Studies of urbanization and urban agglomerations: Ukrainian experience, problems and perspectives

Urbanization processes, development of cities and formation of urban agglomerations as the highest form of territorial organization of society are becoming extremely important in the era of globalization. These processes are essential for developed countries and have strategic importance for developing countries, particularly Ukraine. The process of the formation and development of urban agglomerations attracts the attention of many ukrainian scientists, because cities and urban agglomerations play a leading role in the evolution of regions and countries of the world. The paper analyzes the ukrainian experience of researching modern urbanization and agglomeration processes and formulates a vision of problems and prospects for developing urban agglomerations, large cities, particularly Ukraine. The authors determined that the studies of urban agglomerations are presented quite widely in the scientific papers of ukrainian researchers due to the significant differentiation of the subject areas of the research object and its importance and influence on various spheres of society’s life. The author determined that most scientific research focuses on specific aspects of the development of agglomerations based on the professional affiliation of the scientist and the subject-object area of the study. In our opinion, it is essential for understanding the processes of the emergence of the agglomeration effect, formation of the agglomeration, forecasting its development and determining problems and prospects of further evolution. The author analyzed the scientific papers of ukrainian researchers in various fields, highlighted and substantiated eleven aspects of the research, which are presented in the papers of scientists from various subject areas, and determined the subject area of these studies. In particular, these are the urban-geographical, legal, management, economic, sociological, geo-ecological, urban planning, system-forming, socio-geographical, innovative and scientific-methodological aspects. The author identified the problems of the formation and development of urban agglomerations and large cities based on the analysis of the ukrainian experience of researching the modern urbanization and agglomeration processes. They took into account the contemporary economic, social, and geopolitical features of the development of Ukraine and the prospects for development. It was determined that urban agglomerations could be considered comprehensively from the standpoint of human geography, an interdisciplinary science with a powerful arsenal of methodological approaches, methods, and techniques. It allows the most expansive disclosure of the chosen research object. Keywords: urbanization, agglomeration processes, urban agglomerations, preliminary studies.