The Rybnik Coal Area (Polish: Rybnicki Okręg Węglowy, ROW) is an industrial region in southern Poland.[1] It is located in the Silesian Voivodeship,[1] in a basin between the Vistula and Oder rivers, sited on the Rybnik Plateau (Polish: Płaskowyż Rybnicki) between Katowice (Metropolis GZM) to the north and Ostrava on the south-west. It is part of the Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan area populated by 5,294,000 people[2] and the populated by about 7 million. According to scientific description by Paweł Swianiewicz and Urszula Klimska this area has 507,000 people,[3] according to European Spatial Planning Observation Network - 634,000 people (525,000 + 109,000 by Racibórz). Area: about 1,300 km2.
Adjacent main cities and statistics (30.06.2009):[4]
| City / Town | Population | Area (km2) | Density (km−2) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rybnik | ||||
| Jastrzębie-Zdrój | ||||
| Żory | ||||
| Racibórz | ||||
| Wodzisław Śląski | ||||
| Rydułtowy | ||||
| Radlin | ||||
| Pszów | ||||
| Total |
Adjacent county (powiat) and statistics (30.06.2009):
| County | Population | Area (km2) | Density (km2) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wodzisław County | ||||
| Rybnik city-county | ||||
| Racibórz County | ||||
| Jastrzębie-Zdrój city-county | ||||
| Rybnik County[5] | ||||
| Żory city-county | ||||
| Total |
The beginnings of ROW are related to a six-year plan and the modernization of nine old hard coal mines in the Rybnik-wodzisław region, e.g. KWK Anna or KWK Marcel. In 1952, the State Economic Planning Commission commissioned work on the preparation of a development plan for ROW. It was planned to build mines in the area of Wodzisław, Żory, Jejkowice and Kaczyce. Therefore, during the six-year plan, the old ones were modernized, but the construction of a new one, the first from scratch, of the 1 Maja Coal Mine in Wodzisław Śląski was started. In the following years, plans were started to build further new mines in ROW (Rybnik Coal Area).