1. C.2.2
1.
Region
Regions are the areas widely divided by physical geography (physical characteristics),
human geography (human impact characteristics), and environmental aspects (the
interaction between the environment and humanity). These areas are marked by numerous
unique properties which are distinct from the outside and homogenous inside. The
atmospheric regions and hydrospheric regions include the areas covered by the climate
above water masses and land. These geographical sub-regions and regions are described
by their defined transitional boundaries while the law defines jurisdiction areas like national
boundaries.
Regions are a result of the relationship between natural and social elements or
phenomena in reality (Haggett, 2001). Classification of regions is used to identify
the most important types of regions based on various criteria and aspects. There are
four basic criteria. These are (Klapka a Tonev, 2008):
industrial,
methodological,
taxonomic,
form.
Industry criterion is a simple classification of regions based on different
industries. For instance, in a geographical approach the first (highest) level
includes regions physical-geographical (FG), socio-geographical (HG) and
complex geographical. FG and HG regions may be further divided into smaller
units (climatic regions, industrial region, etc.) These are not regions with the same
content. The aim to create a complex region is therefore very difficult. There are
two solutions to this. Either the complex region is identified based on natural
conditions for its origin and subsequent development of core socio-economic
areas or the HG region is pronounced complex as the organization of socio-
economic phenomena reflects the natural potential of the area.
According to practical use, regions may also be divided
into administrative and specific-purpose. Administrative regions are created to
exercise public administration, i.e. state and regional administration. Due to
continual administration of a region, stability in time of these regions is important.
Administrative regions cover the whole area of a state with the relationships of
subordination and domination in the area of the management of administrative
activities existing between them. Specific-purpose regions are created to deal with
specific problems such as decrease of economic underdevelopment of a certain
area, etc.
2. From the point of view of economic development of regions we distinguish
regions growing, stagnating and problematic. Growth regions are identified by
creating new production industries and services and also by the growth of
inhabitants due to population growth and migration. Due to this, further
development of the region is initiated in the form of high intensity of creating new
companies. In stagnating region there are no significant changes from the
economic point of view. Problematic regions usually show low long-term
economic efficiency or the presence of more unfavorable socio-economic
phenomena (e.g. literacy of people). One of the ways to identify problematic
regions in the Czech Republic is the Act No. 248/2000 Coll. on the support of
regional development. This act identified four basic types of regions based on the
support needed: structurally-deficient regions, economically weak regions, rural
regions and other problematic regions.
Currently, this classification has been modified and only 3 categories are
identified: structurally-deficient regions, economically weak regions and regions
with high unemployment rate. Their current location (as of February 2010,
more here ) can be seen in the figure below.
Regions with state subsidies in February 2010 (Source: own according to the
Ministry of Regional Development). NB.: formed military areas Ralsko and
Milovice-Mladá are included in the economically weak regions
Methodological criterion - tells us why a specific region is identified. Klapka and
Tonev (2008) identify the following:
region as toolof research – region is a statistical unit for which data is
gathered for further processing,
region as object of research – region is the ultimate object of research and
by identifying it the scientific task is complete,
region as toolof area management – this is called a planning region for
which a plan of development is prepared based on analysis. Examples
include NUTS II regions in the EU or euroregions.
Taxonomic criterion considers geographical location of regions including various
levels of territorial areas. From the taxonomic point of view regions are divided
into two groups: individual and typological regions. Individual regions are
identified based on special features (lower left fig.) and many of them have their
own name (Valašsko, Krušné hory, Slezsko, counties, etc.). Typological
regions are defined based on general and typical characteristics observed in
regions (lower right fig) – the selection of the same types (e.g. national parks,
regions with dense railroad network, least densely populated regions, etc.).
3. Individual (left) and typological regions (Source: Klapka and Tonev, 2008)
There may be many more typological regions based on the observed phenomena
than individual regions. When identifying individual regions, always one element is
matched with one region, for typological regions there might be more elements.
An example of identification of individual and typological regions (Source: Klapka
and Tonev, 2008)
