The suburbanisation process in a depopulation context in the Katowice conurbation, Poland

Abstract

The Katowice conurbation is an example of a typical old industrial region in Central and Eastern Europe, whose socioeconomic transformation, initiated after 1990, has led to spatial and functional changes. The aim of this article is to present the suburbanisation process in the Katowice conurbation based on demographic changes and an analysis of migration flow. This process has been taking place in the area since the 2000s and takes on the shape of a multi-centre development of newly created individual and developed housing zones (both in the core and in the suburban area of the conurbation). Since 1990, the cities of the Katowice conurbation have been undergoing a process of shrinking. This process is manifested in the decline in number of urban residents in the years 1991–2016, amounting to 366 thousand people. Moreover, the cities face numerous social, economic and spatial problems. Since 1995, simultaneous with the shrinking of the cities of the Katowice conurbation, there has been an increase in the number of inhabitants in its suburban areas (since 2004, the trend has continued to be positive). Population increases have also been recorded in some inner-city zones of the conurbation. The suburbanisation process in the outer zone of the conurbation includes, in particular, the communes located north and south of the cities constituting its core, including the communes of Ożarowice, Psary, Mierzęcice in the north and Mikołów, Orzesze, Wyry in the south-west. On the other hand, the areas of intense inner-city construction development, located in the areas of the Katowice conurbation core, which are attractive in terms of environment and transportation, are undergoing so-called, “internal suburbanisation”.

Impact of Suburbanisation on Sustainable Development of Settlements in Suburban Spaces: Smart and New Solutions

“…It is also important to take into account the fact that suburbanisation may widen disparities between districts in a city [47]. In addition, in some cities, urbanisation may no longer only concern the peripheral parts of cities, but it may also lead to inner-city suburbanisation [17,48,49].…”

“…In many cases, massive economic developments and shortcomings in institutional frameworks have resulted in the inefficient use of land in suburbs [73]. The suburbanisation process started largely after the socio-political changes around 1990 [5,[17][18][19], while the growth of the peripheries of larger cities increased as a result of societal changes that allowed for the free movement of people and companies and the resetting of regulatory frameworks [21]. This mechanical movement of the population is also referred to as "back-to-the-village", and is stimulated by the deindustrialisation, deurbanisation and ruralisation of urban economies [17,18].…”

“…Suburbanisation is currently affecting almost all parts of the world, with problems, but the spatial structures and intensity of this process are different [13]. Europe is suitable for observing the different developments of suburbanisation, as there are states that can be described as traditionally capitalist, where suburbanisation has been going on for a long time [14][15][16], and postsocialist states, where suburbanisation began as a result of socio-political changes around the year 1990 [5,[17][18][19]. In the postsocialist states, the impacts of suburbanisation are only beginning to be felt at present.…”

The assessment of the suburbanisation degree of Warsaw Functional Area using changes of the land development structure

“…In the relevant subject literature, the diversity of urbanisation of suburb areas is widely described, considering demographic, economic, socio-cultural, natural landscape and spatial factors (Kutkowska et al 2010;Małek 2011;Zegar et al 2016;Mikołajczyk & Raszka 2016;Harasimowicz 2018). The set of variables used in the study of the urbanisation level and dynamics is extensive, considering: -the demographic aspect -these include a natural increase, the migration attractiveness ratio, the percentage of the population of working age, the fertility rate of women of reproductive age or number of marriages (Kutkowska et al 2010;Spórna 2018); -the economic aspect -parameters including the number of private non-agricultural economic entities per 1,000 people of working age, the percentage of working women among women of working age (Kutkowska et al 2010), the percentage of population whose livelihood comes from non-agricultural sources, the number of economic entities (Sokołowski 2015), demand per citizen, share of GDP in an administrative unit (Śleszyński 2012), GDP per citizen, gross value added in PLN per citizen, added value of market services per citizen, the number of companies per 1,000 citizens, unemployment rate, municipality budget incomes, investment expenses (Kutkowska et al 2010); -the social aspect -inter alia, the number of employees in industry and services, the average living area or the intensity of using cultural and leisure facilities (Małek 2011), the number of citizens utilising treatment plants, net schooling rate for children of preschool age, number of pharmacies per 1,000 citizens (Kutkowska et al 2010), the ratio of workplaces to residential addresses (Sokołowski 2015), the number of flats per 1,000 citizens, usable floor area (Śleszyński 2012); -the infrastructural and spatial aspect -inter alia, the character of functional domination, changes of arable land area in cadastral units (Jaroszewicz et al 2018), the level of technical and infrastructural equipment, implementation of a spatial structure and built-up areas characteristic of a city structure, as well as an enacted spatial development plan (Sokołowski 2015), the increase in residential areas (Śleszyński 2012) but also the population density per 1 km 2 , the density of water pipelines per 1 km 2 , the ratio of new flats to overall residential resources, the number of sewage water connections per 1,000 flats (Kutkowska et al 2010); -the sociological aspect expressed by lifestyle changeschanges in the forms of dwelling, living, nutrition, dress, organising working and free time, leisure, as well as changes in the family structure, social relations in local environments or m...…”

Population changes in former voivodeship cities in Poland in the context of suburbanization processes and loss of the administrative function

“…With this in mind, all analyses will be conducted in three spatial dimensions, taking into account the city within its administrative boundaries (city core: CC), its suburban area, defined as the demographic influence zone (DIZ) and the urban system (US = CC + DIZ). Taking into account the processes of suburbanisation occurring in Poland (LITYŃSKI & HOŁUJ, 2017;PARYSEK, 2008;RUNGE & KŁOSOWSKI, 2011;SPÓRNA, 2018), only such an approach provides a holistic analysis of demographic changes in the former voivodeship cities.…”