Rozmieszczenie usług jako podstawa rozpoznawania ośrodków podregionalnych w Polsce i ich hierarchii
Location of Services as the Basis for Recognising Sub-Regional Centres in Poland and their Hierarchy

Summary/Abstract: Sub-regional centres are defined as towns, in which there are concentrated the types of services that in Poland may exist in several towns of the voivodeship, but not in every capital of poviat (county). The services have always had a tendency to concentrate, creating service centres of different levels in hierarchical settlement network. The objectives of the present research were: (1) definition of services typical of the sub-regional level; (2) recognition of the concentration of these services, the centres created by them and their distribution, and (3) verification to which extent the regularity relate to the concentration of services in hierarchical centres at the sub-regional level in Poland. Presented study includes only centres apart metropolitan areas and apart capital of voivodeships. Typical services defining sub-regional centres were: courts of second instance, multi-specialised hospitals, universities and multiplexes. The diversity of centres was analysed with the use of the classification method and their distribution – by cartographic analysis methods. The research was a continuation of research from 2015. Taking into account more recent data and a wider range of services, it identified 23 sub-regional complete centres and 46 incomplete ones, in which sets of services create different combinations, with two dominant ones. The regularity relating to the concentration of services was stated. The location of centres is uneven, probably due to the diversity of population density.

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