Urban Structure as a Precondition of Regional Development. Evidence from Slovakia Martin MARIS *1 , Marian KOVACIK 2 * Corresponding author 1 Slovak University of Agriculture, Department of Regional and Rural Development, Nitra, SLOVAKIA 2 Slovak University of Agriculture, Department of European Policies, Nitra, SLOVAKIA martin.maris@uniag.sk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8276-3308 marian.kovacik@uniag.sk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9164-3719 DOI: 10.24193/JSSPSI.04.CSPTER https://doi.org/10.24193/JSSPSI.04.CSPTER K e y w o r d s: urban patterns, monocentricity, polycentricity, coefficient of concordance, economic development A B S T R A C T 1. INTRODUCTION The main objective of the paper is to investigate a possible link between the urban structure and regional development in the local administrative units in Slovakia (LAU1 level). The objects of our study are the Slovak settlements, consisting of units, contained in districts (LAU1). The thematic aspect of the study also includes the analysis of urban patterns prevailing on regional level (NUTS 3). Hence, specific concepts of settlement morphology are evaluated: centrality, concentration, polycentricity, and city size. Secondly, the link between different urban patterns and development is evaluated. Recent discussions in regional studies and in economic development have returned to the centrality of cities, innovation, technology diffusion, and to overall economic growth. Conventional wisdom suggests that the three C‘s of compact, concentrated and connected cities are key to driving competitiveness and fostering innovation (Clark et al., 2018). Cities are essentially focal points in an economy where people come together primarily to exchange goods, to trade. The forces that create such clusters are usually defined to be those leading to agglomeration economies whereby industries and services prosper if they are close to each other and close to their market (Batty et al., 2003). Still, there is relatively little evidence on the relation between Centre for Research on Settlements and Urbanism Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning J o u r n a l h o m e p a g e: http://jssp.reviste.ubbcluj.ro/eng/index.html The main objective of the paper was to investigate a possible link between the urban structure and regional economic performance in Slovakia, at district level (LAU1). Based on the selected urban indicators, we identified distinct patterns in terms of urban structure and economic performance in Slovakia through the Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC) method. The “inner” urban pattern includes districts located predominantly in the central part of the country with some extension to the west and east. Common characteristics of this pattern are higher centrality, clustering, and monocentric urban cores. The “outer” urban pattern includes districts located predominantly at the periphery, along the borders. The common characteristics of this pattern are the dispersed urban patterns and polycentric settlement structures. The underlying urban structure was matched with the economic conditions prevailing in each district for evaluating the degree of concordance. The kappa coefficient of concordance has shown a scant relation between the urban structure and economic performance of regions at the district level (LAU1). According to the main findings, underlying urban pattern (clustered or dispersed one) in any particular district does not preclude economic success or failure of its regional economy.