Changes in spatial discontinuity in settlement patterns in the Czech-Polish border area: A case study of Tesin Silesia

The paper presents a discontinuity-based analysis of the settlement pattern changes in the Czechia-Poland cross-border historical region of Tesin Silesia. An approach based on a well-known and popular method (regression discontinuity design) was applied to measure spatial discontinuity. To describe the spatiotemporal changes, a combination of spatial, statistical and cartographic methods was used. The observed differences have been developing for more than 150 years; at the start, this area belonged to the territory of one state, and later it was divided by a national border. The division of the region resulted in areas following different development trajectories.

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This paper presents a discontinuity-based analysis of settlement pattern changes in the Tesin Silesia region, which spans the Czechia-Poland cross-border area. The study applies the regression discontinuity design method to measure spatial discontinuity and combines spatial, statistical, and cartographic methods to describe the spatiotemporal changes. The observed differences have been evolving over 150 years, starting from a unified territory and later divided by a national border, leading to distinct development trajectories in different areas.