ИСТИНА

The assessment and mapping within permafrost areas during the economic development should be considered in terms of landscapes sustainability to the cryogenic processes manifestation. Their structural and functional organization are determined by the permafrost temperature and ice content, depth of seasonal thawing, vegetation heat-insulation properties, selfrecovery rate and etc. These factors influence the lithocryogenic state of the landscape, decrease landscape stability, and, as a result, activate cryogenic processes such as thermokarst, thermal erosion, solifluction, frost heave and others. The assessment procedure includes a selection of main permafrost and biotic factors, methods of their comparison, ranking anthropogenic pressure, calculating the integral coefficients for clustering landscapes, evaluation mapping. To create these maps at various scales we use landscape indication methods, decryption satellite images, expert assessments, statistical calculations, and GIS - analysis. The following types of maps are described and presented: • potential landscape sustainability to mechanical disturbances • the permafrost-biotic state; • geoecological situations; • cryogenic processes activation; • environmental zoning.