City as an Object of Ecological and Economic Researches: the Example of Russian Cities

Abstract The growth of environmental pollution especially in big cities dictates the need to search for the reasons of this trend, most of which refer to the economic sphere. The aim of this work is not only to describe the state of environment in Russian cities with the population of 100 thousand inhabitants and more, but also to reveal the main economic factors that influence on the intensity of their environmental pollution. The ecological and economic analysis of Russian cities, fulfilled in this work, helped to identify the most unfavourable of them in terms of the level of environmental impact. The low quality of environment in these cities is largely due to natural and climatic conditions (bad conditions for contaminants dispersion) and specifics of their economic development: functioning of large industrial enterprises of ferrous and non-ferrous metallurgy, petrochemistry, construction industry. The conclusion is that to improve the environmental quality in these cities comprehensive social, environmental and economic solutions are required.