Electronic ethnocultural and landscape atlas of the Pskov region as an educational geoinformational resource

Abstract

The development of information technologies stimulates the use of new forms of visualization of scientific and educational materials. This is what the project of creating an electronic “Ethnocultural and landscape atlas of the Pskov region” is focused on. The Pskov region belongs to the old-developed territories of Russia, where the cultural landscapes formed over centuries have a great educational value. The scientific task of the atlas project is related to the disclosure of the ethnocultural diversity of the region’s territory and the specifics of its cultural landscapes. The purpose of this article is to substantiate the general concept, structure, and content of the atlas. The scientific concepts on which the development of the atlas is based were selected. These are the concepts of the cultural landscape and geocultural space developed in cultural geography, which determine the structure and content of the atlas. The atlas includes eight main thematic blocks. each section of the atlas has 10 maps in average. The content of several thematic blocks of the atlas is determined by the information-axiological approach within the concept of cultural landscapes. These are sections where objects of cultural and natural heritage within the Pskov region or its administrative districts are presented. Other thematic blocks of the atlas present the layers of geocultural space considered in dynamics, such as political-historical, ethnic and confessional, linguistic and toponymic, etc. The electronic “Ethnocultural and Landscape Atlas of the Pskov region” is a unique geographic information resource. The main audience of atlas is the youth of the Pskov region. Due to the publication of the atlas on the Internet, it will be available to people of other ages. The atlas is intended for use in popular science, educational, cultural, and tourist purposes.