Sprawl in Russia: Growth and Structural Transformation of the Belgorod Suburbs

Regional Research of Russia. 2020. Vol. 10. No. 2. P. 247–259.

Dokhov R., Sinitsyn N. A.

The first sprouts of a new type of domestic suburbanization shown with a case study of Belgorod. The features of spatio-temporal dynamics of suburban development, the influence of different factors on this process, and the place of the new suburbia in the structure of the suburban area of the city are considered. A satellite image interpretation method is proposed based on remote analysis. Image selection criteria are considered. Interpretation features of different types of single-story development are given. The possibilities and limitations of this method are demonstrated. It is proved that the key feature of the Belgorod suburbanization in the post-Soviet period was the formation of vast areas of sprawl development that differed from the previously established areas of dacha and rural single-story settlements. There are two waves of sprawl development in this territory: the first wave was induced by the inflow of migrants from neighboring countries, and the second wave was induced by relatively high rates of economic development of the country and the region in the 2000s, which declined in the early 2010s. The expansion of genetically bound sprawl areas formed tree graphs, the roots of which are centers of suburban multistory development and leaves are younger generations of sprawl areas. The main factors affecting the emerging spatial configuration are access to engineering communications and transportation routes.

Keywords: settlement patterns, расселение, субурбанизация, Remote Sensing, urban morphology, Suburbanization, дистанционное зондирование Земли, дешифрирование, sprawl, post-soviet city transformation, спрол, постсоветская трансформация города, морфология города