SUMMARY
Small and medium sized towns are the most common type of urban settlement in Slovakia. Therefore, finding ways for their sustainable development is one of the most urgent topics in contemporary Slovak urban planning theory and practice. The main tool of contemporary Slovak urban planning – the land use plan – regulates the development of a town/city on a large scale, while often demarcating new development areas, expanding the suburbanisation and satisfying the requirements regarding transport and other related issues. Two such towns, – Komárno and Štúrovo, undergoing similar processes, are located on the river Danube and are directly involved in the research project INTERREG DANUrB.
With respect to these//the current trends in urban planning, as well as the needs of the research project DANUrB, we aimed to propose possible methods for addressing a part of the issue – the problem of rapid town expansion – by identifying areas within the town/city boundaries that have the potential to meet such transformation potential. In a selected study of the town of Komárno, we verified the method and tried to prepare a concept for the valorisation of the area. Komárno has various sections with high development potential: areas along the Danube and the Vah rivers, Elisabeth’s Island, the former ammunition factory complex, the area around the historical fortress, etc. Other areas where urban planning intervention is both possible and needed are unused sections along the railways tracks and panel block housing estates that need intensification.