The Department of Human Geography and Regional Studies, the School of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine) invites you to take part in the International Scientific and Practical Conference of students, post-graduate students and young researchers «Region-2016: Human Geographical aspects» and to publish your manuscripts in the scientific journal «Journal of human geography», included in the scientometric bases Index Copernicus, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, Google Scholar, InfoBase Index, Eurasian Scientific Journal Index, ResearchBib, Scientific Indexing Services.

The deadline for submitting papers for conference participation and publishing in the journal – March 15, 2016.

The information letter on the conference is in the attached file. Requirements to manuscripts publication you can find in the web-site of the journal http://hgj.univer.kharkov.ua/index.php/en/ and in the attached file If you have any questions, please, write to the following e-mails: chseg.hgj@gmail.com – on the publishing manuscripts to the journal. konfregion@ukr.net – on participation in the conference.

Also I would like to inform you about research fields of the department.  Our department deals with researches in the field of human (social) geography, regional development and territory planning, geodemography and urban geography, social development monitoring, estimation of tourist and recreational potential and tourist activity optimization, etc. Investigation of cities and their transformation in the post-communist period in terms of Ukraine’s integration in the European space has become one of our most perspective directions.

The separate issues are as follows: •    researches of problem cities (depressive, old industrial) and activities regarding their stimulation; elaboration the strategic plans of cities and regions development ; •    estimation of the cities’ tourist and recreational potential, including opportunities of industrial tourism development, as well as studying the city cultural landscape and its changes caused by human activity, village tourism development, estimation of the territories’ tourist and recreational potential, usage the nature reserve fund in tourism; •    cross-border areas research, characteristics of socio-economic, demographic, cultural development, migration processes in the border areas. Our department participated in the development Kharkiv Development Strategy-20202, especially in such directions: population and region’s settlement system, educational system and healthcare, social infrastructure and population social security, cross-border cooperation, agriculture and agro-industrial complex, tourist attractiveness of a territory. We have worked out a list of original methods:    • spatial analysis – construction the surface of interaction and spatial impact of the socio-geographical objects (settlements of different ranks, separate elements of the social and industrial infrastructure, etc).    • analysis the state, dynamic and development monitoring of the socio-geographical objects (modeling of trajectory development, identification the level and pace development, deviations from the optimal trajectory, progressive and regressive development phases, correction of the managed decisions;   •  multidimensial classification of socio-geographical system on different system development indicators (estimation the systems evolution potential, specialization of systems, specificity of development).

The indicated methods were tested by our researchers, PhD students and doctoral students in the researches of region’s social and demographical development, investment attractiveness and territory competitiveness, cross-border cooperation, depressive and old industrial regions development, agriculture and ecologically balanced husbandry, tourist and recreational potential, transport system, educational system, healthcare, religion and cultural sphere, geoecological situation, GIS infrastructure, etc.

The web-site of the department:  http://soc-econom-region.univer.kharkov.ua/index.php?lang=en

Sincerely, Ludmila Niemets, Head of the Department of Human Geography and Regional Studies, School of Geology, Geography, Recreation and Tourism, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University