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The Latest History of the Development of Kazakhstan’s Urban Agglomerations

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Abstract

The article studies the current stage of development of Kazakhstan’s agglomerations, the incentivized formation of which has become a state policy priority. Due to the lack of criteria, the boundaries of potential agglomerations are determined by 1.5-h isochrons of transport accessibility around cities with populations of 100 000 or more. Of these cities, eight centers were selected, based on a modified development coefficient that takes into account, in addition to urban satellites, villages with populations of more than 3000 people. A number of socioeconomic indicators were used to analyze the level of separation of cores of agglomerations from their suburbs and regions. The example of Kazakhstan has shown that the inherited structure of the economy and low level of comfort of the environments of cities do not contribute to the development of most agglomerations. During the post-Soviet period, their share in the population of the republic increased from 43 to 52%, while the administrative option of creating agglomerations works only when there are objective prerequisites and evolutionary work in progress. Among agglomerations fixed in government documents with the status of points of growth, the Almaty agglomeration has been deemed developed. The attraction zone of Shymkent includes mainly large villages, some of which have recently become towns. The metropolitan agglomeration of Astana is significantly inferior even to the neighboring Karaganda in terms of development. Aktobe is able to attract residents only form the northwestern regions due to low transport connectivity with the rest of the country. In socioeconomic development indicators, metropolitan agglomerations stand out, and third largest, Shymkent, dominates in the degree of tertiarization of the economy. The other agglomerations retain increased industrial employment, and population growth, owing to low attractiveness, comes from natural growth and intraregional migration. Except for Almaty, in surroundings of which there are features of suburbanization, core cities are growing faster than the zones of influence. The suburbs are distinguished by a lack of job opportunities, weak social infrastructure, and a lower level of household income. This situation, typical of the initial stages of development, hinders agglomerations from realizing their advantages.

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Notes

  1. “Basic Provisions of the General Scheme for Organization of the Territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan” (2013); “On Approval of the Program for Development of Regions until 2020” (2014); “Forecast Scheme of Territorial and Spatial Development of the Country until 2030” (2019); “Strategic Plan for Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan until 2025” (2018); and “National Development Plan of Kazakhstan until 2025” (2021).

  2. Atoyants-Larina, V., Growing into an agglomeration, Ekspert-Kazakhstan, July 8, 2015. http://expertonline.kz/a13764. Accessed April 23, 2022.

  3. https://online.zakon.kz/D-ocument/?doc_id=37910629&pos=38.

  4. In the already mentioned Law On the Development of Agglomerations, the criteria for classifying population centers as an agglomeration are formulated, as is typical of this kind of documents, which in a general form are oriented towards the existence of everyday labor, production, sociocultural, and other ties with the center of an agglomeration, as well as on the tendency towards territorial merging with the center of an agglomeration (Article 4).

  5. Aitkazina, Z.N., Formation of urban settlement systems in Kazakhstan, Demoscope Weekly, no. 245–246. May 1–21, 2006. http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/2006/0245/ana-lit04.php; Bureau of National Statistics of the Agency for Strategic Planning and Reforms of the Republic of Kazakhstan. https://stat.gov.kz/; Nadyrov, Sh.M., Nyusupova, G.N., Mylkaydarov, A.T., Sarsenova, I.B., and Zhang Bin., Spatial organization of the territory of Kazakhstan from the perspective of geopolitics in a changing world, Sauran Information and Analytical Center. http://cc-sauran.kz/rubriki/safety/367-prostranstvennaya-organizaciya-territorii-kazahstana-v-rakurse-geopolitiki-v-menyayuschemsya-mire.html.

  6. https://taldau.stat.gov.kz/ru.

  7. The criterion of population size of urban-type settlement adopted in Kazakhstan is 3000 people.

  8. The densest network of large villages, the backbone of which was formed back in the Soviet period, is located around Almaty and Shymkent (84 and 76, respectively). In the makeup of other UA, such settlements are far fewer. Around the capital, there are few such villages, but among them are the rapidly growing Kosshy, Koyandy, and Talapke, the populations of which exceeds several tens of thousands, and the inhabitants are oriented towards labor commuting to Astana (Abilov et al., 2017).

  9. According to (Polyan, 1988), the following agglomeration development classes are distinguished: the most developed (Kdev, over 50), highly developed (10–50), developed (5–10), underdeveloped (from 2.5 to 5), and least developed (less than 2.5).

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Funding

The section Results and Discussion was prepared by A.G. Makhrova and S.G. Safronov under the state budget research topic of the Faculty of Geography of Moscow State University, no 1.17 “Modern Dynamics and Factors of Socioeconomic Development of Regions and Cities of Russia and Countries of the Near Abroad.”

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kazakh National Research Technical University, 050000, Almaty, Kazakhstan

    A. Zh. Abilov

  2. Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, 119991, Moscow, Russia

    A. G. Makhrova & S. G. Safronov

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  1. A. Zh. Abilov
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  2. A. G. Makhrova
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  3. S. G. Safronov
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Correspondence to A. Zh. Abilov, A. G. Makhrova or S. G. Safronov.

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Abilov, A.Z., Makhrova, A.G. & Safronov, S.G. The Latest History of the Development of Kazakhstan’s Urban Agglomerations. Reg. Res. Russ. 13, 316–327 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1134/S2079970523700697

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