Pálóczi Gábor

The current research puts the issue of functional urban regions (or districts) into the focus delimited by the commuting network of employees. The local labour system (LLS) provided a specific dimension of this complex approach however it is one of the most adequate possibilities to delineate these areas of commuting. The delimitation process consisted of two steps with the separation of employment centres and with the assignment of settlements to these cores. The alteration of the LLS pattern was also analysed as the investigation was carried out by the census data from 2001 and 2011. The results provided a comprehensive overview about the process of territorial concentration and the instability of peripheral areas. Significant regional disparities of commuting came to light as the consequence of the body of settlement network. The territorial division of the country provided by LLS pattern is fitting to the new and integrated European approach of cities and their hinterlands but it is not alternative against other administrative or statistical divisions of Hungary. However this territorial point of view is in closer relation to the issues of analysing the local labour market processes or the developments targeting the increase in employment.

In the current paper the possible utilization of complex network analysis in spatial researches was investigated. The organizational and developmental regularities of networks were demonstrated from the aspect of regional development planning. The reviewed regularities provide a new approach of the regional developments. The dependencies of settlements were analysed with the application of disparity method on the basis of the commuting matrix of the census from 2011. The disparity of out-commuting exceeded the level of in-commuting in all population categories, producing a more significant dependency relation in case of out-commuting. In general, the value of disparity increases with decreasing population number in settlements and dependency grows. This can be related with decrease in the level of degree and commuting distance. According to detailed results, the method of disparity might be effectively used in additional spatial analyses as well. The community detection procedures of the complex network analysis were also applied for spatial division. Modularity optimization with the Louvain method was successfully used in the delimitation of larger territorial units. Smaller units can be created by the increase of the resolution but modularity stability deteriorates. At the same time the composition of the units changes. In the light of the results, it could be stated that regions formed by commuting relations (according to the process of regionalism) did not match the Hungarian NUTS2 statistical regions, but natural borders and NUTS-3 level administrative boundaries could be detected in more cases. The differences between the results and NUTS-3 boundaries are not unique distortions caused by the methodology but these reflect real commuting relations (the local labour system units were discussed in a previous study). The methodology might be appropriate to detect the hierarchical order of the local labour system's units. The method is adaptable for additional analysis of spatial interactions.

The issue of defining functional regions in
Hungary is presented in this paper, which
contains detailed methodological description with
the help of relevant studies from the Czech
Republic and Slovakia. The use of Smart’s
measure together with the CURDS algorithm and
the relatively new concept of trade-off constraint
function with four different sets of parameter
values provided four optional solutions for this
issue, based on the analysis of daily travel-to-work
flows from the 2011 census. The resulting regions
correspond to the micro-regional level and give
valuable additions to the discussion about
regionalization. The paper provides basic
descriptive statistics for each of the four variants
of functional region systems, which enables their
overall evaluation (seeing advantages and
disadvantages) and mutual comparison (seeing
similarities and differences), and thus facilitates an
informed debate on future work in functional
regionalisation in Hungary carried out with
respect to different purposes.

The current research puts the issue of functional
urban regions (or districts) into the focus
delimited by the commuting network of
employees. The local labour system (LLS)
provided a specific dimension of this complex
approach however it is one of the most adequate
possibilities to delineate these areas of
commuting. The delimitation process consisted
of two steps with the separation of employment
centres and with the assignment of settlements to
these cores. The alteration of the LLS pattern was
also analysed as the investigation was carried out
by the census data from 2001 and 2011. The
results provided a comprehensive overview about
the process of territorial concentration and the
instability of peripheral areas. Significant regional
disparities of commuting came to light as the
consequence of the body of settlement network.
The territorial division of the country provided by
LLS pattern is fitting to the new and integrated
European approach of cities and their hinterlands
but it is not alternative against other
administrative or statistical divisions of Hungary.
However this territorial point of view is in closer
relation to the issues of analysing the local labour
market processes or the developments targeting
the increase in employment.

The issue of defining functional regions in
Hungary is presented in this paper, which
contains detailed methodological description with
the help of relevant studies from the Czech
Republic and Slovakia. The use of Smart’s
measure together with the CURDS algorithm and
the relatively new concept of trade-off constraint
function with four different sets of parameter
values provided four optional solutions for this
issue, based on the analysis of daily travel-to-work
flows from the 2011 census. The resulting regions
correspond to the micro-regional level and give
valuable additions to the discussion about
regionalization. The paper provides basic
descriptive statistics for each of the four variants
of functional region systems, which enables their
overall evaluation (seeing advantages and
disadvantages) and mutual comparison (seeing
similarities and differences), and thus facilitates an
informed debate on future work in functional
regionalisation in Hungary carried out with
respect to different purposes.

In the current paper the possible utilization of complex network analysis in spatial researches was investigated. The organizational and developmental regularities of networks were demonstrated from the aspect of regional development planning. The reviewed regularities provide a new approach of the regional developments. The dependencies of settlements were analysed with the application of disparity method on the basis of the commuting matrix of the census from 2011. The disparity of out-commuting exceeded the level of in-commuting in all population categories, producing a more significant dependency relation in case of out-commuting. In general, the value of disparity increases with decreasing population number in settlements and dependency grows. This can be related with decrease in the level of degree and commuting distance. According to detailed results, the method of disparity might be effectively used in additional spatial analyses as well. The community detection procedures of the complex network analysis were also applied for spatial division. Modularity optimization with the Louvain method was successfully used in the delimitation of larger territorial units. Smaller units can be created by the increase of the resolution but modularity stability deteriorates. At the same time the composition of the units changes. In the light of the results, it could be stated that regions formed by commuting relations (according to the process of regionalism) did not match the Hungarian NUTS2 statistical regions, but natural borders and NUTS-3 level administrative boundaries could be detected in more cases. The differences between the results and NUTS-3 boundaries are not unique distortions caused by the methodology but these reflect real commuting relations (the local labour system units were discussed in a previous study). The methodology might be appropriate to detect the hierarchical order of the local labour system's units. The method is adaptable for additional analysis of spatial interactions.