The ancient waterways constitute a special type of spatial object of cultural and natural heritage. In ancient Russia, the main lines of communication were laid on the rivers and lakes. Their role in this capacity has been predetermined by geological and geographical structure of the European part of the country. In the 17th - 19th centuries this commonly known route from the “Vikings to the Greeks” was reconstructed in three major water systems. The development of these water «highways» was due both to the activities of European hydraulic engineers, and the expansion of trade with European countries.
In this situation, the waterway has played a role in forming the core of the structure and formation of the entire hierarchy of cultural and historical systems. Consideration of cultural monuments and hydraulic engineering as part of an integrated natural-human system is uniquely required to reorient the traditional historical-scientific approaches.
The main vector of the research was redirected to a multidimensional examination of the history of the waterway as a unifying principle for the development of the whole region. The correct study of culture and hydraulic engineering monuments required to carry out in parallel the historical, geographical, hydrological and ecological research. A special place in the area of waterway occupied by cultural and historical landscapes - complete historical, cultural and natural formation located in a particular zone with certain natural homogeneous properties due to the long interaction between man and landscape during their coherent development. With this approach intellectual and cultural values forming a sort of an information block are considerate as independent components of the landscape. Genesis, size and nature of the operation of these landscapes is mainly determined by socio-economic part of the structure, including the economic and mental activities of man.
The North Dvina, Mariinsky and Vyshnevolocky lake and river systems, connected by man-made channels, with the extant monuments of hydraulic engineering present typical examples of such cultural and historical areas. During the 2005-2012 period, researchers of the Moscow University and Russian Academy of Sciences expedition completed the study according to the declared method.
The proposed method of mapping of various natural objects on the old and modern (including Earth remote sensing data) maps made possible to identify the retrospective nature of the situation, to restore the history of the system.
This work was supported by RFBR grant - project number 09-05-00041