ИСТИНА

Along with its doubtless resource role, Arctic is the polar region with a permanent human population which refers us to the sustainable development of local settlements and communities. The most part of Arctic settlements and cities depends on exploitation and extraction of natural resources. It is known that Northern single-industry communities has low diversification of economy and thus are vulnerable to any factors influencing their development. We aim to investigate socioeconomic and environmental factors which contribute to facilitation or procrastination of sustainable development of these cities, such factors as structural changes in economy and enterprises after collapse of Soviet Union, downsizing and depopulation, domestic and foreign market conditions, pollution, the quality of life of local population, possible changes of resource potential, and other key factors. Based on factor analysis and community consultations (surveys, questionnaires and interviews) the concept of single-industry cities development will be discussed. It includes different development scenarios which will help to indicate the main types of the cities with the progressive and depressive scenarios of development. We aim to answer the following research questions: Will the depressive scenarios always end with abandoned localities (based on previous examples and case studies)? What is the point of no return in the transition period from progressive to depressive scenario? What is the best facilitator of sustainable development of single-industry cities in the Russian Arctic (based on all-Russian and international case-studies)?