The spatial equity principle in the administrative division of the Central European countries

Abstract

The paper generally builds on the concept of justice in social science. It attempts to interpret this concept in a geographical and particularly in a spatial context. The paper uses the concept of accessibility to define the principle of spatial equity. The main objective of the paper is to propose an approach with which to assess the level of spatial equity in the administrative division of a territory. In order to fulfil this objective the paper theoretically discusses the concept of spatial equity and relates it to other relevant concepts, such as spatial efficiency. The paper proposes some measures of spatial equity and uses the territory of four Central European countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia) as example of the application of the proposed measures and the corroboration of the proposed approach. The analysis is based on the administrative division of four countries and is carried out at different hierarchical levels as defined by the Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS).