STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS OF LAND USE IN THE CITIES OF POLTAVA REGION

The article considers the current state of land use in the cities of Poltava region. The studied cities have significant land resources, some of which are occupied by buildings. In addition, they are characterised by agricultural, nature reserve, recreational, industrial, forestry, water management, transport, recreational, historical and cultural land use. Cities belong to the areas with favourable natural and environmental conditions, so their land resources can be attractive investment objects. At the same time, the structure of land in settlements and current land use requires detailed study and analysis in order to create conditions for regulating land relations, rational use and protection of land, determining the amount of land payment, etc. We have divided the cities under study into three groups: cities with a population of up to 10 thousand people, 10 to 30 thousand people, and 30 to 50 thousand people, and analysed the distribution of land by area of land groups to identify the cities with the highest and lowest values of the indicators and compare them with the average for Poltava Oblast. The study also analysed the territories of cities by the number of landowners per hectare of land and the distribution of cities with the highest and lowest number of landowners per 1000 population. The cities with the highest and lowest shares of private, communal and state-owned land are identified. These studies show significant differences between cities and suggest that in the case of urban expansion, there will be numerous changes in the use of suburban land associated with mixed arable and forest systems. Comparative analysis of land resources is especially suitable for clarifying the socio-ecological consequences of land use and landscape transformation in environmentally vulnerable cities under increasing anthropogenic pressure in order to achieve a sustainable model of urban development, a more effective planning strategy that will allow urban territorial communities to encourage landowners and land users to develop economically and attract investment.