European Geographical Studies

136-142

Authors: Nana M. Berdzenishvili

This article, based on copious material, looks into the past, present, and future demographic situation in Georgia. The author analyzes the major social challenges of modernity related to migration processes, unemployment, and, as a consequence, a decline in the size of Georgia’s population. The study also devotes special attention to social projects aimed at improving the demographic situation in the country.

152-160

Authors: Alexander S. Bolkhovitinov

In this short note we consider the way in which a useful approximation of “shark tooth” stalactites morphology can be obtained with a very simple mathematical function. The approximation is not applicable for other stalactite morphologies, because this possibility can be used only in very special applications, where the solution (or approximation) process is complicated by the presence of some more patterning effects. We shall not consider this complicated question in this article. We only pay attention to the fact that some stalactite patterning mechanisms admit a simple geometrical interpretation in the frame of particle swarm optimization theory.

170-176

Authors: Altynbek A. Zhakupov, Meruert N. Musabayeva, Gulzhan M. Djanalieva

When it comes to resolving the issue of the use of natural conditions and resources for the organization of leisure and tourism, we suggest examining them considering the following aspects: the genetic basis of natural recreation resources and their link to major factors in the geographical environment; the present state of research into natural recreation resources and identifying criteria for assessing them; assessing and mapping natural recreation resources; approaches toward selecting sites for resort reclamation and issues in protecting natural recreation resources; determining the diversity of types of tourism/recreation activity and prospects for the tourism/recreation reclamation of natural/tourism potential.