Reformation of the municipal structure: experience of the Tver region
Abstract
The article continues the study of the municipal structure of the Tver region, started by the author in 2016. From the point of view of geographical science, the emphasis was made on the transformations that have been going on in the region for recent decades and continue nowadays. The effects of these changes for rural settlement pattern were considered.
Since the early 2000s three waves of transformation of the structure of rural administrative units have been identified for the Tver region. Their number gradually decreases from 614 in 2002 to 174 by mid-2020, reflecting not so much the depopulation processes in rural areas, as the chaotic decisions to optimize municipal management. Bizarre-shaped rural settlements neglect the logic of space and fail to meet the criteria of compactness. Local centers become less accessible for the population, and the remaining rural administrations are more and more overburdened. If one rural center served an average of 16 settlements before transformations, then the number increased to 40. The area of newly formed administrative units has more than doubled.
The latest trends of changes, namely the liquidation of a two-level system «municipal district – rural settlement» and the introduction of a new form of organization of territorial administration in the form of municipal districts, indicate that the number of local rural centers will further decline even more extensively. As a result, the quality and availability of services provided to the population will worsen, as well as the knowledge of government officials about vast rural areas. The large-scale studies based on statistical data will also become less possible.
About the Author
A. A. Smirnova
Tver State University
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Faculty of Geography and Geoecology, Department of Socio-Economic Geography a nd Territorial Planning, Associate Professor, PhD. in Geography
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Review
For citations:
Smirnova A.A. Reformation of the municipal structure: experience of the Tver region. Lomonosov Geography Journal. 2020;(5):108-113. (In Russ.)
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