The Dynamics of the Day and Night Population as an Indicator of Structural and Functional Changes in the Territory of the City in the Zone of Influence of the Moscow Central Ring Using Data from Mobile Operators

Moscow as a world city combines territories with various functional content. At the same time, the complexity of the morphological structure of the capital is supplemented by the high dynamism of the socio-economic processes taking place in it. In this context, an important task is to assess the role of large infrastructure projects, intensifying the processes of transformation of the urban structure and in a short time changing the historically established functional roles of vast urban spaces. The article uses the data of mobile operators to analyze functional changes in the zone of influence of the largest urban megaproject – the Moscow Central Ring (MCC) from 2015 to 2018. The available information on mobile telephony about the distribution of the population at night and daytime allows us to characterize the degree of “dormancy†and “attractiveness†of urban areas near the MCC, and accordingly their functional roles. The analysis showed that during the period under review, the day and night population of 43 municipalities surrounding the MCC showed an equal increase of 0.35 million people with a significant differentiation of its pace in certain areas. The ratio between the day and night population of the areas, as well as its change from 2015 to 2018 allowed to distinguish the characteristic functional types of districts. The typology demonstrated that the role of the MCC in spatial development for the attractive territories of the center and subcenter of Moscow turned out to be significantly less noticeable than for areas located on the side of the MCC external to the city center. This influence was more replaceable in municipalities, where the railway ring became the first type of high-speed off-street transport, as well as in areas that have significant areas of industrial zones, the majority of the observed structural and functional movements in urban morphology are associated with the synergy of renovation.