Волго-Уральский макрорегион

The application of a multi-scale approach to the study of socio-economic processes makes it possible to see the importance of large (first, second and third in terms of population in their regions) cities for the formation of a territorial production system of supra-regional education as a whole.

The article raises the question of complementarity of economic structures of a number of the Volga and Ural regions within the supraregional formation, which can be the Volga economic region or the Volga-Ural macro-region. The degree of changes in the structure of the manufacturing industry of the Volga regions over the decade is estimated, including taking into account the dynamics of the production of innovative products.

The issue of spatial planning includes the subject of taxonomy. It seems that it is necessary to switch to the practice of planning, in addition to the meso-level (subject of the Russian Federation), at two taxonomic levels: the macroregion and the economic microdistrict. To do this, the article identifies the main properties of these formations. On the example of the Volga-Ural macroregion the properties of integrity, complementarity and connectivity are analyzed.

Identifying the spatial structures of economic activity within a supra-regional entity is an urgent scientific task. In this study, it is solved using a combination of a framework approach and a model analog of the gravitational interaction for the cities of the Volga-Ural macroregion.