Comparative analysis of rating assessments of “eco-friendliness” of Russian cities with a million people of inhabitants

The paper presents the results of a comparative analysis of the main “eco-friendly” ratings of Russian million-plus cities in 2022. The purpose of the study is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of various ratings used to assess the level of eco-friendliness of cities and the quality of the urban environment. Comparative and contextual analyses were used as the main methodological approach. The study was conducted taking into account the difference in the frequency of rating calculations (annual and periodic), methodological differences in the formation of final rating indicators and the form of their presentation (quantitative and qualitative ones), in various sets of initial indicators for assessment and calculations, as well as differences in methods of calculation of intermediate and final results. A significant difference was established in the methods for ratings’ calculations of the “eco-friendliness” of cities and the quality of urban environment, including when calculating the easiest indicator to calculate, i.e., the share of green territory in the city area. The values of this indicator turned out to be different according to different methods. This leads to significant discrepancies between the rating positions of many cities, obtained using different techniques. At the same time, several million-plus cities were identified whose rating positions are close to each other in all ratings. These are: Perm, Ufa, Omsk, Samara, Volgograd, Chelyabinsk, and Krasnoyarsk. The presence of close values obtained using various methods indicates a certain level of reliability of the calculations and their practical applicability for the development of policies and measures in the fields of ecology and management of the water-green framework of cities, the formation of green infrastructure in cities, and the improvement of the quality of life for people living in urbanized and industrialized areas.