ИСТИНА

St.Petersburg and Leningrad region belong to the most populated and tourist-active regions in the European part of Russia. St.Petersburg is a second important transportation connection point in Russia, there are many industrial and infrastructure facilities in Leningrad region such as chemical plants, mechanic engineering, power stations including a nuclear power station, etc. That is why a lot of technical objects and people can be influenced or damaged by natural hazards and various types of technological accidents can be triggered by natural phenomena that have place in the region. Leningrad region has a medium level of frequency of emergency situations caused by natural triggers (two to four cases a year). Hydro-meteorological phenomena are the most often among all natural triggers of emergency situations here; about 50% of them are caused by storms and strong winds and 25% by floods. The majority of technological emergency situations are caused by fires in industrial facilities and residential sector, trafic accidents and shipcrashes. Sometimes natural phenomena can also trigger technological accidents. However, their frequency is not so high (about three cases a year). Breakdonws in power systems and transport problems are the most often among them. In general, we can characterize Leningrad region and St.Petersburg as an area with a low level of danger for tourism development. The biggest influence on tourists can have emergency situations triggered by storms, strong winds, floods, snowfalls as well as wild and technological fires.