The urban agglomeration is a compact spatial grouping of settlements that are united by intensive cultural and industrial ties. In this case, a complex multicomponent dynamic structure is formed.
Agglomeration is (literally) affiliation.
Today, the development of megacities in Russia is taking a fundamentally new path. Modern agglomeration is a complex process. Its most important stages were identified in the framework of studies conducted in large regions of the country (Moscow and St. Petersburg).
Thus, the first stage from which agglomeration begins is “industrial unification”. This phase involves the enlargement of the labor market. In the 90s in Russia, according to experts, a significant decline in production acted as a catalyst for the transformation of this sector . As a result, the service sector has become almost the main direction contributing to the simultaneous growth of employment and the formation of an adequate income for the population.
The second stage involves the formation of single markets for industrial, residential and retail real estate. As a result, some functions of the center of the metropolis (for example, production, entertainment, consumption) are assumed by the periphery. In the peripheral regions, demand for the main types of infrastructure (water, heat and electricity, transport communications, etc.) and land is growing.
In this phase, agglomeration is a process characterized by an increase in the well-being of citizens, as well as an increase in the mobility of the population. Residents not only make long trips out of town, but are also ready to change their place of residence without any problems. Thus, large bypass roads not only perform their direct functions, but also become actually a component of a single transport network of urban agglomerations.
At the third stage, there is a complication of functional relationships between individual spatial elements. In particular, direct relationships are developing between the subcenters of the metropolis, the volume and variety of markets are increasing, the capacity and quality of demand for the types of infrastructure in the centers of settlements and the corridors between them are increasing, roads, airports, engineering areas, and telecommunications are developing.
Modern agglomeration is a definition that implies not only the integrity of the production and settlement system. In Russia today, this concept characterizes to a greater extent the integrity of markets (land, real estate, labor), as well as the level of functional interconnection of individual components.
Modern agglomeration is formed in accordance with the natural course of things. Along with this, the phenomena accompanying the process seem to be quite regulated.
The management mechanisms of this system mainly lie in the field of institutional arrangement in the main markets, as well as in the infrastructure development sector of the regions. Undoubtedly, agglomeration systems are of great importance in socio-economic development. In this regard, power structures strive to strengthen and update the available tools and methods of regulating the processes of formation of these systems as centers of the post-industrial economic structure.
At the same time, given the complexity of implementing large inter-municipal or inter-regional infrastructure projects in Russia, difficulties in resolving problems to ensure a single regulatory and legal space, the government faces a whole range of administrative issues. These issues, in particular, include the definition of the boundaries of new areas, the prospects for combining territories, the formation of mechanisms for the joint implementation of infrastructure projects, the delimitation of powers, and so on.