Geoinformation analysis of the potential of human resources of agricultural territories of Volgograd region

The purpose of this research is to assess the degree of auspiciousness of the human resources potential of the agricultural territories of Volgograd region, its territorial structure. The authors use the classical methodological approach of economic geography in conjunction with modern geographic information systems. The study includes three stages. The first is the collection and processing of statistical data on the main indicators of human resources of rural settlements such as number, density, age composition. The second stage includes the compilation of thematic maps for the selected indicators, the allocation of classes for the ranges of values of indicators and their spatial analysis. The third stage is the creation of an integrated map for a set of indicators with the allocation of territories according to the degree of auspiciousness of the potential of human resources. As a result, the main characteristics of the rural population of Volgograd region are identified. It has been established that most of the rural settlements belong to large rural settlements. Zones of increased and decreased density of the rural population are identified. According to the estimation of the age composition made by calculating the aging index, the rural population is in the stage of deep and verydeep aging. Geoinformation mapping methods allow not only statistical processing of data, but also spatial analysis of the distribution of mapped indicators. The geoinformation analysis of the human potential of agricultural territories allows us to talk about the mosaic nature of its territorial structure, the alternation of territories with varying degrees of its development.