Mažieji miestai Lietuvos gyvenviečių tinkle

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: 1959-2009 m. laikotarpis; Atsiskaitymo geografija; Gyvenviečių tinklas; Mažieji miestai; Miesto geografija; Miesto koncepcija; Miesto sąvoka; Lithuania; Settlement geography; The network of settlement; The period of 1959–2009; The small towns; Town concept; Town geography.

ENInternationally there is no unified definition of a town. Every country by itself defines concept of a town in legislation and law and uses different criteria to qualify for a town. Recent concept of a town is presented in the Law on the Administrative Units and Their boundaries of the Republic of Lithuania. According this law ((Lietuvos Respublikos..., 1994)) towns are conceived as compact, build up settlments that has more than 3000 habitants, from which more than ⅔ works in industry, business, production and social infrastructure sectors. At the moment some settlments in Lithuania, which has less than 3000 habitants still qualifies as towns. There where 36 towns (out of 103) with less than 3000 habitants in the beginning of the year 2009 (Fig. 4). These small towns had 55413 habitants, which is 2,5 percent of town habitants and 1,7 percent of all habitants in the country. Number of the small towns (towns with less than 3000 habitants) was declining continually for the last four decades (Fig. 3), because of these reasons: • One town was incorporated into another (Giruliai town was incorporated into Klaipeda town in 1975). • Several towns were merged into one town (Juodkrantė, Preila and Nida towns were merged into one under name Neringa). • When number of habitant exceeded, towns were assigned to other types of towns. (examples could be Šakiai, Nemenčinė, Vievis, Šilalė, Molėtai, Šalčininkai, Ariogala, Širvintos, Varėna, Pakruojis, Ignalina, Garliava, Eišiškės, Grigiškės, Rietavas, Gargždai, Birštonas, Žiežmariai, Neringa). • Towns lost or refused status of town (13 small towns lost or refused status of town over the last 5 decades (Table), 11 of them refused status of town after 1990. Reasons for waiver came out after questioning representatives of these towns. The reasons were: better opportunities for habitants to acquire more land, privileges for villages, slump of land pr.The reasons were: better opportunities for habitants to acquire more land, privileges for villages, slump of land prices, support dedicated for villages, lack of habitants or diminishing number of habitants, dominating agrarian sector, poor or no service sector. The small towns are spread uneven (Fig. 4, Fig. 5). There is no consistent pattern that could be found to explain territorial spread of the small towns. Major concentration is in the northeast, northwest and south of Lithuania. [From the publication]