It is difficult to give a clear definition of a city because the criteria leading to the definition of a city vary. The following criteria for defining a city can be distinguished:
the legal-administrative criterion when a city is separated on the basis of its legal status (municipal rights are granted), e.g. Poland
the quantitative criterion, where a city is identified on the basis of a certain number of inhabitants, e.g. France, China
the quantitative-qualitative criterion takes into account the number of inhabitants and the percentage of non-agricultural employment. This is how cities emerge in e.g. India or the Netherlands.
The most common definition of a city is based on an authority’s decision. A city is a locality that has been granted a municipal charter. None of the criteria for identifying cities are fully precise in view of contemporary urbanisation processes. The lack of an unambiguous definition of a city causes significant problems when determining the level of urbanisation of a country.
he biggest problems are posed by small settlement units. There are villages with an urban character (e.g. Zabierzów near Kraków) and, conversely, towns with a rural character (e.g. Radomyśl Wielki in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Mielec County), which remain towns only by virtue of previous legal and administrative decisions. All cities are distinguished by fulfilling specific functions. The basic functions of cities are:
- administrative
- communicational
- commercial
- cultural
- tourism (spa)
- defence function
- industrial
In contrast to classic villages with an agricultural character, towns were usually formed as a result of the development of a wide variety of functions. Originally these were administrative functions. They contributed to the creation and development of capitals or major urban centres (in the case of dependent and dependent territories). For the most part, these centres became, after independence, the capitals of newly established states. This applies mainly to African countries, Asian countries, Latin America and Oceania.
In addition to the political function, the commercial function and the communication function were of greatest importance in the development of cities. Cities developed around natural harbours or as a result of the intersection of trade and then communication routes. This is the origin of many European cities, e.g. in Poland Gdańsk and Toruń, which owe their development to their incorporation into the so-called Hanseatic League, which existed in the 13th-17th centuries. The link between trade and communication functions is still evident today in the case of seaports, where imported goods were primarily traded. Over time, more and more other functions contributed to the establishment and development of cities.
From the 18th century onwards, and especially in the 19th century, industry became the basis for the formation of new towns and the accelerated development of existing ones. Initially, this was the mining industry, mainly associated with coal mining (e.g. Ruhr, Upper Silesian, Donetsk and Kuznetsk districts), and later also the processing industry (e.g. Manchester, Lodz). These cities were dominated by the industrial function. The development of industry became the basis for the development of most of the world’s cities in the interwar period, especially after the Second World War. Under the influence of industry, the largest industrial districts, which are also the largest urban agglomerations of the world, were created, also called urban-industrial agglomerations because of the importance of industry in their development.
The development of cities is influenced by such institutions, whose purpose is to satisfy the demand occurring in the areas served by these cities. For this reason, a service function is also developing in cities. Among the service functions, the religious function should also be distinguished. The pilgrimage and pilgrimage movement to shrines of various denominations has resulted in the development of cities (e.g. Fatima in Portugal, Lourdes in France, Częstochowa in Poland, Jerusalem in Israel and Jordan, Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, Benares in India), whose population has found employment in serving pilgrims and tourists. In addition to the above functions, many cities owe their emergence and development to the tourism function.
This function has led, among other things, to the creation of many famous bathing and leisure tourism resorts, e.g. in the Black Sea basin (Constanta in Romania. Eupatoria in the Crimea. Golden Sands in Bulgaria), as well as the Mediterranean (e.g. Sorrento, San Remo in Italy, Monte Carlo, Monaco in the Principality of Monaco. Nice, Cannes in France, the bathing areas of the Costa Brava in Spain). The tourism function has also contributed to the development of well-known mountain resorts, e.g. Innsbruck, Bischofshofen in Austria, Davos. Sankt Moritz in Switzerland, Chamonix, Grenoble in France, Oberstdorf in Germany, Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy (all located in the Alps). Zakopane, Szczyrk in Poland, Szczyrbski Lakes, Stary Smokovec, Tatranska Lomnica in Slovakia (Carpathian Mountains), Lillehammer in Norway (Scandinavian Mountains), or Sapporo in Japan.
The spa function is similar in nature to the tourist function, except that due to the specific nature of this function (health care) the towns that have been established are often smaller than the tourist centres (e.g. Krynica, Rabka in Poland, Karlovy Vary, Mariánské Lázně in the Czech Republic, Vichy in France). Defensive functions in the formation of cities are already of historical importance. This is primarily related to the currently understood concept of defence. While in the Middle Ages settlements concentrated in a small area, surrounded by city walls, moats, located in the forks of rivers, on the shores of lakes, seas or peninsulas, were undoubtedly defensive in character, nowadays the greater the concentration of fixed assets in a small area, the greater the losses in the event of warfare.
Examples of cities that owe their development originally to their defensive functions can be fortress cities, e.g. Zamość founded during the Renaissance (16th century) or Żółkiew (once a Polish fortress, now a city in Ukraine). Urban development also entails the development of education and culture. Universities and research institutes are being established, especially in the larger cities, which contribute to even more intensive urban development. Thus, the scientific function and the cultural function also become apparent.
From the very beginning, the development of cities was orderly, in today’s sense of the word planned. Medieval towns were also planned. The basis of these towns was a castle with a dominant Christian temple and a sub-circle together with developing market settlements, serving the adjacent agricultural areas. At the same time, the castle was a bastion of defence for all the inhabitants, hence the great role of walls, moats and towers. Since it was easiest to defend oneself with a minimum length of walls, the space-saving nature of medieval towns and the consequent strict adherence to building regulations is evident.
Cities of the Industrial Revolution period also developed in a planned manner. The basis of their spatial structure was the communication solutions that we can observe today. For example, in Łódź, where a system of perpendicular streets was planned with Piotrkowska Street as the main axis, or Paris, where the development of industry and especially communication contributed to the radical reconstruction and modernisation of the city at the end of the 19th century. At present, in most countries of the world, individual settlement units (towns and villages) develop on the basis of local plans (spatial development of towns and village-type settlement units).
Today, the growth in both number and size of the world’s largest cities (with more than 1 million inhabitants) continues. There are now more than 300 such cities in the world (in 1939 there were only 38). Million-person cities concentrate a significant proportion of industrial production, are centres for services, and are also centres of political power, administration, for a country and often for several countries or even the world. In these cities, patterns of behaviour and life are shaped for the populations of other cities, regions and countries.
However, living conditions in large cities are becoming oppressive for people. For this reason, there are attempts around the world to restrict the development (deglomeration) of big cities by moving certain activities from big cities to other centres (active deglomeration) or by restricting the development of new social and economic activities in big cities and directing them elsewhere (passive deglomeration). Both administrative measures (bans and restrictions) and economic measures (tax rate differentiation, tariff, price and credit policies, subsidies) are used for this purpose. Although people and companies leave the big cities, they generally move only to the outskirts. As a consequence, this leads to an expansion of urbanised areas and an increase in the spatial concentration of the population in and around large cities.
Countries with the highest proportions of metropolitan populations need not necessarily be among the economically well-developed. In Africa, the highest populations concentrated in such units are recorded in: Congo, Liberia, Libya and South Africa. In Europe, the same high concentration of population in cities with more than 750,000 inhabitants can only be found in Germany, Greece and Lithuania. This demonstrates the major role played by medium-sized cities in European countries, which were mostly established during the Middle Ages.
