The article is to study the organizational and institutional support of strategic planning from the perspective of foreign metropolises opportunities for application of best practice in this field in Ukraine. For this the key approaches, methods and tools for strategic planning of metropolises of Italy (including the Great Milan), Great Britain (including Greater London, Greater Manchester, Greater Birmingham), Poland (particularly Great Krakow and Great Warsaw), Germany (particularly Great Stuttgart), France (including Grand Strasbourg), Ireland (particularly Greater Dublin) and Sweden (including Great Malmo) are analysed. The study found that the formation of metropolitan areas in the European Union was the key to the dynamic development of the macro-region, the powerful integration mechanism and an important factor in geopolitical influence. However, the formation of the metropolitan system within the country that have high functional status and extend their influence beyond the state, allowed to intensify regional development of the national territory. Common features in the strategic planning of foreign metropolises were identified, including: 1) transition to planning, based on the partnership between the city administration and relevant entities of metropolitan area; 2) direct active participation of local communities in the development of strategies of the metropolis; 3) designing approach to the priorities and strategic directions of development; 4) strengthening of foreign economic aspect in a globalized economy; 5) consideration of environmental component; 6) permanent monitoring of the implementation of the strategic plan of the metropolis development; 7) openness of strategic plans for adjustment.Based on the results of the study, recommendations for improving of organizational and institutional support of strategic planning of metropolitan areas in Ukraine, taking into account the progressive international trends in this area, were formulated.The necessity of the implementation of comprehensive integrated strategic planning as a tool for sustainable development of metropolitan area is substantiated. A key aspect of its implementation should be a clear definition of development priorities, taking into account the specificity inherent in a particular city, because in modern conditions of social and economic instability, it will: 1. Enable the development and increase the independence of the metropolis. 2. Help to improve the status of the metropolis, because strategic planning is an important factor of prestige, which improves its reputation, especially internationally. 3. Increase the efficiency of municipal management in traditional local municipalities with limited resources. In the process of theoretical and applied research were used the following methods: systematic and dialectic; logic synthesis, system analysis, comparison and synthesis; strategic analysis. Information base of research is laws and regulations of the studied foreign countries concerning the management of metropolitan development, leading domestic and foreign scientists and practitioners studies and researches on a wide range of managerial problems of urban development. 

metropolis, metropolis development, strategic planning, plan of development, strategy 

The methodical approach of determination metropolises’ status of the major cities in Ukraine on the basis of determining them hierarchically-functional structure are proposed, namely it is the identification of criteria and indicators for assessing the level of implementation of their metropolis functions. Functional areas are defined, which include the similar nature of the implementation metropolis functions: administrative-political (administrative and political metropolis functions); economic (economic, financial and investment metropolis functions); innovation and creative (educational, scientific and innovative metropolis functions); communication (transport and logistics metropolis functions); cultural information (cultural, spiritual, and tourist information metropolis functions). An integrated assessment of the implementation of metropolis functions is implemented, by calculating the integral index of the realization of metropolis functions of the city-metropolis. The ranking of the major regional centres of Ukraine on the implementation level metropolis functions is held, which allowed identifying prospective ways and possibilities to improve the functional status of regional metropolises in the future. In particular, it is established that Donetsk specialized in the development of administrative and economic metropolis functions, Dnepropetrovsk specialized in business and investment metropolis functions, Kharkiv specialized in educational, scientific and innovative metropolis functions, Odessa – political, logistical, cultural and tourism metropolis functions and Lviv – political, transport, cultural and tourist metropolis functions. 

city-metropolis, metropolis function, metropolis’ status of the major city, identification functions, classification of Metropolitan areas 

The aim of the paper is to disclose the basic conceptual approaches to the identification and evaluation metropolitan functions of regional centers, as well as coverage of instructional techniques to define the integral index of metropolitan functions of metropolis as an example of regional centers of Ukraine.The main selection criteria of metropolitan functions of towns are identyfied, the conceptual approaches to assessing the development of metropolitan functions of regional centers are disclosed. Considering the existing approaches to the identification and evaluation of metropolitan functions of major cities, we generated its own methodology for assessing metropolitan features of cities of Ukraine, which includes two main phases: identification of hierarchical and functional structure of the metropolis city; evaluation of the implementation metropolitan functions of the city and their subsequent ranking by a considerable margin. The general structure of the functional use of space metropolis that includes the functions of different levels of exposure and degree distribution-specific of metropolitan area, and major cross-functional relationships within it that are established. In order to identify the general hierarchical level of metropolitan city, the classification matrix of metropolitan functions for each city in the metropolitan section 4 major sectors of the economy are formed.For the purpose of assess the level of implementation metropolitan functions of metropolitan cities in Ukraine the integral index of implementation metropolitan functions of metropolitan cities is proposed. Its membership included a set of indicators for all structural elements of the socio-economic system of the metropolitan cities, which in the aggregate state can establish the overall scale of the development and implementation of this function for each metropolitan cities in Ukraine. Selection of functional parameters for assessing metropolitan function, that would be most accurately described by their inner self and specific patterns of distribution, on the basis of detailed analysis of a wide range of activities that are representative with respect to each of metropolitan functions and on which they are implemented in space and are carried out. 

metropolis, metropolitan function, metropolitan area, identification of function, classification of metropolis