a synthetic approach to the delimitation of the prague metropolitan area

The main objective of this paper is to apply a synthetic approach to the delimitation of metropolitan areas, which combines traditional commuting data from the population census with alternative approaches. the presented delimitation, which was originally realized in response to a request from prague’s planning authority, is based on three methodological pillars: the use of economic and social aspects of metropolization; suburbanization; and daily mobility within the prague metropolitan area. integrated systems of centers calculated from population census data are complemented with the use of mobile phone data. there was a surprising level of similarity in the spatial patterns gained from the two methods. zones of residential suburbanization and time spent in the core city provided a complex perspective on the daily urban system within the prague metropolitan area. a synthetic map based on the four methods is provided, accompanied by five analytical maps on a smaller scale. published by informa uk limited, trading as taylor & francis group on behalf of journal of maps. all rights reserved.