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SOCIO-ECONOMIC CRITERIA FOR DELIMITATION AND TYPOLOGIZATION OF MARITIME ZONES OF THE EUROPEAN TERRITORY OF RUSSIA: AN INTEGRATED COASTAL MANAGEMENT PERSPECTIVE

A. G. Druzhinin, V. V. Gorochnaya, G. M. Fedorov, S. S. Lachininskii, A. S. Mikhaylov

Abstract

Modern geography is certain about the significant influence of the coastal factor over the territorial organization of society, the economic, residential and ecological specifics of the coastal territories. In the past fifteen years, the pronounced shift of population and investments towards the sea became equally characteristic for the Russian Federation. This fact further facilitates the segregation of national maritime zones as a priority object of integrated management, initiating efforts on their delimitation and typologization at all taxonomic levels. The present study is focused on substantiating the priority of economic and residential determinants and criteria for delimitation of maritime zones. Authors elaborate a system of indices and scaling principles acting as a prototype of cartographic model that reflects the dispersion and localization of economic clusters in the maritime zone of the European part of Russia over time. Supported by a database containing detailed demographic and socio-economic information for 14 regions and 94 coastal municipalities this approach enables to build cartographic schemes on localization of economic activity and dynamics of coastal settlements. This, in turn, allows undertaking the delimitation of maritime zones at macro, meso- and micro levels and the identification of its main types in terms of integrated coastal management. The main research accent is made on a multiscale study of RussiaВ’s maritime zone in the Baltic Sea, namely the city of St. Petersburg, Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions. Based on the synthesis of instrumental approaches to socio-economic regionalization, economic structuring and GIS analysis, a typology of coastal municipalities was proposed. The following factors are taken into consideration: the distance from the sea, the urbanization degree and inclusion in metropolization processes, the structure and role of the maritime complex, the level of economic and residential development of the territory, the socio-economic and demographic dynamics, the geo-economic and geopolitical context, the scale and nature of cross-border economic and socio-cultural interrelations. The study identifies the maritime zone boundary, its nodal economic and residential components. Its detailed structuring is held, followed by an inventory of the marine complexesВ’ actors localized within its limits placing an emphasis on their transboundary activity. Research results point to the importance in recognition of aquatic-territorial duality and integrity of maritime zones, the adaptability of regulatory measures and approaches to their multiscale structure and typological specificity. Registration of their structural components can become an important part of the system of strategic and territorial planning of RussiaВ’s development, including at the subfederal level.

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