Changes of social and economic situation in the Ignalina NPP region, their territorial aspects and future 76 expectations

ENIn 2004-2005, to order of the Development Agency of the Ignalina NPP Region, the scientists from the Institute of Geology and Geography in cooperation with the consultants from the Ignalina NPP Region (INPPR) carried out monitoring of social and economic state of the region. The monitoring is one of the means of mitigation of the consequences of INPP decommissioning. It was designed to find out the main development trends of the region and to foresee the necessary steps and perspective of future development. During the monitoring, the data about 105 parameters of the social status of the region were collected and analysed following the approved methods (Ignalinos ..., 2001) (the methodology of this study was comprehensively described in other articles of the present collection). The obtained data (Ignalinos ..., 2005) analysed within the INPPR social-economic monitoring programme were compared with the results of social geographical investigations carried out in 2001-2002 (Ignalinos ..., 2002) and with the data of some earlier investigations (including the national scientific programme „Atomic energy and environment"). The present article describes the patterns of social economic changes and analyses their territorial distribution.