CHANGES IN THE ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARIES OF CITIES IN POLAND – SPATIAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC EFFECTS

Dagmara Kociuba

Uniwersytet Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej w Lublinie
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9217-323X

Abstract

In the years 2009–2018, 183 decisions were issued concerning changes in the boundaries of local government units (LGUs), which covered a total of 1340 km2 of the area of Poland. As a result, communes or their parts changed their administrative status and territorial affiliation. This process was also associated with many social and economic repercussions. The aim of the paper is to present the process of changes in the administrative boundaries in LGUs and its effects, using the example of selected cities of the regional level. The first part of the paper presents the formal, legal and procedural requirements of the boundary changes. The second part analyses the changes of LGUs boundaries in the years 2010–2019. In the third part, the genesis and spatial and socio-economic effects of changing boundaries were discussed, exemplified by cities with different territorial expansion strategies. Rzeszów, Opole and Zielona Góra were selected for detailed analyses. Finally, recommendations concerning changes in boundaries in the context of minimizing the negative effects of this process were formulated.

Keywords:

administrative boundary changes, administrative boundary change procedure, effects of administrative boundary changes, Rzeszów, Opole, Zielona Góra, Poland