Europa XXI T.12 (2005)

POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES STANISLAW LESZCZYCKI INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES POLISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY EUROPA XXI WARSZAWA 2005 EDITORS: Maciej Jakubowski (editor-in-chief) Ewa Korcelli-Olejniczak Barbara Jaworska EDITORIAL BOARD: Marek Dutkowski (Gdańsk) Wanda E. Gaczek (Poznań) Jacek Głowacki (Warszawa) Jerzy Grzeszczak (Warszawa) Marek Koter (Łódź) Piotr Szeliga (Warszawa) Krzysztof Wojciechowski (Lublin) http://rcin.org.pl POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES STANISLAW LESZCZYCKI INSTITUTE OF GEOGRAPHY AND SPATIAL ORGANIZATION CENTRE FOR EUROPEAN STUDIES POLISH GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY EUROPA XXI 12 CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE: CHANGING SPATIAL PATTERNS OF HUMAN ACTIVITY EDITORS: TOMASZ KOMORNICKI and KONRAD Ł. CZAPIEWSKI WARSZAWA 2005 http://rcin.org.pl VOLUME REVIEWED BY: Piotr Eberhardt and Roman Szul VOLUME CO-FINANCED BY: Ministry of Science and Information Society Technologies EDITORIAL OFFICE: Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, PAS 00-818 Warszawa ul. Twarda 51/55 tel. (48-22) 69 78 849 fax (48-22) 620 62 21 www.igipz.pan.pl/cbe e-mail: [email protected] PREPARED FOR PRINT BY: Małgorzata Cala Department of Cartography and Geographic Information Systems, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, PAS ISSN 1429-7132 http://rcin.org.pl CONTENTS Editorial 5 MARIUSZ KISTOWSKI—The geography And Sustainable Development— a New Approach 7 ANDRAS DONAT KOVACS—Environmental Conflicts as Barriers in the Sustainable Development of the Peripheral Regions of Hungary 19 BALINT CSATARI—Spatial conflicts in rural areas of Hungary 33 KONRAD t CZAPIEWSKI—Spatial Co-occurrence of Agricultural Areas and Regions of Social Exclusion 39 ANTONIN VAISHAR—Small Towns as Centres of Rural Microregions 53 TOMAS EGEDY—Urban regeneration and residential mobility in Budapest 63 VLADIMIR IRA—Quality of Life and Urban Space (case studies from city of Bratislava, Slovakia) 83 MIKULAS HUBA—Quality And Sustainability of Life with a Special Emphasis on Regional Environmental Aspects 97 EWA NOWAK, MIROSLAWA LASEK—The Study of Changing Spatial Patterns Using Fuzzy Methods 103 ISOLDE ROCH—Environmental damage and image problems in East Germany... 121 VLADIMIR SZEKELY—Regional Changes of Population and Population Density in Slovakia, 1961-2001 135 MARGARITA ILIEVA—Territorial Differences to the Economic Transformation in Bulgaria 151 DANIEL MICHNIAK—Changes in Commuting in Slovakia in the Years 1991-2001 163 VASSIL K0VATCHEV—Demographic and Economic Situation in New Declared Towns in Bulgaria (2002-2003) 179 SHUBRAVSKA 0LENA AND KHL0BYST0V E.—Main Problems in Establishing Sustainable Economic Development of Ukraine 189 SVITLANA PYSARENK0—Ukrainian Interregional Cooperation in the Context of Enlargement of the EU 195 ALEKSANDRA RAVNACHKA—State and Problems of Unemployment in Blagoevgrad District During the Transition Period 203 SERGEY TARKH0V—Regional Distinctions in the Automobilization Process in Russia 211 http://rcin.org.pl http://rcin.org.pl EDITORIAL Spatial dimension of social and economic inequalities in Central and Eastern Europe presents today topical political and economic problem. However, it is above all geographical problem by nature. Therefore the subsequent, twelfth volume of the series Europa XXI, draws attention to this sensitive issue. The volume includes 18 articles. The first nine articles which came about as a result of a comparative analysis include a great deal of methodological and theoretical material. The subsequent ones are concerned with the specific areas and concentrate primarily on spatial processes going on within them. Both parts are closely related to each other—there can be indicated a few articles dealing with the same matter. Spatial differentiation of the selected social problems, and to a lesser degree economic, are presented from a national perspective, and in some cases from a regional or even local (within a city or a town). The authors of all the published papers are the leading research workers dealing with the spatial issues who come from Central and Eastern Europe. They are representatives of Polish, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, German, Bulgarian, Ukrainian and Russian academic centers. The papers address the problem of developmental polarization. It was found that, central areas, the so-called core areas, were developing much more dynamically than areas located on the peripheries of major urban centers and transportation routes. Also, the position of rural areas with predominantly monocultural type of agricultural economy is unfavourable. Developmental inequalities manifest in numerous social and environmental problems which are common in the whole region discussed. Among these problems are unemployment, deteriorating living conditions, social exclusion, migratory outflow and a lack of funds for environmental projects. A clear-cut relation: core—periphery, carries serious challenges facing the regional policy. Due to the strengthening position of the metropolises with well-developed infrastructure and largest concentration of well educated and enterprising population, the regions become increasingly competitive in Europe and worldwide. Thus in the process the major urban centers can turn into a motor force behind development for the whole regions. But unfortunately it is an extremely slow development. So far, the period of transformation combined with metropolitanizing observed in Central Europe resulted in growing disparity within particular regions. Transportation infrastructure, communica- tion and education are the key to a successful transfer of this economic boom to peripheries. It is essential that areas surrounding a metropolis were really of crucial importance and formed one functionally cohesive region. Better transport connections facilitate commuting (also from farther distances), which for peripheral regions is more prefer- able to migration. Since commuters remain the inhabitants of the local centers and thus, staying in the place of living, they contribute significantly to creation of local markets for http://rcin.org.pl services. At the same time, taking advantage of the existing links between periphery and metropolitan areas may occur only in those local communities that have higher level of education. Hence the processes of deglomeration in the higher education taking place in Central Europe can be perceived as positive phenomenon. Some authors underline unanimously that when formulating the concepts and developmental strategies the issues of regional inequalities described in their articles need to be tackled individually. Given the fact that Central Europe can expect an inflow of structural funds from EU, it becomes particularly significant. The system which makes financial assistance conditional on staying below a specific level of economic development (expressed in mean EU GDP value) is at odds with the concept of individual approach. Among the new EU member states almost all regions from Central Europe meet the necessary conditions for access to structural funds. This is partly due to political efforts consisting in tampering with the borders of administrative units However this situation leads to an excessive dispersal of financial means. As editors we express hope that a volume presented in the series Europa XXI will contribute to better insight into the complicated spatial relations existing in Central and Eastern Europe and will be helpful in formulating the developmental concepts. We expect that the publication will provide a valuable source of information for all who deal with these issues. At the same time we inform our readers that the twelfth volume is the first launched in new smaller format and with changed editorial lay-out. This involved tremendous effort on the part of the editors of the series (in the persons of Maciej Ja- kubowski and Barbara Jaworska) and a make-up editor responsible for the new lay-out of the publication (in person of Malgorzata Cala). We would like to express our warmest thanks for all efforts you have put in. Konrad Ł. Czapiewski Tomasz Komornicki http://rcin.org.pl EUROPA XXI 2005, 12: 7-17 THE GEOGRAPHY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT— A NEW APPROACH MARIUSZ KISTOWSKI Institute of Geography, University of Gdańsk, ul. R. Dmowskiego 16A, 80-264 Gdańsk, e-mail: [email protected] Key words: geography, 'pure' geography, applied geography, theory of sustainable development, models THE ORIGIN OF THE CONCEPT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT The concept of sustainable development has evolved in a conscious way since the turn of decade between the 1960s and 1970s, though it is sometimes traced back to the American environmentalism of the 1920s (Gottlieb 1993) or even to the practice of regenerating forests on the territory of present Germany in the Middle Ages (Weizsäcker et al. 1999). A stimulus for the evolution of the concept of sustainable development was the suc- cessively revealed fact that a further maintenance of the patterns of production and con- sumption present in high industrialised countries and their adoption by developing countries could lead to a breakdown of the functions sustaining life on Earth. The symptoms of this breakdown, increasing in the second half of the 20th century, are a manifestation of several crises, and the willingness to overcome them was an impulse for the evolution of the concept of sustainable development. Among these crises the most important ones for further discussion are (Baranowski 1998): • philosophical-ethical (moral) crisis—domination of 'have'

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