"COME ON!" geography: Updating toward world trends

Abstract

The paper presents an analysis of the main modern social transformations, as well as the challenges and opportunities which geography faces within this context. The authors, taking into account recent developments of the Club of Rome and some other international documents which underpin the implementation of sustainable development policies, have been building a corresponding concept of geography’s reshaping based on the paradigm of innovation development. The importance of the territory as the basis of natural capital has been emphasized. The constructive view on the natural rent of the territory as an economic basis of sustainable development and the basis of its self-support has been stated. The emphasis on strengthening of the integrative, informational and pragmatic functions of geography has been done. The key thematic blocks, problems, the research of which could be (or already is) especially effective on the principles of transdisciplinarity, with the leading role of geographic science have been selected. These include climate change adaptation, environmental conservation and rehabilitation, territorial capital’s assessment and use of natural resources, and urban development management. The potential of geographic science in the development of geospatial data infrastructure has been highlighted, as well as the need for the appearance of “post-industrial” type (e.g. geoinformational, GIS-technological) of research approaches.