The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context
Abstract Climate change has become significantly pronounced in the Arctic over recent decades. In addition to these climate effects, the environment has experienced severe anthropogenic pressure connected to increased human activities, including the exploitation of natural resources and tourism. The...
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0032247422000018 2024-03-03T08:42:07+00:00 The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context Kavan, Jan Halašková, Barbora 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247422000018 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247422000018 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Polar Record volume 58 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development journal-article 2022 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247422000018 2024-02-08T08:42:44Z Abstract Climate change has become significantly pronounced in the Arctic over recent decades. In addition to these climate effects, the environment has experienced severe anthropogenic pressure connected to increased human activities, including the exploitation of natural resources and tourism. The opportunity to exploit some of the natural riches of Svalbard was promptly grasped by the Soviet Union well before the 1940s. In this paper, we present the story of Pyramiden, a mining settlement in central Svalbard. The Soviet town experienced its golden age in the 1970–1980s but fell into decline in the late 1990s which corresponds well with the overall economic and geopolitical situation of the Soviet Union. The impacts of past mining activities and related urban infrastructure development are illustrated with the use of historic aerial photographs. The most pronounced changes in the terrain configuration were connected to adjustments of the river network, construction of roads, water reservoirs, and obviously mining-related activities. The natural processes overwhelmed the city infrastructure rather quickly after the abandonment of the town in 1998, though some traces of human activities may persist for decades or centuries. Nowadays, Russia has been attempting to recover the settlement especially through support of tourism and research activities. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Polar Record Pyramiden Svalbard Cambridge University Press Arctic Svalbard Pyramiden ENVELOPE(-3.817,-3.817,-72.283,-72.283) Polar Record 58 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development |
spellingShingle |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development Kavan, Jan Halašková, Barbora The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences Ecology Geography, Planning and Development |
description |
Abstract Climate change has become significantly pronounced in the Arctic over recent decades. In addition to these climate effects, the environment has experienced severe anthropogenic pressure connected to increased human activities, including the exploitation of natural resources and tourism. The opportunity to exploit some of the natural riches of Svalbard was promptly grasped by the Soviet Union well before the 1940s. In this paper, we present the story of Pyramiden, a mining settlement in central Svalbard. The Soviet town experienced its golden age in the 1970–1980s but fell into decline in the late 1990s which corresponds well with the overall economic and geopolitical situation of the Soviet Union. The impacts of past mining activities and related urban infrastructure development are illustrated with the use of historic aerial photographs. The most pronounced changes in the terrain configuration were connected to adjustments of the river network, construction of roads, water reservoirs, and obviously mining-related activities. The natural processes overwhelmed the city infrastructure rather quickly after the abandonment of the town in 1998, though some traces of human activities may persist for decades or centuries. Nowadays, Russia has been attempting to recover the settlement especially through support of tourism and research activities. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Kavan, Jan Halašková, Barbora |
author_facet |
Kavan, Jan Halašková, Barbora |
author_sort |
Kavan, Jan |
title |
The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context |
title_short |
The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context |
title_full |
The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context |
title_fullStr |
The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context |
title_full_unstemmed |
The rise and fall of Pyramiden: The story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context |
title_sort |
rise and fall of pyramiden: the story of a town in a wider geopolitical and environmental context |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0032247422000018 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0032247422000018 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-3.817,-3.817,-72.283,-72.283) |
geographic |
Arctic Svalbard Pyramiden |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Svalbard Pyramiden |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Polar Record Pyramiden Svalbard |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Polar Record Pyramiden Svalbard |
op_source |
Polar Record volume 58 ISSN 0032-2474 1475-3057 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0032247422000018 |
container_title |
Polar Record |
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58 |
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1792497604143087616 |