#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In Russia in 2023, 759 cities were considered comfortable for living. The city environment quality index was calculated for 1117 cities. Last year its average was 200 points.
According to the last year results, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan and Krasnodar were recognized as the most comfortable cities with a million population. Among cities with a population of 100 thousand to a million people, Norilsk, Hanty-Mansiysk, Surgut, Murmansk and Nizhnevartovsk are considered comfortable.
For the sixth year in a row, the index has been calculated by the Ministry of Construction and Housing and Communal Services based on data received from the regions, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, Rospotrebnadzor, Rosstat, and the development institute DOM.RF.
The calculations take into account such indicators as housing affordability, public, business and social and leisure infrastructure and adjacent spaces, outside infrastructure – a total of 36 parameters. Each of them is assessed according to six indicators that characterize the urban environment: safety, comfort, environmental friendliness, identity and diversity, the environment modernity and government authorities efficiency.
The index helps to understand what priority measures need to be taken to solve problems, what areas to actively develop in order to improve the quality of the urban environment and ultimately improve people’s living standards.
Let us remind you that Norilsk, Dudinka, Dikson, Igarka are included in the Arctic outposts list. By July 1, 2024, the authorities will develop master plans for the development of strongholds in the Russian Arctic for the period until 2035, and will also determine sources of financing. The main goal of creating the strongholds is to accelerate the development of all regions of the Far North and improve the quality of northerners’ life.
In Norilsk, in 2021, a quadripartite agreement on the social-economic development of the city until 2024 and for the future until 2035 was signed and renovation was launched – this is the first example of the transformation of a city in the modern Arctic. The document indicates priority projects aimed at the development of Norilsk, on which the federal center, the region, the municipality and the Nornickel company are working together.
The Russian government has approved a comprehensive plan for the city development until 2035; renovation took concrete shape in 2022. Work at the facilities in Norilsk is progressing according to schedule.
To develop the architectural and planning concept for the renovation of Norilsk, an open international competition was announced, the winner of which was the Higher School of Economics.
The Norilsk renovation program includes the residential buildings construction, the social facilities development, and the city infrastructure modernization. The volume of financing for this plan is 120 billion rubles, with the lion’s share, 81.3 billion, coming from Nornickel.
You can get acquainted with the renovation in real time on the web platform. The interactive 3D map reproduces in detail the Big Norilsk infrastructure.
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Text: Angelika Stepanova, Photo: Nikolay Shchipko
