Fringe belts structure and transition economy: morphological patterns and present-day changes. A case study of Krasnoyarsk, Russia

In Russia, the early 1990s breakup of the USSR emerged plan-to-market shifts in economy and reorganization of the socio-economic system. The time of transition economy includes economic decline, new forms of ownership, insufficiency of legal mechanisms which can regulate the urban land market and proper urban planning documentation. In urban planning, a disconnection between urban management and urban planning has caused spontaneous development. This research aims to study how this period has impacted the functional-spatial structure of Krasnoyarsk’s fringe belts. Certain fragments of inner, middle, and outer fringe belts are analysed through their morphology; and the processes that influence these belts are also described. The outer fringe belt, which appeared in the transition period, in the city periphery, alongside the main transport artery, is still suffering spontaneous dense development. The lack of long-term development plans and a unified system of accounting and land inventory has triggered inconsistency in land matters and land plots ownership identification. All this has depressed the territories of inner and middle fringe belts. Despite their value, their historical parameters and established rights to the land plots obstruct an integrated reconstruction.