The multifunctional role of rural areas of Belarus and the territorial and organizational aspect of their sustainable development

The article analyzes domestic and foreign approaches to the definition and assessment of the multifunctional role of rural areas and its consideration in achieving the goals of sustainable local and regional development. Special attention is paid to rural areas of Belarus, which are viewed from geographical positions, on the one hand, as the operational spatial basis of the local population, its organization and management, on the other – as a container for combinations of natural resources, settlement systems, social and environmental infrastructure, historical, cultural and spiritual values, agricultural and other production facilities. It is concluded that the key objectives of ensuring the sustainable development of rural areas, characterized by a complex and multifaceted field of interaction between social and natural components, including their location, territorial structure of the economy, infrastructure and human settlement, are the scientific justification and the development of unified special territorial planning docu ments. At the current stage, it is proposed to use coordinated and harmonized land management schemes and integrated territorial organization schemes for administrative regions of Belarus, which are being developed in Belarus for the balanced development of rural areas. Some approaches to their improvement are proposed, in particular, reflecting the results of the assessment of ecosystem services and the typology of rural periphery. Within the framework of the study, for the first time, mapping was performed using GIS technologies and a map of rural areas of Belarus was compiled. As a result, the geographical localization of urbanized, rural­urban (transitional) and rural territories has been determined, the specific area of which in the republic is 7.1, 10.8, 82.1 %, respectively. A system of territorial planning solutions has been proposed to promote the sustainable development of rural areas of the republic.