Integrative Approach to Determining the Level of Regional Development Sustainability

This research aims to justify an integrative approach to calculating a comprehensive indicator of regional development sustainability based on the principles of balance. This indicator can be utilized to construct a sustainability ranking of regions and differentiate measures of socio-economic support provided by the federal center. This methodology considers the national set of indicators for sustainable development goals (i.e., it caters to the goals relevant to the country), the specifics of regional governance in the Russian Federation, and the independence of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in making managerial decisions. The proposed approach has been tested in the context of Russian federalism, with the Northwestern Federal District chosen as the base for such tests. The authors calculated comprehensive sustainability indicators in the economic, social, and environmental sectors for the regions within this district based on the processing of state statistics data. The authors constructed a rating of the regions of the Northwestern Federal District and interpreted the values of comprehensive sustainability indicators based on the proposed assessment scale. Ideal values of indicators are realistically achievable. Thus, they can become a benchmark for lagging regions. The provided assessment can be utilized in regional and federal administration for the allocation of financial assistance to regions.