Traditional Industrial Regions Research Articles

Spatiotemporal Evolution and Tapio Decoupling Analysis of Energy-Related Carbon Emissions Using Nighttime Light Data: A Quantitative Case Study at the City Scale in Northeast China

As the world’s second-largest economy, China has experienced rapid industrialization and urbanization, resulting in high energy consumption and significant carbon emissions. This development has intensified conflicts between human-land relations and environmental conservation, contributing to global warming and urban air pollution, both of which pose serious health risks. This study uses nighttime light (NTL) data from 2005 to 2019, along with scaling techniques and statistical analysis, to estimate city-scale energy carbon emissions over a 15-year period. Focusing on Northeast China, a traditional industrial region comprising 36 cities across three provinces, we examine spatial patterns of energy carbon emissions and assess spatiotemporal evolution through spatial autocorrelation and dynamic changes. These changes are further evaluated using standard deviation ellipse (SDE) parameters and SLOPE values. Additionally, the Tapio decoupling index is applied to explore the relationship between city-scale emissions and economic growth. Our findings for the 36 cities over 15 years are: (1) Heilongjiang shows low, declining emissions; Jilin improves; Liaoning has high, steadily increasing emissions. (2) The global spatial autocorrelation of energy carbon emissions is significant, with a positive Moran’s I, while significant local Moran’s I clusters are concentrated in Heilongjiang and Liaoning. (3) The greatest emission changes occurred in 2015, followed by 2019, 2005, and 2010. (4) Emission growth is fastest in Heilongjiang, followed by Liaoning and Jilin. (5) Tapio analysis shows positive decoupling in Heilongjiang, declining decoupling in Jilin, and no change in Liaoning. This study provides a quantitative basis for dual carbon goals and offers emission reduction strategies for government, industry, and residents, supporting energy transition and sustainable urban planning.

The main processes responsible for landscape transformation in post-industrial urban areas in Central Europe

In recent years, the dynamic of spatial change has been increasing, influenced by processes linked to the transformation of traditional industrial regions into metropolitan areas. This is related to changes in function and administrative status, but above all to spatial changes. Examples of cities experiencing dynamic landscape changes from coal mining cities to modern metropolises can be found in the former coal basins of Central Europe – the Upper Silesian Metropolis in Poland and the Ostrava-Karviná Region in the Czechia. This study analysed the transformation of the landscape on the basis of land cover data from the years 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2018. The index of landscape change and the index of change of individual cover types were calculated, and on the basis of these indices the main processes responsible for the transformation of the landscape were determined. In the two study areas, similar changes in the landscape are taking place but at different rates. The main processes changing the landscape are suburbanization, reindustrialization and agricultural land abandonment. In space, they are manifested in an increase in the areas of residential, commercial and service development, the densification of the road network, and an increase in land allocated for new industrial plants. At the same time, the acreage of agricultural land (mainly arable fields, orchards and plantations but also open landscapes) is decreasing.

REGIONAL FUNCTIONING SPECIFICS OF THE UKRAINIAN ECONOMY INDUSTRIAL SECTOR IN CONDITIONS OF DEVELOPMENT INSTABILITY

The purpose of the article is to identify transformations in the Ukrainian economy's industrial sector based on a comprehensive assessment of activity (production, labor, investment, and innovation) and the functioning efficiency (profitability) of the named sector in the regional section. The results of the evaluations carried out using the author's method made it possible to tentatively distinguish four groups of regions in Ukraine according to the type of their industry: first group – traditionally industrial regions with a high level of the industrialization of the economy and product innovation, a significant (with a tendency to increase) share of the extractive industry, the second group – regions that possessed sufficient industrial potential and/or demonstrated its active growth. The regions of this group are characterized by a highly developed processing industry, in which food occupied the largest share; the third group – regions with a high level of industrial and labor activity, the industrial sector of which was dominated by electricity production; the fourth group – the economy of these regions belongs to the non-industrial type, where the activity and efficiency indicators of industrial enterprises are mostly low (or tend to decrease). It is possible to ascertain the presence of certain transformational trends in Ukrainian industry over the last 10 years, the essence of which was the formation of new industrial centers that are still small in terms of activity scale, but with larger (compared to traditional industrial regions) values and higher positive dynamics of individual production and labor indicators, as well as investment activity of industrial enterprises. Such "new industrial" centers arose mostly in the western and central regions. The full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine in 2022 sharply and strongly intensified these transformational processes. All regions of the 1st group, which were industrial leaders, lost a significant part of their industrial potential. This applies primarily to metallurgical industries, which need radical modernization and innovative technologies. There was an increase in the industrial potential of a part of the regions assigned to the 2nd group instead, as well as a part of the regions belonging to the 3rd group, as a result of the enterprises' relocation, in particular.

СТРАТЕГИЯ РАЗВИТИЯ ЦИФРОВЫХ КОМПЕТЕНЦИЙ ТРАДИЦИОННОПРОМЫШЛЕННОГО РЕГИОНА

This article presents some changes in regional skills strategies as a result of The Fourth Industrial Revolution. Theories of competences management and industrial development were used. Semi-structural interviews of Sverdlovsk Entrepreneurs and Industrialists Union members was done. Core competencies development in innovations and digitalization are the strategic aims for traditional industrial regions. Skills strategies needs in development of the basic digital knowledge, the communications and cooperation, the digital content production, the information security and digital development.

Polluting characteristics, sources, cancer risk, and cellular toxicity of PAHs bound in atmospheric particulates sampled from an economic transformation demonstration area of Dongguan in the Pearl River Delta, China

The Songshan Lake Science and Technology Industrial Park is a national economic transition demonstration area, which centers at a traditional industrial region, in Dongguan, China. We were interested in the involved atmospheric particulates-bound PAHs regarding their sources, cancer risk, and related cellular toxicity for those in other areas under comparable conditions. In this study, the daily concentrations of TSP, PM10, and PM2.5 were averaged 127.95, 95.91, and 67.62 μg/m3, and the bound PAHs were averaged 1.31, 1.22, and 0.77 ng/m3 in summer and 12.72, 20.51 and 40.27 ng/m3 in winter, respectively. The dominant PAHs were those with 5–6 rings, and 4–6 rings in summer and winter, respectively. The incremental lifetime cancer risk (ILCR) (90th percentile probability) of total PAHs was above 1.00E-06 in each age group, particularly high in adolescents. Sensitivity analysis indicated that slope factor and body weight had greater impact than exposure duration and inhalation rate on the ILCR. Moreover, treatment of human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells with mixed five indicative PAHs increased the formation of ROS, DNA damage (elevation in γ-H2AX), and protein levels of CAR, PXR, CYP1A1, 1A2, 1B1, while reduced the AhR protein, with the winter mixture more potent than summer. For the sources of PAHs, the stable carbon isotope ratio analysis and diagnostic ratios consistently pointed to petroleum and fossil fuel combustion as major sources. In conclusion, our findings suggest that particulates-bound PAHs deserve serious concerns for a cancer risk in such environment, and the development of new power sources for reducing fossil fuel combustion is highly encouraged.

Industrial municipalities in economic space of traditional industrial regions: A programme for research

Behind the quality of economic space of traditional industrial regions, there are various factors at play, including the performance of municipalities, among which the impact of industrial municipalities is particularly noticeable. Most of the programmes presented in the Russian academic discourse and used to assess municipalities focus on revealing trends in their socioeconomic development. At the same time, regional economics lacks methodological approaches to assessing them in a spatial context. The research aims to develop an original method for analysing and evaluating the development of industrial municipalities in economic space of traditional industrial regions. Methodologically, the study rests on spatial and municipal economics, and the concept of functional complexity. The suggested programme for research consists of five blocks. The first four blocks include the assessment of the industrial municipalities’ participation in ensuring the saturation of regional economic space, forming region’s industrial potential and its municipal economic space, and processes of strengthening functional complexity of regional economic space. The fifth block includes the calculation and interpretation of composite indicators as well as building a typology of industrial municipalities. The practical significance of the developed programme for research is that it meets the need for the assessment of industrial municipalities as a system-forming element in the economic space of traditional industrial region.

Properties of traditional industrial regions’ economic space: Theoretical foundations

Properties of traditional industrial regions’ economic space: Theoretical foundations

Renewing industrial regions? Advanced manufacturing and industrial policy in Britain

ABSTRACT The UK’s industrial strategy, with local variants, aims to support manufacturing in ‘traditional industrial regions’ (TIRs). Using novel data for advanced manufacturing (AM) industries over several decades, we examine long-term changes in their geography by regions and local authority districts. These industries have shifted away from large urban regions, and local authority districts in TIRs have lost ground relative to those in other regions, although there are variations between industries. Foreign direct investment has tended to locate in non-TIR locations. AM industries have not shifted decisively towards research-intensive regions. We consider the implications for policy initiatives seeking to spark clusters around innovation districts.

Justification of regional development of industrial enterprises in the plane of their financial support: experience of Ukraine

The object of research is the regional industry of Ukraine. In the sectoral context, the general structure of the regional industry is significantly deformed, and the strategic and sectoral guidelines of economic policy are blurred, which makes it difficult to restore the economic growth of the country as a whole. The industrial potential is concentrated mainly in traditional industrial regions. The development of industry is hampered by the worn-out state of the technical and technological base of production, a high level of staff turnover, an insignificant percentage of the production of high-tech products, a lack of institutions for innovative development, and similar factors. The complexity of the procedures for financing the processes of industrial development is mediated by the innovative activity of its subjects. The processing industry is the central center of innovation in the industry. Among the sources of financing for innovations, enterprises’ own funds prevail. It is substantiated that the main directions of regional development of industrial enterprises in terms of financial support for their functioning are support and encouragement of innovation, measures to increase the competitiveness of industrial products, internationalization and support for exports. It is proved that the regions of the country unevenly use the mechanisms of investment support for industry, depending on the characteristics of the development of the regional economy. This necessitates the creation of investment mechanisms aimed at ensuring the management of the competitiveness of regional industrial complexes on the basis of the development and implementation of innovations. A multichannel investment mechanism has been proposed to ensure a full-fledged infusion of financial resources from several sources as an effective tool for financial influence on the development of industrial enterprises. It is noted that among the directions of development of industrial management should remain both traditional measures to support domestic producers (state regional purchases) and alternative (financial leasing, initial placement of securities, joint investment). For a separate direction of industrial development, it is recommended that state support of cluster interregional initiatives based on the use of leading European experience. The highlighted areas are relevant for potential foreign partners who intend to carry out joint business with Ukrainian industrial enterprises. Also, the indicated research results are significant in the process of attracting investments at the regional level and have practical value for foreign investors when they consider a portfolio of alternatives to foreign direct investment in Ukrainian industrial facilities.

Strategizing sustainable development: the case of the Ural industrial regions

The remit of the article is regional development strategizing. Regional development strategy as part of regional regulatory environment could ensure the task of sustainable development due to determining priorities for resource conservation, development of a “green” economy, and restoration of natural resources. This is especially important for the extractive economies of the Russian regions. On the contrary, the research revealed the preservation of extractive policies in most of the Ural regions. The manuscript contains the description of the ecological and economic position of the regions of the Ural macroregion, that have a high anthropogenic impact on the environment because of their nature of economy. We analysed the content of the development strategies of the regions of the Ural macroregion and the issues of sustainable development. The Chelyabinsk region and the Republic of Bashkortostan didn’t include sustainable development in the top priorities. It leads them to stick their place in the tail of the National Environmental Rating of Russian Regions. Orenburg region’s strategy conclude the most quality mechanisms for ensuring environmental safety in regional strategic documents. The author highlighted the comprehension of the deep interrelationships of ecological well-being with all spheres of human life in the development strategy of the Sverdlovsk region. The regional development strategy is an important mechanism for ensuring a balance between industrial growth and environmental conservation. Therefore, the authority of traditional industrial regions of the Urals should strengthen the component of sustainable development in their strategies.

ENTERPRISE SUPPORT POLICY AND TERRITORIAL COHESION: THE CZECH REPUBLIC (2007-2013)

The intention of this paper is to evaluate whether the spatial distribution of Structural Funds (SF) for enterprise support interventions follows the relevant territorial cohesion objectives specified in the strategic documents of the Czech Republic in the programming period 2007-2013. The evidence provided suggests mixed results. A relatively high SF allocation to the regions, characterized by strong agglomeration economies and a strong entrepreneurial climate, supports the competitiveness objective, particularly for innovation-oriented interventions. Nevertheless, little support is given to the objective of balanced development because socio-economically disadvantaged regions do not receive a higher SF allocation, in particular traditional industrial regions suffering from industrial decline, high unemployment and with a poor entrepreneurial climate. In this regard, the absorption capacity concept is emphasized as being important for explaining the spatial distribution of SF.

Перспективы развития туризма в Удмуртской Республике

The research objective was to define the relationship between industrial, business, and ethnocultural tourism using the case of the Udmurt Republic. Diversification of tourism industry is a relevant vector of institutional economic development in traditional resource-mining and industrial regions. The main hypothesis is that industrial and agricultural specialization can be developed in Udmurtia as part of the regional economy diversification. The most effective platform for promoting brands and segments of the tourism industry is congress and exhibition activity. The research also featured the current state of industrial tourism strategy development and the effect of cultural brands on the image of the region. Business tourism sector remains underdeveloped in the Udmurt Republic, but its development can be catalyzed by the rich ethnocultural component. The authors used systematic approach to identify the main potential areas of cultural and economic activity of the Udmurt republic. Industrial tourism, as well as congress and exhibition activity, can trigger the economic growth of regional gross product. A wider range of tourist products is bound to improve the quality of local tourism and increase the service sector in the regional economic structure.

ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЕ ПРОСТРАНСТВО ТРАДИЦИОННО- ПРОМЫШЛЕННОГО РЕГИОНА: СУЩНОСТЬ, СТРУКТУРА

The article is devoted to the study of the economic space of the traditional industrial region as a special type of region in the economic space of the country. The basic approaches to the study of the concept of economic space are considered. The purpose of the article is to determine the essence and structure of the traditional industrial region. The result is the author's approach to the study of this economic space and the allocation of its main elements in its structure.

Industrial specialization – the most important factor for sustainable development and the region economic security

In article the authors argue that the industrial future is the most important factor in ensuring sustainable development of a traditional industrial region. The conclusions are based on the study of the first results of socio-economic development in the context of the coronavirus pandemic, a prominent representative of traditionally industrial regions - the Sverdlovsk region. The authors base their own research on the conceptual guidelines of the scientific paradigm of sustainable development. Operative statistical data on the Sverdlovsk region are presented. In the study the conclusions were reached about the immediate prospects for the development of the Sverdlovsk region economy in the context of a new coronavirus infection. The processes that are an approximate scenario for the development of events at the regional level were identified. The importance of maintaining industrial specialization in the new realities of the economy as an important factor in sustainable development not only at the national level, but also at the regional level was revealed.

地場産業産地における革新の特徴 : 益子陶磁器産地と笠間陶磁器産地を例に( 産業集積地域の革新性をめぐって)

地場産業産地における革新の特徴 : 益子陶磁器産地と笠間陶磁器産地を例に( 産業集積地域の革新性をめぐって)

COMPLEMENTARY INSTITUTIONS FOR FUNDING REGIONAL ECONOMIES

With long-term funding resources unavailable, the real sector of the domestic economy is deprived of the opportunity to boost the investment activity. The structure of the investment sources shows the predominant role of the banking system and budgetary funding in this process. The large-scale goals of the domestic economy, along with the needs of the new industrialization, require not only implementation of large investment projects but also the use of new approaches to the monetary policy as well as the improvement of basic and complementary institutions for funding the real sector of the economy. It is the development of complementary institutions that can substantially increase the investing effectiveness. With this purpose the paper examines regional banking structures and non-bank funding institutions. The research methods included the institutional analysis, the structural and dynamic analysis of the Bank of Russia data and regional statistics. It is determined that the Russian economy needs more regional institutions, particularly regional banking networks and government structures, to support the real sector. Their advantages are the ability to take into account the specifics of regional businesses, knowledge of customers, flexibility, efficiency in decision-making, individual approach, the ability to establish partnership relations and neutralize possible shortcomings of federal institutions. At the same time, it is confirmed that the regional banking network in Russia tends to shrink due to tightening of laws introduced and violation of competition rules by large banks. The effects of low activity in the sphere of lending to small and medium-sized businesses related to restrictions in capitalization of regional banks, slow capital accumulation rates as well as the limited access to the interbank lending market and the CBR refinancing system have been revealed. The paper determines the complementary nature and role of the emerging system of state institutions for funding the real sector of the economy. It is noted that today these institutions do not possess significant resources, are poorly coordinated and lack a strict system of performance indices. The role of the regional business support infrastructure being established in a number of industrial regions is assessed based on the data of the Sverdlovsk Region as a traditional industrial region of the Russian Federation.

Urban demographic decline in the traditional industrial regions of the Urals (1959–2010)

This article considers the demographic disaster that occurred in traditional industrial Ural cities between the 1960s and the 2000s and demonstrates its scale. A ‘depressed city’ is a term denoting a stage in a city’s development: it is characterised by a decline in production, the emergence of unemployment, and a decrease in investment and migration, all of which is followed by a fall in population. This research is based on calculations and comparisons of the demographic dynamics found in the All-Soviet Union and All-Russian censuses of 1959, 1970, 1979, 1980, 2002, and 2010 from the perspective of a number of individual Ural towns. The Urals have faced the same problems as American cities of the Appalachian region, German cities of the Ruhr district, and British coalmining and metallurgical regions in the 20th century. The author proposes a method for revealing depressed settlements. It uses two demographic criteria: first, a decrease of population exceeding five percent per decade and, second, the stability of a negative demographic balance across several decades. In accordance with this method, it is established that during the late Soviet period (1959–89) 18 Ural towns could be characterised as depressed. Between the 1960s and 1980s, such tendencies had a local nature in the Urals, mainly affecting mining areas and some metallurgical centres. However, between the 1990s and 2000s structural economic reforms and a shift to market forms of economic management caused a dramatic decline in production, mass unemployment, and a drop in living standards: 56 Ural cities thus became depressed. Only the cities of Bashkortostan, where petrochemical production has a significant presence, showed population growth, while other regions witnessed a significant loss of population. Once a local problem, depression became a sub-regional phenomenon striking entire agglomerations and territorial production complexes. Major Ural cities were unable to absorb all of the migration from settlements and towns of the region, which caused an outflow of population from the Urals. The two post-Soviet decades can be characterised by large-scale urban decline in the Urals: there was, on average, a 6.4 per cent population decrease in all the cities of the Ural macro-region.

Identifying a pathway towards green growth of Chinese industrial regions based on a system dynamics approach

Green growth is considered a new growth mode to achieve sustainable development worldwide. There are existing studies that analyze the question of how to effectively configure resources, and balance economic development and environmental protection to achieve green growth. However, these studies are mainly focused on discussing effects of three elements on green growth, namely, economy, resources, and environment, without considering dependent interactions among the three elements themselves, and other essential elements, such as population, policy and so on. This paper develops a system dynamics model integrated with five subsystems including economy, population, resources, environment, and policy to investigate pathways towards green growth in a typical Chinese traditional industrial region, Liaoning province. Based on the current policy tools, five path scenarios are considered for policy makers, namely, business as usual scenario, technical innovation scenario, environmental regulations and management scenario, growth demand management scenario, and comprehensive optimization path scenario. Considering respective development objectives of these scenarios, this paper summarizes and analyzes characteristics of the five scenarios by examining long-term prospects of green GDP, energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. According to the ranking results for these five scenarios, with respect to energy consumption per GDP, energy consumption mix, CO2 emissions per GDP, cost of resources and environment, and green GDP per capita, the comprehensive optimization path scenario is identified as the most appropriate and effective to achieve green growth in Liaoning province. Finally, policy implications are offered based on the simulation results.

Trajectories of Depopulation and Urban Shrinkage in the Katowice Conurbation, Poland

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of trajectories of urban shrinkage in the Katowice conurbation (after 1990), a typical of a traditional industrial region in central and eastern Europe.The process of urban shrinkage and its effects, as a consequence of the restructuring of the economy of the region since 1989, are presented from a broad perspective, using the example of the Katowice conurbation, with a detailed focus on two cities, Sosnowiec and Bytom.Bytom and Sosnowiec are models exemplifying most of the typical path of shrinkage in the Katowice Conurbation. These cities represent urban centers of both Upper Silesia (Bytom) and the Dabrowa Basin Region (Sosnowiec). The shrinking cities of the Katowice Conurbation are the most spectacular examples of the socio-economic problems in the post-industrial area of the urban region.One of the signs of urban shrinkage in the Katowice conurbation is the population loss of 370,000 people in the period 1991–2013. In addition, the cities are facing numerous social, economic and spatial challenges.It is well known that, as a post-industrial region, the Katowice Conurbation has undergone a particular, complicated economic and social transformation. This is key to an interpretation of the shrinkage process in the region.

STRATEGIC ASPECTS OF TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT

Article is devoted to research of management problems of Russian industry technological development. The low interest of industrial structures, backwardness and inefficiency of state administration and investments attraction institutions are the limiting factors for technological innovations. The authors offered to solve this problem by using the national technological initiative as institution which is capable to give an additional impulse to the small hi-tech enterprises due to network interaction. The article gives an overview of new opportunities which this institution gives to Russian Federation economy. New approach to a selection of a limited number of interdisciplinary technological development priorities is offered. Authors recommend to improve the mechanism of national technological priorities selection with results of regional technological forsight, results of modeling of patent and bibliometrical activities on the intellectual property market. Traditional industrial and new industrial regions of the Russian Federation are considered as a base for the national technological initiative realization. Authors used the developed method to estimate of the resource potential value of new industrialization in these regions taking into account the technological innovations.