Geographical centers of administrative-territorial entities of the Rivne region of Ukraine: essence, significance and peculiarities of definition
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3846/gac.2026.22210Abstract
The geographical centers of territories belong to the category of important geographical constants and are traditionally perceived as single and unambiguous points. The purpose of this work is to determine the coordinates of the geographical centers of the new administrative-territorial entities of the Rivne region of Ukraine in order to establish special information and memorial signs that will have cognitive, unifying, educational, tourist and local history significance. Methodology – geographical centers were determined in the Pulkovo-1942 and WGS-84 coordinate systems based on the results of vectorisation of the boundaries of territories at a scale of 1:10,000 as centers of gravity of the respective figures (Digitals and AutoCad software products were used). As a result of the work performed, it was found that this methodology allows obtaining a sufficiently high accuracy of the results (7.1 m), in contrast to the use of publicly available and convenient resources (OpenStreetMap, QGIS). The novelty of the study is that the geographical centers of the amalgamated territorial communities and administrative districts of Rivne region are identified for the first time and the proposed approach can be implemented for similar studies of other territories with a possible prospect of a new type of tourism – geocentric.
Keywords:
geographical centers, coordinates, Pulkovo-1942, WGS-84, territory, Rivne regionHow to Cite
Share
License
Copyright (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
References
Affholder, J. G. (2003). A new Determination of the landmass pole. Le Monde des Cartes (Journal of the French Cartographic Committee), (176), 49–65 (in French).
Barladin, O. V., & Horodetskyi, Y. M. (2005). Geoinformation approaches to determining the coordinates of the geographical center of Europe. Cartography and Higher Education, (10), 24–28 (in Ukrainian).
Beidyk, O. O., Topalova, O. I., & Prokhorova, L. A. (2019). The transformation of regional tourism in the context of decentralization (in the Zaporizhia region). Ukrainian Geographical Journal, (3), 37–42. https://doi.org/10.15407/ugz2019.03.037
Ditchuk, I. (2000). Something about the extreme points, the geographical center, the compactness of the territory and the length of Ukraine’s borders. Local history. Geography. Tourism, (34), 2–5 (in Ukrainian).
Dzhaman, V. O., Dzhaman, Y, V., & Czapliński, P. (2023). Development of ethnic tourism in polyethnic space (the example of Chernivtsi). Ukrainian Geographical Journal, (1), 35–45. https://doi.org/10.15407/ugz2023.01.035
Dzhaman, V. O., Zaiachuk, M. D., & Zaiachuk, O. H. (2010). Determination of the geographical center of the territory and assessment of the transport and geographical position of the administrative centers of the Chernivtsi region. Scientific Bulletin of Chernivtsi University: Geography, (527), 95–100 (in Ukrainian).
Horodetskyi, Y, M., & Isaiev, D. V. (2004). On the problem of determining the geographical center of Ukraine. New approaches. Ukrainian Geographical Journal, (2), 38–46 (in Ukrainian).
Hrytsevych, V. S. (2003). Centrography of Ukraine: History and prospects. The History of Ukrainian Geography, 2(8), 69–74 (in Ukrainian).
Karpinskyi, Y, O., Liashchenko, A. A., & Dohtiar, A. M. (2002). Determining the geographical center of Ukraine. Bulletin of Geodesy and Cartography, (1), 29–33 (in Ukrainian).
Kokmeijer, E. (2008). Explanation of the Calculation of the Geographical Center (Jean-Jacques Affholder, 1929). A Summary of the World. Self-published (in French).
Kornus, A. O. (2011). About the geographical center of Sumy region. Scientific Notes of Sumy State Pedagogical University named after A.S. Makarenko: Geographical Sciences, (2), 69–74 (in Ukrainian).
Korotun, I. M., Korotun, L. K., & Korotun, S. I. (2000). Natural resources of Ukraine. Print House (in Ukrainian).
Kyselov, Y., Shemiakin, M., Borovyk, P., Kononenko, S., & Melnyk, M. (2021). The issue of determining the geodetic center of Ukraine in the context of the evolution of centrographic research. Geodesy, Cartography and Aerial Photography, 93(93), 42–47. https://doi.org/10.23939/istcgcap2021.93.042
Liashenko, D. O., & Koper, N. Y. (2023). Conceptual modeling for the tasks of geographic information support of ecological tourism. Ukrainian Geographical Journal, (1), 67–73. https://doi.org/10.15407/ugz2023.01.067 (in Ukrainian).
NGO Portal “Decentralization”. (2024). Decentralization in Ukraine. https://decentralization.gov.ua/areas/0362
Ostapchuk, S. M. (2018). Geographical centers of Europe as thematic tourist locations. Scientific Bulletin of Chernivtsi University: Geography, (803), 52–57 (in Ukrainian).
Ostapchuk, S. M. (2019). Cartography: discover your “terra incognita”. NUWEE. https://ep3.nuwm.edu.ua/id/eprint/15308 (in Ukrainian).
Ostapchuk, S. M., & Nimkovych, R. S. (2017). Determination of the geographical center of the territory (on the example of Rivne region and its administrative districts). Bulletin National University of Water and Environmental Engineering: Technical Sciences, 4(80), 178–185 (in Ukrainian).
Ostapchuk, S. M., & Nimkovych, R. S. (2019). The main geographical stable territories of the Rivne region. The Problems of Continuing Geographical Education and Cartography, (29), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.26565/2075-1893-2019-29-07 (in Ukrainian)
Ostapenko, P. O., Malchykova, D. S., Pylypenko, I. O., Melnychuk, А. L., & Ostapenko, S. O. (2023). Project “Kherson region geoinformation portal”: Initiatives of civil society to support regional development. Ukrainian Geographical Journal, (1), 54–66. https://doi.org/10.15407/ugz2023.01.054 (in Ukrainian)
Shevchenko, V. O. (2006). Centrism and centrality in geography. Nika Center (in Ukrainian).
Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. (2005). Order of the State Committee of Natural Resources of Ukraine of 20.05.2005 No. 95 “On clarifying the location of the geographical center of Ukraine”. https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/rada/show/v0095617-05 (in Ukrainian).
View article in other formats
CrossMark check
Published
Issue
Section
Copyright
Copyright (c) 2026 The Author(s). Published by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.