Suburbs around the Czech provincial city of České Budějovice – territorial arrangement and problems

Abstract

The article is a contribution to discussions about the territorial arrangement of suburbs, their types and other settlements in suburban zones around post-socialist CEE provincial cities, based on the example of the South Bohemian "one-hundred-thousand" city of České Budějovice, including territorial development problems of suburbs and other settlements. Suburbs, separated from the city by free space, originate there from the original villages. These suburbs are population-growing settlements with the majority of flats in newer houses, immigrants from the city and economically active people working in the city (based on census data and ongoing registrations). Nearby, moderately distant and more distant suburbs occur in three concentric suburban sub-zones around the examined city, in which the population and spatial size of the suburbs gradually diminish. Semi-suburbs with partial suburbanisation and small towns also occur there. The territorial development problems of some suburbs are mainly associated with the disordered (sub)urban sprawl, the inadequate architecture of new houses, the poor quality and capacity of the technical infrastructure, the lack of public transport connections to the city, the absence and low capacity of kindergartens and elementary schools, clashes with recreational second homes, the lack of greenery and the losses of agricultural land.

Relationships between Insufficient Drinking Water Supply and the Socio-Economic Development of Small Municipalities: Mayors’ Opinions from the Czech Republic

“…As a result, expansion of urbanized areas is taking place in a number of municipalities on the peripheries of urban agglomerations as a result of intensive housing construction. The limited capacity of water sources for supplying new households with drinking water from the expanding network of water supply infrastructure is manifesting itself in individual cases as a limiting factor to this development [33,34]. According to sociological surveys hitherto, inhabitants of the Czech Republic see the security of drinking water as a fundamental water supply issue [35], which also influences their selection of immovable property for their own housing [36].…”

“…Insufficient drinking water supply in municipalities can also function as a limit to the development of municipalities. Problems with drinking water supply are then a selective factor in the varying dynamics of development in an otherwise socio-economically advantageous position on the peripheries of urban agglomerations [33,34]. The regional policy of drinking water supply, for example, the construction of key water supply pipelines or the division of extraction capacities, can therefore influence the differentiation in the level of municipalities' development [41].…”

Two decades of changes in spatial distribution of retail and commercial services: Czech experience

“…2019). The part of the countryside that is in decline is mainly located on periphery and faces to an aging population, worsened quality of housing or lack of new places for living, and (younger) population departure to cities or suburban areas (Benedek, J. and Ivan, K. 2018;Mládek, J. et al 2018;Patay, T. 2018;Kubeš, J. and Nováček, A. 2019).…”

Environmental consequences of the urban sprawl in the suburban zone of Nitra: An analysis based on landcover data

“…In addition to the large number of case studies we also find works that compare the processes in the West and the East (Szirmai, 2011). The European, especially Central European and Southeast European researches have primarily focused on the suburban zones of the capital cities (Kovács et al, 2019;Lennert et al, 2020;Slaev et al, 2018), and paid little attention to the processes of the rural centres (Kubeš & Nováček, 2019). The specific features of the urban network of this macro-region make the survey of this set of cities important, especially of the dynamic elements thereof, exploring the special characteristics (Hardi, 2010(Hardi, , 2012Hardi & Nárai, 2005).…”