Summary:

The subject of the article is the structure of infrastructural facilities in the rural areas of the śląskie province. The infrastructure is composed of many elements which are facilities of the area technical infrastructure, however due to the confined space, the article focuses only on four selected elements of the infrastructure , i.e. on water supply system, sewer system, gas grid and road network. The paper aims at presenting the typology of infrastructure in rural areas of the śląskie province. The analysis was conducted on the scale of communes. The article comprises exclusively the ninety six rural communes in the province (ruralurban communes were not considered because of unavailability of data on their exclusively rural part). The level of the selected four elements of the infrastructure was assessed on the basis of the statistical data as of the end of 2004 and 2005. The studies were conducted using taxonomic method of structure analysis, i.e. Ward’s method and center of gravity method. These methods allow for grouping the analyzed objects by different means in order to confront the correctness of the realized typologization. Owing to the applied methods and basing on their similarities concerning the structure of infrastructural facilities, groups of communes representing individual types infrastructure management were identified. The analysis identified the types of infrastructure management and pointed out communes characterized by a definite type of structure. Both applied methods allowed for obtaining most approximate results of grouping. In the course of analysis six types of communes with similar infrastructure were distinguished. The analysis of spatial distribution of established types in rural communes of the śląskie province allowed to point out relatively uniform areas with respect to type VI and generally not neighbouring communes characterized by the other types. The communes with established VI type of structure are characterized by the lowest level of infrastructure, they are situated in the south of the province and in its north- eastern and north-western parts (on the province boundaries). Communes within types II and III with the most advantageous structure are localized on the south of the province (north of the Żywiec district). The other types of the structure are characterized by more irregular spatial distribution.