Abstract:

The characteristics of the spatial structure of three of Romania’s north-western counties were determined partly by historical and partly by natural features. This east-Hungarian economic boundary was secured by the railway constructions and this – due to its strategic importance – got a significant role in the determination of the state border at Trianon. Hence evolved the paradox that the central- and commercial function determined the trail of the railway constructions (and the stabilization of the economic boundary and the trail, formed by the settlements with central functions). This, however, on account of strategic reasons, attached the border to itself, which in the long run resulted in the limitation of the previous relations system, road closures, in the developments of artificial dead-end settlements, and a new border periphery.

The isolation of the northern section of the border area mitigated after the regime change, and the presence of Debrecen as a center of influence became detectable again in the eastern side of the border. Significant investments were made in some places (mainly in the light industry), but overall, the region's agricultural periphery character remained unchanged. Another regional specificity is that its favorable infrastructural features (partly as a legacy of the past) make it stand out from the line of the peripheries, but based on the economic performance of the local authorities, the region can be classified as a lagging area.

This research concerns the questions whether the social, economic, and municipal management indicators of the local authorities and the core documents^[1] of the Romanian territorial development support the intact existence of the classic spatial structure conditions in the present day of the three northwest-Romanian counties (Bihor, Satu Mare, Sălaj), and whether it is possible to demonstrate the development of the new lane of border periphery from local authority level data.