Institute of Geography of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Інститут географії Національної академії наук України; Instytut heohrafiї Natsionalnoi akademii nauk Ukrainy). Founded in 1991 on the basis of the geography department of the Institute of Geophysics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, this scientific research institute at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine is Ukraine’s leading research center in physical geography (including the physical geography of Ukraine), social geography, and cartography. Its forerunner was the geography sector of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (est 1964). In 1980, the sector was transferred to the Institute of Maritime Hydrophysics of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR and in 1983 to the Institute of Geophysics.
The institute’s priority areas include fundamental research in geography; general development of nature and the prognostication of changes in it; past and contemporary landscapes; geographic aspects of the relationship between society and nature; territorial and sectoral structure of Ukraine’s economy; the cartography of changes in landscapes, territorial organization of economy, and population distribution; and the creation of the National Atlas of Ukraine (2007)—a comprehensive cartographic study of Ukraine’s natural resources, demographics, and economy. It has 4 research departments (geomorphology and paleogeography; cartography; landscapes; and social and geographical research) and the center for spatial management and planning. It operates a research geographic station in Dymer, Kyiv oblast, which conducts the geophysical and geochemical study of landscapes. It has a research staff of around 45. In 1993, a group of institute’s scientists were awarded the State Prize of Ukraine in Science and Technology for the cycle of works on the relations between society and nature. Several prominent scholars have worked in the institute, including Yevheniia Maruniak, Zhanna Matviishyna, Serhii Lisovsky, Valentyna Nahirna, Hryhorii Pidhrushny, and Leonid Rudenko.
The institute’s scholars have published a number of monographs, of which the most valuable have been Ukraine: Transformation of Economic Structure as the Key to Spatial Development (2004), Natsional'nyi Atlas Ukraїny (National Atlas of Ukraine, 2007; electronic version, 2008), Ukraine in Maps (2008), Prostorovo-chasova koreliatsiia paleoheohrafichnykh umov chetvertynnoho periodu na terytoriї Ukraїny (Space-Time Correlation of Paleogeographic Conditions of the Quaternary Period in Ukraine, 2010), S. Zapadniuk, Mihratsiї naselennia Ukraїny: peredumovy, dynamika ta naslidky rozvytku (Migration of the Population of Ukraine: Preconditions, Dynamics, and Consequences, 2011), K. Polyvach, Kul'turna spadshchyna ta її vplyv na rozvytok rehioniv Ukraїny (Cultural Legacy and its Influence on the Development of the Regions of Ukraine, 2012), Davnia liudyna: paleoheohrafiia ta arkheolohiia (Ancient Humans: Paleogeography and Archeology, 2013), Landshaftne planuvannia v Ukraїni (Landscape Planning in Ukraine, 2014), O. Dronova, Heourbanistyka (Geourbanism, 2014), S. Pokliatsky, Umovy zhyttia naselennia velykykh mist Ukraїny (Living Conditions of the Population of Large Cities in Ukraine, 2016), Viktor Chabaniuk, Reliatsiina kartohrafiia: Teoriia ta praktyka (Relational Cartography: Theory and Practice, 2018), Akademichna heohrafiia i atlasne kartohrafuvannia za roky nezalezhnosti Ukraїny (Academic Geography and Atlas Cartography in Independent Ukraine, 2021). The institute’s main periodical is the quarterly Ukraїns'kyi heohrafichnyi zhurnal (1993–). It has been directed by Leonid Rudenko (1991–2019) and Yevheniia Maruniak (2019–).
The Institute’s official website is https://igu.org.ua/
Serhiy Bilenky
[This entry was written in 2023.]