Prospective Sub-Centers for the Development of the St. Petersburg Metropolitan Area: Trends and Opportunities for Spatial Transformation

Aim. The presented study aims to analyze the opportunities and formulate directions for the development of prospective centers within the St. Petersburg metropolitan area in the context of implementation of the polycentric development model.

Tasks. The authors substantiate the need for a polycentric model for the development of the St. Petersburg metropolitan area; identify the features and directions of development of prospective sub-centers within the St. Petersburg metropolitan area at the current stage; formulate the limitations and directions of development of one of the agglomeration’s prospective subcenters — the Tosnensky municipal settlement.

Methods. This study uses general scientific methods of cognition, such as generalization, analysis, comparison, deduction and induction, methods of analytical assessment of statistics in the field of socio-economic development of territories, and analysis of fundamental scientific works of the Institute of Problems of Regional Economy of the RAS.

Results. To form a polycentric model of the St. Petersburg metropolitan area, the authors propose developing its prospective sub-centers. The study mainly focuses on the Tosnensky municipal settlement, which represents the major directions of socio-economic development of this sub-center within the St. Petersburg metropolitan area in accordance with the chosen vector of territorial socio-economic development.

Conclusions. Advanced foreign practices convincingly prove that the application of the polycentric model and the formation of prospective sub-centers for the development of metropolitan areas along with the heart of the agglomeration — a metropolis — are extremely relevant. From a strategic perspective, the examined sub-center can become a self-sufficient pole of the agglomeration’s economic growth. Examination of spatial aspects and formation of methodological and conceptual foundations for the development of agglomerations is a major fundamental research endeavor for Russian and foreign science.

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