Sustainable Infrastructure Recovery and Local Economic Development in War-Affected Territories

Abstract

The full-scale war in Ukraine has caused large-scale destruction of the infrastructure of territorial communities of Ukraine and significantly worsened the prerequisites for their local economic development. The processes of restoration of de-occupied and affected territories are especially difficult, where the physical reconstruction of infrastructure should be combined with the restoration of entrepreneurial activity, employment, human capital, financial capacity and spatial integrity of communities. The article is aimed at theoretical and methodological substantiation and empirical assessment of the relationship and coherence of infrastructure development and local economic development of the de-occupied and affected territories of Ukraine in the context of ensuring their sustainable development. A methodical approach to assessing the coherence of infrastructure recovery and local economic development based on integral indices of I_IR and I_LED and coefficient of coherence K_C is proposed. The author's 100-point matrix E–S–P–R–G is developed for prioritizing infrastructure projects by economic, social, spatial, security-sustainability and environmental effects. The possibility of integrating the proposed approach with the DREAM digital ecosystem is substantiated. The expediency of moving from an object-oriented model of reconstruction to a territorially oriented model of sustainable recovery, in which the priority of infrastructure projects is determined not only by the scale of physical destruction, but also by the potential for creating a comprehensive long-term effect for the territorial community, is proved.

Keywords: infrastructure, reconstruction, de-occupied territories, affected territories, local economic development, territorial community, coherence, sustainable development, resilience, DREAM, project prioritization.