Involvement by Municipal Public Administrations of Residents of Small Towns and Settlements in Landscaping Activities

Since 2017, Russia has been building a unified management system in the field of improvement, the concept of which was formulated in the federal project “Formation of a comfortable urban environment” and is transferred to similar projects and programs at the regional and municipal levels of government, respectively. Such continuity ensures the integration of common standards, makes it possible to exchange best practices and formulate universal methodological recommendations based on successful examples. However, despite seven years of experience within the framework of the modern federal concept of a comfortable urban environment, an assessment of the results of projects implemented under the FCGS has not yet been carried out. The existing methods in Russia and abroad to assess the quality of the urban environment, in particular the Ministry of Construction index and the VEB index, have significant limitations that do not allow separately assessing improvement in towns and settlements, which are the main “audience” of the FKGS. The proposed methodology for the improvement index in towns and settlements allows to solve this research problem. The developed index is designed in such a way that local authorities can use it themselves without significant expenditure of resources. At the same time, the index was chosen as the method for assessing improvement due to the fact that this is the most convenient form of data presentation that can be used to involve residents in improvement and in the local government in general. The improvement index was piloted in three localities in Central Russia. The results confirmed the suitability of the index for self-evaluation by local administrations, but demonstrated methodological difficulties associated with collecting information and requiring solutions for the successful use of the index in the future. Options for improving the index methodology were proposed as part of recommendations addressed to local governments. Thus, the index of improvement of towns and settlements can become an effective tool for self-evaluation and management in the field of improvement for municipal authorities. The potential of the index as a way to involve residents in local government will also have a positive impact on the effectiveness of the implementation of the powers of local administrations in the assessed area and the quality of life of the population.