Features of Sustainable Urban Development: Spatial Aspects

. Today, cities are centers of economic, social, cultural, and intellectual life, where most of the population lives. At the same time, many global problems (related to the state of the environment, inequality of access to resources, etc.) are most acutely manifested in urban areas. This makes it important to find ways to increase the sustainability of their development. The article examines the signs of a sustainable city and highlights some indicators that allow us to assess the scale of sustainable urban development. The author substantiates the advisability of taking into account spatial characteristics (traditionally remaining outside the scope of most studies) when determining the degree of sustainability of a city. These include: the degree of differentiation of individual elements of urban space, the presence of «problem zones» in it, its connectedness and openness.