Priestorové formy rezidenčnej suburbanizácie v zázemí Bratislavy

The past two decades of suburbanization have left a tremendous footprint on the hin- terland of major Slovak cities. The paper is focusing on this phenomenon from the perspective of spatial morphology – an approach to which Slovak literature has not paid much attention. The objective of this paper is to outline the spatial configuration of residential suburbanization in the hinterland of Bratislava. Through selected exam- ples, the paper uncovers the mechanism of spatial configurations (territorial regula-tions, morphology of the territory, different municipal strategies, distance from Brati- slava, real estate prices, etc.). Understanding the morphogenesis of new settlement structures in urban hinterland plays a key role in identifying the social, economic and environmental impacts of suburbanization. In fact, this is a vast unexplored field that needs further attention in urban studies and urban morphology in particular. The paper focuses on the phenomenon of suburban development from the perspective of spatial morphology – an approach to which Slovak literature has not paid much attention. The objective of this paper is to outline the spatial configuration of residential suburbanization in the hinterland of Bratislava with a specific view on the relation of spatial arrange- ment (pattern) of the housing construction to the key indicators characterizing the extent and intensity of the suburbanization processes (migration rate, migrants’ origin, housing construction, etc.). The paper, set in the field of urban morphology, explores the spatial conditions of suburban development by looking at measures of density, spatial configuration and accessibility. Through selected examples, the paper uncovers the mechanism of spatial configurations (territorial regulations, morphology of the territory, different munici- pal strategies, distance from Bratislava city centre, real estate prices, etc.). The timeframe is characterized by the period 2003 – 2012 and the paper works with the settlement layer from the ZBGIS database (the basic data base for the geographic infor- mation system), aerial photographs as well as from cadastral maps. To reveal the nature of suburban development patterns, we used an indicator of spatial arrangement, which is rep-resented by the measure of spatial autocorrelation – Morans’ Index (Cliff and Ord 1973). A perfectly concentrated arrangement of units would give a value that is close to 1. A ran-domly dispersed arrangement of units would give a Moran’s Index value that is close to 0. We can thus distinguish highly concentrated large - scale development sites from the more dispersed development of individual constructors. In the first step the paper examines the density of housing construction on different scales. On a regional scale the results show that although suburban development represents a dramatic visual transformation of the rural environment, there is no significant increase in the population density. On the local scale the paper focuses on the development of suburbia, which is predominantly formed as an ad hoc residential area with a relatively concen- trated housing construction and sharp boundaries. This spatial concentration can be simplis-tically identified through spatial autocorrelation