Urban agglomeration - what is it: the origin of formations. The concept of urban agglomeration. Examples of its development How an urban agglomeration is formed

UDC 711.2 KOLYASNIKOV V. A.

Development of the concept of "urban agglomeration"

The article discusses the evolution of the concept of "urban agglomeration". The analysis shows the continuity of the development of innovative ideas for the formation of agglomerations and the introduction of such ideas into the practice of territorial settlement planning. A new concept of "innovative agglomeration" is introduced.

Keywords: urban agglomeration, innovative infrastructure, innovative agglomeration, architectural and planning organization, urban composition.

V. A. KOLYASNIKOV

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CONCEPT OF "URBAN AGGLOMERATION"

The article examines the evolution of the term "urban agglomeration". The analysis shows the continuous development of innovative ideas on the formation of agglomerations and implementation of such ideas in practice of territorial planning of resettlement. The new concept of "innovation agglomeration".

Keywords: urban agglomeration, innovation infrastructure, innovation infrastructure, innovation, agglomeration, architectural and planning organization, urban composition.

Kolyasnikov Viktor

Alexandrovich

Doctor of Architecture, Professor at Ural State Academy of Arts, Head of the Urban Planning Laboratory of the Branch of the Federal State Budgetary Institution "TsNIIP of the Ministry of Construction of Russia" UralNIIproekt

[email protected]

The relevance of the problem of updating the terminological apparatus in the field of theory and practice of agglomeration settlement today is determined by the need to develop and implement the Urban Planning Doctrine of Russia.

The strategy for the development of urban agglomerations and large metropolitan cities, presented in the National Doctrine of Urban Development of Russia (draft RAASN, 2001), provided for the implementation in practice of "a new concept of planning and managing the urban development of the largest cities and agglomerations, responsible for the formation of a favorable urbanized living environment" . Such implementation for metropolitan cities meant a transition from a massive expansion of development on free lands to a strategy of comprehensive urban reconstruction, the development of agglomerations as integral organisms using the potential of settlements in the zone of influence of metropolises to eliminate disproportions in the quality of life of the population and the environment. It was planned to implement programs for the development and revival of the Russian village and small town as the basis of the binding fabric of the entire frame of the country's settlement.

So far, there has been no significant movement in this direction. Moreover, metropolises began to actively develop new territories and absorb the labor resources of small settlements. An example is the expansion of Moscow to the borders of the Kaluga Region.

lusti, a roadmap for the resettlement of people from single-industry towns, a proposal by the Russian Ministry of Economy on the concentration of forces and resources within 20 large agglomerations of the country. Experts see in this process the “narrowing of the space” of the Russian Federation, which threatens its national security.

In the new project "Urban Planning Doctrine of the Russian Federation" (RAASN, 2014), the list of priority research and design objects includes: the largest and largest agglomerations in the most urbanized regions of Russia; port agglomerations; rural-urban forms of settlement (they exist in agglomerations and beyond); communication frameworks; clusters; "open architectural and planning structures" (oriented towards innovative development), as well as new urban formations that should be created along transport communications. At the same time, the need is noted for “turning urban planning from a consumer of innovations created in other industries and areas of activity into a source of innovation for the economy, culture and technology” .

Today, the problem of developing existing settlements and coordinating new construction in the agglomeration should be considered in conjunction with the general tasks of innovative and strategic transformation of this form of settlement. In this regard, it is necessary to reveal the evolution of the concept of "agglomeration"

Illustration 1. Models of settlement in the zone of influence of the city center: a - Big Moscow, V. Sakulin, 1918; b - Greater Moscow with a system of satellites, S. Shestakov, 19211924 (a, b according to P.A. Volodin); c - model of a large city with satellites, R. Enwin, England, 1922; d - system of city-industrial satellites, R. Witten, USA, 1923 (c, d after I. Gruz)

in the theory of settlement and urban planning, to give a modern interpretation of this concept from the standpoint of an innovative-strategic approach.

In relation to the definition of the concept of "agglomeration" and the primacy of its introduction, researchers do not have a single point of view. Thus, one of the leading economic geographers of Russia, E. N. Pertsik, notes that an urban agglomeration is often understood as “accumulations of populated areas that are rapidly developing all over the world”, for which there is no single terminology.

Ural researchers

E. G. Animitsa and N. Yu. Vlasova believe that the term "agglomeration" in relation to settlement was introduced by the French geographer M. Rouget, and later it became synonymous with the English concept of "conurbation" - "a group of suburbs merged with the main city or merged small towns. Scientists note a number of circumstances in the evolution of the concept of "agglomeration" in domestic science: 1) in our country, the ancestor of introducing the concept of "urban agglomeration" into science is P. I. Dubrovin (1959); 2) V. G. Davidovich (1960), D. I. Bogorad (1960), G. M. Lappo (1961), F. M. Listengurt (1973) and other researchers actively participated in the development of this concept; 3) the concept of "urban agglomeration" was established by the end of the 1970s - the beginning of the 1980s. not only in specialized literature, but also in everyday usage. The development of the concept was accompanied by the development of a methodology for identifying boundaries and models of agglomerations.

However, the primacy in defining the concept of "urban agglomeration" should be given to the founder of the modern theory of urban planning, the Scottish professor P. Geddes, who introduced the term "conurbation" in 1903 as a new form of population grouping, as well as the term "conglomeration" as "conurbation of agglomerations" ( lat. aglomerare - to attach, add; rus. - "clump of cities"). In conurbation, there is a convergence of cities that develop independently and apart; in agglomerations - under the influence of one city center. The emergence of the concept of agglomeration also goes back to the works of A. Weber. At the beginning of the twentieth century. he linked the process of location of industry with the intensification of agglomeration tendencies.

At the same time, “agglomeration” as an object of planning appeared in the domestic practice of urban design of settlement as early as 1918, when the architect B. Sakulin developed the “Organization Scheme of Moscow and its Adjacent Region”. B. Sakulin essentially proposed the creation of a large urban agglomeration (although he did not use this term) with satellite cities that encircle Moscow in three rings. Despite the outward similarity of the schemes of B. Sakulin and E. Howard (1898), their main difference was in the functions of satellite cities: in B. Sakulin's scheme, industrial cities were satellites, and in E. Howard's scheme, garden cities. The innovative idea of ​​creating a settlement in the form of a ring system of satellite towns was developed in the project of S. Shestakov "Greater Moscow" (1921-1924). Simultaneously with the project of S. Shestakov, but later than his work, R. Enwin (England) and R. Whitten (USA) drew up schemes for the formation of satellite cities of London and industrial satellite cities in the USA (Illustration 1).

In the 1930s the basis for the creation of "agglomerations" in our country are the avant-garde projects of big cities, industrial districts and hubs, green cities - social and recreational complexes

with pendulum movements of workers (Illustration 2). Creative teams of domestic and foreign (mainly from the Bauhaus) specialists are developing a number of such projects:

1 Bolshoy Sverdlovsk (S. V. Dombrovsky et al., 1930);

2 Perm industrial hub (V.N. Semenov, 1930);

3 Big Tagil (A. Mostakov et al., 1932);

4 settlement schemes for the city of Gorky, the variant “a city consisting of satellite cities” (A.P. Ivanitsky, 1932);

5 Chernikovsky industrial hub and Bolshaya Ufa (headed by M. Ya. Ginzburg, 1933);

6 Orsk-Khalilovsky industrial hub and Big Orsk (M. Stam, G.K. Schmidt et al., 1934);

7 Chelyabinsk industrial hub (Eismont, 1935);

8 Big Berezniki (Sverdoblproekt Institute, 1937).

Work on the implementation of these projects was carried out before the start of the Great Patriotic War.

1970-1980s - the time of active development in the USSR of the theory of agglomerations and the introduction of this theory into the practice of designing the General Scheme of Settlement. Terminological and methodological

Figure 2. Big Ufa project, hands. M. Ya. Ginzburg, 1933: a - settlement scheme; b - Northern region; c - sketch of the settlement of the Chernikovsky district (according to I. Gruz)

bases for the study of agglomerations. There is a transition from considering the urban agglomeration as a set of only places of residence and places of application of labor to the analysis and modeling of all types of daily life of people, including recreation and social communication. Connections of agglomerations with territorial production complexes and industrial centers are being established.

A classification and typology of agglomerations is being created: in accordance with the decisions of the General Scheme of Settlement, the urban agglomerations of the USSR are divided by the number of people living in them into the largest, large and large; within each of these gradations, agglomerations are distinguished that are at various stages of development of group forms of settlement (established, emerging and potential).

The negative and positive sides of agglomeration processes are investigated. Concepts, ideal models and real projects of formation are being developed

and regulation of settlement in agglomerations (Figure 3).

In the publications of that time, researchers give different definitions of the concept of "urban agglomeration". So, in 1974, the urban architect Ya. V. Kositsky in the book “Architectural and planning principles for designing cities (Urbanistics)” writes that “an agglomeration is a large city surrounded by satellites and continued by its resting places”; in the agglomeration, “the relationship of individual parts with the central core is expressed by commuting to work”; “the agglomeration is subdivided into 3 zones - central, middle and outer, in which the proportion of the urban population not employed in agriculture is 90%, 70-80% and 50%, respectively”; “the population density of the agglomeration is decreasing from 13-25 thousand people per sq. m in the central zone to 0.2-0.4 thousand in the outer zone. This interpretation of the term "agglomeration" can be compared with its interpretation by the geographer G. M. Lappo (1987): domestic, recreational, as well as the joint use of this area and its resources. In this case, we are talking about the areas of three zones of influence of the city-center of the agglomeration (near, middle, distant or outer).

A comparison of the experience of studying the problems of the development of agglomerations by scientists from the USSR and Western countries shows that there are no special differences in the explanations of the term "urban agglomeration". General recognition is given to the idea of ​​singling out three zones in the agglomeration, satellite settlements, links between populated areas and the city center; quantitative criteria for optimizing the agglomeration, preserving and developing the individuality of its individual parts. This similarity of positions speaks of the objectivity of agglomeration processes. J. Beaugh-Garnier (1960) notes that "the differences in the development of a network of cities in socialist countries and free enterprise are not so categorical" .

In the post-Soviet period of the development of domestic urban planning, the agglomeration did not receive legislative recognition. However, the crisis of agricultural forms of settlement, small settlements and numerous single-industry towns, as well as the spontaneous construction of housing in the suburbs, led to an increased interest in the problem of coordinating the development of agglomerations in our country.

The problems of formation and regulation of the development of agglomerations of large cities in Russia today are in the focus of attention of federal, regional and local authorities, specialists in the field of urban planning, sociology, economics, ecology, transport, housing and communal services and other fields of activity. Such attention to the problem in our country is associated not only with the threat of "narrowing the space" of the settlement of Russia, but also with the main international vector of the modern development of urban planning. In 2003, the New Athens Charter was adopted by the European Council of Urban Planners. It formulated the concept of interconnected cities, in which the processes of territorial development are focused on strengthening partnerships and exchanges between cities in social, political, economic and technological, environmental and urban relations.

In our country, the theoretical and methodological base of settlement and urban planning is being modernized in line with urban planning justification and providing

Figure 3. Models of agglomerations: a - territorial structure of a large agglomeration (according to G. M. Lappo): 1 - central city, 2 - closing satellites, 3 - other satellites, 4 - agglomerations of the second order, 5 - first, 6 - second belt of satellites , 7 - peripheral zone, 8 - counterweight nodes, 9 - transport lines; b - scheme of the GPS with the city center

interaction of populated areas in agglomerations. The concept of "agglomeration" is developing, new concepts, models and projects of the country's agglomeration are being developed.

In the context of an innovative-strategic approach to the territorial planning of settlement and populated areas, the concepts of agglomeration are of particular interest, the interpretations of which are given in the works of E. N. Pertsik and M. Ya. Vilner. E. N. Pertsik considers the urban agglomeration as “a system of geographically close and economically interconnected settlements, united by stable labor, cultural, domestic and industrial ties, a common social and technical infrastructure”; a qualitatively new form of settlement, "a special product of modern urbanization" . The author of the book gives a new answer to the difficult question of the delimitation of the boundaries of an agglomeration: “The boundaries of an urban agglomeration are mobile in time due to a change in the most important parameter of an agglomeration - the distance of daily movements from the place of residence to the places of employment: within the framework of the spatial self-organization of these movements, their range grows in proportion to the increase in the speed of means transport, and the time costs increase slightly” [Ibid., 33].

E. N. Pertsik’s ideas about agglomeration reflect the basic principles of its modern and future design and development as a “new product”: consistency, infrastructure, socio-economic and technical conditionality, synergy (taking into account regularities

Figure 4. Modeling the planning composition of the agglomeration, Yu. N. Belokon: a - forms of settlement of urban agglomerations; b - Kyiv agglomeration in the supra-regional territorial system; c - model of the radial structure of the Kyiv agglomeration with the formation of groups of suburban settlements

synergy). This approach to understanding the agglomeration is also manifested in the fundamental monograph by M. Ya. Vilner “Fundamentals of territorial planning in the Russian Federation”. According to the author of the monograph, “urban agglomeration is self-developing, giving

synergistic effect of stimulating socio-economic development group form of population resettlement - the concentration of cities and other populated areas, sometimes merging, united by common infrastructures, intensive and daily labor,

Figure 5. Sketches of the settlement composition, Z. N. Yargina, 1998: a - Israel, settlement scheme; b - Symbols of the earth, Tree of life, Menorah; c, d - schemes for the development and watering of the Negev desert

industrial, social and cultural ties".

The synergetic position of M. Ya. Vilner in relation to the agglomeration acts in conjunction with the successive development of the concept of creating group forms of settlements, developed within the framework of the General Scheme of Settlement of the USSR. Tradition in this case can be considered as a source of innovative settlements.

The innovative potential is contained in the architectural and planning organization of agglomerations. In such an organization, the synthesis of functional, engineering, environmental and aesthetic solutions is carried out by optimizing and compositional ordering of the planning and volumetric-spatial structures of the settlement, its environment for the life of people as a whole.

In the twentieth century the architectural and planning organization of settlement as a subject of activity was in the sphere of increased attention of such well-known researchers and designers as V. N. Semenov, A. P. Ivanitsky, M. Ya. Ginzburg, A. V. Ikonnikov, A. E. Gutnov,

I. G. Lezhava, P. Abercrombie, K. Lynch and others. Architectural and urban planning activities are brought together by the unity of their objects, goals, methodologies and principles. The study of the evolution of ideas about agglomeration shows the movement of understanding it as an object (from the accumulation of populated areas to the environment), the development of methodology (from a social-aspect approach to a systemic, synergistic, strategic and other approaches) and principles (from “harmonization of functions” to a systemic organizations).

In the domestic practice of territorial planning of the settlement of the post-Soviet period, the architectural and planning organization of agglomerations was mainly limited to the use of structuring methods (zoning, allocation of frames) and normalization of the development of territories. Under the influence of the Town Planning Code of the Russian Federation (2004), which excluded architectural knowledge and requirements from the field of territorial planning of settlement and populated areas, the most important methods of model-building essentially fell out of the arsenal of designers.

development of conceptual and artistic, planning and morphological, three-dimensional and sign-information structures of the composition of settlement systems, including their agglomeration forms. The innovative potential of the composition turned out to be unused as a means of harmonizing the environment and the architect's creative method of work.

Despite the shortcomings in the legislation, in the domestic theory of urban planning (which fully included research in the field of the former "district planning"), the architectural and planning direction of the organization of resettlement was further developed. Yu. N. Belokon (2003) developed models of planning compositions for settlement on the territory of such countries as Kuwait (centralized composition), Benelux (decentralized composition), Poland (composition with evenly spaced urbanized zones and a radial network structure of communications), Jordan (composition with uneven urbanization and a linear structure of communications). The researcher identified single-center, radial, radial-annular, multi-center, linear and network forms of agglomerations (Figure 4).

In the book by A. G. Bolshakov "Fundamentals of the theory of urban planning and district planning" (2004), a significant role in the architectural and planning organization of agglomerations as group systems of populated areas is assigned to the regulation of the interaction between the planning structure of settlement and the natural landscape based on the principles of their polarization, functional and aesthetic optimization this interaction, the discontinuity of the urbanized and the continuity of the natural-ecological framework. The researcher notes the peculiarity of the agglomeration: the placement of the population in its settlements pursues economic, social and environmental goals within the framework of specialization, socio-cultural specifics and specific natural conditions of the region.

The focus of the author's research is the landscape, the urban organization of which includes functional and compositional solutions, leading to the sustainable development of territories. Of great interest in the work of A. G. Bolshakov in relation to determining the possibilities of harmonizing the environment in the agglomeration are sketches of planning

and volumetric-spatial structures of the settlement composition, made in 1998 by a well-known scientist in our country Z. N. Yargina. The author of sketches fills the form of compositional structures with a certain artistic content, expressed in symbols (Illustration 5).

In his fundamental scientific work, Ya. V. Kositsky (2005) substantiated the principle of geographical determinism both in global urbanization and in the architectural and planning development of cities and agglomerations. He developed graphic models of three types of "orbital structure" of agglomerations: concentric, eccentric and aquacentric. These types are typical for many agglomerations of the world (including Yekaterinburg). The researcher notes that the “concentric agglomeration” with several orbits is quite consistent with its traditional geographical division into the central, middle and outer zones, the agricultural employment of the population of which does not exceed, respectively, 10-30-50%. The allocation of orbital structures of agglomerations by Ya. V. Kositsky demonstrates the patterns of their self-organization.

Conclusion

The study of the evolution of the concept of "urban agglomeration" shows that from the very beginning of its appearance, it was about an innovative approach to solving the problems of settlement, a new form of regulation of the interaction of populated areas with each other and with nature.

The concept of agglomeration was especially actively developed in our country in the 1920s-1930s and 1970s-1980s. New knowledge about agglomeration was formalized in the form of theoretical models and specific projects.

The prerequisites for the creation of modern Russian agglomerations are contained in the concepts and models of group systems of settlements identified in the General Scheme of Settlement of the USSR on the basis of territorial-industrial, agro-industrial, socio-cultural and recreational complexes. In modern conditions of strategic management of the development of territories and the improvement of market relations, these complexes become the basis for the formation of innovative clusters and zones of accelerated socio-economic development.

Generalization of various interpretations of the urban agglomeration from the position

its formation as an innovative architectural and planning system makes it possible to introduce the concept of "innovative agglomeration". This is a compact spatial grouping of settlements, which has objects of innovative production, social, environmental, transport and engineering infrastructure, as well as united by pendulum functional and compositional links into a dynamic and cost-effective system.

Innovative agglomeration is a system of settlement, in the architectural and planning organization of which scientific, technical, artistic and design innovations are introduced in order to obtain a socio-economic effect from urban planning coordination of the development of populated areas, a sustainable improvement in the quality of life of people and the environment of settlements. The town-planning composition should play a special role in the organization of the innovative agglomeration. In the conditions of market development, it should be considered not only as a source of new solutions for harmonizing the functional and planning structure of agglomerations, but also as a means of implementing marketing strategies for creating an attractive image of settlements, conditions for the effective use of attractions and human capital.

Strategic management of agglomeration systems should be carried out taking into account the laws of their self-organization, the laws of civilizational and biospheric processes, as well as the importance of agglomerations in the creation and development of the supporting frame of a unified innovative system of settlement in Russia and individual regions of the country.

List of used literature

1 Animitsa E. G., Vlasova N. Yu. Yekaterinburg, 2008.

2 Belokon Yu. N. Regional planning (theory and practice) / ed. I. A. Fomina. Kyiv, 2003.

3 God-Garnier J., Chabot J. Essays on the geography of cities. M., 1967.

4 Bolshakov A. G. Fundamentals of the theory of urban planning and district planning. Irkutsk, 2004.

5 Vilner M. Ya. Fundamentals of territorial planning in the Russian Federation. M., 2013.

6 Vladimirov V. V., Neimark N. I. Problems of development of the theory of settlement in Russia. M., 2002.

7 City of the 21st century: development management. Yekaterinburg, 2014.

8 Urban planning doctrine of the Russian Federation. M., 2014.

9 Gutnov A. E., Lezhava I. G. The future of the city. M., 1997.

10 Kolyasnikov V. A. On a new approach to the territorial planning of Russia // Management of the development of the territory. 2014. No. 4. S. 46-50.

11 Integrated district planning. M., 1980.

12 Kositsky Ya. V. Architectural and planning principles for designing cities (urban studies). Moscow; Kharkov, 1974.

13 Kositsky Ya. V. Architectural and planning development of cities: textbook. allowance. M., 2005.

14 Kudryavtsev O. K. Settlement and planning structure of large cities of agglomerations. M., 1985.

15 Lavrik G. I. Methodological foundations of district planning. Belgorod, 2007.

16 Lappo G. M. Cities and ways to the future. M., 1987.

17 Lynch K. The image of the city. M., 1982.

18 Lyubovny V. Ya. The course towards “compression of space” is a threat to the integrity and security of Russia // Development of cities in the context of globalization. Yekaterinburg, 2012. S. 24-46.

19 Maloyan G. A. Agglomeration - urban problems. M., 2010.

20 National Doctrine of Urban Planning in Russia. M., 2001.

21 Fundamentals of the theory of urban planning. M., 1986.

22 Pertsik E. N. Cities of the world. Geography of world urbanization. M., 1999.

23 Potaev G. A. Urban planning: theory and practice. M., 2014.

With the historical evolution of settlement forms, the traditional types of populated areas that develop relatively autonomously are replaced by new "group" forms of highly concentrated settlement, which are formed when settlements are located close together and intensive interconnections are formed between them. These are urban agglomerations (GAs) - clusters of populated areas that are intensively developing all over the world, consisting of a dozen, and sometimes hundreds of settlements, including even rural settlements that are closely connected with each other. There is no single terminology for such a population concentration. Along with the term "urban agglomeration", the terms "constellation of cities", "districts of large cities", "local settlement systems", "group settlement systems" are used.

The term "agglomeration" in relation to settlement was introduced by the French geographer M. Rouget, according to which agglomeration occurs when the concentration of urban activities goes beyond administrative boundaries and extends to neighboring settlements. Lappo. G. M. Geography of cities. -- M.: Humanit. ed. center VLADOS, 1997. - 478 p.

There are many definitions of the concept of "agglomeration".

According to N.V. Petrov, urban agglomerations are called compact clusters of territorially concentrated cities and other populated areas, which, in the process of their growth, converge (sometimes grow together) and between which diverse economic, labor, cultural and everyday relationships are strengthened. Problems of studying urban agglomerations / Ed. G.M. Lappo, F.M. Listetenrugt. - M.: Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1988. - 76 p.

E.N. Pertsik gives a different definition: an urban agglomeration is a system of territorially contiguous and economically interconnected settlements united by stable labor, cultural, domestic and industrial ties, a common social and technical infrastructure, is a qualitatively new form of settlement, it arises as a successor of the city in its compact (autonomous , point) form, a special product of modern urbanization. Pertsik E.N. Cities of the World: Geography of World Urbanization. - M.: International relations, 1999. - 382 p. And large urban agglomerations are the most important areas in which progressive industries, administrative, economic, scientific and design organizations, unique institutions of culture and art, and the most qualified personnel are concentrated.

In general, the definition of urban agglomerations can be divided into two groups:

The first includes definitions, the essence of which lies in the term "agglomeration of settlements". The classical definition of this type of GA is: “Urban agglomerations are compact clusters of territorially concentrated cities and other populated areas, which, in the process of their growth, converge (sometimes coalesce) and between which diverse economic, labor, cultural and everyday relationships are strengthened.” Bogorad D.I. Regional planning. Issues of planning industrial areas. M., 1960.

The second group of definitions represents an approach that reflects all types of human life, the transition from considering GA as a set of places of residence and places of application of labor to the analysis of localization, in addition to such aspects of a person’s daily life as recreation, social communication, etc. From these positions, an urban agglomeration is a compact and relatively developed set of urban and rural settlements that complement each other, grouped around one or several powerful core cities and united by diverse and intense connections into a complex and dynamic unity; this is the area, the space of potential and real interactions, in which the weekly life cycle of the majority of the inhabitants of a modern large city and its satellite zone fits. Polyan P.M. Methods for isolating and analyzing the supporting frame of settlement. M., 1988. Part 1.

The development of urban agglomerations is characterized by pendulum migrations and systematic movements of people within agglomerations to work, to places of study, cultural and community services and recreation, the growth of the core, the expansion of the territory, the concentration of large masses of the population in them,

the rapid development of the suburbs and the redistribution of the population between the city centers and suburban areas.

In urban agglomerations, the following zones can be distinguished:

• the historical core of the city
• the central zone of the city (includes the historical core and the intensively built-up area closest to it)
• large city - the core of the agglomeration (urbanized area of ​​the agglomeration) - a city with the first inner belt of the suburban zone
• outer area of ​​the metropolitan area (metropolitan cities and inner rings of suburban areas)
• the suburban zone forms a wider formation in association with the city, which can be considered as an agglomeration
• metropolitan area - a zone to which the direct and intensive influence of the capital extends

These zones can be considered as typical and functionally regular formations, despite the peculiarities of their planning structure and administrative division.

An example of a historical core is the historical center of Moscow within the boundaries of the Garden Ring, the central core of London, comprising the City, Westminster and West End. Usually this is a small area, where significant cultural and historical buildings are concentrated, which are the administrative, business and cultural center of the agglomeration.

Examples of the central zone of the city are: the department of Paris within the boundaries of the old fortress walls, the central zone of St. Petersburg up to the Obvodny Canal, including Vasilyevsky Island and the Petrograd side. These zones were formed in European capitals mainly until the middle of the 19th century and are territories covered by a ring of railways, stations, and industrial territories.

Big city: Parisian “agglomeration within wide boundaries”, Greater New York, “Greater London” with the first internal one, St. Petersburg within its administrative boundaries.

The outer zone of the capital region is a wider formation (suburban zone with a city) of the city and their suburban zones with satellite cities in the outer rings: These are the Moscow and St. Petersburg agglomerations, the London metropolitan area.

The capital region - the outer zone becomes the scene of major events for the development of systems of cities - "countermagnets", here the most important urban planning parameter that makes up the agglomeration ceases to operate - daily commuting labor movements. The metropolitan regions may include: the Moscow region - Moscow and the Moscow region; London - southeast of England; New York region.

According to their type of agglomeration, they are also divided into several types:

Monocentric

Development is concentrated in the existing center, from which zones of expansion and development diverge in circles. The center is far superior in size and economic development to the surrounding area. This is the predominant type of agglomeration in Russia and in the world as a whole. The model has many advantages in terms of the most efficient networking of transport and infrastructure. It allows the city to develop compactly with the creation of densely populated multifunctional areas. But the commercial and social needs of other settlements are not taken into account, which will be isolated and less significant economically.

Figure 1. Monocentric agglomeration

· Polycentric

The development of a compact city with the maximum redevelopment of urban land and the development of satellite cities closely connected with each other and with the main city. The model retains the advantages of a monocentric one, but also takes into account the important role of outlying settlements in the development and strengthening of the agglomeration economy.

Figure 2. Polycentric agglomeration

· Scattered

The development of the city is accompanied by the development of a number of unrelated objects.

Figure 3. Scattered agglomeration

Radiation

The development of the city along transport corridors with the formation in each of them of "beams" of development, closely related to the main city, but not necessarily - among themselves. The concept of "Development of urban agglomerations", JSC "Giprogor"

Figure 4. Beam agglomeration

The development of urban agglomeration makes it possible to ensure the dispersal of industrial production, rationally place them in relation to residential areas, which improves both environmental conditions and the living conditions of the population in large cities. In addition, the urban agglomeration, which has much wider development opportunities, is an environment that has properties favorable for integration processes. Russia has great potential for the development of successful GAs, but this also requires government incentives and coordinated management of the agglomeration process. Foreign countries have successful experience in this area, which must be taken into account for the productive development of domestic agglomerations.

The face of the world is rapidly changing: villages and towns give way to cities, the latter, in turn, coalesce into a single whole and become agglomerations. This is a demographic and economic process that is developing systematically and in stages, it cannot be stopped. Progress itself dictates to humanity the conditions for its greatest acceleration. The entire twentieth century is a period of mass industrialization. The result was the development of industries in various directions and the associated growth of the urban population, which provides any industrial enterprise with the main resource - workers.

History of appearance

Urban agglomeration is the process of expansion of the territory of a settlement due to its development and the absorption of adjacent settlements. Urbanization took place quite rapidly, within 80-95 years. If we compare the census data at the beginning and end of the 20th century, they clearly show the ratio of the rural and urban population. In percentage terms, it looks like this: in 1903, 13% were urban residents; by 1995, this figure is 50%. The trend has continued to this day, but the first major urban agglomerations appeared in the ancient world. Examples include Athens, Alexandria and, of course, the great Rome. Much later, in the 17th century, the first agglomerations arose in Europe - these are Paris and London, which occupied a significant area in the British Isles. In the 19th century, the formation of large urban settlements began in North America. The term "agglomeration" itself was first introduced by the French geographer M. Rouge. According to his definition, urban agglomeration is the exit of non-agricultural activities beyond the administrative framework of the settlement and the involvement of surrounding settlements in it. The definitions that exist today are quite diverse in presentation, but the general principle is the process of expansion and growth of the city. In doing so, many criteria are taken into account.

Definition

N.V. Petrov characterizes the agglomeration as a cluster of cities and other settlements according to the territorial principle, while in the process of development they grow together, there is an increase in all types of relationships (labor, cultural, economic, etc.). At the same time, clusters should be compact and have clear administrative boundaries, both internal and external. Pertsik E. N. gives a slightly different definition: urban agglomeration is a special form of urbanization, which implies the accumulation of geographically close settlements that are economically interconnected and have a common transport network, engineering infrastructure, industrial and cultural relations, a common social and technical base. In his works, he emphasizes that this type of association is the most productive environment for scientific and technical activities, the development of advanced technologies and industries. Accordingly, it is here that the most qualified workers are grouped, for the convenience of which the service sector is developing and conditions are being created for a good rest. The largest cities and urban agglomerations have mobile territorial boundaries, this applies not only to the actual location of individual points, but also to the time periods spent on moving a person or cargo from the core to the periphery.

Criteria for determining agglomeration

Among modern cities, there are many quite developed ones, with a population of over 2-3 million people. It is possible to determine to what extent a given locality can be classified as an agglomeration using certain evaluation criteria. However, here, too, the opinions of analysts differ: some suggest focusing on a group of factors, while others only need the presence of one sign that is clearly expressed and documented. The main indicators according to which cities can be classified as agglomerations are:

1. per 1 m 2.
2. Number (from 100 thousand people, the upper limit is unlimited).
3. Development speed and continuity (no more than 20 km between the main city and its satellites).
4. The number of absorbed settlements (satellites).
5. The intensity of trips for various purposes between the core and the periphery (to work, study or for leisure, the so-called pendulum migrations).
6. Availability of a unified infrastructure (engineering communications, communications).
7. General logistics network.
8. Percentage of the population employed in non-agricultural work.

Types of urban agglomerations

With all the diversity of the structure of interaction and conditions for the coexistence of cities and their satellites, there is a concise system for determining the type of settlement. There are two main types: monocentric and polycentric agglomerations. The largest number of existing and emerging mergers fall into the first category. Monocyclic agglomerations are formed on the principle of dominance of one main city. There is a core, which, when growing, includes other settlements in its territory and forms the direction of their further development in symbiosis with its potentialities. The largest urban agglomerations (the vast majority) were created precisely according to the monotype. An example is Moscow or New York. Polycentric agglomerations are rather an exception; they unite several cities, each of which is an independent core and absorbs nearby settlements. For example, in Germany it is completely built up by large entities, each of which has several satellites, while they do not depend on each other and are united into one whole only on a territorial basis.

Structure

The largest urban agglomerations of the world were formed in cities whose history spans from 100 to 1000 years. This has developed historically, any production complexes, retail chains, cultural centers are easier to improve than to create new ones from scratch. The only exceptions are American cities, which were originally planned as agglomerations for higher economic development rates.

So let's make a short summary. An urban agglomeration is a structured settlement, which (approximately, there are no clear boundaries) can be divided into the following sections:

1. The city center, its historical part, which is the cultural heritage of the region. Its attendance peaks during the daytime, there are often restrictions on the entry of personal vehicles into this area.
2. The ring surrounding the central part, the business center. This area is built up very densely with office buildings, in addition, there is an extensive system of catering establishments (restaurants, bars, cafes), the service sector is also quite widely represented (beauty salons, gyms and sports halls, fashion ateliers, etc.). The trade network is well developed here, especially expensive shops with exclusive goods, there are administrative state institutions.
3. Residential area, which belongs to the old buildings. In the process of agglomeration, it often turns into business due to the high cost of land under residential buildings. Due to the constant demand for it, buildings that do not belong to architectural or historical monuments are demolished or modernized for office and other premises.
4. Multi-storey mass building. Remote (sleeping) areas, production and industrial zones. This sector, as a rule, has a large social orientation (schools, large retail outlets, clinics, libraries, etc.).
5. Suburban areas, parks, squares, satellite villages. Depending on the size of the agglomeration, this territory develops and develops.

Stages of development

All urban agglomerations of the world are undergoing basic processes of formation. Many settlements stop in their development (at some stage), some are just starting their way to a highly developed and comfortable structure for people to live. It is customary to divide the following stages:

1. Industrial agglomeration. The connection between the core and the periphery is based on the production factor. are tied to a specific enterprise, there is no common real estate and land market.
2. transformation stage. It is characterized by an increase in the level of pendulum migration, respectively, a common labor market is being formed, the center of which is a large city. The core of the agglomeration is beginning to actively form the service and leisure sector.
3. dynamic agglomeration. This stage provides for the modernization and transfer of production facilities to peripheral areas. In parallel, the logistics system is developing, which allows for faster splicing of the core and satellite cities. Single labor and real estate markets are emerging, a common infrastructure is being built.
4. post-industrial agglomeration. The final stage, which is characterized by the end of all interaction processes. The existing links (core-periphery) are strengthened and expanded. Work begins on raising the status of the agglomeration to attract more resources and expand areas of activity.

Features of Russian agglomerations

In order to increase the rate of economic growth and develop science-intensive production, our country must have clearly formulated and calculated plans for the near and long term. Historically, there has been a situation in which the urban agglomerations of Russia were built exclusively according to the industrial type. This was enough, but during the forced transition to the transformational stage (the formation of a market economy), a number of problems arose that had to be eliminated during the 1990s. Further development of urban agglomerations requires centralized state intervention. That is why this topic is often discussed by experts and the highest public authorities. It is necessary to fully restore, modernize and relocate production bases, which will entail dynamic agglomeration processes. Without the participation of the state as a financing and managing body, this stage is inaccessible to many cities. The economic advantages of functioning agglomerations are undeniable, so there is a process of stimulating associations of territorially connected cities and towns. The largest urban agglomeration of the world can be created in Russia in the near future. There are all the necessary resources for this, it remains to correctly use the main one - the administrative one.

The largest urban agglomerations of Russia

In fact, to date, there are no clear statistics. According to the agglomerations in the Russian Federation, 22 largest ones can be distinguished, which are developing steadily. In our country, the monocentric type of formation prevails. The urban agglomerations of Russia in most cases are at the industrial stage of development, but their provision with human resources is sufficient for further growth. By number and stage of formation, they are arranged in the following sequence (the first 10):

1. Moscow.
2. St. Petersburg.
3. Rostov.
4. Samara-Togliatti.
5. Nizhny Novgorod.
6. Novosibirsk.
7. Yekaterinburg.
8. Kazan.
9. Chelyabinsk.
10. Volgograd.

The number of urban agglomerations in the Russian Federation is growing due to the creation of new associations, which do not necessarily include million-plus cities: the merger occurs at the expense of a resource indicator or industrial interests.

World agglomerations

Amazing numbers and facts can be obtained by studying this topic. Some global agglomerations have areas and populations comparable to those of an entire country. It is quite difficult to calculate the total number of such subjects, because each expert uses a certain (chosen by him) group of features or one of them. But when considering the dozens of the largest, one can count on the unanimity of experts. So:

1. The largest urban agglomeration in the world is Tokyo-Yokohama. Population - 37.5 million people (Japan).
2. Jakarta (Indonesia).
3. Delhi (India).
4. Seoul-Incheon (Republic of Korea).
5. Manila (Philippines).
6. Shanghai (PRC).
7. Karachi (Pakistan).
8. New York, USA).
9. Sao Paulo (Brazil).

Problems of urban agglomerations

With all the positive aspects of the development of the economy, culture, production and science, there are a fairly large number of shortcomings that characterize megacities. Firstly, the large length of communications and the ever-increasing load (with active development) leads to problems in the housing and communal services, respectively, the level of comfort of citizens decreases. Secondly, transport and logistics schemes do not always provide the proper level of speed for the transportation of goods and people. Thirdly, a high level of environmental pollution (air, water, soil). Fourth, agglomerations attract most of the working population from small towns that are not their satellites. Fifth, the complexity of the administrative management of large territories. These problems are known to every city dweller, and their elimination requires long-term and labor-intensive work of all city structures.

Urban agglomerations began to appear from ancient times. They form and grow to this day. It is worth explaining what the term "agglomeration" means. The simplest definition: "an agglomeration is a compact spatial set of settlements united by intensive industrial and cultural ties."

The issue of creating urban agglomerations has recently become one of the most relevant and often discussed. And he is interested in the widest segments of the population. On this topic, scientific and practical conferences are held, special issues of journals are published, meetings of regional governments are held. This issue was on everyone's lips after the Ministry of Regional Development announced in 2007 that large urban agglomerations should become part of Russia's long-term development strategy.

If large cities were called monsters condemned to continuous growth (in the words of the French geographers J. Beaujeu-Gortier and J. Chabot), then agglomerations - close clusters of cities - are real titans. Many are afraid of such growth, resulting in fierce criticism of such formations. Agglomerations are considered the result of unsystematic urban growth, spreading like an oily stain. The swelling metropolis, absorbing the cluster of satellite settlements surrounding it, is likened to destructive diseases or elemental forces of nature. It is like an avalanche or an uncontrollable flood that sweeps away everything that gets in its way. The agglomeration researcher Michel Rouge called agglomerations "a cancerous form of urban formations."

There are also opposing views. Agglomerations are described as the optimal forms of modern settlement, with a deep future, believing that they will solve the problem of non-systemic settlements and improve living conditions.

The range of opinions, the wide range of assessments is by no means accidental. This is explained by the fact that, like the city, the agglomeration is very contradictory in its essence and combines both obvious negative and undoubtedly positive features.

Despite how people perceive agglomerations, they are an inevitable reality that follows the laws of development. Today, in many countries, not cities, but urban agglomerations are the main form of settlement. And they continue to multiply in number and size. According to the estimates of the Giprogor Moscow design institute, the 34 largest agglomerations of Russia, occupying only 153.7 thousand km2, concentrate 50.5 million people, i.e. 1/3 of the country's population.

The main advantages of the agglomeration are the opportunity for all its residents to use the services available to those living in large cities, and a wider choice of work place than in a separate settlement.

It must be said that in Russia today the prospects of Moscow, Irkutsk, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk, Vladivostok, Tomsk and other agglomerations are being discussed. In any case, interest in agglomerations is an interest in finding additional development opportunities outside the formal administrative-territorial boundaries. In modern conditions, agglomeration provides opportunities for improving the efficiency of using labor potential, increasing human capital, and improving the quality of life. And these are powerful factors in the growth of competitiveness and attractiveness of territorial systems.

In the historical evolution of settlement forms, the traditional types of settlements - urban and rural settlements that develop relatively autonomously - are being replaced by new "group" forms of highly concentrated settlement, which are formed when settlements are located close together and intensive ties are formed between them.

Such are urban agglomerations - clusters of settlements rapidly developing all over the world, often consisting of a dozen, and sometimes hundreds of settlements, including rural settlements that are closely connected with each other. It can be said that "global cities" - agglomerations have become the centers of the modern world - "global cities" have become - agglomerations endowed with colossal financial and political functions. No state can be among the leaders if it does not have at least one "global city". Even a superficial acquaintance with statistics makes it clear that the economic potential of global cities is enormous. Their top ten account for over 1/10 of the world 's GDP .

There is no single terminology for these population clusters. Along with the term "urban agglomeration", the terms "local settlement systems", "districts of large cities", "group settlement systems", "constellation of cities" are used. However, the most commonly used concept is "urban agglomeration".

There is currently no generally accepted definition of an urban agglomeration. Meanwhile, the concept of agglomeration is significant not only for theorists, but also for practitioners who, in specific cases, need to determine whether a certain territory (settlement) belongs to an agglomeration. Not only the formation of strategies, but also elementary statistics depend on the answer to this question.

The term agglomeration (from Latin agglome-rare - to attach, accumulate) - English. agglomeration; German Agglomeration, in relation to settlement, was introduced by the French geographer M. Rouget, according to which agglomeration occurs when the concentration of urban activities goes beyond administrative boundaries and extends to neighboring settlements.

In the economic geography of different countries, this concept is defined by different terms. Common to all these concepts is that they all characterize the totality of settlements, between which there are functional links. At the same time, clear criteria have been established in all countries according to which one or another cluster of settlements can be attributed to urban agglomerations.

It is necessary to understand the nature of the urban agglomeration, for this purpose, we will consider the criteria by which clusters of settlements are classified as agglomerations.

These criteria are usually the population size of the central city, the volume of pendulum migrations, and the population density of the territory.

In domestic literature, the concept of urban agglomeration was used, and quite widely, already in the 10s and 20s, although under different names: this is the “economic district of the city” A.A. Kruber, and “agglomeration” by M.G. Dikansky, and the “economic city” of V.P. Semenov-Tyan-Shansky.

Let us consider the definitions of the word "agglomeration" given in the literature.

In Russian geography, agglomeration is understood as the accumulation of settlements, mainly urban, in places merging, united into one whole by intensive economic, labor, cultural and community ties. This definition was formulated in the late 50's - early 60's. G. M. Lappo and V. G. Davidovich, and then enshrined in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.

According to N.V. Petrov, urban agglomerations are compact clusters of territorially concentrated cities and other populated areas, which, in the process of their growth, converge (sometimes coalesce) and between which diverse economic, labor, cultural and everyday relationships are strengthened.

E.N. Pertsik gives a different definition: an urban agglomeration is a system of territorially contiguous and economically interconnected settlements united by stable labor, cultural, domestic and industrial ties, a common social and technical infrastructure, is a qualitatively new form of settlement, it arises as a successor of the city in its compact (autonomous , point) form, a special product of modern urbanization. And large urban agglomerations are the most important areas in which progressive industries, administrative, economic, scientific and design organizations, unique institutions of culture and art, and the most qualified personnel are concentrated.

In accordance with the definition, the agglomeration is distinguished by the commonality of everyday life of the population of its territory, the presence of daily labor commuting on weekdays, and the use of a single set of recreational facilities on weekends.

The boundaries of an urban agglomeration are mobile in time due to a change in the most important parameter of the agglomeration - the distance of daily movements from the place of residence to the places of employment: within the framework of the spatial self-organization of these movements, their range grows in proportion to the increase in the speed of means of transport, and the time costs increase slightly.

The development of urban agglomerations is characterized by: the growth of gigantic urban clusters, including non-stop growing and spreading cores, involving ever new territories into their orbit, the concentration of large masses of the population in them; the rapid development of the suburbs and the gradual (although not always clearly traced) redistribution of the population between the city centers and suburban areas; involvement of the rural population in non-agricultural labor, especially in urban areas; pendulum migrations and systematic movements of people within agglomerations to work, to places of study, cultural and community services and recreation, acquiring an unprecedented scale.

E.N. Pertsik offers various criteria for urban agglomerations: urban population density and building continuity; the presence of a large city center (as a rule, with a population of at least 100 thousand people); intensity and distance of labor and cultural trips; share of non-agricultural workers; share of workers outside the place of residence; the number of urban satellite settlements and the intensity of their connections with the city center; the number of telephone conversations with the center; industrial relations; communications on social and technical infrastructure (unified engineering systems of water supply, energy supply, sewerage, transport, etc.). In some cases, a combination of features is taken as a criterion, in others it focuses on one of them (for example, the boundaries of an agglomeration are distinguished by 1.5- or 2-hour isochrones of labor movements from the city center).

Kharchenko K.V. emphasizes that the external context of the concept of agglomeration is outlined by the concepts of city, outskirts, suburb, countryside, region. In terms of space, an agglomeration includes the entire suburb (less often individual suburban areas) and part of the countryside (depending on the orientations of its residents), i.e. some part of the region. In terms of content, life within an agglomeration may not differ from life on the outskirts of the city.

Sometimes the spatial aspect of the agglomeration is determined through the unity of signs of proximity and remoteness in relation to the core city. So, E.N. Koroleva notes that "in domestic science, agglomeration is understood as a territorial grouping of urban and rural settlements, contiguous, but separated by spatial gaps" . Nevertheless, the development of transport and information communications leads to the fact that the proximity factor ceases to play a key role in determining the profile of the territory: relatively remote settlements can also be included in the agglomeration. Remoteness is also not a characteristic feature, since intensive construction both in the city and in the suburbs leads to a reduction in the gaps between settlements.

The difficulty in defining the concept of agglomeration lies in the fact that opinions on this matter gravitate towards two poles: whether the agglomeration is a continuous territory around the core city or whether it is a collection of pockets of the urban environment among rural areas.

The choice of a specific position on this matter is important insofar as it determines the further understanding of agglomeration processes. Thus, the question is whether it is possible to recognize the role of the subjective factor (representations of residents) in determining the outer boundary of the agglomeration, as well as what sign of referring the territory to the agglomeration is primary, territorial or functional. In the first case, spatial factors will be put at the forefront, and in the second, social ones (specialization of the territory, occupation of the population, the ratio between those working and living in a given territory).

From a formal point of view, an agglomeration can be attributed to some continuous territory that meets one of the following criteria:

transport accessibility within a certain time, for example, one hour;

administrative correspondence to several municipal districts adjacent to the core city district.

This approach has the right to exist, since it offers clear objective criteria. Nevertheless, its scope is macro-scale, for example, the framework of a region's development strategy. If we go down one level, understanding the agglomeration as a continuous territory will reveal a number of shortcomings.

The suburban area includes territories that differ significantly in their purpose. In addition to settlements with an urban lifestyle, these can be the following types of territories:

villages whose population is employed in the agricultural sector, no different from remote areas;

holiday villages, in which most of the buildings are suitable only for seasonal living;

cottage settlements, i.e. comfortable "second" housing;

other territories of individual housing construction (for example, houses of young families participating in mortgage programs; the only housing intended for permanent residence).

Understanding the agglomeration as a set of foci of the urban environment adds to the definition of this concept such a characteristic feature as the volatility of external boundaries. This means that over time, new settlements can be included in the orbit of the core city (the reverse process is theoretically possible), and in this case, the determining factor will not be administrative decisions, but the cumulative will of people as a result of the actions of individuals.

A qualitative sign of an agglomeration is the unification of its constituent settlements into a dynamic system of diverse connections. The nature of these links determines whether the agglomeration of the territory will be a social problem or a source of economic growth.

The most typical connection for Russian agglomerations is the pendulum migration of the majority of the population, directed towards the core city. It should be noted that the actual pendulum migration should not be a “qualitative sign” of agglomeration due to negative effects - extra time spent by people, burden on the natural environment. Moreover, it is necessary to avoid pendulum migration even within the boundaries of the city itself, by developing jobs and social infrastructure on the outskirts.

For Russian realities, the sign of transport accessibility is decisive in the formation of an agglomeration: in fact, without developed public transport, commuting will disappear, and if the settlement cannot be self-sufficient, it will disappear due to migration in the strict sense of the word.

At present, economic and institutional analysis of agglomeration processes, analysis and forecasting of external effects are becoming increasingly important. Agglomeration processes in the institutional sense are characterized as follows. Agglomeration involves the creation of a fundamentally new system for managing territorial development and planning. Agglomeration involves building contractual relations between independent municipalities regarding subjects of common interest, such as common economic or infrastructural processes. World experience shows that agglomerations created on an administrative initiative are, as a rule, unstable and disintegrate when administrative intervention and financing are completed.

As the main ways to speed up agglomeration processes in publications are called:

* the accelerated development of transport and communication infrastructures, the creation of common logistics centers;

* coordination of the system of territorial development and land use, coordinated environmental policy;

* implementation of projects aimed at expanding the "bottlenecks" in the resource supply of the agglomeration (provision of building materials, electricity, water, etc.);

* development of socio-cultural space.

The formation of large modern agglomerations provides the following effects. Firstly, agglomeration increases the population's ability to access scientific, industrial and cultural information, the ability to choose the type of work, access to educational, medical and cultural institutions. Secondly, economies of scale for the regional economy, modern trade formats, promising production of consumer goods and, most importantly, the service sector. The emergence of agglomeration creates both an opportunity for large businesses to enter the region and opportunities for local companies to grow to the level of market leaders.

Thirdly, the creation of a capacious and diverse labor market. People have the opportunity to quickly find a job that meets their qualifications and personal life strategy. Fourth, the “infrastructural effect”, which is of the utmost importance.

Projects for the construction of new energy facilities, powerful transport complexes - ports, airports, multimodal logistics centers and information hubs - are justified and have a large economic return specifically for agglomerations. The same applies to educational and especially innovative infrastructure.

The positive effects of agglomeration are described in Losch A., 1944, Maier G., Todtling F., 1992, Giffinger R., 2004 and others.

As a result, conditions are created for the accelerated socio-economic development of territories, which allows the "cores" of agglomerations to raise their own status in the urban and regional hierarchy.

It must also be said that modern Russian agglomerations are the children of the Soviet system. Then the cities were often founded in remote areas rich in oil and gas, ensuring their functioning is extremely costly. A large number of cities have a single city-forming enterprise. A number of megacities have large industrial facilities located in the central regions. Around many cities there are holiday villages.

But our agglomerations also have global features: the development of the land and real estate market, which reflects the real value of objects in various areas; the gradual removal of large industrial production to the outskirts; development of transport links between the center and suburbs; other adaptations of the urban environment to the needs of the population.

It should be noted that when discussing the prospects for the formation of agglomerations in Russia, much less attention is paid to the study of negative external effects of agglomeration. This makes it difficult to systematize practical experience in order to regulate and predict agglomeration processes. In this regard, the results of studies of the socio-economic restructuring taking place in the city of Perm and neighboring municipal districts are of interest.

So, an urban agglomeration is a compact spatial grouping of settlements united by diverse connections (industrial, labor, cultural and community, recreational) into a complex system. As a rule, it occurs around the core city. Among the settlements included in the agglomeration, satellite cities often appear.

The main features of agglomeration include:

Urban population density and building continuity; the presence of a large city center (as a rule, with a population of at least 100 thousand people);

Pendulum migrations and systematic movements of people within agglomerations to work, to places of study, cultural and community services and recreation, acquiring an unprecedented scale;

Share of workers outside the place of residence;

The number of urban satellite settlements and the intensity of their connections with the city center;

The number of telephone conversations with the center;

Industrial relations;

Communications on social and technical infrastructure (unified engineering systems of water supply, power supply, sewerage, transport, etc.)

What is agglomeration and why is this concept increasingly common? This term is defined as group forms of urban settlement that are associated with historical urban sprawl and population growth.

Agglomerations are systems of settlements, located nearby and interconnected by permanent labor, organizational or economic ties. The center of the urban agglomeration is the core. What it is? Usually this is the largest settlement in the territory under consideration.

In contact with

General concepts

Economic literature defines this form of settlement as a concentration of industrial enterprises, and geography as a system of settlements, so they are divided into:

• urban;
• industrial.

Such a system of settlements brings productivity to a new level, provides people with diverse and high-quality services and increases the competitiveness of the national economy, which leads to an increase in the well-being of the population.

Industrial agglomeration also concentrates many enterprises, and is an important part of the state's economy.

A similar settlement is being formed on the basis that arises between various towns and villages, and tightly connects them with trade relations. Initially, all market functions are concentrated in the center urban agglomeration, and only eventually move to peripheral cities. In the settlements surrounding the large center, production facilities are created that provide the center with the necessary things, and on this basis a single market system arises.

Historical data

The process of urbanization has been going on for a long time, but only in the last 100 years has it begun to develop rapidly. Even at the beginning of the 19th century, urban residents accounted for 13% of the total population of the country, and by the beginning of the 20th century their number had grown to 50%. Urbanization continues today, but there were also agglomerations in antiquity: in Rome, Athens, Babylon. In Europe, their appearance was noticed only in the 17th century, for example, around Paris, and in North America - only in the 19th century.

The the term was coined by the geographer M. Rouge, who argued that agglomeration is the involvement of nearby villages in non-agricultural work outside their borders. Despite the fact that today there are many definitions of this term, the process of expanding and increasing the city remains its main principle.

Definition criteria

The widespread process of urbanization has created a sufficiently large number of developed large cities, the number of inhabitants in which exceeds several million. Is each such city an agglomeration? Yes, if the following points are met:

• from 100000 people per 1 square meter;
• less than 20 km of unused territory between the center and the periphery;
• from 5 or more absorbed satellites;
• high intensity of population movement from the outskirts to the center and back;
• general infrastructure;
• logistics network;
• a high percentage of people employed in industrial work.

Based on such formations, it is possible to consider in detail the concentration of industry in certain areas and track the migration of the working population.

urbanization process

Urban agglomerations

This form of settlements can be divided into types:

• monocentric - emerging in the area of ​​a big city (New York, Paris);
• polycentric (conurbation) - with several centers, i.e. those that form around several cities at once (the Ruhr basin).

Monocentric agglomerations quantitatively predominate over polycentric ones., since a large city is easier to “grow” with satellite settlements and forms strong logistical and industrial ties. The growth of the central city is accompanied by the absorption of settlements in its district and the determination of the direction for their development.

A polycentric agglomeration is much less common, since it includes several core cities at once. The Ruhr basin, for example, concentrates independent entities (Dortmund, Essen) with their satellites. A polycentric agglomeration includes completely independent nuclei, united only by a single territory.

Structure and development

The largest urban agglomerations historically formed on the basis of ancient capitals which is over a hundred years old. The exception is the settlements in America, which were built in advance as large population and industrial centers.

The urban agglomeration is structured within the city (its boundaries are conditional) and is divided into sections:

1. Center (historic district) with high attendance. There are monuments of architecture and history, the city hall.
2. The business center, which surrounds the center with a ring - there are office buildings, many catering places and shopping centers.
3. Residential area (possibly old developments) that is being converted into business districts - the high cost of land under old buildings causes them to be demolished or upgraded into office and other buildings.
4. Mass buildings are sleeping areas and industrial zones. Here are places of social significance (hospitals, kindergartens, schools, etc.).
5. Suburbs - green and industrial zones are often located here, satellite villages begin.

How is the urban structure formed? In several stages:

1. Industrial - an industrial connection between the center and the districts begins to form. So far, there are no trade relations and a common territory.
2. Transformational - a single market is being created, pendulum migrations begin and increase.
3. Dynamic - production is transferred to distant parts of the satellites, a stable logistical connection is formed. The fusion of core and periphery is accelerating. There is a unified infrastructure.
4. Post-industrial - merger processes end. Relations are strengthened and the process of forming a single activity begins, with a simultaneous increase in status.

Development process and structure independent from the territorial location of the formations.

Important! The functional connection of a number of urban agglomerations leads to the formation of a megalopolis.

Formation of the urban structure

Agglomerations of Russia

Individual states differ in the type of formations of such settlements due to various historical processes. In Russia, they were formed exclusively according to the industrial type. During the USSR it was used planned economy strategy, which implied an industrial basis for all urbanization processes, but with the adoption of the paradigm, certain ones arose, so now the growth and development of agglomerations requires the active participation of the state.

Important! In Russia, such forms of settlement of the territory require complete modernization, restoration work and the relocation of industrial bases.

In Russia, there are 22 largest urban agglomerations formed according to the monocentric type. If you sort them by population, you get the following list:

• Moscow;
• St. Petersburg;
• Rostov;
• Samara-Togliatti;
• Nizhny Novgorod;
• Novosibirsk;
• Yekaterinburg;
• Kazanskaya;
• Chelyabinsk;
• Volgograd.

The agglomerations of Russia are still at the industrial level, and are still developing, since their availability of labor resources allows this. It is common for them to merge based on resources or industrial interests, and not just because of the presence of large cities.

Yekaterinburg agglomeration

Large agglomerations of the world

There are a huge number of large agglomerations in the world, but the following 10 are considered the largest:

• Tokyo-Yokohama - 37.5 million people and 8677 square meters;
• Jakarta - 19.2 million people and 7297 square meters;
• Delhi - 18.9 million people and 1425 square meters;
• Seoul-Incheon - 22.7 million people and 1943 square meters;
• Manila - 20.7 million people and 4863 square meters;
• Shanghai - 18.6 million people and 7037 square meters;
• Karachi - 18 million people and 3530 square meters;
• New York - 23.3 million people and 11,264 square meters;
• Mexico City - 23.6 million people and 7346 square meters;
• Sao Paulo - 20.8 million people and 7944 square meters.

Attention! More than 230 million people live in the ten largest agglomerations of the world!

In Europe, an excellent example would be Milan agglomeration with a population of over 5 million people. and an area of ​​1,982 km². Many world agglomerations surpass some countries in terms of area and population.

The largest agglomerations of the world

Pros and cons of such forms of settlements

Like any modern phenomenon, the urban agglomeration has its advantages and disadvantages. The first ones include:

• increase in jobs;
• growth in the well-being of the population;
• reduction of transport routes between industrial facilities;
• cultural growth of the population;
• development of market relations;
• simplification of logistics links;
• acceleration of all economic processes in the territory.

The disadvantages of agglomerations are:

• large extension of communications;
• decrease in the comfort of citizens due to congestion of housing and communal services;
• difficulties in transport and logistics systems (traffic jams, long transportation of goods);
• the decline of the agricultural industry;
• environmental pollution;
• migration from distant cities, which leads to the problem of employment;
• difficulties in management.

The largest populated urban agglomerations. largest cities.

Yuri Krupnov — Agglomeration and Urbanization — How can people survive in the city?

Conclusion

The formation of agglomerations is an inevitable urban process that has its own advantages and disadvantages. Within the framework of agglomerations, it is possible to implement a lot of investment projects that will help improve production efficiency, create new jobs and increase the competitiveness of sales and service markets.