This makes monotowns economically vulnerable in times of crisis and economic decline, and increases social vulnerability. Monotowns were particularly widespread in the Soviet Union, a reflection of the size, low' population density, and significant deposits of natural resources located in remote, inhospitable regions. In Kazakhstan, monotowns are defined as cities where at least 20% of industrial output and the employed population is concentrated in one or a few' core enterprises of the same industry.41 Monotowns (usually focused on mining or sometimes fishing activities) have also been common in OECD countries such as Canada, Australia and the United States. The specificity of Soviet and post-Soviet monotowns is that i) they are the result of long-term central planning, ii) they were based on supply chains based on substantial transport and energy subsidies, and iii) the main enterprise or group of enterprises (hereafter, core company or companies) acted as the supplier of municipal utilities (w'ater, sew'age and sometimes district heating when it existed) and housing for its employees (BISAM Central Asia, 2012).