The assessment of changes in the level of technical infrastructure development for former regional centres - a comparative analysis

Abstract

The article presents the assessment of urban development measured mainly by the service level and dynamics of changes in the field of technical infrastructure. This kind of analysis can give some long-term overview of social, economic and spatial phenomena. The objects of the research were 28 cities - former regional centers that lost their status due to administrative reform in 1999. The changing of the administrative significance of these cities was assumed to be an important external factor that might adversely affect their development. A multi-indicator analysis concerning the infrastructure issues was worked out for the years 2001- 2016 on the basis of statistical data of the Central Statistical Office, available in Local Data Bank (LDB). The obtained results for individual indicators enabled rating the technical infrastructure development of the studied cities. Furthermore, diversity and spatial distribution of the urban units with high, medium and low rates of technical infrastructure development were presented.