Geographical Expertise of Regional Digital Development Strategies: Outlines of Emerging Approaches

• Published in: Geography and natural resources Vol. 43; no. 4; pp. 303 - 308
• Main Author: Blanutsa, V. I.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow Pleiades Publishing 01.12.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Development strategies; Documents; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic Geography; Geography; Landscape/Regional and Urban Planning; Machine learning; Regional development; Regional planning; Search algorithms; Strategy; Uncertainty; comparative analysis; state strategy; digital technological development; cluster analysis; economic convergence; geographical boundary
• ISSN: 1875-3728; 1875-371X
• DOI: 10.1134/S1875372822040059

This article is devoted to generalizing global experience in the geographical expertise of regional digital development strategies to determine the advantages and disadvantages of emerging approaches. It is established that publications on the geographical expertise in national and supranational strategic documents related to the digital development of regions appeared only in the last decade and have not yet received any theoretical generalization in global science. The selection of publications on the subject under consideration is carried out using the author’s semantic search algorithm based on ideas of machine learning. Approximately two dozen journal articles have been found in eight bibliographic databases. A comparison of the examination methodologies presented in available identified articles is carried out. Five approaches to identifying geographical contradictions and uncertainties in regional digital development strategies have been identified. According to the main method of expert examination, these approaches are called comparative geographical, cluster, convergent, geopolitical, and limological. Nine strategies are listed, among which most publications are dedicated to the Digital Agenda for Europe. A brief definition is presented, examples of implementation are given, and the main advantage and several main disadvantages for each approach are indicated. It is shown that further research on the issues under consideration may be related to the elimination of the identified shortcomings, the development of new approaches, the coverage of new strategies, a geographical verification of the simultaneous implementation of several strategies for the same group of regions, the adaptation of the methodology for identifying geographical contradictions and uncertainties in the digital development strategy of one country for the examination of the strategy of another country, the identification of spatial effects from the implementation of strategies, and the integration of all approaches into a single methodology of geographical expertise. The results can be used to adjust existing regional development strategies and develop new ones.