Periferní oblasti Plzeňského kraje - vymezení, typy a stabilita

The Bachelor thesis determines peripheral areas of the Region of Plzeň, together with semi-peripheral and suburban areas in the above-mentioned region, and presents an evaluation of the social-population development of these areas. The theory of the thesis is based upon concepts of settlement centrality, peripherality in an area, social-population development of municipalities and geographically conditioned social exclusion. Municipalities constitute territorial units of the analyses. Peripherality is understood as a territorial remoteness from micro-regional settlement centres. Accordingly, the first step consisted in defining micro-regional settlement centres according to the community amenities of these centres, the number of population, commuting to work and schools and transport facilities. The most important settlement centre of the region is the town of Plzeň, followed by Klatovy, Rokycany, Domažlice, Sušice, Tachov, Přeštice, Stříbro, Horažďovice, Nýřany, Kralovice and Planá. Other settlement centres, with fewer community amenities available, were indicated as provincial (pico), township (nano) and rural (femto). In the subsequent step, peripheral municipalities were delineated on the basis of an excessively long time spent by travelling by a means of transport to the nearest micro-regional centre, and/or inadequate transport connections with the given centre. Clusters of peripheral municipalities give rise to peripheral areas - border, inter-regional and intra-regional areas. The social-population development (stability) of peripheral, suburban and semi-peripheral municipalities, peripheral areas as well as micro-regional and minor settlement centres were evaluated in the last step. The aforesaid development (stability) was assessed based on the long-term and short-term population development, natural and migration balance of inhabitants, representation of inhabitants' segments of children and seniors, representation of university students, level of entrepreneurship and level of apartment construction. From the perspective of social-population development (stability), the most serious problems were identified in inter-regional peripheral areas, especially those neighbouring the Central Bohemian Region