Changes in spatial discontinuity in settlement patterns in the Czech-Polish border area: A case study of Těšín Silesia

Abstract

The paper presents a discontinuity-based analysis of the settlement pattern changes in the Czechia–Poland cross-border historical region of Těšín Silesia. An approach based on a well-known and popular method (regression discontinuity design) was applied to measure spatial discontinuity. To describe the spatiotemporal changes, a combination of spatial, statistical and cartographic methods was used. The observed differences have been developing for more than 150 years; at the start, this area belonged to the territory of one state, and later it was divided by a national border. The division of the region resulted in areas following different development trajectories.