Comparative analysis of the territorial support frame of settlement in coastal areas: the case of St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad regions

As a scientific method, comparative studies respond to the needs of society. However, the logic of globalisation has reduced the demand for comparative analysis in international and national (regional) studies. Nevertheless, old, settled coastal areas — which European urban science considers as evidence of the decisive effect of coastal position on spatial development and urbanisation — remain valid research objects. Achieving corresponding theoretical and practical goals requires qualitative and quantitative analysis of urbanisation in coastal areas. This article aims to determine whether the territorial support frameworks of settlement in the St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad regions meet the modern conditions of settlement system development. A cartographic modelling of the settlement structures of the two Russian regions was carried out using Golden Software Surfer 20. The models obtained were supplemented with isolines reflecting the fields of the spatial structure of urban settlement. The settlement systems were analysed from the standpoint of transport communications, using the Engel and Goltz coefficients. The coefficient values show that road transport is the most developed in the study regions, while river transport is the least developed. It is concluded that spatial development is leading to urbanisation and reinforcing the monocentric model of spatial structure. However, the economic effects of monocentricity are almost exhausted, and the limits of polarisation and effective growth attainable with the model are nearly reached. This calls for a transition to a polycentric urbanisation model through developing local centres and enhancing transport connectivity between them. It seems that, in the new economic and political conditions, Russia’s two coastal border regions will benefit the most from the linear-­nodal settlement. The study identified the local cores that can lay the foundation for the transition to the new settlement model.