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Urbanization as a historical process of raising the role of urban settlements
and the corresponding mode of life in the development of society has achieved
a large scale. The urban population in Ukraine in early 1999 reached 68%
of the total population. The number of urban settlement in Ukraine is increasing
as well. At the beginning of 1999 there were 448 cities and 897 workers’
towns.
The highest percentage of urban population and the largest number of
settlements are in Donetsk Region, where 90.2% of the urban population,
51 towns and 134 workers’ towns were registered in the mentioned period.
In Lugansk Region these indicators were 86.4%, 37 towns and 109 workers’
towns, respectively, in Dniepropetrovsk Region 83%, 20 towns and 48 workers’
towns, in Lviv Region 61%, 43 towns and 34 workers’ towns, in Kyiv Region
(not including the city of Kyiv) 58%, 25 towns and 30 workers’ towns, and
in Kharkiv Region 78.9%, 17 towns and 60 workers’ towns. A high concentration
of urban settlements and people in the territory of these regions led to
the formation of urban agglomerations as the most active factor of influence
on all the environment components in the regions of their location. These
regions also have a considerable population density: from 96 people/km2
(Kharkiv) to 189 people/km2 (Donetsk). Average population density in Ukraine
is 83 people/km2.
The more than 34 million people forming the urban population of Ukraine
are arranged in the territory of Ukraine rather nonuniformly. An especially
high concentration is observed in Dniepropetrovsk, Donetsk, Lugansk and
Zaporizhzhia regions with more than one third of the urban population of
Ukraine (33.8%).
The urban population dynamics has significant territorial distinctions.
A natural decrease of the population was first registered in the urban
settlements of Ukraine in 1992, and in 1993 it increased five times to
73,000 people. The migration increase (about 7,900) also became smaller,
while in 1989-1992 it varied within 150,000- 209,000 people. In 1998 there
was a tendency towards a decrease (254,200 people) of urban population
in all regions of Ukraine. The highest numbers were observed in Donetsk
(52,000), Lugansk (28,800), Dniepropetrovsk (26,000) and Kharkiv (20,100)
regions.
Population migration, which was the main factor of increase of the urban
population, now has a negative value (-80,900). Administrative and territorial
transformations are not of essential significance, and a positive increase
of the urban population is observed only in five regions: Volyn (+200 people),
Zakarpattia (+400), Ivano-Frankivsk (+700), Rivne (+500) and Ternopil (+800
people). These low figures do not cover the negative balance of migration.
In recent years a decrease of population has been observed in almost
all cities with more than 100,000 people.
An analysis of distribution according to kind of settlement shows that
though number of urban settlements constituted slightly more than 4% of
total number of settlements of Ukraine in 1998, they had about 68% of the
population. Besides, their share (more than 50%) falls on big cities with
a population of more than 250,000. More than 16 million people live in
such cities (30 million people are living in urban area). More than 6 million
people live in small towns. 29.9% of the urban population live in 9 towns
with a population of more than 500,000.
The considerable territorial concentration of urban settlements in Donetsk
and Dniepropetrovsk regions and in the vicinities of cities, especially
those with a population of a million people or more, as well as the high
concentration of rural settlements around them, has caused the formation
of agglomerative forms of settling. The settling form in Donetsk Region,
in central and southern parts of Lugansk Region and around such cities
with adjacent settlements as Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, Kharkiv, Lviv, etc., acquired
the most significant features of agglomerations.
Development of agglomerative forms of settling leads to the formation
of very active zones of interaction of territorial communities of people
with the environment. The result of this interaction is pollution of all
the environment components. The environment is polluted as a consequence
of production and public and domestic activities. The deterioration of
the natural conditions of people’s lives is reflected in a negative influence
of the transformed environment on the health of the inhabitants. Thus it
is necessary to introduce better forms of territorial organization of settlements,
to determine optimal types of settlements and to introduce regional mechanisms
of compensations for the negative impact on nature as well as for the creation
of living conditions that are harmful for people. It is necessary to define
the influence of agglomerations on the environment, and to develop conservation
mechanisms and standards of compensations for damage done, etc. Such arrangements
will be necessary since there is a correlation between the quality of environmental
conditions and population morbidity.
The dynamics of social and natural processes requires permanent monitoring
of their changes in order to define the results of the environmental effect
on people, as well as to determine concrete mechanisms of harmonization
of people’s interaction with the environment.
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WWW pages created by the Ministry for
Environmental Protection and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine
phone: +380-044-2287343 fax: +380-044-2287343
e-mail: grid@mep.freenet.kiev.ua |
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