THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT QUALITY IN THE LENINGRAD REGION IN 2018—2021

Since 2019, the Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities of the Russian Federation has annually assessed the quality of the urban environment in more than 1,114 cities. The paper takes the case of the Leningrad region to consider a number of hypotheses about the correspondence between the Urban Environment Quality Index (UEQI) values, the city’s remoteness from agglomeration centers, population changes and migration growth, absolute population and municipal budget expenditures. The use of cartographic and mathematical methods made it possible to conclude that there is no significant direct correlation between the values of the UEQI and the indicators previously specified. Spatial differentiation of cities according to the values of UEQI was revealed. The study has determined that the quality of living category is not limited to the category of quality of the urban environment, while any attempts to solve socio-economic problems in cities focused only on the improvement of the urban environment are clearly an oversimplification. This study, which is the first of this kind, engages all the cities of the Leningrad region.