Purpose The purpose of the paper is to explore the initial coin offering (ICO) statements as “soft law” instrument used to regulate disruptive innovations. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on the qualitative content analysis of 40 ICO statements issued by regulators in 37 countries by applying a custom-made coding table. Findings The research shows that “soft law” is used predominantly by high-capacity jurisdictions. “Soft law” allows for more flexibility and less technological and business neutrality. The findings also show the contradiction between empirical evidence and public sentiment: it seems that the widespread notion that virtual currencies have connotations with money laundering/financing of terrorism (ML/FT) is not shared by the regulators, who are more concerned by the fraud. Finally, it was found that the standard-setting bodies are lagging behind in providing guidance on the emergence technologies. Research limitations/implications The content analysis is based on 40 statements, which is a limited set of data. The method might be subject to interpersonal bias, although arrangements were made to ensure the uniformity of coding process. Practical implications The findings imply that soft law is an attractive risk-mitigation tool when the object of regulation is still evolving but the risks are present. Soft law also might contradict with the “technology and business neutrality” principle which requires further research. Finally, the findings show the need for more active involvement of the standard setting bodies. Originality/value This is the first in-depth research of the ICO-related statements as “soft law” instruments. It also offers a new perspective on the issue of financial innovations regulation.

Актуальность работы обусловлена строительством магистрального газопровода в южной Якутии. Район характеризуется сложными природно-климатическими условиями, слабой инженерно-геологической изученностью, широким развитием карстующихся пород, малой численностью населения. Учитывая недостаточность данных наблюдений за карстом, особую важность приобретает привлечение данных дистанционного зондирования территории для изучения зон повышенной трещиноватости пород, в частности линеаментный анализ. Линеамент на космоснимке – это линейно-полосчатая текстура снимка, которая на местности отражает особенности геологической структуры, такие как зоны разрывных нарушений, трещин и дробления горных пород, с которыми связана максимальная проницаемость земной коры для тепломассопереноса и миграции газовых и жидких растворов. Последнее обстоятельство открывает путь к оценке и прогнозу не только перспективности территории на наличие полезных ископаемых, но и опасности развития экзогенных геологических процессов, таких как линейной эрозии, карста, оползней. Физическая природа связи линеаментов и проявлений карста позволяет применять линеаментный анализ при оценке условий строительства сооружений на закарстованных территориях. Цель работы: понять пространственное распределение линеаментов, их ориентацию, плотность, как факторов, влияющих на развитие карстового процесса. Методика. Основное внимание в исследовании уделяется вопросу извлечения линеаментов в пределах трассы магистрального газопровода с помощью цифровой модели рельефа. Линеаменты извлекались и анализировались в программах Geomatica и ArcGIS соответственно. Результаты. Использование современных технологий выделения линеаментов на космических снимках открывает новые возможности для изучения геологического строения территории. Составлены карты распространения линеаментов и их плотности на исследуемой области. Информация по структурно-тектоническим условиям территории и полученные результаты линеаментного анализа использованы для оценки карстовой опасности района проложения трассы.

Relevance and purpose of the work. Currently, the area of development of Tomsk is increasing. New neighborhoods are growing on previously undeveloped land (for example, on the left bank of the river Tom). The central part of the city is being redeveloped and reconstructed. It is impossible to develop a high-quality territory without taking into account the dynamics, mechanisms, factors and patterns of development of dangerous natural and technological processes, the forecast of their development. The purpose of the work is to establish the patterns of gully erosion, assess the intensity of its development, and predict the probability of its occurrence within the new city boundaries. Methods of research. We performed an assessment and forecast of the development of gully erosion in Tomsk using GIS technologies, which are an important tool in the city management process due to their ability to process and analyze multidimensional data about the geological environment. We compared the traditional model of data-driven frequency ratio (FR) and expert-based multi-criteria assessment, i.e. analytical hierarchical process by weighting of gulley conditioning factors. Results of the work. We constructed a map of the distribution of gullies on the territory of the city, including 23 polygons. These polygons were then randomly divided into training (16 polygons or 70%) and validation data (7 polygons or 30%). We used seven gulley-conditioning factors for the two models to produce gulley susceptibility maps: slope angle, slope aspect, curvature, elevation, geological structure of the territory; types of filtration sections; distance to the river, to analyze the spatial patterns that determine the development of gully erosion. The spatial correlation between gulley locations and the conditioning factors were identified using GIS-based statistical models. We constructed gulley susceptibility maps based on the ranking of each factor by two methods using a training data set. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) were used to validate the resulting susceptibility maps. The area under the curve (AUC) was 0.905 for the AHP model and 0,800 for the FR model, respectively, which indicates excellent and high quality of forecast maps. We proved that both methods are beneficial for assessment the susceptibility of the territory to gully erosion. We recommend using the constructed maps for regional planning and hazard mitigation, as well as in education by teaching the discipline “Engineering geodynamics”.

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We investigate in this article the impact of soil water saturation on the slope stability, using a site in Tomsk city as a case study. The dependency of the shear strength parameters of soil on the degree of soil water saturation has been demonstrated. The paper also provides equations for the calculation of slope stability coefficient under different values of soil water saturation.