The COVID-19 Pandemic in the Regions of Greater Siberia: Regional Types of Spatial Interaction

A. N. Pilyasov (), I. N. Alov () and B. V. Nikitin ()
Additional contact information
A. N. Pilyasov: Lomonosov Moscow State University
I. N. Alov: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia
B. V. Nikitin: Lomonosov Moscow State University

Regional Research of Russia, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 769-783

Abstract: Abstract— The object of the study was the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in Siberia in 2020–2021. The authors examined this process with a case study of 15 federal subjects. The aim of the study is to explain the mechanism and result (in excess mortality) of penetration of the coronavirus into Siberia, based on the characteristic features of the space of Siberian regions. The novelty of the approach is the use of the most reliable monthly excess mortality statistics for characterizing the demographic impact of the pandemic, involvement of regional normative legal acts with antivirus focus, and application of the theory of spatial diffusion of innovations to describe pandemic waves in the regions of Greater Siberia. The main results of the work are as follows. First, the authors identified five types of Siberian regions in terms of integral demographic damage from the pandemic in 2020–2021: Yamalo-Nenets and Khanty-Mansi autonomous okrugs had the highest excess mortality; Omsk, Novosibirsk, Tyumen oblasts, moderately high mortality; Tomsk oblast and Altai and Krasnoyarsk krais, with relatively high mortality; Irkutsk oblast, the Altai Republic, Kemerovo oblast, the republics of Khakassia and Buryatia, and Zabaykalsky krai, excess mortality below the national average; the Tyva Republic, extremely low excess mortality for the entire pandemic. Second, the authors identified four types of regional spatial systems of Siberia according to the degree of vulnerability to coronavirus diffusion: the most vulnerable open polycentric system; highly vulnerable open centralized system; medium-vulnerable closed centralized system; the least vulnerable closed polycentric system. Third, the authors found that in the first type, the most important for the spread of the pandemic, was relocation spatial diffusion (and its particular characteristic case of rotational migrations); in the second type, relocation diffusion (“airplane”) and horizontal diffusion (in the contour of the local labor market); in the third and fourth types, horizontal spatial diffusion. The common factors of industry specialization, population density, and transport infrastructure in the conditions of Siberia had little effect on the level of coronavirus incidence. Much more important was the communication (contact-intensive) context of these factors, which determined the potential for infection and the pandemic spreading rate in the space of Siberian regions.

Keywords: COVID-19 pandemic; regions of Greater Siberia; relocation; horizontal; hierarchical spatial diffusion of the virus; permeability of the regional space; types of regional spatial systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1134/S207997052370106X Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:rrorus:v:13:y:2023:i:4:d:10.1134_s207997052370106x

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.springer ... cience/journal/13393

DOI: 10.1134/S207997052370106X

Access Statistics for this article

Regional Research of Russia is currently edited by Vladimir M. Kotlyakov and Vladimir A. Kolosov

More articles in Regional Research of Russia from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().