Procesy urbanizacyjne zachodzące w strefach podmiejskich Pabianic, Bełchatowa i Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego

Urbanization processes in suburban zones of Piotrków Trybunalski, Pabianice and Bełchatów

Summary: The article describes urbanization processes taking place in the suburban regions of three midsize cities in the Łódź Voivodeship (province): Piotrkow Trybunalski, Pabianice, and Bełchatów. The three cities differ in terms of their origins, dynamics of development, and main functions. The aim of this article is to show how the history of these cities continues to influence the processes that drive the progress and style of urbanization in the suburban regions of the cities mentioned. At the same time, a crucial aspect of this work has been to determine the influence of the parent cities on the principal functions of their suburban areas. The research was mainly focused on urbanization in an economic, demographic, and spatial sense. Another area of interest was the nature of the relationship between the parent city and its surroundings in terms of private and public transportation systems and other services. The resources analyzed in the article include National Census data from 1970, 1978, 1988, and 2002. Other data include National Agricultural Census data from 1996 and 2002 as well as recent results from a survey conducted during field research. This paper is a presentation of the results collected by the paper's author (a graduate student) during her doctoral research. The scope of the research included the suburban areas of Piotrków Trybunalski, Pabianice, and Bełchatów. The counties surrounding these three cities are currently being impacted by strengthening suburbanization processes driven by the three parent cities. Urbanization is a very versatile and multifaceted process and is, therefore, very hard to define accurately. It is a phenomenon that acts on many levels and can be characterized by the diversity of its forms as well as its variability in time and space. In the case of the investigated suburbs, the economic dimension was defined by an employment structure consistent with national economic sectors and the percentage of people employed outside agriculture. The spatial dimension was described based on land use, structure of land ownership, technical infrastructure (sewers, etc...) as well as the predominant type of buildings present in the area of interest. The demographic dimension, on the other hand, was analyzed basing on the age structure of the population, migration patterns, and level of education. The relationship between the parent cities and their respective suburban areas was illustrated in terms of where people work and where they get their key "municipal" services. Current research indicates that the most advanced of urbanization processes are found in the suburban zone of the city of Pabianice. This could be justified by the fact that this area is located within the zone of influence of the much larger city of Łódź. This certainly has an impact on Pabianice and the impact can be felt across the board in terms of demographics, economics, and spatial management. The impact and role of a city as a parent city is most prominent in the case of Piotrków Trybunalski. This could be the result of a long-standing tradition of the city as an economic and administrative provider for the surrounding areas. Finally, the suburban area surrounding Bełchatów is the "youngest" suburban zone. It only started to take shape during the period of the development of the mining industry in this area. The youth of Bełchatów is reflected by its low level of development of urbanization processes in all the investigated aspects. At the same time, it appears that the suburban zone of Bełchatów possesses the strongest potential for further development in all of the mentioned dimensions. In summary, the process of suburbanization is clearly visible in all of the investigated suburban zones. In its most obvious form, it is marked by a clear increase in migration levels from cities to formerly rural areas adjacent to existing urban districts.

Słowa kluczowe: strefa podmiejska, urbanizacja ekonomiczna, urbanizacja demograficzna, urbanizacja przestrzenna, suburbanizacja

Słowa kluczowe (w języku angielskim): suburban zone, economic urbanization, demographic urbanization, spatial urbanization, suburbanization

Prace Geograficzne, 2009, z. 121, s. 169-180.

Instytut Geografii i Gospodarki Przestrzennej UJ

ISSN 1644-3586

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