Taxonomic methods in similarity examination of Lubuskie voivodeship in comparison to other European Union regions

Abstract

In the territorial profile of the European Union, large differences may be observed between economically better and less developed regions. Therefore, in its policy, much attention is focussed on the less developed regions. Such regions include disadvantaged, remote, sparsely populated and border regions. The Lubuskie voivodeship examined in the article should be included among them.
This paper attempts to define the similarities and differences of this province in comparison to other regions of the European Union on the basis of typical features such as its geographical location and area, population density, land use and climatic conditions. For this purpose, 266 EU regions were studied, of which a group of 33 similar regions was identified by means of the complete linkage method. Next, these regions were analysed to indicate which of them, with similar geographical and natural conditions, could constitute a model for it, achieving more favourable economic results measured by the level of GDP per capita. The similarity between regions was examined by applying the Gower distance measure for quantitative and qualitative characteristics. The test results were visualised using a dendrogram and a taxonomic chart of the object under study. The data for the research was taken from the databases of Eurostat, the European Statistical Office, and Climate-Data.org. The collected data define the situation in EU regions as of 2017 or the last year available.
Based on the conducted research, 9 EU regions can be selected as model regions for the Lubuskie voivodeship. These are regions from the following countries: Germany (5 regions), as well as France, Austria, Belgium, and the Czech Republic (1 region each). More closely examining the management methods of the regions from the above-mentioned countries, the functioning of industry, agriculture and transport in their area, and the promotion of regionally produced products would be reasonable for the needs of the regional policy of the Lubuskie voivodeship.