Changing role of towns in Kharkiv region – a retrospective analysis

Abstract

This article provides a retrospective analysis of urban settlement development changing role in the network of Kharkiv region and determines that resettlement network of the region has a long history of specific formation. The city emerged from the influence of geographical, historical and economic factors, development of the territory was determined by its social and transport position. It has been found out that the basis of resettlement network of Kharkiv region is mostly the city, so it is important to study the role of urban settlement system of Kharkiv region.

According to the hypothesis of «Zipf-Medvedkov» we studied the formation and further development of growth poles in Kharkiv region in modern administrative boundaries, synthesis and analysis of geographical data network of historic settlements of the region and revealed their influence on the modern system of resettlement.

The relationship between specific population of the city and its serial number (rank), the degree of decrease of population in the cities has also been studied.

Key features and disparities in the resettlement network of Kharkiv region, deviation causes of the towns’ distribution in the settlement system of rules "rank-size” such as mono-centricity, historical and geographical aspects of economic development have been considered and prospects for their further development have been identified.

The calculated theoretical population number of the towns in the region can be used to build a model of polycentric settlement of Kharkiv region.