Measuring the morphology of suburban settlements: Scale-dependent ambiguities of residential density development in the Prague Urban Region

Abstract

The academic debate on methodological approaches to the measurement of urban sprawl, particularly its most cited dimension, the density of residential settlement, is discussed in this article. The methodology of point pattern analysis, and its benefits in comparison to land-use data analysis, especially for researching the morphology of residential development, is examined. This empirical study was conducted in the hinterland of Prague and is based on point data from 2007, 2010 and 2016. The paper contributes to the scholarly discussion of suburbanisation in Central and Eastern European countries, including the morphology of suburban development. The role of scale is also emphasised, given our observation of two ambiguous means of development, namely spatial dispersion at the regional scale and increasing density at the local scale. The findings support claims regarding the crucial role of micro-scale research in understanding suburban form. The largest Czech suburb of Jesenice serves as a case study, where the morphology of built-up areas is analysed in the local context.

Local centres in post-socialist suburbs: Redefined concept and retrofitting perspectives

“…On the outskirts of large post-socialist cities, suburbs are growing mainly from villages, but also from small towns, pre-war garden cities, socialist suburban enclaves, and socialist recreational cabin settlements. The LC of Jesenice (Prague urban region), described by Zévl and Ouředníček (2021), seems to be representative of these types of old suburbs. The original core of the village is situated on the main road to Prague's south-eastern hinterland.…”

“…The polyfunctionality of this sector of the road makes it the centre of Jesenice, although it is not perceived by residents as such. According to the Strategic Plan of the town, residents miss a clear central public space (Město Jesenice, 2011, after: Zévl andOuředníček, 2021).…”

“…This reinforcement will draw from the critique of the neighbourhood unit concept and the basic principles of designing the central space. The typology based on universal criteria as well as the general recommendations of how to retrofit Polish suburbs, can be used in other post-socialist countries as well, since the origins of different types of suburbs in this part of Europe are to some extent similar, although the pace of suburban transformations varies (Ouředníček, 2007;Zębik, 2011;Dinić and Mitković, 2016;Mantey and Sudra, 2019;Zévl and Ouředníček, 2021).…”

Polycentricity of daily urban systems: A misconceived concept and buzzword in ‘metropolitan’ planning practice

“…The Prague Metropolitan Area (PMA) is the most economically important area of the Czech Republic as it is an attractive place for highly qualified labour and foreign capital. The growing number of foreign immigrants, together with the intensive process of suburbanization (Zévl and Ouředníček, 2021), is increasing the population density and pressure on land use. The result is the fragmentation of the urban system and the need for integrated spatial planning solutions.…”

24th International Colloquium on Regional Sciences

“…This is evident especially in the case of supporting national polycentricity which can lead to monocentric forms at regional level (Hall and Pain, 2006). A surprisingly less researched area is the relationship of regional settlement systems with the scale of the individual cities (a recent exception is, for example, the study of Zévl and Ouředníček, 2021).…”