Largest Urban Agglomerations and Forms of Settlement Pattern at the Supra-Agglomeration Level in Russia

Abstract

The paper analyzes the development trends of Russia’s largest urban agglomerations following the last census, in the period 2010–2018. According to the methodology, based on the functional and settlement pattern approach and the isochrons of transport accessibility of agglomeration cores, the boundaries were delimited and the population dynamics and development coefficient of Russia’s 36 largest urban agglomerations (with cores in cities or in a group (for several geographically close centers) having populations close to 500 000 people). The calculation results are presented for four delimitation variants, from minimum to maximum, the latter based on E.E. Leizerovich’s microzoning grid. For the given period, the number of urban agglomerations was not redistributed between the classes of development and the number of developed agglomerations remains low. The study reveals the trends of continued population concentration in the largest agglomerations and their cores. The case study of the Moscow metropolitan agglomeration illustrates the monocentric character of most of the largest agglomerations. A study of the higher supra-agglomeration structure—of the Central Russian Megalopolis—revealed its fragmentation and the lack of development of lower-level agglomeration formations.