The Delimitation of Urban Hinterlands Based on Transport Flows: A Case Study of Regional Capitals in The Czech Republic

The delimitation of the urban hinterlands of the most important settlement centres in the Czech Republic, based on transportation flows, is presented in this paper. Transport flows are a very good indicator of complex spatial relations. Therefore, one can hypothesize that the delimited transport hinterlands are strongly associated with other types of urban hinterlands (e.g. commuting hinterlands). Transport regions of the Czech regional capitals are defined in the empirical section of this paper. These transport regions, supra-nodal territorial units of the Czech transport system, identify the main transport relations within the Czech road network and define the hinterlands of the main settlement centres. The metropolitan regions defined by transport relations are compared with regions of the Czech Republic based on commuting flows. There is a high concordance between the two regional delimitations.