Evaluation of Intracity Districts’ Separateness and Integrity (A Case Study of St. Petersburg)

The territory’s isolation and integrity are recognized by jurists as criteria for determining the municipalities’ boundaries. Analyzing the geographic studies of the innercity territory morphology, territorial identity and the local communities development potential relationship, the authors come to conclusion that these criteria are not supplied with measurement methodology. As a result the studies are limited by extreme characteristics polygons. The article proposes a methodology for assessing of intracity territories’ isolation and integrity. Considering pedestrian links as the basis of intracity municipal communications, the authors develop a methodology based on the pedestrian graph, which makes more sensitive estimates comparing with transport methods. The indicators of isolation and integrity, as well as the integral indicator are calculated for the territorial units of St. Petersburg–administrative and municipal districts. The authors come to the conclusion that intracity district’s isolation and integrity are in a weak negative relationship with each other and are set by the urban settlement and development policy. According to the integral assessment, island administrative districts and peripheral municipal districts with the 1970s large quarter buildings demonstrate the greatest compliance with the isolation and integrity principles. The authors announce a study of the territory morphology influence on the local self-government development level based on the data presented in this article.

1. Agafonova A.G. “Sea Gates” of St. Petersburg: Kanonersky Island in urban publics discource. Sotsiol. Vlasti, 2013, no. 3, рр. 94–111. (In Russ.).

2. Agafonova A.G. Relational approach in urban studies. Zh. Sotsiol. Sotsial’noi Antropologii, 2015, no. 4, pp. 96–110. (In Russ.).

3. Avtovo. 340 let [Avtovo. 340 Years]. Alekseev D.Yu., Ed. St. Petersburg: Mediakomfort, SPbGUPTD, 2016. 48 p.

4. Bugromenko V.N. Issledovanie territorial’noi struktury goroda (na primere izucheniya vnutrigorodskogo passazhirskogo transporta) [City’s Territorial Structure Study (On the Case of Intracity Passenger Transport Study)]. Moscow, 1980. 22 p.

5. Degusarova V.S., Martynov V.L., Sazonova I.E. Geodemography of the St. Petersburg suburbs. Balt. Reg. 2018, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 19–40. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2018-3-2

6. Dement’ev A.N., Dement’eva O.A., Bondar’ V.N. Territorial’naya organizatsiya mestnogo samoupravleniya: tendentsii, kriterii, perspektivy [Territorial Organization of Local Self-Government: Trends, Criteria, Prospects]. Moscow: Norma Publ., 2021. 360 p.

7. Douvlou E., Papathoma D., Turrell I. (The Hidden City) Between the border and the vacuum: the impact of physical environment on aspects of social sustainability. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 2008, vol. 117, pp. 365–375.

8. German A.V. The Disintegrating role of the elements of the city’s transport and communication system (the Case of St. Petersburg). Vestn. PNIPU. Priklad. Ekol. Urbanistika, 2021, no. 2, pp. 20–33. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.15593/2409-5125/2021.02.02

9. Glezerov S.E. Severnye okrainy Peterburga. Lesnoi, Grazhdanka, Ruch’i, Udel’naya [Northern Outskirts of Petersburg. Lesnoi, Grazhdanka, Ruch’i, Udel’naya]. Moscow: Centrpoligraf, 2013. 479 p.

10. Hillier B., Hanson J. The social logic of space. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984. 281 р.

11. Hludnev E.I. Granitsa munitsipal’nykh obrazovanii v Rossiiskoi Federatsii [The Border of Municipalities in the Russian Federation]. Moscow: Biblio-Globus Publ., 2017. 214 p.

12. Kamkin G.G. Barriers in the urban environment and local patriotism (The Case of St. Petersburg). In Baltiiskii region: aktual’nye problemy razvitiya i preobrazovaniya prirodnoi i sotsiokul’turnoi sredy. Materialy Mezhdunarodnoi nauchno-prakticheskoi konferentsii. Pskov, 22– 23 noyabrya 2018 [The Baltic Region: Actual Problems of Development and Transformation of the Natural and Sociocultural Environment: Materials of the International Scientific and Practic Conference]. Pskov, 2018, pp. 167–174. (In Russ.).

13. Kamkin G.G. Barrier function of the urban environment and its quantitative assessment (A case of Moscow). Reg. Res. Russ., 2020, vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 381–387. https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970520030053

14. Karlova E.V., Zjuzin P.V. Local urban connunities under the situation of transport isolation. Vestn. Mosk. Univ. Ser. 5. Geogr., 2014, no. 5, pp. 36–41. (In Russ.).

15. Kozyreva E.I. The St. Petersburg quarter: space and world. Vestn. S.-Peterb. Univ. Ser. 15, 2015, vol. 3, pp. 44–65. (In Russ.).

16. Konstantinov O.A. Tezisy ekonomicheskogo obosnovaniya “Bol’shogo Leningrada” [Theses of the “Greater Leningrad” Economic Justification]. TsGA SPb. F. 3303. Vol. 2, no. 47, pp. 14–18. (In Russ.).

17. Markwart E., Shvetsov A.N. Territorial’naya organizatsiya mestnogo samoupravleniya i upravlenie gorodskimi aglomeratsiyami [Territorial Organization of Local SelfGovernment and Management of Urban Agglomerations]. Moscow: Izdatelskii dom “Delo” RANHiGS, 2017. 304 p.

18. Mersiyanova I.V. Territorial public self-government as a form of public participation. Vopr. Gos. i Munitsipal’nogo Upravleniya, 2010, no. 3, pp. 149–168. (In Russ.).

19. Puzanov K.A. Territorial boundaries of urban communities. Sotsiol. Vlasti, 2013, no. 3, pp. 27–38. (In Russ.).

20. Shalyapin D.V. Kupchino. Chetyre veka istorii. 50 let sovremennosti [Kupchino. Four Centuries of History. 50 Years of Modernity]. Moscow: Centrpoligraf Publ., 2014. 348 p.

21. Sharnina L.A. Territorial’naya organizatsiya mestnogo samoupravleniya Rossiiskoi Federatsii [Territorial Organization of Local Self-Government of the Russian Federation]. Moscow: Infra-M; Krasnoyarsk: Sib. Feder. Un-t, 2019. 168 p.

22. Strakhov K.A. Stalin’s gerrymandering: How Leningrad was divided into districts in 1936. Gorodskie Issledovaniya i Praktiki, 2022, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 35–60. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.17323/usp7220220000

23. Smirnov O.O. Development of municipal districts in St. Petersburg over the last decade: an economic and spatial analysis. Balt. Reg., 2022, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 53–68. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.5922/2079-8555-2022-2-4

24. Strategiya prostranstvennogo razvitiya Ekaterinburga: kontseptsiya [Yekaterinburg Spatial Development Strategy: Concept]. Ekaterinburg: Tatlin, 2017. 312 p.

25. Tarkhov S.A. Infrastructural integration of the territory (transport connectivity and permeability of the territory, development of telecommunications). In Prostranstvo, lyudi, ekonomika Jugry. Sotsial’no-ekonomicheskaya transformatsiya Hanty-Mansiiskogo avtonomnogo okruga [Space, People, Economy of Yugra. Socioeconomic Transformation of the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug]. Moscow: Ekonomist Publ., 2007, pp. 130–162. (In Russ.).

26. Zamyatina N.Yu. Territorial identities and social structures. Obshch. Nauki i Sovremennost’, 2012, no. 5, pp. 151–163. (In Russ.).

27. Zamyatina N.Yu., Pilyasov A.N. Rossiya, kotoruyu my obreli: issleduya prostranstvo na mikrourovne [The Russia We Found: Exploring Space on a Micro-Level]. Moscow: Novyi Khronograf Publ., 2013. 548 p.