17 June, 2024
The analytical company Marketing Logic, based on open information from Rosstat, its own data showcase and the results of calculations in the Atlas geoinformation system, has compiled a rating of Russian million-plus cities in terms of accessibility of recreation areas near the water bodies for residents. St. Petersburg topped the list with walkability (up to 1 km) to embankments and beaches for 60% of residents, and Perm closes, where only 15.5% of residents live one kilometer from recreational areas near the water.
Within the administrative boundaries of each of the 16 million-plus cities, analysts calculated the proportion of residents living within 500 and 1000 meters to the nearest embankment, beach or any other walking area near the water bodies accessible to pedestrians. All the main types of "big water" in cities were taken into account: seas, bays, rivers, ponds, reservoirs, urban dams and other types of water bodies that allow residents to relax next to water.
All calculations were conducted in the Atlas geoinformation system: the platform allocated all water access zones within a radius of 500 and 1000 meters to separate polygons, after which analysts calculated the proportion of residents living in these accessibility zones. Subsequently, the cities were ranked according to this parameter from the maximum value to the minimum.
| Город | City Proportion of residents living within 1000 m of water bodies | |
| 1 | Saint-Petersburg | 60,0% |
| 2 | Nizhniy Novgorod | 57,8% |
| 3 | Moscow | 53,3% |
| 4 | Krasnodar | 41,8% |
| 5 | Kazan | 40,9% |
| 6 | Samara | 39,3% |
| 7 | Ufa | 27,2% |
| 8 | Ekaterinburg | 25,5% |
| 9 | Rostov-on-Don | 25,3% |
| 10 | Omsk | 25,3% |
| 11 | Voronezh | 24,9% |
| 12 | Novosibirsk | 22,8% |
| 13 | Volgograd | 20,2% |
| 14 | Chelyabinsk | 19,9% |
| 15 | Krasnoyarsk | 16,1% |
| 16 | Perm | 15,5% |
The TOP 3 Russian megacities with maximum walkability to recreational areas near the water (up to 1000 m) for residents included St. Petersburg (60%), Nizhny Novgorod (57.8%) and Moscow (53.3%). The TOP 3 cities with minimal accessibility included Perm (15.5%), Krasnoyarsk (16.1%), Chelyabinsk (19.9%).
The average value for Russian megacities is 32.2%. Thus, about a third of the residents of the Russian million-plus city live one kilometer from a water body or closer.
It is expected that a smaller proportion of citizens live at a distance of 500 meters from recreational areas near any water bodies. On average, this is 9.2% of the residents. The rating of cities also changes when the radius of accessibility changes, and Nizhny Novgorod becomes the leader among megacities:
"Areas near the water bodies are one of the most attractive vacation spots, especially during the warm season. For both citizens and tourists, well arranged embankments, beaches and pedestrian access of citizens to water bodies in general are points of attraction, and for cities, businesses, developers, these are territories with great potential. In our rating, we assessed how different Russian cities use the water resources they have, and how accessible they are to residents. On average, the indicators are very good, about a third of the inhabitants of the Russian megacities live a kilometer from the recreation areas near water bodies, but the rating shows that the difference between cities is quite large: in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Novgorod, more than half of such residents, and in Perm, for example, a little more than 15%. This means that, if desired, the city can pay attention to the potential opportunities it has. As for medium-sized cities with populations from half a million to a million, we did not prepare a separate rating, but we calculated the average values, they do not differ much from those for megacities: 7.5% of residents within 500 meters of water availability and 27.9% for a radius of 1000 meters," says managing partner and CEO of Marketing Logic Dmitry Galkin.