Katowice–Ostrava metropolitan area
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The Katowice–Ostrava metropolitan area<ref name="brookings-name">Brookings Institution Redefining global cities: The seven types of global metro economies (2016), p. 16.</ref><ref name="ESPON-Metroborder">European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) "Metroborder: Cross-border Polycentric Metropolitan Regions" – Final report, 31 December 2010, Template:ISBN</ref> (also known as Upper Silesian-Moravian metropolitan areaTemplate:Ref label or Upper Silesian urban-industrial agglomeration<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>) is a polycentric metropolitan area in southern Poland and northeastern Czech Republic, centered on the cities of Katowice and Ostrava, and has around 5 million inhabitants.<ref name="brookings-population"/> Geographically, it is located mainly in Upper Silesia, with small parts of the area also in the historical regions of Moravia and Lesser Poland. Administratively, it is located in the three administrative units (NUTS-2 class): mainly Silesian Voivodeship and a small western part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship in Poland, and also a small eastern part of Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic.
The metropolitan area lies within the Upper Silesian Coal Basin. The Upper Silesian metropolitan area (5.3 million people), together with nearby Kraków metropolitan area<ref name="KPZK2030">Koncepcja Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania Kraju 2030</ref><ref name="ESPON111">European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) "ESPON project 1.1.1. Potentials for polycentric development in Europe" – Final report, March 2005, Template:ISBN</ref> (1.3 million<ref name="ESPON-Krakow-Czestochowa">European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) "ESPON project 1.4.3. Study on Urban Functions" Template:Webarchive – Final report, March 2007, Template:ISBN, p. 94.</ref><ref name=Eurostat> Eurostat, Urban Audit database Template:Webarchive, accessed on 2009-03-12. Data for 2004.</ref><ref name=SiPZAwP>Template:In lang "Społeczne i polityczne zróżnicowanie aglomeracji w Polsce" – Paweł Swianiewicz, Urszula Klimska Template:Webarchive; University of Warsaw 2005</ref><ref>Template:In lang Funkcje Metropolitalne Pięciu Stolic Województw Wschodnich Template:Webarchive – Tadeusz Markowski</ref><ref name="KPZK2005">Template:In lang "Koncepcja przestrzennego zagospodarowania kraju" Template:Webarchive – Ministry of Regional Development, 2003</ref> people) and Częstochowa metropolitan area<ref name="KPZK2030"/> (0.4 million<ref name="ESPON-Krakow-Czestochowa"/><ref name=Eurostat /><ref name=SiPZAwP /> people), create a greater Template:Wikidata fallback link covering 7 million people.
Demographics
Upper Silesian metropolitan area has a population of 5,294,000 (2002), with 4,311,000 (81.43%) in Poland (the Upper Silesian polycentric metropolitan area) and 982,000 (18.57%) in the Czech Republic (Ostrava Functional Urban Area).<ref name="ESPON-SMMA" /> According to Polish Scientific Publishers (PWN) area is 5,400 km², with 4,500 km² (83.33%) in Poland and 900 km² (16.67%) in the Czech Republic.<ref name=PWN>Template:In lang "Górnośląskie Zagłębie Węglowe" – PWN Encyclopedia</ref> According to the Brookings Institution, area has a population of 5,008,000 (2015).<ref name="brookings-population"/>
The area consists of several Functional Urban Areas (FUA), each of which is defined as a core Morphological Urban Area (MUA) based on population density plus the surrounding labour pool, i.e. a metropolitan area. This area contains the following FUAs:<ref name="ESPON-SMMA"/>
- Katowice FUA: 3,029,000; within Upper Silesian Industrial Region
- Ostrava-Cieszyn FUA: 1,046,000; within Template:Wikidata fallback link
- Bielsko-Biała FUA: 584,000; within Bielsko Industrial Region
- Rybnik FUA and Racibórz FUA: 634,000 (526,000 + 109,000); within Rybnik Coal Area
Economy
Historically, most of the area was characterized by heavy industry since the age of industrialisation in the late 19th and early 20th century. In addition to coal, Upper Silesia also contains a number of other minable resources (methane, cadmium, lead, silver and zinc). About 70 billion tons of coal resources are available up to a depth of 1000 meters and the conditions for extraction are good.<ref name=PWN />
Contrary to most other European cross-border polycentric metropolitan regions, Katowice–Ostrava has no established cross-border cooperation project, structure, or institution of metropolitan ambition.<ref name="ESPON-Metroborder-Institutional">European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) "Metroborder: Cross-border Polycentric Metropolitan Regions" – Final report, 31 December 2010, Template:ISBN, p. 14, 21, 119.</ref>
Transport
Air transport
Two international airports – Katowice Airport and Leoš Janáček Airport Ostrava – serve the area.
Rail transport
High-speed rail link between Katowice and Ostrava is scheduled to be completed by the year 2035. It will cut down the travel time between the two cities from 105 to 37 minutes.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Regional trains are operated by Koleje Śląskie, most importantly serving Katowice, Rybnik, Racibórz, Bielsko-Biała, and Cieszyn in Poland, and the railway junction station in Bohumín near Ostrava in Czechia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Road transport
Polish A1 and Czech D1 motorways connect the urban areas of Katowice, Rybnik and Ostrava. Bielsko-Biała is linked with Cieszyn/Český Těšín and Frýdek-Místek by the Polish Expressway S52 and Czech D48 motorway, while connection to Katowice urban area via Expressway S1 is in construction.
Notes
Template:Note ESPON used in "ESPON project 1.4.3" two almost identical names: Upper Silesian-Moravian metropolitan area<ref name="ESPON-USMMA">European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) "ESPON project 1.4.3. Study on Urban Functions" Template:Webarchive – Final report, March 2007, Template:ISBN, p. 241, 245, 251.</ref> and Silesian-Moravian polycentric metropolitan area.<ref name="ESPON-SMMA">European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) "ESPON project 1.4.3. Study on Urban Functions" Template:Webarchive – Final report, March 2007, Template:ISBN, p. 134</ref>
See also
References
Template:Reflist Template:Metropolitan areas in Poland Template:Silesia topics Template:Authority control