Outer Subcarpathia (Polish: Podkarpacie Zewnętrzne; Ukrainian: Прикарпаття, Prykarpattia; Czech: Vněkarpatské sníženiny; German: Karpatenvorland) denotes the depression area at the outer (western, northern and eastern) base of the Carpathian arc, including foothills of the Outer Western Carpathians and Outer Eastern Carpathians. It stretches from northeastern Austria, through eastern Czech Republic, southern Poland, western Ukraine and northeastern Romania.[1]
The opposite foothill regions on the inner side of the Carpathian arc are known as Inner Subcarpathia, transitioning further to the Pannonian Basin.[2]
The western end is marked by the (northern) Vienna Basin, separating it from the Eastern Alpine Foreland. The adjacent hilly landscape of the Lower Austrian Weinviertel region with its extensive loess layers border on the limestone rock formations of the South-Moravian Carpathians.
In the Czech Republic, the depression is situated on the outskirts of the White Carpathians in Moravia, including the Pálava Protected Landscape Area. In Poland they stretch along the Lesser Poland Voivodeship to the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, part of the Galicia historic region that leads to Ukraine (Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Chernivtsi Oblast) and the Dniester Basin.
In Romania, the depression ends east of the Carpathian arc on the upper Moldova River within the Bukovina and Moldavia regions, bordering on the Wallachian Plain in the south.