Opportunities for the formation of the trading environment of the A-370 Ussuri highway

Ordinskaya Yuliya Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0001-7687-3252 PhD in Architecture Associate Professor; Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning; Pacific State University 680042, Russia, Khabarovsk Territory, Khabarovsk, Bondarya str., 9b, sq. 1 007821@pnu.edu.ru D'yachkova Lyudmila Germanovna ORCID: 0000-0002-9497-4994 Professor; Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning; Pacific State University 136 Pacific Street, Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk Territory, 680035, Russia 003795@pnu.edu.ru

Obuhova Alena Anatol'evna Graduate student; Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning; Pacific State University 136 Pacific Street, Khabarovsk, Khabarovsk Territory, 680035, Russia 2023105442@pnu.edu.ru

Introduction. Road service facilities located along the A-370 Ussuri highway, built in the first third of the twentieth century on the territory of Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai, are found for about 700 km, since this highway is the only one uniting many small settlements. Being laid in a difficult place for the development of the region, through the Ussuri taiga, it connects Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai. The history of the development of this territory is associated with the name of the researcher, traveler, orientalist – V.K. Arsenyev, who discovered the beauty of the Far Eastern taiga to the world ^[8]. Thanks to his diary entries and reports on expeditions, a vivid image of the territory of the Far East was formed in the minds of compatriots.

Nevertheless, the population living locally in the deep regions of the southern part of the Far East loses interest in the peculiarities of the regional landscape and leaves the places of settlement, because they do not see employment opportunities and the realization of human potential.

Practically the only means of supporting the budget of citizens living in settlements located along the Ussuri highway is the trade in agricultural products and other marketing items. Against this background, the organization of trading places equipped and safe near the highway is the primary form of urban planning interaction with the population, as well as the gradual organization of the improvement of settlements and the creation of a full-fledged trading environment that attracts tourist flows moving through the region and showing interest in the peculiarities of the recreational resource of the territory of the Far East.

The possibilities of developing a trading environment in the study area and risk factors for the implementation of project proposals. When developing retail facilities that correspond to the ideas of the formation of roadside infrastructure, a number of objective conditions are taken into account: geographical and climatic, historical and economic, landscape, seasonal, which determine passenger traffic, and determine the points of attraction of car travelers. On the section of the A-370 Ussuri highway, it is possible to determine the points of attraction, which, according to the authors, could ensure the creation of a framework for a tourist roadside complex:

- Korfovsky settlement (Fortified area 108th height),

- Memorial area (the place of death of Dersu Uzal),

- "Narzan" (a natural source that determines the extraction of mineral water as a resource for the sanatorium economy and the possibility of creating a cluster of medical services to the population of the region),

- "Swallow" (a natural source that determines the extraction and sale of mineral water),

- "Lotus Lake" (Gorny Klyuchi settlement, located along the Ussuri highway),

- Luchegorsk (the largest hydroelectric power plant in the Far East, a memorial park testifying to the history of the Russian-Chinese conflict, the Vostok ski resort in the suburbs),

- Dalnerechensk (ethnographic complex "Sources of Dalnerechye", memorial area, religious sites).

Below, with the help of drawings (Fig.1, 2.), the author's vision of solving this problem is presented - creating a framework for a tourist roadside complex, a scheme for placing objects is proposed.

Fig. 1. Supporting settlements of the roadside tourist cluster (the Ussuri Highway within the boundaries of the national settlement system (Khabarovsk-Vladivostok). The scheme of the authors.

Fig. 2. The option of placing roadside retail facilities of the road service. The scheme of the authors.

Despite a sufficient number of popular sites in the region intended for recreation of the population and related trade, the infrastructure (including on the territories of water extraction and bottling enterprises) has not been practically developed, the territories have not been landscaped. The absence of the simplest sanitary facilities, squares, and quiet recreation areas is obvious and makes it difficult for citizens to stay in the territory, the effective planning of which could increase the flow of visitors, especially in the warmer months.

Nevertheless, the population of the region visits these places, striving for healing natural sources of mineralized water, ignoring the lack of equipped places for short-term rest and eating, and even the lack of lighting of public spaces in the evening.

Considering that the studied territory is adjacent to locations with pronounced characteristics that attract tourist flow, it should be analyzed as a resource determining the possible development of nature-oriented tourism, and not only regional ^[9,10,11]. This resource can become the most attractive for guests from China, since the proximity of the border land crossing and close long-term cooperation between the two countries (the Agreement on Good Neighborliness, Friendship and Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China dated 07/16/2001; the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the People's Republic of China on visa-free group tourist trips dated 02/29/2000) determines the accessibility of the tourist route located a few kilometers from the highway: checkpoint - Bikin city - Zhaohe city (PRC). The peculiarities of the modern geopolitical situation, which explain the increasing attention to Asian tourist resources, ensure the relevance of project proposals considering the territories of Northeast China as zones of possible extensive agriculture with almost complete absence of forests.

Nevertheless, attention should be paid to the fact that currently an integrated approach to the improvement of domestic roadside infrastructure facilities is obvious only at the stage of project proposals, and the territory of the region is unattractive for travelers.

One of the ways to solve the formulated problem related to the insecurity of a possible tourist flow with the simplest elements of roadside infrastructure improvement is the organization of spontaneous trade along the highway within the framework of urban planning programs to help the population in remote settlements ^{[4, 5, 12]}. Considering that the main transport axis of the Far Eastern region, the Ussuri highway, is not equipped with a well-maintained service infrastructure, and does not have retail outlets equipped in accordance with the requirements of urban planning, attention should be paid to the objects of spontaneous trade located in the places where the highway runs along settlements.

Points of spontaneous trade (there are more than thirty of them along the highway) are usually located in places that are most attractive to fleeting motorists, since sales are often the only source of income for the locally located population. This circumstance explains the existence of seasonally renewable places of unorganized trade, since the population supporting family budgets lives exclusively through the sale of surplus agricultural products, crafts and gathering (vegetables, honey, berries, caviar, etc.).

Rarely found retail outlets in the territories of organized parking lots are distinguished by a variety of products sold, but are equipped with outdated equipment left over from the Soviet era and very worn out, such as at the Narzan station or the Luchegorsk roadside market. During a field survey of retail facilities, it was established the existence of "secret" service points for car travelers, traditionally located on the territory of bus stations and shunting turns, and attracting in most cases drivers of multi-axis refrigerators, for example, in Luchegorsk, the famous "Luchegorsky chebureks" are sold around the clock, which made up the glory of a random point of sale of regional fast food, not equipped no equipment, no parking, but successfully competing with professional bakeries due to the quality of cooking.

There are organized roadside trading platforms in Bikin, and they are represented not only by stationary enterprises, but by small trade along the highway, but the change in the direction of the highway, now laid bypassing the city, led to the fact that the roadside infrastructure created for decades turned out to be unclaimed. Due to the reorganization of the route, the travel time was significantly reduced, but the trade turnover of the network of local settlements, whose population partially lived through trade, fell hopelessly.

On sections of the highway, there are vacant sites designed to stop car platforms, and in cases when they are reachable from the territories of settlements, they turn into temporary retail outlets created by the population from improvised materials (Fig.3).

Fig. 3. A section of the Ussuri highway near the village of Lermontovka.

Photos of the authors.

According to the study, the most popular traveling facilities along the route are retail and catering facilities, but they are located chaotically, since they are formed along sections of the road that are more closely located to populated areas. Such outlets and spontaneously emerging "pie grandmothers" are characterized by a complete lack of service and represent sales with the minimum possible composition of services ^{[13, 6, 3]}.

Assuming that the entire commercial infrastructure located along the highway, determined by the need to serve consumers of automobile routes, requires combining various facilities into a single service system, it should be concluded that it is important to create a roadside service system, the objects of which could relate to a single typological solution. Unfortunately, the current objects of both trade and general service services will not differ in either compositional and architectural or territorial-spatial features of strategic design, since all elements of the roadside infrastructure environment do not have signs of regional identity of architectural solutions and do not determine the possibility of combining them into an integrated landscape and urban planning support for a regional cluster ^{[5, 12, 14, 7]}. Of interest are the so-called "folk" small architectural forms, indicating the attempts of the locally located population to enrich the trading environment with household items available in circulation (Fig. 4).

Considering the above, the authors of the study suggest using natural-climatic, cultural-historical, etc. conditions for determining the potentials indicating the possibility of developing commercial facilities of roadside infrastructure, and providing a regional cluster of the Ussuri highway:

- ecological, determined by the need to protect, protect natural unique objects at the state level (organization of the nature protection zone "Lotus Lake") - the Sikhote-Alin protected area was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2001 as an object of global importance;

- geographical, provided with recreational resources (unique mineral springs) and cross-border communication with China;

- tourist, using the territorial proximity of the state border to enhance the tourist flow of Bikin – Zhaohe;

- climatic, based on the seasonal specifics of the possibility of observing nature;

- social, aimed at using labor resources and reducing unemployment in roadside settlements.

The use of the assumed potentials of territorial development will allow, from the point of view of the authors of the study, to establish the alleged "pros" and "cons" in the process of designing roadside infrastructure facilities, which, with successful financing from the state, will be able to be defined as a roadside recreational cluster, in accordance with the requirements for the structure and spatial planning of its facilities and reduce the risks during production design and construction works ^{[4, 5, 15]}.

"Advantages":

- formation of the cultural landscape and determination of the value of the territory of the region, preserving the unique historical and cultural environment and regional identity ^[16];

- project preservation of the natural, aesthetically significant background of landscape objects of the Khabarovsk-Vladivostok route being laid;

- attracting investments in the tourism industry, as well as in the industrial, manufacturing, etc. ^[17]

- socialization of citizens living in poorly developed territories of the region, creation of legal jobs;

- urban planning of roadside areas and the design of service facilities that determine the improvement of the welfare of the population in the region.

"Cons":

- the lack of formation of the transport infrastructure and the need to reconstruct a significant part of the roadway;

- the ruined condition of a significant number of roadside service facilities and the lack of equipment for retail outlets.

Fig. 6,7, 8, 9, 10,11 Commercial facilities of the roadside infrastructure of the Ussuri highway. Photos of the authors.

Program development of the territory. The study showed that the highway runs through the territories of small rural settlements of Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai. One of the negative trends in these territories can be called the steady outflow of local residents over the past two decades.

The lack of a developed social infrastructure, employment opportunities, and the increasing contrast in the level of industrial support for the population in rural and urban areas leave no choice for residents of small settlements, especially young people ^[12]. The small-scale settlement characteristic of the present period in a large area of small settlements is becoming a dangerous trend within the framework of preserving the strategic value of the region.

The observed collapse of the settlement system in remote areas of the Far Eastern region explains the development and implementation of a rural development strategy in national and regional development programs: "The modern appearance of rural territories", "Integrated development of rural territories of the Khabarovsk Territory", "1000 yards", etc. ^[13].

The strategy for the development of rural settlements, which was defined at the turn of 2023-2024, involves the transformation of local settlement sites on agricultural land for the gradual renewal of such in the format of support settlements. The motto "urban comfort, but rural way of life", adopted for the development and implementation of projects for the improvement of the territories of the main settlements being built and reconstructed during 2025-2030 in the Far East, is determined by an order of the Government of the Khabarovsk Territory, corresponding to the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation.

At the moment, the Strategy has identified 16 support settlements, some of which are located in the southern regions of the Khabarovsk Territory. 28 settlements have been identified in the Primorsky Territory, of which five are located in the area of the phenomenon under study. The total indicators for settlements located along the Ussuri highway are presented below in the table (Table 1.), which allows us to compare the features of the development of settlements ^{[1, 2]}.

The concept of "support settlement", introduced in accordance with the change in the regulatory framework of the urban planning process ^[1] suggests that most of the services to the population should be implemented in the territories of specific settlements.

It is assumed that the supporting framework for the development of territories defined in this way will be subject to the so-called synergetic effect ^[18], and the determined structure will ensure the development of an inter-settlement territory, so that the settlement population will not have problems with the availability of any social facilities/services, as a result of well-calculated transport accessibility ^[19]. Each stronghold will become the center of concentration of all adopted national territorial development programs, and federal funds from state programs will be concentrated in priority order on the territory of the selected settlement (Table 1.).

Table 1.

List of proposed strongholds of territorial development

(Khabarovsk Territory, Primorsky Territory)

Thus, it becomes obvious that all settlements that have entered the adjacent territory to the stronghold should be located in the territories located along the highway. Strong points and territories of settlements belonging to them, in case of implementation of the planned program development, will be able to become key centers of territorial infrastructure development and determine the effectiveness of the formation of roadside infrastructure facilities capable of transforming into a roadside recreational cluster.

Conclusion. Conclusions. The conducted research has shown that the route of the M-370 Ussuri highway has special characteristics that allow it to be considered as a territory intended for the successful development of the region. Nevertheless, today most of the road service facilities (gas stations, motels, catering facilities, retail outlets, etc.) do not have landscaping elements. The minimum required list of services that should be provided at road service facilities does not imply the possibility of rest, hygiene support and short-term relaxation for drivers, self-service places (household services) for traveling citizens and organized retail outlets.

The analysis of theoretical and field materials showed that the studied roadside area has the necessary potential for the formation of a roadside recreation cluster capable of transforming the existing scenario of the tourism industry and attracting visitors to the region, solving the problem of rising unemployment in remote areas of the region. This potential must be taken into account as strategically important in the development program of the region, since in this way it is possible to financially facilitate the life of the settled population and increase the comfort level of possible tourists ^[20]. The formation of the roadside infrastructure of the Ussuri highway, determined by the transformation of disparate service facilities into a comprehensive solution for a recreational cluster, involves the consolidation of the framework of planning works using the identified potentials for the development of the territory and the creation of a network of supporting settlements accumulating financial, social and planning solutions to promote the state strategy for the development of the Far East.

The authors believe that urban planning interaction with the population of remote territories, implemented at the level of providing specially equipped trading places in the organized structure of roadside service, will improve the financial provision of citizens forced to exist through the sale of agricultural products or the results of gathering. The subsequent slowdown in the rate of population exodus from the territories of traditional settlement will make it possible to create and use higher-quality, large-scale projects that organize a system of roadside recreation cluster and thus determine the volume of project proposals, the successful implementation of which will allow to identify franchises in the structuring of roadside infrastructure associations and to test these proposals at the federal level.

The results obtained as a result of the study, despite the lack of a unified architectural and planning solution for the roadside infrastructure of the A-370 Ussuri highway, can be used to determine the recreational potential in other regions, being comparable with the requirements of strategic planning of roadside infrastructure facilities at the level of strategic development programs. The results of the study can be applied within the framework of designing a public-private partnership and become the basis for working with investors whose interests relate to the possibilities of forming cross-border trade agglomerations. In the course of the work, the potential of the territory was identified, not only the possibilities of developing a trading environment, but also risk factors were identified.

The authors of the study are grateful to the leadership of the Pacific State University, which provided the opportunity to organize field surveys within the framework of a grant for research work within the framework of the Pacific State University Development Program for 2021-2030, aimed at studying the factors of formation of the urban planning organization of the territories of the region, taking into account the peculiarities of their formation in the southern regions of the Far East.