Upper Silesian metropolitan area Slezská Metropolitní oblast | |
---|---|
Coordinates: 50°05′N18°45′E / 50.083°N 18.750°E | |
Country | Poland, Czech Republic |
Region | Silesian Voivodeship (Poland), Moravian-Silesian Region (Czech Republic) |
Largest cities | Katowice Ostrava Sosnowiec Gliwice Zabrze Bielsko-Biała Bytom |
Area | |
• Metro | 5,400 km2 (2,100 sq mi) |
Population (2015) [1] | |
• Metro | 5,008,000 |
• Metro density | 930/km2 (2,400/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
The Upper Silesian metropolitan area [2] (also known as Silesian metropolitan area [2] ) is a polycentric metropolitan area in southern Poland and northeastern Czech Republic, centered on the cities of Katowice and Ostrava, and has around 5 million inhabitants. Geographically, it is located mainly in Upper Silesia, with small parts of the area also in the historical regions of Moravia and Lesser Poland. Administratively, it is located in the three administrative units (NUTS-2 class): mainly Silesian Voivodeship and a small western part of Lesser Poland Voivodeship in Poland, and also a small eastern part of Moravian-Silesian Region in the Czech Republic. The metropolitan area lies within the Upper Silesian Coal Basin and is sometimes called by different names, e.g. Upper Silesian urban-industrial agglomeration. [3] The Upper Silesian metropolitan area (5.3 million people), together with nearby Kraków metropolitan area [4] [5] (1.3 million [2] [6] [7] [8] [9] people) and Częstochowa metropolitan area [4] (0.4 million [2] [6] [7] people), create a greater Kraków-Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan region covering 7 million people.
Upper Silesian metropolitan area has a population of 5,294,000 (2002), with 4,311,000 (81.43%) in Poland (the Upper Silesian polycentric metropolitan area) and 982,000 (18.57%) in the Czech Republic (Ostrava Functional Urban Area). [2] According to Polish Scientific Publishers (PWN) area is 5,400 km², with 4,500 km² (83.33%) in Poland and 900 km² (16.67%) in the Czech Republic. [10] According to the Brookings Institution, area has a population of 5,008,000 (2015). [1]
The area consists of several Functional Urban Areas (FUA), each of which is defined as a core Morphological Urban Area (MUA) based on population density plus the surrounding labour pool, i.e. a metropolitan area. This area contains the following FUAs: [2]
Data may vary depending on the source, example for same the Katowice city exist sources for 3.5 million people; [11] [12] for the Rybnik – 507,000, [7] while for the Ostrava – 1,153,876. [6]
Historically, most of the area was characterized by heavy industry since the age of industrialisation in the late 19th and early 20th century. In addition to coal, Upper Silesia also contains a number of other minable resources (methane, cadmium, lead, silver and zinc). About 70 billion tons of coal resources are available up to a depth of 1000 meters and the conditions for extraction are good. [10]
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately 40,000 km2 (15,400 sq mi), and the population is estimated at 8,000,000. Silesia is split into two main subregions, Lower Silesia in the west and Upper Silesia in the east. Silesia has a diverse culture, including architecture, costumes, cuisine, traditions, and the Silesian language. The largest city of the region is Wrocław.
Silesian Voivodeship is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia, with Katowice serving as its capital.
Chorzów is a city in the Silesia region of southern Poland, near Katowice. Chorzów is one of the central cities of the Metropolis GZM – a metropolis with a population of 2 million. It is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Rawa River.
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heavy industry.
Bieruń is a town in Upper Silesia, in southern Poland, seat of the Bieruń-Lędziny County in the Silesian Voivodeship. It is located about 25 km (16 mi) south of Katowice.
Wodzisław Śląski is a city in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland with 47,992 inhabitants (2019). It is the seat of Wodzisław County.
Cieszyn Silesia, Těšín Silesia or Teschen Silesia is a historical region in south-eastern Silesia, centered on the towns of Cieszyn and Český Těšín and bisected by the Olza River. Since 1920 it has been divided between Poland and Czechoslovakia, and later the Czech Republic. It covers an area of about 2,280 square kilometres (880 sq mi) and has about 810,000 inhabitants, of which 1,002 square kilometres (387 sq mi) (44%) is in Poland, while 1,280 square kilometres (494 sq mi) (56%) is in the Czech Republic.
The Silesian Autonomy Movement, abbreviated as RAŚ, is a movement officially declaring its support for the autonomy of Silesia as part of a unified Europe. The association was founded in January 1990 by Rudolf Kołodziejczyk and is based in the Polish part of Upper Silesia. RAŚ sees the Silesians as a "separate nation" rather than primarily as Poles, Germans or Czechs.
The Metropolis GZM is a metropolitan unit composed of 41 contiguous municipalities in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland. The seat of the metropolitan council is Katowice, the largest city of the region and the voivodeship capital. With a population of over 2 million, the core of the Metropolis GZM is one of the largest urban areas in the European Union. The area of the metropolis largely coincides with the metropolitan area of the Katowice urban area, which is a part of the wider polycentric transnational Upper Silesian-Moravian metropolitan area, the latter with a population of 5–5.3 million people.
The Upper Silesian Coal Basin is a coal basin in Silesia, in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The larger urban zone (LUZ), or functional urban area (FUA), is a measure of the population and expanse of metropolitan and surrounding areas which may or may not be exclusively urban. It consists of a city and its commuting zone outside it.
The Upper Silesian Industrial Region is a large industrial region in Poland. It lies mainly in the Silesian Voivodeship, centered on Katowice.
The Rybnik Coal Area is an industrial region in southern Poland. It is located in the Silesian Voivodeship, in a basin between the Vistula and Oder rivers, sited on the Rybnik Plateau between Katowice to the north and Ostrava on the south-west. It is part of the Upper Silesian-Moravian metropolitan area populated by 5,294,000 people and the Kraków-Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan region populated by about 7 million. According to scientific description by Paweł Swianiewicz and Urszula Klimska this area has 507,000 people, according to European Spatial Planning Observation Network - 634,000 people. Area: about 1,300 km2.
Iskrzyczyn is a village in Gmina Dębowiec, Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It has an area of 4.65 square kilometres (1.80 sq mi) and a population of 632 (2005).
The Katowice urban area, also known as the Upper Silesian urban area, is an urban area/conurbation in southern Poland, centered on Katowice. It is located in the Silesian Voivodeship and in a small part of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. The Katowice urban area is the largest urban area in Poland and 21st largest urban area in the European Union. According to Demographia, its population is 1,903,000.
The Ostrava metropolitan area is the metropolitan area with the city of Ostrava in the Czech Republic at its center. The Ostrava urban area is the largest urban area in the metropolitan area with a population of 365,000. The metropolitan area corresponds to the administrative Moravian-Silesian Region. The population of the metropolitan area is 966,175 as of 2023. An alternative definition, the Eurostat Larger Urban Zone, lists a population of 1,153,876. The Ostrava metropolitan area is sometimes combined with the Katowice metropolitan area to form a wider metropolitan area with a population of 5,008,000 (2015). The metropolitan area has 172 municipalities.
This is a list of metropolitan areas in Poland.
TVP3 Katowice a.k.a. TV Katowice also Television Katowice is one of the regional branches of the TVP, Poland's public television broadcaster. It serves the entire Silesian Voivodeship with particular dedication to the Metropolis GZM and Katowice metropolitan area.
Silesian independence is the political movement for Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia to become a sovereign state.