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Problem Statement. Human geography is a science that responds extremely quickly to the new today's demands and challenges. Thanks to the multiplier effect, it has the opportunity to be integrated into a powerful range of contemporary unresolved scientific issues and to propose its approaches to their study and solution based on the robust methodology and development of new research tools. A qualitative new development level of human geography as science in Ukraine and the world requires urgently general rethinking of the prerequisites, goals, and methods of scientific research, the question of the relationship between theoretical and empirical ones in scientific papers. The triune complex "society-nature-economy" and the study of the peculiarities of their interrelationships and contradictions form a wide range of opportunities for human-geographical research. Research Methodology. The article uses the methods of analysis, synthesis, and dialectical method. The authors have summarized and described the set of original methods of human geography, revealed contemporary approaches and substantiated the peculiarities of the methods of researching the development trajectory of the human-geographical objects, multidimensional spatial analysis and multidimensional classification, spatial interaction of social and geographical objects (IFI modeling), developed and tested by the scientists of the Department of Human Geography and Regional Studies of V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University. This paper aims to highlight the methodological foundations of human-geographical research, reveal modern approaches and substantiate the human-geographical approach, and consider the content and features of the use of original methods of human-geographical research. In particular, the coverage of methodological approaches and justification of the human-geographical approach and disclosure of new methods of spatial analysis of the human-geographical process: the study of the spatial interaction of the human-geographical objects (IFI-modelling) and the study of social and geographical systems in the normalized multidimensional space. Results. The paper describes in detail the possibilities of using original human-geographical methods to solve contemporary issues. A detailed analysis of the application of these methods allows scientists and researchers to use and solve similar or other types of problems effectively. Scientific novelty and practical significance. The paper presents an exhaustive set of original methods for spatial analysis of the territory and provides an algorithm for their use. The authors provided various human-geographical research areas and tested the original methods.

Formulation of the problem. The paper is the beginning of scientific papers series of authors on an actual environmental topic – multidimensional system geomonitoring of groundwater in water intakes areas. The purpose of article is a substantiation of application possibility of the method of objects trajectory modeling in the normalized phase space, which has been developed at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University for socio-geographical monitoring tasks, for hydrogeological objects geomonitoring. Materials and methods. The research is based on the method of objects trajectory modeling in the normalized phase space. To achieve the purpose of this study, geomonitoring data of five water intakes in Poltava city, which operate Cenomanian-Lower Cretaceous aquifer, has been used. Changes in the average chemical composition of groundwater for each water intake have been analyzed according to 12 indicators: pH, hardness, dry residue, ammonium, fluorine, chlorine, sulfates, bicarbonates, calcium, magnesium, sodium+potassium, ferrous iron. The initial data have been collected from 1981 to 2008 according to an irregular pattern in time (39 points in time). Research results. The following indicators of systemic development of hydrogeological system have been calculated for each water intake: a) for each period of time – the path length traveled by the water intake hydrogeological system, which characterizes the intensity of changes in the groundwater chemical composition; b) for each control time – the projection of current trajectory point on the optimal trajectory (main diagonal), the deviation of point from the optimal trajectory, the progress coefficient (the ratio of point projection to the length of main diagonal). The main trends in the systemic development of hydrogeological system for all studied water intakes have been identified: - the intensity of changes in the groundwater chemical composition at water intakes Nos. 1-5 decreases over time, which can be explained by the reduction of water withdrawal and hydrodynamic factors associated with the formation of depression funnel, in particular the spreading of quasi-stationary filtration regime; - according to the absolute values of changes intensity in the groundwater chemical composition, the water intake No. 3 is highlighted, the value of which is significantly less than the values of other water intakes; - groundwater at the water intake No. 1 has the greatest variability in the changes intensity of chemical composition over time both in amplitude and in absolute values; - there is a very noticeable synchronization of movement intensity graphs of water intakes hydrogeological systems in the normalized phase space and the average intensity of changes in the groundwater chemical composition, but a detailed analysis reveals some deviations from this pattern, which may be due to abrupt changes in operation mode of water intakes.

The article considers the issue of the world cities in terms of sustainable development. The population has been increasing in such intensive rates never reached during the middle of the 20th century. The expansion of the cities indicates, on the one hand, the growth of the world's general socio-economic development, on the other hand, it raises a number of economic, social and environmental problems. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current state and prospects of the world cities in terms of the sustainable development concept, to identify opportunities, threats, strengths and weaknesses of the world cities, to determine the role of cities in the contemporary global world and consider further research of the world's cities. The authors analyzed the world cities rankings and noted that highly developed cities have more chances to quickly implement the sustainable development concept compared to medium-sized cities due to larger financial resources. The authors built a SWOT analysis of the world cities transformation in terms of the sustainable development concept, identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. According to the results of the SWOT analysis, the authors established that sustainable development of cities requires significant investments, particularly in the social sphere development, purification, and preservation of urban nature from the anthropogenic impacts. The research result is the systematization of the sustainable development criteria used in compiling the world cities rankings, determining the possibilities of the contemporary cities transition to the sustainable development concept.

Relevance. The paper examines the issues of the health care system development of Ukraine in the context of modern challenges. Today, there are many global environmental, socio-demographic, and economic problems threatening the existence of human civilization. One of the problems was the spread of coronavirus infection COVID-19, which demonstrated unpreparedness of Ukraine and post-socialist countries' health care systems. These countries are undergoing health care transformations, but they do not meet modern world norms and standards. The purpose of the article is to establish the key features of the health care system of Ukraine during its transformation given the positive experience of medical systems in the world, from the positions of human geography to identify current challenges and to assess the ability to respond to social demand and the threat of the global crisis in the form of new diseases, the spread of epidemics threatening to human health, quality and life expectancy. Methods. This research is conducted on the basis of human-geographical approach with use of the set of methods and tools to analyze the health care system, which is extremely important for obtaining verified and scientifically sound results. In particular, the authors used methods of induction and deduction, comparison, formalization, analogy, analysis, systematization, including ranking and grouping, historical, graphical, mathematical and statistical, SWOT-analysis methods. Results. Scientific novelty and practical significance. The features, advantages and disadvantages of existing models of health care systems in different countries were identified. In particular, models of medical systems were considered: a model of the single-payer, model of obligatory insurance, and hybrid system. The peculiarities of the formation of the health care system of Ukraine were determined, the key features and principles of the M.O. Semashko’s system were identified, its positive and negative features preserved to this day were outlined. The distribution of European and post-socialist countries was analyzed according to the indicators of state budget expenditures on health care and GDP, number of doctors, hospital beds per capita. The transformational processes in the health care system of Ukraine, the peculiarities of the medical reform in Ukraine were revealed, the peculiarities of the development of the medical system in the conditions of the pandemic were characterized. The SWOT analysis identified the strengths and weaknesses of the Ukraine’s health care system in terms of reform and transformation, its opportunities and threats in the light of current challenges.

Changes in social relations in Ukraine, its transition to a post-industrial society, structural changes in regional development lead in modern conditions to changes in the territorial organization of society, which directly affects the trends of regional development. The highest form of territorial organization of society are agglomerations – uban agglomerations. Defining the boundaries of agglomerations is an important step in the process of studying agglomerations and managing regional development, because it is necessary to clearly understand the territory to which the administrative influence should extend and the number of city councils whose activities should be coordinated in implementing regional policy. The purpose of this work is to analyze the existing methods, approaches and techniques for determining the boundaries of agglomerations, development of an algorithm for establishing the boundaries of agglomerations and its testing on the materials of the Kharkiv region. The main theoretical and methodological starting points of delimitation of agglomeration boundaries are presented, approaches, methods and techniques, their quantitative and qualitative criteria, indicators, etc. are determined. The author 's algorithm for establishing agglomeration boundaries is substantiated, initial positions, key indicators, coefficients and indices are indicated. The proposed algorithm was tested on the materials of Kharkiv region. It is established that the Kharkiv agglomeration is monocentric and well formed. The development coefficient of the Kharkiv urban agglomeration is 30.7, the agglomeration coefficient is 0.13, the agglomeration index is 0.25, which confirms the high level of development of this agglomeration and the significant polarizing effect of the city of Kharkiv. The applied indicators of concentration and population density, transport accessibility, allowed to establish that the Kharkiv agglomeration has a powerful organizational center of development - the city of Kharkiv, the polarizing effect of which is more pronounced in two districts – Kharkiv and Dergachiv, which form the central zone of the agglomeration. The center of the agglomeration is connected with remote centers of peripheral areas by radial-radial connections by transport and other types of connections, which forms an external zone consisting of Bohodukhiv, Valkiv, Vovchansk, Zmiiv, Zolochiv, Novovodolazk, Pecheneg and Chuhuiv districts. Based on the study, based on the principle of superposition, the author's vision of delimitation of the Kharkiv agglomeration in 2019 is presented. The zone of influence of organizational functions of the center extends to a radius of 70 km, but there are significant territorial disparities in the center and periphery. The city of Kharkiv assumes most of the functions: administrative, economic, social, infrastructural and recreational, which to some extent hinders the development of small towns that are part of the agglomeration. The strengths of the Kharkiv agglomeration are indicated, as well as the priority directions of development are singled out. Given that the Kharkiv agglomeration is monocentric, and within it, as in the region there is a sharp uneven development of the center and periphery, effective management and addressing the hypertrophied development of the city, spatial planning and infrastructure development will alleviate this situation and facilitate the transition of the region. to the polycentric model of spatial organization, respectively, and the reduction of territorial disparities in the level and quality of life of the population of the Kharkiv region.

In the modern context of, one of the main tasks in the regional development management is to optimally realize the complex potential of the territories, which requires a comprehensive study of the spatial structure and evolutionary potential of agglomerations of all levels in order to identify disparities in their development, correct imbalances and optimize the spatial organization of the region. The first step to solve this problem is to identify the spatial structure and evaluate the interconnections of agglomerations sequentially, from local to regional level. This is becoming more relevant in the context of administrative and territorial reform in Ukraine. The purpose of this study is to analyze the prospects for the development of urban agglomerations and the organization of the administrative and territorial structure of Kharkiv region in view of the prevailing influence of the city of Kharkiv and the Kharkiv agglomeration. The basic theoretical and methodological starting points of the study of urban agglomerations are presented; their characteristics and parameters of boundary determination were defined. The essence of the method of modeling of integral influence function (IIF modeling) was revealed, the author's research methodology was substantiated. The tendencies of introduction of administrative and territorial reform in Ukraine were analyzed. It was established that Kharkiv region occupies mediocre places in terms of formation of the united territorial communities, there were 23 ones in the oblast (3 of them are city, 12 town, 8 rural ones) by the end of 2019. The scheme for dividing into enlarged districts has not yet been approved. According to different plans / proposals, the existing 27 districts of the oblast should be consolidated into nine, seven, six or four enlarged districts (counties). All of the above proposals were considered by the authors, it is established that the existing projects do not fully cover the main prevailing factors of allocation of competitive districts, do not take into account the role of historically formed system of settlement, spatial-statistical parameters, integral potential of territories, urbanization and agglomeration. The authors performed the IIF modeling and constructed the IIF surface of the weighted average settlement potential of Kharkiv region by the base radius of influence (2, 10, 20, and 30 km), which allowed to determine the features of the Kharkov agglomeration structure and the interaction of the settlements in the region by different radiuses of interaction, primary agglomerations, prospective growth points. On the basis of the obtained results of IIF modeling, the author's model of administrative and territorial division of Kharkiv region into eight enlarged districts was proposed, given the specific features of the settlement system and the correlation of area and population of the modeled administrative and territorial units. The scientifically grounded division of the region into enlarged districts (counties) and stimulation of their development will contribute to the most complete and rational use of the territories potential, increase of economic, human, investment potential, rise of the level and quality of life of the population, etc.