Ścieżki dezintegracji miast konurbacji katowickiej

The polycentric character of Katowice conurbation was formed by many functional and political factors. The dynamic industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries has resulted in a dense spatial administrative structure in the area that contemporary is named as Katowice conurbation. The study area has been identified on the base of Krzysztofik‘s delimitation [2007]. This delimitation separates 3 zones of the conurbation: a core, an internal peripheral zone and an external peripheral zone. The area of Katowice conurbation is 3.4 thousands sq km and includes 33 cities and 21 rural communes. The aim of this paper is a characterization of the disintegration processes of cities in Katowice conurbation starting from the year 1945, as well as an indication of the conditions within cities and also description of an urban spatial complexity. An attempt to explain the phenomenon of conurbation cities decay is based on the concept of city-conglomerates. It refers to the complexity of spatial structure of the cities that is conditioning by the administrative borders changes [Szmytkie 2008a, 2009]. From the end of the Second World War a number of cities boundaries have changed– they increased due to the incorporation of nearby localities. This process led to the formation of the complex city “organism”. The first modification of boundaries of Katowice conurbation cities occurred in 1945. The major unification process of conurbation area took place after the implementation of the Act which abolished the community and the status of municipal communities in 1972 and the Regulation of the two-level administrative division of the country in 1975. As a consequence of the incorporation of 27 rural communes and 20 smaller towns in the administrative borders of other bigger cities, the 70s of the 20th century were characterized by a significant changes of the city areas. The cities of Katowice conurbation were formed by the top-down integration representing different morphological and functional structures, which is assigned to the 3 types of cities conglomerates: urban conglomerate, the city-agglomeration, urban-rural conglomerate [Szmytkie 2008b, 2009]. The period of economic transformation after 1989 is characterized by a strong separatist aspirations of previously incorporated towns and villages [Szmytkie 2012]. An increase of an aspiration for self-government and local autonomy, conditioned by the market mechanisms, the crisis of industrial functions and mass production, led to these separatist trends. The disintegration processes regarding 7 big cities, 11 independent administrative units (7 towns and 4 rural communes) have been divided. According to Krzysztofik [2006], in the mid-90s of the 20th century in Katowice conurbation the separation trends were represented by Kochłowice (a part of Ruda Śląska), Kazimierz Górniczy (a part of Sosnowiec) and Ząbkowice (a part of Dąbrowa Górnicza). For this group also should be added Wesoła (a part of Mysłowice); this district since the 90s of the 20th century would like to reclaim the municipal rights. The strong separatist aspirations also characterize the southern districts of this city [Dragan 2012]. The main aspect of the urban disintegration research is an identification of the internal-city conditions. The 3 overlapping systems – spatial, functional and social – create each town area. The constant evolution of urban focus has formed the 3 “sub-systems” leading to an integration or disintegration of the city functional and spatial structure. The general trends in given period and spatial relation between other towns affect to the processes taking place within individual settlement units