Анализ муниципальных образований в контексте развития федеральных особо охраняемых природных территорий

Creating federal specially protected natural areas (FSPNA) is one of the most effective forms of environmental management. The process of FSPNA territory expansion should begoverned by a comprehensive assessment of the need to increase the area withdrawn from economic land use, including an in-depth socio-economic analysis of the area under consideration. Using methods of statistical analysis we explored the possibility of Rosstat municipalities’ data and other publicly available data, to evaluate the possibilities of FSPNA creation and development. Besides, a methodology of constructing an integral characteristic of a municipality for developing a socio-economic justification for the organization (or development) of FSPNAis proposed. The integral characteristic is built on the basis of the principle component analysisand is used to assess the sustainable development level of the territories. Nizhny Novgorod region was taken as a research object. We identify municipalities of the Nizhny Novgorod region, which are promising for the nature protection activities,related to the FSPNA development. The results of the work can be applied while carrying out similar studies in other regions of the Russian Federation.