Assessment of the Isolation and Integrity of Intraurban Districts (a Case Study of St. Petersburg)

Regional Research of Russia. 2023. Vol. 13. No. 3. P. 534–544.

Strakhov K., Nevsky G.

The isolation and integrity of a territory are recognized by jurists as one of the criteria for determining the borders of municipalities. After analyzing geographical studies of the relationships between the morphology of the intraurban territory, territorial identity, and the potential for the development of local communities, the authors of the article concluded that these criteria are not yielded by the measurement methodology; as a result, studies are limited to demarcated areas with extreme morphological characteristics. The article proposes a methodology for assessing the isolation and integrity of intraurban districts. Considering pedestrian links as the basis of intraurban municipal connections, the authors developed a technique based on a pedestrian graph, which makes it possible to obtain more sensitive estimates compared to calculations of transport accessibility. The indices of the isolation and integrity of the territorial units of St. Petersburg—raiony and municipal okruga1, as well as the integral index summarizing them, are calculated. It is concluded that the isolation and integrity of an intraurban district have a weak negative relationship with each other and are established by urban policy. Island raiony and peripheral municipal okruga with large block buildings of the 1970s demonstrate the greatest compliance with the principles of isolation and integrity. The authors announce a study of the influence of the morphology of a territory on the level of development of local self-government based on the results presented in this article.

Keywords: local self-government, isolation, integrity, urban area, barrier, intraurban municipality, intraurban borders