Urban agglomerations and transformations of medium-sized towns in Poland

Abstract

This analysis investigates medium-sized towns in Poland, i.e. those with a population between 20-100 thousand, located up to 100 km away from the main city of the agglomeration. The aim of this article is to compare the level of socio-economic development of Polish towns depending on their location in relation to the main city in the largest agglomerations in 1998 and 2013. Three zones of distance from the main city of each agglomeration have been taken into consideration: a. the inner zone, reaching up to 25 km from the main city; b. the outer zone located at a distance of 25 to 50 km from the main city, and c. the peripheral zone, located at a distance of 50 to 100 km from the main city and including the medium-size towns located outside the agglomeration system. This analysis of the distribution of medium-sized towns and their level of socio-economic development has shown various levels of changes which depend on the distance from the main city of the agglomeration. In 1998, the highest level of development of the medium-sized towns was recorded in towns outside of these agglomeration systems, i.e. those located most remotely from the main city (peripheral zone). Most of the medium-sized towns are situated at a distance of 50-100 km from Warszawa, Kraków, Łódź, Lublin, Gdańsk and have developed their own local, or even regional labour markets and some of them have even provided administrative functions in the past as voivodeship capitals. Only in the Poznań agglomeration, the level of development of medium-sized towns was higher in the immediate surroundings of the main city (25 km). The medium-sized towns in all zones of the distance from the main city in the Wrocław agglomeration represented a similar level of development. By 2013, the level of development of the medium-sized towns in the peripheral zone in all investigated settlement systems had decreased, with a significant improvement in the level of development of the towns in the immediate surroundings of the main city. Such situation occurs especially in the conurbation of Gdańsk and the agglomerations of Warszawa, Kraków and Poznań. This shows that the largest cities of Poland are the main engines of economic development by stimulating their surroundings and their impact on the surrounding areas. Unfortunately, the towns located in the marginal zones of several agglomerations (the zone 25-50 km away from the main city) experience certain disadvantages, such as the process of “the backwash effect”. Furthermore, the lack of developmental impulses is observed in many medium-sized towns at the distance of 50-100 km from the main city of the agglomeration.