MODERN TRANSFORMATIONS IN THE SETTLEMENT SYSTEMS OF THE CARPATHIAN REGIONS OF UKRAINE

Abstract

The study reveals the problem of revising approaches to determining the hierarchy of local-levelsettlement systems as a result of the ATU reform and decentralization. It is indicated that the vastmajority of newly created administrative-territorial units were formed around the nuclei of alreadyformed local-level settlement systems. although not always within the same limits. It is also shown howimportant it is for the further development of settlement systems in the studied regions to solve the problems of disparities in size, population and socio-economic development of communities. The studyregion is taken as the territory of the regional settlement systems of the Carpathian region (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi regions). Which, on the one hand, have many common features insettlement processes, specific settlement patterns due to the diversity of natural conditions, in the courseof demographic processes, are connected by a network of transport routes and socio-economic ties, andon the other hand, they should be considered as a holistic settlement structure. After all, according toa number of scientists, these regions form the Lviv regional settlement system, and in the future theymay become one of the macroregions of Ukraine. The purpose of this study was to trace the territorial,structural and demographic transformations within the settlement systems of the Carpathian regions ofUkraine. Taking into account the changes that occurred as a result of the reform of the administrativeterritorialstructure. After all, we received new administrative units based on the existing network ofsettlements, with formed demographic characteristics and established system-regulating connectionsbetween them. Which will lead to cardinal changes in the settlement systems of the local level. Thus, theconcept of settlement systems and their study is fraught with new social demands for scientific researchand justification. The study of the features of the socio-geographical development of the regions ofUkraine, one way or another, emphasizes the heterogeneity of various types of connections between themdepending on their geographical location, and for the Carpathian regions even more so. The reform of theATU has become a catalyst for the reformatting of settlement systems. On the one hand, it has becomea reason for the destruction or transformation of existing systems, and on the other – it concentratesopportunities in new centers. Although this requires significant investments in transport to minimizethe risks of geographical isolation for peripheral settlements. The main transformational trends in thesettlement systems of the Carpathian regions of Ukraine that we have uncovered open new relevantdirections and ideas for research.