Conquering the Arctic: standards are regulating the development of northern cities

By the end of 2021 the standard on Arctic cities' development will appear in Russia. T The development will be undertaken by The Ministry of Construction, Housing and Utilities (Minstroy), while the document will be the responsibility of national project “Housing and Urban Environment”. The minister of Construction and Housing and Community Amenities Maxim Borisovich Egorov made this statement. 

In recent years, the necessity to develop Arctic cities arose. However, any improvement cannot be achieved without following a certain state level regulation and requirements. That was the starting point of new standards’ development, which will take effect in next year. 

The idea of creating the normative document, which would regulate the development of cities, was launched by the State Committee of Arctic improvement. That is why the working group, that includes architects, urbanists, and people from harsh climate regions, was created. A standard template of development and improvement will not be suitable for Arctic. That is why experts will search for intelligent rational solutions, which will consider every particular climate feature like temperature, polar nights, freezing winds.

The improvement of Arctic space and creation of regulating documents will be proceeded in accordance with Federal project that has functioned since 2017. It is estimated to raise the comfort of urban area, increase Urban Comfort index by 30%, and to decrease the amount of poor settlements.