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Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft
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Die zweisprachige internationale wissenschaftliche Fachzeitschrift „Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft“ („Annals of the Austrian Geographical Society“) ist das wichtigste regelmäßig erscheinende Organ der „Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft“. Sie erscheint seit 1857 und ist die älteste noch existierende Fachzeitschrift geographischen Inhalts im deutschen Sprachraum. Dabei werden neue Erkenntnisse aus allen Bereichen der Geographie, Kartographie und verwandter Raumwissenschaften vermittelt, über Fachfragen in Forschung und Lehre, nationale und internationale geographische Aktivitäten sowie über Personalia informiert und Gesellschaftsnachrichten publiziert.
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epub.oeaw – Institutionelles Repositorium der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften epub.oeaw – Institutional Repository of the Austrian Academy of Sciences
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DATUM, UNTERSCHRIFT / DATE, SIGNATURE
BANK AUSTRIA CREDITANSTALT, WIEN (IBAN AT04 1100 0006 2280 0100, BIC BKAUATWW), DEUTSCHE BANK MÜNCHEN (IBAN DE16 7007 0024 0238 8270 00, BIC DEUTDEDBMUC)
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Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft, Band 167/2025, pp. 139-159, 2026/05/21
Band 167 (Jahresband), Wien 2025
Volume 167 (Annual volume), Vienna 2025
This article analyses the condition and development of historic town and village centres in Upper Austria and closes a research gap in the empirical recording of these central settlement areas. Based on a semi-automated delimitation using the Franciscan cadastre (‘Fran-ziszeischer Kataster’) (1817–1861) and statistical data from 2001 and 2018, a methodologically robust procedure was developed that makes historical centres morphologically and functionally comparable. The results show an area of tension between structural redensification and social depopulation: despite rising building and housing numbers, most town and village centres recorded declining populations, increasing vacancy rates and the loss of their commercial functions. The shift towards a (semi-)public service sector and the erosion of architectural heritage are particularly characteristic of this development in peripheral regions. A cluster analysis identifies five types of historic town and village centres with widely diverging development paths – from dynamic centres of densification to structurally endangered centres. The study illustrates that historic town and village centres are neither static relics nor self-sustaining resilient spaces. Their future viability depends on integrated, data-based and type-specific strategies that take revitalisation, mobility and building culture into account in equal measure.
Keywords: Town centres, village centres, structural analysis, delineation, Franciscan cadastre, image-classification, cluster analysis, Upper Austria