The geographical aspects of the substantiation for the development of the “Greater Irkutsk” agglomeration

An analysis is made of the geographical circumstances and factors of formation of a large urban agglomeration to unite the cities of Irkutsk, Angarsk and Shelekhov in the south of the Irkutsk region. The principles of delineating the agglomeration are formulated, which are used to single out different variants of the urban “Greater Irkutsk” agglomeration. A comparison is made of the characteristics of the agglomeration obtained in the different variants.