Suburbanisation processes within and outside the city: The development of intra-urban suburbs in Wrocław, Poland

Abstract

Abstract The scale and the specificity of intra-urban suburbanisation is subject to evaluation in this article, based on a case study of Wrocław city (SW Poland), using data on population changes at an intra-urban scale and on the level of construction activity in the city. Intra-urban suburbanisation is characterised by intensive construction activity and population growth in the peripheral districts of the city, while depopulation takes place in the central part of the city and in large panel block estates from the socialist period. The main factors for the development of intra-urban suburbanisation are a reaction to the unfavourable (from the perspective of the city) suburbanisation processes (outflow of residents and tax revenue, road traffic congestion and the necessity to service populations residing de facto outside the city). The existence of extensive non-urbanised areas within the larger cities of Central and Eastern Europe (identified as potential areas for investment) results from the specific nature of their territorial development in the 20th century, including incorporation processes connected with planned urbanisation.