Using a fuzzy inference system to delimit rural and urban municipalities in the Czech republic in 2010

Due to the suburbanisation process, it is becoming more difficult to properly define rural and urban areas in the Czech Republic. This delimitation problem has been intensively studied in Europe, including the Czech Republic, for decades, but only so-called ‘crisp’ rules have been set for the categorisation of urban and rural. This is no longer satisfactory because of substantial population movements. Our research focuses on applying fuzzy set theory to the delimitation of rural and urban areas and on the subsequent advanced cartographic visualisation. We used the principles of fuzzy regulation, or fuzzy inference systems, on socio-economic data to show the transitional character of municipalities. The generated Main map is at scale of 1:500,000, whereas secondary maps are at scale of 1:2,500,000. Map visualisation of municipalities in the Czech Republic provides a very unique combination of geographical information science, cartography and modern geo-computational methods. Information perception via a map is an adequate way to analyse geographic information, and the problem of delimiting rural and urban areas can be suitably visualised using these methods.