Journal
УКР   ENG
Socio-Economic Problems
of the Modern Period of Ukraine
   



Collection SEPSPU -- sep2026.01.040

Repository of Institute of Regional Research UDC 332.145/156:911.372.32; JEL O20, R58
Melnyk, M. I., & Zalutskyy, I. R. (2026). Kontsept identyfikatsiyi ta funktsionuvannya ahlomeratsiy pry planuvanni terytoriyi na rehional'nomu rivni [Concept of identification and functioning of agglomerations in regional spatial planning]. In Sotsial'no-ekonomichni problemy suchasnoho periodu Ukrayiny [Socio-Economic Problems of the Modern Period of Ukraine]: Vol. 177 (1) (pp. 40-47). DOI: https://doi.org/10.36818/2071-4653-2026-1-6 [in Ukrainian].
Sources: 19

Authors



Melnyk Maryana Ivanivna

Doctor of Economics, Professor

Head of the Department of spatial development of the Dolishniy Institute of Regional Research of NAS of Ukraine

Contacts: mar.melnyk@gmail.com, (032)270-70-53, (+38099)72-93-873

Webpages:



Zalutskyy Ivan Romanovych

Ph.D. of Economics, Associate Professor

Leading Researcher of the Department of spatial development of the Dolishniy Institute of Regional Research of NAS of Ukraine

Contacts: zalutskij.ivan@gmail.com

Webpages:

Resume

The article examines the issue of ensuring the identification and functioning of agglomerations in regional spatial planning within the context of implementing European experience. It addresses the problem of defining approaches to providing institutional support for the identification and development of agglomerations within the context of implementing European experience. The authors reveal that Ukrainian legislation lacks legal norms defining the procedure for drafting the Agglomeration Development Scheme as a type of urban planning documentation, as well as the procedure for drafting the Agglomeration Development Strategy as a regional policy tool. The absence of legislative norms regarding the criteria for delimiting the suburban areas of cities with populations exceeding 100,000 leads to the existence of multi-variant methodological approaches to their geospatial identification as a component of a Functional Urban Area (FUA). Furthermore, State Building Codes B.1.1-13:2021 still lack clear criteria for differentiating and defining the interconnections between the categories of urban agglomeration, suburban zone, and urbanization zone. At the sub-legislative level, the criterion for the existence of agglomeration links is recognized as the location of territorial community settlements within a 30-kilometer accessibility radius of the administrative borders of the core city, provided its population is at least 470,000. The article argues that development strategies for domestic agglomerations should be implemented based on territorial cohesion principles that were conceptually updated following the Warsaw meeting of European Union ministers in May 2025. Transitioning from a model of spatial expansion to a model of institutional integration of territorial communities within unified Functional Urban Areas (FUA) should be prioritized. The study determines that the competitive potential of an agglomeration is based on the synergy of key dominants: geospatial localization, economic determinism, infrastructural and financial maturity, and socio-cultural and environmental attractiveness. Specifically, geospatial localization is defined as an integral property of an agglomeration, reflecting the unique spatial identity of a specific functional urban area within one or more regions, considering the totality of natural-geographic, socio-economic, environmental, and urban planning factors. The authors suggest approaches to implementing the Agglomeration Spatial Planning Scheme as regional-level planning documentation and the Agglomeration Development Strategy as a strategic planning document of state regional policy, emphasizing the integrated combination of the key dominants to ensure agglomeration competitiveness.

Keywords:

agglomeration, region, spatial planning, identification of agglomerations, functioning of agglomerations

References

    
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