RURAL AREAS OF UKRAINE IN UNFAVOURABLE CONDITIONS: APPROACHES TO DELIMITATION, FEATURES OF DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

At the present stage of regional policy implementation, rural areas in unfavourable conditions need special attention from the state. They are a new functional type of territories of Ukraine, which currently includes 114 “old” administrative districts of 14 regions of Ukraine. The total area of these territories is 150.2 thousand km2 with a population of 2.8 million people. The list of rural areas in unfavourable conditions, the criteria for their delimitation, which are officially approved in the State Strategy for Regional Development of Ukraine for the period up to 2027, contain controversial points and require scientific evaluation. The study, based on the analysis of statistical data and the use of datatowel.in.ua platform tools, cartographic method, defines the inter-district and regional differences in the main characteristics of rural areas in unfavourable conditions. It is established that the determination of these areas was carried out in violation of current approaches and criteria for their delimitation, in particular the criterion limits of the indicator of the population decline rate. The study found that almost 25% of areas belonging to this functional type of territory are not rural according to EU criteria. The article proves the necessity of introducing variability in the use of criteria for the identification of rural areas in unfavourable conditions, in which areas that correspond to two of the three existing indicators, can be attributed to them. It justifies reducing the threshold value of the criterion “Population decline rate” from 30% to a value that is 25% higher than the national average. 14 districts in ten regions of Ukraine, which should be included in the list of rural areas in unfavourable conditions in the near future, are identified. The article reveals the peculiarities of delimitation of rural areas in unfavourable conditions at the level of territorial communities on the example of Chernihiv and Sumy regions. The need to concretize the tasks of overcoming the problems of rural territories, which are spelled out in the State Strategy for Regional Development of Ukraine for the period up to 2027, is proved. The article describes promising directions of scientific researches, the results of which should become a basis for elaborating a system of measures to enhance the development of problem rural areas.