Environmental, Social and Economic Potentials of Urban Protected Areas: Case Study of Moscow, Russia

Protected areas (PAs) are becoming more and more vulnerable to urbanization processes, expansion of built-up areas and severe shortage of space. Moscow is one of the most fast-growing European cities, therefore, this problem has a great relevance there. Two case study areas, Severny and Altufjevsky reserves, covering about 94 and 82 hectares, are located in the north of Moscow. PA Regulations, published in 2020 and approved by Government of Moscow, are the main data sources, particularly for land-use planning, protection regimes and special structures. Besides, the results of landscape structure investigations, open-access data by Information System Ensuring Spatial Planning (ISOGD), Moscow Government open-access data hub were used. According to Regulations, natural and semi-natural zones constitute only 37% и 16% of the total area. Spatial differences between present environment state and zoning established by regional laws were analyzed by GIS-overlay and rating scales. Moreover, PA socio-economic potential was investigated, using rating scales of 7 groups of functions. Overlay difference between environmental and socio-economic potentials (EP₁-SEP parameter) has become the tool to detect spaces providing ecosystem protection functions, but exposed to strong human impact. Although some areas are used mostly for social and economic purposes, semi-natural zones are under quite strict protection regimes. Area-weighted EP₁-SEP parameter of PA are estimated to 2.9 and 2.4 respectively (from a possible range from −20 to 20) and hence zoning is correlated with ecosystem functions in general, except large-scale inconsistencies. This algorithm can be used to resolve a dilemma between protection and exploitation.