Emphasis is placed on the absence in the legislation of Ukraine of legal norms on methodological and legal criteria for identification of rural areas at certain hierarchical levels of administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine, specificity, consistency, predictability and effectiveness of state policy of rural development. From the standpoint of implementation in Ukraine of modern European tools for distinguishing rural areas, a variant of the legal definition of the term “rural area” is proposed, which specifies the criteria for identifying rural areas, in particular: • at the level of the local administrative unit (LAU): the population density is usually less than 300 people per 1 km2; the share of the urban population of the local administrative unit does not exceed 50% (rural population is more than 50%), except for the local administrative unit, which is a zone of connection (influence) of the city with a population of at least 50 thousand people, employing at least 15% inhabitants of a local administrative unit; • at the subregional (district) level (NUTS-3): population density is usually less than 300 inhabitants per 1 km2; the share of the urban population of the district is less than 50% (at least 50% rural population), if the district does not include a city with more than 200 thousand inhabitants, or at least 25% of the total population of the district. Taking into account the existing significant obstacles to the methodological implementation of European tools for rural identification, the classification of territories of administrative districts of Ukraine is substantiated and tested as small regions of NUTS-3 level and analogues of local administrative units according to available statistics, with the distinction of mostly urban, intermediate and mostly rural areas, in particular, the latter according to pro-European criteria.

The article deals with the analysis of scientific approaches to interpreting the term ‘land resources potential’. It suggests the definition ‘land resources potential of administrative unit’, which stands for a total ability of available land resources to provide the interests of the local community in social, economic, and territorial development, to conserve the landscape, ecological, historical, and architectural features of the area. The paper emphasizes that starting from June 1, 2016, StateGeoCadastre of Ukraine does not conduct statistical reporting on quantitative accounting of lands, therefore it causes the risks in the sphere of transparent and rational use. On the basis of 2010-2016 land statistical reporting, the article describes the specifics and tendencies of land resources transformation in the Western cities of Ukraine according to the main types of land use purposes. The structural transformations of the land fund in such cities are determined to be conditioned by the peculiarities of economic activity, its diversification and improvement of its economic activity based on the attraction of capital investments. The unified requirements and administrative procedures are suggested to be established on the legislative level regarding: boundaries identification of settled areas and united territorial communities under their jurisdiction; conducting the total land inventory within administrative divisions; qualitative functioning of e-info interaction among the State land cadaster, urban cadaster, the State Registration of Immovable Property Corporeal Rights, registers (lists) of the objects of cultural heritage, ecological and other state cadasters, registers and databases; actualization of the documentation on spatial planning on unique infoDigital platform ‘Land planning’; renewing of systematic proceeding of state statistical reporting on quantitative land registration, etc.

The article analyzes scientific approaches to the interpretation of the concept «smart-specialization». It investigates the specifics of smart specialization in the European Union (EU). National/regional innovation strategies for smart specialization RIS3 must be based on four «Cs» smart specialization principles – Tough Choices and Critical mass; Competitive Advantage; Connectivity and Clusters; Collaborative Leadership. The article emphasizes «the entrepreneurial discovery process» which includes entrepreneurial actors, researchers and the remainder of society as innovation users in addition to public administration. The reasonability of defining the term «smart specialization» in the Law of Ukraine «On Innovation Activity» as innovative approach aimed at realization of unique combination by state planning documents of competitive advantages of corresponding area and innovation development activity. To realize planning strategy for regional development in Ukraine on smart specialization principles, this article proposes to amend: the Law of Ukraine «On the Priority Directions of Innovation Activity in Ukraine» (Article 4), which should establish the Strategic Priority Directions of Innovation Activity in 2021-2030 for national, sectoral and regional stages as a basis for state-funded priorities under state planning documents on smart specialization; the Law of Ukraine «On principles of State Regional Policy» with specification of state regional policy priorities on state, regional and local stages; European smart specialization practices; determining exclusively by this Law of the algorithm of design, coherence, approval and implementing of State Strategy for Regional Development, regional and local strategies for development on smart specialization principles; compiling of a publicly available national multistage info-analytical platform for electronic verification of state planning documents.

The article addresses the problems of land asset identification in the context of sustainable development of functional types of territories. Efficient regulation of land and property relations appears to be an essential condition for the comprehensive development of a territorial community based on reliable and systematic information on land resources within its territory. The article substantiates that in conditions of transition to territory-oriented development policy based on the capacity stimulation in the territories of various functional types, the conceptual foundations of the territorial community’s land asset identification include the methodological unity of legal regulation in land valuation and systemic comprehensiveness of the data in the State Land Cadaster. The retrospective analysis of the nature of legal settlement of the assets concept shows various options of modern interpretation of the category in Ukrainian legal documents and the bottlenecks in the regulation of land asset definition as an economic-legal standard. The article proves the lack of administrative and/or statistical information on the quantitative and qualitative land accounting at the level of territorial communities as the main entities of comprehensive development of territories of various functional types. The land asset nature and types are determined. The article offers the recording of the following definitions in national legislation: “land assets”, “tangible land asset”, and “intangible land asset”. The methodological approach to comprehensive actualization of normative and export monetary assessment of land assets in the course of the introduction of online services in the State Land Cadaster based on Blockchain technology is substantiated. The automatic formation of the monetary valuation of land assets on the current date by the software of the State Land Cadaster without the development and approval of the respective technical documents must secure the accessibility of land asset identification in monetary terms at the level of a territorial community or fair land asset cost in accounting, financial, and other records.

The problem of delineation and identification of problem rural areas at the local level that needs special attention from the state is considered. The approaches to its settlement in the context of specifying the instruments of the state regional policy concerning the improvement of their social and economic condition are investigated. The paper reveals that the meaning of the terms “problem area”, “problem rural area” is not regulated by legislative acts of Ukraine, there are no criteria for identifying problem rural areas, assessing the state of their development, and classification by specific features. Given the limited information and statistical support for clear identification of signs of rural problems at the local level, the basis for their definition is adapted to the European methodology as small regions of NUTS-3 and analogs of local administrative units LAU. The selection of certain types of mainly rural areas is based on criteria of demographic and economic nature. A classification of mostly rural areas is developed. Problem (disadvantaged) mostly rural areas were identified based on compliance with the parameters of one of the four criteria: population density; changes in the existing population over the past three years; the changes in the number of legal entities over the past three years; the amount of tax revenues per person. According to the results of identification of types of mainly rural areas within 416 administrative districts without taking into account the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as of January 1, 2020: disadvantaged mostly rural areas were recorded at the level of 331 administrative districts; declining mostly rural areas were identified at the level of 96 administrative districts. Proposals for legislative support for the formation of tools for the development of problem areas of the state are developed.