Increasingly severe hydrological extremes are predicted for the Pannonian Basin as one of the consequences of climate change. The challenges of extreme droughts require the adaptation of agriculture especially during the intense growth phase of crops. For dryland farming, the selections of the optimal land use type and sustainable agricultural land management are potential adaptation tools for facing the challenges posed by increased aridity. To this end, it is indispensable to understand soil moisture (SM) dynamics under different land use types over drought-affected periods. Within the framework of a Slovenian–Hungarian project, soil moisture, matric potential and rainfall time series have been collected at three pilot sites of different land use types (pasture, orchards and a ploughland) in SW Hungary since September 2018. Experiments were carried out in soils of silt, silt loam and clay loam texture. In the summers (June 1 to August 31) of 2019 and 2022, we identified normal and dry conditions, respectively, with regard to differences in water balance. Our results demonstrated that soil moisture is closely controlled by land use. Marked differences of the moisture regime were revealed among the three land use types based on statistical analyses. Soils under pasture had the most balanced regime, whereas ploughland soils indicated the highest amplitude of moisture dynamics. The orchard, however, showed responses to weather conditions in sharp contrast with the other two sites. Our results are applicable for loamy soils under humid and subhumid temperate climates and for periods of extreme droughts, a condition which is expected to be the norm for the future.

Due to the general demographic situation in Hungary and the recent overall crisis of this traditional settlement-type, Hungarian small towns have been facing an intensive shrinking since the last decade. Although natural decrease and migration loss are almost equal factors of population decline, outmigration seems to be a more strategic, critical problem for these settlements. There are hardly any reliable data available about the migrants leaving small towns, but some of them seem to support the wellknown assumption that the young people, who leave these towns are looking for wider horizons and better perspectives. The aim of the present paper is to analyse the outmigration of young adults from small towns, and give estimation about the international aspects of migration, which is hardly ever published in official statistics. The paper also aims at revealing the impact of the intensive migration on the local labour market. A short statistical analysis based on census data and two empirical surveys conducted by the authors are also included. One was carried out with the support of volunteer contributors, former small-town students, who tried to reconstruct the post-secondary school migration of their former classmates. The other survey contains a series of interviews focusing on the consequences of the young adults’ migration on the labour market. The results facilitate the estimation regarding the (weak) capability of small towns to keep their young population, and highlight the problems of local developmental options within the context of demographic shrinkage.

A reziliencia koncepciója az elmúlt évtizedekben nagy utat járt be, mind az érintett tudományterületeket, mind pedig a vele összekapcsolt problémákat, kérdéseket tekintve. Az eredeti ökológiai problémafelvetés külső sokkokról és az egyensúly visszaszerzéséről szólt; a társadalomtudományok körében – beleértve a térrel foglalkozókat is – a hatások már nem egyszeri sokkok, hanem folyamatosan újratermelődő kihívások, ahol nem a soha nem létezett egyensúly visszanyerése a cél a komplex társadalmi rendszerek számára, hanem a kihívások és az adott válaszok révén történő fejlődés. A tanulmány áttekinti a reziliencia fogalmi bővülését és átalakulását, valamint elhelyezi a társadalomföldrajz és a térrel foglalkozó tudományok számára leginkább felhasználható értelmezést ebben a szerteágazó rendszerben. A tanulmány felhívja a figyelmet a koncepció ellentmondásaira is, mindenekelőtt annak újdonságértékére, kritikaiságára és mérhetőségi problémáira. Teszi ezt azért, mert a létező és izgalmas itthoni interpretációk ellenére a fogalom még csak parciális jelentőségű a hazai területi kutatásokban. A tanulmány amellett érvel, hogy minden hibája ellenére a reziliencia fogalma alkalmas lehet arra, hogy segítségével a területi fejlődést újszerű módon értelmezhessük. A tanulmány bemutat egy olyan elméleti modellt, amely elsősorban a hazai településhálózat, kiemelten pedig a (kis)városok vizsgálata számára jelenthet kereteket. A modell szerint a település politikai-önkormányzati, társadalmi és gazdasági szféráját érdemes vizsgálni annak a fényében, hogy ezek mennyire felelnek meg a diverzitás, kohézió és autonómia kritériumainak.

The rapid shrinking of Hungarian small towns became such a general process after the turn of the Millennium, which does not simply reflect the overall effects of the second demographic transition, and could not even be interpreted with local and regional factors. The aim of the present paper is to analyse the shrinking of small towns among the framework of post-socialists urban trans-formation models and concepts. Many authors have dealt with such transformation issues, but rather focusing on the description of the development of larger cities and analysing the transformation of urban space and society. Despite the evident differences caused by the size of the researched settlements (small urban centres with a maximal population of 30,000 people), some general elements of these concepts give parts of the explanations we looked for. Others are rooted much deeper: our paper finally states that the present day crisis of small towns originates back to the later decades of planned economy, when the forced and somewhat over-dimensioned modernisation of small towns resulted a significant role in the urban network. This modernisation was centrally planned, led and financed, and with the exhaustion of these exogenous sources small towns seem to return to a less intensive development path. Целью настоящей статьи является анализ сокращения малых городов в рамках моделей и концепций постсоциали-стических трансформаций городов. Многие авторы рассматривали такие проблемы трансформации, а скорее фокусирова-лись на описании развития крупных городов и анализе трансформации городского пространства и общества. Нынешний кризис малых городов происходит в более поздние десятилетия плановой экономики, когда вынужденная и несколько пере-оцененная модернизация малых городов сыграла важную роль в городской сети. Эта модернизация была централизованно спланирована, возглавлялась и финансировалась, но из-за истощения этих экзогенных источников небольшие города воз-вращались к менее интенсивному пути развития. Метою даної статті є аналіз скорочення малих міст у рамках моделей і концепцій постсоціалістичних трансформацій міст. Багато авторів розглядали такі проблеми трансформації, а скоріше фокусувались на описі розвитку великих міст та аналізі трансформації міського простору і суспільства. Нинішня криза малих міст відбувається у більш пізні десятиліття планової економіки, коли вимушена і дещо переоцінена модернізація малих міст зіграла важливу роль у міській мережі. Ця модернізація була централізовано спланована, очолювалася і фінансувалася, але через виснаження цих екзогенних джерел невеликі міста поверталися до менш інтенсивного шляху розвитку.

The East-Central European region has undergone a unique urbanisation process during socialist and postsocialist periods. These peculiarities result from social and economic development delays, which the statehas tried to remedy through massive interventions. One such intervention is urban reclassification, where the state promotes certain places it deems crucial, granting them urban status, often without actual developmentor urban characteristics. Due to its artificial character, this intervention is called formal urbanisation in our approach being a specific local feature of the urbanisation process. The visible result is the growth of the urbanpopulation, often only by administrative causes, with the reclassification of villages as towns. The emergence of numerous small towns, which we refer to as newest towns, has significantly influenced urbanisation, alteredthe concept of towns and cities3, and generated significant debates. In this paper, we compare the formal urbanisation of the socialist and post-socialist eras, trying to estimate the added value of formal urbanisation inthe latter period. We compare the administrative backgrounds of formal urbanisation in selected ECE countries for similarities and differences. Throughout the research, we analyse their formal urbanisation involvingapproximately 800 municipalities promoted since 1990 in Poland, Czechia, Hungary, and Romania, trying to identify common and unique features in the processes. Based on historical determination, modernisation, and integration into new spatial processes, considering demographic and functional changes, we developedtypes of formal urbanisation. Our research has revealed several common factors in the reclassification process, such as local initiatives, while we have also identified disparities between principles and practices and varyinglevels of control from regional and national actors. The study has also led to a deeper understanding of formal urbanisation in the context of the urbanisation process as a whole.