Discussion Papers 1988.
Spatial Organization and Regional Development 237-250. p.
237
Balint CSATARI
SPATIAL CONNECTIONS OF RURAL SETTLEMENTS.
INVESTIGATIONS IN SZOLNOK COUNTY
New processes of settlement network trans-
formation such as the slow-down of urban sprawl and
the improvement and appreciation of settlement in
rural areas have called increasing attention to the
spatial problems of rural settlements. As a con-
sequence of the multiplication of functions in rural
settlements, increase in incomes, change in needs,
and spread of motor cars, the rural population rea-
lise the need for the establishment and maintenance
of regular spatial linkages or connections that
exceed the boundaries of settlements as a part of
everyday life. These are comprised, on the one hand,
of traditional connections between the towns and
villages /e.g., selling goods in town markets/: and,
on the other hand, of an increasingly complex and
developing system of socioeconomic, as well as
technological-infrastructural, connections within
the settlement network. The spatial location and
possible linkages /incl. quantity and quality/ of
rural settlements can primarily influence further
development of these settlements as well as the
living conditions and wage earning potential of
the rural population as demonstrated by several
investigations in both the Hungarian and interna-
tional literature. As stated in the study of Belusz-
ky and Sikos /1982/ titled "Types of rural settle-
ments in Hungary": "the elements of the settlement
network took the lead in shaping the functions and
life of rural settlements in Hungary; moreover, the

Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, Spatial 238
Organization and Regional Development
location, size and possible connections with dynamic
regions determine profoundly the character and de-
velopment of a settlement and the responses of its
population."
M. Moseley /1979/ devotes a whole book to the
problem of the "Accessibility - The rural challenge."
"Accessibility is simply the ability of people to
reach and to be reached by the services or activi-
ties they require. Access to rural resources, even
more than the local-scale presence or absence of
the resources themselves, has become the crucial
challenge in rural resource management."
The space over which rural population move-
ment occurs to meet demands is complex. It is pos-
sible to examine this space from two directions:
from the side of the central function settlement
to determine the settlements and extent of the at-
traction zone; and from the side of the rural set-
tlements to determine if service institutions ava-
ilable in the central function settlements are able
to meet demands. The present paper describes an in-
vestigation within the latter direction. Rural po-
pulation in Szolnok County were requested to com-
plete a questionnaire regarding the purposes and
directions of regular connections with central
function settlements. Responses were then analysed
to establish spatial connections involving 9
groups:
1. connections of public administration and
public authority;
2. connections of ordinary labour;
3. connections with retail trade and market;
4. connections with education and culture;

Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers,  239
Spatial Organization and Regional Development
5.  connections  of  public health care;
6.  connections  of  basic services;
7.  connections  of  permanent migration;
8.  connections  of  transport and communica-
tion;
9. other, intersettlement connections.
The results of the investigations will be
presented as follows.
2.  Main characteristics of different spatial con-
nections
There are two basic groups of spatial con-
nections. One group involves connections regulated
administratively by state and public institutions
and thus generally differ from spontaneous connec-
tions and decisions made by the population. The
"deviations" influence largely the feelings and
the relations of rural population to the settle-
ments. It is also beyond question that every factor
to be arranged in space /such as economy or infra-
structure/ develops in a differentiated way; there-
fore, the connections made by them constitute se-
veral hierarchical levels. The number of outward
connections refers to the development, and basic
service level, of transport facilities to rural
settlements; while inward connections relate to
the institutional network and the prescribed hier-
archical level of the central function settlements.
All the councils of rural settlements under
examination had to complete a questionnaire con-
taining 240 questions. 30 percent of the questions
could be answered by quantitative data /e.g., on

Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, Spatial Organization and Regional Development
240
migration, commuting, attendance of secondary
schools, transport links, etc./; while the re-
mainder had to be fulfilled qualitatively by de-
termining characteristic directions of connections.
These data were complemented by published data
sources and time-distance matrices from time tab-
les. All data were run on a computer and worked
out in two steps in accordance with the purposes
of the investigation.
In the first instance, data lists of con-
nections described above were prepared for all set-
tlements; these data lists contained the size and
intensity of all inter-settlement connections by
branches. In the second instance, apparent spatial
movements of settlements were illustrated by vector-
algebraic methods considering each spatial movement
and connection as a vector. So, the attraction of
different branches and different centres could be
represented for rural settlements, which made it
possible to present and analyze the branch and
complex attraction zones and transport characteris-
tics. All this aimed to determine the harmony of
branchconnection regions; contradictions between
administratively regulated and spontaneous connec-
tions; "key settlements" rising from rural settle-
ments; and rural settlements having or not having
adequate basic services. At the same time, connec-
tions between adjacent settlements represent the
intensity of settlement network operation.
The investigations made the interdependence
clear and evident by determining precisely the ac-
tual attraction linkages of different central func-
tion settlements, regardless of their designation
within the settlement network development concep-

Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, Spatial Organization and Regional Development
241
tion. Moreover, the nature of these spatial link-
ages were also revealed. Accordingly, both the at-
tracting and attracted settlements can be divided
into 3 groups.
In the case of the attracting settlement;
- the county seat rose from a town centre
and developed dynamically during the last 40 years.
In accordance with county seat functions, a net-
work of institutions and schools were established,
and the number of workplaces has doubled, too.
The number of inward connections of Szolnok /being
the county seat/ is higher by two times than that
of Jaszber4ny, which takes second place. Besides
the functional urban zone of 16 settlements, the
county seat has intensive attraction connections
with some 30 rural settlements. The indications of
agglomeration can be noticed in rural settlements
in the direct inner ring due to their interdepen-
dence;
- the linkages of other towns do not cover
so wide an area; a significant part of their spatial
connections is comprised of those that are regulated
administratively;
- the third, special group involves centres
of small regions; these centres do not have urban
status; the population of peripheral villages makes
use of these centres in meeting demands.
The investigations revealed that the lower
the level of hierarchy of a central function set-
tlement, the greater is the number of inward con-
nections based on spontaneous population decisions.
Consequently, the strict network hierarchy deter-
mined by the national settlement network develop-

Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, Spatial
242
Organization and Regional Development
ment concept of 1971 can be followed only partly
by persistent and regular connections.
Taking into consideration the outward con-
nections, the attracted settlements constitute
the following groups:
1. The group of rural settlements connecting
intensively to the designated centre.
2. The group of rural settlements connecting
to several towns not so intensively. These settle-
ments are situated generally along the main tran-
sport lines; if it is necessary, they make use of
the services of different centres surpassing the
designated administrative attraction borders.
3. The group of backward rural settlements
connecting intensively to the centres of small re-
gions that do not have urban status. Because of the
low level development of their centre, these set-
tlements can only partly obtain urban goods.
The spatial structure of linkages indicates
that in the course of development of the settlement
network, a centre's actual attraction connections
and the harmony of these connections were disregard-
ed; only the herarchical level of the centre and
the size of the area to be provided with services
was declared. This caused tensions for rural pop-
ulation and determined certain processes. These
facts were justified by different attraction con-
nections.
- Production linkages and spatial connec-
tions of branches of production /i.e., industry
and agriculture/ are hardly connected to other
factors; they increased the number of functions
of centres only. A surprising phenomenon is that

Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, 2 43
Spatial Organization and Regional Development
regional decentralization of industry was ac-
companied by strong centralization in organiza-
tion of industrial enterprises resulting in a
decreasing effect of settlement developmenf on the
dependent industrial branch plants in rural set-
tlements.
Regional mergers of large agricultural
firms contributed to expanding production connec-
tions; but they did not coincide with the desig-
nated attraction connections of public administra-
tion at all. In addition, agricultural labour force
move in increasingly extended areas.
- One of the most lasting elements of spa-
tial linkages is daily commuting. Typically, this
connection causes the increase in other connections
only in the case of rural settlements having intensi-
ve connections with the central function settlement;
in other rural settlements, there is a strong cor-
relation with constant migration, which means a
migration of population of badly supplied rural
areas to the centre of commuting. Because the spa-
tial unity of residence and place of work has disin-
tegrated, dormitory settlements are able to provide
services and goods to a much lesser extent than, e.
g., the county seat.
- Spatial connections of a public administra-
tion and authority nature are directed primarily to
towns and, as a rule, they do not coincide with
movements caused by the other factors examined. The
real attraction zones of regions of small centres
playing an outstandingly important role in the sup-
ply of villages belong to 2 or 3 administrative
districts generally.

Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, Spatial Organization and Regional Development
244
- Health connections also have been
prescribed similarly to the administrative dis-
tricts resulting in insufficiencies strongly in-
fluencing the feelings and relations of rural pop-
ulation to their settlements.
- Retail trade and market connections can
cover small regions rather precisely; this is just
the field where small rural centres can be con-
sidered very important.
- Urban predominance is evident in service,
educational, and cultural connections; but in
these spatial connections the level of development
differs greatly.
- Transport conforms expecially to other con-
nections, serving them only partly. Mass road trans-
port meets only the needs of daily working; should
other connections have other directions, they must
face insufficient connectivity.
When the investigations showed a great num-
ber of spontaneous connections, generally private
car traffic and use of enterprise buses solved
transport problems. At the same time, the develop-
ment of small centres that earlier had important
functions of spatial organization was stopped,
thus preserving their significant transport role
and maintaining their traditional rural connec-
tions /e.g., selling in markets/.
Summary
The following conclusions can be drawn:
- Connections should be developed in coordi-
nation with their nature and duration. Parallel

Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, Spatial Organization and Regional Development
245
with the increase in rural incomes, more pos-
sibilities should be afforded in meeting the in-
creasing demands. As justified by investigations,
the level of satisfying needs is much more important
than the absolute increase in incomes. One solution
can be the increase of the role of small rural cen-
ters in supplying regions. The method applied makes
it possible to determine these small regions.
- It can be generally stated that an inter-
ference with the different branches is not fol-
lowed by making the other connections clear or by
estimating its effects; consequently, "complex
movement spheres" serving satisfactorily the every-
day movement sphere of rural population cannot be
formed.
- Spatial connections are closely related
to different types of rural settlements. Rural set-
tlements living together intensively with towns and
having numerous connections have a stagnating pop-
ulation, while rural settlements having lower con-
nections with smaller centres of lower levels of
development have a decreasing population.
In agreement with P. Cloke, this connection
analysis has also proved that: "The future of rural
settlements is the future for all human settlements."
References
BELUSZKY, Pal SIKOS, T. TamAs /1983/ Typology of
rural settlements in Hungary.
Hungarian
Academy of Sciences, Geographical Research
Institute, p. 34.

▪  Csatári, Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, Spatial Organization and Regional Development
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Bálint: Spatial Connections of Rural Settlements. Investigations in Szolnok County.
In: Spatial Organization and Regional Development. Pécs: Centre for Regional Studies 1988. 237–250. p.
Discussion Papers, Spatial Organization and Regional Development
249
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