Regional Wealth as a Universal Criterion for Spatial Development of Territories

Abstract

The spatial development of the territory is subject to the management of the responsible public authority. Voters expect positive changes in the economic, social and environmental spheres of the territories in which they live, work and spend their leisure time. The activities of the regional authorities are also under the control of the federal center. The variety of directions of spatial development gives rise to a variety of indicators used and proposed to assess the effectiveness of government bodies. The large number of performance indicators makes it difficult to monitor spatial development. There is an objective need to use a limited number of estimated indicators that adequately reflect changes in territorial socio-ecological and economic systems. One of these indicators can be the size of regional wealth. Nothing characterizes the changes in the level of development of the region as an increase in regional wealth in general and in the context of the main components: human, natural and physical capital. However, methodological problems do not yet allow building an integral indicator of regional wealth. The main obstacle is the difficulty in assessing natural capital.