Urban shrinkage has become a common pathway (not only) in post-socialist cities, which represents new challenges for traditionally growth-oriented spatial planning. Though in the post-socialist area, the situation is even worse due to prevailing weak planning culture and resulting uncoordinated development. The case of the city of Ostrava illustrates how the problem of (in)efficient infrastructure operation, and maintenance, in already fragmented urban structure is exacerbated by the growing size of urban area (through low-intensity land-use) in combination with declining size of population (due to high rate of outmigration). Shrinkage, however, is, on the intra-urban level, spatially differentiated. Population, paradoxically, most intensively declines in the least financially demanding land-uses and grows in the most expensive land-uses for public administration. As population and urban structure development prove to have strong inertia, this land-use development constitutes a great challenge for a city’s future sustainability. The main objective of the paper is to explore the nexus between change in population density patterns in relation to urban shrinkage, and sustainability of public finance.

No abstract

No abstract

Old industrial cities abound with extensive infrastructures, which however no longer suit the economic purposes, for which they were originally built. However either their demolition or a complete rebuilding of new is often not a viable option, and thus the issue of their smart reuse emerged in urban studies. In this paper we combine literature on restructuring, brownfields, and industrial heritage to assess their significance both as a barrier and asset for future urban development. The main aim is to provide municipalities with an overview of the range of their possible reuses, and problems they might face in doing so. Furthermore, the selected examples show that contemplating new use should be guided by assessment of intrinsic features of the structures on one hand, and by general global trends on other. This new combination of the two might render the new use competitive. For this sake a case study of the old industrial city of Ostrava is employed, as this issue has been particularly pronounced given the city’s strong historical specialisation in heavy industry.

This research assesses the way main streets are perceived and used by pedestrians in an industrial, Central-European city—Ostrava in Czechia. The city has recently experienced shrinkage and changing patterns of socio-economic exchange, reason why this research is timely and needed in view of city center regeneration. Four main streets have been purposefully selected for this study. The research methods include questionnaires with street users (n = 297), direct observations of human activities and pedestrian counting. A link between business types and the way the street is experienced emerged. Results also indicate that vacant and unproperly managed spaces negatively affect the desire to walk on main streets. Furthermore, pedestrian volumes coupled with the amount of static activities determined several benchmark conditions for lively street segments. This research provides recommendations for policy-making and design and planning practice for regeneration of industrial city centers undergoing commercial and spatial transformation.