The Impact of Transport Connectivity of Territory on Spatial Development of the City

The proposed thesis is devoted to the problem of the impact of transport connectivity on the urban development of Russian cities. To date, studies of street and road network connectivity are widely presented abroad, and metrics for its assessment are implemented in the urban planning documents of cities in developed countries. However, the impact of this indicator on the urban development of Russian cities, economy and transportation is poorly studied, and the metrics for its assessment are not implemented in urban planning documents. Using a sample of data on five Russian and three foreign cities for the period 2014 and 2023-2024, were investigated how their urban development is interrelated with the connectivity, and what spatial and statistical indicators are affected by this metric. Using GIS tools and comparing the obtained data with statistical indicators from open sources, it was found that the connectivity of the territory has an impact on its urban development, and Russian cities differ from the foreign cities taken for consideration in many respects. Thus, Russian cities turned out to be less dense in terms of population and building density than foreign cities, and their street and road network is less connected and efficient. It was also revealed that the connectivity indicators in the middle zone of Russian cities are drooped due to a large percentage of industrial areas, which is not observed in foreign cities. Russian cities have undergone strong changes over the decade: some of them have sprolled significantly, which has had a negative impact on their connectivity, while others have densified and their connectivity indicators have improved. However, the correlation between transportation connectivity indicators and urban development of cities is weak, as each of them is unique, and the small sample size does not allow to establish clearer relationships. In spite of this, the results obtained demonstrate the changes in cities over the past 10 years and highlight the problems of transport connectivity of territories, and the knowledge and methods obtained can be used in further research and in the development of urban planning documents.