Hardi Tamás - Tóth Károly (szerk.): Határaink mentén. A szlovák-magyar határtérség társadalmi-gazdasági vizsgálata (2008) (Somorja, 2009)
Esettanulmányok
Summary 213 Figure 1. Urban Catchments Areas in Border Regions Cut by the Borders of Hungary Legend: 1 - Boundary of 30 km border zone; 2 — Historical state border; 3 - Zone of influence. Sorce: Kovács Z. (1990). bour countries the objective was to increase the proportion of the urban spaces. Parallel to this, industrial development also affected settlements in the proximity of the borders, as they were either traditional urban/industrial centres or were important due to their geographical location. This way a considerable industrial development took place along the Danubian section of the Hungarian—Czechoslovakian border (Bratislava, Győr, Komárom/Komamo, Nové Zámky, Lábatlan, Nyergesújfalu etc.), and also along the eastern section (Salgótarján, Ózd, Putnok, Kazincbarcika, Košice). All these factors explain why in the socialist era the border regions were not always identical with the regions in the economic peripheries; several border regions and cities had a considerable development in these decades. There are many essays drawing attraction to this fact (Rechnitzer, 1999; Siili-Zakar, 2000; Baranyi, 2004). The cities formulating cross-border regions can be classified into three categories: capital cities, middle towns in the border region or in the vicinity of border, and finally the small towns along the border. This border region is shaped by the effects of three capital cities. All three capital cities can be found close to the state border, accordingly their hinterlands reach beyond the borders in some form. Each has significant, although different impact on the development of the border region. Vienna and Budapest have been restoring their traditional catchment areas since the middle of the 1990s. It is especially Vienna that has outstanding opportunities in this respect. Vienna has actually made Bratislava its “twin city”, what is
