METHODOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF THE MUNICIPAL SMALL SOCIAL SERVICES CENTERS DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The issues of sustainable and spatial development of municipalities are practically not considered in the scientific community, giving way to the study of regions of the Russian Federation and economic regions. However, the local level of government has significant specificity and great potential for study. The article discusses the issues of strategic development methodology in relation to municipalities in terms of determining the supporting framework for the settlement of the territory. The conceptual and theoretical foundations of the study were the work of Ural researchers in the field of sustainable socio-ecological-economic and spatial development of territories. In addition, the article uses materials generated during applied research to develop a “Spatial Development Strategy for the Troitsky Municipal District of the Chelyabinsk Region for the Period Until 2035”. As the main research methods, the ones employing information-adapted (geoinformation) approaches with a combination of visualization, heuristic approaches, classifications and formalized mathematical assessment tools for calculating the population covered and the boundaries of transport accessibility have been used. The research result is the methodological development of the scientific problem of identifying the settlement support framework at the municipal level. The similarity of agglomeration impact principles at settlement level, closest to population is revealed; the name and definition of a small social services center as a growth point for the settlement support framework are proposed; a method of revealing small social services centers is developed and the necessity of employing this tool is substantiated. In addition, the article proposes to identify a multi-level system of social services centers, considering the simultaneous influence of various agglomeration impacts on municipalities. Using the system of municipal services centers in strategic planning by the development of the municipality allows us to consider the territory relative to the existing real settlement system and in isolation from the archaic administrative-territorial structure. As a result, to form targeted events with the greatest coverage in terms of population and a more efficient use of the funds spent. In the future, it is planned to study inter-municipal, inter-regional and cross-border systems of social services centers.