regional planning

draft proposals for the organization of the territory of a country’s economic or administrative regions in conformity with a plan. Regional planning is based on a wide range of social, economic, public health and sanitation, and urban development measures. Natural conditions are taken into account in implementing a regional plan.

The principal task of regional planning is the comprehensive territorial and economic organization of a planned region and the shaping of its planned structure, in order to provide for the rational location of the productive forces and the best conditions for the labor, everyday life, and recreation of the population. To accomplish these objectives, regional planning envisages the creation of interrelated settlement systems, the rational location of new towns and rural settlements, the proportional development of existing towns and settlements, and the optimum development and location of industry, agricultural production, and the other sectors of the national economy. Moreover, regional planning envisages the improvement and conservation of the natural environment on the basis of the effective, comprehensive utilization of natural, material and technical, and labor resources. In solving problems, regional planning uses a systems method that provides for the implementation of the primary tasks related to the location of construction, as well as for the long-range growth of urban development complexes.

In the USSR regional planning developed extensively during the 1930’s, with the industrialization of the country. At first, most of the draft regional plans were elaborated in connection with the location of large industrial construction projects and the building of new cities (for example, the regional planning of the Orsk-Khalilovo and Ufa-Chernikovsk industrial regions). Later, draft regional plans were associated with major industrial regions (for example, the Donbas or the Apsheron Peninsula) and resort regions (for example, the Southern Crimean Shore and the Caucasian Mineral Waters region). A decree adopted by the Central Executive Committee and the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR in 1933 provided for the compulsory elaboration of regional planning models for all types of construction in regions with existing or projected groups of independent or combined enterprises and affiliated towns and settlements, interconnected by a single transportation system, a common supply of power or raw materials, and reciprocal services.

After the Great Patriotic War (1941—45) regional planning was resumed, chiefly for resort regions (the Southern Crimean Shore) and large industrial regions (the Baltic Shale Basin, the Donbas, the Krivoi Rog basin, the Irkutsk-Cheremkhovo and Karaganda industrial regions, and the construction sites of the Kuibyshev and Volgograd hydroelectric power plants).

At the contemporary stage of the development of socialist production and under the conditions of the scientific and technological revolution, the role of regional planning has grown considerably. The party and the government have set the task of further improving the location of the productive forces and improving territorial economic ties. Regional planning has been undertaken in all the Union republics. In regional plans the territorial and economic organization of a region is worked out on the basis of long-range state forecasts and long-range and annual plans for national economic development. Regional planning makes it possible to adjust and develop the national economic plans for particular economic regions and establish a stable urban-forming base for the development of populated areas. Consequently, regional planning is the link between national economic planning and urban development. There are two types of planning specifications in regional planning: the model and the project.

Regional planning models are devised for the territory of an oblast, krai, or autonomous republic, or for a Union republic not divided into oblasts. The graphic materials of the regional planning model use a scale of 1: 100,000–1: 300,000. Regional planning models are used for technological and economic background studies for the plans for the location and construction of major industrial and power complexes, facilities for the construction industry, and major transportation and utility installations. In addition, models are necessary for background studies on the creation of organized systems of settlement, the location of new towns and rural settlements, and the development of existing ones. Models are also used in the preliminary studies on the designing of resorts, national and natural parks, preserves, and interregional zones and complexes for mass recreation.

The regional planning project, which is elaborated on the basis of the regional planning model, is applicable to part of anoblast, krai, autonomous republic, or Union republic (without oblasts), characterized by common planning problems and common ties or constituting a territorial production complex. In addition, a regional planning project may be drawn up for an administrative raion in an oblast or for a group of raions. The graphic materials use a scale of 1: 25,000–1: 50,000. The regional planning project provides the basis for elaborating general plans for the development of towns and other populated areas, groups of industrial enterprises (industrial centers), and resort and tourist complexes, as well as for the location of cultural and domestic service facilities at the raion level. Regional planning projects serve as the basis for drawing up plans for land and forest management on one or several farms, for selecting and allocating large land areas for various uses, and for elaborating plans for public health districts and zones.

Officially approved models and projects for regional planning are documents that provide a foundation for the territorial location and designing of national economic facilities, towns, and rural settlements. Among the most important regional planning projects from the late 1960’s through the early 1970’s were the regional planning models for Krasnodar Krai of the RSFSR, Odessa Oblast of the Ukrainian SSR, and Moscow, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Orenburg, and Tambov oblasts, as well as the regional planning projects for Tol’iatti (Zhigulevsk, Ust’-Ilimsk, and a number of other raions).

In the European socialist countries regional planning has developed to a significant degree. A basis for the comprehensive location of construction has been provided by regional planning for conurbations associated with capital cities (for example, Warsaw, Budapest, and Prague), for major mining regions (for example, Upper Silesia in Poland), and for resort areas (for example, the Black Sea coast of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria and the Adriatic coast of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia).

In the capitalist countries regional planning has been used for areas of Greater London (1944–46), for other major conurbations (Paris, Tokyo, Hamburg, and Stockholm), and for the Ruhr mining regions of the Federal Republic of Germany. However, under the conditions of the capitalist economic system and private landownership, the opportunities for implementing regional planning are very limited.