Spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of urbanization and its coupling coordination degree in Russia — perspectives from the population, economy, society, and eco-environment

Under the background of “the Belt and Road” and “the economic corridor of China, Mongolia and Russia” initiatives, it is of great significance to study the temporal and spatial evolution characteristics of urbanization in Russia. This paper studied the population urbanization level, economic urbanization level, social urbanization level, eco-environment urbanization level, and their coupling coordination development degree during 2005–2020 in Russia. First, combining with the Population-Economic-Sociology-Eco-environment model, the paper constructed the index systems to evaluate the urbanization development levels in Russia. Second, based on the comprehensive weighting method of entropy weight and variation coefficient, this paper calculated the population urbanization level, economic urbanization level, social urbanization level, and eco-environment urbanization level in Russia. Third, this paper used the coupling coordination model to measure the coupling coordination degree of the urbanization development levels in Russia. Finally, the spatial differentiation of the population urbanization level, economic urbanization level, social urbanization level, eco-environment urbanization level, and their coupling coupling-coordination degree was performed, respectively, by using ArcGIS. The results are as the following. First, from 2005 to 2020, the economic urbanization level and eco-urbanization level have shown the increasing trend in Russia. The population urbanization level and social urbanization level have shown the stable changing trend in Russia. The eco-environment urbanization and economic urbanization contribute larger share to the urbanization system compared with the population urbanization and social urbanization. The coupling coordination development degree of population urbanization level, economic urbanization level, social urbanization level, and eco-environment urbanization level has showed a slight increasing trend. However, the overall situation of the urbanization in Russia is still in the moderate uncoordinated recession stage. Second, the federal subjects with high urbanization development levels are mainly distributed in Moscow city, Moscow Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Tumen Region, Saint-Petersburg city, Republic of Tatarstan, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Republic of Bashkortostan, Chelyabinsk Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Krasnodar Territory, Rostov Region, and Khanty-Mansiysky Autonomous Area. The federal subjects with low ones are mainly located in Republic of Khakasia, Republic of Marii El, Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Republic of Tyva, Republic of Karachaevo-Cherkessia, Republic of Kalmykia, Republic of Altay, Jewish Autonomous Area, and Republic of Ingushetia. Third, spatially, from 2005 to 2020, the urbanization pattern of population, economy, society, eco-environment, and their coupling coordination degree in Russia all show unbalanced development characteristics. The population urbanization pattern and the social urbanization pattern have not changed significantly, showing the spatial characteristics of “high west, low east,” and “high middle, low north, low south.” The economic urbanization pattern has been increasing significantly, showing the spatial characteristics of “high core, low edge.” The eco-environment urbanization pattern has not changed significantly, showing the spatial characteristics of “high north, low south.” The coupling coordinated development degree of urbanization pattern has showed a slight increasing trend, showing the spatial characteristics of “high middle, low north, low south,” “high west, low east”. Finally, we suggest policies and strategies that can boost the growth and development of the urbanization in Russia.