Second-Order Urban Agglomerations in the Moscow Region: Development Trends in the Post-Soviet Period

In this article, based on data from mobile operators on the current flows of labor commuters, a delimitation of second-order urban agglomerations in the Moscow region was carried out using a graph-analytical approach that has not previously been used to study settlement systems. The authors’ methodology included the construction of a series of graphs and their processing using the Leiden clustering algorithm (with and without taking into account the influence of Moscow) with subsequent identification of second-order agglomerations from the resulting clusters. Twenty five small agglomerations were identified, 16 of which emerged during the Soviet period. During the post-socialist transformation of social and economic life, the large-scale inflow of migrants and mass housing construction in the area of near and middle suburbs of the capital’s agglomeration, a dynamic and multi-core frontier belt was formed, in which new (Vidnoe, Chekhov and Naro-Fominsk) urban second-order agglomerations appeared and many previously existing (Lyuberty–Ramenskoye, Khimki–Zelenograd and Mytishchi–Korolyov–Shchyolkovo) were segmented. In them, the rapid growth of cores occurred both as a result of migration growth and due to the inclusion of satellite settlements into their composition through administrative–territorial transformations. In turn, many cities that were not absorbed grew and formed new cores, laying the foundation for the further division of small agglomerations (for example, Lyubertsy). In the agglomerations located on the periphery, the overwhelming majority of which were formed during the Soviet era, only in recent years has the population in the cores stopped decreasing. Against this background, the role of large rural settlements and urban-type settlements has noticeably increased, currently forming the spatial framework of suburban areas of most agglomerations. Thus, the conducted analysis not only allowed us to identify the development trends of small agglomerations—this underestimated tier of the settlement system, but also laid the theoretical basis for the practical implementation of the principles of polycentric spatial development of the Moscow agglomeration.