Rural Settlements “Without Population” in the Kursk Region: Location, Peculiarities, Transformation

Abstract

The purpose is to analyse the spatial distribution of rural settlements without population in Kursk Region, their dynamics and key peculiarities. Materials and methods. The object of the study was 335 rural settlements of the Kursk Region, offi cially included in the category «without population» according to the results of the All-Russian Census of 2020. To study the dynamics, materials from the 2002 and 2010 censuses were also used. In the course of the work, the following methods were used: statistical, analysis of satellite images, historical-geographical, cartographic. Results and discussion. The diff erentiation of the growth rates of rural settlements «without population» in the Kursk Region was revealed – both in space and in time. It was found that the spatial localization of rural settlements «without population» in the Kursk Region is heterogeneous; most of them are concentrated in fi ve areas, mainly confi ned to watershed ridges and the upper reaches of small rivers. The specifi city also lies in the species diversity of the studied settlements: farmsteads, villages, settlements and hamlets are dying out, and the farmstead settlement system is the least sustainable. It is traced that almost all areas belong to a certain type of settlement. In addition, using remote typology, it was found that 32 % of all rural settlements «without population» have at least seasonal residents, and 50 % are again occupied by natural landscapes. The distribution of these types across the districts is also uneven. Conclusion. In the foreseeable future, the current trend towards an increase in the number of rural settlements ‘without population’ will continue in the Kursk Region, but its pace will slow down.