- Shaping spatial Structure of the new Member Countries of the EU    click here to open paper content259 kb
by    Fiedorowicz, Kazimierz & Fiedorowicz, Jacek | jkmfiedorowicz@wp.pl   click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper
Short Outline
Polish spatial structures have been compared with other new EU member countries & Spain with Portugal. In case of the new EU members lacks in these structures have been observed. These lacks can be deleted by activities corrections.
Abstract
Models of spatial structure of the new Member States of the European Union have been compared to a model of spatial structure of Spain and Portugal. It has been agreed that the following components may serve as spatial structure components: metropolitan cities according to ESPON, infrastructure networks TEN, Natura 2000 areas and NUTS 1 regions. To obtain comparability, smaller neighboring countries have been joined together to form groups which serve as models of spatial structure. They are models for: Poland, the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, called „Baltica”, for the three states of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, called „Visehrad”, and for the two states of Bulgaria and Romania, called „Danuba”, and Spain and Portugal, called „Iberia”.
Those five models of spatial structure consist of 33 NUTS 1 regions altogether. There is either a group of metropolitan cities or a city of metropolitan function in each of those regions. The regions and cities are served by international and national infrastructure networks. Each region contains the areas of Natura 2000.
Quantitative and qualitative features of the five spatial structure models have been compared. In this comparison a three-stage methodological approach has been applied. At the first stage spatial structure has been presented with the use of a model. When using a strategic approach, a spatial structure model can be applied for forecasting changes in spatial structure and for determining a future concept of spatial structure. At the second stage of comparison, the five models of spatial structure have been characterized. The description has been based on the statistical data that were used for determining quantitative measures, and on the qualitative features of components of the models. At the third stage a comparison of the five models has been carried out. In the comparison the spatial structure model „Iberia” has been used as a comparative reference. The comparison includes quantitative and qualitative features of the particular models.
In quantitative terms, the best model is „Baltica” in comparison to „Iberia” model. In qualitative terms, the best model is “Visehrad” in comparison to “Iberia”. The comparison of the five spatial structure models that has been carried out, gives cognitive and practical benefits. The benefits lie in objectivization of views concerning the assessment indicating whether and to what extent given spatial structure is correct. Comparing objects with one another is better than using average statistical data. It helps to determine in which direction changes of spatial structure should head in a particular country.
Keywords
structure models
click here to open paper content  Click to open the full paper as pdf document
click here to send an email to the auther(s) of this paper  Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper