Petr Kladivo

Quality of Life in an Urban Environment: A Typology of Urban Units of Olomouc

Quality of Life in an Urban Environment: A Typology of Urban Units of Olomouc Studying the internal structure of cities is one of the traditional topics of geographical research. The aim of this article is to show a possible approach to the study of an objective dimension of the quality of life in an intra-urban environment focusing on detailed studies of selected indicators of the quality of life. There exist many approaches to evaluating the quality of life because it is an interdisciplinary term; we are going to focus on this issue in terms of the quality of living conditions. Using multivariate statistical methods, we are going to try a typology of an urban area in just those terms, and the results will be confronted with the perception of the quality of life by residents themselves. The area studied will be the city of Olomouc.

Suburbanization and local governance - positive and negative forms: Olomouc case study

Abstract Over the previous 15-20 years (in Czech conditions), suburban processes have substantially influenced the appearance and transformation of municipalities on the fringe of larger cities. And it is not only the morphology of the municipality structure (new housing estates and their urban as well as architectural solutions) that has undergone the transformation, but also the functions municipalities have started to fulfil (the development of civic amenities and services). After such a long period of time, we are capable of identifying negative as well as positive impacts of suburban processes on municipalities, and evaluating the role of local actors (with regard to local governance) in the shaping of sub-urbias and their appearance (the area urban solution, infrastructure, architecture in terms of housing appearance, etc.). We are also capable of assessing new construction sites based on their location or appearance (housing naturally complementing or suitably extending the municipality built-up area, or, on the contrary, a satellite housing estate built “on a greenfield site”), social climate between old residents and newcomers, etc. The goal of the paper is to present the most significant aspects that have had influence on new housing construction in suburban zone municipalities, and to describe differences in the application of the concept of local governance (at the lowest - microregional, or possibly municipal tier) in positively impacted municipalities as compared with those affected rather negatively. Concentrating on the city of Olomouc and its suburban zone in greater detail, the study shall also outline expected future development.