A Study Of Urbanization Process And Spatial Pattern In The Russian Federation

Under the background of "the Belt and Road" and "the economic corridor of China,Mongolia and Russia" initiatives,China and Russia have entered into a new stage of comprehensive opening and cooperation.Urbanization development is an important foundation for promoting bilateral economic and trade cooperation for China and Russia.It is also one of the most important aspects to study the economic and social development of Russia.At present,there is still a lack of domestic research on Russian urbanization.Based on the systematic review of the domestic and foreign urbanization literatures,this paper summarized the urbanization development process,urbanization development characteristics and urbanization development problems during the period of the Soviet Union and Russia.On the basis of clarifying the concepts of Russian urbanization,Russian urbanization level and Russian urbanization spatial pattern,this paper constructed the analysis framework of Russian urbanization pattern from three spatial perspectives of Russian Federation,Russian Federal districts and Russian Federal subjects.Firstly,this paper discussed the urbanization basis during the period of Soviet Union,and it analyzed the urbanization process and urbanization problems during the period of Russia.Secondly,this paper studied the population growth and its spatial pattern changes of Russia.Thirdly,this paper calculated the urbanization levels with regard to the population,economic and social aspects of Russia during 2005-2016.The spatial differentiation of the urbanization levels of the population,economic and social aspects was performed respectively by using Arc GIS.Finally,we suggested the future urbanization development strategies of Russia that can boost the growth and development of the cooperation path in the border areas of China and Russia.In theory,this paper reviewed the relevant urbanization theories during the period of the Soviet Union,and it discussed the urbanization strategies during the period of Russia.These can deepen the understanding of the Russian urbanization process and the Russian urbanization pattern.In practice,this paper can suggest cooperation policies and strategies for the border cities and areas of China and Russia.The main research contents and conclusions are as follows:1.This paper reviewed the relevant urbanization literatures with regard to the urbanization concept characteristics,urbanization basic theories,urbanization development stages,urbanization level measurement,and urbanization influencing factors at home and abroad.During the Soviet Union period,geographical scholars such as Romonosov,Baranski,Kolosovsk,Nikolasov,and Saushkin summarized some urbanization basic theories,including the productivity distribution theory,the regional production complex theory and the economic division theory.These scholars advised that the government could build a regional unit of coordinated development among production specialized departments nationwide,so as to guarantee the optimal specialized production of each production department,and the organic combination development of the agriculture and industry.In this study,the construction of theoretical foundation framework of Russian urbanization is conducted with six theories,i.e.urbanization development stage theory,urban-rural dual economic structure theory,regional industrial structure evolution theory,regional production complex theory,growth pole theory,and core-edge theory.According to these six theories,this paper analyzed the connotations of Russian urbanization,Russian urbanization level,and Russian urbanization pattern.We find that the necessary prerequisite of the Russian urbanization realization is the continuous migration of rural population to non-agricultural industries.The key procedure of the Russian urbanization development is the continuous agglomeration of secondary and tertiary industries to cities.The important goal of the Russian urbanization realization is the the expansion of urban production-life styles and material-spiritual civilization to the countryside.The Russian urbanization pattern is the spatial distribution structure of which the human activities change in the regional space under the influence of economic,social,traffic,politic,cultural factors.2.This paper discussed the urbanization basis during the period of Soviet Union,and it analyzed the urbanization process,urbanization characteristics and urbanization problems during the period of Russia.The process of urbanization in the Soviet Union basically presents the characteristics of "S" urbanization curve.The urbanization process of the Soviet Union had experienced four stages: urbanization stagnation and recovery under Lenin,urbanization fluctuating growth under Stalin,urbanization slow growth under Khrushchev,and urbanization development under Brezhnev and Gorbachev.During the period of Soviet Union,the rapid industrialization process had greatly promoted the urbanization process under the guidance of the socialist industrialization policies.The urbanization development is conducted with two aspects,i.e.the migration of population to the interior of cities,and the transformation of rural residential areas to the urban residential areas.With the increase of the number of cities,the increase of urban population and the expansion of urban scale,the Soviet Union had finally transformed from a backward agricultural country to a modern industrial country.The urbanization process of Russia has experienced two stages: urbanization stagnation under Yeltsin,and urbanization slow growth under Putin.The urbanization levels of Russia have been growing slowly,because of the reasons such as the insufficient industrial power,opposed urban-rural dual structure,unreasonable urban system structure,backward urbanization infrastructure,increasing urban-rural shrinkage,and polluted ecological environmental.3.This paper studied the population growth and its spatial pattern changes of Russia combined with the indicators of the population center of gravity,the population change rate,the population density change rate,the population geographic concentration and the population entropy degree.On these bases,this paper studied the urbanization level and its spatial differentiation in Russia.The paper first built an index system to evaluate the urbanization development level of Russia from the perspectives of economic development,industrial structure,living standard,social development and infrastructure.Then based on the comprehensive weighting method of entropy weight and variation coefficient,this paper calculated the urbanization levels with regard to the population,economic and social aspects of of Russia and its eighty-three federal subjects during 2005-2016.Finally,the spatial differentiation of the urbanization levels of the population,economic and social aspects was performed respectively by using Arc GIS from the perspectives of 3D and 2D.The results are as following.Geographical basis and natral resources are the important support for the development of urbanization in Russia.First,after 1990 s,Russia’s population has experienced a trend of first decreasing and then increasing,and the Russia’s population gravity centre has moved to the northwest direction.Second,the urbanization level of the economic aspect is the main factor that affects the urbanization development of Russia.The comprehensive urbanization level of eighty-three federal subjects has increased from 2005 to 2016.The urbanization levels of the economic aspects are higher than the population and social aspects.Third,the urbanization levels of the population,economic,and social urbanization aspects are all spatially imbalanced in Russia.Spatially,the urbanization level of Russia shows the "High Core,Low Edge","High Center,Low North,and Low South","High West,Low East" spatial patterns.The areas with a high urbanization level are concentrated in Moscow city,Saint-Petersburg city and the belt areas of "Republic of DagestanStavropol Territory-Krasnodar Territory-Rostov Region-Voronezh RegionVolgograd Region-Saratov Region-Samara Region-Republic of Tatarstan-Republic of Bashkortostan-Perm Territory-Sverdlovsk Region-Chelyabinsk Region-Tumen Region-Novosibirsk Region-Kemerovo Region-Krasnoyarsk Territory-Irkutsk Region".The areas with low ones are mostly in the northeastern part of the Far East Federal district,southern part of the Siberian Federal district and northern part of the North West Federal district.4.Based on the background of Russia’s urbanization development process and urbanization development problems,this paper suggested the future urbanization development strategies of Russia that can boost the growth and development of the cooperation path in the border areas and cities of China and Russia.(1)Some metropolitan areas or urban agglomerations could be built with the current trend of urbanization and information technology development,such as the three super large urban agglomerations of Moscow,St.Petersburg,Yekaterinburg-Chelyabinsk-UfaPerm,and eight large urban agglomerations of Kazan-Samara-Togliatti-UlyanovskIzhevsk,Novosibirsk-Omsk-Barnur,etc.(2)In the Russian asian areas,Siberian and Far East federal districts could cultivate the growth poles based on the growth pole theory and the point-axis theory,such as Novosibirsk,Omsk,Krasnoyarsk,Barnur,Vladivostok,Irkutsk,and Khabarovsk.(3)In the whole territory of Russia,regional infrastructure could be built so as to enhance the land space connectivity efficiency,such as the high-speed rails,ports,airports,and information facilities.(4)In the Russian boder areas,the opening strategies could be implemented,especially the cooperation path in the border areas and cities of China and Russia,such as: promoting the division and cooperation of industries,implementing the division and cooperation of energy projects,developing diversified tourism resources and products,cultivating multi-form cross-border e-commerce cooperation channels,accelerating the transformation of infrastructure,promoting the construction of the economic cooperation zone,and strengthening the protection and management of ecological environment,etc.