Impact of Comfortable Urban Environment on the Socio-Economic Development of Medium-Sized Towns of the Russian Federation Constituent Entity

The present study is devoted to the assessment of the impact of urban environment on the development of medium-sized towns of the Leningrad region. The aim of the work is to propose measures to improve the management of medium-sized cities in the region on the basis of the identified factors of urban environment impact on socio-economic development. The information base was scientific articles, Federal State Statistics Service and EMISS databases, data derived from the Competence Center of the Leningrad Region, open data of municipal statistics. The study applied the methods of qualitative analysis of the implementation of projects on the formation of urban environment, comparative analysis, correlation and regression analysis as well as the method of comprehensive assessment. As a result of the study, the author's methodology for assessing the impact of urban environment on the socio-economic development of medium-sized cities in the Leningrad Region was formed and tested, which partially confirmed the hypothesis of the study. The implementation of improvement projects is indeed related with the development of Kudrovo, Murino and Gatchina, but in Sosnovy Bor and Vsevolozhsk their effect is minimal. A high correlation between the variety of services in public and business zones and the change in the population of a medium-sized city, including migration growth, was revealed. The landscaping costs and indicators of hotel services and culture are noticeably correlated. The regression model showed the average level of influence of some indicators of urban environment on local budget revenues. As a result of the study, individual measures to improve the management of medium-sized towns were proposed, which are directed to the local administrations of medium-sized towns in the Leningrad region, the Competence Center of the Leningrad region, the committees for the development of small, medium-sized businesses and consumer market in the region. Keywords: medium-sized towns, urban environment, socio-economic development, Urban Environment Quality Index, correlation analysis