Socio-Ecological Urban Risks and the Moscow Agglomeration Development: the Comparative International Study

Abstract

The article examines the main trends and forecasts of urbanization in the contemporary world. At the center of the authors' interests is Moscow — the largest urban agglomeration in Russia with its social and environmental problems. Based on the latest statistical data, the current particularities of the Moscow agglomeration growth and its dynamics (both territorial and population) are analyzed. In addition, using foreign experience, an attempt is made to predict the future of Russian capital’s residents in conditions of further hypertrophied growth. Paying attention to the positive aspects of urbanization, researchers express concern about its negative consequences, such as environmental problems and, as a result, worsening health among the population, congestion contributing to the rapid spread of diseases, lack of the necessary social infrastructure, the development of which does not keep up with the city's development, the growth of crime, ethno cultural conflicts, problems of social inequality and social tension, asymmetric urban settlement, etc. Based on foreign experience in the development of world megalopolises, the authors highlight and describe three blocks of problems that give rise to the process of hypertrophied growth of urban spaces: social inequality, ecology and deterioration of public health; the growth of migration flows and the ghettoization of urban areas. The article concludes that there is a need for a balanced assessment of the main risks and benefits standing behind the rapid growth of the metropolitan agglomeration and the mandatory regulation of this process in the Russian Federation.