Trends of the development of municipal regions in the national economic space

Concentration of population and economic activity in large and largest urban agglomerations, together with the transformation of the system of strategic planning in Russia, cause great challenges for less populated municipal entities, situated in less urbanized territories, the main of which is the municipal district. On the one hand, local self-government bodies of municipal districts are forced to work in conditions of a shrinking resource base. On the other hand, to ensure the implementation of strategic planning documents on federal and regional levels, including ones related to spatial development. In this context, a scientifically justified assessment of the economic and spatial development of municipal districts is important. It may serve as the basis for making decisions on the usage of strategic and tactical tools for managing the territory of a municipal entity. The purpose of the study is to determine development trends of municipal districts as a specific object in the economic space of the region. The methodological basis of the article is based on concepts of the economic space. The assessment of the economic and spatial development was based on groups of indicators that reflect three parameters of the economic space: intensity, the development of the physical basis, and connectivity. On the basis of the results of calculating the presence indices and analyzing time series, a generalized score of the economic and spatial development of municipal districts is given. According to it, the types of trends, depending on the impact of the economic space of the region (constructive or destructive), are identified. Approbation of the methodology on the example of municipal districts of the Chelyabinsk Oblast showed that urban areas have a significant impact on the economic space of the region in the field of agricultural production, despite the industrial specialization of the region; it confirmed the trend of movement of labor and capital into urban districts; allowed stating negative dynamics of the development of physical basis of the economic space and the unsatisfactory situation in terms of the connectivity of the economic space. The analysis made it possible to formulate four directions of the economic and spatial development of municipal districts. It may become the basis of tactical and strategic tools for regional and municipal management.