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Sustainable Development Assessment of the NWFD Regions
The object of this paper is to analyse the essence of the concept of “sustainable development of a region” and develop the methodology to assess the level of sustainable development as exemplified by the NWFD regions. The approaches systematization presented in science literature show that sustainability must be considered in the unity of its economic, social and environmental aspects. This position corresponds to the traditional understanding of the regional social and economic system in the form of the triad “economy - social sphere - ecology”. The paper introduces the integrated index of the economic growth environmental load. The economic component is evaluated by the GRP dynamics, the social component—by the consolidated budgets spending index of the constituent entities of the Federation for social and cultural activities, and the environmental component—by the environmental load index. As a result of the research, the NWFD regions are divided into three groups. The Komi Republic, the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, and St. Petersburg have sustainable economic growth. The Vologda, Kaliningrad, Leningrad and Novgorod regions have an average level of economic growth sustainability. Sustainability underdevelopment is characteristic of the Republic of Karelia and the Pskov region. The problems of the Republic of Karelia are caused by problems in the social sphere and ecology, and the social sphere is a weak point in the Pskov region. Increase in innovative activity is considered as a direction to improve the sustainability.