Archive d’étiquettes pour : Post-socialist Urban Change; Environmental Conflicts; City of Nitra in Slovakia

Development of the cities is at the core of a growing number of socio-environmental conflicts. The aim of this study is to explore the links between the transition to democracy, markets and decentralized governance, and the related processes of change and to highlight the most significant characteristics of socio-environmental conflicts in post-socialist city of Nitra. Nitra is the fifth-largest city in Slovakia (76,223 inhabitants) and the oldest city in the country. It is a seat of a self-governing region (the Nitra Region) with two universities representing the most important source for creative industries in the region. This study examines the temporal and spatial changes in physical, functional, and socio-demographic intra-urban structures. Special attention is paid to land-cover change as a consequence of several factors affecting the post-socialist urban development in the city (1990-2021). Using a combination of techniques of remote sensing and GIS, the study identifies loss of agricultural land and a significant expansion of built-up areas (especially new large automotive manufacturing plant Jaguar Land Rover and housing construction) resulting in several socio-environmental conflicts in the recent three decades. The concluding comments recognize the need for effective research of complexity of urban change and a crisis of protectionist paradigms and methods of planning and intervention in the dynamic (post-socialist urban) territory.

Vladimír Ira, Martin Boltižiar
Institute of Geography of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia – Department of Geography, Geoinformatics and Regional Development Faculty of Natural Sciences and Informatics, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Nitra, Slovakia


 
ID Abstract: 619