ECOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AS A CONDITION FOR ENSURING THE LIFE ACTIVITY AND DEVELOPMENT OF A TERRITORIAL COMMUNITY

Abstract

The article treats the ecological development of a territorial community not as one direction of development among many, but as a basic condition of people's life, since the state of the environment determines whether life on a territory is possible at all and sets the framework conditions for every other activity of a community. The relevance of the topic is reinforced by the environmental damage of the war and by the shrinking environmental expenditure of local budgets. Purpose. To reveal and substantiate the content of the ecological development of a territorial community as a basic condition of its life activity and as a managed object of public administration. Methods. The study applies systemic and process approaches, comparison of scholarly positions, structural and logical analysis of legal and programme documents, and generalisation of official statistical data. Results. The divergence between the systemic and the process understanding of development found in the literature is shown to be a division of roles rather than a contradiction, since the natural and anthropogenic system of a community is a system, whereas its ecological development is a managed process of change within that system. Three levels are distinguished, namely state, change and process, and an original definition of the ecological development of a territorial community is proposed together with three modes of its course. Its components are systematised along three dimensions and three types of links between them are described. The need for management is substantiated by six grounds. The influence of ecological development on the life activity of a community is disclosed in the ecological, economic and reputational dimensions. A minimum system of indicators with normative benchmarks is proposed, and the means of managerial influence are grouped into five sets with the conditions of their effectiveness. Prospects. Further research should focus on a methodology for the monetary valuation of the ecosystem assets of an individual community for the budget process.