Rybnik Coal Area
Upper Silesian Agglomeration
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The Rybnik Coal Area (Polish: Rybnicki Okręg Węglowy, ROW) is an industrial region in southern Poland.[1] It is located in the Silesian Voivodeship,[1] in a basin between the Vistula and Oder rivers, sited on the Rybnik Plateau (Polish: Płaskowyż Rybnicki) between Katowice (Metropolis GZM) to the north and Ostrava on the south-west. It is part of the Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan area populated by 5,294,000 people[2] and the Kraków-Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan region populated by about 7 million. According to scientific description by Paweł Swianiewicz and Urszula Klimska this area has 507,000 people,[3] according to European Spatial Planning Observation Network - 634,000 people (525,000[2] + 109,000[2] by Racibórz). Area: about 1,300 km2.[1]
Main cities
Adjacent main cities and statistics (30 June 2009):[4]
| City / Town | Population | Area (km2) | Density (km−2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rybnik | 141,387 | 148.36 | 952.9 |
| Jastrzębie-Zdrój | 93,455 | 88.62 | 1,054.5 |
| Żory | 61,982 | 64.59 | 959.6 |
| Racibórz | 56,675 | 74.96 | 756.0 |
| Wodzisław Śląski | 49,386 | 49.62 | 995.2 |
| Rydułtowy | 21,833 | 14.95 | 1,460.4 |
| Radlin | 17,673 | 12.53 | 1,410.4 |
| Pszów | 13,753 | 20.42 | 673.5 |
| Total | 456,144 | 474.05 | 962.2 |
Area
Adjacent county (powiat) and statistics (30 June 2009):[4]
| County | Population | Area (km2) | Density (km2) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wodzisław County | 155,733 | 286.92 | 541.0 |
| Rybnik city-county | 141,387 | 148.36 | 952.9 |
| Racibórz County | 110,557 | 543.98 | 204.9 |
| Jastrzębie-Zdrój city-county | 93,455 | 88.62 | 1,054.5 |
| Rybnik County[5] | 74,331 | 224.63 | 327.3 |
| Żory city-county | 61,982 | 64.59 | 959.6 |
| Total | 637,445 | 1,357.1 | 469.4 |
History
The beginnings of ROW are related to a six-year plan and the modernization of nine old hard coal mines in the Rybnik-wodzisław region, e.g. KWK Anna or KWK Marcel. In 1952, the State Economic Planning Commission commissioned work on the preparation of a development plan for ROW. It was planned to build mines in the area of Wodzisław, Żory, Jejkowice and Kaczyce. Therefore, during the six-year plan, the old ones were modernized, but the construction of a new one, the first from scratch, of the 1 Maja Coal Mine in Wodzisław Śląski was started. In the following years, plans were started to build further new mines in ROW (Rybnik Coal Area).