Compactness of Territorial Hromadas of Volyn Oblast in the Context of Spatial Planning

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to analyze the spatial compactness of territorial hromadas in the Volyn oblast. Spatial compactness is an important geographical parameter of the functioning of territorial hromadas in the context of spatial planning. The differences of the hromadas by the length of administrative boundaries were analyzed. This indicator is the main one for determining the configuration and compactness of the territory. A noticeable variability in the spatial differentiation of territorial hromadas in the Volyn oblast was revealed. Volyn oblast is dominated by hromadas with administrative borders less than 150 km long. It was found that the length of the borders partially determines the configuration and compactness of their territories. The differences between hromadas in terms of the compactness of their territories were also analyzed and the spatial compactness coefficients and spatial-settlement compactness coefficients were determined. Analysis of spatial compactness coefficient of the oblast’s hromadas shows its lower variability compared to the area of the territory. It was found that two-thirds of the oblast’s hromadas have a high compactness coefficient of the territory. These hromadas form an arc-shaped strip in the central part of the region, extending from the border with Belarus to the border with Lviv oblast. The “worst” spatial compactness coefficients are found in urban territorial hromadas and some rural hromadas. The reason for this is that the configuration of the original territories was not taken into account when forming them. It was found that the largest spatial and settlement compactness coefficients in the region are mainly found in urban and settlement territorial hromadas with a large population and a compact configuration of the territory. The compactness coefficients calculated by us are a basic prerequisite for studying geospatial factors of hromadas development in general and spatial planning of their development in particular.