On the concept and legal means of ensuring sustainable urban development

Introduction. The concept of sustainable development continues to receive more and more support every year, both at the international and domestic levels. The main reason for its popularity is that this concept has become a qualitatively new strategy for social development, designed to balance the environmental, economic and social interests of a citizen, business, society and the state in the interests of both present and future generations. Theoretical analysis. The movement towards sustainable development of cities within the framework of the overall strategy for achieving the SDGs is ensured by the activities of public authorities and the public to best solve the social, economic and environmental problems of settlements, improve the comfort of life of citizens through the rational use of urban resources, eff ective urban planning, not exceeding the assimilation potential of urban ecosystems, for the benefi t of present and future generations. Results. At the moment, there is no definition of sustainable urban development in the Russian law, and therefore, there is no mechanism for implementing the tasks set in SDG No. 11, including the lack of a system of indicators in the country (social, economic, environmental and others) to assess the degree of achievement of the SDGs. Today we see only separate doctrinal and normative indicators of sustainable development of cities, reflecting only some aspects of the transition of cities to sustainable development (in terms of comfortable housing, etc.). In the scientific doctrine, the relationship between the concept of sustainable urban development and other (related) concepts of interaction between nature and society, including the concept of an eco-city and a “smart” city, is also extremely poorly studied. In this regard, the legal solution to this problem can be the development of the Concept of the transition of the Russian Federation to sustainable development, which includes a clear plan of legislative work, one of the sections of which should include measures to ensure the sustainable development of cities, as well as a number of stages of movement towards this goal and a system of indicators for evaluating these processes.

sustainable development, city, the UN, indicators, urban planning legislation, zoning, regulations, concept