The evolution of urban development has shaped various models of spatial layout and the relationships between the urban unit and the human being. Every city, in its development ideology, has taken into account social and economic aspects.
At the foundation of these two factors has always been the relationship: the human and their workplace. Cities developed thanks to the growing social demands of humans (in relation to quality of life), and the technological possibilities in the background, mainly related to transport systems. The history of urban development shows that changes in the functional and spatial structure are subject to periodic fluctuations between a compact and dispersed structure, and a monocentric and polycentric one. Thanks to new technologies, we can travel faster over long distances using various means of transport, and the concept of distance is measured for the traveler in terms of the time taken to reach the destination. Tracing the history of urban development leads to the conclusion: urban planners have strived to meet the demands of the residents of the modern era and shape space in such a way as to ensure a friendly living and working environment in the future. This postulate was most often implemented in the context of ensuring sustainable urban development. Currently, this principle is of increasing importance in planning practice. Shaping urban space according to the principles of maintaining a balance between its elements provides the opportunity to control the degree of car usage in the daily journeys of residents. Thus, the effect of sustainability is the mitigation of conflicts between its elements. The purpose of this article is to present the factors characterizing the functional and spatial structure of the city and to show their influence on the functioning of the transport system.
1. Functional and spatial structure of the city
Spatial structure is a system of interconnected development elements that form a functional and spatial whole. The main challenge for urban planners is to define the mutual relationships between the elements of this structure and between the elements and the city as a whole, and to shape these relationships in a sustainable manner. The basic elements of the city structure include areas that differ from each other in terms of function, i.e., land purpose and use. The elements of this structure form very complex systems, such as a district, a city, or an agglomeration. They are connected by a transport system, which, if poorly developed or focused only on one type (mainly individual transport systems), can lead to the intensification of conflicts in the spatial relationship of the city or the disruption of the functions of residential districts. The functional and spatial structure is therefore a system of interconnected various development elements, which consequently create a mutually complementary organism.
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Source: Logistyka Magazine