Spatial and dynamic aspects of the rank-size rule method. Case of an urban settlement in Poland

Outline of contents: Many researchers who study urban settlement networks choose different statistical methods, among them G. K. Zipf's size-rank method. This paper presents proposed methods of geo-visualisation for studying changes in the rank of cities in an urban settlement network. The discussion uses the example of Polish urban settlements, using data for Polish cities from six population censuses (1950, 1960, 1970, 1978, 1988, and 2002). Analytical, statistical and spatial methods were used. The chart (rank clocks) proposed by M. Batty (2006), which shows the dynamics in changes in ranks 1 to 20. The values of the contrast exponent in the Zipf rule were used to interpret for the Polish urban settlement network between 1950 and 2002. Havlin's graph (1995) shows that the largest changes in the ranks of the urban settlement network in Poland occurred in the first post-war decade. In geographical sciences, the spatial analysis of a phenomenon or a process using a map is especially important. For this reason, it was decided that mapping methods be used to present the rank of cities and changes to city rank in Poland between decades as a thematic map. The value by which cities moved in the ranking can be represented as a diagram map in accordance with cartographic rules. The standard deviation method should be used to appropriately present the issue. Recognizing, that the difference in ranks less than | σ | (standard deviation) are typical and to some extent inevitable over half a century, we should look that deviations below | 3σ |, into other deviations from the standard deviation. Of particular interest are deviations above which are called pathological in statistics and cause asymmetries in the distribution. Each method revealed different aspects of the transformation of the settlement network. The answers to research questions can be found in the post-war history of Poland, its political circumstances (changes to its state borders in the east and west, socialist industrialisation, urbanisation and, in the last decade, suburbanisation).