Gábor Kozma

DIFFERING DEVELOPMENT PATHS OF SPATIAL INCOME INEQUALITIES AFTER THE POLITICAL TRANSITION — BY THE EXAMPLE OF HUNGARY AND ITS REGIONS

The debate about trends and changes is a topical issue today regarding the current financial and economic crisis. Hungary delimited seven NUTS-2 planning-statistical regions with the less developed Northern Great Plain region and the top ranking Western Transdanubia. The study deals with the developing path of spatial income inequalities with the methods of Hoover index and the logarithmic standard deviation. The decay and the growth of inequalities were significantly higher in the case of the underdeveloped territories. Developed areas faced a moderate increase concerning their inequalities and these microregions were able to attract new investments and restructure their economy.

Spatial development of sports facilities in Hungarian cities of county rank

Abstract Nowadays more and more attention is devoted to the spatial development of the location of sports facilities within cities. The main aim of our paper is to observe the most important spatial characteristics of their development in Hungarian cities of county rank. In these cities three main periods of development of sports facilities can be observed. Larger sports facilities were constructed especially on the edge of cities or in the suburbs, while in the case of smaller facilities a bigger role was played by locations within the city boundaries. As regards the factors influencing the location of sports facilities, the most important role was played by the location of available land areas, besides accessibility and from the mid-1960s links to existing facilities can be mentioned as well.

The Changing Role of Sports in Urban Development: A Case Study of Debrecen (Hungary)

In the last few decades, researchers are paying more and more attention to study the connections between sports and urban development. The main purpose of this study is to examine the changing role of sports in urban development through the example of Debrecen and to present the differences between the various historical periods. As a result, it can be concluded that on the one hand, in the inter-war years and in the period after 2000, the broader influence of sports was recognised, and local government made special efforts to use sports for the development of local economy, as well as for the improvement of the image of the city. By contrast, in the period between 1945 and 1990, the main approach used was from the side of mass sports, with satisfying the needs of workers and the general population deemed as the most important. On the other hand, from the early 1930s, i.e. from the beginning of urban planning (with the exception of the period during World War II and the 1950s), the leaders of the city paid special attention to ensure that sports facilities be included in the local development plans of Debrecen.

Geographical aspects of the diffusion of passive houses

Abstract In our days, energy issues belong to the most important problems facing the Earth and the solution may be expected partly from decreasing the amount of the energy used and partly from the increased utilisation of renewable energy resources. A substantial part of energy consumption is related to buildings and includes, inter alia, the use for cooling/heating, lighting and cooking purposes. In the view of the above, special attention has been paid to minimising the energy consumption of buildings since the late 1980s. Within the framework of that, the passive house was created, a building in which the thermal comfort can be achieved solely by postheating or postcooling of the fresh air mass without a need for recirculated air. The aim of the paper is to study the changes in the construction of passive houses over time. In addition, the differences between the geographical locations and the observable peculiarities with regard to the individual building types are also presented.

Impact of the European Union on the Method of Demarcating the Beneficiary Regions in Hungary

This research was realized in the frames of TAMOP 4.2.4. A/2-11-1-2012-0001 „National Excellence Program – Elaborating and operating an inland student and researcher personal support system convergence program“. The project was subsidized by the European Union and co-financed by the European Social Fund.

The transformation of the Hungarian construction industry and spatial tendencies between 2000 and 2012

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the tendencies of development in the construction industry, one of the most important foundations of economic development, between 2000 and 2012. The key findings of the study may be summarized in the following: – In the period between the 2000 and 2012, after the increasing tendency that could be observed in the first half of the first decade in the new millennium, a significant drop occurred both in terms of the value of production and the number of employees in the construction industry. – From the three subsectors of the construction industry, it was the construction of buildings on which the economic crisis that started in 2008 had a negative impact. – The territorial tendencies of the construction industry were influenced by large-scale infrastructural investments (motorway construction, railway network development).

Geographical aspects of the changes of Hungary’s deconcentrated state administration system between 1990 and 2012

Abstract One of the most important segments of the post-1990 transformation of territory-based administration in Hungary was the changing of the geographical structure of deconcentrated state administrative organisations. The study, on the one hand, provides a brief overview of the history of deconcentrated state administrative organisations in Hungary, and discusses the regional characteristics of the organisational transformations after the political changes, taking six moments in time (the middle of 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2012 respectively) as the basis. On the other hand, using the same six snapshots in time, it examines which settlements experienced favourable or unfavourable changes, and what factors influenced the selection of the seats for these institutions. The results of the survey indicated that the alignment of territorial structure of deconcentrated state administrative organizations to the planning-statistical, NUTS 2 regions has already begun at the end of the 1990s. The government formed in 2006 took significant steps in the area of aligning the spatial structure of the organizations with the planning-statistical regions; however, in the period after 2010 the significance of the county level increased again. In the period examined, no significant changes took place at the top and at the bottom of the list according to the number of seats: the largest settlements of the individual regions reinforced their leading positions.

Tourism and Local Governments in Hungary: The Position of Tourism in Local Council Committees of Local Governments

Abstract Introduction. The objective of this paper is to investigate the position of tourism in the committee structure of the local councils of Hungarian local governments. Material and methods. The data were sourced from websites of the settlements concerned and all the results obtained statistically evaluated using the method of descriptive statistics. Results. From the data available, we can clearly determine the role of tourism in the committees of local governments, as well as the direction of changes after the 2010 election. The results also clearly identified the factors that determine the role of tourism in local council committees and the sectors that constitute the same committees with tourism. Conclusions. The role of tourism in committees of local councils is fundamentally unfavourable and the situation deteriorated after the 2010 election. The role of tourism in committees of local councils is closely related to the size of the population and the role of tourism in the given settlements.

The Theoretical Background of Local Sport Policy in Hungary: Sport Concepts of Hungarian Cities of County Rank

The Theoretical Background of Local Sport Policy in Hungary: Sport Concepts of Hungarian Cities of County Rank In line with international trends, we could also observe in Hungary beginning in the late 1990s increasing attention given by local governments to sports. Hungarian provisions of law related to sports (including, in particular, Act I of 2004 on sports) put local governments in charge of some very important tasks. Among other things, local governments were to determine the local concept of sports development and to ensure its implementation, cooperate with local sports organizations and sports associations, and as owners maintain and operate the sports facilities. In light of the above facts, the study analyzes the sport concepts adopted by the local governments of the Hungarian cities of county rank and tries to find the answers to the following questions: 1. To what extent are the documents concerned in accordance with the requirements usually drafted for the development concepts and which platforms they involve?; 2. To what extent did the local governments recognize the relationship between the sports and place marketing on the level of concept-making? As a conclusion of the study, the following significant establishments can be made: 1. Comparing the existing sport concepts with the general requirements of the development concepts, a large number of deficiencies can be observed; 2. The areas mentioned in the situation-analysis part of these documents are in close relationship with the importance of the topics concerned; 3. The local governments of the cities of county rank decisively recognized the role of sports in place marketing.

The Relationship Between Sports and Urban Structure Through the Example of Hungarian Regional Centres

As the result of the increasing significance of sports in recent decades, researchers in the field of urban geography have also devoted more attention to the influence that sports have on the structure of settlements. Although this phenomenon can be primarily examined in the case of larger events (e.g. Olympic Games), I believe that analyses on smaller scales can also yield important findings. According to researchers three categories of intra-urban locations of sport facilities can be identified: City centre locations Within-the-city locations Suburban or edge-of-the-city locations Using the example of Hungarian regional centres my paper is looking for answers to the following questions: What stages of the development of sports facilities can be identified in the cities examined? In which category the sport facilities of the studied Hungarian cities can be classified? What factors have influenced the location of sports facilities within the settlement?