Socio-ecological and economic balance of North Caucasus region

. The article contains the results of the research on the possibility to achieve the socio-ecological and economic balance in the regions of the North Caucasus federal district of Russia in case of developing renewable source energy and maintaining the carbon cycle in landscapes. The balanced level is determined by the special indicator, the value of which depends on the ratio of the capacity of region’s technosphere to the assimilation potential of its ecosystems expressed in energy indicators. The evaluation also determines whether the carbon cycle of the regions is being maintained or violated in the process of agricultural activities. The findings show that the general value of indicator of the district balance is 8.81, which is considerably higher than one and signals about the imbalance. The socio-ecological and economic imbalance is a characteristic of all seven regions in the district. To achieve the balance the energy balance of each region needs to increase the share of renewable energy industry up to 85-94%, on average up to 89% in the district. The necessity to maintain the carbon cycle forces to provide 28380 sq. km of the territories of the North Caucasus federal district with the specific status. These territories are mainly steppe ecosystems and put together up to 16.6% of the whole district territory.


Introduction
The regional economic activity is a complex multi-level and multi-parameter system. Its development depends on the level of the balance between its diverse components. The regions have a triad structure consisting of social, ecological and economic components, this structure is fundamental. The science has applied a system approach more than a half century. And now we have both positive and negative experience of it. The controversy in applying the system approach is that such an abstract category as "system" is used to solve actual problems. The research carried out by a number of scientists makes us conclude that complex social and economic systems have consistent patterns which are similar to natural systems where evolution development is characterized by periods of growth, regular activity and decline [1][2][3]. It allows considering the developmental processes of territorial systems in general and studying not only internal problems of its subsystems (economic, ecological and social ones) but also cross-subsystem problems emerging as a result of their interaction. The interaction of these subsystems gives rise to new problems which are not identified while other means are used. Therefore, in specific conditions there is a continuous process of establishing relevance between the defined level of environment and energy between systems. It is worth noting that the search for ideal relation between abstraction and specifics has been an open problem in science so far. The present research applies the abstract category of system to specific regions of the North Caucasus federal district. The given regions are considered as socio-ecological and economic systems combining into the socio-ecological and economic system of the district. The balanced state of the system is necessary ground for sustainable development in regions. The system structure of external surrounding of the region (macro-level) is similar to its internal system structure (micro-level). The total of socio-ecological and economic systems of the regions, through vertical relations, constitutes the basis for a balanced and sustainable development of the region. Thus, sustainable development of the district is determined by the balanced level of each socio-ecological and economic system of its regions.
The achievement of this condition allows ensuring a successful development for a long time [4]. Nowadays it is recognized that transition to the balanced sustainable development is impossible without developing the low-carbon, renewable energy industry [5]. It is worth noting that the level of renewable energy industry development is different from region to region. This makes it important to take into account natural and socio-economic peculiarities of specific regions [6]. This allows choosing a better strategy to develop renewable energy industry, and therefore, eliminate the imbalance emerging in the socioecological and economic system and leading to ecological problems.
The authors have researched a number of regions before and found out the considerable level of general imbalance of socio-ecological and economic systems in the given regions. The situation is mainly connected with the energy industry using fossil carbonaceous natural resources [7]. The key peculiarity of renewable energy industry is that, while functioning, it uses the existing material and energy flows [8]. This reason makes it possible to improve the balanced state of socio-ecological and economic development, if renewable energy industry is being developed [9,10]. Some researchers consider that transition to renewable energy industry is a sufficient condition for forming foundations of sustainable development. One of the topical issue of researches remains life quality for citizens [11,12]. However, they leave out of account a significant peculiarity of the agricultural sector activity. Even if only renewable energy sources function, the technosphere will violate the carbon balance. Thus, the balanced socio-ecological and economic development of regions is possible only if two conditions are observed: the renewable energy industry develops and the carbon cycle in natural-anthropogenic systems is maintained. It is worth noting that in regions the relevance of the given parameters may considerably differ. The present research is conducted on the regions of the North Caucasus federal district.

Materials and methods
The socio-ecological and economic system of the region is a triad of social, ecological and economic components. The components of the system exchange flows of material and energy with each other, and such an exchange is a process of biospheric metabolism. To ensure the balanced state of economic activity it is necessary to achieve an appropriate interrelation between these flows.
The triad structure includes 3 types of relations between components (a,b,c). The indices a, b, c characterize the intensity of interrelations (flows of material and energy) of the corresponding components, that is an integral characteristic of the interrelation between components, a is the intensity of interrelation between social and ecological spheres, b is the intensity of interrelation between economic and social spheres, c is the intensity of interrelation between economic and ecological spheres.
The balanced state of the triad is characterized by the equal intensity of interrelation between the triad components, that is the equality a=b=c is realized. Therefore, the balanced state of the triad is expressed through the ratio of indices a,b,c.
The balanced socio-ecological and economic system is able to function fairly long as it maintains its potential. The unbalanced systems lose its ability to reproduction for some time because of its potential waste.
The functional relation of the balance state of the socio-ecological and economic system is determined by the following I = f(a,b,c), and it has to satisfy the following conditions.
1. I = f(a,b,c) is a homogeneous function. The function is homogeneous when the condition f(ax)=a q f(x) is realized, where a>0 and q is the level of homogeneity. In our case q=1, that is f(ax)=af(x), and this means that multiplication of the function argument by the positive number a gives the same value of function as multiplication of the function by the same number a does. 2 Depending on the class to which values of I belong one can make a conclusion about the balance level of a studied socio-ecological and economic system. In case of the value is equal to 1, the situation in a region is balanced.
However, it should be outlined that for evaluation it is important to choose which interrelations of indices a,b,c will characterize the balance level of the triad to the full. The best way to assess the socio-ecological and economic balance state is the relation of the assimilation potential of region's ecosystems to the technosphere power expressed in energetic values as well as the possibility of landscapes to maintain the carbon balance.
The relation of the assimilation potential to the technosphere power allows getting a special indicator of the balanced state showing how many times the technosphere can exceed the level of regeneration possibilities of natural complexes. To calculate it the following formula is used: where Yr is the special indicator of the balanced state; Ba is the assimilation potential of the whole earth biosphere expressed in energetic values; Sr is the territory of specific landscapes situated in the studied region.
The value Sr is calculated by the following: where Lei is the square area of i landscape in the earth biospere; Lri is the square area occupied by i landscape in the studied region; Ri is the coefficient characterizing the impact of i landscape into the assimilation potential; n is the number of i landscapes in the given region.
There is one more significant indicator showing the balanced level of the region. This is the carbon balance. Its value depends mainly on the peculiarities of landscapes and the intensity of the agricultural sector in the region [13]. The value of the carbon balance is calculated by the following: where Cr is the value characterizing the maintenance of the carbon balance in the region, if Cr is less or equal to 0, then there is the maintenance, otherwise there is the carbon balance violation; Irc are the volumes of the carbon dioxide emission by the regional energy industry, while modelling the transition to renewable energy industry, the value is regarded as a difference between the existing level and the predicted one in case of the renewable energy sources development; Lri is the square area occupied by i landscape in the studied region; Pi is the coefficient characterizing the possibility of i landscape to absord or emit some volumes of the carbon dioxide; n is the general value of i landscapes in the region.

Results
The research has studied seven Russian regions situated in the North Caucasus federal district. To calculate the assimilation potential and the emission assessment as well as the absorption of the carbon dioxide by landscapes the authors have used statistical data about square areas of natural ecosystems and anthropogenically changed landscapes. The work states that agricultural lands prevail in the structure of land-use management of the North Caucasus federal district and amount to 70,9% of the district square area. This situation considerably influences the value of the assimilation potential and the possibility to maintain the carbon cycle within the necessary values. Irrational land-use management in the agricultural sector can lead to soil deterioration and cause extra emission of the carbon dioxide, which is verified by a number of researches [13,14]. While rational land-use management, pasture-lands remain close to the state of natural ecosystems and can absorb the carbon dioxide, which is taken into account in the present research.
The processed statistical data are used to calculate the assimilation potential of the regions, which allows identifying the necessary volume of renewable energy industry as well as territories with the specific environmental management status which are needed to achieve the socio-ecological and economic balance in the regions. Table 1 and Figure 1,2 present the results.

Conclusions
The research allows assessing one major factor sometimes omitted: the carbon dioxide is emitted not only while the activities of traditional energy industry but in the process of agricultural industry as well. Irrational land-use management in the agricultural sector leads to soil deterioration where a considerable amount of carbon is in the bound state. As a result it is emitted in the earth atmosphere, which leads to an extra negative impact on the climate system state. Thus, while evaluating the possibility to achieve the socio-ecological and economic balance in the regions it is necessary to take into account two parameters: the maintenance of the carbon cycle in landscapes and the level of renewable energy sources development. It is worth noting that there have not been systematic studies characterizing the carbon cycle in some ecosystems yet. The present work uses the data from other researches and scientific publications [15][16][17].
The calculated data show that the regions of the North Caucasus federal district are in an unbalanced state. The special indicator of the balanced state of the district is 8.81. The situation is considerably explained by the scale of agricultural activity. The technosphere power amounts to 10.23 GW, while the environmental capacity of ecosystems is relatively low and amounts to 1.16 GW. Thus, all the regions in the district are in an unbalanced state. To improve the situation there is a need to increase a share of renewable energy industry up to 89% on average. To restore the violated carbon balance it is necessary to give the specific environmental management status to 16.6% of the whole district area.