Integration of the Evolutionary and Genetic Approach and the Spatial Approach to the Region’s Sustainable Development Assessment

Abstract

Purpose: Urgency of solving the scientific problem of regional economy connected with the assessment of the productive capacity and economic activity defining the region’s sustainable development. Design/methodology/approach: It is extremely important to evaluate the state of productive capacity and economic activity of the regional social and economic system basing on synthesis of the evolutionary and genetic approach, as well as the spatial approach providing objective identity, classification, visualization and assessment of factor components for the region’s sustainable development. The article gives the assessment results for factor components of the municipal districts’ productive capacity and economic activity; the districts’ spatial variability was also studied. The research result is represented by the methodology for assessing the sustainable development of municipal districts. Findings: The article demonstrates the effectiveness of using themed digital maps providing the visual side of spatial predicted patterns in distributing indexes of productive capacity and economic activity in municipal districts. The key characteristic of the region’s sustainable development assessment is its interdisciplinary nature provided by integration of the evolutionary and genetic, as well as spatial approaches based on contemporary GIS technologies. Originality/value: The results’ scientific value includes the theoretical and methodological explanation for method tools used for reasoning the decisions made in the area of managing the region’s sustainable social and economic development. According to the authors, the spatial approach based on the spatial analysis methods will enable to bring up serious thought on the meaning of the region’s sustainable social and economic development opening up certain perspectives to improve methods and means for regional and municipal management, include spatial analysis methods into the process of making management decisions.