The micro-regional nature of functional urban areas (FUAs): lessons from the analysis of the Czech urban and regional system

This article argues that any conceptualization and delimitation of functional urban areas must reflect their formation on the micro-scale and detect the smallest complete, complex, organic territorial units where the daily life of the population is organized. This is often neglected when a top-down approach is applied, leading to incomplete representations of reality that can misinform territorial policies. In presenting the analysis of the Czech urban and regional system, a major discrepancy between local results and the ESPON 1.1.1 report is documented. Our study shows that the daily life of the population is organized within a much larger number of complex micro-regions and functional urban areas than suggested by ESPON 1.1.1. We emphasize that a complex view of European territorial development has to integrate all scalar levels on which society operates in space, including the micro-regional nature of functional urban regions within which the daily life of the population is organized.