Жизнестойкость арктических городов России: методологические подходы и количественные оценки

Abstract

Research question of the paper is how to utilize ecosystem studies to refresh our research of the contemporary Russian Arctic cities, to deepen our understanding of the difference between resilient and sustainable city, and to create metho-dological approach to measure resilience capacity of the Arctic cities. The paper describes three main directions of the latest study of the Arctic cities of the world and Russia: 1) Arctic urbanization as a global phenomenon; 2) emphasis on the internal and economic structure of the Arctic city; 3) analysis and assessment of the resilience and sustainability of Arctic cities. The most important lesson of Soviet research of the Arctic is the need for a holistic view of the ecosystems of the polar regions, overcoming the temptation to reduce to a single, even a powerful factor, for example, climate change. Following this methodology, the authors propose a comprehensive approach to assessing the resilience of a sample of the 29 largest Arctic cities in Russia, including three blocks of nine indicators covering the external location of the city, the internal spatial structure, and the structural flexibility of the urban system. Based on the aggregation of three blocks of indicators, an integral index of the resilience of the Arctic city to external natural and social crises has been formed. The highest values are in large cities that are part of the main agglomerations of the European North – Arkhangelsk, Severodvinsk, Onega, Murmansk, Novodvinsk and Apatity. The single-industry cities of Norilsk and Nadym have the minimum values. The distribution of arctic cities according to the value of the integral index of resi-lience confirms their enormous differences in the favorability of the external position, the degree of diversity of the in-ternal spatial and economic structure, the degree of plasticity and flexibility of the urban system. The paradox of our approach in assessing the resilience of the Russian Arctic cities is that the further the Arctic city is from the classical canons of the Soviet industrial city, the more potentially resilient it is.