plans, destinations can better withstand the shocks of natural disasters. ensuring the long-term sustainability of the tourism industry requires a coordinated effort that addresses both immediate and long-term challenges, from disaster preparedness to climate change adaptation. shovi landslide on august 3, 2023, a devastating landslide struck the shovi mountain resort in oni municipality, located in the racha region of georgia. according to a report from the national environmental agency, the glacial landslide in the buba river valley destroyed large portions of the shovi resort. the landslide, which involved approximately 4 million cubic meters of solid material—comprising glacier fragments, tree debris, and vegetation—resulted in the accumulation of around 1 million cubic meters within the resort area itself. an additional 0.8-1.0 million cubic meters of debris were spread across the floodplains of the chanchakha and rion rivers, while up to 0.5 million cubic meters were recorded in the buba river transit zone. moreover, around 1.5 million cubic meters of dynamic material have accumulated at the bottom of the landslide zone, increasing the ongoing risk (national environmental agency, 2024). an evaluation by the institute of earth sciences and the national seismic monitoring center at ilia state university revealed that if an early warning system had been in place, the landslide could have been detected up to two hours in advance, providing sufficient time to warn the population and facilitate evacuations (civil georgia, 2024). this tragic event, which claimed the lives of 33 people, has left a lasting impact on shovi, once a thriving vacation destination nestled in the greater caucasus mountains at an elevation of 1,600 meters above sea level. the resort, with a history spanning nearly a century, has now been overshadowed by the tragedy, and recovery efforts remain conspicuously absent (rfe/rl, 2023 august 3). since the disaster, there has been little to no effort to revitalize the resort or restore tourism in the area. the region remains widely regarded as unsafe, with no significant initiatives to repair its infrastructure, clean up the site, or rebuild facilities. tourism, which was never on a mass scale, has almost completely ceased. online information still primarily reflects the tragic event, reinforcing the perception of shovi as a disaster site rather than a potential destination. as a result, it is unlikely that shovi will regain its former appeal in the near future. the absence of government or organizational initiatives to address safety concerns and invest in recovery efforts has left the region without the necessary momentum to re-establish itself as a viable tourism destination. this lack of proactive crisis management, combined with the failure to invest in rehabilitation and marketing, has effectively stalled the resort's recovery. without efforts to rebuild infrastructure, improve safety, and engage in targeted promotion, shovi’s future as a tourism hub remains uncertain. the ongoing focus on the disaster online has made it difficult to reframe the region’s image, leaving little hope for a swift or successful recovery. results sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) online survey results an online survey was conducted to investigate the attitudes and behaviours of georgian tourists concerning the safety of their travel destinations. the survey consisted of both open-ended and closed-ended questions. the open-ended questions aimed to elicit detailed, descriptive answers, allowing respondents to express their views freely. in addition to the closed-ended questions, which were designed to measure respondents’ clear positions on specific issues, the open-ended questions served to clarify and expand upon the quantitative data, offering deeper insights into the respondents' perceptions. data coding and classification techniques were employed to analyse the open-ended responses systematically. this allowed for the organization of the open-ended answers into meaningful categories. a total of 412 individuals participated in the survey. of these, 32.8% were male, and 67.2% were female. the age distribution of the respondents was as follows: 37.6% were aged 18-28 years, 50.5% were aged 29-39 years, 8.5% were aged 40-50 years, and 3.2% were aged 51-61 years. from the answers to the open question about what factors were taken into account in the process of selecting a destination and why the respondents chose a particular destination, the following categories were identified: 1. affordability; 2. diversity and attractiveness of the destination; 3. convenient location; 4. security; 5. destination infrastructure and level of digital development; 6. popularity of the destination; 7. weather/climate; 8. impact of the visa regime; 9. consideration of reviews and recommendations; 10. other (see figure 1). “first of all, i specify the purpose of the trip: attending a specific event, gaining new experiences, relaxing, having fun, etc. accordingly, i choose the location considering the following factors: 1. budget and affordability; 2. security and health services; 3. accessibility of transport; 4. season and travel period; 5. recommendations from experienced travellers; 6. immigration procedures.” (female, 29-30 years old) figure 1. the main factors considered in the destination selection process the next question addressed the factors considered when selecting accommodations. this was a closed-ended question with multiple response options. the distribution of responses is presented in figure 2. price and location emerged as the most important factors for visitors, while services, security policies, and accommodation mechanisms were considered less significant. 129 294 42 63 60 16 19 5 19 3 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 affordability diversity and attractivness of the destination location security infrustructure & digital development popularity of the destination weather/climate visa regime reviews & recommendations other sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) figure 2. the main factors considered in the accommodation selection process the respondents were asked to identify the primary factor influencing their accommodation selection. the results indicate that location and price were the most important determinants, followed by convenience, the services provided by the accommodation, and its security policies and mechanisms. notably, security considerations emerged as the least influential factor in the decisionmaking process. in the subsequent open-ended question, respondents were asked to identify the circumstances that made them feel unsafe while travelling for tourism. upon analyzing the responses, the following key categories were identified: 1. local population; 2. favourable location of the destination and accommodation; 3. low crime levels; 4. safe transportation and adequate infrastructure; 5. access to reliable internet and information; 6. protection against natural disasters; 7. personal security measures; 8. travel insurance; 9. sufficient financial resources; 10. accompaniment by trusted individuals; 11. availability of appropriate equipment; 12. safe accommodation. these responses suggest that travellers’ perceptions of safety are shaped by a combination of personal factors (trusted companions, financial resources), environmental factors (crime, infrastructure), and preparedness (security policies, travel insurance). this highlights the multifaceted nature of safety in tourism and suggests that effective destination management should address these various aspects to improve visitor confidence. the following open-ended question focused on factors contributing to safety during guests' stays at the accommodation. through a systematic process of coding and classification, several key categories emerged, reflecting the diverse elements that influence perceived safety in these settings. these categories can be grouped into both tangible and intangible aspects of safety. reputation and rating of the accommodation: many respondents emphasized the importance of previous guest reviews and ratings as a measure of trustworthiness and safety, suggesting that reputation plays a key role in influencing decisions. location: the proximity to potentially hazardous areas, such as disaster-prone zones, was highlighted as a critical factor in ensuring safety. respondents noted that being situated in a safe, easily accessible location contributed significantly to their sense of security. video monitoring: the presence of video surveillance was frequently mentioned as a visible sign of security, indicating that respondents value measures that enhance physical safety and provide a sense of constant monitoring. 343 346 166 263 147 27 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 price location services offered by accommodations comfort security policy and mechanism of the accommodation other sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) security service: the availability of trained security personnel on-site was another priority, with respondents indicating that a visible and accessible security presence reassured them about their safety during their stay. security plans and systems: respondents highlighted the importance of clear, well-communicated emergency plans and security systems, such as fire alarms or evacuation routes, that demonstrate preparedness for unforeseen events. hygiene: cleanliness, while traditionally associated with comfort, was also cited as a crucial factor in safety, particularly with regard to preventing health hazards and ensuring that the accommodation meets sanitary standards. safe doors and windows: the structural integrity of doors and windows, particularly in terms of secure locking mechanisms, was mentioned as an important safeguard for both physical security and peace of mind. solid building structure and quality inventory: respondents noted that a well-constructed building with durable materials, along with high-quality inventory, significantly contributed to the overall safety and security of the accommodation. host/staff of the accommodation: the attitude and responsiveness of the host or staff were highlighted as key to ensuring safety. attentive and proactive staff, especially in emergencies, was seen as an essential part of the safety infrastructure. comfort: while comfort was often associated with the overall quality of the stay, many respondents linked it to safety, particularly in terms of providing a stress-free environment where guests felt at ease. reliable communication system: a dependable communication system, including access to local emergency services and a reliable wi-fi connection, was emphasized as crucial for both practical and emotional security. security guarantee for personal belongings: many respondents expressed the importance of secure storage options for personal items, such as lockers or safes, to ensure the safety of valuables during their stay. other factors: several additional considerations were identified, including the presence of a 24hour reception, the availability of first aid services, the location’s distance from disaster-prone areas, quality certifications, and the ability to make reliable bookings—all of which were seen as integral to enhancing the overall safety of the accommodation. in the eighth question, respondents were asked to rate their perceived safety while travelling to georgia for tourism purposes using a 5-point likert scale, where 1 represented "i don't feel safe at all" and 5 indicated "i feel very safe." in the ninth open-ended question, respondents were asked to elaborate on their answers from the eighth question, providing further insights into the factors influencing their sense of safety. the tenth question, also using a 5-point likert scale (with 1 meaning "i am not prepared at all" and 5 meaning "i am fully prepared"), evaluated respondents' self-assessed readiness to protect themselves in the event of a natural disaster during their trip to georgia. this question aimed to measure individual preparedness in response to potential environmental hazards. interestingly, while respondents generally expressed a sense of safety while travelling in georgia, their responses to the tenth question indicated that they largely felt unprepared for natural disasters. this highlights a significant contrast between tourists' perceived safety in the country and their personal readiness to respond to emergencies, suggesting a gap in crisis preparedness and awareness among travellers. (see table 1 for a detailed comparison of responses.) table 1. perceived safety and personal preparedness for natural disasters while traveling to georgia for tourism how safe do you feel when travelling to georgia for tourist purposes? when travelling to georgia for tourism purposes, assess your personal preparedness to protect yourself in case of natural disasters 1 score 1.9% 32.3% 2 score 4.1% 22.3% 3 score 23.1% 30.3% 4 score 40.8% 9.2% 5 score 30.1% 5.8% according to the respondents, a sense of homeliness and familiarity with the local situation were identified as the key factors contributing to feelings of security in georgia. however, those who sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) reported a lower sense of security primarily cited issues related to infrastructure, particularly in the mountainous regions, as well as concerns about transportation. additionally, many respondents expressed worries about the country's lack of preparedness for natural disasters, which further contributed to their perception of insecurity. “throughout georgia, i have visited all parts (svaneti, pshavi, khevsureti, tusheti, ajara, samtskhe-javakheti, pankisi valley, etc.) with no problems. locals everywhere were friendly and helpful when you had a problem.” (male, 29-39 years old) one of the primary challenges in mitigating the long-term effects of natural disasters on the tourism industry is the restoration of the destination's "image" as a safe and desirable place to visit. in the context of this research, we sought to understand respondents' attitudes toward shovi, a post-crisis destination, without directly referencing the 2023 tragedy. to gauge this, two questions were posed: "if you had the opportunity, would you visit shovi for tourism purposes next season?" and "please explain the reason for your answer." the responses revealed a mixed outlook on shovi's tourism potential. 23.3% of respondents expressed a willingness to visit shovi in the next season, indicating some level of confidence in the destination's appeal despite its challenges. however, 41% of respondents stated that they would not visit, reflecting concerns that may be related to safety, infrastructure, or lingering perceptions of the area. a significant portion, 35.7%, selected "don't know," suggesting uncertainty or lack of clear information regarding the current state of the destination (see figure 3). figure 3. willingness to visit shovi next season the explanations provided by respondents who expressed a willingness to visit shovi revealed that, for them, a single natural disaster was not seen as a deterrent to travel. on the contrary, they perceived visiting the destination as an opportunity to show solidarity with the local community and to demonstrate their interest in the region's recovery. these respondents emphasized that, in their view, tourism could play a role in the post-crisis revitalization of the area, highlighting a sense of responsibility and support for shovi's future. “i have a feeling of solidarity with the victim racha. however, i think the probability of doing the same thing a second time is low.” (male, 51-61 years old) the primary reasons for respondents choosing "no" or "i don't know" were negative associations tied to the 2023 tragedy in shovi. the majority of respondents indicated that they were psychologically unprepared to visit a location that had recently been the site of such a traumatic event. a smaller portion of respondents cited concerns about the lack of physical security guarantees as a deterrent, rather than psychological readiness. additionally, a few respondents clarified that their decision was not influenced by the tragedy itself, but rather by a general disinterest in mountainous and extreme destinations. “i think that after the tragedy, proper actions were not taken to prevent a similar incident in the future. if a natural disaster occurs, georgia does not have the appropriate system/management, transport and equipment for emergency response. i have no confidence in my country in this regard. despite my great desire, i do not feel safe travelling to georgia.” (female, 18-28 years old) 23,3 41 35,7 yes no i don't know sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) “from a moral point of view, it is a bit strange for me to rest in a place where such a tragedy happened. maybe it will take a little more time to heal this wound."(male, 18-28 years old) the next question aimed to identify the stakeholders that respondents believed were responsible for ensuring tourist safety during natural disasters. participants were allowed to select multiple options, including the government (state), the owner/manager of a tourist business, employees of a tourist business, tourists themselves, and others. the government (state) and the owner/manager of the tourist business were most frequently cited as key responsible parties. when asked to identify the single most responsible stakeholder for tourist safety during natural disasters, the government (state) emerged as the clear leader. a substantial majority of respondents viewed the government as having the greatest responsibility for ensuring safety in crises. the owner/manager of the tourist business was ranked second though the percentage of respondents selecting this option was significantly lower, indicating that while the owner/manager is seen as important, their role is considered secondary to that of the government. structured interview with experts the purpose of the expert survey was to analyse strategic approaches to mitigating the impact of natural disasters on the tourism industry and to identify relevant strategies for georgia. experts identified several preventive strategic approaches to reduce the impact of natural processes on the tourism sector. these included: anti-avalanche systems, anti-landslide measures, continuous monitoring of forest fires, provision of appropriate technical equipment, international cooperation, staff training, the implementation of early warning systems, public awareness campaigns, involvement of geologists in the study of tourist destinations, analysis of long-term meteorological data for these destinations, investigation of anthropogenic impacts, and timely communication with the tourism industry. regarding the response phase, the respondents highlighted the following strategies: operational actions by rescue services, prompt and efficient responses from relevant tourism industry agencies (e.g., information distribution), implementation of aerial firefighting measures in the case of forest fires, the use of artificial avalanches when necessary, collaboration with the national environment agency, increasing the involvement of local authorities and residents in planning tourist facilities, creating risk maps, identifying hazardous zones, and conducting relevant training programmes. for the recovery and rehabilitation phase, experts proposed the following strategies: implementing appropriate infrastructure measures, conducting targeted marketing campaigns by tourism industry agencies, reinforcing slopes in landslide-prone areas, performing hazard assessments with regular monitoring, and training qualified personnel. when asked about the activities tourism-related companies and organizations should undertake to address the risks of potential natural disasters, respondents emphasized the need for tourism industry representatives to stay in contact with agencies responsible for risk monitoring and management. they should be informed about potentially vulnerable destinations and likely natural events and undergo training on related topics. discussion the tourism industry cannot directly control natural hazards, yet effective collaboration among stakeholders can significantly mitigate the impact of such events on the sector. crisis management in tourism requires the involvement of various actors, including government agencies, tourism businesses, tourists, the local population, the financial sector, and non-governmental organizations. each of these stakeholders plays a crucial role in reducing the negative effects of natural disasters and ensuring the resilience of the tourism industry. research on post-crisis tourism rehabilitation consistently highlights the critical role of marketing in restoring the reputation of disaster-affected destinations. after a natural disaster, destinations are often perceived as unsafe, and their credibility suffers. this loss of trust leads to a decline in tourist demand, which can have long-lasting economic consequences. to restore the destination's image and reassure potential visitors, governments and tourism industry representatives must engage in targeted marketing campaigns that emphasize the safety and recovery efforts undertaken by the region (aznarcrespo, aledo, & melgarejo-moreno, 2020; estevão & costa, 2021; ha, 2023; machado & almeida, 2019; todman-lewis, 2017). in the context of georgia, where the tourism sector is an essential component of the economy, these strategies become even more vital in rebuilding both the physical infrastructure and the emotional trust of tourists. sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) the survey conducted for this study offers valuable insights into georgian tourists' attitudes toward safety and disaster preparedness. while many respondents indicated that safety was a consideration in destination and accommodation choices, it was not their primary criterion. factors such as affordability, location, and the attractiveness of the destination outweighed security concerns. this finding aligns with broader trends in tourism where, despite the increasing prevalence of natural hazards, tourists tend to prioritize other factors, such as cost and convenience, over safety (estevão & costa, 2021). interestingly, while respondents rated their trip as generally safe, their self-assessed preparedness for natural disasters was notably low. a significant proportion of respondents reported feeling unprepared to handle a natural disaster should one occur during their visit. for instance, one participant noted: "i don't feel safe at all because, unfortunately, i have to be an expert on everything myself to travel safely. be it meteorological knowledge or other specific knowledge required for tourism facilities and entertainment activities. if you can't figure it all out yourself, you won't be able to rely on the hosts. even if we look at shovi, i'm sure that the people there, including the directors and owners of the facilities, did not even know that such a thing could theoretically happen. when you start a business, you need to know everything about your facility and the environmental conditions and be prepared." (male, 18-28 years old) the importance of restoring the "image" of a destination post-crisis is confirmed by the survey results, particularly in the case of shovi. although the 2023 tragedy in shovi was not explicitly mentioned in the survey, the event’s lingering psychological impact was evident. a large portion of respondents indicated they would be reluctant to visit shovi in the next tourist season, citing concerns over safety and lingering trauma from the disaster. this is consistent with previous research which shows that tourists often associate post-crisis destinations with psychological discomfort, even when safety measures are in place (machado & almeida, 2019). however, a smaller group of respondents saw visiting shovi as an opportunity to show solidarity and support for the local community in its recovery. this sentiment reflects a growing trend where tourists view their travel choices as a form of ethical support for regions recovering from crises. for shovi, the challenge lies in overcoming these psychological barriers through effective communication. with the right marketing campaigns—focused not only on physical rehabilitation but also on messaging that emphasizes solidarity and the destination's resilience—tourists may be more inclined to visit and contribute to the area’s economic recovery. the survey also sheds light on the broader issue of tourist safety and preparedness. the disconnect between tourists' perceptions of safety and their actual preparedness for natural disasters highlights a gap in both awareness and infrastructure. while many tourists felt generally secure in georgia, the survey results indicated a lack of confidence in their ability to respond to potential crises. this discrepancy suggests that there is a need for greater emphasis on crisis education and preparedness for visitors. tourists should be provided with clear, accessible information about what to do in case of natural disasters, as well as the safety measures in place at their accommodation and throughout the destination. in terms of stakeholder responsibilities, the survey results confirm that the government (state) is viewed as the most important actor in ensuring tourist safety during natural disasters, with the owner/manager of the tourist business considered second in importance. this finding supports the view that public authorities must take the lead in crisis preparedness, with tourism businesses playing a supporting role in implementing safety measures and providing guests with information. however, it is clear from the survey that tourists also need to take responsibility for their own safety, especially in terms of preparedness. this suggests that tourism policies should not only focus on improving safety infrastructure but also on educating tourists about how to prepare for natural disasters while travelling. conclusion in conclusion, while natural disasters are beyond the control of the tourism industry, a proactive and collaborative approach can significantly mitigate their impact. the findings from this survey highlight the critical role of effective communication, safety measures, and marketing in the post-crisis rehabilitation of tourist destinations. in the case of georgia, particularly in regions like shovi, the restoration of the destination’s reputation will require a dual effort: physical infrastructure recovery combined with strategic messaging that emphasises solidarity, safety, and recovery. the survey also reveals a significant gap in tourists’ preparedness for natural disasters. while many respondents felt generally safe during their travels in georgia, their perceived lack of personal sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) readiness to respond to emergencies points to the need for improved awareness and crisis management education. efforts to enhance tourist preparedness should be a priority, alongside strengthening safety measures at destinations and accommodations. the rehabilitation of a destination's "image" after a crisis is critical, as the survey shows that the aftermath of the 2023 tragedy in shovi has had a lasting impact on potential visitors' perceptions. many respondents expressed reluctance to visit shovi in the next tourist season, associating the area with psychological discomfort rather than an opportunity for solidarity. however, with the right marketing campaigns that focus on recovery, resilience, and the positive role of tourism in supporting post-crisis recovery, these perceptions can be shifted. ultimately, a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder approach that integrates risk reduction, crisis response, and post-crisis rehabilitation will be essential to ensuring georgia’s tourism sector becomes more resilient to natural disasters. by addressing the gaps in tourist preparedness and rebuilding the image of post-crisis destinations, georgia can foster long-term sustainability and safety within its tourism industry. in addition to the findings from the survey, it is essential to consider a comprehensive framework for managing the impact of natural disasters on tourism. these strategies can be categorised into three main approaches: preventive, response, and recovery-rehabilitation. each of these approaches plays a critical role in enhancing the resilience of tourism destinations and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the sector. as part of the preventive strategic approach, it is essential to implement the following actions: identification of dangers and risks of natural disasters creation and distribution of a relevant database to interested parties creation of maps depicting natural processes and risks constant monitoring of vulnerable areas and updating of information implementation of an early warning system reasonable artificial intervention with respect to specific natural processes (for example, artificially triggering an avalanche during an avalanche hazard to prevent sudden damage in the future) strengthening of areas vulnerable to specific natural processes (for example, strengthening of landslide-prone zones) conducting educational and informational campaigns in order to raise awareness and qualification provision of rescue services with appropriate equipment and qualified personnel formation of insurance culture developing a crisis management and mitigation plan within the framework of the strategic response approach, it is essential to implement the following actions: • effective distribution and management of resources • coordinated cooperation between various rescue, administrative services, and stakeholders • ensuring rapid exchange of reliable information • formation and effective use of qualified volunteer groups within the framework of the strategic approach to recovery and rehabilitation, it is essential to implement the following actions: • provide support to affected communities • restore damaged infrastructure • take appropriate steps for the rehabilitation of tourism businesses through insurance and financial institutions. • conduct active marketing campaigns to promote the safety of the destination competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. authors’ contribution the authors of the article jointly agreed on the topic and methodology of the article. as the systematic review methodology requires, both authors were actively involved in the research process. abstract, introduction and discussion are provided by tatiana sitchinava, and results and conclusion are written by mariam sharia. orcid id sitchinava & sharia. 2025 5(1) tatiana sitchinava https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5021-6246 mariam sharia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5716-6149 reference aznar-crespo, p., aledo, a., & melgarejo-moreno, j. 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(2020). resilient tourism: competitiveness in the face of disasters. washington, dc: world bank. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2014.932758 https://doi.org/10.1177/004728759103000107 https://doi.org/10.1300/j073v20n01_02 https://www.rferl.org/a/shovi-landslide-disaster-georgia/33065959.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2019.102812 https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500802140372 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2003.09.004 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/123/1/012006 https://doi.org/10.1300/j143v01n01_02 conclusion georgian geographical journal the history of mudflow processes research in georgia (on the example of kakheti) tinatin nanobashvili* 1 department of geography, the faculty of exact and natural sciences, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia, * corresponding author: tinatin.nanobashvili@tsu.ge introduction the study of mudflows in georgia spans more than a century. the earliest investigations were rather primitive in nature, focusing primarily on documenting events that had already occurred rather than examining their formation or attempting prediction. the first descriptive accounts of mudflow processes along the georgian military highway were published in 1891 in the proceedings of the russian geographical society. research on mudflows in the kakheti region dates to approximately the same period. in 1903, the forestry journal (issues 1–2) published s. rauner’s article debris flows of transcaucasia and their regulation. notably, this paper described not only the mudflow of the duruji river that occurred on 23 may 1899, but also those of the stori and kisishkevi rivers, while also discussing certain protective measures—primarily forest reclamation and the terracing of valley slopes. at the beginning of the 20th century, specifically on 30 august 1906, reports on the passage of a duruji georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(3) 5-13 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj abstract georgia, as a mountainous country, provides favourable conditions for the development of mudflow processes. the study of these processes is essential for their effective management, the reduction of damage, the prevention of casualties, and the preservation of undisturbed areas within the country’s already limited land resources. research on mudflow processes in georgia dates back more than a century. the earliest investigations were rather primitive in nature and were primarily aimed at identifying events that had already occurred, rather than analysing their formation or attempting prediction. this article examines how the scientific approach to mudflow research has evolved over time. it is mainly based on documentary research and the analysis of published sources, and it outlines the objectives of mudflow studies at different historical stages, as well as the criteria used for subsequent classification. the first descriptive reports on turbulent processes along the georgian military road were published in 1891 in the proceedings of the russian geographical society. s. rauner’s work southern caucasus silt flows and their regulation was published in the forestry journal (issues 1–2) in 1903. notably, this publication described not only the mudflow of the duruji river that occurred on 23 may 1899, but also the mudflows of the stori and kisiskhevi rivers. it also addressed certain protective measures, primarily forest melioration and the terracing of valley slopes. at the beginning of the 20th century, specifically on 30 august 1906, information on the passage of the duruji river mudflow through kvareli appeared in the monthly meteorological bulletin of the tbilisi physical observatory. whereas early studies were purely descriptive, by the 1940s the focus had shifted towards the geographical aspects of mudflows, with increasing attention paid to their origin and to mitigation measures. in later studies, attempts at prediction also became apparent. at the same time, greater emphasis was placed on understanding the process itself. a landslide, as a geodynamic category, is determined by a complex combination of multiple factors. keywords: mudflow processes, classification of mudflow, criteria of classification, genesis, result citation: nanobashvili, t. the history of mudflow processes research in georgia (on the example of kakheti). georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(3), 5-13. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.03.01 mailto:tinatin.nanobashvili@tsu.ge https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0601-0344 nanobashvili. 2025 5(3) 6 river mudflow through kvareli appeared in the monthly meteorological bulletin of the tbilisi physical observatory. in general, mudflow events occupy a prominent place among modern geomorphological processes in the kakheti region, representing the culmination of a complex denudational system. their activity often causes significant material damage to the economy. since the 19th century, destructive natural hazards have attracted considerable attention in kakheti. numerous expeditions and research activities have been undertaken, and various measures for combating such processes have been developed. the results of these efforts have been published in a large number of geomorphological and geological studies. the development of mudflow foci in kakheti is facilitated by its continental climate, characterised by large diurnal temperature amplitudes; the frequent recurrence of dry, drought-prone periods occasionally replaced by heavy rainfall; and the high degree of dissection of mudflow catchment basins—predominantly of badlands morphology—against a backdrop of pronounced hypsometric variation. other contributing factors include the absence of soil and vegetation cover, the exposure of rocks that are easily weathered and eroded by surface runoff, and, most importantly, the intensive development of landslide–gravitational processes both within the catchment and along the flow channel. anthropogenic factors also play a significant role in mudflow formation, including unsystematic deforestation, tree felling on slopes, and improper transportation practices. this article presents the results of mudflow research in the kakheti region and, based on the accumulated material, discusses the potential long-term tendencies in the development and reactivation of such hazardous processes. methods and materials to study the formation of mudflow processes in georgia, a document and literature review method was applied. this involved a content analysis of documentary sources and, more specifically, a detailed examination of hazardous events characteristic of individual municipalities within the kakheti region. with regard to the sources themselves, it should be noted that while early research was limited to descriptive accounts, by the 1940s discussion of the geographical aspects of mudflows had come to dominate. in the case of the kakheti region in particular, it is important to emphasise that systematic study of the problem began only in the second half of the 20th century. prior to this period, sources directly addressing the hazardous characteristics of kakheti—and especially its mudflow processes— were scarce. from the second half of the 20th century, alongside issues of environmental protection and natural resource use, special attention was devoted to the study of mudflows and landslides, in parallel with other modern geomorphological processes. during this period, research on mudflows in kakheti was conducted by the vakhushti institute of geography of the georgian academy of sciences and the georgian geographical society, the scientific research institute of hydrotechnics and melioration of georgia, the sector of hydrology and engineering geology, the transcaucasian hydrometeorological research institute, and the geological department under the georgian academy of sciences. a substantial body of both published and archival material was accumulated at that time. particularly noteworthy is t. kikilashvili’s work the main factors causing mudflows in the duruji river basin (1949). in the spring seasons of 1952 and 1953, in connection with the engineering–geological planning of the main canal of the upper alazani irrigation system, a. fokon and e. ramishvili studied landslide phenomena on the eastern slope of the tsova (tbatana) range in the pankisi gorge and on the southwestern slopes of the tsiv–gombori range, extending from mount shakhvetila to the town of sighnagi. g. changashvili published a series of works, including geomorphology of the right bank of the alazani river basin (upstream from bakurtiskhe) (1954), mudflows and river channel variability in the right bank of inner kakheti (1955), mudflows and measures for their control in the left bank of the alazani river (1962), on modern geomorphological processes in the vicinity of the sioni reservoir (1975), and the causes of the mudflow of 14 june 1977 in the telavi district (1978), among others. in 1967, g. changashvili also published a geomorphological study of the right bank of the alazani river basin (upstream from tsnori), which represents the processed results of data collected during field geomorphological research conducted in 1952, 1953, 1954, and 1960. in 1958, t. kikilashvili and m. kordzakhia published on the issues of mudflows (mudflow torrents) in the alazani river basin. in the same year, v. lezhava published mudflows on the right bank of the alazani river from the source to the vantiskhevi, and sh. kipiani authored modern geomorphological processes and phenomena in the duruji river basin. nanobashvili. 2025 5(3) 7 for the scientific value of this article, the processing of the above-mentioned sources was of particular importance for analysing the formation and characteristics of mudflow processes both in georgia as a whole and specifically in the kakheti region. results from the 1940s onward, scientific literature shifted its focus from mere descriptive accounts toward analyzing the mechanisms of mudflow formation and identifying measures for their mitigation. in subsequent years, attempts at prediction also became evident. equally important was the study of the process itself. mudflow, as a geodynamic category, is determined by a complex interplay of multiple factors. the term “seli” (or “sili”), which entered georgian literature directly from russian without translation, is in fact of arabic origin: “sail,” meaning a turbulent streams. over time, many synonyms for the term emerged. in france, where the first works on such phenomena were published, these torrents were called “torrents,” literally meaning mountain streams; in switzerland and austria, the terms “wildbach” (wild stream) and “mure” were used; in the united states, “mudflow,” “mudavalanche,” or “rock-mudflow” became common; and in japan, expressions such as “yamanatsunami” (mountain wave) or “dosekiro” (mud torrent/stream) were adopted. in georgia, the russian “seli” was soon replaced. besarion kavrishvili proposed the term “ghvartsopi” (mudflow), which clearly reflected the rheological nature of this geodynamic process. being an authentically georgian word, it quickly secured a rightful place in geographical literature. at the same time, local designations also appeared in other caucasian countries for example, “ikhi” in kabardino-balkaria. from all these terms, it becomes clear that a mudflow refers to a water-sediment stream composed of fine-grained material as well as large rock fragments, characterized above all by its scale and dynamism. mudflows are marked by sudden onset, considerable magnitude and volume, high concentrations of coarse debris within the flow, and very high velocity reaching several meters per second. in many cases, mudflows cause powerful destruction and devastation within only a few minutes. for this reason, in scientific-popular and literary works they are sometimes referred to as “black death.” over the past century, during which mudflow research has intensified, numerous attempts at classification have emerged. given that the formation and development of mudflow processes are conditioned by an extremely complex set of geographical and geological factors, different units have been emphasized for classification. as a result, scientific literature has accumulated a wide variety of mudflow classifications, often quite distinct from one another. some researchers have prioritized their genetic origin, thus distinguishing between natural and anthropogenic mudflows. throughout the 20th century, the study of mudflow processes in georgia was largely linked to the “all-soviet” period. consequently, the approaches of the russian scientific school, which were disseminated in a centralized manner, are of particular importance. for this reason, it is essential to address the tendencies that emerged in the 1930s. in russian scientific literature, several attempts at mudflow classification appeared, among which the works of e.p. konovalov, a.i. sheko, r.d. kurdin, i.v. vinogradov, s.m. fleishman, and b.f. perov are noteworthy. in the georgian school, the contribution of m.s. gagoshidze to mudflow research should also be emphasized. a brief review of each classification will allow us to analyze how evaluation criteria and methodological approaches in mudflow studies evolved, and what shortcomings or advantages each scientist’s role entailed. e.p. konovalov, in presenting a genetic classification of mudflows, considered water as the single most important and mudflow-forming factor. his classification was based on the role of water in mudflows, and he identified the following genetic types: 1. mudflows caused by heavy rainfall, or simply torrential mudflows/debris flows; 2. mudflows resulting from the intensive melting of snow and ice; 3. mudflows caused by the rupture of water bodies: a) glacial lakes, b) non-glacial lakes, c) artificial reservoirs; 4. mudflows of complex origin, formed by two or more factors, e.g., the combined effect of rainfall and meltwater. at the time this classification was developed (1938), knowledge about mudflows was still quite limited. however, its main shortcoming lay in the fact that under this approach, one and the same mudflow could be assigned to two different types, which is entirely unacceptable in classification. equally problematic was that in distinguishing the first and second types, the defining criterion was the nanobashvili. 2025 5(3) 8 triggering factor, whereas in the third type the classification was based on the mechanism of origin. these are not equivalent approaches. it is also difficult to accept that natural and anthropogenic origins were combined within the third type (konovalov, 1938). as for a.i. sheko’s classification, the author identified four main groups of mudflow source formation: 1) accumulation of solid material in temporary and minor streambeds; 2) river damming; 3) modern glaciers; 4) volcanic activity. it should be noted that, as with konovalov’s classification, there was no uniform genetic approach in defining the main groups, and once again, the same mudflow could simultaneously be placed in two different groups (churinov and sheko, 1971). r.d. kurdin proposed a universal scheme for classifying mudflows. his classification was based on four criteria: the nature of mudflow formation, the structural-rheological model of the mudflow, its composition, and its intensity and destructive power. since the most important components of mudflows are water and solid material, he conditionally divided them into two categories. according to water supply, the following subgroups were distinguished: 1) rainfall-fed, 2) snowmelt, 3) glacial, 4) outburst. according to solid material supply, the following subgroups were identified: 1) slope-derived, 2) collapse-landslide, 3) channel-derived/streambed-type, 4) morainic. however, this classification also had its shortcomings, as the water and solid components of a mudflow cannot truly be separated from one another. the destructive force of a mudflow results only from the unity of these two parts, and only this unity can properly be termed a mudflow (kurdin, 1973). with regard specifically to the kakheti region, until the 20th century almost no literary sources on destructive natural processes are available. from the beginning of the 20th century, research on such processes acquired a local character, which explains the limited number of sources, focusing only on the mudflows of the duruji, stori, and tsiviskhevi rivers. in this regard, s. rauner’s 1903 publication is particularly noteworthy, as it describes the duruji river mudflow that destroyed the village of kvareli on 23 may 1899. reports on the passage of the duruji mudflow through kvareli on 30 august 1906 are also preserved in the monthly meteorological bulletin of the tbilisi physical observatory, noting that the mudflow destroyed houses and fences along its path, washed away orchards, vineyards, and farmland, and killed both people and livestock in the subsequent period, despite the scarcity of available geographical data, the study of destructive natural processes gradually took on a scientific character. these issues were studied by tbilisi state university, the scientific research institute of hydrotechnics and melioration of georgia, and other institutions. in recent years, the remote sensing method has taken on a significant role in process research. based on the analysis of landscape-indicative features, remote sensing materials have revealed the spatial characteristics of landslides, the locations and timing of mudflow passages, time and other related phenomena. an examination of ongoing mudflow processes in the kakheti region reveals that, at present, approximately 250 mudflow-prone rivers have been registered in the target area, posing direct threats to the population, infrastructure, and engineering structures. in reality, however, the total number of channels susceptible to mudflow transformation is nearly five times greater. in the duruji river and, more broadly, within the kakheti sector of the greater caucasus, high-density (1.8-2.5 g/cm³) boulder-mud structural-rheological flows typically form, particularly under conditions conducive to the development of catastrophic mudflows. this explains why the composition of bouldermudflow currents often includes massive boulders (2-5 meters or more in diameter) within transitaccumulation zones, and sometimes even transported into accumulation areas. the mudflows of the duruji river place the town of kvareli and its infrastructure at great risk. at present, the most optimal and effective protective measure for the residents of kvareli against mudflows is considered to be a 7 km long embankment, the project for which envisaged the construction of a 15-20 m high earthen dam, the periodic cleaning of the river channel, and the use of the excavated material to increase the dam’s height (tsereteli, et al., 2001). the mudflow processes formed in the telaviskhevi river are typical of all mudflow-transformed rivers on the slopes of the tsiv-gombori range, characterized by fan-shaped spreading. whenever mudflowgenerating rainfall occurs, the formation of mudflow currents is inevitable the greater the precipitation in the form of torrential rains, the proportionally higher the risk of hazard. a classic example of this is the mudflows formed in the telaviskhevi river on 14 june 1977, triggered by torrential rainfall of up to 80mm within three hours. mudflow processes developed simultaneously in 8 tributaries of the river basin, of which 5 produced landslide-outburst flows. in total, the mudflows transported up to 1 million m³ of boulder-mud material, of which about 300 000 m³ was deposited in the cone area on which the nanobashvili. 2025 5(3) 9 town is situated. to prevent the recurrence of such hazardous mudflow processes in the telaviskhevi river, in 1978 a debris-trapping permeable structure was constructed (tsereteli et al., 2002). kurilla and fubelli’s article (2022) discusses the development of a global debris-flow susceptibility model, in which a large number of environmental parameters must be considered. although debris-flow behaviour and controlling factors are inherently local phenomena, the analysis based on the maximum entropy (maxent) model demonstrates that a global model performs particularly well when evaluating cumulative susceptibility outcomes in the medium, high, and very high classes. in the kakheti region, the intensity of debris-flow occurrence is reflected in the table and mapped distribution presented below (table 1, fig. 1). table 1. mudflow ratio by municipalities municipality mudflow akhmeta 0.580 gurjaani 0.839 dedoplistskaro 0.250 telavi 0.700 lagodekhi 0.515 sagarejo 0.426 sighnaghi 0.476 kvareli 0.545 figure 1. mudflow event ratio by settlement, data source: department of geology, national environment agency (2024) beyond the description of the current situation, it is particularly important to identify the expected changes in climate, as this will enable the anticipation of natural hazard risks. in georgia, a major contribution to the study of mudflow processes was made by geomorphologist emil tsereteli. under his leadership, the general scheme (1988) of geological conditions for the development of mudflow processes was prepared. a geological report was also developed as a model, focusing on climateresilient practices for managing floods and flash floods in the rioni river basin. under emil tsereteli’s guidance, the scale of mudflow processes’ dependence on climate was studied, along with an attempt at forecasting based on this approach. below, we present the projected climate change trend for 2020– 2050, developed by the caucasus environmental ngo network (cenn), which subsequently serves nanobashvili. 2025 5(3) 10 as the basis for the long-term forecasts of natural hazard risks and the tendencies of developmentreactivation of hazardous processes in individual municipalities of the kakheti region, prepared at the geological department of the national environment agency under emil tsereteli’s leadership. of the 289 settlements in akhmeta municipality, 15 (i.e., 54%) fall within the natural hazard risk zone. of these, 5 settlements are classified in the high-risk category, 19 in the medium-risk category, and 17 in the low-risk category (gaprindashvili et al., 2021). for akhmeta municipality, the forecast relative to the baseline period (1960-1990) is negative: for 2021-2050, = -2.704, with a deviation coefficient of kdef. = -0.011. in the case of daily torrential rains, which have a particularly strong impact on the activation of mudflow processes and flash floods, the forecast for 2021-2050 is positive at +1.539, with a coefficient of kpos. = +0.14, while for 2071-2100 it is negative at = -1.012, with a coefficient of kdef. = -0.09. based on these data, it can be assumed that the long-term forecast of geological process activation trends will remain at the same background level as observed to date. among the geological hazardous processes affecting the normal functioning of the city of telavi, the only major threat is posed by periodically formed mudflow processes in the telaviskhevi river basin. the long-term climate change forecast for telavi is as follows: for intra-annual precipitation deviations: 2021-2050 shows a deficit of -8.572, with a deviation coefficient kdef. = -0.01. for daily torrential rainfall with average recurrence: 2021-2050 is 0.387, with kdef. = -0.095; and 2071-2100 is -1.942, with kdef. = -0.249. according to the forecast of geological hazards, compared to the previous period, the expected trends remain below the background level (gobechia et al., 2009). in gurjaani municipality, according to the 2000 geological information bulletin, 12 settlements were located within the geological hazard risk zone; by 2014, this number had increased to 26 (hazard risk coefficient 0.65). according to the 2021-2100 forecast, climate change in the territory of gurjaani municipality will show a deficit relative to the baseline period. the deficit deviation of average annual precipitation is projected to be = -9.343 for 2021-2050, with a deviation coefficient kdef. = -0.014, and = -17.677 for 2071-2100, with kdef. = -0.051. in the case of torrential rainfall: for 2021-2050 the value is = -0.450, with kdef. = -0.36; and for 2071-2100 it is = -1.632, with kdef. = -0.0002. it may therefore kobe assumed that with such coefficients of atmospheric precipitation, the tendencies of geological process activation will remain below the background level of the previous period. in sagarejo municipality, 21 settlements representing 47% of the total number of settlements were located within the geological hazard risk zone (of which 10 were in the mediumand high-risk categories). this indicates that within the territory of sagarejo municipality, vulnerability to geological hazards has increased, with a risk coefficient of 0.3. according to the climate change projections developed for georgia by specialists of the national environment agency for the periods 2021-2050 and 2071-2100, sagarejo municipality is expected to experience a deficit relative to the baseline period (1960-1990). specifically, for annual precipitation deviations: = -8.676 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = 0.015, and = -18.329 for 2071-2100, with kdef. = -0.032. for the average number of days with torrential rainfall: = -0.68 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = -0.048; and = -1.240 for 2071-2100, with kdef. = -0.22. it can be assumed that, given the negative coefficients obtained, the trends in the development of geological hazards will remain below the baseline level. in sighnagi municipality, 14 settlements (64% of the total) were located within the geological hazard risk zone, of which 5 (22%) were in the mediumand high-risk categories. according to the trends in process development in relation to climate change, as assessed by specialists of the hydrology and meteorology department of the national environment agency, the average annual precipitation changes for sighnagi municipality are projected to remain in deficit compared to current levels. specifically, for 2021-2050 the value is = -9.789, with kdef. = -0.012; and for 2071-2100 the value is = -16.031, with kdef. = -0.02. for the recurrence of daily torrential rainfall, the forecast relative to the baseline period is also negative: = -0.699 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = -0.09; and = -1.240 for 20712100, with kdef. = -0.156. based on these data, it can be assumed that the long-term forecast of geological hazard development trends will remain below the background level observed to date. the population and infrastructure of kvareli municipality are threatened only by mudflows transformed on the southern slopes of the caucasus, along with the associated bank erosion and flooding they cause. accordingly, of the 22 settlements, 13 are located within the mudflow hazard risk zone (risk coefficient 0.6), of which 4 fall into the highand medium-risk categories (coefficient 0.18). for the periods 2021-2050 and 2071-2100, the intra-annual deviations of atmospheric precipitation that provoke geological processes in kvareli are projected to show a negative balance relative to the national baseline. specifically, intra-annual precipitation deviations are = -9.576 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = 0.01, and = -18.043 for 2071-2100, with kdef. = -0.020. regarding the average number of days with nanobashvili. 2025 5(3) 11 torrential rainfall: = -1.212 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = -0.097, and = -4.716 for 2071-2100, with kdef. = -0.461. it can therefore be assumed that, given the significant precipitation deficit projected for both intra-annual totals and torrential rainfall, the tendencies of geological hazard activation in this period will remain below the background levels of previous periods. of the 64 settlements in lagodekhi municipality, 38% are located within the geological hazard risk zone. among them, 20% fall into the mediumand high-risk categories (risk coefficient 0.2), and all are associated with mudflow processes, flash floods, and/or riverbank erosion. long-term forecasts indicate that in the territory of lagodekhi, the deviations of atmospheric precipitation that provoke geological processes will have a negative balance. specifically, the intra-annual precipitation deficit will be = -9.776 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = -0.01, and = -16.639 for 2071-2100, with kdef. = -0.017. regarding the average number of days with torrential rainfall: = -1.540 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = 0.173; and = -4.716 for 2050-2100, with kdef. = -0.48. it can therefore be assumed that, given such coefficients of atmospheric precipitation, the tendencies of geological hazard activation will remain below the background level of the previous period. dedoplistskaro municipality is the only territory in the kakheti region where geological processes pose no significant threat, apart from bank erosion along the alazani and iori rivers and seismic activity. according to the climate change projections developed by specialists of the national environment agency for the periods 2021-2050 and 2071-2100, the average annual precipitation deviations relative to the multi-year average will remain in deficit: = -7.219 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = -0.008, and = 12.178 for 2071-2100, with kdef. = -0.015. the average number of days with torrential rainfall recurrence is also projected to be negative: = -0.224 for 2021-2050, with kdef. = -0.027, and = -0.451 for 2071-2100, with kdef. = -0.054. it may therefore be assumed that, given the deficit coefficients obtained, the tendencies of geological hazard activation in dedoplistskaro municipality will remain below the background level observed to date. since destructive natural processes in kakheti represent one of the pressing issues of state significance, it is hoped that future research will be further deepened and yield better results. discussions the results of this study align with earlier classifications and observations of mudflows by konovalov (1938), sheko (1971), and kurdin (1973), all of whom emphasized the central role of hydrological triggers but differed in their methodological criteria, often leading to overlaps in typology. georgian scholars, including changashvili (1954, 1955, 1962, 1975, 1978), kikilashvili (1949), kipiani (1958), lezhava (1958), and later tsereteli and colleagues (1978, 1985, 2001), extended this knowledge to the kakheti region, highlighting both the geomorphological drivers and the severe socio-economic consequences of events such as the 1899 and 1906 duruji mudflows or the 1977 telaviskhevi disaster. our findings confirm these historical insights: despite projected long-term precipitation deficits across municipalities, extreme short-duration rainfall remains sufficient to trigger destructive flows, particularly in highly dissected catchments like those of the greater caucasus and tsiv-gombori slopes. thus, the kakheti case underscores a broader pattern noted in both soviet-era and modern literature: declining climatic means do not equate to reduced hazard, and risk management must integrate structural defenses with ecological and monitoring-based approaches. on the global scale considering the modern approaches, recent literature has increasingly focused on cross-continental differences in debris-flow behaviour. for instance, kurilla and fubelli (2022) demonstrated that a single global debris-flow susceptibility model particularly the maxent approach can perform as well as or better than continent-specific models when evaluated across five statistical frameworks and fourteen environmental predictors. complementing this large-scale perspective, schöffl et al. (2022) provided high-resolution empirical insights from illgraben, switzerland, showing substantial intraand inter-event variability in flow resistance based on pulse-doppler radar measurements, thereby challenging assumptions of constant resistance in traditional modelling and proposing a new dimensionless scaling framework. at a more fundamental level, coussot’s monograph mudflow rheology and dynamics (1997) offers the theoretical basis for understanding mudflow rheology and open-channel behaviour, linking constitutive equations to applied flow dynamics. conclusion in conclusion, it should be emphasized that in all the classifications discussed in this article, mudflows are considered as one of the most complex geodynamic processes, formed through the interplay of multiple geographical and geological factors. the main focus has been placed on their intrinsic nature, nanobashvili. 2025 5(3) 12 and the attempts at classification have been grounded in this understanding whether based on their origin, the course of the process, or the stage of dissipation, i.e., the accumulation phase. the classifications developed thus far have been largely attempts at ranking processes, without sufficient attention to the mudflow as a phenomenon. distinguishing between process and phenomenon is crucial in the study of mudflows. for us, a mudflow is significant precisely as a phenomenon, since in practice we analyze the consequences of its occurrence. this should not be perceived merely as the statement of a past fact, but rather as recognition of the mudflow as an event that alters the geo-ecological state, affects the human living environment, and in many cases poses a direct threat to human life. for this reason, under modern approaches, the study of mudflows must include geo-ecological evaluation. it is of particular importance to assess the environmental impacts of mudflow phenomena and to classify them by ecological hazard in the context of sustainable environmental development. as for the target location, the kakheti region ranks among the most complex areas in georgia in terms of the scale of mudflow development, recurrence frequency, economic damage, and hazard risk. more than half of its territory falls within the very high and high mudflow hazard categories (with coefficients of 0.6-0.9) (tsereteli & tsereteli, 1985). the degree of activation and hazard risk of mudflows in kakheti, against the backdrop of an extremely sensitive geological environment, depend entirely on climatic variability and on the magnitude of spatial and temporal deviations in intra-annual torrential rainfall. in this regard, for mudflows transformed in the kakheti sector of the greater caucasus, daily precipitation exceeding 50 mm, and for those formed on the slopes of the tsiv–gombori range exceeding 30–40 mm, must be followed by the immediate implementation of preventive measures. these results underline the importance of viewing mudflows not only as geomorphological processes but as geo-ecological phenomena with direct societal implications. in the case of kakheti, the evidence clearly shows that hazard levels remain high, making continuous monitoring and integrated management essential for reducing future risks. the global modeling approach discussed in the article is clearly applicable to regions such as kakheti, where debris-flow activity is both frequent and intense. competing interests the author declares that she has no competing interests. acknowledgements the author expresses gratitude to the caucasus environmental ngo network (cenn), for developing the projected climate change trend for the period 2020–2050 based on the data from the sagarejo and dedoplistskaro meteorological stations. special thanks are also extended to the geological department of the national environment agency; its current head, mr. merab gaprindashvili; and the late distinguished scientist, mr. emil tsereteli, for their scientific support. mr. emil tsereteli was twice included in the list of the world’s top 100 scientists compiled by the cambridge international biographical centre. his contribution is invaluable not only to the study of mudflow processes in georgia and the development of various scientific methodologies, but also to practical activities and the training of future specialists who, in turn, have made significant contributions to the study of natural hazards. orcid id tinatin nanobashvili https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0601-0344 reference churinov, m. v., & sheko, a. i. (eds.). (1971). methodological guidelines for the comprehensive study of mudflows. moscow. coussot, p. (1997). mudflow rheology and dynamics (1st ed.). routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203746349 gaprindashvili, m., tsereteli, e., gaprindashvili, g., & kurtsikidze, o. (2021). landslide and mudflow hazard assessment in georgia. in f. l. bonali, f. pasquaré mariotto, & n. tsereteli (eds.), building knowledge for geohazard assessment and management in the caucasus and other orogenic regions (nato science for peace and security series c: environmental security). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-0242046-3_14 general scheme of anti-erosion measures for the period of 1981–2000. (1988). tbilisi. https://orcid.org/0009-0001-0601-0344 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203746349 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2046-3_14 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-2046-3_14 nanobashvili. 2025 5(3) 13 gobechia, g., tsereteli, e., & gobejishvili, r. (2009). hazard zonation of freshets and mudflow phenomena in georgia. in proceedings of the international symposium on floods and modern methods of control measures. tbilisi. konovalov, e. p. (1938). mudflows (an attempt at systematizing materials on mudflows). proceedings of the hydrogeological institute, (1). kurdin, r. d. (1973). on the classification of mudflows. in collected works on hydrology (no. 11). leningrad. kurilla, l. j., & fubelli, g. (2022). global debris-flow susceptibility based on a comparative analysis of a single global model versus a continent-by-continent approach. natural hazards, 113, 527–546. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05313-y schöffl, t., mcardell, b., koschuch, r., et al. (2025). flow resistance variability in debris flows: evaluating equations, critical stress, and scaling from high-resolution field data. landslides, 22, 3907–3925. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-025-02611-x tsereteli, e. d., berdzenishvili, d. p., tatashidze, z. k., chelidze, t. l., tevzadze, v. i., & kherkheulidze, g. i. (2001). peculiarities of formation of catastrophic mudflows in the duruji river basin and safety of the city of kvareli. proceedings of the institute of water resources of georgia. asg, tbilisi, 229–234. tsereteli, e., maguadze, o., chelidze, t., massue, j. l., tatashidze, z., & kherkheulidze, g. (2002). peculiarities of formation of catastrophic mudflows in the duruji river basin (eastern georgia). journal of the georgian geographical society, 7, 45–55. tsereteli, e. d., & tsereteli, d. d. (1985). geological conditions of development of mudflows in georgia. metsniereba. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05313-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-025-02611-x georgian geographical journal 86 political geography of sachkhere municipality valeri kekenadze1 1 vakhushti bagrationi institute of geography, ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university, tbilisi, georgia * corresponding author: valeri.kekenadze@tsu.ge introduction in developing this research topic, the aim was to examine the political geography of sachkhere municipality to the extent permitted by available documentary sources and scholarly literature. the chronological framework of the study primarily covers the period from the 5th to the 19th centuries. the article begins with an examination of the argveti principality (სამთავრო, samtavro). this administrative unit occupied a strategically important geographical position, as it encompassed the likhi range, which divides eastern and western georgia, as well as the historical passes that connected western georgia with the eastern regions of the country. based on an analysis of the available scholarly literature, an attempt is made to delineate the boundaries of the argveti principality (სამთავრო, samtavro) and to clarify its territorial affiliation. the article also addresses the territorial scope and variability of historical geographical names, including upper imereti, as well as related macrotoponyms. following the definition of the boundaries and political affiliation of the argveti principality (სამთავრო, samtavro), the study proceeds to examine the political geography of the chihi principality (სამთავრო, samtavro), focusing on its territory and political affiliation. in the 15th century, the unified georgian kingdom disintegrated. whereas the earlier administrative system had been based on eristavis, this structure underwent a radical transformation. the eristavis were replaced by new, smaller political and administrative units known as principalities. under this system, feudal families inherited their estates and enjoyed a higher degree of internal autonomy in governance than under the previous administrative arrangements. after the collapse of the unified georgian kingdom, the territory of sachkhere municipality, together with the rest of upper imereti, became part of the kingdom of imereti. however, due to political circumstances and the region’s geographical position, there were periods during which this territory was incorporated into the kingdom of kartli. within the territory of the present-day sachkhere municipality, two principalities were formed: satseretlo and saabashidze. for a certain period, the palavandishvili family also held estates in the area; however, these lands were eventually confiscated by the two aforementioned noble families, leading to the expulsion of the palavandishvilis from the municipality. of the two dominant families, the tseretelis were the most influential, owning approximately 80% of the municipal territory. over time, the landholdings of the abashidze family were significantly reduced by the tseretelis, resulting in their territory being divided abstract political geography, as a branch of historical geography, examines the political and geographical characteristics of a given territory through their integrated and holistic synthesis. it provides a clear representation of a country’s administrative structure and the principal trends in its historical development, which have significantly influenced the political affiliation and spatial organisation of individual regions over time. the study of political geography also allows for the identification of long-term processes that shape territorial boundaries and governance systems. this article aims to present a comprehensive description of the political geography of the largest municipality in upper imereti—the sachkhere region—from ancient times to the 19th century, highlighting key stages in its administrative evolution and territorial transformation within the broader historical and geographical context of the region. keywords: history, geography, politics, argveti, nobility citation: kekenadze, v. political geography of sachkhere municipality. georgian geographical journal 2025, 5(3), 86-93. https://doi.org/10.52340/ggj.2025.05.03.10 georgian geographical journal, 2025, 5(3) 86-93 © the author(s) 2025 this article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the creative commons attribution (cc by) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). doi: https://journals.4science.ge/index.php/ggj https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7444-391x kekenadze 2025 5(3) 87 into two non-contiguous parts. the abashidzes who remained in sachkhere retained control only over the villages of the present-day chali community, including villages that are now occupied. in addition to the noble families, the king of imereti himself possessed estates within the territory of sachkhere. these lands, known as royal domains, were administered by officials directly appointed by the king. such estates included, for example, khodabunebi (interpreted by sulkhan-saba orbeliani as meaning “royal field”) and yaurebi. these domains were among the most fertile lands in the river valleys and were supplied with irrigation canals. the article also presents, as a separate issue, the territorial distribution of the historical region of khefinihevi. methods and materials in conducting this research, ancient georgian historical sources contained in the life of kartli were utilised, with particularly extensive material drawn from the works of leonti mroveli and juansher. significant contributions to the understanding of the topic were also provided by the scholarly works of vakhushti bagrationi, koba kharadze, niko berdzenishvili, jurkha nadiradze, olga soselia, and valery silogava. in addition to the analysis of existing historical and scientific literature, all villages and settlements within sachkhere municipality were visited and documented during a scientific expedition carried out by the institute of geography of ivane javakhishvili tbilisi state university in 2017. the present article is therefore based on a combination of primary historical sources, secondary scholarly literature, and original field research conducted by the authors. results argveti principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro). historically, the territory of sachkhere municipality was part of zemo mkhari or upper imereti, although this term has been used not since ancient times, but since the late feudal period. before zemo mkhari, the territory of sachkhere, like all of eastern imereti up to persat-rioni, was called argveti, the same as margveti, which represented a principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro) or political-administrative division. leonti mroveli, the author of one of the chronicles of kartli, defines the borders of the argveti principality as follows: to the likhi range in the east, to the rioni river in the west, to the racha mountains in the north (thus, racha-lechkhumi remained within its borders), and to the persati mountains in the south. according to the historian and geographer k. kharadze, this region also included the khanistskali river gorge and, possibly, the "land of vani" of the hellenistic period (kharadze; 2003: 226). as we can see, the argveti principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro). previously included okriba, but it later separated from argveti and formed a separate geographic and political region (the geographic term okriba was first mentioned in the 11th century), along with zemo khari, vake, and samokalako. according to historical tradition, in the 5th century, during the reign of vakhtang gorgasali, racha-lechkhumi (takveri) was also part of argveti, but later separated from argveti and became an independent state. racha was governed by its own eristavi, and he separated from argveti. this development ultimately limited the borders of argveti to only "zemo khari," that is, upper imereti (life of kartli. 1955: 24). as we have already mentioned, argveti extended to the eastern part of modern imereti, including the territory of sachkhere, while the term "samokalako" has been used to designate the western part since at least the time of david the builder. let us cite a historical source: "currently, asisforni and klarjeti are located within the sea pyramid of ivanobis, shavsheti, adjara, samtskhe, kartli, argveti, samokalako, and chkondidi are occupied by the turks" (life of kartli. 1955: 319). the 8th-century author juansher proposes a completely different division of western georgia, while leonti mroveli lists the ethnographic regions of western georgia as egrisi, suaneti, takueri, argveti, and guria (life of kartli. 1955: 241). as we can see, imereti is also not mentioned here. thus, new ethnographic terms emerged, while the upper region with sachkhere remained part of argveti. the term imereti has been applied to western georgia only since the 11th century (the reign of david the builder). as already mentioned, the territory of sachkhere municipality has been administratively part of the argveti principality(,,სამთავრო“ samtavro) since the time of parnavazi, a fact recognized by all scholars studying ancient georgian history. historical atlases indicate the municipality's modern territory as part of the argveti principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro). this is also confirmed by ancient georgian authors such as leonti mroveli, juansher, and vakhushti bagrationi. in his historical collection, the life of kartli, leonti mroveli attributes the creation of the argvetic chiefdom to king parnavaz: “he sent one leader, margvi, and gave him a small mountain, which is kekenadze 2025 5(3) 88 likhi, beyond the border (of egris), above rioni, and on this mountain parnavaz built two fortresses, shorapani and dimna” (life of kartli. 1955:24). leonti mroveli's historical conception partially echoes that of juansher, who places this administrative unit in the same geographic region as leonti mroveli but, unlike him, presents it as a larger administrative district. according to juansher, bakuri, founded by vakhtang gorgasali as the principal of this region, simultaneously owned both argveti and takveri (life of kartli. 1955:185). vakhushti bagrationi describes the borders of argveti as follows: "and to the south of racha, beyond the mountain, lies argveti or margveti, which was named for the fertility of the land and the roundness of the land for its labor—the roundness of the land. and the borders of argveti are: to the east—the border of kartli, the western side of mount likhi; to the south—persati, merme, kharageuli, the dzirula river; and to the east—the kvirila river as far as tskaltsiteli" (bagrationi; 1997: 744). after the death of parnavazi, this territory became part of the kingdom of colkhi, which emerged in western georgia. in the first half of the 2nd century, it again appeared as part of the kingdom of kartli. historical sources on the reign of king parnavazi and georgia at the time are extremely scarce. we are particularly concerned by the paucity of materials, especially regarding the locations of ancient cities, architectural monuments, and so on. archaeology can greatly help us fill this historical gap. we will examine in detail the archaeological geography of sachkhere and the significance of archaeology for history in the relevant chapter. archaeological discoveries in upper imereti confirm that by the mid-1st millennium ce, society of that period was at a fairly advanced level of development. this is evidenced by the late antique tombs of modinakhe, sairkhi, itskisi, and chikhi, which contain numerous brilliant examples of jewelry and weapons, clearly demonstrating the considerable economic resources of their owners. the early middle ages, the 5th and especially the 6th centuries, represent an eventful period in the history of both kartli and egrisi. this is the era of the outstanding kings vakhtang gorgasali, gubaz i, and gubaz ii. the 6th century marks the abolition and restoration of statehood in kartli, while in egrisi, the "great war" raged during the same period. unfortunately, neither georgian nor foreign sources provide any concrete information about argveti during this period. in the 650s, the arabs invaded georgia. the samar, jieti, and itskis burial grounds date back to the aforementioned events, and we have reason to believe that the community that created these monuments played an active role in the historical events of that period. in the 780s, the abkhazian eristavi leon united all of western georgia, naming it the kingdom of abkhazia, and argveti also became part of this political entity. chikha principality. in the late middle ages, upper imereti was indeed part of one of the important georgian fiefdoms, the argveti principality, and the residence of eristavi was also located there. the chikha principality is mentioned in the "chronicle of kartlis." in this historical source, the argveti principality of leonti mroveli and juansheri is no longer mentioned, but rather "chikhinsky eristavi." clearly, "prince of chikha" is undoubtedly a principality. the mention of this principality is associated with the kartla of the abkhazian kings: "at that time, george, king of the abkhazians, brother of theodosius and demetrius, son of leonidas, set out. he conquered kartla and left the principality to demetrius, son of chikha. when george, the king of the abkhazians, died, he left a son, dmitry the younger, whose name was bagrat, and who was known to his acquaintances. the wife of king george killed her son dmitry, the principality of chikhi" (life of kartli. 1955: 258). as can be seen from the above quote, the "principality of chikhi" is mentioned only twice in georgian historiography. n. berdzenishvili doubted that in this case the "chikhinsky eristavi" meant the eristavi of kartli (berdzenishvili; 1975: 354). if chikha was the eristavi of kartli, then it is clear that upper imereti of this period was also included within the borders of kartli. from an archaeological point of view, the village of chikha remains virtually unexplored, and it was only in the 1970s that j. nadiradze conducted some exploratory work here. to the south of the village church, at the gobinari settlement, extremely scant remains of layers containing material culture from the early antique and hellenistic periods were confirmed. small fragments of red-painted and red-toned ceramics were discovered (nadiradze; 1990: 135-136). n. berdzenishvili believed that chikha was the successor of sachkhere in a later period (berdzenishvili; 1966: 31). according to this opinion, chikha and sachkhere could have been one and the same geographical location. this assumption should be supported by the data from the modinakhe burial ground, since this is the only archaeological monument from the medieval period discovered in the area of sachkhere and chikha to date. kekenadze 2025 5(3) 89 j. nadiradze pointed to the modinakhe necropolis and noted that, from the beginning of the late antique period, the center of argveti principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro) was supposed to be located on the right bank of the kvirili river, while the residence of the rulers of this country, as well as the necropolis, were supposed to be located on the territory of sachkhere. based on the norms of the old georgian language, the researcher did not rule out the possibility of a connection between the comparatively late toponym sachkhere and chikha (nadiradze; 1975: 76). if this opinion is correct, then it becomes clear that the modinakhe necropolis laid the foundations of the medieval chikha (sachkhere) principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro). sachkhere has a much more favorable strategic location than chikha. vital roads converged near sachkhere, which always carried heavy traffic and played an important role in the political and economic life of the country. as j. nadiradze's archaeological research has shown, the 6th–7th centuries represented the settlement's heyday. almost the entire hill was inhabited, and the cultural layers reach a thickness of 2 meters. based on this fact, archaeological literature suggests that the itskhi fortress of this era may have been the main fortification in the upper reaches of the kviri river, controlling the roads leading to the mountains and plains of shida kartli (makharadze; 2005: 40). in studying the ancient history of sachkhere, along with modinakh and chikha, the itskhisi fortress of this period is of great importance. the architectural monuments surrounding the itskhisi fortress demonstrate the particular significance of the area, among which the church of st. george in savani stands out for its historical significance. the church's façades are richly decorated and represent an interesting example of 11th-century architecture. several historical inscriptions have been preserved on the walls of the church, among which the inscription on the tympanum of the southern gate is particularly significant, revealing that the church was built by george eristavteristavi in 1046, during the reign of king bagrat iv. the names of eristavteristavi's deceased parents, gulzviad and mariam, and goliath's brother and son, are also inscribed here (silogava; 1980: 59). queen mariam and her children, giorgi and khursi, are also mentioned in a 1,000-year-old inscription of the koret church's divine liturgy, studied and published by g. gaprindashvili (gaprindashvili; 1970: 54-61). he also correctly linked the founders of the savani and koret churches and believed that the name of giorgi eristavi's brother, the eristavi from the savani church inscription, was khursi. thus, the builder of the church in savani was giorgi eristavteristavi. he was a member of a powerful feudal house, and there is no doubt that this family, in addition to large estates, owned roads leading to kartli and was engaged in extensive construction activities. the existence of the itskhi fortress and the church of st. george in savani is consistent, and it is possible that the itskhi fortress was the residence of this powerful feudal house. in the 10th century, the unified georgian kingdom was established, and argveti, of course, was politically part of it. in 1329, king george the magnificent united the country devastated by the mongols and reclaimed western georgia, including the argveti principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro). in the 15th century, a unified georgia finally disintegrated, and georgian kingdoms and principalities arose on its ruins (kharadze; 2005: 227). part of sachkhere's territory at this time remained part of kartli, while the rest became part of the kingdom of imereti. two noble estates, satseretlo and saabashidze, were established on the territory of today's sachkhere municipality. both royal and princely estates, as well as church villages, were located here. we will discuss this in more detail below, when discussing the nobility and the royal estate. nobility. the imereti principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro). system began to take shape during the reign of parnavazi (argveti principality). after the collapse of unity, the territory was largely divided into separate noble houses. the system underwent significant changes until its end (the second half of the 19th century). the imereti nobility was almost completely formed in the 15th century; at this time, the unified georgia collapsed, and the country was divided into several kingdoms and principalities. it was from this time that the nobility in imereti began to grow significantly. from the 15th to the 19th centuries, a feudal noble system existed within the territory of the municipality within the kingdom of imereti. two noble houses, satseretlo and saabashidze, were present within the boundaries of the modern municipality; their approximate locations are also shown on the map. a significant change to these borders occurred only in the first half of the 18th century, when the growing tsereteli family seized the villages of lichi, makhatauri, savane, koreti, and godora from the feudal house of saabashidze. the border line is shown on the accompanying map as it existed in the 18th and 19th centuries. kekenadze 2025 5(3) 90 while mapping the principalities' borders, we encountered a minor confusion: should the territories of the modern villages of perevi, jria, kardzmani, tedeleti, jalabeti, khakhieti, and choisi be included in the saabashidze estate, whose estates these territories directly adjoin? none of these villages are indicated on vakhushti bagrationi's map, suggesting that they did not exist at the time. the historical sources we found also provide no clue as to the ownership of this territory. it's noteworthy that we decided to include this territory in the saabashidze estate because these villages and territories are not mentioned as part of the shida kartli-samachablo principality, which borders it to the east. geographically, this area belongs more to the sachkhere municipality and is sharply separated by mountains from the villages of the java region: sirkhlabirti, alkhashenti, ribisi, biliurta, kardanakhumi, and rustavi. these villages are geographically directly adjacent to the territory of the sachkhere municipality (formerly saabashidzeo). based on the above sources and personal observations, we have compiled a retrospective cartography of the nobles who lived in the territory of today's sachkhere municipality in the 15th–19th centuries. in 1810, the russian empire conquered and abolished the kingdom of imereti, and the old form of noble rule ceased to exist along with the kingdom (soseliya; vol. ii, 1981: 203). satseretlo. one of the largest and most powerful nobles was satseretlo, which was formed around the 16th century. the tseretelebi nobles lived in upper imereti. this included primarily the territories of today's sachkhere and chiatura municipalities, as well as small parts of the terjola (dzevri), oni, ambrolauri, kareli, and khashuri municipalities. the borders and the area of settlement of the nobles in sachkhere are shown on the map. the tseretelis also owned serf estates: chikha, didtsipela, opcha, darkveti, sakurze, katskhi, tsinsopeli, and others. the tseretelis owned mount khikhata, "hunter's mountain," and part of the village of rokiti. satseretlo's borders were: the racha principality to the north, the dzirula river to the south, the likhi range to the east, and the chiatura waters to the west. among the georgian nobility of the 15th–19th centuries, nothing has been studied as thoroughly as the history of the feudal house of tsereteli. the historian olga soselia made the first contribution to this. the tseretelis were not native to imereti; this opinion is unanimous among scholars studying the history of the nobility. etymologically, there are numerous place names in saingilo and kartli containing the surname tsereteli, allowing researchers to conclude that the tseretelis migrated from saingilo to kartli, and from there to imereti. the tseretelis likely migrated from kartli to imereti after the invasions of temur-leng. "satseretelo" as a designation for an estate belonging to the tsereteli family has been found in the territory of modern-day sachkhere since the 16th century. the tseretelis were a border noble family of the kingdom of kartli. in the late 16th century, during the campaign of king simon of kartli into imereti, they fought on his side. during the reign of vakhtang v shahnavazi (1658–1675), satseretelo was apparently a vassal of the king of kartli, not imereti. the tseretelis were hostile to giorgi saakadze during his vassal rule. vakhushti bagrationi writes: "the mouravis threatened the tseretelis of kveli. the mouravis were forced to burn his estate; the tseretelis of kveli attacked the mouravis, and they fought each other. but mouravi shot three arrows into his chest, and "kveli and mouravi were victorious" (bagrationi; 1913: 67). the tseretelis became especially powerful in the second half of the 18th century and became the most powerful noble family in imereti (soseliya; 1947: 252–254). saabashidzeo. saabashidzeo was formed in the 15th century and primarily included villages in the modern-day zestafoni, kharagauli, tskaltubo, terjola, and chiatura municipalities. geographically, saabashidzeo was divided into two parts, the second part being located in sachkhere, the borders of which are clearly marked on the map. saabashidzeo's borders are: racha principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro) to the north, the dzirula river to the south, the likhi range to the east, and the argvetachkhara to the west. the abashidzes owned the fortresses of shorapani, shroshi, chalatki, and tsutskhvati. beginning in the 15th century, the abashidze-saabashidzeo feudal clan, with its center in the village of chala, emerged on the territory of today's sachkhere municipality. the abashidzes owned a palace, a fortress, a court church, and a crypt in chalashiya. kekenadze 2025 5(3) 91 until the 18th century, the abashidzes owned extensive estates in sachkhere, controlling almost 60% of the territory. beginning in the 16th century, after the tsereteli family settled nearby, they gradually lost their holdings and became relatively weak. since the 18th century, the abashidzes have controlled only the northeastern territory of sachkhere. their fiefdom was bordered to the north by the racha range and the following mountains: sabvi, phoni, pepeleti, dagverila, sirkhlabirti, ribisi, and alkhashenda; to the east by obolisi, kardanakhumi, and rustavi; to the south by mount peranga, lokhoni, and shakharadeti; and to the west by didgora, didi tskhepari, patara tskhepari, and tsiplari. between these orthographic divisions lay the sachkhere section of the saabashidzeo patrimony, centered in the village of chala. it included the following villages: drbo, gona, orguli, tkemalauri, batskiuri, panisuri, khlebi, perevi, zaskhleti, tskheprisdziri, davaeti, khakhieti, tedeleti, sinaguri, jalabeti, patkudjina, khafalgomi, dzirischala, kheldakheuli, sadarno, tbeti, kartsmani, tsoysi, lokhoysa, sarbeti, darka, sakohia, d. itskisi, velebi, churnali, jriya, chabukmta. there are several versions of the abashidze family's origins. according to one, they hail from the village of chala in the sachkhere municipality, where their surname originates. another says they hail from the village of sargveshita in the kharagauli municipality. in ancient times, the abashidze's origins in chala were apparently considered more credible. this is supported by a legend about the abaiidze clan, which tells of the migration of murvan the deaf to abkhazia and his battle with king archil. it mentions abash in murvan the deaf's army: "among these people, a boy was born from the lineage of a certain bek, whom king archil honored and raised alongside himself. later, during a hunt, a wolf attacked king archil's son, john, to warn him, and then abash drew his sword and killed the wolf." ganarina became the king's son, and as a reward, the king ennobled archil, gave him the surname abashi, and granted him estates in chala and zosiat-khevi. he also accepted the other abashids who were with him as nobles and settled them in chala, who are called "chalel abashidze" (akhuashvili; 2010: 128). the information provided contains numerous anachronisms and inconsistencies, but we consider this source pure legend and will focus solely on the fact that the village of chala is listed as the abashidzes' original residence, which is certainly no coincidence and must stem from historical information that the abashidzes originated from chala. it is also worth noting the second toponym mentioned here—zosiat khevi—a similar name is found north of chala. the similarity with the ridge near lake ertso-zostsveri is obvious. in our opinion, abashidze's place of origin should be chala. this is also supported by ancient sources mentioned in epigraphic materials in the sachkhere municipality. vakhushti bagrationi, in his "tavarta guartatvi," writes about imereti: "the abashidzes, palavandishvili, and amirejibi, in this union, owned estates in imereti and kartli, and after the division of the kingdom, one brother was placed there and the other here, as their estates and deeds show" (life of kartli. vol. iv, 1973: 35). vakhushti's quote echoes the ancient historical reality, when the eastern part of imereti was under the rule of palavandishvili and abashidze, and the amirejibi bordered them on the kartli side. the estates of the kings of imereti. in the 15th century, georgia was divided into kingdoms and principalities. within the kingdom of imereti, a new feudal property system—the nobility—emerged in place of the old principalities. the nobles had various hereditary families, and some nobles were granted complete independence from the king in internal affairs, which generally meant complete exemption from taxes. for example, the satseretlo estate in zemo mkhare was precisely such a noble estate. although noble estates often encompassed a single geographic area, the kings of imereti had their own estates within these noble estates. ownership of these estates often extended to an entire village, or a specific part of the village belonged directly to the king. in these scattered villages, the king had his own nobles, or simply the king's peasants, who paid various taxes to the king. it should also be noted that often in imereti the same village simultaneously included: royal, princely, noble and monastic lands. in the sachkhere domains (satseretlo, saabashidzeo), the royal holdings were very small; the king owned only a few villages and estates. the king often donated his estates to nobles, churches, and monasteries. the king often returned the donated estates for various reasons. during the reign of solomon i, the royal holdings consisted entirely of the villages of shalauri, lichi, and godora, which belonged to nobles living in sachkhere. ownership of the aforementioned villages later frequently passed from the king to nobles. kekenadze 2025 5(3) 92 as mentioned above, the king owned estates located in various villages. on the territory of sachkhere, the king had estates in the village of koreti and the city of sachkhere itself, where the king owned a large part of khodabune (the lord’s field) (abesadze; 1973: 11, 12, 36). as is evident from historical documents of the imeretian kingdom published by sh. burjanadze, lichi and godora (historical khepinishkevi) were royal possessions until the second half of the 17th century, after which the king granted these villages to the abashidze family, within whose borders they were located (burdzhanadze; 1958: 14, 32). as is evident from documents cited in acts published by the caucasian archaeological commission, the king again took the villages from the abashidzes, as established by the tskhro given in the book of tribute granted by solomon ii to zurab and papuna tsereteli in 1805 (acts, vol. vi: 825). as we see, in the 19th century, the tseretelis occupied most of the royal holdings in sachkhere. khepinikhevi. khepinikhevi, as we already mentioned, united the villages of the upper dziruli gorge valley in the sachkhere region; its location is marked on the map we plotted during fieldwork. in the "collection of georgian historical documents of the 9th-13th centuries" (1984), we discovered a charter issued by king david narin in 1266. the king exempted khepinikhevi and tsakveli from all taxes and granted them immunity: "...we made them inviolable and removed them from all interference: from the state, the principality (,,სამთავრო“ samtavro), and the memisupaloi" (p. 167). after the 13th century, khepinikhevi is mentioned in the 18th century as a royal possession of king erekle ii, which he gave to abashidze, thus incorporating khepinikhevi into the kingdom of imereti. conclusion in exploring the topic of this study, we attempted to conduct a systematic study of the political geography of sachkhere municipality. by reviewing relevant literature, historical sources, and archival materials, we introduced a number of innovations to the region's political geography through on-site fieldwork. using historical documents, this article examines the formation of the first historical province located here—the argveti principality—and the changes in its geographic boundaries over time. following the political geography of the argveti principality, the article examines the nature of the chikhi principality, its formation, and its geographic location. this topic is directly linked to the historical processes that have occurred since the disappearance of the argveti principality. in the 15th century, the unified georgia disintegrated, which had a significant impact on administrative matters. the old traditional territorial division was completely overturned and replaced by separate noble classes. two noble classes emerged in sachkhere – tseretelibi and abashidze. this work examines in detail the formation of both classes, the changing borders, and the ownership of individual territories. along with the tseretelibi and abashidze classes, sachkhere municipality also included estates directly owned by the king. revenues from these estates were channeled directly to the king, rather than following the traditional "peasant-chieftain-king" chain. the work also provides the territorial boundaries of one of georgia's largest gorges, khefinihevi, and its location within sachkhere municipality. this work will be useful to researchers interested in the historical geography of imereti. competing interests the authors declare that they have no competing interests. orcid id valeri kekenadze https://orcid.org/0009-0004-7444-391x reference abesadze, r. 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