Metropolitan Networking in CenSE backed by North · PDF fileMetropolitan Networking in CenSE backed by North-South ... Results of Potential Oriented Cluster ... apply the two central

Metropolitan Networking in CenSE backed by North-South Rail Corridors

Final Report of the Pilot Projects

Planners Network for Central and South East Europe (PlaNet CenSE) Metropolitan Networking in CenSE backed by North-South Rail Corridors

Further information on the PlaNet CenSE project is available on www.planet-cense.net

© Planners Network for Central and South East Europe Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.

Editor

Österreichisches Institut für Raumplanung (ÖIR) (Austrian Institute for Regional Studies and Spatial Planning) Franz-Josefs-Kai 27 A-1010 Wien/Vienna www.oir.at

November 2006

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Planners Network for Central and South East Europe

INDEX

Foreword 7

1. Introduction 9

2. Potential futures of metropolitan areas in CenSE 11 2.1 Future potential development of metropolitan areas – indicated by Project Partners

(Trend Scenario 2020) 13 2.2 Potentials for city networking – indicated by Project Partners (Proactive Scenario

2020) 43

3. Concerning the vision of a New Global Economic Integration Zone 47 3.1 Relevant ESPON results 49

3.1.1 Enlargement and polycentrism (ESPON project 1.1.3) 49 3.1.2 Transport trends (ESPON project 1.2.1) 49 3.1.3 Territorial effects of EU programmes in enlargement area (ESPON project

2.2.2) 49 3.1.4 Integrated Analysis of ESPON results (ESPON project 2.4.2) 51 3.1.5 Spatial scenarios and orientations in relation to the ESDP and Cohesion

Policy (ESPON project 3.2) 53 3.2 The visionary approach of Regione Emiglia-Romagna 55 3.3 The analytical check of the “Pentagon’s” development 56 3.4 Conclusion 62

4. Potential futures of North-South rail corridors 63 4.1 Introduction 63 4.2 Transport development 64 4.3 Scheduled rail infrastructure projects 65 4.4 Evaluation approach 67 4.5 Scenarios – Key Links – indicators 68 4.6 Impacts by Key Links 71 4.7 Impacts by Scenarios 74

4.7.1 Accessibility between regions 74 4.7.2 Accessibility of MEGAs and Potential MEGAs from the regions 79 4.7.3 Accessibility between FUAs and MEGAs/Potential MEGAs 81

4.8 Recommendations 82

5. Territorial Impact Analysis of Metropolitan Networks and Rail Corridors 83

6. Application of polycentrism 89

7. Conclusions 95

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Annexes (provided in a separate document, available at www.planet-cense.net)

Annex 1: Classification of Functional Urban Areas (FUAs) according to ESPON 1.1.1 (re chapter 2)

Annex 2: Existing co-operation systems (re chapter 2)

Annex 3: Additional illustrations of spatial relations (re chapter 2)

Annex 4: Background information on selected cities (re chapter 2.1)

Annex 5: The analytical check of the Pentagon’s development (re chapter 3.3)

Annex 6: Transport development, Modelling, Results (re chapter 4)

Annex 7: The basic conditions for application of the concept of polycentric spatial development (re chapter 6)

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List of maps Map 1: Development potentials of urban areas – indicated by Project Partners

concerned (Trend Scenario 2020) 42 Map 2: Selected examples of cooperation networks – indicated by Project Partners

(Proactive Scenario 2020) 45 Map 3: Results of Potential Oriented Cluster Analysis, 2001 (ESPON project 2.2.2) 50 Map 4: Global integration zones 52 Map 5: Polarisation and diffusion areas (ESPON project 3.2) 54 Map 6: The EIGHT Model – European Integration Grid of High growth Territories

(based on ESPON 1.1.1) 55 Map 7: The analysed regions (referring to the “European global integration zones” of

ESPON project 2.4.2.) 57 Map 8: Performance of the “European Global Integration Zones” (ESPON project

2.4.2.) over all RCE indicators 59 Map 9: Performance of the “European Global Integration Zones” (ESPON project

2.4.2.) over all RCE indicators representing Lisbon performance 60 Map 10: Performance of the “European Global Integration Zones” (ESPON project

2.4.2.) over all RCE indicators representing Accessibility 61 Map 11: Priority Projects in central Europe 66 Map 12: North-South-Corridors – Key Links 69 Map 13: Scenarios: change of population potential (indicator 5) 77 Map 14: Scenarios: change of GDP potential (indicator 6) 78 Map 15: Accessibility of nearest MEGAs, rail travel time 79 Map 16: Accessibility of next MEGA or Potential MEGA, rail travel time 80 Map 17: Rail travel times within West Corridor (Scenario 2) 81 Map 18: The possible support of improved North-South Corridors for Metropolitan

Networking 86

List of tables Table 1: Development potential of urban areas (MEGAs and selected FUA) 14 Table 2: Existing cooperative relations 43 Table 3: Definition of North-South-Rail scenarios 68 Table 4: Indicators for analysis 70 Table 5: Results of evaluation, Key Links West Corridor North, 4 groups of indicators 71 Table 6: Changes in accessibility of CenSE countries, Population Potential 2020

(Indicator 5) 74 Table 7: Changes in accessibility of CenSE countries, GDP Potential 2020 (Indicator 6) 75 Table 8: Methodological rationale of the Pilot Projects 84 Table 9: The scenarios in the context of the double approach of spatial planning 85 Table 10: Conclusions for country-wise strategies (Project Partners) 92

List of figures Figure 1: Project structure of PlaNet CenSE 9 Figure 2: Average scores by groups of indicators 73 Figure 3: Average scores by Key Links 73 Figure 4: Distribution of power concerning spatial development, in particular referring to

polycentric development 91

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Foreword

The report is the product of the Work Package 3: TIAn Forum accomplished by the two Working Teams Metropolitan Networks and North-South-Corridors. It is based on a concept of the Lead Partner, facilitated by an intensive collaboration of the Working Team members and enriched by their contributions.

Box 1: Members of Working Team Metropolitan Networks

LP Friedrich Schindegger/Gabriele Tatzberger/Hannes Wimmer (ÖIR, Vienna)

PP 2 Andreas Rauter (City of Vienna)

PP 5 Andre Mueller/Petra Pelster/Jens Kurnol (BBR, Bonn)

PP 7 Paolo Mattiussi/Myriam Matteucci/Roberto Camagni (Regione Emilia-Romagna, Bologna)

PP 8 Silvia Catalino/Antonio Calafati (Regione Marche, Ancona)

PP 9 Janja Kreitmayer McKenzie (Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Ljubljana)

PP 14 Julia Spiridonova (National Centre for Regional Development, Sofia)

PP 15 Vesna Karacic (Federal Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment, Sarajevo)

PP 16 Vera Korkischová, Veronika Supová (Ministry of Regional Development, Praha)

PP 18 Ivan Illes/László Faragó (Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Pecs)

PP 20 Maciej Borsa (Institute of Urban Development, Krakow)

PP 21 Serban Nadejde/Valentina Dumitru/Dora Alexa-Morcov (Urbanproiect, Bucharest)

PP 23 Borislav Stojkov (University of Belgrade – Faculty of Geography, Beograd)

PP 25 Christian Huttenloher (German Association for Housing, Urban and Spatial Development, Brussels)

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Box 2: Members of Working Team North-South Corridor

PP 1 Reinhold Deußner/Wolfgang Neugebauer (ÖIR, Vienna)

PP 2 Andreas Rauter (City of Vienna)

PP 3 Alfred Nagelschmied (Government of Styria, Graz)

PP 4 Franz Lehr (ÖBB Austrian Federal Railways, Vienna)

PP 5 Andre Mueller/Jens Kurnol/Petra Pelster (BBR, Bonn)

PP 6 Bernhard Heinrichs (Planning Authority of Land Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Schwerin)

PP 9 Marko Peterlin (Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning, Ljubljana)

PP 9 Bruno Bensa/Heda Kocevar/Petra Sirc (Omega Consult Ltd., Ljubljana)

PP 10 Ernst Lung (Ministry for transport, innovation and technology, Vienna)

PP 11 Walter Renne (Joint Planning Authority of Länder Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam)

PP 14 Julia Spirodonova/Maria Novakova (National Centre for Regional Development, Sofia)

PP 15 Vesna Karačić (Ministry of Spatial Planning and Environment, Sarajevo)

PP 16 Veronika Supová (Ministry of Regional Development, Praha)

PP 16 Monika Boháčová/Marie Wichsová (Atelier T-Plan s.r.o., Praha)

PP 18 Ivan Illes/László Faragó (Centre for Regional Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Pecs)

PP 20 Maciej Borsa/Janusz Komenda (Institute of Urban Development, Kraków)

PP 22 Vojtech Hrdina/Dušan Kostovský (AUREX spol. s.r.o., Bratislava)

PP 22 Stella Horvathova/Miloslava Paskova/Tibor Nemeth (Ministry of Construction and Regional Development, Bratislava)

Following the main philosophy of the project the results should be understood as evidence of the collaborative capacity of the network of professional persons and institutions involved. This is considered to be the major sustainable effect of the project.

The report is written by the project staff of the Lead Partner ÖIR:

– Friedrich Schindegger

– Gabriele Tatzberger

– Hannes Wimmer

– Bernd Schuh (chapter 3.3)

– Reinhold Deussner (chapter 4)

– Wolfgang Neugebauer (chapter 4)

– Christian Spanring (maps)

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1. Introduction

The report is about the results of the two Pilot Projects establishing a major work package of the CADSES Interreg IIIB project “Planners Network for Central and South-East Europe”. The structure of the project with its five work packages is shown by the chart below.

Figure 1: Project structure of PlaNet CenSE

PlaNet CenSE Conference

Coordination Platformexchange with otherINTERREG projects

European Spatial Planning (ESP) –

Gateway

Strategic document

Transnational Impact Analysis PilotP j

Projects Metropolitan Networks North South Corridors

Final comprehensive report

Project Network

project and financial management, documentationcommunication,

The first and major objective of the project PlaNet CenSE is to establish and perform a professional network of experts in spatial planning in the countries of Central and South Eastern Europe (CenSE). There is considered to be no better networking activity than working practically together. This seems to correspond very much to the basic idea of polycentrism1 not only in terms of the spatial structure dealt with, but also in terms of an endeavour in partnership. Achieving collaborative results has been given more importance than individual excellence.

This is significant all the more in a situation where spatial analysis faces a considerable lack of relevant data available and comparable at a transnational level. Thus, the substitution of quantitative information by joint experts’ assessments and evaluations of a qualitative nature was necessary. This was based primarily on commonly agreed criteria. Therefore, standards for conventional and desirable scientific approaches had to be complemented by a pragmatic approach, which seems unavoidable when trying to achieve policy-oriented results at all.

The success of the project therefore is seen in an improved standard of common understanding of the concepts applied rather than in an extensive and consistent research work, for which the resources of this project simply were not available.

The two Pilot Projects represent the major tool of PlaNet CenSE to transfer and at the same time to apply the two central planning concepts of the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP), the polycentric spatial development and the transeuropean transport corridors to the transnational level. Both Pilot Projects used the results of the European Spatial Planning Observatory Network2 as a starting point for their analysis. The outcomes were achieved through an intensive and collaborative communication with and contributions of all Project Partners. 1 The term polycentrism is connected to polycentricty (see next page) and is used referring to the policy option, whereas

polycentricity is used referring to the spatial structures (treated by analysis and planning) 2 European Spatial Planning Observatory Network (ESPON), see www.espon.lu

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2. Potential futures of metropolitan areas in CenSE

Objective

The Pilot Project Metropolitan Network aims to investigate development potentials of the urban system of CenSE towards more polycentricity. The analyses on polycentric development available so far were concentrated on the morphological dimension of the topic. This Pilot Project highlights rather the relational dimension of the concept of polycentricity and tries to reveal what actually stands behind the assumed or suggested “cooperation” as well as the “networking” of cities.

Box 3: The concept of polycentricity

Polycentricity is one of the central terms of the ESDP as well as of ESPON. It is a genuine spatial development concept that is seen to improve territorial cohesion and balanced spatial development in Europe.

The concept of polycentricity was first mentioned at European level in the Leipzig Principles that formed the basis for the European spatial development perspective. Four dimensions of polycentricity can be distinguished. These are:

– Morphological – settlement patterns – Functional socio-economic specialisation – Accessibility in terms of transportation and ICT – Co-operation and interaction

Following the ESDP, polycentricity has to be applied at three levels/scales: – European (macro) level – Transnational (meso) level – Intra-regional (micro) level

Thus, this approach is based on an understanding of the notion “city network” that goes beyond the usual encompassing physical connections by transport and communication systems. The comprehension of city networking adopted by the Working Team ‘Metropolitan Networks’ is an action- and actor-oriented one. What we try to deal with, are existing and potential but feasible networking activities within certain policy domains, thus facilitating the development of productive spatial interactions between adjacent cities according to the idea of polycentric development. Further on, the Pilot Project deals with the issue of applying or implementing the planning concept of polycentric spatial development, which also has been underexposed so far. This approach is considered to apply and at the same time to develop further the idea of polycentric development of the ESDP at the transnational level and the results of ESPON3 as well.

Box 4: City Cooperation

It is a basic assumption of this pilot study that city networking is about activities (urban policy measures) initiated and carried by public or semi-public institutions and authorities of or in the cities. Thus, a city network is considered to be more than a cluster of cities connected by technical infrastructure, in particular by transportation systems. It is based on cooperative relations developed by actors.

3 European Spatial Planning Observatory Network, see www.espon.eu

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That means in practical terms that the Pilot Project Metropolitan Networks concentrates its efforts on gathering more detailed information concerning the following three aspects of polycentric development for CenSE:

– development potentials of urban areas (focus on Metropolitan areas)

– existing cases of co-operation

– available interventions und instruments to effect polycentric development

The Pilot Project does not intend to chart another picture of city networks built of pearls, strings and patches representing a mere ideal without reference to distinct policy domains.

Method

Starting point for the description of the urban system in CenSE are the results of the ESPON project “Urban areas as nodes in a polycentric development”.

Box 5: FUAs and MEGAs

The ESPON 1.1.1 project “Urban areas as nodes in a polycentric development” has developed a basis for the description and typology of the urban network in the EU 27+2. This project has provided a categorisation of “Metropolitan Growth Areas (MEGAs)” and “Functional Urban Areas (FUAs)” of transnational/national and regional significance, based on indicators for seven functional domains.

For countries with more than 10 million inhabitants, a Functional Urban Area (FUA) is defined as having an urban core of at least 15,000 inhabitants and over 50,000 in total population. For smaller countries, a FUA should have an urban core of at least 15,000 inhabitants and more than 0.5% of the national population, as well as having functions of national or regional importance. 1595 FUAs with more than 20,000 inhabitants have been identified in Europe.

Metropolitan Growth Areas (MEGAs) correspond to FUAs with the highest average score with regard to population, transport, manufacturing, knowledge and decision making. 76 MEGAs have been identified in Europe regarded as “FUAs of excellence”, most likely of being able to play the role of counterweights to the Pentagon. However, the Pilot Project Metropolitan Network does not deal with the level of regional FUAs except in cases where they are part of a designated city network.4 This typology at the macro level is based on indicators for mass criterion, competitiveness, connectivity and knowledge basis5.

In several work steps (encompassing information gathering by written requests, questionnaires, responses, intensive discussions in Working Team and Project Panel meetings), in which almost all Project Partners took part, two different scenarios have been developed. They describe (1) the potential development of urban areas due to their “individual” resources referring to the time horizon of 2020 and (2) – following the philosophy of polycentric development, that adjacent cities could achieve

4 for the Western Balkans which is not part of the ESPON work area, MEGAs and FUAs have been completed by the Working

Team Metropolitan Networks. 5 For more details see Nordregio, et al (2004) ESPON 1.1.1: “Urban areas as nodes in a polycentric development”, Part 2,

Chapter 5, p.115ff, seee www.espon.eu.

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a better position in the competition of places by networking, based on functional division and utilising common economies of scale – the actual potentials for city networking (also referring to the time horizon of 2020), given by already existing activities and realistic intentions in different policy areas both based on qualitative appraisals by the Project Partners concerned.

The Pilot Project does not follow the pretension to develop two consistent spatial development scenarios of the urban system under different conditions. Rather sound expectations and estimations from the Project Partners’ representatives participating in the collaborative work process in the Working Team were collected and illustrated in a comparable way. Thus, the included maps are only showing the cases designated (and described also in the tables on pages 14 and 43) and do not claim for completeness and consistency. They are in no way regarded as a vision or model for the development of the urban system. They rather should picture the given appraisals of existing and assumed cooperation cases and should point out at the same time – just by the inconsistencies due to missing contributions – the necessity of thinking in interrelations in the scale of transnational spaces.

Although it is very clear that a system of economic relations between different places is constituted and developed by the private business sector, they are not subject matter of this approach because of at least two reasons: First, it would be impossible to grasp these relations at the transnational level, in our case covering the CenSE space. Even studies dealing with a small group of cities are facing considerable problems collecting reliable information about relational data. Second, it is obvious that spatial business relations rely on public infrastructure but beyond that are not subject to territorial governance of public authorities. Just the rapid development of FDIs and other transnational activities of enterprises in the enlargement area illustrate this rationale (see Annex 3).

The role of the public actors is therefore, to facilitate and promote this process by overcoming physical and non-physical barriers and beyond that to draw attention to the “new geography” by describing the potentials arising from diminishing the border effects and developing trans-border and transnational regions. This is what this study is about.

Results

2.1 Future potential development of metropolitan areas – indicated by Project Partners (Trend Scenario 2020)

The analysis of the development potential of urban areas starts from the results of the ESPON project 1.1.1. (see box on previous page) and is adjusting them to the future taking up the distinction of functional domains surveyed there. The review (see Table 1) is based on the responses of the Project Partners’ representatives to an inquiry sent out by the Lead Partner. The qualitative appraisals of the development potential of the urban areas is differentiated along the functional profiles used by the ESPON project 1.1.1 and finally is translated into upgrade candidates (see map 1).

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Table 1: Development potential of urban areas (MEGAs and selected FUA)

Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge DE Muenchen Increase Already transport hub Already strong role Service sector dominates,

nevertheless industrial node of European significance

Second largest univ. city in DE

DE Stuttgart City itself decreasing, surrounding increase

Major national transport node, international Airport expanding, potentials in high speed network and cargo handling

Increasing potential, i.p. Congress tourism + trade fairs

Industrial node of European Importance in automobile ind, mechanical engineering, banks, insurance in service sector

Node of national sign: top position in R&D expenditures of enterprises and patents applications

DE Berlin Slightly decrease, small scale growth in the hinterland, ageing population + redistribution problematic

Still contains deficits with regard to overall integration into internat. network. North-, south and eastward rehabilitation is planned or currently implemented

One major tourist attraction in DE, but behind Dresden, Munich and Rhine-Main. Potential to increase

Private service sector >50%. Huge efforts to gain modern and high-capacity industrial production companies

Cooperation between science and economy regarded as biggest potential – leading role with share of 6% R&D employees in industrial sector.

CZ Praha City 1.17/FUA 1.63 Mio inh in 2005 year

Transport hub, major national transport node, international airport intensively expanding

Global tourist attraction, high cultural and historical potential (old town UNESCO listed monument)

Orientation to development of trade, services and banking, rebuilding industry areas for public profit

National centre of education, most universities, many science-research institutes

CZ Brno City 367.7/FUA 400.4 thousand inh in 2005 year

Important international/national transport node (position on IV TEMMC), international airport

Traditional trade fair city, motor/motorcycle Grand Prix, urban conservation area, national/ regional cultural and sport centre

Large spectrum of industry, preconditions for development of knowledge technology, new industrial zone and technological park

National second-best university city, many science-research institutes

CZ Ostrava City 311.4/FUA 887.6 thousand inh in 2005 year

Future important international transport node (position on VIb TEMMC), international airport

Regional culture and sport centre, significant centre of industrial and mining relicts,

High share of heavy industry, mining and engineering, sequential rebuilding for public profit

Regional university centre, know-how development, many science-research institutes

CZ Plzeň City 162.6/FUA 267.9 thousand inh in 2005 year

Important international/national transport node (IVa TEMMC), unexploited airport

Regional importance, low attendance, unexploited potentials

Transformation of heavy industry, importance brewery and industrial zone

Regional university centre, know-how development, science-research institutes

CZ Olomouc City 100.7/FUA 158.4 thousand inh in 2005 year

Important national and regional transport node, regional airport

High historical and cultural desirability, national significant Flora show

Regional centre of industry, orientation to development of trade and services


CZ Liberec City 97.4/FUA 193.2 thousand inh in 2005 year


Sought-after regional centre of traveling and tourism, high cultural potential



CZ Hradec Králové

City 94.7/FUA 344.6 thousand inh in 2005 year





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Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions DE Muenchen Global significance State capital – combining local

and state level decisions Growing clusters in automobile industry, aerospace, bio- and genetic engineering, media and IT

Potential to hold its strong position Remains Cat. 1 MEGA

DE Stuttgart Besides some "global players", Stuttgart lacks an agglomeration of this function

State capital – combining local and state level decisions

Together with Reutlingen, Heilbronn and the transn. FUA Teubingen, Stuttgart builds the designated metropolitan area – through intensive coop. position already strengthened

Remains Cat. 1 MEGA

DE Berlin Capital of DE., combines local, sate and national level decision making as it is both Land and municipality at the same time

Good development potentials for: "knowledge city", communication and creative ind., traffic engineering, services, life sciences, industry, micro technology, energy and environmental economy

Remains Cat. 1 MEGA

CZ Praha Location of international importance

National capital International activities and structures

Candidate Cat. 2 MEGA

CZ Brno Location of national importance, in connection with international business

Regional capital Importance for international cooperation structures CZ-A-HU-SK, statewide judicial centre

Cat. 4 MEGA *

CZ Ostrava Location of national importance, in connection with international business

Regional capital Importance for cross border cooperation structures CZ-PL-SK

Cat. 4 MEGA *

CZ Plzeň Location of national and regional importance

Regional capital Important development point for cross border cooperation CZ-D

Remains transnational/national FUA

CZ Olomouc Location of national and regional importance

Regional capital Important historical and cultural centre, international activities

transnational/national FUA *

CZ Liberec Location of national and regional importance

Regional capital Importance for cross border cooperation structures CZ-D –PL


CZ Hradec Králové

Location of national and regional importance

Regional capital High development potential of Hradec Králové-Pardubice agglomeration, connections to PL


* verified by Project Partners’ final contributions/calculations

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Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge CZ České

Budějovice City 94.6/FUA 148.2 thousand inh in 2005 year

Important national and regional transport node (proposal MMC Praha-České Budějovice-Linz-Salzburg)

Regional importance, low attendance, unexploited potentials of showground



CZ Ústí nad Labem


Important international and regional transport node (position on IV TEMMC)


High representation of chemical industry


CZ Pardubice City 88.2/FUA 344.6 thousand inh in 2005 year

Important national and regional transport node (position on IV rail TEMMC), regional airport

Regional importance, international horse-race, unexploited potentials

High representation of electrical engineering and chemical industry


CZ Zlín City 78.6/FUA 171.9 thousand inh in 2005 year

Important regional transport node (position near on VIb rail TEMMC), regional airport


Decline of traditional shoemaking industry, development others branch and services


CZ Karlovy Vary


Important national and regional transport node, international airport

International significant spa, high attendance, regional culture centre

Low industry important, orientation to development of spa, trade and services

Regional university centre, know-how development

CZ Jihlava City 50.1/FUA 96.5 thousand inh in 2005 year

Important regional transport node

Regional importance, unexploited potentials attractive landscape and nearby small towns

Grow of manufacturing industry Regional university centre, know-how development

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Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions CZ České

Budějovice Location of national and regional importance

Regional capital Important development point for cross border cooperation CZ-A


CZ Ústí nad Labem


Regional capital Important development point for cross border cooperation CZ-D


CZ Pardubice Location of national and regional importance

Regional capital High development potential of Hradec Králové-Pardubice agglomeration, connection to PL


CZ Zlín Location of national and regional importance

Regional capital Important development point for cross border cooperation CZ-SK


CZ Karlovy Vary


Regional capital Importance for cross border cooperation CZ-D


CZ Jihlava Location of national and regional importance

Regional capital Possible potential for future development

national FUA *


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Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge GR Athens –

Athinai GR Thessa-

loniki GR Patra GR Larissa GR Herakleion GR Chania GR Halkida GR Rhodos GR Bolos GR Kalamata GR Alexan-

droupolis

Athens is the only MEGA of Greece identified in ESPON 1.1.1 where the focus of the investigations will lie on. Nevertheless a general description of the city system in Greece and its development potentials will be elaborated in order to show the present structure in the light of polycentricity, whereby the national/transnational FUAs of Greece, namely Thessaloniki, Patra, Larissa, Herakleion, Chania, Halkida and Rhodes should have main emphasis focusing on Thessaloniki gateway due to its perspective international role within Balkans. Furthermore three additional cities are of major importance which are Bolos, Kalamata and Alexandroupolis and expected to develop, either as perspective twin network (Bolos) with the aforementioned transnational – national FUA of Larissa, or as potential gate-way cities (Kalamata and Alexandroupolis) in the context of the territorial restructuring of the national development axes of Greece towards polycentric growth of the city system as well as international role increase in SE Europe, which is expected to affect the urbanization and city networking system with emphasis in the gate way city complexes.

HU Budapest 17% of HU population live in Budapest. Budapest is steadily losing residents (negative natural birth rate, suburbanisation)

TEN Corr IV; V, VII, X – V/b, V/c and S/b is under development – so accessibility of Budapest will develop; good accessibility to Vienna on road and railway; Airport traffic is growing

First destination of tourists (spa, culture, congress)

Major economic centre; FDI concentrated in this area (63.5%),

Most important knowledge node of the country. 41% of higher education students and 65% of R&D expenditure are there.

IT6 Regione Marche

Ancona The FUA Ancona is the largest of Marche Region (210,729 inh) and composed by 13 communes; Ancona is the largest commune (100,000 inh).

Hosts most important infrastructure of Marche Region (national airport and international maritime port + major railway station + motorway)

Important factor, part of a system of natural resources; potentials still not fully exploited

Service sector 73%, industrialisation process is modest, after 2 decades development since 80ies a process of de-industrialisation started; rate of growth of total employment of 10% in the FUA

University centre; level of human capital is not high compared to other Italian cities

IT Regione Marche

Pesaro The FUA Pesaro is composed by 7 contiguous communes (116,179 inh), Pesaro is the largest commune (all others have below 7,000 inh)

Principal transport infrastructure is along the coast

Tourist centre of national and international relevance

Services 56.8% of empl., industry employs 43.2%; nevertheless industry very important (furniture production, mechanic)

Educational level is still very low

IT Regione Marche

Civitanova The FUA Civitanova is composed by 10 communes (136,538 inh) – very much dispersed urban system, only 28% are concentrated in pivot commune Civitanova; population growth

Principal transport infrastructure is along the coast

Although typical industrial town – tourism today is important and a growing activity (sea shores, historical and architectonic heritage)

Very strong industrial characterization (60% of empl – footwear) – still after two decades of high growth of the employment in the service industry

Educational level is still very low

6 For Italy the table contains only the situation in the partner-regions of Marche and Emilia Romagna, where the FUA-method has been further calculated and applied at the regional level.

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Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions GR Athens –

Athinai GR Thessa-

loniki GR Patra GR Larissa GR Herakleion GR Chania GR Halkida GR Rhodos GR Bolos GR Kalamata GR Alexan-

droupolis

Halkida = candidate transnational/national FUA

HU Budapest Strong power concentration in Budapest – big HU firms and banks have their centre in Budapest

Capital of the country. HU is a exaggeratedly centralized country – most decisions are made in Budapest

HU capital export is much higher than CZ, PL or SK. Two thirds of the headquarters of the exporter firms are in Budapest

Cooperation and competition among Vienna, Prague, Budapest and Warszawa – they can be the potential poles of an "Eastern pentagon" and they compete for FDI, headquarters, tourists, air-passengers

Remains Cat. 3 MEGA

IT Regione Marche

Ancona The FUA has high degree of decentralization of the decision-making process

Ancona's FUA is seat of the regional and provincial government + seat of high rank public services; a level of governance at the scale of the FUA does not exist

Candidate transnational/national FUA

IT Regione Marche

Pesaro The FUA has high degree of decentralization of the decision-making process

Political body does not exist at the scale of the FUA – cooperation between commune are taking place

-

IT Regione Marche

Civitanova The FUA has high degree of decentralization of the decision-making process

Communal level is the main tier of governance for spatial organisation and which strengthened in the last years.

-

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Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge IT Emilia -Romagna

Piacenza it’s one of the three smaller FUAs in the region, population is slightly growing

the city is located along the Milano-Bologna highway and railway; railway is becoming a high-speed line

it’s a local significance center it’s a minor manufacturing hub, the GVA is growing

there are regional higher education institutes; the Catholic University of Sacro Cuore and a branch of Polytechnic of Milano

IT Emilia -Romagna

Parma 4th city in the region, population is growing

there is a small airport; the FUA is situated along the Milano-Bologna highway and railway lines; railway is becoming a high-speed line

it’s a tourist attraction of regional significance, touristic activity should be improved

3rd city in the region for the industry GVA, it’s a major manufacturing hub, it did grow in last 5 years with a slight drop in the last one

there are large higher education institutes: the University of Parma and the European Food Security Authority; it’s an international knowledge significance center

IT Emilia -Romagna

Reggio Emilia

3rd FUA in the region, it’s growing

situated along the Milano-Bologna highway and railway lines; railway is becoming a high-speed line

it’s a local significance center 4th in the region for industry GVA, it’s a major manufacturing hub and it’s growing. Many enterprises specialised in agriculture equipment production

there is a medium-sized education institute, the University of Modena and Reggio-Emilia

IT Emilia -Romagna

Modena 2nd in the region, population is growing

situated along highway and railway, which is becoming an high speed line (on the node between Milano-Bologna and Brennero tracks)

it’s a tourist attraction of regional significance

2nd in the region for industry GVA, it’s a major manufacturing hub; it did grow in the last five years, with a slight drop in the last one

there is a medium-sized higher education institute, the University of Modena and Reggio-Emilia

IT Emilia -Romagna

Bologna 1st in the region, population is growing

one of the major transport nodes in Italy in highways and railways too. It’s the connection node of principal highways and railways in the directions North/South along Tyrrenian and Adriatic costs. There is an international airport with a good traffic flow, classify as small airport

it’s a major tourist attraction, the touristic activities are increased along all the year also by important fairs

1st in the region, it’s a major manufacturing hub and the GVA is growing. Many enterprises specialised in automatic machines production

it’s a knowledge node of European significance; there is the oldest university in the world, University of Bologna, and others important research institutes

IT Emilia -Romagna

Ferrara 6th in the region, population is almost constant

it’s located along the highway Bologna-Venezia

has only local significance, but could be improved

it’s not a manufacturing hub; there is an important oil refinery; GVA was decreasing in the last five years, but it did grow in the last one

there is a large higher education institute, the University of Ferrara

IT Emilia -Romagna

Ravenna at the middle of regional ranking; population is growing

connected with highway, there is an important port especially for the freight transports

the city of Ravenna is a tourist attraction of European significance and all the coastal area is strongly tourist oriented

it’s not a manufacturing hub, but there is an important chemical center; GVA is growing

there is a regional higher education institute; a University of Bologna branch

IT Emilia -Romagna

Cesena one of the smaller three tn/n FUAs in the region; the population is growing

it’s located along the Adriatic highway and railway

it has local significance it’s a minor manufacturing hub; the GVA is growing

there is a regional higher education institute, a University of Bologna branch

21


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge IT Emilia -Romagna

Forlì one of the three smaller tn/n FUAs in Emilia-Romagna; population is growing

there is a small airport; it’s situated along the Adriatic highway and railway

it has local significance it’s a minor manufacturing hub; GVA is growing

regional higher education institute; there is a branch of University of Bologna

IT Rimini 5th FUA in the region; population is growing

along the Adriatic highway and railway; there is a small airport

global touristic attraction; the touristic activities are increased by fairs

minor manufacturing hub; GVA is growing

there is a regional higher education institute, a branch of University of Bologna

Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions IT Emilia -Romagna

Piacenza presence of few head quarters seat of provincial government average level of services to enterprises

transnational/national FUA

IT Emilia -Romagna

Parma high presence of head quarters seat of provincial government Seat of European Food Security Authority; high level of services to enterprises

transnational/national FUA **

IT Emilia -Romagna

Reggio Emilia

high presence of head quarters seat of provincial government high level of services to enterprises


IT Emilia -Romagna

Modena high presence of head quarters seat of provincial government high level of services to enterprises


IT Emilia -Romagna

Bologna very high presence of head quarters

seat of regional government and provincial government too

very high level of services to enterprises

cat.3 MEGA

IT Emilia -Romagna

Ferrara presence of few head quarters seat of provincial government average level of services to enterprises


IT Emilia -Romagna

Ravenna presence of few head quarters seat of provincial government average level of services to enterprises


IT Emilia -Romagna

Cesena presence of few head quarters share the provincial government seat with Forlì

average level of services to enterprises


IT Emilia -Romagna

Forlì presence of few head quarters share the provincial government seat with Cesena

average level of services to enterprises


IT Emilia -Romagna

Rimini presence of few head quarters seat of provincial government average level of services to enterprises


** verified by Project Partners’ final contributions/calculations, “candidate to become polycentric MEGA” * verified by Project Partners’ final contributions/calculations

22


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge RO Bucharest Population decreased in last

decade (low birth rate and migration), 1.9 Mio inh, aging process

Transport network will be improved in future, main transport centre in RO; It has national and international connections by railways, roads and air (corr. IV, IX and VII). Extension of International airport Otopeni planned.

Tourism infrastructure has been developed and rehabilitated. Rehabilitation of Bucharest's historic area started in 2005

Industrial activity reduced mostly in the processing industry (machinery and equipment and in computers and office means) and population employed in tertiary sector strongly increase (bankindustry, insurance). Enhancing of construction sector and real estate. IT industry gained.

High density of academic and scientific institutions (195,445 students, almost 45% of them in the private sector).

RO Timisoara 317,660 inh – high proportion of ethnic and religious minorities; Growth of investments – increase of immigration (positive migration balance)

Connection to south part of Europe with Beograd, Venetia and Milan – improvements planned. Motorway improvements (Corr IV) planned.

Business and congress tourism favoured. Known as the "little Vienna". Remarkable cultural centres. Tourism services are still uncompetitive at European level (management deficits of touris. infrastructure)

Had a strong chemical industry (neg. effects on environment) – now less important than others like food and beverages industry or energetic industry. Domination of SMEs. Positive evolution of service sector (banking, IT, insurance,...). Pole for FDI in Western RO; Weakness – lack of promoting network for the local industries.

Important academic and cultural centre (41,000 students – 90% in the state sector)

RO Iaşi 313,444 Major regional and national transport node.

The most important historical, economic, and cultural center in Northeast Romania.

The second largest installed industrial capacity in Romania.

Important university center of Romania – 40 000 students

RO Constanţa 309,965 The largest seaport on the Black Sea and international Airport.

The city is a point of departure to the string of coastal resorts; with historical monuments, ancient ruins, museums and shops

Mechnical engineering branch: shipyards, chemical industry – Power stations for electric and thermal energy

Four universities (two of them are naval school)

RO Cluj-Napoca

294,906 Major regional and national transport node

Cluj-Napoca, the historical capital of Transilvania region represents a tourist gate for this region and also for famous Maramures region.

IT with over 100 software companies

One of the most important academic centres in Romania – over 60000 students

RO Galaţi 300,211 Port and intermodal transport node

The city has the largest iron and steel plant in Romania the Mittal Steel Galaţi

University


23


Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions RO Bucharest Most important economical

urban centre in RO. Capital of the country Cultural life is complex to the

abundance of theatres, museums, galleries, ...cultural image of the city is that of an open and modern urban centre in improvement.

Major changes of structure in functions (acc. ESPON 111) should not be expected but improvements of territorial relations with the adjacent communes and towns + Corr IV.

Remains Cat. 4 MEGA

RO Timisoara Second most dynamic economical urban centre in RO. Cross-border coop. Important (Euroregion Dunare-Cris-Mures-Tisa)

County capital and regional centre of old tradition with a promising development strategy.

Cultural life includes museums of history, natural science, art, ethnographic,... Opera,...influenced also by the ethnic variety.

It will continue to promote the same values and objectives and therefore could improve the general perception in relatively short time because of its exceptional potential, connected with EU integration and strong relations with Serbia and Montenegro and Italy. Timisoara will be an important point on the map of the CADSES area

Remains Cat. 4 MEGA

RO Iasi Capital of county Important academic centre. Main centre for cross border cooperation with the republic of Moldavia, included in the Prut Euroregion


RO Constanta Capital of county Main national port. Important centre for tourism at the Black Sea coast.


RO Cluj-Napoca

Capital of county Centre with academic, cultural and industrial role.


RO Galati Capital of county Significant industrial centre, located on the Trans European Coridorr no. VII


24


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge RO Craiova 300,843 Major transport node the industry is still a very important

branch of activity despite the decline, having a great influence over the economy of Romania.

University center

RO Brasov 286,371 major national transport node The old city, founded by the Teutonic Knights in 1211, is one of the best preserved cities in all of Europe. Just 12km (7 miles) away from Brasov city you will find Romania's most famous skiing resort, Poiana Brasov. It is the capital city of Brasov County, in central Romania, in Transylvania, at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains

manufacturing agricultural tractors and machinery, hydraulic transmissions, auto parts, ball-bearings, helicopters

Important university center

RO Ploieşti 236,724 Ploieşti has experienced rapid economic growth due to major investments from foreign companies, including Lukoil, Unilever, Coca-Cola, Interbrew and British American Tobacco.

RO Oradea 208,805 Due mainly to its location on the Hungarian border, making it a gateway towards Western Europe

Thermal waters Oradea enjoyed an economic renewal, not so much in industry but rather in the services sector

SI Ljubljana Population expected to increase Strategic transport role – corr. V and X. Construction of motorway along both main corridors is ap-proaching completion, moderni-zation of rail infrastructure is another main aim; air traffic is expected to increase substan-tially

Sharp increase in tourist activity; length of stay will prolong, congress tourism is increasing

Shift from industry-based economy towards service-based one is under way – knowledge-based production and services are replacing labour intensive industries. Most success-ful industries to restructure are pharmaceutics, chemical industry and electronics

Important centre for education and research activities (universities and research institutes)

SI Koper Population development stable Most important function in the region. Marine port of Koper has established itself as one of the most important ports servicing CEE, New container terminal planned. Port is currently serving mostly AT, IT, HU and SI – new cooperation opportunities with other regions; better land connection needed.

Most important tourist area in SI (>300,000 foreign tourists). Congress tourism is still far underdeveloped

Industrial activities are closely tied with the ort. Besides some old industries are declining or stagnating

New university was established – emphasis on tourist, transport, cultural and managerial studies

25


Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions RO Craiova Capital of county Industrial centre transnational/national FUA RO Brasov Capital of county Tourism and industry of national

significance transnational/national FUA

RO Ploiesti Capital of county Industrial centre transnational/national FUA RO Oradea Capital of county transnational/national FUA SI Ljubljana National main node for business

in private sector, although past polycentric policies have made decision making less centralized. FDI from Ljubljana located firms to Western Balkans and Central East Europe

Capital of Slovenia – most important decision making centre

Regional cultural capital – still it supersedes some of the larger urban centres in the region

One of the main strength = strategic geographical-cultural position and knowledge of different cultures and historic experiences; "gateway" to southern and eastern Europe – gaining strength with planned expansion of transportation routes, airport traffic,...

Remains Cat. 4 MEGA

SI Koper Transportation and logistics companies make up a quarter of all empl + fifth of all profits

Koper urban region is considered to be a national centre of international importance – biggest transportation hub in the country

Cross-border coop. with Trieste is foreseeable + port with Trieste and Rijeka has a potential to become most important transportation hub in northern Mediterranean

Most significant functions: transportation and logistics – expected to strengthen even further + future role of knowledge centre


26


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge SI Maribor Demographic crisis – loss of

population Corr. V and X, motorway, railway line connecting Enthral and Eastern Europe with port cities and international airport; motorway to Hungary is under construction

Good accessibility – winter tourism and congress tourism. Still potential to improve

Strong manufacturing tradition – de-industrialisation left region in economic crisis. At present no major potentials regarding manufacturing are on the horizon

Knowledge function is currently and potentially Maribor's greatest asset – university and research centres + good education of population

BG Sofia Stable or to grow slight Transport network North-south and East-West will be developed (Corr. IV, VIII, X). Sofia is planning a new development of the airport

Increase is expected in city tourism – therefore improvements in culture, spa and congress tourism are envisaged

Economic performance of Sofia is highest in the country (7% growth rates). New manufacturing activities – positive orientation to IT, biotechnologies, etc. Industrial structure is expected to change rapidly in next years towards knowledge-oriented ind.

Most important knowledge node of the country (universities and research institutes). To improve innovative capacity is necessary

BG Varna Expected to grow – important inter-regional function and transnational function in Black Sea zone

Planning to transform in one of the biggest transport and logistic centre in SEE. Biggest international port of BG on the Black Sea – expansion planned. Improvements of motorway and expansion of airport.-

Biggest centre of tourism in BG (esp. Seaside holiday making). Package offers mainly with Turkish cities – in future also with RO.

Dynamic economic growth – ranks the second in terms of attraction of FDI in BG. Permanent renewal and restructuring of manufacturing – fast growing cluster of maritime industry. Tertiary sector accounts the largest share in GVA

Important knowledge node of the country (universities and research institutions).

BG Plovdiv Stable Good international and national transport connection which is currently being extended in the direction of Greece – major transport junction of Southern BG – new projects are under consideration

Opportunities are seen in cultural and cognitive tourism, congress and religious tourism (worldwide famous sights), international trade fairs and exhibitions

Industrial centre – high-tech manufacturing – skilled human resources in almost all economic sectors; FDI starts to come

University centre + research institutes

27


Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions SI Maribor Manufacturing has lost its top

position and Maribor shows signs of transforming into "trading city". Some of the to Slovenian financial and insurance companies have headquarters in Maribor. Top companies are closely linked with Austrian companies

Maribor urban region is considered to be a national centre of international importance – important link towards AT,HU and HR

Cultural activities are abundant – further cooperation with Graz as a city of culture seem possible in future

Intense process of restructuring. Transnational significance can be achieved by combination of transportation, financial, educational and cultural activities – coop potential Ljubljana – Graz – Zagreb


BG Sofia Is expected to develop further its function as an important decision making centre

Capital of the country Will strengthen its position as a cultural and knowledge centre in SEE

Potential for future development and increase of transnational significance in terms of all functions – population, transport, tourism, knowledge, decision making centre.

Remains Cat. 4 MEGA

BG Varna Location of top companies Administrative centre of Varna district and North Eastern Planning region

Important cultural centre of international significance

Varna will enhance its transnational role as important centre of Black Sea tourism – specific potential for promotion of its position in the functions all functions population, transport, knowledge, decision making centre.


BG Plovdiv Commercial, financial and service centre of the region (second and tertiary sector)

Plovdiv is an administrative centre of the district Plovdiv and South Central Planning region

International Plovdiv fair – now the most important fair in SEE; Unique location – crossroads between the Eastern and Western civilizations

Potential for future development and enhancement of positions in terms of functions population, tourism, industrial, knowledge, decision-making



28


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge BG Ruse Stable - Has long been one of the main

centres of economic activity – well developed infrastructure for both freight transportation and industrial logistics. Corr. VII, IX. So far the sole bridge facility across the river Danube – only 72 km to Bucharest

Strategy for tourism development existing, elegant city centre + great natural resources and beauty, joint tourism initiatives of the European cities on the Danube.

After drop in the economic development – key growth sectors are petrochemical and textile and apparel sectors, the machinery and metal industry cluster

Long-standing tradition in education and science

BG Burgas Stable or grow slightly Implementation of number of projects forthcoming (expansion of port capacity, airport, Corr VIII, Black Sea motorway).

Excellent conditions for seaside tourism – rich cultural and historical heritage, Construction of yacht port forthcoming

Industrial sector is of national significance; chemical and oil-processing industries are structure-defining; food and beverages ranks second; also important: electrical engineering, ship-building and ship repair. Burgas ranks the second to Sofia in terms of growth rates.

Universities and research institutes – ongoing process of recovery of knowledge capital

29


Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions BG Ruse Administrative centre of Ruse

district and of the North-Central Planning region

Development of an Automotive Cluster with FDI (French) is forthcoming, Duty free zone is the oldest in the country, Biggest port in the lower stretches of the river Danube.

Important European gate on the river Danube. Centre of cross-border cooperation with RO. The anticipated dynamic development of the city in the coming years will enhance further its transnational significance in terms of all functions


BG Burgas Location of top companies Administrative centre of Burgas district and South Eastern planning region

Duty free zone was established to create most attractive conditions for FDI

With the largest airport, the biggest seaport, free trade zone, railway connections and very strategic position Burgas will enhance its transnational significance in CADSES and Black Sea – important cross-border co-operation with Turkey; Potential for further development in transport, tourism, industrial, knowledge, decision-making centre.


30


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge AT Vienna Slightly increasing population

due to migration, suburbanisation

Hub of Transeuropean Corridors, conjunctions with Twin-City partner Bratislava going to be improved, Danube port

One of the most important destinations of city tourism in Europe/worldwide, high quality touristic supply, development potential

Decreasing importance of secondary sector with negative consequences on urban labour market, high shares of consumer good production, intensive efforts for restructuring – technology based and innovative industries

National centre of higher education and research activities (high density of universities, colleges, public and private research institutes…)

AT Linz Loss of population, suburbanisation tendencies

National transport node, junction on Magistrale für Europa (Paris-Budapest), Danube port

Event-driven specialised tourism, congress tourism as potential

Highly industrialised city (steel production, maschinery, traditional enterprises, structural changes, decline of employment

Regional centre of higher education and research acitivities

AT Salzburg Slightly decrease of population, suburbanisation tendencies

National transport node with transit function, junction on ‘Magistrale für Europa’ (Paris-Budapest)

High importance, well known tourism destination, international guest structure, high quality of touristic supply

Secondary sector not very important, SMEs, very dynamic development of the service sector

Regional centre of higher education and research acitivities with importance for the cross border region (AT-DE)

AT Innsbruck High decrease of population, suburbanisation tendencies

National transport node with transit function, crosspoint with the EU-Priority Corridor- (Berlin-Palermo)

High importance, well known tourism destination, international guest structure, high quality of touristic supply

Secondary sector not very important, SMEs, focus on food and beverage, construction, electronics and engineering, very dynamic development of the service sector

Regional centre of higher education and research acitivities with importance for the cross border region (AT-DE and AT-IT)

AT Graz High decrease of population, suburbanisation tendencies

National transport node, junction on the promoted North-South-Corridor, terminal of a new HS-rail-link to Klagenfurt (going to be constructed)

Event-driven specialised tourism, congress tourism as potential

Highly industrialised city, focus on maschinery, electronics, automobile and vehicle construction, structural changes, decline of employment

Traditional centre of higher education (universities, colleges, vocational schools), research institutes (universities, public, enterprise),

AT Klagenfurt Decrease of population, suburbanisation tendencies

National transport node, junction in the promoted North-South-Corridors, terminal of a new HS-rail-link to Graz (going to be constructed)

Centre of a most important tourism region of Austria

Diversified industrial structure, SMs, service sector driving force of development

Regional centre of education, university centre of research activities,

31


Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions AT Vienna Location of international

enterprises National capital Cross border activities and

structures – CENTROPE, Remains Cat. 1 MEGA

AT Linz Location of enterprises of national importance, enterprise with international connections

Regional capital Remains transnational/national FUA

AT Salzburg Location of enterprises of national and regional importance

Regional capital, importance for cross border region – cooperation structures


AT Innsbruck Location of enterprises of national and regional importance

Regional capital, Remains transnational/national FUA

AT Graz Location of enterprises of national importance, enterprise with international connections

Regional capital importance for cross border region – cooperation structures


AT Klagenfurt Location of enterprises of national and regional importance

Regional capital importance for cross border region – cooperation structures, AT-SI


32


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge Serbia Belgrade Stable or grow slightly,

domination in population size, 16% of total population in Serbia (with Kosovo) live in Belgrade

Corridors VII and X pass through Belgrade, international airport, advanced connection to East and West part of Europe, international transport hub specially significant for SE Europe, river, train air and road transport hub.

Main tourist attraction, congress tourism, international fairs, advanced heritage, cultural manifestations of international significance

Domination of service sector, international trade significance, economy in transition, large scale investments in Belgrade, disparities in investments compared to Serbia

Main university centre, over 60% of total students in Serbia, private and public universities

Serbia Novi Sad Stable or grow slightly, 7% of total population in Serbia (with Kosovo) live in Novi Sad

Corridors VII and Xa pass through Novi Sad, river, train and road transport hub.

Congress tourism, international fairs, cultural manifestations of international significance

Domination of secondary and third sector, industrial node, petroleum and oil industry and food industry domination

secondary university centre, over 15% of total students in Serbia, private and public universities

Serbia Kragujevac loss of population, 3% of total population in Serbia (with Kosovo) live in Kragujevac

Important node for rural tourism Domination of secondary and third sector, regional importance in manufacture

university centre of regional significance

Serbia Nish loss of population, 4% of total population in Serbia (with Kosovo) live in Nish

Important node for rural tourism, mountain tourism and spa tourism

Domination of secondary and third sector, regional importance in manufacture,

university centre of regional significance

Serbia Uzice loss of population, 2% of total population in Serbia (with Kosovo) live in Uzice

Important node for rural tourism, mountain tourism and

Domination of secondary and third sector, regional importance in manufacture,

university center of regional significance

Serbia Prishtina Serbia Metohija

33


Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions Serbia Belgrade Commercial, financial and

service centre of the state (second and tertiary sector dominantly), Location of top companies, expected to develop further its function as an important decision making centre, Significant node for Balkans and SE Europe. Industry is also important activity together with transport economy

State capital – combining local, regional, and state level of decision making Administrative center

Significant cultural, entertainment and sport node for Balkan and SE Europe an wider

Further stabilization of economic and political circumstances in state Union of Serbia and Montenegro will improve economic, administrative, cultural, and other characteristics of MEGAs and FUAs in Serbia, especially Danube cities Belgrade and Novi Sad

Based on the estimation presented in FDI Journal (edition of Financial Times, march 2006) our proposal is that range MEGA 3 could be given to the City of Belgrade. Criteria : economic potential, cost of business, human resources, transport, innovation technologies and telecommunications, quality of life, has proven that the City of Belgrade is City of the South Europe future

Serbia Novi Sad Commercial, financial and service centre of the region(secondary and tertiary sector)

The province capital – combining local and province level of decision making, Administrative center

Significant cultural node for Balkan and SE Europe


Serbia Kragujevac Commercial, financial and service centre of the region(secondary and tertiary sector)

regional capital – combining local and regional level decisions Administrative center

-

Serbia Nish Commercial, financial and service centre of the region(secondary and tertiary sector)



Serbia Uzice Commercial, financial and service centre of the region(secondary and tertiary sector)


-

Serbia Prishtina Remains transnational/national FUA Serbia Metohija -

34


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge SK Bratislava Class 3

Number of inhabitance in year 2004: FUA – approximately 600 thousand Bratislava city – 425,155 The Bratislava city alone records from the year 1997 continual decrease of inhabitance number, however Bratislava city’s background – the substantial trend of inhabitance’s movement from city to rural areas. In Bratislava, the proportion of post-productive inhabitance segment is strongly higher over the pre-productive.

Class 3 connected to transportation network of highest importance, multimodal corridors IV (highway D2, railway 110 and 130), Va (highway D1, railway 120), VII (water road Dunaj – Mohan – Rhein) Bratislava airport M.R. Štefánika – in the year 2004 – 936 thousand passengers per year

Class 2 The most visited tourism goal in Slovakia and simultaneously gateway from the west – from Vienna to Slovakia. The main kinds of tourism: urban cultural (history, architecture, institutions, undertakings), gastronomical (vinery), service, shopping, congress, exhibition (Incheba). In the area of water sports and water tourism – tourist voyages on Donau, tourist aims (Devín, Červený Kameň, power plant Gabčíkovo, Malé Karpaty, vinicultural locations). The short-term visits prevail.

Class 2 Bratislava – year 2002 added value € 1.2 billion From 200 biggest Slovak not-financial enterprises according to the revenues for the year 2004 is 67 in Bratislava. From the department the business, energetic, building industry, telecommunications, transport prevail.

Class 4 Bratislava is urban area with biggest number of universities and academic institutions (10 academic institutions), also with highest number of academic students (37 thousand students) and many science-research institutes.

SK Trnava Class 2 Number of inhabitance in year 2004: FUA – approximately 130 thousand Trnava city – 69 140 Decrease of inhabitance number The age structure reveals the highest portion of post-productive segment over pre-productive.

Class 0 connection to multimodal corridor Va (highway D1, railway 120) near the Piešťany airport – in the year 2004 – 6.6 thousand passengers per year

Class 1 Unambiguously, the urban cultural tourism (history, architecture, institutions) and transit tourism are prevailing. Around, the biggest spa is located in Slovakia Piešťany (40 km).

Class 1 Trnava – year 2002 added value € 0.44 billion From 200 biggest Slovak not-financial enterprises according to the revenues for the year 2004 is 6 in Trnava. From the departments the business, mechanical engineering, electric engineering, furniture, services prevail. PSA Peugeot Citroen Trnava – begins with the manufacturing from the year 2006.

Class 3 Two Universities, 8 thousand students

35


Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions SK Bratislava Class 3

From the Top 500 biggest enterprises in Slovakia, 145 enterprises (29%) is in Bratislava.

Class 4 The capital city of the region. The Bratislava self-government region headquarters.

The biggest city of Slovakia, 7.9% of Slovak inhabitance live in Bratislava. Significant educational and culture-historical center.

Bratislava has significant strategic position boarder with Austria and Hungary. It is near Vienna (60 km), Gyor (75 km), Brno (130 km).

remains MEGA Cat. 3

SK Trnava Class 2 From the Top 500 biggest enterprises in Slovakia, 14 enterprises (2.8%) is in Trnava.

Class 3 The Trnava self-government region headquarters.

The oldest autonomous royal city in Slovakia, many churches, architectural monuments, cultural and catholic center of the country called also „Slovak Rome“.

The potential development of Trnava city is influenced by the nearness of Bratislava and by this connected mutual cooperation between these cities, where their relation grows out to the agglomeration.

remains transnational/national FUA

36


Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge SK Trenčín Class 2

Number of inhabitance in year 2004: FUA – approximately 112 thousand Trenčín city – 56,850 Trenčín records the inhabitance decrease in the latest years and also the trend of ageing. The highest post-productive proportion over pre-productive segment.

Class 0 connection to multimodal corridor Va (highway D1, railway 120)

Class 1Significant tourist center in Middle Považie with connection to the Czech Republic – Morava. The urban cultural tourism prevails (monuments – old Roman castle), exhibition (Trenčín the fashion city) and transit tourism. Around, the mountain tourism conditions (in summer) and spa – Trenčianske Teplice.

Class 1 Trenčín – year 2002 added value € 0.2 billion From 200 biggest Slovak not-financial enterprises according to the revenues for the year 2004 is 5 in Trenčín. From the departments the business, electric engineering, clothes prevail.

Class 2 Two universities, approximately 3.2 thousand students

SK Nitra Class 2 Number of inhabitance in year 2004: FUA – approximately 165 thousand Nitra city – 85,742 In the years 2002 and 2003 the inhabitance number of Nitra city, moderately increases the inhabitance number of its background. The age structure shows on a highest portion of post-productive over pre-productive segment.

Class 0 connection to speed way R1 with inclusion to supplementary network TINA (TEN-T)

Class 1 Nitra is a significant center of Ponitrie. The urban cultural tourism prevails (castle, institutions), exhibitions (Agrokomplex), historic buildings and archaeological monuments. Around, memorial hill Zobor is located, and developed viniculture.

Class 1 Nitra – year 2002 added value € 0.14 billion From 200 biggest Slovak not-financial enterprises according to the revenues for the year 2004 is 5 in Nitra. From the departments the business, electric engineering, food industry, water management and building industry prevail.

Class 4 Two universities, 12.7 thousand of students

37


Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions SK Trenčín Class 2

From the Top 500 biggest enterprises in Slovakia, 19 enterprises (3.8%) is in Trenčín.

Class 3 The Trenčín self-government region headquarters

Significant culture historical center with good strategic position. In the city different exhibitions, concerts, performance and presentations are organized; the city has many sport facilities.

Advantageous position to the Czech Republic (20 km). Trenčín city is the center of Povazian urbanization axis from Nového Mesto nad Váhom to Púchov and Považska Bystrica. This urbanization axis is the most significant with the biggest inhabitance concentration (approximately 500 thousand inhabitance in the length of 65 km of the urban axes) and manufacturing activities in Slovakia with large development potential.


SK Nitra Class 2 From the Top 500 biggest enterprises in Slovakia, 13 enterprises (2.6%) is in Nitra.

Class 3 The Nitra self-government region headquarters

Nitra is culture-historical center from the Early Middle Ages period. It is a center of economy, culture, church and sport of Nitra region and exhibition ground – Agrokomplex contributes that Nitra is international exhibition center.

Nitra city has good development potential, what shows also the attractiveness to foreign investments. It has good connections to Bratislava and together with MEGA Bratislava and FUA Trnava creates one agglomeration system.

remains national/transnational FUA

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Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge SK Žilina Class 2

Number of inhabitance in year 2004: FUA – approximately 160 thousand Žilina city – 85,268 Žilina city records moderate decrease of inhabitance number, the background records moderate increase because of inhabitance movement from the city to rural areas. The age structure shows the higher proportion of post-productive segment over pre-productive.

Class 1 connection to a multimodal corridor Va and VI (highway D1 and D3, railway 120) Žilina airport – 966 transported passengers in the year 2004.

Class 1 Žilina together with bigger city Martin creates significant tourism center in North Považie. The access to mountain region by all directions, ski resorts – Veľká Rača, Vrátna, Martinské hole, near medical spa – Rajecké Teplice

Class 1 Žilina – year 2002 added value € 0.14 billion From 200 biggest Slovak not-financial enterprises according to the revenues for the year 2004 is 8 in Žilina. From the departments the business, electric engineering, food industry, water management, building industry, paper and cellulose industry prevail. KIA facility – is now in construction process with the assumption of manufacturing beginning in the year 2007

Class 3 1 University, 7.9 thousands students

SK Banská Bystrica

Class 2 Number of inhabitance in year 2004: FUA – approximately 115 thousand Banská Bystrica city – 81,704 Banská Bystrica records inhabitance decrease. The age structure shows higher portion of post-productive segment over pre-productive.

Class 1 connection to speed way R1 with inclusion to supplementary network TINA (TEN -T) nearness of Sliač airport – 15.1 thousand transported passengers in the year 2004.

Class 1 Tourism center of middle Slovakia (tourism institutions settlement). The main tourism kinds: cultural (history, architecture, institutions), mountain (the access to mountain region by all directions), near medical spa (Sliač, Kováčová, Brusno), good conditions for rural tourism development. The significant transit – the city is on the tourism road Budapešť – Krakov.

Class 1 Banská Bystrica – year 2002 added value € 0.96 billion From 200 biggest Slovak not-financial enterprises according to the revenues for the year 2004 is 4 in Banská Bystrica. From the departments the service, food industry, business and forestry prevail.

Class 3 2 Universities, 7 thousands students

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Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions SK Žilina Class 2

From the Top 500 biggest enterprises in Slovakia, 18 enterprises (3.6%) is in Žilina.

Class 3 The Žilina self-government region headquarters

Many significant institutions for entrepreneurship and business support are located in Žilina. Significant sport and cultural center of Northern Považie.

Good position to Czech (45 km) and Polish (60 km) Republics. The development potential FUA has high assumptions for international polycentric settlement development with Czech and Polish Republic.


SK Banská Bystrica

Class 1 From the Top 500 biggest enterprises in Slovakia, 9 enterprises (1.8%) is in Banská Bystrica.

Class 3 The Banská Bystrica self-government region headquarters

Banská Bystrica is economic, administration and cultural center of middle Slovakia.

Nearness of Zvolen city – education and cultural center, University, with which Banská Bystrica gradually creates two cities unity.


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Country FUAS Population Transport Tourism Manufacturing Knowledge SK Prešov Class 2

Number of inhabitance in year 2004: FUA – approximately 165 thousand Prešov city – 91,767 Prešov city records decrease of inhabitance number, there is an increase if inhabitance in surrounding communities (Romany ethnic group records increase of inhabitance). Positive age structure of inhabitance with higher portion of pre-productive inhabitance segment, which if influenced also by the high number of Romany inhabitance.

Class 0 connection to multimodal corridor Va (highway D1) the nearest international airport is in Poprad and Košice

Class 1 Tourist center of Šariš. The significant tourism – cultural (architecture, institutions), traditional salt mining in Solivar. Access to mountain area, dam Domaša (40 km), the region with wooden churches, tourism transit (Hungary – Poland)

Class 1 Prešov – year 2002 added value € 0.96 billion From 200 biggest Slovak not-financial enterprises according to the revenues for the year 2004 is 1 (in wood processed branch) in Prešov. From the departments the electric engineering, engineering and clothes industry prevail. Solivar a.s. company is unique in Prešov because it is only one facility for mining and processing salt in Slovakia.

Class 3 1 University, 7.1 thousands students

SK Košice Class 3 Number of inhabitance in year 2004: FUA – approximately 345 thousand Košice city – 235,006 Košice city records the inhabitance decrease, moderately increase the number of inhabitance in surrounded areas. Positive age structure of inhabitance with higher portion of pre-productive segment of inhabitance in Košice background, however post-productive segment predominates over pre-productive in Košice city.

Class 3 connection to multimodal corridor Va (highway D1, railway 180) international airport – 236.3 thousand transported passengers

Class 1 Metropolis of eastern Slovakia with significant transit tourism on the road Hungary – Poland. The main kinds of tourism: urban cultural (architecture, institutions, undertakings). Access to mountain area and Slovak karst (35 km).

Class 1 Košice – year 2002 added value € 0.53 billion From 200 biggest Slovak not-financial enterprises according to the revenues for the year 2004 is 5 in Košice. From the departments the electric engineering, building industry, metallurgy and water industry prevail.

Class 4 3 Universities, 16.6 thousand students

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Country FUAS Decision making private Decision making public Others? Sum Conclusions SK Prešov Class 2

From the Top 500 biggest enterprises in Slovakia, 12 enterprises (2.4%) is in Prešov.

Class 3 The Prešov self-government region headquarters

The third biggest city in Slovakia Culture-historical center, significant administration center. Prešov city is the scene of significant international sport undertakings every year.

Potential of Prešov city future development can influence the cooperation with near center – Košice (35 km).


SK Košice Class 2 From the Top 500 biggest enterprises in Slovakia, 15 enterprises (3%) is in Košice.

Class 3 The Košice self-government region headquarters

Second biggest city in Slovakia. Today it is main economic agglomeration. Historic center is the biggest urban monument reserve in the Slovak Republic.

Good position near the Hungary (20 km), Ukrainian (80 km) borders. Good and developing relationships with Miskolc city in Hungary.


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Map 1: Development potentials of urban areas – indicated by Project Partners concerned (Trend Scenario 2020)

The map shows the appraisals concerning the potential development of urban areas due to their “individual” resources. “Upgrading” refers to the primary classification by the ESPON project 1.1.1 (excl. Western Balkans’ cities), whereas included are cases Project Partners claimed for a correction of the status quo (2000) defined by ESPON 1.1.1. Since the map is kind of a record of the Project Partners’ indications, it is not to be considered a consistent spatial development scenario of the urban system.

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2.2 Potentials for city networking – indicated by Project Partners (Proactive Scenario 2020)

Only some of the urban policy areas (see PlaNet CenSE Strategic Document, Background Study) are relevant for developing functional relations between cities. In the context given here city cooperation for example is about:

– Co-ordinated spatial planning activities in the macro-regional context

– co-ordination of political activities to enforce common interests vis-à-vis national and European level, e.g. co-ordinated lobbying and planning concerning transnational and national transportation network development

– Co-operation towards functional division of labour concerning urban endowments, e.g. universities, cultural institutions and events

– exchange of know-how concerning urban service technology

– Joint tourism marketing

– Joint application for global events

These cooperation areas are regarded as the building blocks for polycentric development strategies. The idea behind is to develop synergies, i.e. greater efficiency for each of the partner, or to achieve by joint endowments higher standards, which the partner could enable to play at a higher league in the competition of places. The review (see Table 2) is based on the responses of the Project Partners’ representatives to an inquiry by the Lead Partner.

Table 2: Existing cooperative relations

Cities networking Categories of cooperation between cities

Domains of cooperation

Halle, Leipzig, Dresden agreement-based (Working group)

Strategic Planning; Marketing; Lobbying; Transport; Events

Nürnberg, Erlangen, Bamberg, Würzburg

institutionalised (Council of Metro Region) Strategic Planning; Marketing; Lobbying; Transport; University

Bregenz, Dornbirn, Feldkirch project-based Strategic Planning Warszawa, Lodz others Strategic Planning; Marketing; Lobbying;

Transport; Tourism; Events; University Plzen, Regensburg project-based (Interreg) Transport Usti nad Labem, Chemnitz project-based Tourism Linz, Ceske Budejovice project-based Transport Wien, Bratislava, Trnava, Brno, Györ agreement-based; Formal agreement by

regional and urban governments Project based (Interreg IIIB: Centrope) Joint airport management Vienna-Bratislava; ARGE Donauländer

Strategic Planning; Marketing; Tourism

Kosice, Miskolc institutionalised; Euroregion Karpaty (=Euroregion Kosice-Miskolc?)

Strategic Planning; Marketing; Lobbying; Transport; Tourism; Events; University

Zilina, Katowice, Ostrava, Krakov institutionalised; Euroregion Beskidy Strategic Planning; Marketing; Lobbying; Transport; Tourism; Events; University

Debrecen, Oradea agreement-based; Cooperation agreement Strategic ; Planning; Events; University Beograd, Timisoarra, Arad, Szeged project-based (Interreg IIIA) Strategic Planning; Lobbying; Transport;

University

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Table 2 (continued): Existing cooperative relations

Cities networking Categories of cooperation between cities

Domains of cooperation

Bucuresti, Giurgiu, Constanta, Ruse institutionalised; Euroregion Danubius (Euroregion Daube East), Project based (Interreg IIIA)

Strategic Planning; Transport; University

Sofiya, Thessaloniki others Planning document

Strategic Planning

Nis, Skopje, Sofiya agreement-based; Euroregion “EuroBalkan” includes Triangle “Sofia – Nis – Skopje”

Strategic Planning; Lobbying

Ancona, Zadar, Split agreement-based; Forum of Ionian and Adriatic cities; Adriatic Euroregion

Strategic Planning; Marketing; Transport; University

Bari, Tirana agreement-based; Forum of Ionian and Adriatic cities, Project based (Interreg IIIA); Adriatic Euroregion

Marketing; Transport; University

Ljubljana, Zagreb agreement-based; only wider area (Alpe-Adria working community); Project based (Interreg IIIB to be approved)

Strategic Planning; Lobbying; Transport; Events; University

Maribor, Graz, Zagreb project-based (Interreg IIIA+IIIB) Strategic Planning; Marketing; Transport Trieste, Koper, Rijeka project-based Strategic Planning; Transport; University Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, Imola, Faenza, Forli, Cesena, Rimini, Cesenatico, Cattolica

project-based (Interreg IIIB: Care) Strategic Planning; Marketing; Lobbying; Transport; Events

Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Piacenza, Carpi, Sassuolo, Imola

project-based (programmi speciali d’area) Strategic Planning; Marketing; Lobbying; Transport; Events

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Map 2: Selected examples of cooperation networks – indicated by Project Partners (Proactive Scenario 2020)

The map shows existing cooperations and thus including cooperation potentials indicated by the Project Partners. The “Categories of cooperation” is a summary of a larger number of types (sometimes overlapping) comprising Euroregions, councils, special agreements, working groups, cooperative relation mentioned in a planning document, cooperative relation integrated into a wider agreement, etc. The categories used are deliberately non-qualifying. This would have been not agreeable among the Project Partners. Further on the categories do not refer to the probability of achieving together a higher rank because of networking activities (following the idea of polycentrism) because it turned out not being feasible to find a sound analytical basis for that see chapter 5).

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3. Concerning the vision of a New Global Economic Integration Zone

Objective

The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) identifies the “Pentagon” London – Paris – Milan – Munich – Hamburg as the only European core area. This “Global Economic Integration Zone (GEIZ)” offers strong global economic functions and services, which enable a high income level and a well-developed infrastructure7. The ESDP concludes that the current spatial trends show a further concentration of activities, particularly high-quality and global functions in the core area of the EU (and in a few metropolises outside of the core area) and thus, the enlargement of the EU would not change this trend of the concentration of functions within one single GEIZ.

Since the regions of the EU can only be competitive if they have enough economic potential the ESDP calls for a new development strategy and proposes the development of further global economic integration zones. The ESDP states that a policy would be required, that offers a new perspective for the peripheral areas through a more polycentric arrangement of the EU territory. The efforts should lead to the creation of several dynamic zones of global integration, well distributed throughout the EU territory and comprising a network of internationally accessible metropolitan regions. Such regions and their linked hinterland would play a key role in improving spatial balance in Europe.

Unfortunately, neither the idea of GEIZ has been really developed further since delivered in the ESDP, nor a transparent empirical definition of the famous “Pentagon” can be found. Nevertheless, both concepts seem to have convinced researchers, planners and politicians and thus have been successful so far. At least they are used widely, more or less without questioning. The concept itself is still rather fuzzy and there hardly can be found sources in recent literature about8. Recently the ESPON project “Integrated analysis of transnational and national territories” 9 tried to identify Global Economic Integration Zones in Europe, based on a selection of MEGAs and criteria for accessibility and connectivity between them.

Box 6: The “Global Economic Integration Zone”

At the European level, polycentricity is associated with the model to enhance regional development more evenly across the European territory and to strengthen regional development outside the so-called “Pentagon” of Western Europe. The main connotation of this macro perspective of polycentricity is the aim of avoiding a too high degree of activity concentration in the “Pentagon” area. Currently the “Pentagon” has about 14 per cent of the EU 27 area, 32 per cent of its population and 43 per cent of its GDP. Seeing this “Pentagon” as one large zone of global integration, and the only one of this kind in Europe, the ESDP estimates the European territory as too monocentric. Thus, the creation of more Global Economic Integration Zones outside the “Pentagon” is expected to strengthen a more polycentric structure on the macro European level.

7 EC, 1999. ESDP. European Spatial Development Perspective. 8 The exception is Mehlbye, P. (2000), Global Integration Zones – Neighbouring Metropolitan Regions in Metropolitan

Clusters, in: Informationen zur Raumentwicklung, Heft 11/12 9 ESPON project 2.4.2: “Integrated analysis of transnational and national territories”, see www.espon.eu

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Within the Pilot Project Metropolitan Networks the Global Economic Integration Zones should be tested vis-à-vis the spatial context of the Central and South-East European regions. The questions we followed could be posed along the lines:

– Are there such zones (potentially or in reality) to be found within the CenSE area?

– Is a polycentric structure of Central Europe reality or is the dominance of the “Pentagon” still an overwhelming fact?

Method

The work is based on a conceptual rationale that distinguishes between different levels of abstraction of planning tools describing cities and city networks with regard to their application/implementation. According to that rationale, the MEGAs, transnational FUAs (stemming from ESPON 111) and the Metropolitan Networks (the main conceptual subject of this Pilot Project) are considered as “planning concepts” constituting feasible models, in the sense that appropriate measures can be defined, assigned, pursued, monitored and evaluated. Contrary to that, the “planning vision” is regarded as a different type of planning tool. It is taken as a useful guiding idea but not as a directly pursuable model, not linked to appropriate measures. The notion “Global Economic Integration Zone” created by the ESDP is perceived to belong to this type. This seems reasonable at least as long as there is no detailed description so far, be it empiric or normative.

The ESDP suggests several new Global Economic Integration Zones to be developed throughout the EU. They should follow the model of the “Pentagon” (as a kind of follow up to the well known “Blue Banana”), the most dynamic core area of Western Europe, which also has been created by the ESDP. Thus, the “Pentagon” may be taken as an “ex-post vision”. Thus, based on the “ex-post vision” of the “Pentagon”, the ESDP promotes the “ex-ante vision” of several Global Economic Integration Zones for future Europe.

PlaNet Cense is neither the appropriate framework nor has it the resources for further developing the planning vision of the “Global Economic Integration Zone” theoretically. In order to make it feasable for analysis and assessment, a proper way had to be found to deal with that issue. The decision was to do it in the following way:

– Reference to the relevant findings of different ESPON projects

– Supplemented by an own analytical approach to identify most dynamic core areas of CenSE

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Results

3.1 Relevant ESPON results

The objective of the survey is to give an overview about what already has been elaborated concerning the issue of Global Economic integration Zones. The final report does not recommend one of the (partially overlapping) definitions as an ultimate solution10.

3.1.1 Enlargement and polycentrism (ESPON project 1.1.3)

Developing a “phase strategy of Europan spatial development” this project suggests: “In this first phase of spatial policy for the new member states, polycentricity at the European level should be increased by promotion of the network of major cities in the “Triangle of Central Europe” between Warsaw, Prague and Budapest with its potentially high level of integration in order to strengthen the relationships of this trans-national region with the “Pentagon”, the wider Balkan area and the Balkan region as well as the trans-national region formed by the three Baltic states. Transnational co-operation with the Russian enclave Kaliningrad as well as with St. Petersburg and Kiev is important in this context.”11

3.1.2 Transport trends (ESPON project 1.2.1)

Analysing dynamics and flows this project identifies new structures: “But by showing potential relations between main production areas, a new structure of transport network takes shape, not only concentrated in the West of Europe. Vienna and Bratislava become major nodes for the exchange with Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania and more generally all the European South-east, at least until the passage by the Balkans is not really open and safe. The apparition of a triangle linking Warsaw, Berlin and Vienna traduces the potential strong relations between these cities and, in corollary, the risk of the saturation of roads”12.

3.1.3 Territorial effects of EU programmes in enlargement area (ESPON project 2.2.2)

This project applies a potential oriented cluster analysis which “can be regarded as an additional approach for the identification of regional strength and weaknesses, i.e. potentials and bottlenecks, which could be utilised for the development of a compelling structure of optional policy measures and programmes”13. The results illustrated in the map below show the outstanding performance of the capitals of the central European core area Warsaw, Prague, Bratislava and Budapest.14 However, inside the Central European Triangle (including Berlin and Vienna) there are “high divergences between agglomerations and the rest of the macro-region, concentration of high income and economic potentials in some agglomerations; concentration of population in old-industrialised regions.”15

10 Only in the ESPON projects 2.2.2 and 2.4.2 an analytical base for the designation of such GEIZ could be found. The

definitions are different but in total almost congruent. The reason for the little differences could not be identified. 11 ESPON 1.1.3: “Enlargement and polycentrism”, Final report Part 2 Chapter 5 p. 227, see www. espon.eu 12 ESPON 3.1: “Integrated tools for European spatial development”, Final Report. Part B, p.37, see www. espon.eu 13 ESPON 2.2.2: “Territorial effects of the Pre-Accession Aid”, Final Report Part 2a, p.21, see www. espon.eu 14 Berlin and Vienna are outside of the analysed area 15 H.J.Kujath (IRS) 2005: Presentation in the 1st Working Team meeting in Krakow

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Map 3: Results of Potential Oriented Cluster Analysis, 2001 (ESPON project 2.2.2)

The picture is somehow distorted by different extensions of statistical units representing the metropolitan areas.

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3.1.4 Integrated Analysis of ESPON results (ESPON project 2.4.2)

The ESPON project 2.4.2 “Spatial scenarios in relation to the ESDP and EU Cohesion Policy”16 had to identify and actually situate Global Integration Zones beyond the “Pentagon” on the transnational level based on ESPON results. “The approach of the identification of the European Global Integration Zones (EGIZ) on the basis of ESPON results first needed an inventory of existing project results and the definition of the objectives of such zones. In the light of ESPON results Global Integration Zones should cover functional aspects as well as accessibility components covering inner-regional cohesion as well as sufficient connectivity between the centres. The delineation of the zones has been done on the basis of GIS overlay of the different ESPON findings. The following criteria were applied:

– a group of MEGAs of which at least one MEGA covering the whole set of functions defined by ESPON project 1.1.1 on at least national or transnational level

– an area defined by the accessibility of the next MEGA as an indication of the internal cohesion defined in transport and trade relations by truck on the basis of ESPON project 1.2.1 results

– a business orientated connectivity between the centres as an indication of the internal integration defined by travel time by air or rail of one hour or less also on the basis of ESPON project 1.2.1”

16 Draft Final Report, Part 1, see www.espon.eu

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Map 4: Global integration zones

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3.1.5 Spatial scenarios and orientations in relation to the ESDP and Cohesion Policy (ESPON project 3.2)

This project aims at responding to the question how the European territory will develop until 2030. Among the findings the following are quite relevant for the issue addressed here: The East/West divide is progressively being replaced by a metropolitan/non metropolitan divide and this trend is likely to become stronger over time.

The “Pentagon”, as defined in the late 1990s, has been expanding along major corridors with significant metropolitan areas, towards the British Midlands, the southern parts of the Nordic Countries, the Rhone Valley, the Danube Valley up to Budapest. The network of high-speed railways interconnects most of the metropolitan areas of the wider “Pentagon”. A number of city networks have been emerging inside and outside the “Pentagon”, supported by efficient cooperation in RDT. The consolidation of these networks has led to the development of wider areas, especially the Baltic Sea Region and the new ‘Triangle’ of Central and Eastern Europe, formed by Vienna, Warsaw and Budapest, including Prague, Dresden and Bratislava. The development of polycentricity takes place through the expansion of the “Pentagon”, rather than through the development of alternative global economic integration areas17

17 ESPON 3.2: "Spatial scenarios in relation to the ESDP and EU Cohesion Policy”, Third Interim Report, Chapter 3.2,

Integrated baseline (trend) scenario

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Map 5: Polarisation and diffusion areas (ESPON project 3.2)

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3.2 The visionary approach of Regione Emiglia-Romagna

Pursuing the idea to strengthen polycentric structures inside the European macro interaction areas, the Project Partner Regione Emiglia-Romagna elaborated an evocative model of a “European Integration Grid of High-Growth Territories (EIGHT)”. The EIGHT refers to “integration” and “high growth”, success territories, encompassing four “European engines”, nine capital cities and five Potential MEGAs (according definition of ESPON project 1.1.1).

Map 6: The EIGHT Model – European Integration Grid of High growth Territories (based on ESPON 1.1.1)

The EIGHTModel

EuropeanIntegration

Grid ofHigh-growthTerritories

The two circles forming the “eight” represent the two main macro-areas or GEIZs belonging to the CenSE region, approximately coinciding with the new programme areas into which the CADSES area will be split. The two circles overlap and deeply interlink on the axis Vienna-Bratislava.

Inside each of the two macro-areas, one can find the “interaction areas” in which integration is developing and will rapidly develop due to historical, cultural and geographic proximities.

In the Central-Southern circle, the following areas are visible:

– the Adriatic Sea region, in which co-operation on tourism itineraries and industry is natural, but also economic integration due to complementarities and different development levels

– the Danubian region, in which the historical linkages and identities deriving from the Austrian-Hungarian empire are enlarged in the direction of the Black sea

– the Black Sea co-operation zone, encompassing the high-potential integration zone linking eastern and central maritime regions in the south of Europe

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– the Carpathian development region, an area of difficult but potentially interesting integration between present new EU members (Poland, Slovakia), a new accession country (Romania) and neighbouring countries like Ukraine and Moldava

– the Stability Pact for South East Europe, encompassing accession countries like Croatia and the Balkan countries, with which commercial integration is already increasing rapidly

But other integration areas are also visible, working as interconnections among the preceding, geographically continuous and relatively homogeneous areas:

– an area of integration linking the Italian Adriatic coast (Veneto, Romagna, Marche, Pula) with internal regions of Romania and Bulgaria (the Bucharest, Sofia, Timisoara triangle)

– the area of the Adriatic-Alpine community, linking alpine areas (Carinthia, Trentino) with Adriatic (Friuli, Veneto, Slovenia) and Danubian areas (southern Hungarian regions)

– the “diagonal” integration area linking major financial and industrial areas, leading from Milan to Warsaw through Vienna and Prague.

In the northern circle, integration areas encompass: the Berlin-Poznan-Warsaw axis, the Berlin- Prague-Linz-Ljubljana axis, the Central European interaction area going from the Baltic Sea through Warsaw, Krakow to Vienna and Budapest.

3.3 The analytical check of the “Pentagon’s” development

As pointed out in the introduction of this chapter, the „planning vision“ of „Global Economic Integration Zones“ shall be tested vis-à-vis the spatial context of the PlaNet CenSE regions. As starting point the identified “European Global Economic Integration Zones” as laid down in ESPON 2.4.2. are used, since within this project a plurality of such zones seemed to be identified.

The emphasis in ESPON 2.4.2 defining “European Global Economic Integration Zones” is on

– functions of urban centres (economic, tourism, administration, education)

– accessibility + connectivity of these centres

The approach of the Pilot Project Metropolitan Networks therefore is to enlarge the components of the definitions of Global Economic Integration Zones and try to find out whether specific “planning visions” like the “Triangle of Central Europe” are really to be seen as such zones – especially in comparison with the “Pentagon”. Therefore, the MetroNet Analysis is applying (only) to the “ESPON 2.4.2 – European Global Economic Integration Zones” of Central and South East Europe.

In other words, the attempt has been to see the vague concept of Global Economic Integration Zones as clusters of regions, which show an outstanding performance in a set of performance indicators picturing economic as well as social and environmental issues, thus following the spirit of territorial cohesion as well as sustainable development as stipulated in the ESDP and the Gothenburg Agenda.

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Method

The basis for this endeavour has been the set of indicators used as Regional Classification of Europe (RCE), which has been developed and applied to EU 27+2 (including Romania and Bulgaria, Switzerland and Norway,) within the ESPON project 2.4.2. The RCE consists of 30 indicators grouped in eight thematic fields (see Annex 5). Starting point has been the clustering of regions. Five zones (including two areas of extension and one overlapping area) were included in the further analysis, which are the equivalents to the Global Integration Zones as identified by the ESPON project 2.4.2.

Map 7: The analysed regions (referring to the “European global integration zones” of ESPON project 2.4.2.)

The map shows the transfer of Global Integration Zones of the projectESPON 2.4.2 into statistical units (incl. overlap areas). The survey is restricted to those zones/regions that refer to the issue of a Global Economic Integration Zone for Central and South-East Europe.

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Sure enough this picture is inflicted with some drawbacks as well – e.g. the full coverage of the CenSE space is not possible and some of the potential zones can not be covered due to the fact that they are outside the ESPON space, which caused data gaps for picturing them (e.g. Serbia, Croatia, Turkey). Still it has to be borne in mind that the major aim of this analysis is to test the results of the identified integration zones in the first place – i.e. is it possible to identify the same zones with a wider and more elaborated set of indicators – and if so, are these zones equally strong performing regions? If not, it is interesting to see whether there are other zones to be identified (like the “Central European Triangle”) which could be classified as GEIZ/growth poles among the selected sample of regions?

Technically these questions are tackled by comparing those clusters of regions (as the Global Economic Integrations Zones could be defined) over all the indicators of the RCE. The assumption is that the clusters will become visible in the resulting ranking. In other words, if the GEIZes are defined accurately, they will have to show up as homogenous groups in the overall ranking of the regions comparing them over all the 30 indicators of the RCE (see Annex 5) Moreover it shall become clear whether there is a hierarchy of the clusters of regions in the sense that the “Pentagon” dominates the other zones by their performance and that the Danube and Polish Zone will come up as equally strongly performing clusters second best with the South-Eastern Zone ranking last.

The computation of this comparison exercise has been conducted by a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) using an outranking approach (PROMETHEE) (see Annex 5), which has been already used for a full comparison of the EU-27+2 regions within the ESPON project 2.4.2. study18.

Results

The three maps representing the performance of the selected regions over all RCE indicators as well as for the scenarios representing “Lisbon performance” and “Accessibility” (see Annex 5) summarize the findings:

18 see ESPON 2.4.2.: “Spatial scenarios in relation to the ESDP and EU Cohesion Policy” (Draft Final Report),

seehttp://www.espon.eu

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Map 8: Performance of the “European Global Integration Zones” (ESPON project 2.4.2.) over all RCE indicators

Compared over all the indicators the performance of the regions do not represent at all the clustering envisaged in the beginning. The “Pentagon” is overall quite visible but it does not look as homogenous as expected: (1) It seems to be extended to the Danube zone. (2) Especially the capital regions of Central Europe are highlights. (3) Eastern and South-Eastern Europe show similar patterns.

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Map 9: Performance of the “European Global Integration Zones” (ESPON project 2.4.2.) over all RCE indicators representing Lisbon performance

The map on “Lisbon Performance” of the regions provides a rather heterogeneous picture within the originally clustered regions (Global Economic Integration Zones). The “Pentagon” seems to be extending towards the East – now including Austria and Slovenia. The Danube Zone becomes more mixed up with the “Pentagon” and seems to have “swallowed” the Polish Zone, as well as the German – Polish Zone, and consists of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Hungary is rather to be accounted to the Eastern European Zone, which – on the one hand – may therefore be considered being more closely linked to the rest of the CenSE space. On the other hand the similarities in performance of the Eastern Zone and the South-Eastern regions of the Danube Zone (Hungary) may be interpreted as underlining the option of a new clustering of regions different from the one suggested above.

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Map 10: Performance of the “European Global Integration Zones” (ESPON project 2.4.2.) over all RCE indicators representing Accessibility

Contrary to the previous map on “Lisbon performance” the map on “Accessibility” underlines the clustering of regions (into Global Integration Zones) suggested by the ESPON project 2.4.2. Even the Danube Zones and Polish Zones can be identified more easily. The German – Polish Zone is now clearly divided (unlike in all the other cases of analysis). Thus, the original clustering of regions Global Integration Zones obviously is based upon a set of indicators (qualities), which show a purely physical quality rather than a socio-economic potential.

In a concluding step an answer should be given to the question whether there are other zones to be identified (like the “Central European Triangle”) which could be classified as Global Economic Integration Zones among the selected sample of regions?

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From the results of the MCA it becomes quite clear that – describing the status quo analytically – a Central European growth region covering Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Austria cannot be identified (so far). The gap between the Western parts of the Danube zone (i.e. the Western part of the CenSE space) in terms of overall performance (socio-economic as well as social as environmental) seems to be too large to justify a common cluster of regions like the “Pentagon”.

It seems more useful to accept the far stronger affinity of the Western parts of the Danube zone (i.e. Austria and Slovenia) to the “Pentagon” and use them as trigger for a polycentric development push region in Central Europe. On the other side the similarities between the Eastern part of the Danube zone and the South-Eastern European Zone seem to underline their clustering as well. They could be seen more likely as development zones following a common polycentric growth path.

The separation of the Polish Zone from the rest of the Danube Zone seems quite arbitrary. The Polish regions do not show a homogeneous performance in any ranking scenario (see Annex 5) nor do they perform significantly different than the rest of the neighbouring regions of the Danube Zone in the Czech Republic or Slovakia.

3.4 Conclusion

As already described earlier, the ESDP promotes – on the basis of the ex-post vision of the “Pentagon” – the ex-ante vision of several Global Economic Integration Zones for the future Europe. It should not surprise that the empiric analysis of this ex-ante vision elaborated by the ESPON project 2.4.2, does not show a coherent Central European growth region. In fact, the extension of the core area (“Pentagon”) of the European Union is what is currently taking place. Central Europe rather is characterised by considerable internal disparities and strong clustering similarities with outside regions.

However, it makes sense to keep the “planning vision” of a new GEIZ alive as a long-term orientation for spatial policy strategies for CenSE. This assessment is justified by the leading position of the Metropolitan Growth Areas (MEGAs) of the “Central European Triangle” within the ranking according the indicators representing the Lisbon Performance, confirmed also by the results of the Potential Oriented Cluster Analysis of the ESPON project 2.2.2 mentioned earlier. The MEGAs supposed to build the corner stones of the “Central European Triangle” (Berlin, Warsaw, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest) may be considered to serve as engines for a development towards such a vision.

In addition, referring to the objective of the Pilot Project North-South-Corridors, the three maps show that there is no reason to regard the Polish Zone separated from the Danube Zone, if there is an improvement of internal accessibility by developing North-South connections in the transnational transportation network. With other words, improved North-South rail corridors should be considered crucial for improving the cohesion and thus, the competitive strength of the CenSE space.

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4. Potential futures of North-South rail corridors

Objective

4.1 Introduction

The accessibility of the envisioned additional dynamic Global Economic Integration Zones (chapter 3) has to be provided by the networks of transport and communication. The ESDP argues in its chapter “Parity of Access to Infrastructure and Knowledge” that efficient transport and adequate access to telecommunications

– strengthen the competitive situation of peripheral and less favoured regions (and contribute to social and economic cohesion of the EU)

– are important factors in promoting polycentric development

– thus are a basic prerequisite for EU policies

The ESDP calls for a Territorial Impact Assessment (TIA) being the basic prerequisite for all large transport projects. Thus, the ESDP has, for the first time, put the tool TIA into a European context. It recommends the application of TIA as an instrument for spatial assessment of large infrastructure projects, and in particular in the use of cross-border territorial impact assessments.

The basic idea of the PlaNet CenSE Territorial Impact Analysis Forum (TIAn Forum) is to develop further the TIA approach particularly at the European/transnational level for the two major topics transport networks and polycentric development. These two topics are of high relevance in particular for the CenSE area. Therefore PlaNet CenSE focuses on these topics within the two Pilot Projects Metropolitan Networks and North-South Corridors (see chapter 5).

Summarised, the objective of the North-South Corridors Pilot Project is

– to analyse the contribution of a North-South rail infrastructure scenario to regional development and other objectives defined in TIA in relation to a scenario without improvement in the North-South Corridor (only projects with secure status). The analysis thus covers all transport modes but focuses on rail

– to clarify the specific contribution of key rail infrastructure projects to regional development and other objectives defined in TIA

– to highlight the strategic (transnational) significance of topical transport infrastructure projects, in particular options of North-South rail links incorporating parts of Corridors IV, V and VI

– to analyse competing links/alternative routes within the North-South Corridors and the ‘starting situation’ of the TEN-nodes concerned (e.g. the TEN-node Vienna-Bratislava)

– to provide basic data for evaluation of metropolitan networks

– to search for and elaborate arguments for the improvement of transport infrastructure in the North-South rail corridors from the Baltic to the Adriatic Sea (Rostock – Berlin/Warsaw – Vienna-Bratislava – Trieste/Rijeka) as a backbone for a Central European GEIZ

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The impacts to be analysed focus on the improvement of the spatial position at the European (GEIZ) and at the transnational (network) level, supporting improvement of functional relations between metropolitan regions.

4.2 Transport development

More than two years after the enlargement the development of the new member economies performs well. Growth in most new member countries is considerably higher than in the EU-15. Basis for this in economic performance is a considerable growth of trade – between new and old members and between new members as well.

This development resulted in a considerable growth of transport within NSC, which is demonstrated with the development of Austria's bilateral transport volumes. Austria bilateral transport relations showed a constant growth, which, in contrary to overall trade growth, showed steady growth in the last years.

The recent development following the 2004 membership of 10 new members to the EU has changed this pattern to some extent. Though road transport is confronted both with increases of oil and fuel prices, the liberalisation of access to the road transport market has boosted road transport. The enlargement of the European Union has facilitated the access for hauliers from new member countries to the European road transport market. This liberalisation has, at least in bilateral relations, already increased competition on the road market and led to a significant fall in road transport prices. The German Federal Office for Freight Transport reports a 20% reduction of prices in freight traffic for Germany with Poland and Czech Republic19. As a consequence, border crossing road transports to former accession countries have substantially increased within the last year.

These developments have also effects for rail infrastructure. The role of railways has become more important in these rapidly changing markets. According to the background developments railways were able to benefit from these developments to some extent. Rail freight performance has increased in Germany and Austria in general, but lost shares and partly also transport volumes in relations with the MOEL20. This shows an increasing need to eliminate bottlenecks in the old member countries and to improve the links with the new member countries.

Trends in Transport can be summarised as follows (details see Annex 6):

– Very high and constant growth of trade (€)

– Freight traffic: considerable growth in North-South relations (tons), high growth of manufactured goods (structural effect), growth of road traffic is stronger than of rail traffic, still high rail shares are decreasing; a need to increase capacities (nodes, tracks) and to improve service quality

– Passenger rail traffic: hardly any growth: weak competitiveness of rail (motorways, low cost air carriers), the need for fast rail connections (3-hours target)

19 Bundesamt für Güterverkehr (BAG), Dec. 2004. Marktbeobachtung Güterverkehr. Sonderbericht über die Auswirkungen der

EU-Osterweiterung auf das deutsche Güterverkehrsgewerbe. 20 Increase of ton-km from 2003 to 2004: Germany + 8%, Austria +5%. Source: National Federal Statistical Offices.

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The results of TEN-STAC study show a considerable growth potential of railway freight transport (national and international transports by countries). Whereas in the EU-15 total transport is expected to increase from year 2000 up to year 2020 by 70%, rail transport is expected to increase by 87% (Scenario TREND+) or 114% (Scenario EUROPEAN+). In the CEC-12 total transports are expected to grow by 95% to 112%, and rail transport by 54% to 78% (further details see Annex 7)

In passenger traffic a similar development is foreseen: Though car and coach traffic is expected to grow at a higher pace, rail traffic both in EU-15 as well as in CEC-12 also should have a positive perspective. TEN-STAC expects rail traffic performance to increase between 20 and 25% in EU-15 and by 20 to 27 in CEC-12.

4.3 Scheduled rail infrastructure projects

On April 29th, 2004 the European Parliament and the Council have adopted a decision establishing the Trans-European Transport Network, which includes 30 priority projects to be completed by 2020. These projects alone – out from a total of € 600 billion – will require investments of € 225 billion, the larger part of which are rail projects. The financing of most projects will cause considerable efforts from the Member States. The priority projects defined include rail projects in Central Europe, but leave open important gaps in North-South corridors.

Regarding actual rail transport planning documents of the EU, the development of the European rail network can be characterised as follows: a focus on East-West infrastructure projects and a backlog of North-South infrastructure projects (see map below):

The realisation of the measures is delayed by shortages in national and EU funding. Infrastructure financing suffers from insufficient national budgets as well as from EU financing. Up to year 2006 only three of the proposed 30 priority projects (most of them are envisaged since the 1990ies) have been realised. The financing of two further projects has been assured. Non of this five projects is situated in the eastern part of Europe21.

There are also delays concerning the NSC rail infrastructure projects. Up to now only few North-South rail projects in the West Corridor have been completed, mainly in Czech Republic, partly in Slovenia. The majority of rail projects have not even been started and national realisation schedules have been postponed in most cases. This applies above all for the projects in Germany and Austria.

21 Railway Technical Review, April 2006.

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Map 11: Priority Projects in central Europe

Source: European Commission, DG Energy and Transport, 2005 Note: rail links are given in red, road links in green.

The liberalisation of rail services (2nd rail package; 2007: open markets for freight transports, 2010: open markets for passengers) will create further growth of rail transport. It can be foreseen, that liberalisation will further increase the need to eliminate existing bottlenecks:

– Technical bottlenecks (number of tracks, no electrification, line routing)

– Low speed

– Intercity transport superimposed by commuter traffic (metropolitan regions)

– Quality of freight services

– Inadequate funds for maintenance of existing infrastructure (PL)

– Lack of inter-operability (signalling, licenses, technical standards)

– High infrastructure pricing (SK higher than A)

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Method

4.4 Evaluation approach

The development of NSC infrastructure will take place within a large European area between Baltic Sea and Adriatic Sea. This vast area – CenSE area – is of considerable complexity concerning the spatial patterns and infrastructure projects. The objective of presenting a comprehensive picture of the spatial impacts, which can be expected from the realisation of rail infrastructure projects, implicates the question of a unified approach to cope with this complexity both in terms of space and railway infrastructure.

In terms of space a wide diversity in terms of level of economic development and of economic performance, different densities of population and economic activities and different sizes and functions of the cities and their metropolitan regions has to be recorded.

The rail infrastructure projects itself consist of new railway lines designed to increased speed (high speed rail projects), capacity (most of rail projects) and of projects, which focus on the improvement of rail quality, reliability and economic performance.

This involves the question of data availability. Whereas data on macroeconomic developments, transport trends are easily accessible from European databases and from existing research projects on the European level, information on rail infrastructure projects is scarce for some projects and more detailed for other projects.

This resulted in an evaluation approach combining available data with own research, which had to safeguard the necessary quantitative and qualitative base22:

– a set of quantitative and qualitative indicators was defined, which were available for all projects and could be applied to all regions

– data sources from European databases, from existing research projects and from OIR database were used to set up a unified database

– quantitative modelling of the interrelations of the city system, the regions and the rail infrastructure development (connectivity modelling), which allows to construct a set of quantitative indicators and to perform statistical analysis for the whole CenSE area (connectivity and growth indicators)

– identification of quantitative indicators on the rail system (transport indicators)

– a qualitative assessment of further indicators which would afford statistical analysis too large to be performed within this research project. These indicators were elaborated by a questionnaire answered by the Project Partners (ecology indicators and cost)

– In a final step the evaluation was concluded by the transformation of all indicators to a uniform qualitative approach

22 For methodological details see Annex 6: Transport modelling

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Due to the size and complexity of CenSE area, it soon became clear, that the analysis had to be restricted to the infrastructure and the regions where data were available to a satisfying content. The availability of partners led to a restriction of the analysis

– to the western part of the North-South Corridors ('Western Corridor')

– and to larger infrastructure projects of at least national importance ('Key Links').

For this approach a set of 12 indicators could be used for 17 key infrastructure projects (Key Link approach).

To enable findings that cover the whole CenSE area, 4 indicators were elaborated. Object of this part of the evaluation is the collection of all relevant infrastructure projects in the CenSE area, but with a restriction to macroeconomic data and changes in travel time (scenario approach).

The Corridor alignment and the Key Links have been selected by the Project Partners. Most are existing TEN-T-projects (Pan European Corridors, TEN-T priority projects or national projects). However, an exception can be found in the East Corridor, where the Corridor also comprises infrastructure sections, which are part of existing projects (Poland, Slovak Republic). An overview on Corridors and the key links is given in map 12.

4.5 Scenarios – Key Links – indicators

To analyse the implications of the realisation of North-South infrastructure for the territory and the cities/metropolitan regions, two approaches are followed:

– the definition of infrastructure scenarios containing a Base Scenario, a Central and East Corridors Scenario and a West Corridor Scenario (definition see below). The scenario approach allows the analysis of the impacts from a set of infrastructure measures to the regions (NUTS regions).

– and a detailed assessment of the impacts of Key Links (key infrastructure projects and bottlenecks) within West Corridor. The Key Links approach evaluates the impacts of single infrastructure measures (to regions, cities/metropolitan areas)

Table 3: Definition of North-South-Rail scenarios

Scenario Realisation of rail infrastructure projects

Scenario 0 – Base Scenario Existing projects, all links that are not part of the 3 defined North-South Corridors

Scenario 1 – Central and East Corridors Scenario 0 + all links of the Central and East Corridors

Scenario 2 – West Corridor Scenario 1 + West Corridor and Key Links

Key Links are defined as links between nodes, which consist at least of one key project; they can also be composed of more than one key project. All indicators may be applied within key infrastructure project analysis. Key Links will be analysed in deeper detail to show their specific contribution to the objectives.

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The Key Links have been selected when they meet all the following criteria:

– single projects or a bundle of projects in spatial context, which, from their expected magnitude of improvement (investment, travel time reduction, capacity increase, transport volume) might lead to considerable regional impacts.

– projects, which are not in construction or financed; i.e. projects with uncertain realisation or realisation year.

– located in North-South Corridors (West)

– finally, the key Links defined by the authors have been modified after discussions with the partners.

As a consequence, 17 projects are identified for analysis in the Scenario North-South-Corridors. A bundle of projects aiming at the improvement of the railway network in Vienna is included because the requirements are met (see map 12).

Map 12: North-South-Corridors – Key Links

Key Links are: Rostock – Berlin Ost Katowice – Ostrava Graz – Klagenfurt Ljubljana – Cervignano Berlin – Dresden Bratislava – Zilina – Katowice Graz – Maribor Wiener Neustadt – Szombathely Dresden – Praha Breclav – Wien/TEN-Node Maribor – Ljubljana Szombathely – Graz Praha – Linz Wien – Graz Divaca – Koper Ceska Trebova – Olomouc Linz – Selzthal

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The corridor alignment and the Key Links have been selected by the Project Partners. Most are existing TEN-T-projects (Pan European Corridors, TEN-T priority projects or national projects). However, an exception can be found in the East Corridor, where the corridor also comprises infrastructure sections, which are part of existing projects (Poland, Slovak Republic).

To evaluate the impacts from the key links a set of indicators were defined. The indicators can be summarised to four groups of indicators. The following table gives an overview of the 12 indicators on benefits. Two indicators (cost and cost effectiveness) have been added.

Table 4: Indicators for analysis

Group of Indicators Indicator Description

1 – Reduction of rail travel time – FUA/MEGA-rank based weights

FUA classification, modelling distance function as a gravitation model (half-life approach, 6 hour-function), modelling the weight of the relation, assignment to link (network), impacts from reduction of travel time measured by the changed link weights

2 – Reduction of rail travel time – FUA/MEGA-GDP based weights

GDP by FUA or MEGA as basic weight, development of GDP of MEGAs and FUAs between 2003 and 2020, rank classification approach

3 – Straight-line distance related rail speed

Shows the relative attractiveness within space

CONNECTIVITY (Functional Objectives)

4 – Socio-cultural connectivity Number of borders crossed 5 – Accessibility – population potential Number of population reached, weighted by the distance

function (half-life approach) 6 – Accessibility – market potential Size of GDP reached, weighted by the distance function

(half-life approach)

GROWTH

7 – Capacity Overall capacity of the Key Link, contribution to the elimination of bottlenecks

8 – Freight transport volume (including ports)

Freight transport volume on the Key Link TRANSPORT

9 – Passenger transport volume Passenger transport volume on the Key Link 10 – Competitiveness with air transport Assesses the relations where rail travel is reduced below

3 hours – rail competitive with air transport (reduction of global emissions)

11 – Contribution to reduction of passenger traffic

Qualitative assessment of modal change in commuter traffic

ECOLOGY

12 – Contribution to reduction of freight traffic

Qualitative assessment of modal change in freight traffic

13 – Cost Investment cost of infrastructure COST 14 – Cost effectiveness Assessed in a qualitative approach

Indicators 1, 2, 5 and 6 are measured within the transport model. The network graph enables a comprehensive evaluation of all relations, projects and links within the region defined. The network improvement measures are assigned to scenarios.

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Results

4.6 Impacts by Key Links

The analysis and evaluation of the impacts by Key Links comprises West Corridor projects and uses all indicators defined. Its results are summarised in the following table23.

Table 5: Results of evaluation, Key Links West Corridor North, 4 groups of indicators

Group of indicators Connectivity Growth Transport Ecology West Corridor North

low low high low 1 Rostock – Berlin + freight transport

volume + competitiveness with air transport + modal change

commuter transport massive high massive modest 2 Berlin – Dresden

++ rank and GDP based travel time

++ attractiveness of rail travel time related to linear (air) distance

++ accessibility of population potential

++ passenger transport volume

++ modal change commuter transport ++ competitiveness

with air transport

high modest massive modest 3 Dresden – Praha ++ rank based travel

time ++ state border

crossed

++ accessibility of population potential

+ freight and passenger transport

volume

+ modal change commuter transport

modest modest high considerable 4 Praha – Linz ++ state border

crossed + passenger transport

volume + modal change

commuter and freight transport

massive massive massive high 6 Katowice – Ostrava ++ rank and GDP

based travel time ++ state border

crossed

++ accessibility of population and market

potential

++ freight and passenger transport

volume

++ modal change freight transport + modal change

commuter transport modest modest massive considerable 17 Ceska Trebova –

Olomouc

+ capacity for freight transport


volume

+ modal change commuter and freight

transport West Corridor, Central 5 Linz – Selzthal low low massive considerable + capacity for freight

transport + freight and

passenger transport volume

+ modal change freight transport

+ competitiveness with air transport

7 (Bratislava -) Zilina – Katowice

modest low massive low

+ state border crossed + capacity for freight transport

++ passenger transport volume

8 Breclav – Wien massive high considerable considerable ++ rank and GDP

based travel time ++ rail travel time

related to air distance + state border crossed

+ accessibility of population and market

potential


transport

23 For detailed results (single indicators per Key Links) see Annex 6.

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Table 5 (continued): Results of evaluation, Key Links West Corridor North, 4 groups of indicators

Group of indicators Connectivity Growth Transport Ecology West Corridor, Central

high massive massive massive 9 Wien – Graz ++ rank and GDP

based travel time ++ accessibility of

population and market potential

++ capacity for freight transport


volume

++ competitiveness with air transport ++ modal change

commuter and freight transport

high massive massive high 10 Graz – Klagenfurt ++ rail travel time

related to linear distance

+ rank and GDP based travel time

++ accessibility of population and market

potential

+ freight and passenger transport

volume

++ modal change commuter transport


+ competitiveness with air transport

high high high considerable 11 Graz – Maribor + state border

crossed + rail travel time

related to air distance

++ accessibility of population potential + capacity for freight

transport

+ freight transport volume


transport

low low modest modest 15 Wiener Neustadt – Szombathely

+ state border crossed + modal change freight

transport low low considerable modest 16 Szombathely – Graz

+ state border crossed + modal change commuter and freight

transport West Corridor, South

considerable considerable massive modest 12 Maribor – Ljubljana + rank and GDP based

travel time + capacity for freight

transport ++ freight and

passenger transport volume

considerable modest considerable low 13 Divaca – Koper + rail travel time

related to air distance + capacity for freight

transport + freight transport

volume + modal change freight

transport high considerable massive modest 14 Ljubljana – Cervignano

+ state border crossed

+ GDP based travel time

++ freight transport volume

+ passenger transport volume


The evaluation approach has tried to define the thresholds for the indicators to represent an average value of 3 scores for all indicators. This is reflected in an average score of 3.06 for all links. Transport indicators have, due to the 'natural' importance for transport infrastructure projects, the highest scores (3.91), whereas all other groups of indicators range between 2.86 and 2.93. This can be interpreted as a reasonable distribution of scores among the groups.

The average scores by Key Links illustrate the relative position of benefits and cost by Key Links. It should be noted, that the figure gives nothing more than a rough indication of the size of benefits and cost. Due to the lack of comprehensive economic evaluation it is not possible to conclude from these data to the cost effectiveness of the projects (following figures).

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Figure 2: Average scores by groups of indicators

Results of Evaluation (12 indicators) Average weights by groups of indicators

2,93 2,86

3,91

2,86 2,883,06

0,00

0,50

1,00

1,50

2,00

2,50

3,00

3,50

4,00

4,50

5,00

Connectivity Growth Transport Ecology Cost Benefits

Figure 3: Average scores by Key Links

Benefits (12 indicators) and CostEvaluation: facts and partners estimations

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0,5

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1,5

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2,5

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3,5

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4.7 Impacts by Scenarios

4.7.1 Accessibility between regions

The analysis of Key Links has been applied to the West Corridor of the North-South Corridors (NSC). To give a comprehensive view of CenSE area, a Scenario analysis – based on indicators 5 and 6 – has been performed, which integrates all relevant North-South projects in CenSE area.

– Scenario 0 (the reference Scenario) considers all existing infrastructure projects in CenSE area

– Scenario 1 additionally integrates all NSC projects in Central and East Corridors

– Scenario 2 additionally integrates all NSC projects in West Corridors

This procedure enables to analyse the impacts from the realisation of rail projects step by step for the whole CenSE area. The following tables show the total weights in terms of accessibility of the regions towards each other (population potential and GDP potential) presented by countries:

Table 6: Changes in accessibility of CenSE countries, Population Potential 2020 (Indicator 5)

Population Population Potential 2020 Change in % 2005 Scenario 0 Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Germany, Berlin + new Laender 1,439 1,444 1,449 1,462 0.3 0.9 Germany, South 2,540 2,877 2,884 2,886 0.2 0.1 Poland 1,447 1,686 1,717 1,779 1.8 3.6 Czech Republic 569 634 643 693 1.4 7.9 Slovakia 186 238 250 281 5.2 12.5 Austria 563 670 677 699 1.1 3.2

Wien Region 236 274 279 288 1.7 3.4 Styria 59 72 73 81 0.8 11.4 Rest of Austria 268 324 326 330 0.6 1.2

Hungary 322 436 458 470 5.0 2.7 Slovenia 81 112 113 125 0.8 10.9 Western Balkans 276 387 460 478 18.8 3.9 Romania 226 314 338 340 7.9 0.6 Bulgaria 53 79 90 90 12.8 0.1 Greece 70 80 89 89 10.8 0.0 Ukraine, CADSES 95 131 134 136 1.7 1.7 Italy, CADSES 1,544 2,229 2,232 2,270 0.1 1.7 CADSES total 9,411 11,317 11,532 11,798 1.9 2.3

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Table 7: Changes in accessibility of CenSE countries, GDP Potential 2020 (Indicator 6)

€ bn GDP Potential 2020 Change in % 2005 Scenario 0 Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Scenario 1 Scenario 2 Germany, Berlin + new Laender 1,483 1,691 1,702 1,712 0.6 0.6 Germany, South 4,124 4,783 4,788 4,816 0.1 0.6 Poland 3,220 3,781 3,835 3,922 1.4 2.3 Czech Republic 929 1,056 1,066 1,109 1.0 4.0 Slovakia 314 368 374 398 1.6 6.4 Austria 1,185 1,364 1,368 1,409 0.3 3.0

Wien Region 538 611 614 633 0.5 3.2 Styria 125 144 144 155 0.2 7.6 Rest of Austria 522 609 610 621 0.1 1.9

Hungary 711 855 865 891 1.2 3.1 Slovenia 116 139 140 150 0.7 7.0 Western Balkans 542 698 737 788 5.6 7.0 Romania 749 1,047 1,080 1,101 3.1 1.9 Bulgaria 80 136 153 159 13.2 3.9 Greece 195 281 337 346 20.1 2.5 Ukraine, CADSES 365 480 484 498 0.7 2.9 Italy, CADSES 2,965 3,694 3,701 3,755 0.2 1.5 CADSES total 16,977 20,373 20,629 21,054 1.3 2.1

Source: OIR, own calculations.

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The impacts of realisation of the analysed North-South rail infrastructure projects on the regions become visible by comparing Scenario 1 (Central and East Corridors) and Scenario 2 (West Corridor) with Scenario 0 (Base Scenario):

– Scenario 0 would already improve the accessibility in the CenSE area in relation to the year 2005 by 20% (population potential, see map 13, as well as GDP potential, map 14). The reason for this massive increase in accessibility lies to a large extent in the realisation of high-speed rail projects (Germany, Italy), which are not part of the NSC analysed.

– Scenario 1 would improve accessibility in the whole CenSE area by additional 1.9% in terms of population potential and by only 1.3% in terms of GDP potential in relation to Scenario 0. By far higher changes are recorded within some of the Central European countries. Massive increases of over 10% show the Western Balkan countries, Bulgaria and Greece in population potential, and Greece and Bulgaria in GDP potential. Romania, Slovakia and Hungary show strong increases. For these countries the NSC links provide the main access amongst each other and to the European core area. The improvement for Poland stays somewhat disappointing. The East Corridor connects regions of average population potential and relatively low economic potential. In the Central European countries the changes in population potential generally are lower than the changes in GDP potential.

– Scenario 2 improves accessibility with an additional 2.3% for the whole CenSE area in terms of population potential and an additional 2.1% in terms of GDP potential in relation to Scenario 0. Massive changes of over 10% are to be expected in Slovakia, in the Austrian region of Styria and in Slovenia (population potential). The strong increases in Czech Republic should be seen in the light of recently realised rail infrastructure projects, which therefore could not be represented within the analysis. Concerning the GDP potential, Styria would benefit from the strongest increase in accessibility (7.6%), followed by Slovenia, the Western Balkans and Slovakia. The impacts on CenSE regions in Germany and in Italy are relatively weak, since these regions had already reached a high level of potential before. A positive exception is the Vienna region, where both approaches show a considerable increase of more than 3%.

It should be noted that the population potential has been calculated with a middle distance function (half-life-time of 6 hours), and thus rather assesses the impacts from passenger transport, whereas the GDP potential has been constructed on a long distance function (half-life-time of 12 hours) and thus illustrates the impacts from freight transport. As a consequence, the impacts of the infrastructure measures reach far further out of the area where the improved infrastructure is located. This is the case in the Western Balkans, where the effects from the West Corridor projects are still prevailing in the regions of Beograd and Nis (Serbia) with an increase of accessibility of over 10%.

This picture is demonstrated in more regional accuracy by the following maps, which show the change of accessibility by a NUTS based regional analysis.

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Map 13: Scenarios: change of population potential (indicator 5)

The maps show the additional potential in terms of population made accessible by realisation of rail infrastructure measures. Scenario 0 comprises all (2005) existing projects excluding those, which are part of the defined three North-South Corridors. Scenario 1 covers Scenario 0 and additionally the links of the Central and East Corridors.

This map shows the additional potential in terms of population made accessible by realisation of rail infrastructure measures in Scenario 2, which comprises Scenario 1 (all existing projects plus the links of the Central and East Corridors) and additionally the West Corridor and its Key Links.

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Map 14: Scenarios: change of GDP potential (indicator 6)

The maps show the additional potential in terms of GDP made accessible by realisation of rail infrastructure measures. Scenario 0 comprises all existing projects excluding those, which are part of the defined three North-South Corridors. Scenario 1 covers Scenario 0 and additionally the links of the Central and East Corridors.

This map shows the additional potential in terms of GDP made accessible by realisation of rail infra-structure measures in Scenario 2, which comprises Scenario 1 (all existing projects plus the links of the Central and East Corridors) and additionally the West Corridor and its Key Links.

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4.7.2 Accessibility of MEGAs and Potential MEGAs24 from the regions

In a second step of the analysis the rail travel times between the regions is shown for the year 2005 and Scenario 2. Though a NUTS-3 based analysis gives a rather crude picture of regional accessibility, the isochrones provide a first picture of the potential size of single cities/metropolitan areas.

Accessibility of MEGAs The 2-hour isochrones of the MEGAs indicate the limits of the commuting area, which resembles on a picture of 'islands' in the large CenSE area. The 4-hour isochrones show regions of influence (easy day return trips for business, competitiveness with air transport), where in Scenario 2 the 'islands' merge with the adherent regions in Germany and Austria. Vast areas in CenSE show longer rail travel times to MEGAs, and thus are discriminated at least in terms of travel cost (air transport necessary for business day trips) (see map 15).

Map 15: Accessibility of nearest MEGAs, rail travel time

The two maps compare the rail travel times between the regions for the year 2005 and for Scenario 2. The 2-hour isochrones of the MEGAs indicate the limits of the commuting area. The 4-hour isochrones show regions of influence (easy day return trips for business, competitiveness with air transport.)

24 The North-South Corridors analysis condenses the ESPON classification as follows:

– MEGA of class 1 and 2 were classified as 'MEGA' – MEGA of class 3 and 4 were classified as 'Potential MEGA' – Transnational FUAs were used as in ESPON, but were replenished by a few additional FUAs

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Accessibility of MEGAs and Potential MEGAs The larger number of Potential MEGAs leads to a large share of CenSE regions already within the 2-hours isochrones (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Austria Italy). With the improvement of rail infrastructure in Scenario 2 most of these regions become adjacent and melt along the corridors to an integrated zone of low travel time regions. If the 4-hour isochrones are introduced, this picture becomes even more convincing. Whereas in 2005, all regions within EU-15 CenSE countries are able to reach a Potential MEGA within 4 hours (the exception are parts of Styria), large areas in the Central European Countries remain outside the 4-hours isochrones. With Scenario 2 the 4-hours isochrones are extended to the majority of Central European countries and even in the South-East-European countries a comprehensive zone along the corridors is included within. This can be interpreted as a considerably improved accessibility within the CenSE area in terms of business trips and economic location quality (see map 16).

Map 16: Accessibility of next MEGA or Potential MEGA, rail travel time

These two maps include also the Potential MEGA and compare the rail travel times between the regions for the year 2005 and for Scenario 2. The 2-hour isochrones of the MEGAs and Potential MEGAs indicate the limits of the commuting area. The 4-hour isochrones show regions of influence (easy day return trips for business, competitiveness with air transport.)

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4.7.3 Accessibility between FUAs and MEGAs/Potential MEGAs

In a third step, the findings are completed by a linear approach, which measures accessibility between the (next) cities/metropolitan areas within the West Corridor. Map 17 shows those relations among the MEGAs or Potential MEGAs and to the FUAs, on which the rail travel time ranges below 2 or below 4 hours. The picture is convincing: whereas there are areas with only few relations (e.g. Berlin – Praha – Vienna), in other areas a dense bundle of short travel time relations occur on the map. This is the case between Katowice – Vienna – Graz and around Ljubljana. For those cities/metropolitan areas with overlapping relations a much larger field of opportunities appears, which can be interpreted as a good condition to develop the core area of a Global Economic Integration Zone.

Map 17: Rail travel times within West Corridor (Scenario 2)

Rail travel times to MEGAs and Potential MEGAs within (Scenario 2)

West Corridor

2 hours

Rail travel time within

4 hours

The map shows the accessibility between the (next) MEGAs or Potential MEGAs and the FUAs, on which the rail travel time ranges below 2 or below 4 hours.

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4.8 Recommendations

The analysis has shown that the realisation of the rail infrastructure measures contributes significantly to the CenSE countries' objectives in transport and spatial policy: to a more sustainable transport system, to an efficient and socially acceptable provision of services and to a polycentric city system.

Though the positive impacts can be well demonstrated, many rail projects have been delayed or postponed, mostly as a consequence of a shortage in funding. In many cases the projects depend on short time financial plans, thus realisation remains insecure and no long financing schemes are guaranteed.

Thus, information on rail projects, their cost and their benefits should be increasingly carried to the public. Awareness should be created of the necessity to create a functioning border crossing rail network in CenSE area, which is able to meet the technical, efficiency and environmental challenges of the future.

Efforts of border crossing cooperation should be strengthened. Good example is the agreement achieved between the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia in August 2006 to enhance the realisation of the rail axis Praha – Ceske Budejovice – Linz – Graz – Maribor – Ljubljana – Koper. The countries agreed on August, 30th 2006, to finish the rail infrastructure projects until 2015 or 2016. They further agreed on close cooperation in the development of the port – hinterland connections of Koper as well as in the operation of the infrastructure. The desired extension of the already prioritised sections of the axis (TEN-priority projects 6 and 22) would facilitate the realisation of the rail projects by the provision of a higher share of EU funding.

Another transnational Letter of Intent has been signed in October 2006 on the development of the Pan-European Transport Corridor VI Gdansk – Warszawa – Katowice – Zilina with branches to Poznan and Breclav/Brno, to Bratislava/Wien – Graz – Klagenfurt – Udine – Trieste/Venezia – Bologna.

The member countries should provide sufficient funding to realise the infrastructure in line with the requirements caused by the development of transport volume, environmental issues or to achieve the accessibility sufficient to attract industrial or service investors.

Similar agreements should be achieved to enhance the realisation of other border crossing key rail projects.

Special attention should be paid to large scale rail projects which afford considerable investment effort and have to be followed consequently over long periods. Within such projects those sections should be prioritised, which improve operation within short time and thus enable early benefits. A good example for a lacking but desirable prioritising is the Semmering base tunnel, which constitutes the main bottleneck on the Austrian "Pontebbana" or "South axis".

The results of the Key Link evaluation should be used as the basis to recommend the realisation/ prioritising of rail infrastructure projects.

To give a comprehensive picture of the requirements of the CenSE area, the analysis of Key Links in West Corridor should be extended to the Central and East Corridors.

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5. Territorial Impact Analysis of Metropolitan Networks and Rail Corridors

Objective

The Territorial Impact Analysis Forum (see figure 1) aims at further developing of the planning tool of Territorial Impact Analysis (TIAn) at the transnational scale. That purpose is pursued by the two interrelated Pilot Projects: Metropolitan Networks (see chapter 2. and 3.) and North-South Corridors (see chapter 4.).

Before coming to the application of the planning tool TIAn within PlaNet CenSE it is necessary to have a short look at the origin of the tool. Regarding the genesis of the Territorial Impact Assessment tool, different fields of application can be identified. Territorial Impact Assessment has a rather long tradition at the national level in several countries under different terms. On national level TIA traditionally assesses the impact of proposed single spatial development measures (e.g. investment projects for settlement expansions, transport links/networks, power stations, dumps, shopping centres, cable cars and ski-stations) against the integrated spatial policy objectives for an area.

Box 7: The European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP)

At the European level the first time the European Spatial Development Perspective (ESDP) has put the tool TIA into a European context. It addresses TIA at several territorial contexts and recommends application

– as an instrument for spatial assessment of large infrastructure projects (Option 29) – coastal areas, mountain areas and wetlands ... (Option 42) – water management projects (Option 52) – cross-border TIAs (rec. after para 178) – and in particular the use of cross-border territorial impact assessments (rec. after para

178)

It should be indicated here that still all these applications recommended by the ESDP are concerning projects, although for cross-border and transnational ones. This is mentioned because later on the ESPON25 programme initiated a further development of the tool, which asked for applying the instrument also to EU policies and programmes. The policies and programmes investigated there are originally not being committed to the goals of territorial development but actually influencing it considerably. Thus, the aim within ESPON was to assess how and to what degree they are effecting the territorial development26.

PlaNet CenSE and its Pilot Projects open a new field of the TIA application. The PlaNet CenSE application may be seen between the levels of programmes and plans: it deals with planning strategies. On the one hand it is more concrete and referring to territory than programmes use to be, on the other it is not as precise as ”large infrastructure projects” mentioned by the ESDP. However, within PlaNet CenSE the term Territorial Impact Analysis (TIAn) is used instead of Territorial Impact Assessment (1) in order to distinguish the application of the tool from the traditional exercise (referring 25 European Spatial Observation Network – www.espon.eu 26 for further information on the application in the ESPON context see ESPON project 3.1, “Integrated Tools for European

Spatial Development”, Final report, www.espon.eu)

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to single projects) and (2) to make clear that this analysis will comprise evaluating elements but that there is no intention to promote a new formal evaluation procedure (e.g. like Strategic Environmental Assessment).

The basic idea of the TIAn Forum is to develop further the original TIA approach, in particular for application at the European/transnational level for major sectoral strategies. Two of the most topical subjects at European level are transport networks and polycentric city networks. These two topics are also of high relevance for the CenSE space. This is the reason why the PlaNet CenSE project focuses on these topics within the two Pilot Projects.

Method

Summarising the new way of applying TIAn in this project to strategies at the transnational level may be characterised by the following table.

Table 8: Methodological rationale of the Pilot Projects

Subjects analysed PlaNet CenSE TIAn Pilot Projects Interventions Effects

Metropolitan Networks (Local & relational) urban

policy measures

(Transnational) polycentric

development

Stra

tegi

c is

sues

North-South Corridors (Sectoral) transport

policy measures (investment projects)

(Territorial) position in Europe, ‘Internal’

access

The original idea has been to realise the TIAn approach by comparing for both of the Pilot Projects two scenarios. Therefore, it was intended to compare the following two scenarios for Metropolitan Networks:

– Draft Trend Scenario showing MEGAs (Cat. 1- 4) and transnational FUAs27 at the time horizon of 2020 where some of them are appraised as „Candidates to upgrade“ due to assumed individual strategies (according the assessments of Project Partners’ representatives)

– Proactive Scenario showing MEGAs (Cat. 1- 4) and transnational FUAs19 at the time horizon of 2020 where some of them are appraised as „Candidates to upgrade“ due to an already existing or assumed cooperation network (according the assessments of Project Partners’ representatives)

It could be expected that the difference between the two scenarios illustrating the higher rise of the cooperating cities indicates the value added of cooperation between adjacent cities in terms of division of labour and/or achieving a critical mass in order to get together into higher rank regarding the competition of metropolitan regions, according the basic idea of polycentricity.

27 based on the results of the ESPON project 1.1.1: “Urban areas as nodes in a polycentric development”, however adjusted to

a future time horizon, see www.espon.eu

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However, during the work on Metropolitan Networks it turned out that concerning this subject it is hardly feasible to apply this approach because there is no way to register existing, i.e. actually happening interventions (urban policy measures) in such a systematic and comparable way (at a transnational level throughout CenSE) that spatial impacts (here expressed by achieving a higher rank of the cities involved) could be derived, neither for the upgrade due to individual strategies nor for the upgrade due to an already existing or assumed cooperation network. It rather was possible

– to assess the development potential due to individual strategies by some qualitative arguments concerning the transnational functions (see table 1) and

– to determine existing respectively expected future networking activities

Thus, the usual approach, starting from interventions and asking for associated effects – like it is, of course, executed for the subject matter of North-South Corridors – turned out to be not feasible for Metropolitan Networks. Therefore, from a pragmatic point of view, it seemed to make much more sense to anticipate the effects in the form of noticed or expected city cooperation networks (scenario), i.e. (1) starting from the territorial aim and (2) to look for corresponding policy domains actually executed or considered possible. In a more generalised view this may be characterised as master plan approach, whereas the classical project-focussed approach (1) starting from an assumed intervention and (2) asking for impacts on the territorial aims is the TIAn approach, actually executed for the North-South Corridors.

From a theoretical point of view, this approach at the same time complies with the general double approach of spatial planning, shown in the table below.

Table 9: The scenarios in the context of the double approach of spatial planning

Planning strategies Space/territory Interventions/measures

Master plan approach

prospective and comprehensive shaping of a certain area

1 Metropolitan Networks

identifying MEGAs, tnFUAs as “candidates

to upgrade”

2 assigning associated urban policy measures/strategies

TIAn approach

the ad-hoc analysing of project-related effects on spatial structure

2 analysing impacts

(connectivity, growth, transport, ecology and

costs)

1 North-South Corridors

identifying selected improvements of rail

network elements

Results

Therefore, the summary of the results of the two Pilot Projects is shown by a confrontation of the main maps (see Map 18) enlightening the core information, how metropolitan networks may benefit from the improvement of accessibility by promoting the development of North-South rail connections, in general, and in particular, how the planning vision of a Global Economic Integration Zone in Central Europe (“Central European Triangle”) may be supported.

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Map 18: The possible support of improved North-South Corridors for Metropolitan Networking

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The direct confrontation of the

– Development potentials of urban areas and the Selected examples of cooperation networks

with the (possible)

– changes effected by improving North-South Corridor rail links both in terms of population based potential (referring to passenger transport) and GDP based potential (referring to freight transport)

illustrates convincingly what has been the main idea by selecting and combining the two Pilot Projects Metropolitan Networks and North-South Corridors:

– North-South connections of the rail network show remarkable potentials for development, not envisaged so far. Massive changes of accessibility are to be expected throughout considerable parts of CenSE.

– Developed North-South rail connections could enhance the (internal) territorial cohesion of CenSE, feeding the internal integration of CenSE in general, and serve as a backbone for a “Central European Triangle” in particular.

– It is remarkable that the effects go far beyond the regions where the improved infrastructure is located. Even by the effects of the West Corridor projects vast areas of Poland, the whole territory of Slovakia, Hungary and great parts of the Western Balkans are benefiting.

– Also the picture concerning the accessibility between the urban areas (relevant for cooperation) is striking. In particular between Katowice – Vienna – Graz and around Ljubljana a dense bundle of short travel time relations occur. For those cites/metropolitan areas with overlapping relations a much larger field of opportunities appears, which can be interpreted as a good condition to develop the core area of a Global Economic Integration Zone.

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6. Application of polycentrism

Objective

First of all the term application has to be commented. Implementation usually is about bringing spatial (master)plans into reality by adopting appropriate measures. For more abstract conceptual and strategic documents – like the ESDP – predominantly the term application is used. However, in the context given here, different levels of abstraction could be considered.

The rather high level of abstraction – similar to the ESDP – deals with strategic priorities, more general guidelines for the whole CenSE space, mostly not referring to certain places rather than to types of places, areas or regions. Another different level could be considered being constituted by the results of the scenarios of the two Pilot Projects (1) Metropolitan Networks and (2) North-South Corridors. Although, the first Pilot Project is addressing certain areas shown in maps, the scenarios are not considered to be plans. They rather illustrate expectations and ideas of the Project Partners about metropolitan networking without designating goals that could be translated directly into measures.

The second Pilot Project is dealing with potential improvements in the transportation network and resulting in recommendations that, of course, could be translated directly into measures, i.e. a rather low level of abstraction. Now concluding, the Pilot Project Metropolitan Networks is kind of oscillating between the levels of abstraction. Therefore, the two terms (implementation – application) could be considered rather equivalent. However, taking into account some – from our point of view – overdone expectations concerning the controllability of spatial development at the transnational development in general, and the polycentric development by city networking in particular, we finally prefer to use the term application.

Method

Any kind of promotion and application of a strategy (and all the more its implementation) depends on the governance power of the acting institutions being considered. Thus, it is regarded necessary to get at least a rough picture of the actual distribution of power concerning spatial development. Since there are no governing authorities at the transnational level at all, one has to look at the national and sub-national levels first.

In doing so, the two domains referred to, cooperative networking of metropolitan areas and improving capacity of rail corridors, show rather different conditions. For the issue of North-South-Corridors the situation is comparably complex. The development of rail networks with transnational significance usually is, first of all, up to the national level. The responsibility of ministries for transport is – more or less common to all the countries concerned – although there are some changes under way in the context of privatisation and Public-Private-Partnership models. However, this does not touch the issue of the level responsible. In complement to the national competence that there is a Community policy area for Transeuropean Networks supporting national endeavours. Thus, the addressees for findings concerning the improvement potential of North-South-Corridors are the national and the European level.

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Much more sophisticated is the situation concerning the issue of developing cooperative networking of metropolitan areas. A review of the conditions for urban policy concerning polycentric spatial development (see Annex 7) shows very clearly that

– in none of the CenSE countries there is an explicit urban policy at the national level and

– at the same time in most of the countries there is weak or even no power concerning spatial development at the national level

At the European level there is only a rather indirect access to the issue of promoting cooperative city networking by taking into account the concept of polycentrism in the context of the different financial aid programmes.

Therefore, transnational strategies have to be addressed mainly to national and regional actors, otherwise the whole concept of polycentristic development will remain in the present abstract stage at which it has been dealt with so far. Again it has to be reminded that the basic assumption of the Pilot Project Metropolitan Networks is that city networking is about activities (urban policy measures) initiated and carried out by public and semi-public institutions and authorities of or in cities. The differentiation of the systems of responsibilities/capacities has been identified by a review. This review is based on the responses of the Project Partners’ representatives to an inquiry by the Lead Partner. The information is summarised in the following chart showing a rather differentiated situation in the countries involved.

Results

The allocation of intervention capacities concerning spatial development, in particular referring to polycentric development shows a rather varying pattern. The endowment of national, regional and local level with means to influence spatial development in the areas of spatial planning, public investments, public incentives for private investments and spatial research (as an arena for transferring development ideas) is different from country to country. It strikes that also the statements concerning the power of the EU in the different domains varies too. This obviously goes along with diverse points of view by the Project Partners.

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Figure 4: Distribution of power concerning spatial development, in particular referring to polycentric development

This situation requires a country-wise differentiation of the application strategies. The table below reviews these strategies distinguishing the areas of spatial planning, public investments, public incentives for private investments (subsidies) and institutionalised spatial research. Spatial impacts may be related to these domains, however, the access to and the application power of the actors motivated for spatial planning – and thus addressing the real acting authorities – is to be considered very different.

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Table 10: Conclusions for country-wise strategies (Project Partners)

Country Spatial planning Public investments Public incentives for private investments (subsidies)

Institutionalised spatial research

AUSTRIA

Since there is no spatial planning at national level, promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular mainly by regional plans and programmes of the Länder (provincial) governments Institutionalisation of the CENTROPE network for the Vienna-Brno-Bratislava-Györ region, transfer into real cross-border regional planning Institutionalisation of the regional cooperation initiated by the project Vision Rheintal

Leverages for polycentric development could be mainly the linking together the secondary network of public transport to the primary (transnational) and relocation of universities and polytechnics

The ERDF programmes, managed by the regional together with the national government, should take into account polycentric development as a criteria for subsidising

The Austrian Conference on Spatial Planning should start a project analysing potential for polycentric development

BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

Since there is no spatial planning at the national level, promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular mainly by spatial plans of the two entities and the Cantons.

Taking into account polycentric development by the CARDS Programme (institution building), by developing the transportation network financed by the national government

Strengthening of regional research institutes for development planning (Sarajevo, Tuzla, Mostar, Banja Luka)

BULGARIA Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by National Strategy on Regional Development (NSRD) and by (binding) Regional Development Plans as well as by National Spatial Development Strategy (not yet existing)

EC and the national funds should take into account polycentric development by supporting regional/sectoral development co-financed by ISPA, in particular concerning the transportation network

CZECH REPUBLIC Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by national spatial development policy and by regional planning, in particular concerning the participation of Brno in the CENTROPE network and the envisaged cooperations Ostrava-Katowice-Krakow, Usti nad Labem-Dresden, Karlovary-Chemnitz, Plzeň – Regensburg, České Budějovice – Linz,

Taking into account polycentric development by developing the transportation network, in particular supporting the envisaged city cooperations

Taking into account polycentric development by national and regional development programmes (co-financed by ERDF)

Strengthening regional universities and regional development agencies, supported by the Centre for Regional Development of the Czech Republic

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Country Spatial planning Public investments Public incentives for private

investments (subsidies) Institutionalised spatial research

GERMANY Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by Regional Planning Policy Guidelines (ORA) by joint decision of MKRO as guiding policy documents for spatial planning and by regional plans and programmes of the Länder (provincial) governments in particular concerning the envisaged city cooperations Nürnberg-Erlangen-Bamberg-Würzburg, Leipzig-Halle-Dresden

Taking into account polycentric development by developing the national and regional transportation network, in particular supporting the envisaged city cooperations


Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu)

GREECE Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by (national) General Spatial Plan Special Spatial Plans as well as by Regional Spatial Plans

Taking into account polycentric development by developing the national and regional transportation network


Academic national research institutes for urban and regional development

HUNGARY Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by (binding) National Spatial Plan and (non-binding) spatial development concepts/strategies



Hungarian Academy of Sciences RKK (Centre for Regional Studies) with regional departments

EMILIA ROMAGNA (ITALY) Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by the Regional territorial development scheme and the Provincial Co-ordination Territorial Plan in particular concerning the envisaged city cooperations Bologna-Modena-Reggio Emilia-Parma-Piacenza-Carpi-Sassuolo-Imola, Bologna-Ferrara-Ravenna-Imola-Faenza-Forlì-Cesena-Rimini-Cesenatico-Cattolica


Taking into account polycentric development by national development programmes (co-financed by ERDF)

MARCHE (ITALY) Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by the Regional Coordination Plan in particular concerning the envisaged city cooperations Ancona-Zadar-Split



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Country Spatial planning Public investments Public incentives for private

investments (subsidies) Institutionalised spatial research

POLAND Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by the (binding) National Spatial Development Document and the National Strategy for Regional Development as well as by the (binding) Regional Spatial Development Plans and spatial plans for the metropolitan areas



Two urban and several regional research institutes

REPUBLIC OF SERBIA Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by the (non binding) Spatial Plan of the Republic of Serbia (SPRS) and Spatial Plan of the Republic of Montenegro (PRM) as well as by regional plans for the Vojvodina and the City of Belgrade in particular concerning the envisaged city cooperation Beograd-Timisoara-Szeged

spatial plans for infrastructural corridors

ROMANIA Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by the (binding) National Spatial Development Plan and the County Spatial Development Plans in particular concerning the envisaged city cooperation Beograd-Timisoara-Arad-Szeged, Debrecen-Oradea, Bucarest-Giurgiu-Constanta-Ruse

EC and the national funds should take into account polycentric development by supporting regional/sectoral development co-financed by ISPA, in particular concerning the transportation network

Taking into account polycentric development by national (FRD) and regional (RDF) funds for regional development

National Institute for Research and Development in Urban and Spatial Planning (URBANPROIECT) County research institutes in Bucuresti, Iasi, Cluj, Timisoara, Constanta, Craiova

SLOVAKIA Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by the (binding) National Spatial Development Perspective and the (binding) regional plans in particular concerning the envisaged city cooperation Vienna-Bratislava-Trnava-Györ-Brno,



SLOVENIA Promotion of polycentric development in general and city networking in particular by the (binding) Spatial Development Strategy of Slovenia and the Spatial Order of Slovenia

Taking into account polycentric development by developing the national transportation network

Taking into account polycentric development by national development programmes (co-financed by ERDF)

Urban Planning Institute of the Republic of Slovenia

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7. Conclusions

Key message 1

There is a chance forpolycentricm

Challenge

– The regional development in Central and South East Europe (CenSE) is characterised by fast growing disparities between the heading capital city regions and western border areas on the one hand and the rest of the countries on the other.

Chance

– CenSE shows a more distinct polycentric structure than the EU 15 area, at least in terms of the morphological structure of the urban system. Thus, there are good conditions for city networking balancing the regional disparities.

Choice

– Promoting strategic planning at urban level taking into account the potentials for city networking, in part developable from already existing cooperative relations.

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Key message 2

Territorial cohesion could beenhanced just by city networks

Challenge

– Politically, CenSE has undergone considerable changes in the recent years. Quite a number of new states occurred with the consequence of a rather high density of national borders – an additional challenge for territorial cohesion.

Chance

– Most of the envisaged cooperation networks between neighbouring cities are crossing national borders, sometimes with a common history behind.

Choice

– Just city cooperation networks could strengthen transnational territorial cohesion.

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Key message 3

A new Europeancore area is emerging

Challenge

– CenSE needs dynamic core areas appropriate for enhancing the global economic integration of the enlargement area.

Chance

– Berlin, Warsaw Prague, Vienna/Bratislava and Budapest are corner stones of the most dynamic area in CenSE.

Choice

– Central Europe has a clear potential for a dynamic core area at the European level.

– South East Europe urgently needs very first steps towards city cooperation at the transnational level

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2 hours

Rail travel time within

4 hours

Key message 4

North-South Corridorscould serve as a backbone

Challenge

– The topical orientation for improving the transportation networks within the EU is prioritising East-West-connections.

Chance

– North-South connections of the rail network show considerable potentials for development, not envisaged so far. The effects go far beyond the regions where the improved infrastructure is located.

Choice

– Developed North-South rail connections could serve not only as a “backbone” for a new Central European core area but also could enhance the (internal) integration of South-East Europe The realisation of North-South rail projects thus should be followed with increased effort and be prioritised in national master plans.

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Key message 5

Continuation of the networkunder Objective 3 (2007 – 2013)

Challenge

– CenSE consists of countries with very different planning traditions and cultures. In addition a major part belongs to the Western Balkans with a difficult future concerning accession.

Chance

– At the same time there is a capable and actually sustainable planners network (established by Vision Planet and continued by PlaNet CenSE) able to support the institutional integration, at least in the domain of territorial development planning.

Choice

– The issues mentioned above should be applied as the main “planning infrastructure” under Objective 3 during the next period of Structural Funds.

Documents

Metropolitan Networking in CenSE backed by North · PDF fileMetropolitan Networking in CenSE backed by North-South ... Results of Potential Oriented Cluster ... apply the two central