Lateral interaction of local geosystems of outwash valley landscapes of the Lower Vyatka

The paper presents the results of the analysis of lateral interaction of outwash valley landscapes on mesorelief slopes in various parts of the Medvedsky Pine Forest Nature Sanctuary in the lower Vyatka valley. The baseline data were the results of the authors' field and laboratory analytical studies of more than 120 landscape facies. These elementary landscapes occupy various geomorphological stages in the relief: I, II and III terraces above the floodplain as well as a strip of alluvial glaciofluvial deposits which graduates to the slope of the river valley. The mesorelief within each of these stages is also heterogeneous: it includes aeolian dunes and knobs, interdunal and interknob basins, karst basins and sub-horizontal surfaces. Three models of slope geosystems of the outwash valley are presented: ancient aeolian, marsh and karst. An original method for evaluating the strength of lateral interaction between certain units of slope geosystems based on the degree of difference in their states is proposed.