Development of the Pivot Cities of the Trans-Siberian Economic Corridor

The aim of the study is to identify trends and features of the spatial development of the main pivot cities of the Trans-Siberian Economic Corridor. The study covers the territories of the Siberian Federal District of Omsk, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Krasnoyarsk Krai and Irkutsk. The authors consider the main pivot cities (Novosibirsk, Omsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk) in connection with the upper-level municipalities located along the Trans-Siberian Railway. The study was conducted using statistical, cartographic and comparative-geographical methods. The array of socio-economic and socio-demographic data is taken for the period 2010-2025. The main data were used to study the settlement, population dynamics, wages, housing construction, and industrial activity. Based on statistical and cartographic sources, several types of municipalities were identified in the Trans-Siberian Corridor: regional centers, suburban municipalities (within urban agglomerations), and peripheral municipalities. The mutual influence of the level of development, industrial specialization, and concentration of productive forces with population dynamics and the transformation of settlement systems was assessed. The geographical aspects of spatial development are expressed in the strengthening of two partially overlapping gradients of population and production concentration: main-peripheral and central-peripheral. Agglomeration effects are especially pronounced in the example of the concentration of housing construction in regional centers and their suburban areas. This study provides an idea of the spatial development of the most populated, economically diversified part of the Trans-Siberian Economic Corridor. Territorial expansion of the research will allow updating the geographical picture of the spatial development of the entire Trans-Siberian Economic Corridor.