IS THE URBAN BIOSPHERE RESERVE - A “THEATER OF RECONCILIATION OF HUMAN AND NATURE” OR A PROBLEM IN THE MANAGEMENT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CITY?
The purpose of this study is to identify the problems and principles of transition from the theory of UNESCO biosphere reserves to the practice of territorial development of the cities of the Russian Federation based on the purpose and functions of the urban biosphere reserve. Unlike the works of foreign authors, who regard it as an “invariant of the classical biosphere reserve,” the study defends the point of view of the urban biosphere reserve as an organizational form of the sustainable city development. A distinctive (from the definition, proposed by UNESCO) functional definition of the urban biosphere reserve is introduced in the work. The scientific novelty of this research is to establish a constructive approach to sustainable development at the municipal level: not to eliminate the pressure of cities on the environment, but to form socio-ecological objects in programs for realizing the city`s functions of the urban biosphere reserve-its preservation, development, and material support. For the first time the urban biosphere reserve is considered in the structure of urban development tools and the transfer of principles, previously delegated to ecological territories (in particular, the integration of social, economic, environmental development processes) into the urban environment. For the first time in the domestic literature, a comparative analysis of case studies of the relationship between “biosphere reserve-city” has been carried out, which compares the results of four groups of scientists from the cities of South America, South Africa, South Korea and the United States. All the results obtained are divided into “problematic” and “implementation” ones. The problem of actual implementation of the promising form of sustainable development of the “urban reserve” has been identified: the absence of a single subject of economic activity (unlike the traditional problem of “harmonization of interests” advocated by researchers in UNESCO programs). The implementation result of this research is to determine the type of zoning of the urban biosphere reserve: as a “functional-spatial” one (as opposed to territorial zoning). The research used methods of historical and normative analysis, the functional level of system analysis (for the process of sustainable development). The area of the results obtained: emerging theory and practice of sustainability science, urbanistics, management of territorial development.
Keywords: urban biosphere reserve, sustainable development, zoning, conservation, city.
Gabibulla R. Khasaev, Doctor of Economics, Professor, Acting Rector. Samara State University of Economics; Marina Yu. Sadovenko, Candidate of Pedagogics.