Transportation connectivity of Russia’s northern regions: problems and tools for ensuring it

One of the key tasks of not only spatial, but also socio-economic development of Russia is to ensure transport connectivity of its territories: the main centers of economic growth, urban and rural areas, settlements of agglomerations, etc. It is particularly acute in relation to the northern regions, characterized by sparse space and focal location of productive forces, complex climatic conditions, which actualizes the need to use slightly different tools for strengthening connectivity than for the main strip of settlement. The aim of our work is to identify the features, problems and justification of tools for ensuring transport connectivity of northern regions (on the materials of the European North of Russia). We used general scientific methods and special methods of economic and geographical sciences to achieve the aim of the research (isochrones of transport accessibility, calculation of Engel, Goltz, Uspensky coefficients). The study reveals that: 1) the “bottleneck” in ensuring connectivity of the Northern regions is road transport: these territories (especially rural) are characterized by low infrastructure provision; 2) even the existing infrastructure is characterized by low quality and insufficient capacity. Using the example of the Arkhangelsk Region as a region with the lowest transport connectivity by highways among the studied ones, we identified the territories within the isochrones of 30 and 60-minute transport accessibility to the administrative centers of municipalities using GIS-methods. As a result, we identified that the north-eastern and northern parts of the region have extremely low transport accessibility (1/3 of the population of a number of municipalities live outside these isochrones), which indicates a limited potential for the population to receive key social services and the development of municipalities; 3) we substantiated the directions and a set of tools to improve transport connectivity of the northern territories, including for the integration and co-development of different modes of transport. The results of our article can be used in the activities of regional and local authorities, as well as serve as a basis for further research on similar topics.