IDENTITY AS A RESOURCE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL TOWNS IN THE CONTEXT OF AGGLOMERATION PROCESSES

In the context of agglomeration processes and the increasing share of influence in the formation of the agglomerate of large cities, small towns lose the opportunity for further development and prosperity. The process of identifying and emphasizing urban identity is a resource for the full-fledged comprehensive development of the city. The article discusses such concepts as cultural landscape, urban identity and territorial branding. By defining the points of relationship between these concepts, the authors of the article form a model of urban identity. The authors introduce concepts such as "field", "paths" and "points", which represent the basic elements of the model design. The levels of the model reflect not only the hierarchy of interrelationships of all components of urban identity, but also the stages of analysis of the context of the city. The authors of the article focus on the components of the cultural landscape, describe them and propose to consider these components as spatial territorial objects with possible reference to a specific location of the city. This approach makes it possible to consider the cultural landscape not only from the perspective of the humanities, but also as part of the city's spatial development strategy. The model presented in the article makes it possible to compare the conceptual areas of the terms "cultural landscape", "identity", "branding" of a city from social, economic, geographical, urban planning and other sciences, to identify elements of their synonymy, similarity and complementarity.