Geographia Polonica (1964) vol. 1

Desmond A. Gillmor, Department of Geography, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Niels Boje Groth, Danish Forest and Landscape Research Institute (DFLRI) H0rsholm Kongevej 11 DK-2970 Horsholm, Denmark

Antoni Kukliński, The development of the Knowledge-Based Economy in Europe: The regional trajectory

Magdalena Kuchcik [mkuchcik@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Krzysztof Błażejczyk [k.blaz@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Ewa Nowosielska, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

In the hitherto works concerning the course of the upper tree-limit or mountain pine-limit and their relation with mean annual temperature, the limits of vegetation horizons were determined much more precisely than the location of isotherms - the latter were determined bas-ing on interpolation and extrapolation of data from meteorological stations. Thanks to the applica-tion of Onset HOBO data loggers, the measurements of air temperature were carried out in select-ed sites at the upper tree-limit in Sucha Woda Valley in the Tatra Mountains. The measurements were conducted every hour during 4 months in warm period in 2007. The measurement sites were located in different land reliefs of different exposition. The lowest temperature was recorded in the depression of a channel shape located about 100 m below the other sites. Also in the next site located in a concave land form - the bottom of the Czarny Potok valley, the recorded temperature was lower than in the sites located in non-dismembered area. Despite the fact that the investiga-tions had only a preliminary character, they showed that the upper tree-limit and probably also the mountain pine-limit should not be compared with the course of mean annual temperatures deter-mined basing on interpolation and extrapolation. Only direct measurements of temperature in the field give a true picture of relation between the relief and microclimate and the upper tree-limit.

Keywords: relief, climate, tree-limit, the Tatra Mts.

Stanisław Kędzia [kedzia@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

The paper presents the political history of the present-day eastern boundary of Poland (Polish-Ukrainian and Polish-Belarusian). Therespective line was called the Curzon Line due to the initiative of the Foreign Secretary of Great Britain, George Nathaniel Curzon(1859-1925). On December 8th, 1919, he suggested a provisional demarcation line separating Poland from Bolshevik Russia.At that time, it was just one of many proposals for the course of the line of separation and did not play any significant political role. Thename, the Curzon Line, was brought back into use during World War II by Stalin and accepted by Roosevelt and Churchill at the conferencesin Teheran in 1943 and in Yalta in 1945, as the eastern boundary of Poland. In this article, the causes and consequences of thisdecision are considered, based on the source documents and the literature on the subject. The political boundary which was forced uponPoland by the three superpowers after the defeat of the German Third Reich, and the inclusion of Poland in the Soviet zone of influenceare the subjects of this article.

Keywords: Curzon Line, boundary of Poland, political boundary, World War II, historical geography

Piotr Eberhardt [p.ebe@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

This paper presents findings from an empirical study of diurnal trips made by disabled people to healthcare facilities distributedacross urban space. The study was carried out in the city of Bydgoszcz, Poland, while the subsequent analysis isbased on the authors’ inventory of healthcare facilities and interviews. Data gathered from interviews with 450 disabledpeople plus 150 able-bodied members of the same households bring out great differences in daily mobility between thetwo social categories. The daily mobility of disabled people in relation to healthcare is much more tangible than thatinvolving their non-disabled counterparts. Disabled people opt to commute further and for a longer time to the establishmentsproviding comprehensive medical services of high quality, even if the architectural availability of some of thesefacilities is unsatisfactory. In contrast, their able-bodied counterparts mostly choose general practitioners situated nearto their home areas, rather than travelling to more-distant specialists.

Keywords: disability, healthcare travel, availability, accessibility, urban space, principal component analysis, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Zbigniew Taylor [z.taylor@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the conception of an ubran agglomeration and that of a metropolitan area in geography and physical planning as approached by Polish authors. Special attention ia paid to relations holding between those conceptions, which are consdered in terms of the morpological and the functional structure of a large city.

Keywords: urban agglomeration, metropolitan area, high-order functions, networks of international links, Poland

Teresa Czyż [tczyz@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

Current international programs of global planetary change research overemphasize therole of analysis as manifested in the idealized predictions of mathematical models, a strategy thatcontains potential flaws both scientifically and as a matter of public policy. Similar methodologicalproblems have impeded progress in understanding the catastrophic processes that affectlandforms and landscapes at various spatial scales. An increased emphasis on synthetic scientificreasoning through the use of natural indexical signs can provide a more balanced scientific approachto advancing understanding in both these areas.

Keywords: global change, catastrophic processes, landscape evolution, geomorphology, modeling

Abstract

This article presents a method of describing maximum recessions of groundwater level,drawing on an analysis based on data gathered from 41 sites for the monitoring of groundwaterlevel located in central Poland. Maximum weekly recessions for all of the measurement points wereselected, before being employed as a basis for approximating the regression lines used to calculatethe theoretical “top speed” recession curves between maximum and minimum groundwater levels,and the estimated time needed for such a recession to be achieved. Studied characteristics of all theexamined groundwater recessions were compared with geographical characteristics of the aquifersinvolved, in order that relations between them could be determined.

Keywords: groundwater, maximum recessions of water table

Abstract

The Balkan region, which is extremely heterogeneous from ethnical, religious andcultural aspects, is characterized by serious differences of economic development as well. TheMuslim inhabitants in the Balkan region are living in 10 countries, in which their spatial concentrationshows significant differences. The growth of the number of Muslims and the transgressionof their settlement area was going on from the 15th until the 19th century. The analysisof the ethnical and economic development pattern of the Balkan region can raise the question,whether there is a connection between the spatial allocation of the Muslims and the spatialpattern of economic development.

Keywords: Muslims, Balkan, regional disparities, inequalities in development

Zsolt Bottlik, Institute of Geography, Ruprecht Karls University, Berliner Strasse 48, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Ferenc Gyuris, Institute of Geography, Ruprecht Karls University, Berliner Strasse 48, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Abstract

Hungary is struggling with its fragmented local governmental system. The so called “publicservice reform” aimed to offer equal access to all as regards local public services, as well as to encourageeffi ciency of activity at local administrative level. The government transferred to local actors the responsibilityfor the implementation of reform commissioned centrally. The organisational and geographicalframeworks for the rationalisation of local public administration were in turn devised at micro-regionallevel.This paper mainly aims to analyse urban-rural connections, as co-operative networks of local authoritieshave already been created. The issue is the extent to which the horizontal cooperations created toorganise public services can be effective if their vertical connections are very weak, and, further, if thereis no mechanism to counterbalance regional differences.

Keywords: public administration reform, social cohesion, territorial cohesion, inter-municipal cooperation, network, public services, effi ciency.

Somlyódyné Pfeil, Centre for Regional Studies of Hungarian Academy of Sciences H-7601 Pécs, P.O. Box 199, Hungary

Abstract

The principal aim of this paper is to analyze the trends of the multi-annual course of the selectedcharacteristics of extreme precipitation, snow cover and atmospheric thunderstorms in the secondhalf of the twentieth century in Poland. The results of these investigations show that in Poland it is onlypossible to determine a weak decreasing trend of extreme precipitation events in the S and especially inthe SW part of the country. In northern Poland, opposite, although similarly weak, trends have also beenobserved. It is assumed that the most essential features of long-term changeability of extreme precipitationinclude a higher than average number of days with extremely high precipitation during the 1960sand 1970s, a distinctly lower frequency of such days during the 1950s, 1980s and in the fi rst half of the1990s. In Poland it is possible to distinguish four broad homogenous areas in terms of the long-termchanges in the occurrence of extreme precipitation events. There is considerable regional differentiationwhen it comes to the occurrence of thunderstorms in Poland, and their long-term changeability does notshow any clear trends. Only three stations have determined a weak increase in the number of thunderstormsduring the last 120 years. In some stations, an increase in the number of days with thunderstormsduring the winter seasons was also observed. There were no signifi cant trends in extreme snow coverin Poland. The periods that contained large and small areas of extreme snow cover thickness occurredalternately. Since the winter season 1987/88, the area of extremely thin snow cover has remained at arelatively high level.

Keywords: Extreme precipitation, thunderstorm, extreme snow cover, trends, Poland

Ewa Łupikasza, Department of Climatology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland
Zuzanna Bielec-Bąkowska [zuzanna.bielec-bakowska@us.edu.pl], Department of Climatology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland
Małgorzata Falarz, Department of Climatology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland

Abstract

In line with recent developments, landscape is not only the object of scientifi c studies, but isalso being included in planning policy and practice. In association with this, a strong sense of landscapeas heritage emerges, though the precise meaning of this heritage is always contested. To address thisproblem, the work described here used the example of the relationship between designated landscapevalues and recently adopted development areas and axes to show and discuss the way in which landscapeheritage is polarized in terms of its value in today’s Czechia, as well as what that means for landscapeprotection.

Keywords: landscape heritage, areal preservation, landscape management, areal development, spatial planning, Czechia

Zdeněk Kučera, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Albertov 6, 128 43, Praha 2, Czechia
Silvie Kučerová-Kuldová, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Albertov 6, 128 43, Praha 2, Czechia
Pavel Chromý, Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Albertov 6, 128 43, Praha 2, Czechia

Jacek A. Jania, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia ul. Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

This article reflects upon the role of residents and social groups in assigning meaningto urban space. The research on which it is based was intended to: a) support a thesis about theimportance of the social use of urban space in the shaping of urban structures, b) augment ourknowledge as to the assignment of meaning to city areas and support the paradigm accounting forurban phenomena in terms of the everyday life of city dwellers, and c) identify the processes ofurban marking in Polish metropolitan conditions by reference to criminal behaviour and its perceptionin Poznań. The research reported allows a more general conclusion to be drawn in thatthe stigmatization of urban areas only affects small areas and is fairly rare, while stereotypizationof varying intensity is characteristic of much wider areas and is a more frequent mechanism underpinningsocial perceptions of places in a city.

Keywords: Social production (marking) of urban space, stigmatization, stereotypization, Poznań city.

Michał Dolata, Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Adam Mickiewicz University Dzięgielowa 27, 61-680 Poznań, Poland
Jacek Kotus [tatra@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, Adam Mickiewicz University Dzięgielowa 27, 61-680 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

The assessment of the thermal environment is one of the main issues in bioclimatic research, and more than 100 simple bioclimaticindices have thus far been developed to facilitate it. However, most of these indices have proved to be of limited applicability,and do not portray the actual impacts of thermal conditions on human beings. Indices derived from human heatbalancemodels (one- or two-node) have been found to offer a better representation of the environmental impact in questionthan do simple ones. Indeed, the new generation of multi-node models for human heat balance do allow full account to betaken of heat transfer and exchange, both within the human body and between the body surface and the surrounding airlayer. In this paper, it is essential background information regarding the newly-developed Universal Thermal Climate IndexUTCI that is presented, this in fact deriving from the Fiala multi-node model of human heatbalance. The UTCI is definedas the air temperature (Ta) of the reference condition causing the same model response as actual conditions. UTCI wasdeveloped in 2009 by virtue of international co-operation between leading experts in the areas of human thermophysiology,physiological modelling, meteorology and climatology. The necessary research for this had been conducted within theframework of a special commission of the International Society of Biometeorology (ISB) and European COST Action 730.

Keywords: UTCI, human heat balance, multi-node model, bioclimatic index, International Society of Biometeorology, COST Action 730

Krzysztof Błażejczyk [k.blaz@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Gerd Jendritzky, University of Freiburg Chair of Meteorology and Climatology Werthmannstraße 10, 79085 Freiburg: Germany
Peter Bröde [broede@ifado.de], Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo) Ardeystr 67, D-44139 Dortmund: Germany
Dusan Fiala, ErgonSim-Comfort Energy Efficiency Holderbuschweg 47, D-70563 Stuttgart: Germany
Agnieszka Psikuta, Empa – a Research Institute of the ETH Domain Laboratory for Physiology and Protection Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, 9014 St. Gallen: Switzerland;

Abstract

Where physical geography might go in the next fifty years can be contemplated froma review of how river channels have been studied in the last fifty years. The river landscape is abasis for introducing seven ways in which river landscapes have been studied and researched,culminating in an eighth holistic phase. Conclusions from studies of impacts of human activityprovide a basis for suggesting that physical geographers should be more concerned with the designof river landscapes and ways in which this might be achieved are suggested.

Keywords: river channels, river landscapes, river channel changes, landscape design, future physical geography

Kenneth John Gregory, School of Geography, University of Southampton Southampton, SO17 1BJ United Kingdom

Kenneth John Gregory, School of Geography, University of Southampton Southampton, SO17 1BJ United Kingdom

Barbara Obrębska-Starklowa, Department of Climatology, Jagiellonian University, Cracow

Abstract

The knowledge-economy system is so complicated that its description and analysis with the help of the calculus of correlations between inputs and outputs can only yield approximate results. These can be useful when arguing for an increase in research and development outlays, but tend to be disputed when passing from correlations to a cause-and-effect analysis, as critics demand elucidation of relationships between inputs and the outputs. The present author is of the opinion that the most practical way of solving this problem is to identify the structure of the model mapping the knowledge-economy system. If data necessary for a deterministic approach to modelling are missing, a probabilistic approach employing Markov chains be found to be useful. In the final part, the author suggests using neural networks, which make it possible to expand correlation links and hence to enlarge the basis of explanatory reasoning.

Keywords: knowledge-economy system, identification of model structure, intermediate layers of system, probabilities of change in system states, effects of changes in states

Ryszard Domański, Academy of Economics Poznań, Department of Spatial and Environmental Economics al. Niepodległości 10, 60-967 Poznań, Poland

Krzysztof Kożuchowski [kkozuchowski1@wp.pl], Department of Environment Dynamics and Bioclimatology, University of Łódź, Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland
Joanna Wibig, Department of Meteorology and Climatology, Faculty of Biology and Earth Science, University of Lodz Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland

Abstract

Widespread youth unemployment has been an unwelcome, if predictable, cost of Polish labour market reform. Yet even though young people everywhere are over-repre-sented in the unemployment pool, the burden of the early shock was not borne equally across the country. This paper charts the emergence of the problem and its distribution across space while examining the possibility that the early regional inequalities were transitory. Although there was a trend towards convergence during the upswing in unemployment, it was neither achieved fully, nor is the process continuing. It is, of course, possible that persistent disparities in the seriousness of youth unemployment may be tolerable in an environment in which unemployment generally is now falling. However, the paper urges that recent signs of some improvement in the situation of young people on the labour market should not be taken to imply that active policy interventions have thereby been rendered redundant. The extent of long-term unemployment amongst the young, the demographic trends, and the inevitable future restructuring of large parts of the economy suggest that unemployment may be the lasting legacy of the shock-therapy adopted by the authors of the Polish transformation.

Keywords: Poland, youth, unemployment, convergence, regions

Mike Ingham, European Studies Research Institute, University of Salford, Salford M5 4WT, UK
Hilary Ingham, Department of Economics, The Management School, Lancaster University, Lancaster LAI 4YX, UK

Lech Ryszkowski, Agricultural University of Poznań Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

In Poland there are about 590 actively quarried deposits of mineral resources referred to as natural building stone, orquarry stone (database Midas). According to data from the Polish Geological Institute 730 medium and large quarriesare located throughout the country. Most of the quarries work sandstone, limestone, granite, basalt or dolomite. The largestPolish sites exceed 1 km2 in area, while those in other countries can be larger than 10 km2. Once its mineral workingoperations cease, a quarry begins functioning in harmony with the landscape as a former mineral working site. That iswhen the biotic and abiotic elements arrive at a state of equilibrium. The scenic function of a quarry should be interpretedas a set of elements, composed of escarpments, cliffs, spoil heaps, the stage of exploitation, etc. The paper discusses theimpact of quarries on the landscape and their potential value for geotourism.

Keywords: landscape, quarry, visualisation, geotourism, Poland

Jerzy Nita, University of Silesia Faculty of Earth Sciences Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland

Abstract

TO the study of climatic changes in the Europe-North Atlantic region some methods classical to the meteorological community, such as an empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decomposition and analogues searching were combined with methods used by the contemporary theory of dynamical systems. In this paper we try to resolve a question about the nature of changes in the climatic system, starting from an investigation as to whether features of self-similarity typical for strange attractors (SA) remain invariant or break. The essence of our approach is a reconstruction of a coarse-grained dimension of a strange attractor on the basis of time series of meteorological data. The best results were obtained by joint application of the EOF and Takens methods with a local approximation of a strange attractor trajectory by the fixed mass (analogue) method. The presented method has value not only as a research tool and has since October 1944 been implemented operationally at IMWM (Poland) to forecast a half-year air temperature anomaly within the mid-latitude belt.

Keywords: climate modelling, climate change, chaotic strange attractor, empirical long-term forecasting

Bogumił Jakubiak, Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, Warsaw University Pawińskiego 5a, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland
Dmitry Sonechkin, Hydrometeorological Research Centre of Russia Bolshoy Predtechensky Lane 9/13, 123242 Moscow, Russia
Nadjezda Ivachtchenko, Hydrometeorological Research Centre of Russia Bolshoy Predtechensky Lane 9/13, 123242 Moscow, Russia

Alina Potrykowska, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland
John I. Clarke, Chiirman, Committee on Population and Environment, International Union for the Scientific SUdy of Population and North Durham Health Authority, Appleton House, Lanchester Road, Durham DH1 5XZ, United Kingdom

Abstract

To grasp the impact of plant cover structure on heat balance structure the components of heat balance of six ecosystems and two landscapes were calculated by using a mathematical model. The following three types of meteorological conditions during the growing season were taken into consideration:

• Real meteorological conditions for normal, wet and dry years chosen from observations made in the period 1956-1992.
• Assumed model meteorological conditions for a normal year, (averages from long-term values of meteorological data), and for an extremely dry and hot year, and an extremely wet and cold year.
• Predicted meteorological conditions resulting from global changes.

The analysis of various meteorological situations has shown that plant cover has mitigating capacities in relation to the presumed effects of global climate change. Thus, in attempts to predict global changes at local level, the mitigating effects of plant cover must be taken into consideration.

Lech Ryszkowski, Agricultural University of Poznań Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland
Andrzej Kędziora, Agricultural University of Poznań Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

The main topic discussed is the change of spatial organization during the period of transition from a centrally planned to a market economic system. The economic reforms start, cause some temporal perturbations and conflicts then effect changes in the location and linkage patterns, hierarchical transformations and shifts in the spatial structure of the economy.

Keywords: economic transformations, self-organization theory, self-government, local initiatives, privatization of the former state-owned enterprises, infrastructural barriers

Ryszard Domański, Academy of Economics Poznań, Department of Spatial and Environmental Economics al. Niepodległości 10, 60-967 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

Slow mass movement of the soil is a form of transporting of slope material. It can be classified according to: the dynamics of the process, the structure of the movement (particles, layers) and the relation to the morphological surface (shallow or deep movement). In this way it is possible to distinguish soil creep as the important process within this group of mass wasting factors. Seasonal creep is first of all a function of climate whereas continuous or rheological creep is a function of geological structure.The slow movement of the soil depends on local factors (slope angle, moisture of the soil, vegetation cover) and on latitudinal and altitudinal climatic zonal factors (temperature, precipitation). The rate of soil movement in the polar (periglacial) zone is the highest on the globe. It is, as mass movement of the soil, three times higher than in the alpine zone. The soil creep processes in temperate climates are relatively small but greater than in the tropic zone. The smallest soil movement is in the arid and semi-arid zone.

Alfred Jahn, Geographical Institute, University of Wrocław, Wrocław Poland

Michael J. Wise, The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Abstract

The seminar programme included paper sessions and excursions with demonstration of sites in case study areas. The sites represented examples of research conducted in NW Poland and were related to the topics of some Polish papers. The seminar was begun on 9 October 1986 with the demonstration of sites in Wolin Island.

Stefan Kozarski, Committee of Geographical Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences

Abstract

At the micro-level, the main factors of internal migration in Poland have been associated with "possibilities of improvement in the economic and social position of migrants, the desire for better living conditions, and the expectation of an improved social and physical environment" (Dziewoński and Korcelli 1981, p. 29). These mechanisms were, at the marco-level, translated traditionally into the interdependence between migration and industrial/urban development. According to Dziewoński et al. (1977, p. 144): "After 1950 the magnitude and directions of internal migrations have mainly been influenced by industrialization and urbanization pocesses". Furthermore, "industrialization represented the main driving force of urban growth". Indeed, 140 out of 241 urban centres with 10 000 inhabitants or more in 1960 had at least 50 per cent of their total employment in industry and construction in 1960. (Ibid., p. 316).The peak in internal migration flows occurred in the mid-fifties when crude migration rates amounted to 50 — 55 per thousand population. (Reference is made to the period since 1948, when large shifts of the population due to post-war resettlement have come to an end.) During the following decade the rates gradually declined to the level of 26-27 per thousand, as a result of the contraction of industrial investment outlays and new farm policies. Interdependence of migration and industrial change, however, still persisted. Districts with net migration gain accounted for 77 per cent of the total inmigration, 64 per cent of employment growth and 88 per cent of all new investments in industry between 1966—1970 (Stpiczyński 1972). The 1970s brought an acceleration of urban/industrial growth together with a growth of spatial mobility. Owing to administrative reform in 1974 which involved an increase in the size of basic reporting units, the latter development has not been reflected in current population statistics. Instead, migration rates during the seventies appeared to be at the same level as during the sixties. This statistical artifact has only partly been accounted for in relevant demographic and geographic literature.

Piotr Korcelli [korcelli@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Andrzej Samuel Kostrowicki, Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement du Territoire. Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Andrzej Samuel Kostrowicki, Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement du Territoire. Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Abstract

Many features observed by the Geomorphologist raise an interesting question, namely: do all the observations belong to one or more morphological populations? Detailed field measurements of form may help solve this type problem, but in doubt-ful cases one may have to resort to some statistical device which allows a certain probability to be attached to an individual that will help decide to which of two possible populations it belongs.

In this paper we shall describe an example of a problem raised during the map-ping of terracette forms near Salford where there was good documentary evidence that the forms belonged to two populations, natural and man made. Visually, the two populations of terracettes appeared similar and it seemed reasonable to suppose that only careful measurement of the actual morphology might distinguish them.

In dubious cases assignment to one population or the other can be made via logistic regression, which because of its properties is advantageous to other met-hods which might be used to discriminate between the two genetic types of terracette. Hitherto this type of statistic has been little used in Geography, but as we shall indicate it has considerable advantages over other commonly used methods such as ordinary least squares regression and discriminant analysis.

Peter Vincent, University of Lancaster, Lancaster, United Kingdom
Jean Haworth, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom
Joan Victoria Clarke, University of Salford, Salford, United Kingdom

Yurii V. Medvedkov, Institute of Geography. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Moscow, USSR

Alfred Jahn, Geographical Institute, University of Wrocław, Wrocław Poland

B.v. Andrianov, Institute of Ethnography, Soviet Academy of Sciences, Moscow, USSR

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Planationsurfaces, being included into the contents of the 1:300,000 Geo-morphological Map of Poland, are surfaces of subaerial destruction which resulted from the joint action of various factors in pre-Pleistocene sensu stricto times. These surfaces cut across rocks of different resistance and vari-ous structures forming the Sudetes Mts., together with the Sudetes Foreland, the Central Polish Uplands and the Carpathians. North of lat. 51°N the down-warped Central Polish Uplands merge gradually beneath the unbroken cover of glacial and glacio-fluvial deposits. In the Polish Lowland, therefore, old sur-faces are now buried by Miocene, Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits (S. Biernat 1968; E. Ciuk 1961; F. Różycki 1956). Beyond the limit of the last Scandinavian glaciation, young destruction surfaces of exogenic origin also developed on the older glacial and glacio-fluvial deposits (J. Dylik 1953; K. Rotnicki 1966). A discussion of the fossil planation surfaces and Pleistocene surfaces of destruc-tion, however, falls outside the scope of this paper. Its aim is to show the regional differentiation in the development and state of preservation of the pre-Pleistocene planation surfaces in southern Poland in relation to morpho-structure, its general neotectonic tendencies and trends of evolution.Regional analysis is based upon the 1:300,000 Geomorphological Map of Poland which was prepared in the Cracow Branch of the Institute of Geo-graphy, Polish Academy of Siencies, during the period 1966 to 1973, acting in cooperation with specialists in regional geomorphology from Wrocław, Poznań, Warszawa, Lublin, Toruń and Gdańsk. The regional maps described in this paper were prepared by H. Piasecki (the Sudetes Mts. and Sudetes Foreland), S. Gilewska (the Uplands of Silesia and Małopolska), H. Maruszczak (the Lub-lin-Volhynian Upland), K. Klimek and L. Starkel (sub-Carpathian Basins) and L. Starkel (the Carpathians).

Maria Baumgart-Kotarba, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Sylwia Gilewska, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

The organization of research for physical planning in Poland has had a long tradition reaching back to the inter-war period of later twenties. However, its full development has taken place only after the war. In the last thirty years in Poland such applied research has played an important role in the progress of physical planning on all three basic, i.e.: national, regional and local levels, as well as in the development of various sciences, in particular: of geography. Nevertheless, the subject and the scope of such research were constantly chang-ing. Such changes were connected on one hand with the arising needs of plan-ning and planners, and on the other with readiness and possibilities of undertak-ing the proposed themes by scientific institutions and scientists. Their effec-tiveness was always rather closely connected with organizational forms prevail-ing at the given moment and current methodology of scientific research plan-ning. For these reasons a more detailed description of research carried out in these years, its character and achievements to be presented here should be di-vided into several parts, each connected with successive stages in organizational transformations of physical planning and scientific research. The following pha-ses shall be taken into account: years 1944-1953, the time when the integrated institutions of physical planning were organized, and when their relations to the institutions of economic planning were defined and developed, and when the research institutions at the universities were being reestablished after war de-struction; years 1954-1958, when the national and regional planning was inclu-ded in the long-term or "perspective" economic planning and the central re-search institutes of the Polish Academy of Sciences were founded; years 1959-1970, when the long-term research was organized and coordinated by the Com-mittee for Space Economy and Regional Planning of the Polish Academy of Sciences; and, finally years since 1971 when the first draft of the national plan for physical development till 1990 was being prepared and most of the research studies were concentrated within the framework of a very ambitious programme of the so-called "nodal" problem: scientific bases for the physical development of the country. To introduce the whole process a short information en the re-search carried out earlier, in the thirties, i.e., before the Second World War is given. Without this information the post-war situation cannot be understood fully.

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa
Piotr Eberhardt [p.ebe@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Jerzy Gażdzicki, Institute of Geography Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
Elżbieta Iwanicka-Lyra, Institute of Geography Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
Jacek Krolski, Institute of Geography Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
Małgorzata Zeniewska, Institute of Geography Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to describe the areal distribution and the changes over time of the albedo in Poland. The reflection of solar radiation from a given sarface is defined by the so-called coefficient of reflection a and depends on the type of surface. The albedo is the integral of the coefficient of reflection integrated according to the wave length within the short wave band (0.3-3.0.JJ,). The altedo is usually expressed as a percentage ratio between the incoming and the reflected radiation. The size of the albedo is influenced by both general climati: factors and local factors. It is not surprising, therefore, that the value of the albedo of a particular surface given in the literature shows wide varia-tions. ?hus they must be taken as approximations, and when comparing or calculating these values one must only select those found under similar geo-graphical and climatic conditions.

Teresa Kozłowska-Szczęsna [klimat@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Rajmund Galon, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń
Jan Szupryczyński [jan.szupryczynski@geopan.torun.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Kopernika 19, 87-100 Toruń, Poland

Tadeáš Czudek, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography, Brno
Jaromir Demek, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography, Brno

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Ewa Adrjanowska, College of Economics, Sopot

Abstract

The interrelations between urbanization and regional development in the UnitedStates may be studied on at least two planes:

1. That of the long-term associations between regional growth and urbandevelopment as the nation expanded and its space-economy was successively transformedby a seriesof major innovations.(
2. The present cross-sectional relationships between the degree to which differentregions are urbanized and their level of welfare.

In this paper we examine the former topic in sufficient detail to develop anunderstanding of the processes operating, specify the more important dimensionsof the cross-sectional relationships that exist today, and suggest some of the implicationsfor regional policy in the present American societal and institutional context.

Brian J. L. Berry, Center For Urban Studies The University of Chicago

Walter Roubitschek, Martin —Luther —University, Halle — Wittenberg, GDR

Stanisław Pietkiewicz, Faculty of Cartography Warsaw University

Bożena Modelska-Strzelecka, Department of Physical Geography Jagellonian University Cracow

Maria Kiełczewska-Zaleska, Institut de Géographie Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Zdzisław Czeppe, Jagellonian University, Cracow

Abstract

An essential requirement for the development, not only of tourism but also of most sectors of economy, is the development of transport infrastructure and adequate accessibility of areas. Accessibility is an important element for tourism development. The Polish-Slovak borderland is currently suffering from inadequate routes to the region and cross-border connections because of the mountains. The borderland are characterised by the poor accessibility and bad condition of the roads. Unfortunately, tourism development analyses and studies carried out over recent decades in Poland and Slovakia have not addressed the problems. The aims of the article was to analyse the Polish-Slovak borderland road accessibility and the key transport solutions required for successful road development. The article presents the results of the analysis on road accessibility to the tourist destinations on the Polish-Slovak borderland. Opportunities for enhancing tourist potential through improved road accessibility of the borderland and new road investments are noted. The accessibility of the area was calculated separately for general tourism, and medium-term tourism (long weekends, 2-4 days) in two years: 2010 and 2030.

Keywords: road accessibility, road transport, time-based accessibility, tourist development, regional development, demand, isochrones, potential model, Carpathians, Polish-Slovak borderland

Marek Więckowski [marekw@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Daniel Michniak [geogmich@savba.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Stefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia
Maria Bednarek-Szczepańska [bednarek@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Branislav Chrenka [chrenka@sacr.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Stefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia
Vladimir Ira [geogira@savba.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Stefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia
Tomasz Komornicki [t.komorn@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Piotr Rosik [rosik@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Marcin Stępniak [stepniak@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Vladimir Szekely [szekely@savba.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Stefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia
Przemysław Śleszyński [psleszyn@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN
Dariusz Świątek [swiatekd@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Rafał Wiśniewski [rafwis@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

A recent survey concerns the use of the place-based approach to territorial development throughout Europe. Places, according to the Barca Report, are drawn as frames which are irrespective of political boundaries for integrating policies with spatial impacts. For this very reason, they are also a no-man’s land each in the sense of no one government being responsible. Where does this leave the democratic legitimacy of place governance? The question may also be asked whether territorial representation is the only way of producing legitimacy in a network society. Raising the issue is certain to meet with opposition, especially since alternatives are anything but clear. The epilogue discusses Europe as a place and reflects on European governance.

Keywords: democratic legitimacy, place based approach, place governance, territorial representation, Barca report, Leader programme

Andreas Faludi [afaludi@outlook.com], Delft University of Technology Oostplantsoen 114, 2611 WL Delft: The Netherlands

Zofia Rączkowska [raczk@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Ryszard J. Kaczka [ryszard.kaczka@us.edu.pl], Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41 -200 Sosnowiec: Poland

Abstract

The article describes changes in the frequency and activity of cyclones moving from the Mediterranean Sea basin to the area of Central and Eastern Europe in the period 1958-2008. Furthermore, long-term trends in the amount of precipitation in Poland are analyzed, as well as the moisture content in the atmosphere over Poland related to the activity of Mediterranean cyclones. A relationship was observed between the amount of precipitation,the precipitable water in the atmosphere over Poland and the cyclone trajectories. In the analyzed period, the number of Mediterranean cyclones reaching Central and Eastern Europe decreased. Moreover, signs of decreasing activity of these cyclones were also noted. The average moisture content in the atmosphere over Poland also showed a downward trend. The precipitation totals associated with the activity of Mediterranean cyclones became lower, while the intensity of precipitation did not change significantly. Mediterranean cyclones are associated with high moisture content in the atmosphere. This surplus amounts to an averageof nearly 15%, and in periods with the highest precipitation it reaches ca. 40%. The maximum daily precipitation reaches nearly 8 times the value of the current moisture content in the atmosphere.

Keywords: Mediterranean cyclones, cyclone trajectories, precipitation, precipitable water, long-term trends, Poland

Jan Degirmendžić, Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Geographical Sciences University of Łódź Narutowicza 88, 90-139 Łódź: Poland
Krzysztof Kożuchowski [kkozuchowski1@wp.pl], Department of Environment Dynamics and Bioclimatology, University of Łódź, Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland

Abstract

This article aims to investigate the origin of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and its spatial distribution among CEE headquarters in national urban systems. The conceptual framework is based on discussion of the role of metropolises. To provide a broad geographical scope the ORBIS database has been used, and its value has been discussed. The analysis shows that headquarters in capital cities were still attracting the greatest amount of foreign direct investment as of 2013, even when considerations are set at the level of different types of activity sector.

Keywords: Central and Eastern Europe, cities, foreign direct investment, headquarters, spatial distribution

Natalia Zdanowska, UMR 8504 Géographie-cités Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne 13 rue du Four, 75006 Paris: France

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to consider the main border issues and cross-border relationships in Central and East Europe (CEE) in the context of changing theoretical approaches to border studies. The authors start by analysing the impact of the impressive progress in the theory of borders on studies of CEE. Fundamental political changes in this part of Europe after 1989 were associated with the opening of borders and the intensification of cross-border cooperation, which have radically transformed the functions of boundaries. Emerging cross-border regions became spaces of communication, interaction, innovations and development. The EU enlargement to the east and the inclusion of most CEE countries in the Schengen zone accelerated the processes of re- and de-bordering and the diversification of the functions and regime of borders. The powerful waves of migration to the European Union over recent years have again greatly modified the situation in border areas and provoked the construction of new walls. In conclusion the authors propose eight research questions forfuture studies of borders and bordering in CEE.

Keywords: border studies, border, Central and Eastern Europe, European Union, integration, external border of the European Union, post-Soviet countries, geopolitics

Vladimir Kolosov [vladimirkolossov@gmail.com], Institute of Geography Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny pereulok 29, 119017 Moscow: Russia
Marek Więckowski [marekw@twarda.pan.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania im. S. Leszczyckiego PAN

Abstract

The paper is intended to examine fundamental research problems connected with two processes that currentlyfeature in urban space: demolition and regeneration as well as relationships between them seen from theperspective of diverse conceptual and theoretical approaches debated in geographic urban studies. Regeneration understood as a sequence of planned actions is about the redevelopment of degraded urban areas. Its idea is to introduce spatial, economic, social, and cultural changes in these areas to restore their social attributes, such as: improved standard of living, sustainable positive relations among various user groups,improved comfort in using the areas, and elimination of the existing inequalities. Demolition of a city means destruction of its infrastructure leading to morphological, functional, social, and cultural transformations. Knowledge about the reasons, course and effects of demolition helps us decide what types of demolition bestfit given circumstances and subsequently propose effective remedy measures. By identifying relationships between demolition and regeneration in contemporary cities we can learn more about both processes and,consequently, more efficiently modernise organisation of space and its arrangement to meet the needs andrequirements of present and future users. In conclusion we propose research questions which delineate thedirection of further interdisciplinary studies in this field.

Keywords: city, urban studies, demolition, urban regeneration, organisation of space, living conditions, quality of life

Sylwia Kaczmarek [sylwia.kaczmarek@geo.uni.lodz.pl], Urban Regeneration Laboratory Institute of Urban Geography and Tourism Studies Faculty of Geographical Sciences University of Łódź, Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź: Poland

Abstract

Recently, marginal lands have been attracting attention as areas of high cultural and natural value that are undergoing profound, uncontrolled transformations. These changes are seen as a threat to the cohesion and identity of existing landscapes. However, ongoing processes are often difficult to interpret and evaluate without a long-term historical perspective. Here, we focused on understanding the long-term landscape dynamics in the depopulated and economically marginalized Wiar River basin, where 87% of inhabitants were displaced after World War II. A detailed, spatially explicit land-cover analysis based on eight series of topographic data (dating from 1780 to 2017), in line with the review of archival sources and literature, allowed us for identification of patterns and drivers of change. We linked the driving forces and the resulting landscape properties to four distinct historical periods (i.e. pre-industrial, industrial, socialist, and free-market). We demonstrated how the landscape of 25 villages, dominated for centuries by open farmland, shifted after WWII into extensively forested, and that not all regions in Europe follow the pattern of increasing rate of land-cover change.

Keywords: land-cover change, spatially explicit, driving forces, resettlement action, land abandonment, old maps, South-east Poland

Andrzej Affek [a.affek@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Maria Zachwatowicz [m.zachwatowicz@uw.edu.pl], Department of Geoecology, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies University of Warsaw Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warsaw: Poland
Jerzy Solon [j.solon@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

The methodological paper proposes a new concept of a reviving village and research methods to identify it. “Reviving” entails various symptoms of increasing intensity in socio-economic processes in areas which have long been in decline, and have been classified as problem regions with signs of marginality and peripherality. To identify the reviving villages we used a combination of diverse datasets and sources of information (i.e. statistical databases, cartographic materials, field research). We critically assessed the available data pointing out to its limitations. The new methodology was tested in the borderland of the Kłodzko region in the Sudetes Mountains (Poland). Proposed research procedure can be applied to any other marginal, depopulating rural areas to identify their potential current transformations.

Keywords: depopulation, marginal/problem areas, rural revival, reviving village, methodology for rural studies, Sudetes Mountains

Agnieszka Latocha [agnieszka.latocha@uwr.edu.pl], Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland
Robert Szmytkie [robert.szmytkie@uwr.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Wrocławski, Instytut Geografii i Rozwoju Regionalnego
Dominik Sikorski, Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland
Przemysław Tomczak [przemyslaw.tomczak@uwr.edu.pl], Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland
Katarzyna Kajdanek, Institute of Sociology University of Wrocław Koszarowa 3, 51-149 Wrocław: Poland
Paulina Miodońska, Institute of Geography and Regional Development University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland

Abstract

This research focuses on the spatial diversity of cloud-to-ground (CG) flashes in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodeship (Poland) based on data from the PERUN lightning detection system, 2002-2019. The storm season usually lasts from May to September, with July having the highest number of thunderstorms days and flashes. Thunderstorms most often occur in the afternoon. A generated grid of 5×5-km cells was used to characterise the variables related to CG flashes. In the analysed period 432,925 CG flashes were detected in the voivodeship (24,051 flashes year-1). The highest electrical activity was found in the south-eastern part of the province. In grids with a large water surface, the number of CG flashes was small and increased with distance from the Vistula River. The distribution of atmospheric discharges in major cities of the region (Bydgoszcz, Toruń,Włocławek and Grudziądz) was random. Years with greater electrical storm activity (27,614 discharges in 2017) are interspersed with calmer years (5000-7000 discharges). There were found an upward trend in lightning discharges (of 1681 discharges year-1) during period 2002-2019. To develop maps specifying the number of thunderstorm days, a 1×1-km grid cell was used with a 15-km radius buffer from the bin centre. The annual number of thunderstorm days in the voivodeship fluctuates from 27 to 41 days and increases from north-westto south-east. Consecutive days with a thunderstorm, the most common runs are of three days in a row witha storm. The number of thunderstorm days shows an increasing trend (0.82 days year-1). This trend is related to the increase in air temperature in the storm season (Apr-Sep) reaching (0.04°C year-1).

Keywords: cloud-to-ground lightning, thunderstorm days, climate change, Kujawsko-Pomorskie voivodeship, Poland

Sławomir Sulik [sulik@umk.pl], Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management Nicolaus Copernicus University Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toruń: Poland
Marek Kejna [marek.kejna@umk.pl], Faculty of Earth Sciences and Spatial Management, Department of Meteorology and Climatology Nicolaus Copernicus University Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toruń: Poland

Abstract

This paper is an introduction to a collection of nine studies that are intended to fill the gap in the literature associated with landform development and landscape changes related to natural forces and human activities in the Central European Mountains and their close forelands. The papers are grouped into four general categories that describe the influence of climate on glacial landforms and snow avalanches, the evolution of slopes in high mountains, the development of mid-mountain relief, and changes in fluvial systems in mountains and their forelands. This paper summarises the contributions of these studies to this special issue and attempts to outline possible avenues of future research on landforms and landscapes in mountainous areas.

Keywords: mountains, geomorphological processes, human impact, landforms, landscapes

Paweł Prokop [pawel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków: Poland
Małgorzata Kijowska-Strugała [mkijowska@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences 38-311 Szymbark 430: Poland e-mail: mkijowska@zg.pan.krakow.pl
Łukasz Wiejaczka [wieja@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN

Abstract

This study addresses the gap in knowledge regarding effective design practices for crowdmapping in participatory mapping, considering the diverse agendas, expectations, and needs of stakeholders. Through interviews and analysis of a crowdmapping project, we developed a roadmap and guidelines to inform the design process of a web-based crowdmapping tool. Unlike traditional approaches that focus on end-user evaluation, our paper explores the perspectives of facilitators and developers involved in the participatory process. By understanding their motivations and perceptions, we can plan and design user-friendly tools that meet the requirements of all stakeholders in participatory mapping.

Keywords: participatory mapping, PPGIS, web-mapping, participatory design, in-depth interviews

Michal Rzeszewski [mrz@amu.edu.pl], Faculty of Human Geography and Planning Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, 61-680 Poznań: Poland
Patryk Kaczmarek, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, 61-680 Poznań: Poland
Piotr Lupa, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, 61-680 Poznań: Poland
Tomasz Herodowicz, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, 61-680 Poznań: Poland
Katarzyna Fagiewicz, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, 61-680 Poznań: Poland
Joanna Morawska, Faculty of Human Geography and Planning Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań Bogumiła Krygowskiego 10, 61-680 Poznań: Poland
Paweł Churski [chur@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

The paper links vegetational microlandscapes distinguished on the basis of differentiationof actual vegetation with geobotanical sub-districts defined on the basis of differentiationof potential vegetation. For each of these microlandscapes an actual and potential vegetation,as well as land-use were analyzed; the analysis being performed for an area of ca. 540km2 of theVistula River valley. The spatial structure of these microlandscapes was characterized in termsof various landscape metrics. The analysis reveals that comprehensive treatment allows microlandscapesto be aggregated into typological (and potentially regional) units of a higher rank.However, the relationships between vegetational microlandscapes and geobotanical regionalization,based on potential vegetation are not unambiguous.

Keywords: actual vegetation, potential vegetation, landscape metrics, vegetational microlandscapes, Vistula Valley, Poland

Jerzy Solon [j.solon@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Drawing upon research in Nowa Huta (Kraków, Poland), the paper investigates theeconomic conditions of households and individuals in this large post-socialist housing estate,where the context of social exclusion and poverty emerges from the introduction of market-basedmechanisms. Starting from the characteristics of households and individuals, the paper identifiesthose living ‘at risk’ of poverty. It explores different labour market strategies, investigates the relationshipbetween employment and poverty and describes the role of employment in supportinglivelihoods, especially for households ‘at risk’ of poverty. The paper then examines the materialassets and social networks which households have at their disposal and the way these are used tosupport and develop their livelihoods in everyday life. In addition, the role of citizenship assets,e.g. pensions, child, unemployment and other social benefits, as protection from poverty and socialexclusion is explored. Finally the paper shows how this variety of assets and institutions worktogether in everyday life and create a range of geographies in which households and individualsoperate.

Keywords: post-socialist housing estates, Nowa Huta, labour market strategies, social networks, material assets, poverty

Dariusz Świątek [swiatekd@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Zofia Rączkowska [raczk@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Hiambok Jones Syiemlieh, department of Geography, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong-793014, India
Surendra Singh, epartment of Geography, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong-793014, India

Abstract

The study details the results of a search for changes in the annual rhythms for atmospheric pressure, air temperature and precipitation in Poland in the 19th and 20th cen-turies. In regard to atmospheric pressure, a reduction in the component amplitude of the annual cycle was noted. Values for annual amplitude of temperature exhibited a downward trend, as did data for the lengths of the seasons with temperatures below zero or in excess of 19°C. In turn, there was an upward trend for the duration of periods with temperatures several degrees above freezing or in the range 14-19°C. The most marked long-term upward trend to temperature was that noted for the five days 11-15 January, which have seen temperatures rise by as much as 4°C in the last decade. Annual courses for precipitation have demonstrated development of the half-year cyclical component responsible for relatively high winter pre-cipitation. Analysis of several time series has allowed for the deducing of decreasing con-tinentality of climate in Poland, a marked warming in the winter-spring period and a general weakening of seasonal contrasts regarding the climate.

Keywords: changes in air temperature and precipitation

Krzysztof Kożuchowski [kkozuchowski1@wp.pl], Department of Environment Dynamics and Bioclimatology, University of Łódź, Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland
Jan Degirmendżić, Department of Environmental Dynamics and Bioclimatology, Faculty of Biology and Earth Science, University of Lodz Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland
Krzysztof Fortuniak [krzysztof.fortuniak@geo.uni.lodz.pl], Zakład Meteorologii i Klimatologii, Uniwersytet Łódzki, Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland
Joanna Wibig, Department of Meteorology and Climatology, Faculty of Biology and Earth Science, University of Lodz Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland

Abstract

It is argued that the emergence of new manufacturing is heavily determined by the way local bottom-up influences or 'agents' - urban managers, producer services both specific and non-specific to particular industries, and new-firm founders - adjust to wider top-down economic and political 'structures'. To set this structurationist approach in context, a brief resume of the changing thrusts of research in industrial geography since the 1950s is presented. The approach is exemplified for Poland before and after 198$. The paper then focuses on the work of the four bottom-up influences, offering evidence from Łódź and Poland's central macro-region.

Keywords: theory of industrial geography, top-down bottom-up approach, structuration-ism, urban managers, producer services, small firms, Polish central macro-region, Łódź

Ray Riley, Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth POI 3HE, U. K.

Abstract

Climate is a composite system consisting of five major interactive adjoint components: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere, the oceanosphere, the cryosphere, the lithosphere and the biosphere. In the paper the nature, state and variability of the climate system are described briefly. Of particular importance in open systems such as components of the climatic system is feedback. Feedback mechanisms act as internal controls of the system and result from a special adjustment among two or more subsystems. The meteorological, oceanic and glacial records show considerable variabil-ity on all time scales. Starting from chosen elements of the observed main state of the atmosphere (air temperature, atmospheric circulation, precipitation and evaporation) interannual and interdecadal variability in the climate system is briefly described. Such natural phenomena as quasibiennial oscillations (QBO) in the stratosphere, the El Niño — Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the tropics and regional teleconnections such as the North Atlantic Oscillation are examples of such variability. The climate of the earth has undergone large changes in the past, is changing now and will change in the future. External factors (solar radiation, absorbing gases in the atmosphere, ice cover) and the thermodynamic quantities that characterize the climate (temperature, density, velocity, moisture content, salinity) are all interrelated through a set of physical laws expressed by various equations based on the general principles of conservation of mass, momen-tum and energy. The set of coupled partial differential equations can be solved subject to knowledge of the solar radiation input and other specified boundary and initial conditions that define the instantaneous state of a climate system. Mathematical models provide a new way to not only understand the climate's behaviour, but also to explore the possibility of future climate developments being predicted.

Keywords: climate, numerical climate models, climate variability

Bogumił Jakubiak, Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, Warsaw University Pawińskiego 5a, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the impact of climate change on water resources in four countries in South Asia. Under present socio-economic and climatic conditions, China, India, Pakistan and South Korea are facing water deficits. The characteristic feature of water management in South Asia is the dominating role of agriculture in water use. The key question addressed in the paper is the impact of climate change on water resources, and the adaptive measures that may be used to cope with water deficits. In all the analyzed countries, the main reason for worsening water conditions is the expected population growth. The effect of climate change is in most cases marginal, independent of the scenario applied. Improved demand management and institutional adaptation are primary components in increasing the robustness of water systems in South Asia under increasing supply uncertainty due to demographic processes and climate change.

Keywords: climate change; irrigation; water resources

Zdzisław Kaczmarek, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences ul. lisięcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland
Małgorzata Liszewska, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland
Marzena Osuch, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Geographers, and especially those involved in cooperative work inside the IGUfor the last decades, have contributed in a significant way to provide original insights in boththeoretical and practical urban issues. By developing and illustrating the concept of urbansystems, they have emphasized the importance of scale effects and spatial organization in theurban realm. Comparative research at intra- and interurban scales have demonstrated theuniversality of the problems created by the process of urban transition, under a variety ofcultural forms and socio-economic circumstances. A formalised consideration of metropolisationtrends, social polarisation, urban image and identity is already well advanced, whereasquestions about the vulnerability of megacities or the elaboration of comparable indicators onan international basis are still in progress. The time has also arrived to elaborate a newconvergence between urban geography and mathematical modelling, to bring about a betterintegration of spatial analysis and urban dynamics in the increasingly numerous and sophisticatedurban information systems.

Keywords: urban gepgraphy, urban development, urban live, urban systems

Denise Pumain, INED Etablissement Public Scientifique et Technologique, 27, Rue Du Commandeur 75675 CEDEX 14, France

Abstract

Evidence is presented that regulation works on the Vistula channel haveintroduced very significant and rapid changes in the magnitude of river loadtransportation and sedimentation. It is acknowledged that human interferencerepresents the most significant cause of change in the Vistula catchment withinhistorical times. The alluviation of the Vistula valley floodplain as described here, whichwas initiated about 150 years ago, may be compared with the equally rapid changes ofload transportation by and sedimentation rates of other rivers influenced by intensiveurbanization.

Keywords: bedload, channelization, overbank sedimentation, reservoir siltation, suspended load, Vistula River.

Adam Lajczak, Institute of Nature Conservation Polish Academy of Sciences Lubicz 46, 31-512 Krakow, Poland

Abstract

Several counter-initiative arguments related to urban development in East-Central Europe are proposed in this article. Firstly, the concept of the socialist city is shown to be only partly relevant in the present context. Secondly, limited evidence is found in support of the often anticipated rapid population concentration in the national urban systems. Thirdly, major metropolitan centres in East-Central Europe are shown to be entering into competition with their counterparts in West-Central Europe. This process may even overshadow the so far dominant patterns of metropolitan interdependence within the region.

Keywords: Urban restructuring, national urban systems, metropolitan centres, the socialist city, East-Central Europe

Piotr Korcelli [korcelli@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

John I. Clarke, Chiirman, Committee on Population and Environment, International Union for the Scientific SUdy of Population and North Durham Health Authority, Appleton House, Lanchester Road, Durham DH1 5XZ, United Kingdom

Abstract

Climatic changes in Southern Poland, including the Carpathian Mountains are shown in regional and local scale. There are discussed: changeability of the circulation indices during the winter season and fluctuations of the air temperatures based on the instrumental observations in the mountain stations. The influence of climate is referred to the secular changes in the width of tree rings in Tatra Mountains and the thermal feelings of human body. Local changes of the radiation inflows are characteristic features of developing urbanization.

Keywords: climate change, circulation indices, air temperature, sunshine duration, precipitation, long-term instrumental observations, Carpathian Mountains, dendroclimatologi-cal data, thermal sensibility of human body, transparence of atmosphere

Zdzisław Bednarz, Agricultural University in Cracow
Tadeusz Niedźwiedź, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia Będzińska 60,41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland. Institute of Meteorology and Water Management Borowego 14, 30-215 Kraków, Poland.
Barbara Obrębska-Starklowa, Department of Climatology, Jagiellonian University, Cracow
Zygmunt Olecki, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Instytut Geografii, ul. Grodzka 64, 21-044 Kraków
Janina Trepińska, Institute of Geography, Jagellonian University ul. Grodzka 64, 31-044 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

The article considers the difficulties, limits and prospects of research onurban population at the microscale. It examines particularly the sociodemographicatlases published over the last twenty years. The development of this type ofresearch is fairly recent in the field of population geography. Nevertheless, microscalestudies offer interesting prospects. Given their practical usefulness, it is highlydesirable that they be largely developed.

Keywords: urban population, microscale studies, socio-demographic atlases

Daniel Noin, Institut de Géographie, Université de Paris 1, Paris, France

Karl Stiglbauer, Department of Geography, University of Vienna Vienna, Austria

Jerzy Kostrowicki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
William B. Morgan, University of London. King's College, London, UK

Abstract

The 1:500 000 Geomorphological Map of Poland, the purpose of whichis to reconstruct the relief evolution in general by taking morphostructuresas well as genetic relief types fully into account, synthesizes up-todatework on the relief of Poland. An additional aim of publishing thismap by the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization, Polish Academyof Sciences, was to put forward a geomorphological division of thecountry. The map also places in focus the lacunae of geomorphologicalresearch which need further detailed studies. This map was constructedin the Cracow Department of Geomorphology and Hydrology of Mountainsand Uplands, acting in co-operation with expersts from all major scientificcentres in Poland (cf. legend for the map). The map was edited by Prof.L. Starkel, with the assistance of Dr. S. Gilewska and Mrs. M. Klimkowawho also has handdrawn all sheets. Dr. K. Trafas and his collaborators ofthe Polish Society of Earth Sciences have taken part in the preparation ofthe final cartographic edition of the map which was printed at the WojskoweZakłady Kartograficzne, Warsaw. Map data relate to 1968.

Sylwia Gilewska, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Maria Klimkowa, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Abstract

It is not the purpose of this paper to report a largely unsuccessful application of world typology to Australia; rather is the purpose constructive. The paper there-fore examines selectively by reference to sample data on Australian rural holdings the variables used to define world types of commercial agriculture. On this basis the specified criteria are then modified to define Australian model types that are es-sentially Australian variants of the world types. At this stage the proposed typology should be regarded as provisional and macro-scale, for it will almost certainly undergo further modification as a result of an extended micro-scale analysis and the elaboration of subtypes. Moreover the criteria tentatively advanced to define the major types of Australian agriculture apply to only 85 per cent of the cases studied and only in respect of 85 per cent of the criteria. Further analysis should enable a revision of the criteria to have wider application.

Peter Scott, Department of Geography, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Tasmania

G. J. Papageorgiou, McMaster University

Martin Pécsi, Institut de Géographie de l'Academie Hongroise des Sciences Budapest

Venyamin M. Gokhman, Institute of Geography Academy of Sciences of the USSR
Georgii M. Lappo, Institute of Geography Academy of Sciences of the USSR
Isaak M. Maergoiz, Institute of Geography Academy of Sciences of the USSR
Yakov G. Mashbits, Institute of Geography. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Moscow. USSR

Jerzy Kostrowicki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Philip M. Lankford, University of California, Los Angeles
R. Keith Semple, The Ohio State University, Columbus

Stefan Zbigniew Różycki, Department of Quaternary Geology Institute of Earth Sciences Polish Academy of Sciences and Warsaw University, Warsaw

Andrzej Wróbel, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Niewiarowski Władysław, Institute of Geography, Nicholaus Copernicus University, Fredry 8. 87-100 Toruń, Poland

Jerzy Kostrowicki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

In nature, division lines are delineated where multiple important environmental features change. These division lines may be singled out at the intersection of two geosystems (Balon 2000) where the functional uniformity of the geosystems located on both sides are preserved (Forman & Gordon 1986; Cadenasso et al. 2003). A significant environmental boundary is the upper forest boundary (timberline), which separates different vegetation zones: (1) forest from non-forest (Piękoś-Mirkowa & Mirek 1996); climatic zones (2) cool from verycool (Hess 1965); geoecological zones (3) periglacial from temperate forest system (Kotarba 1996). A timberline is a sensitive ecosystem therefore is a good indicator of changes occurring in the environment. There are, however, multiple elements which affect the timberline. This ecotone has also been widely analysed in local, regional, and even monographic studies of numerous massifs. It is necessary to present and organise the great amount of information in order to aid research on the timberline in the Carpathians.

Keywords: boundaries in the mountain environment, timberline, Carpathians

Barbara Czajka, Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41 -200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Adam Łajczak [alajczak@o2.pl], Institute of Geography Pedagogical University of Krakow Podchorążych 2, 30 -084 Krakow: Poland
Ryszard J. Kaczka [ryszard.kaczka@us.edu.pl], Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41 -200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Paweł Nicia, Department of Soil Science and Soil Protection University of Agriculture in Krakow Mickiewicza 21, 31 -120 Krakow: Poland

Abstract

Treelines have long been recognized as important ecotones and likely harbingers of climate change. However, over the last century many treelines have been affected not only by global warming, but also by the interactions of climate, forest disturbance and the consequences of abrupt demographic and economic changes. Recent research has increasingly stressed how multiple ecological, biophysical, and human factors interact to shape ecological dynamics. Here we highlight the need to consider interactions among multiple drivers to more completely understand and predict treeline dynamics in Europe.

Keywords: Picea, Larix, disturbance interactions, subalpine forests, climate, climate change, topography, pollution, snow avalanche

Dominik Kulakowski [dkulakowski@clarku.edu], Graduate School of Geography Clark University 950 Main Street, MA 01610, Worcester: USA
Ignacio Barbeito [ignacio.barbeito@nancy.inra.fr], Laboratoire d’Etude des Ressources Forêt Bois (LERFoB) Centre INRA de Nancy INRA, UMR1092, Champenoux : France
Alejandro Casteller [alejandro.casteller@slf.ch], WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF Flüelastrasse 11, CH-7260 Davos Dorf: Switzerland
Ryszard J. Kaczka [ryszard.kaczka@us.edu.pl], Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41 -200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Peter Bebi [bebi@slf.ch], WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF Flüelastrasse 11, CH-7260 Davos Dorf: Switzerland

Abstract

The work described in this paper aimed at determining the relationship between air temperature, cloudiness and precipitation, based on the Cracow meteorological records. Meteorological data from the period 1901-2000 were used. The research was based on mean monthly temperature totals; the number of days with maximum temperatures above 10°C and above 25°C; annual and daily precipitation as well as the cloud cover and cloud type in three climatic observation terms. The mean yearly air temperature was found to show steady growth, induced by both natural and anthropogenic factors. Climatic warming in Cracow probably has resulted in the more frequent appearance of convective clouds, as well as intense showers, thunderstorms and hailstorms. On the other hand, the frequency of Stratus clouds and fog has been diminished which probably contributed to a reduction in the number of days with light precipitation. No overall trend has been detected in the long-term series for total annual precipitation, as periods of high and low precipitation balanced each other.

Keywords: cloudiness, precipitation, air temperature, Cracow, Poland

Dorota Matuszko [d.matuszko@uj.edu.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University Grodzka 64, 31-044 Kraków, Poland
Robert Twardosz [r.twardosz@uj.edu.pl], Department of Climatology, Institute of Geography of the Jagellonian University ul. Grodzka 64, 31-044 Kraków, Poland
Katarzyna Piotrowicz [k.piotrowicz@iphils.uj.edu.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University Grodzka 64, 31-044 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

During the Soviet period, central control over foreign economic relations enabled for-eign trade to address national economic problems. In geographical terms, funds generated by Siberia's resource exports were used to finance imports of western technology and agricultural products that were largely consumed in the European regions. In the post-Soviet period the level of central control is much reduced, but there is continuity in terms of the commodity structure of Russia's exports and the geographical consequences of foreign trade and investment activity. Now, as in the Soviet period, Russia's foreign economic relations serve to reinforce domestic patterns of regional development, in particular the core-periphery relationship between the Eu-ropean and Siberian regions of the country.

Keywords: Russia, foreign economic relations, regional development

Michael J. Bradshaw [mjb41@le.ac.uk], Department of Geography, University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, LEI 7RU

Abstract

The Pleistocene soft rock pediments in the Central Moravian Carpathians developeddue to different geomorphic processes. At a locality situated between Nesovice and Brankovicevillages, it was mainly downwearing of the former river terrace and the underlying Lower Miocenestrata due to development of a small flat, at present dry valleys (dells). At Slavkov u Brna(Austerlitz), in turn, the leading process affecting the same sediments as at the previous localityconsisted in the recession of the northern valley side of the Litava River. The main reason for thedevelopment of the lower segment of the pediment at Slavkov u Brna in the contact zone withthe Litava River terrace was surface runoff. The present appearance of the pediments at bothlocalities is an effect of periglacial processes active in the Middle and mainly Late Pleistocene.Thus, the same landforms (pediments) developed in comparable geologic and climate conditionsdue to different processes caused by local geomorphic factors.

Keywords: Pleistocene pediments, backwearing, downwearing, Central Moravian Carpathians, Czech Republic

Tadeáš Czudek, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography, Brno

Abstract

Valuable estimates of Holocene solutional erosion rates are offered by ice-scouredlimestone pavements which provide adequate reference surfaces and reliable chronological control.From Spitsbergen to the equatorial mountains and hyperhumid Chilean Patagonia, increasingrates of surface lowering due to carbonate solution coincide with increasing precipitationamounts. Additional data from other environments confirm the primacy of this climatic control,but also point to the need for rock control (e.g. porosity and jointing) to be taken into accountin comparative studies. As shown by Goldie (2005), when obtained in densely jointed and/orbedded limestones, the so-called ‘solution rates’ correspond to rates of mechanical weatheringand cannot be compared to genuine solution rates obtained on compact and massive carbonateoutcrops.

Keywords: karst, limestone pavement, Polar and Alpine environments, postglacial solution rates, climatic control, rock control

Marie-françoise André, Laboratory of Physical and Environmental Geography GEOLAB—UMR 6042 CNRS / Blaise Pascal University MSH 4 rue Ledru 63057 Clermont-Ferrand Cedex 1 (France)

Abstract

Despite the progress in technology, the risk of weather-related disasters has not beeneradicated and never will be. On the global scale, disasters are becoming both more frequentand more destructive, annually causing material losses worth tens of billions of Euros, as well asseveral thousand fatalities. Furthermore, catastrophic weather events have been the subject of arapid upward trend, with the value of material damage increasing by an order of magnitude overthe last four decades, in inflation-adjusted monetary units. There is now an increasing body ofevidence of ongoing planetary climate change (global warming), which has brought about considerablechanges where extreme hydro-meteorological events are concerned, and is likely to leadto even more marked changes in the future. Typically, changes in extremes are more pronouncedand exert more impact than changes in mean values. Among the extremes on the rise are thenumber of hot days and tropical nights; the duration and intensity of heatwaves; precipitationintensity (and resulting floods, landslides and mudflows); the frequency, length and severity ofdroughts; glacier and snow melt; tropical cyclone intensity and sea level and storm surges. In turn,a ubiquitous decrease in cold extremes (number of cool days and nights, and frost days) is projected.Increases in climate extremes associated with climate change are likely to cause physicaldamage and population displacement, as well as having adverse effects on food production andthe availability and quality of fresh water. A discussion of hydro-meteorological extremes andtheir impacts is therefore provided here in relation to a range of scales, and with the context foradaptation and mitigation also being alluded to.

Keywords: extreme events; hydrometeorology; climate variability; climate change; climate change impacts

Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland
Jacek A. Jania, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia ul. Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland

Abstract

On the basis on ongoing research which explores the transformation of work and com-munity in Nowa Huta, Poland, this paper reflects on the nature and value of east-west research and on the connections that can, and should, be made between the varied urban geographies of Europe. Drawing attention to some themes which connect the urban geographies of eastern and western Europe, it argues that we have a responsibility to distant geographies but that responsi-bility rests not simply on studying those distant parts as exotic and intriguing sites for research but on connecting our lives and our geographies to those of distant others.

Keywords: work, community, east-west research, post-socialism Europe, Nowa Huta (Poland)

Abstract

This paper discusses problems concerning the negotiation process of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and the Kyoto Protocol, at international level. In spite of a strong lobby trying to delay the decisions obliging countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions (mostly from fossil fuels), over 150 countries signed the UNFCCC in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, then ratified this Convention aiming at the stabilisa-tion of greenhouse gas emissions at the 1990 level by 2000 and next negotiated the Kyoto Protocol with new commitments regarding the reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases in the period 2008-2012.

Keywords: global climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Kyoto Protocol, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Maciej Sadowski, Climate Protection Center, Institute of Environmental Protection Kolektorska 4, 01-692 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

To avoid misunderstanding a short review of the most important concepts and terms to be used in the following comments seems to be necessary. They are: spatial economy and system of spatial economy, spatial policies, goals and instruments of such policies, among them spatial planning, as well as geographical space, whose elements and structures are objects in spatial policies and planning.The term "spatial economy" in its wider usage describes the whole sphere of practical human activities in which the heterogeneous character of geographical space and/or the overcoming of physical distance play consciously or unconsciously a sig-nificant role in making and implementing involved decisions. However its meaning may be considerably narrowed by identifying such activities with those of social character only. The concept and term are then limited to "social spatial economy" which obviously is only one part or at best one aspect of the whole national economy. The "system of spatial economy" forms therefore only one subsystem within the system of national economy, which is based in its actual status on the binding laws and bye-laws in addition to the culture, customs and traditions of the given country.The state authorities within the system of spatial economy develop "spatial policies", implementing specific goals. Identification of the character and role of such goals in spatial policies is of great importance and significance for the understanding of the basic problems of spatial economy and policies.Usually the primary goal of spatial policies is defined as the maximization (or optimization) ol space utilization, specifically land utilization (with natural resources included) for satisfying the needs of society/national community and its members, without destruction of stability and balance in the environment, especially in the natural environment. However in the deeper analysis the varying and changing character of social needs has to be taken into account. As a result, transformation taking place in the effective use of space and in the environmental equilibrium has to be recognized. A goal or goals understood in this way have therefore to be defined each time in detailed form, and with the passage of time this process leads to considerable variation in those goals. Hence the need for the formulation of goals which may be achieved in the given economic, social and political conditions in addition to being achieved in a com-paratively short period of time.One of the reasons behind the mistakes and disappointments in spatial policies may be found in the numerous conflicts in the dichotomy existing between variation in time of the goals and the stability of geographic space, i.e. the material (physical) environment which if even changing (and in the policies such changes may be intended) is, with exception of environmental catastrophes, changing extremely slowly. As a result, the material environment usually contains patterns from past policies, and current spatial policies strive after its transformation according to current and future needs. Here another conflict is born: one between satisfying the needs of the present population and providing reserves for future generations.

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Abstract

Th; aim of this essay is to indicate the causes of achievement in contemporary British human geography. It is also aimed to present the author's remarks on the socio-economic geography in Poland.1 It should be pointed out, however, that the paper is not intended to make a full comparison of both countries. The author suspects that it would not be possible to make such a comparison within a necessarily short paper such as this.

For British readers, this paper presents a view of an outside observer who has a frierdly attitude to their human geography but at the same time looks at it from a distint perspective. Perhaps in some cases, this makes it possible to have a more objectve view. Therefore, the author of this paper believes that it is not 'carrying coals to Newcastle'. For Polish readers, this paper is primarily aimed to provide infornation. It may also offer some contribution to increasingly animated discussion on the present and future state of Polish socio-economic geography.

Zbigniew Taylor [z.taylor@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

It is argued in this paper that it is useful to look at urban and regional systems in a relatively abstract way. The aim is to make broad but useful generalisations about urban and regional modelling. Many particular comprehensive models can then be seen as special cases which can be generated from the framework presented. The approach also enables us to note similarities between models which at first sight seem to be very different in structure.

The main objective of the paper is the development of a framework for compre-hensive urban and regional modelling which represents the minimum basis for any such model. By adding specific assumptions in various respects, many specific mo-dels can be derived.

A particular systems theoretic approach is used in the development of the fra-mework. First a systematic state description is built up in section 2. Then, a variety of methods are introduced in turn: accounting, in section 3, which enables us to keep track of system components; process-activity modelling in section 4, with particular reference to the identification of basic model mechanisms. A range of methods for model building are reviewed in section 5. Examples of their applica-tion in combination are presented in section 6 and some relationships between mo-dels explained in section 7. Section 8 contains a summary of the progress achieved by this argument in the tasks of developing a comprehensive model building kit. Various points which arise in relation to specific models are explored in a related paper (Macgill and Wilson, 1977).

A.G. Wilson, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, England
S.M. Macgill, School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, England

Boris N. Semevskiy, Department of Geography, Leningrad University. USSR

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Alfred Jahn, Geographical Institute, University of Wrocław, Wrocław Poland

Abstract

Twelve years ago in the Polish geographical journal "CzasopismoGteograficzne" (Vol. XXV, 1954) was published a paper by A. Jahn underthie same title as the present one. Although published in Polish, the paperstimulated great interest among geomorphologists from different countries,who learned its content from the short French summary. The sumnuarygave no comprehensive idea of the author's thesis, and not allreeaders adequately understood from it the problem of the "denudationalbailance of slopes" — as we know from the author. Therefore it wassuiggested that the paper be reprinted in English, and this is being donewiith the approval of the author.

Alfred Jahn, Geographical Institute, University of Wrocław, Wrocław Poland

Vintila Michailescu, Bucaresti

Abstract

We introduce here the structure and elements to the recently-developed Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), aswell as operational procedure relating to it. This is then followed by a demonstration of how the UTCI can be applied tobioclimatic surveys, using data from a study carried out in the sub-tropical urban area of Curitiba, Brazil. The empiricaldata from that were found to confirm the assumptions behind the UTCI model, which also supplied adequate predictionsof pedestrians’ behaviour as regards clothing and thermal sensation. Finally, in the context of urban planning, we showthat the UTCI captures the influence of the design characteristics of streets and public spaces on urban microclimate,and its impact on pedestrian thermal comfort.

Keywords: human biometeorology, climate index, model, urban planning

Peter Bröde [broede@ifado.de], Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo) Ardeystr 67, D-44139 Dortmund: Germany
Eduardo L. Krüger, Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná Departamento de Construção Civil Campus Curitiba – Sede Ecoville, Rua Deputado Heitor de Alencar Furtado, 4900, 81280-340 Curitiba – PR: Brazil
Dusan Fiala, ErgonSim-Comfort Energy Efficiency Holderbuschweg 47, D-70563 Stuttgart: Germany

Abstract

In this article, urban networking has been defined as networking within an urban region as well as between such regions. The networking paradigm, arising from shifts in the conceptualization of space, is seen to reflect changes of importance between the levels of governance-of the city, the region, the nation, and the international community. Globalization and regionalization trends have resulted in patterns of urban action contributing to the presented generalized profiles of networking-oriented qualities. The organizing capacity of the urban region is recognized as the crucial success factor, and urban and regional policies are seen as key tools for successful networking.

Keywords: networking, urban policies, regionalization, interationalization, urban governance, organizing capacity

Harry Schulman, City of Helsinki Urban Facts, PO. Box 5500, 00099 City of Helsinki, Finland
Vesa Kanninen, Proville Urban Research Consultancy, Murtopakantie 18, 01730 Vantaa, Finland

Abstract

Problems of wind speed measurements are analysed. The climatology of strong winds in the Czech Republic during the period 1961-1990 is presented. The main groups of strong winds are characterised according to their origin. The accuracy of historical written reports of strong winds and to their impacts in the pre-instrumental period are discussed. The chronology of strong damaging winds in the Czech lands from A. D. 1500-1929 is presented with a division into gales on the one hand and strong winds connected with convective storms on the other. Cases of gales of the century are described. The impact of strong winds is discussed, with special attention being paid to forest damage.

Keywords: strong wind, gale, tornado, damage, Czech lands

Rościszewski, Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement du Territoire de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Pologne

Mieczysław Klimaszewski, Institute of Geography, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Abstract

Energy' exchange between the atmosphere and the underlying ground is an objectof interest in many branches of physical geography. So far this exchange has beenstudied in the most detailed way as a basic climatogenic process, but, on the otherhand, it is one of the most significant physicogeographical processes. The significanceof that broader aspect of energy exchange was stressed by Armand (1980),Budyko (1974), Chorley and Kennedy (1971), Miller (1981) and others. This articletreats the process of energy exchange between the atmosphere and the underlyingground as one of the most important processes which shape the temporal andspatial structure of the environment and determine the functioning of the environment.The notion of the functioning of the environment should be Understood asthe stability of a definite sequence of changes of different states'of the environmentunder the influence of differentiated solar energy influx. This definition is close tothe definition of the functioning of the environment proposed by many authors.For example, Blazhko et al. (1979) emphasize that the functioning is a processwhich transforms the environment, i.e. changes the number and degree of heterogeneityof components and relations occurring in that environment. Thus, functioningis a developmental process of the geosystem and determines its dynamics. Therepresentation of energy exchange in the form of a map is a significant issue fromthe geographical point of view because it makes it possible to carry out a temporaland spatial analysis of this process.

Jerzy Grzybowski, Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement du Territoire, Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Stanisław Berezowski, École Centrale de Planification et de Statistique. Varsovie

V.a. Pulyarkin, Institute of Geography, Academy of Sciences of the USRR, Moscow

Abstract

The phenomenon of urbanization and the development of industry are obviouslyrelated to the area under agricultural exploitation and Umbria is, unfortunately,no exception to this universal process of landscape change.

Marcin Rościszewski, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Evaluation of land must necessarily be based upon an initial classificationof terrain, and one of the major contributions of the physical geographer to thesolution of applied problems is the differentiation of the earth's surface. Theadoption of numerical methods and systems concepts has adequately equippedgeography to deal with many complex demands of modern society. Furthermore,the availability of funds for applied research and developments in remotesensing and data processing have encouraged the development of land evaluationas an increasingly important geographical research field. Despite the traditionalconcern of the geographer with the environment many problems remainto be solved, thus presenting the geographer with both challenge and opportunity.Land has been defined (Thomas 1969; Christian 1958) by "The term landrefers to all those physical and biological characteristics of the land surfacewhich affect the possibility of land use.", and by the techniques of physicalgeography all of the basic resources implicit in the term "land" may be studied.

V. Gardiner, Lanchester Polytechnic, Coventry

Vladimir G. Davidovich, Moscow Institute for Engineering and Economy

Abstract

The subject of this analysis is the total socio-economic space of Poland.Geographical theory contains two approaches to an operational definition ofsocio-economic space. Firstly, the ontological approach conceives of socio-economicspace as a mode of existence of economic processes; secondly, the mathematicaland economic-geographical approach considers socio-economicspace as a set, or subset, of geographical objects with specific inter-dependences.This study of Poland's socio-economic space consists of defining andexplaining the regularities in the spatial occurrence of economic processes byanalysing the properties of sets of objects and their vertical and horizontalinterdependences. Thus conceived, the analysis of socio-economic space isclosely linked to the study of the level of the country's economic development.

The present study is based on the assumption of a latent structure ofsocio-economic space. The total socio-economic space may be viewed as a setof partial socio-economic spaces comprising different features of socio-economiclife, for example, demographic, industrial and agricultural and these relatingto transportation and services. In spite of its plurality, this set is finite.The partial socio-economic spaces, though comprising different socio-economicphenomena, refer to the same reality in that they are reflections of some ofits different aspects. Such partial spaces are interdependent, though clearlynon-identical (Dziewoński [2], p. 37). The total socio-economic space isa resultant of all partial spaces that together constitute the latent structure oftotal space.

Zbyszko Chojnicki, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
Teresa Czyż [tczyz@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Jerzy Kostrowicki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Jerzy Kostrowicki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa
Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Erich Otremba, Institute of Economic and Social Geography, Koln University, Federal Republic of Germany
Andrzej Wróbel, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Mieczysław Klimaszewski, Institute of Geography, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Abstract

In order to show the influence of selected cemeteries in Krakow on components of environments, the element contents in the ground over burials, in the clover and fungi as well as the ions concentration in the ground waters, were investigated. The results were compared to the geological background and to the measurements taken on other cemeteries in south-east Poland. The attention was also drawn to geological products of decomposition. Over burials low contents of elements were confirmed. High iron ion concentration in ground water indicates its useful presence in deposits for decomposition products sorption. Relatively low pollutants con-centrations are related to advantageous locations of the cemeteries; deep level of ground water, the presence of absorbents in the deposits, surfaces of cemeteries are impervious and passable dehydration systems.

Keywords: localization of cemeteries, Cracow, migration of the matter, ground water, ions, the element contents

Abstract

Today’s fl ood events along the River Wieprza assume a quite characteristic course entailingcalm spillovers of water from the bed in places of riverbank lowering and in sections above andbelow bridges, where a narrowing of the channel is present. The identity of the land inundated relatesto morphology, the near-channel part of a fl oodplain may be affected or those parts in depressions thatserve as fl ood basins.Riverbank exposures on both sides of the present river channel plus pits reveal the construction of theWieprza fl oodplain. The sediments that build the fl oodplain represent channel and overbank facieswith subfacies of palaeomeander fi lls. Analysed exposures are located along the valley section betweenSławsko and Staniewice, mostly in close proximity to the Early Mediaeval fortifi ed site ofWrześnica. The content of the exposures indicates that the uniform cover of overbank sedimentsacross the fl oodplain emerged during the last 1000 years. It is now impossible to say when exactly, soit is unknown what the rank of the extreme fl oods which took place at the end of 19th century was, andwhat their role in forming the present fl oodplain.

Keywords: paleomeanders, Holocene, overbank deposits, fl ood, fl oodplain, Medieval fortifi ed site, Wieprza river.

Jacek Kaczmarzyk, Department of Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Geograpghy and Regional Studies, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Partyzantów 27, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland
Wacław Florek, Department of Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Geograpghy and Regional Studies, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Partyzantów 27, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland

Abstract

This paper examines the changes that Denmark's agricultural sector has witnessed during the past two decades as well as the effects of the EU Common Agricul-tural Policy (CAP) on agricultural production in the country. It also discusses the potential for new types of farm ownership and organic agriculture as alternatives to conventional agricultural production. The paper addresses some of the significant environmental pro-blems which have resulted from intensive agriculture, and presents the most important agri-environmental programs which seek to remedy the negative environmental impact of intensive agriculture.

Keywords: agricultural production, agri-environmental programs, CAP, Denmark

Abstract

The article analyses regional differences in Poland within the framework of the core-periphery concept. The method employed in the study is that of the ratio of income potential to population potential, which is a systemic measure of the level of socio-economic development of regions.

Keywords: regional structure, core regions and peripheral areas, potential ratio, Poland

Teresa Czyż [tczyz@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

Aim. The aim behind this work is: (i) to review the work on Scots pine needle litter in order to construct a model for thedecomposition process, from litterfall until a stable fraction is left, (ii) suggest a simple regulating mechanism for itssequestration of carbon. Focus will be on foliar litter of Scots pine and the genus Pinus.Discussion. The chemical composition of newly shed pine litter is in part determined by climate, e.g. mean annual temperature(MAT). Thus concentrations of nitrogen (N) are higher – and those of manganese (Mn) lower – with higher MAT.This may also influence the decomposition process. Mass loss of newly shed pine needle litter is positively influenced byclimate (e.g. MAT), as well as by N and phosphorus (P) concentrations. In the late stage (above c. 30% accumulated massloss) the influence of climate fades and those of lignin (Acid Unhydrolyzable Residue – AUR), N, and Mn are regulatingthe decomposition process. As the degradation of AUR dominates the decomposition process important parameters arethose that influence the degradation of AUR, thus N and Mn. In the humus-near organic matter limit values have beenrelated to litter Mn concentration over a wide climate gradient. Thus, the higher the Mn concentration, the further theprocess goes and the smaller the stable fraction.Conclusions. It appears that factors regulating the size of the stable litter fraction may be used as a tool on a largergeographical scale to predict carbon sequestration rates in pine forests.

Keywords: Scots pine, decomposition, limit value, nitrogen, manganese, lignin, AUR

Björn Berg, University of Helsinki Department of Forest Sciences P.O. Box 27, FIN-00014 Helsinki: Finland

Abstract

In the post-war period, the area of the Sudety Mountains (also known in English as the Sudetic Mountains or the Sudetes)has been subject to two main trends regarding the transformation of the landscape in rural areas. In a first phase – intensifyingabove all in the period from the 1950s through to the 1970s – it was possible to observe an abrupt depopulationprocess, most especially affecting the areas at higher elevations. The result of this was the disappearance of manyvillages, or else marked decreases in numbers of both inhabitants and buildings. Knock-on effects from that included theonset of secondary succession on abandoned fields, with the result that new areas of forest have emerged in many partsof the contemporary landscape that were once cultivated fields or pastureland.Equally, from the end of the 1990s, a new trend as regards the management of rural areas in the Sudetes began tomake itself apparent. This entailed an intensive development of single-family building construction, including in the formof summer homes. This development has unfortunately been chaotic in many areas, making no reference to the spatialstructure originating in villages established far earlier; the result being disruption of the spatial order. At the same time,there has been no return to villages’ former functions, and nor is it possible to observe any increase in the area put touse as farmland. Nevertheless, it is true to say that many areas of what had been waste ground undergoing secondarysuccession have now been brought back under management, not least in connection with the implementation of jointagricultural and environmental programmes of the European Union.Various actions are today underway with a view to the typical cultural landscape of the Sudety Mountains (including theJelenia Góra Basin) being reinstated and protected, with the rural aspect to the mountain landscape being promoted asan attribute favourable to further regional development (inter alia of the Kłodzko region).

Keywords: cultural landscape, rural landscape, land-use changes, upgrading and protection of the landscape, Sudety Mountains

Agnieszka Latocha [agnieszka.latocha@uwr.edu.pl], University of Wrocław Faculty of Earth Science and Environmental Management pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław: Poland

Abstract

The application of population potential in the research procedure employed to arrive at Poland's structural régionalisation allows three main tasks to be solved: (1) determining the interaction in the urban system, (2) establishing macroregional nodes, and (3) delimiting peripheral zones of macroregions. The configuration of the potential surface and membership functions indicates the spatial structuring of socio-economic reality at the level of population interaction. It helped to distinguish 9 macroregions in Poland in 1992.

Keywords: structural régionalisation, spatial interaction, population potential, macroregions of Poland

Teresa Czyż [tczyz@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

As a result of commmunist policy of central planning in the period following the second world war a number of areas in Poland became environmentally conta-minated. In 1980 there were 27 ecologically endangered areas inhabited by 1/3 of Poland's population. Currently, it is estimated that 4 million people are living in endangered zones, mainly in Upper Silesia, to the detriment of their health and lorgevity. The dangers are very serious, as they are referred to damages to the genetic code amongst children. The effects of this damage include a number of health problems and the slowing down of the psychological development of children. The number of children requiring psychiatric treatment is growing.In Poland, as in many other countries we are witnessing the reduction in the length of ife-expectancy, especially amongst men. This, amongst other reasons, is why the Po.ish Parliament, in 1991, decided to adopt national policy for environmental protection. As a result environmental protection legislation is being amended, environ-mental economic management is being reformed, and a preventative programme of health caie combatting heart diseases is being implemented. These activities constitute a response to the resolutions of the Global Action Programme — Agenda 21, adopted in Ric de Janeiro in 1992.

Keywords: Areas of ecological hazard, genetic code defects, ecological stress, eco-development

Stefan Kozłowski, Ecological Council under the auspices of the President of Poland, Committee "Man and Environment", Polish Academy of Sciences ul. Wiejska 10, 00-489 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

The author discusses the place of geographical sciences in studies of the system "Man and the Earth". Nowadays this system is investigated by various disciplines starting from the earth and biological sciences upto physics, chemistry, economic, social, agricultural and technical sciences.The geographical sciences should try to keep their central position due to their wide perspectives, both spatial (regional) and historical (genetic).

Keywords: Man and Earth, environment, geography, ecosystem studies

Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

With the increasing availability of large, spatially-indexed data banks and the emergence of sophisticated geo-processing systems, agricultural geographers are now in a position to undertake much more detailed and wide-ranging investigations into the typological and regional structure of farming systems. These technological develop-ments also allow a more experimental and critical stance to be adopted in studies of a taxonomic (classificatory) nature. This is important since classification is essentially an exploratory process — a search for meaningful or revealing patterns of order within complex multivariate data sets. It is not a search for single solutions that can be regarded as "definitive" or "true". Typologies and regionalizations can be effected in many different ways, and it behoves would be taxonomists to test and evaluate a range of classificatory models, and to justify the categorizations that are eventually selected for subsequent interpretation. Needless to say, the fact that it is now a relatively simple matter to generate maps and plots of classified units aids this process of experimen-tation considerably, for from a geographer's point of view it is often the meaningfulness of the resultant spatial distributions that is of paramount diagnostic importance. It is not possible here to examine these various issues in great detail; the more limited aim is to consider the general problem of classifying large sets of agricultural data. In so doing, particular emphasis will be placed on "iterative partitioning" methods of cluster analysis.

John William Aitchison, Department of Geography, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK

Abstract

A reconstruction of the conditions of the cold climate environment during the Late Weichselian is made by means of methods of geomorphology and Quaternary stratigraphy. The geomorphological part deals particularly with landforms and material related to nivation and local glaciation, making use of comparisons with contemporary snow-fields and mini-glaciers in northern Lappland. The two main field localities investigated in NW Scania are the horst ridges Sôderâsen and Kullaberg, where geographical evidence and TL-datings are combined with sedimentological and biostratigraphical studies of lake sediments. The results are used for a tentative reconstruction of palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironment 13 500-10 000 BP based on past vegetation and insect fauna, occurrence of stagnant ice, wind and water erosion, nivation and local glaciation.

Björn E. Berglund, Department of Quaternary Geology. Lund University. Tornav. 13 S- 223 63 Lund. Sweden
Anders Rapp, Department of Physical Geography, Lund University, Sölveg. 13, S— 223 62 Lund, Sweden

Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Michael J. Wise, The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Pierre Brunet, Département de Géographie, Université de Caen, France

Jerzy Kondracki, Geographical Institute Warsaw University
Andrzej Richling, Warsaw University

Keith M. Clayton, University of East Anglia

Abstract

The Late Pleistocene Jupania palaeoglacier (area 0.85 km2, 1.7 km long) was reconstructed in the headwaters of the Ceremuşul Alb/Bilyj Cheremosh valley (Maramureş Mountains). The study area represents one of the most inaccessible natural areas in the Romanian part of the Eastern Carpathians where the legacy of the Pleistocene glaciation has recently been discovered. Based on mapping of glacial landforms and deposits,we reconstruct glacier dimension and ice-surface geometry, as well as estimate equilibrium line altitude( ELA) during the maximal ice extent (MIE). Well-preserved terminal moraines mark the extent of glacier front at ~1400 m a.s.l. Sedimentological analysis documents that the lateral moraines are sometimes overbuilt by 1-1.5 m thick colluvial deposits. The ELA for the Jupania palaeoglacier calculated with the Area-Altitude-Balance-Ratio (AABR) 1.6 was 1630 m. However, the gentle-sloping mountain-top could serve as an importantsnow contribution area to glacier mass balance; therefore, the ELA could potentially exist even higherat 1676 m. The resulting climatic ELA (1630-1676 m) in the south-eastern part of the Maramureş Mountains fits well with the rising trend of ELA towards the southeast observed between Chornohora (ELA = 1516 m) and Rodna Mountains (ELA = 1697 m). The SE rising trend of the ELA corresponds well with the dominant palaeowind direction suggested in the Carpathian region and supports the prevalence of zonal circulation pattern in Central Eastern Europe during the culumination of the last glaciation.

Keywords: glacier reconstruction, ELA, glacial sediments, Maramureş Mountains, Romania

Piotr Kłapyta [piotr.klapyta@uj.edu.pl], Faculty of Geography and Geology, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management Jagiellonian University Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków: Poland
Marcel Mîndrescu [mindrescu@atlas.usv.ro], Department of Geography University of Suceava 720229 Suceava: Romania
Jerzy Zasadni [zasadni@agh.edu.pl], Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection AGH University of Science and Technology Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków: Poland

Abstract

The Himalayas are a living mountain mass, which, in addition to their rocks, landformsand processes, are the homeland of people who must continually adapt to their geodynamicallyvery active, yet inspiring environment. We focus on the Himalayas of Nepal, one of the less developedcountries in the world. This paper addresses different issues: mountain landform building,the role of current processes and natural hazards, and their interactions with a changingworld, i.e. under the influence of economic development in a context of globalization and climatechange.

Keywords: Nepal Himalayas, geomorphic processes, natural hazards, global change

Monique Fort, Department of Geography, GHSS (Case 7001) Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne-Paris-Cité

Abstract

This article reviews the occurrence and variability of extreme precipitation on the northern slope of the Tatra Mountains (southern Poland), using rainfall amounts of duration from 1 to 30 days. Daily data from 76 years (1927-2002) are used for the Hala Gąsienicowa meteorological station at 1520 m a.s.l. This is the place with the heaviest rainfall in Poland. The highest daily precipitation total (300 mm) was recorded on 30 June 1973 during a northern cyclonic situation. For longer durations extreme values of precipitation were observed during different years. In July 1934 the highest 3-day total reached 422 mm, and during the 11 days between 16 to 26 July 2001 the total amount of rainfall reached 500 mm. In the last 7 years the precipitation totals and the number of extreme events are distinctly greater than in the previous part of the analysed 76 years period, although a strong influence on the results may be the data from the extreme year 2001. However, an earlier period saw extreme precipitation concentrated during the years 1958-1978. A transition to a rather wetter phase of climate has been noted since 1995. However, there is no sign for any of the elements studied of any departure that has exceeded the values typical for fluctuations of climate in the 20th century, and which could therefore be taken as indication a permanent change in the climate.

Keywords: climatic change, extreme precipitation events, Tatra Mountains, Poland

Tadeusz Niedźwiedź, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia Będzińska 60,41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland. Institute of Meteorology and Water Management Borowego 14, 30-215 Kraków, Poland.

Abstract

The atmosphere exchanges heat, moisture and momentum with other climate subsystems. All these interactions are modeled to a different degree of the accuracy, depend-ing on the quality and resolution of data used. This paper describes some applications of climate models in agriculture and puts forward the argument, that recent climate models are very close to numerical weather prediction models. The physical parameterization approach implemented first in climate models, is now applied in a useful way to everyday agricultural management.

Keywords: climate models, agriculture, interactions between climate system components

Bogumił Jakubiak, Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, Warsaw University Pawińskiego 5a, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland

Zbigniew Rykiel, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Rajmund Galon, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

Mieczysław Klimaszewski, Institute of Geography, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Abstract

Ultramorphoscopic analysis offers one way of gaining an insight into temporal and spatialchanges that have taken place in the environment. The underlying basis here is a system ofclassified features; processes of physical, chemical and biological weathering; and processes oftransport through different environments. It is the aim of this article to present the use of morphoscopicSEM studies of podsolic soils from different parts of central and northern Europe inreconstructing the way litho- and pedogenetic conditions evolved in the Late Pleistocene andHolocene. By drawing on the research carried out, it has been possible to point to certain indicativemorphoscopic features of quartz grains that are characteristic for defined morphogenicenvironments.

Keywords: scanning electron microscope (SEM), quartz grain, sedimentation environment, podsolic soils, central and northern Europe

Marek Degórski [m.degor@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Alojzy Kowalkowski, Forest Research Institute, 05-550 Raszyn, Sękocin, Poland

Abstract

Since the return of the Conservative Government in 1979, local government in Britain has experienced a period of considerable change in its basis, role and importance. Among the significant changes which have occurred are alterations in local government finance, structural reorganizations, and developments in the ways by which services are delivered. Measures such as ratecapping, the abolition of the metropolitan county councils, and the facilitation of a closer relationship between the public and the private sectors form the substance of the chanees; at their root lies the ideology of the current Conservative Government, with its emphasis on efficiency, competition and market forces. This emphasis is often at variance with a local government system and tradition developed, for the most part, during the twilight period of consensus politics in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The extent to which the wishes of central government have been accepted by local government carries with it profound consequences for the relative roles of the two levels of government.Political geographers' traditional concerns have touched little on such material. The preference for those whose concern has been with local government political geography has been with the analysis of voting (Taylor and Johnston 1979), the distribution of public services (Kirby 1981; Moon 1982; Pinch 1985) and jurisdictional partitioning (Johnston 1979). With some exceptions (eg. Dickens, Duncan, Goodwin and Gray 1986; Boddy 1983; Borchert 1985) few geographers have explicitly considered the spatial aspects of legislative developments in the context of changing power relations. The current changes in local government provide an opportunity for this deficiency to be remedied and for a reformulated local government political geography to be developed with central-local relations as its focus.In this paper a preliminary overview of this theme will be presented. Initial attention will focus on the context and nature of local government change in Conservative Britain. Major reforms relating to finance and organization will be identified and their correspondence to Conservative, or "new right" ideology discussed. Attention will then shift to a consideration of geography embodied in the changing local government. A predominantly regional perspective will be taken but reference will also be made to local geographical impacts. Finally, an evaluation of general and specific explanations for local government change will be set out indicating the functionality of change for Conservatism.

Graham Moon, School of Social and Historical Studies. Portsmouth Polytechnic, Portsmouth, UK
Richard Parnell, School of Social and Historical Studies. Portsmouth Polytechnic, Portsmouth, UK

I.m. Kuzina, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, USSR
L.f. Yanvaryova, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, USSR

Yurii L. Pivovarov, Institute of Geography, Academy of Sciences of the USRR, Moscow

Jean Dresch, Professeur, Université de Paris VII, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris, France; Ancien Président de l'Union Géographique Internationale

Karol Bromek, Jagellonian University
Ireneusz Kwiecień, Jagellonian University

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Ryszard Domański, Academy of Economics Poznań, Department of Spatial and Environmental Economics al. Niepodległości 10, 60-967 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

The upper sections of avalanche paths (avalanche starting zones) in the Tatras are being transformed by morphogenetic processes, both secular and rapid mass movements, which include avalanches. The erosion niches and scars occurring within the avalanche starting zones are most exposed to these processes. A three-year monitoring of the impacts of these processes leads to the conclusion that, in the absence of dirty avalanches, the efficiency of secular geomorphological processes is low (max. a few cm/year). Such avalanches can clearly transform the relief as is demonstrated by the results of analyses of erosion niches and scars on orthophotomaps. Furthermore, it was found that the direction of relief changes (accumulation or erosion) in the Tatras is spatially and temporally varied, as well as varying within individual avalanche starting zones, and sometimes within individual erosion niches or scars.

Keywords: morphodynamic, slopes, avalanche, starting zones, Tatra Mountains

Zofia Rączkowska [raczk@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Michał Długosz [dlugosz@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

This essay focuses attention on aspects of border politics that give evidence of nation-building and national consolidation processes in Central Europe. In a normative, policy-oriented sense this is a question of borders as framing conditions for regional development. In a more critical and analytical sense this involves interrogating the actual use of borders in politically and ideologically framing national interests within a wider Europeancontext. The essay begins with a brief discussion of Europeanisation processes understood in terms of the promotion of cross-border cooperation (CBC) in Central Europe. Here, the significance of national structural conditions for implementation of Cohesion and regional policies and hence CBC will be discussed. One result that emerges is that while EU-European principles of cross-border cooperation have been partly mainstreamed into regional development policies they have at the same time been superimposed by the domestication of EU policies in the interest of nation-building. More specific evidence is then provided by Hungarian experience where national scale and nation-building have played key roles in conditioning the quality of cross-border cooperation and in the framing of state borders as resources. Attention will focus on: (1) Hungarian exploitation of CBC in the service of ethnopolitical development objectives and (2) Hungary’s recent policy of border securitisation which essentially entails a re-nationalisation of its border regime and a framing of the physical border as a protective barrier against threats to national and European identity.

Keywords: Central Europe, Hungary, borders, border politics, national scale, cross-border cooperation

James Wesley Scott [james.scott@uef.fi], Karelian Institute University of Eastern Finland Yliopistokatu 2, FI-80100 Joensuu: Finland; Department of Economic Geography University of Gdańsk Bażyńskiego 4, 80-309 Gdańsk: Poland

Abstract

Urban ruination is an understudied feature in the life of cities. This article discusses its causes. Based on the study of four shrinking Portuguese cities (Lisbon, Barreiro, Guimarães and Vizela), and using Multiple Linear Regression Analysis as the statistical method, the structure of relationships among ruins, economic change,demographic change, social geography and the characteristics of buildings are discussed. Although the study concludes that ruination is a highly contingent phenomenon, the results show that of all the structural factors,demographic ageing and the obsolescence of buildings (poor housing conditions) are the key causes of ruination in the four cities under study. Links between ruination and socio-spatial processes have also been identified.

Keywords: ruins, ruination, urban abandonment, vacant properties, shrinking cities, Portugal

Eduardo Brito-Henriques [eduardo@campus.ul.pt], Universidade de Lisboa Centre for Geographical Studies Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning IGOT, Rua Branca Edmée Marques, 1600-276 Lisbon: Portugal
David Cruz [fabio.d.cruz@campus.ul.pt], Universidade de Lisboa Centre for Geographical Studies Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning IGOT, Rua Branca Edmée Marques, 1600-276 Lisbon: Portugal

Abstract

Altitude is one of the predominant factors which controls the annual number of days with fog (NDF). The second important factor influencing NDF is station location in regard to circulation patterns and distance from the sea. NDF depends also on terrain morphology at a given station site and in its wider neighbourhood, island-mountain of morphology or a position on the windward side of a larger massif. Special attention is paid to stations in convex landforms where orographic fog caused by the forced ascent of moist air occurs frequently. The large NDF (highest away from the Hercynian Mts) observed in the Carpathians suggest that this region is characterised by an important additional potential water flux in the form of horizontal precipitation. Depending on land use, this could play an important role in pollutant deposition, as it does in the Hercynian Mts.

Keywords: fog frequency, fog deposition, fog distribution, fog-annual variations, Carpathians, mountain climatology

Marek Błaś [blasm@meteo.uni.wroc.pl], Department of Meteorology and Climatology, University of Wrocław, Kosiby 8, 51-670 Wrocław, Poland
Mieczysław Sobik [sobik@meteo.uni.wroc.pl], Department of Meteorology and Climatology, University of Wrocław, Kosiby 8, 51-670 Wrocław, Poland

Abstract

The paper discusses the settlement patterns of Polish immigrants in Manchester as an exemplification of the changes in the understanding of place and spatially rooted identity in the last 50 years, namely its shift from the modern understanding of place as being closed and limited to the postmodern one, which can be understand as being open and consisting of networks. The paper is based on a study carried out in Manchester in the period 2005–2009 on two groups of Polish immigrants: Poles who had settled there after the Second World War and immigrants who arrived there after Poland joined the European Union.

Keywords: place, national identity, migration, ethnic identity.

Abstract

The occurrence of permafrost in the Italian Alps is an important predisposing factorfor landslides. Debris flows are frequent on slopes overlying permafrost and are likely the resultof active-layer supersaturation. The role of permafrost degradation in triggering landslides fromhard rock slopes as a response to climatic warming has been pointed out only recently. Geotechnicalinvestigations demonstrate that ice-filled fractured rock slopes at temperatures between–2° and 0° C are less stable than when in an unfrozen state. The Val Pola rockslide, whose accumulationmass included ice-cemented blocks, could be explained therefore as the result of strengthreduction along pre-existing potential sliding surfaces, filled with warming ground-ice.

Keywords: permafrost degradation, landslides, global warming, Italian Alps.

Mauro Guglielmin, Department of Structural and Functional Biology, Insubria University via J H. Dunant, 3-21100 Varese, Italy

Abstract

The assumption of stationarity made in flood frequency analysis has been relaxed by introducing the possibility of the existence of a tread in the first two moments of a probability distribution function. The problem of the estimation of the time-variable moments and probability distribution function has been analysed. The basic assump-tions and structure of the IDT (Identification of Distribution and Trend) soft package as well as a plan for its further development have been presented and discussed. The maximum likelihood method is used to estimate model parameters from a time series and the Akaike Information Criterion goodness-of-fit test to identify an optimum model, i.e. of distribution and trend functions. Preliminary results of a flood frequency analysis for Polish rivers obtained with the IDT package are described briefly.

Keywords: Time series, trends, annual flood peaks, probability distribution, time variable parameters, time-dependent moments, likelihood function, Akaike Infor-mation Criterion

Abstract

The transition towards the market economy in Poland has already influenced the development of Warsaw capital city and its region. In the present phase of the development, the restructuralization of the economy and deindustrialization processes are very important. This paper focuses on social, demographic, economic changes, and environment in the city and the urban region of Warsaw.

Keywords: Restructuralization, deindustrialization, unemployment, environmental pollution, Warsaw, Poland

Alina Potrykowska, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Projections concerning town or district populations need to take dwellingsinto account, unlike national or regional projections where this variable doesn't come intoplay. The first reason for this necessity is obvious: the disappearance or construction ofdwelling units automatically brings automatically about a diminishing or increasing ofpopulation. The second reason is more subtle. If a population is young and increasing,steadiness of the dwelling number leads to out-migration of the new households built inthe place. On the contrary, an older and decreasing population releases dwelling unitsand leads thus to immigrations. This communication shows how it is possible, practically,to integrate this dwelling constraint into the projection model.

Keywords: urban population, population projections, dwellings

Alfred Dittgen, Institut de Démographie de Paris, Université de Paris I — Panthéon-Sorbonne, Paris, France

Abstract

There is an internationally growing evidence that sea level rise, as a consequence ofman-induced climatic changes, will affect our planet not only on a regional but also ona global scale and will create severe problems for society.In this paper we summarize the effects of climatic changes in the past, indicate thedifferent types of man-induced climatic changes and discuss the (potential) effects of thesechanges on the worldwide average sea-level. Thereafter a summary of the progress ingeomorphological survey and mapping is presented with The Netherlands serving as anexample. Finally some remarks are made on useful geomorphological data: survey andmapping can contribute in encountering the problems caused by sea-level rise on society inthe next century.

Joop A. Ten Cate, Soil Survey Institute, Wageningen, The Netherlands

Zbigniew Rykiel, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

At the beginning of the Tertiary there came into being the three principalpalaeogeographical units of Poland's territory which showed different developmentaltendencies. The vast Tethys Ocean prevailed in the south throughout the LowerTertiary. In upper Tertiary times, emergence of the Carpathians took place there. In thenorth, the present Polish Lowlands showed dominant tendencies towards subsidencecausing repeated transgression of the shallow Lower Tertiary epicontinental seas. Inupper Tertiary times, here extended the central inland basin and later on either aperiodically flooded area or a residual lake of marine origin. The above units weredivided by a land-bridge named the meta-Carpathian elevation (J. Nowak 1927). Theremaining portion of it is the present belt of both ancient orogens and uplands markedby a diversity of structure-controlled relief types. The history of relief will be describedagainst the background of vegetation and climatic conditions prevailing in the differentphases of the Tertiary.Since most of Poland's territory has been buried in Quaternary times by theFennoscandian inland-ice, the state of preservation of the old surfaces differs widely.Furthermore, the ice-free areas were subjected to intense periglacial processes. As aconsequence, the Tertiary relief had to be reconstructed in southern Poland(L. Starkel 1965). The various erosional-denudational relief types surround frequently,in a series of steps, the great tectonic elevations reflecting both the vertical zonation offeatures and successive stages in the relief evolution. The latter may be inferred from acomplex analysis of the different genetic-chronologic relief types, associated smallerlandforms, and of waste- and allogenic sheets. The text is illustrated by fourpalaeogeomorphological maps which are based on the published data cited under"References".

Sylwia Gilewska, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

Valleys of the rivers of the Polish Lowland have already been dealt with innumerous geomorphological studies (Lencewicz 1927; Galon 1934, 1953, 1961, 1968;Kozarski 1962; Kozarski and Szupryczyński 1958: Niewiarowski 1968; Wiśniewski1976 and others). However, the above compilations discuss chiefly single valleyforms and are mostly intended to describe their Pleistocene history against theprogressing recession of an ice sheet. A lot of valuable results are available in thisrespect. On the other hand, there are no detailed studies concerning the problemof the Late Glacial and Holocene evolution of valleys understood as river systemscomprising tributaries and their parent river. The present paper is intended to fillin the gap. Its objective is to present interrelationships in the development of threemediumsized tributaries of the Vistula river, i.e. the rivers Zgłowiączka, Mień andTążyna, against the common local baselevel, i.e. the Vistula, that remained changeable,especially in the Late Glacial (Fig. 1). Several-year geomorphological studies carriedout within the above valleys were concerned with the identification of factorscontributing to similarities and differences in the mode of development of thosevalleys, and with the tentative reconstruction of the operation and general natureof fluvial processes on the Vistula.

The above problem presented in outline is undoubtedly a complex one since asyet no complete information has been provided concerning the response of a tributaryto a variety of alterations in the valley of the trunk river. Much controversy isalso caused by general trends in the operation of fluvial processes at the timeinterval between the glacial and interglacial. especially by a question of the beginningof phases of fluvial erosion and deposition (Soergel 1921; Penck 1938; Jahn 1956;Schumm 1965; Galon 1968). The above problem has been tackled in more detailby Kozarski and Rotnicki (1978).

The present author carried out studies of the lower parts of the valleys, i.e. theirportions developed within terraces along the Vistula valley as far as the plateau.The compilation of a detailed geomorphological map at a scale of 1 : 10.000 wasbased on air photos. Structural-textural analysis was made of genetically varyingvalley fills.

This study deals largely with the Zgłowiączka valley where a wider range ofinvestigations were carried out. Besides a detailed geomorphological-sedimentologicalstudy, they included the dating of

Leon Andrzejewski, Nicholas Copernicus University. Toruń, Poland

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the features of what is becoming to be described as the 'new geography of Britain1. It is not long ago when researchers were able to make the following types of statement about the nation's spatial demography and economy:'generally speaking, the only places where an actual decline in population has taken place have been rural areas. Such areas may be extensive (but) none of these constitutes a region of its own, and the decline of such areas is matched by the expansion of urban areas elsewhere in the region' (McCrone, 1969).'

In the congested regions the primary problem is to plan the expansion in such a way as to make the best use of space, minimise the social and economic costs of congestion and preserve the amenity of the environment. This means that some urban concentrations must be prevented from further population growth and expansion must be diverted to other centres' (McCrone, 1969).

Not unnaturally urban and regional policies were formulated to counter such problems as then perceived. Now such statements are no longer admissible and many such policies no longer applicable. The structural changes, social as well as economic, which have affected British society in recent times have had spatial ramifications which have transformed the geography of the country. To be sure there have been some recent spatial policy initiatives intended to counter the emergent problems but it is clear that they are far from being consistent and well reasoned. Policy options will be considered further in the conclusion of the paper where it will be argued that their currently enacted poverty lies just as much in a lack of understanding of structural processes of change as in a lack of political will. The main part of the paper will however be concerned to detail trends in population, employment and unemployment in the British urban and regional system.

Nigel Spence, Department of Geography, London school of economies and political science. London, UK

Danuta Kosmowska-Suffczyńska, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland

Vadim V. Pokshishevski, Institute of Ethnography, Academy of Sciences of the USSR

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Cecylia Radłowska, Technical University, Warsaw
Elżbieta Mycielska-Dowgiałło, Laboratory of Sedimentology, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland

Rajmund Galon, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

Abstract

The emergence of foreign software development centres (SDCs) in Central and Eastern Europehas led to some debate over the reasons and consequences of location decisions. This paper analysesthose factors that infl uence location and also the consequences of foreign direct investment in softwaredevelopment centres in Bulgaria, Estonia and Poland. Foreign companies are compared and contrastedwith the indigenous SDCs which are subcontractors for foreign companies or export to foreign markets.This paper questions the degree to which cost-related considerations infl uence location decisions,contrasting their signifi cance with ‘return migration’ and the search for highly qualifi ed graduates. Toward off growing wage pressure, SDCs provide more value-added services. Foreign SDCs move up thevalue chain, acquiring new competences. It may be argued that an increasing shift can be observed froma dependent mode based on a dependency on a foreign headquarters to a developmental type characterisedby growing freedom. The local embededdness of foreign SDCs in the analysed countries is usuallylimited. However, ‘backshoring’ will not occur in the near future due to their high quality of work andimproved effi ciency.

Keywords: software development centres (SDCs), offshoring, foreign direct investment, return migration, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).

Grzegorz Micek, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University Gronostajowa 7, 30-387 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

The analysis concerned the variability of daily precipitation totals observed during thesecond half of the 20th century at fi ve stations in Poland. The elements examined were number of dayswith precipitation exceeding given thresholds, lengths of wet and dry spells and precipitation amountsin a single spell. There is an upward trend for the number of spells and days with precipitation, anda downward trend for mean precipitation during a given spell. Changes in peak precipitation are notuniform, there being negative trends at some stations and positive ones at others. However the lack ofa trend for precipitation totals combines with the climatic warming now to be observed to imply riskof a water defi cit.

Keywords: wet spell, dry spell, precipitation extremes, linear trend, Poland

Joanna Wibig, Department of Meteorology and Climatology, Faculty of Biology and Earth Science, University of Lodz Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland

Abstract

The new Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) was designed for use in the human bioclimatology and biometeorologyfield. This article describes a set of basic tests used to test the UTCI. These tests were made using real data fromselected meteorological stations in the Czech Republic. Days with extreme temperatures and days with extremely windyconditions (extratropical cyclone known as ‘hurricane Kyrill’, January 18-19, 2007) were selected for the UTCI testing. TheUniversal Thermal Climate Index is different from other, more commonly used indices. A complete set of meteorologicaland radiation factors: air temperature, humidity, wind speed and mean radiation temperature were used using whentesting the UTCI. Other indices were calculated using limited numbers of the following factors: air temperature andhumidity (Heat Index), air temperature and wind speed (Wind Chill), and also air temperature, humidity and wind speed(NET). Testing of the UTCI was necessary before the possible application of this index in the national weather serviceof the Czech Republic (CHMI).

Keywords: UTCI, thermal comfort/discomfort, biometeorological indices, bioweather forecast

Martin Novak [martin.novak@chmi.cz], Czech Hydrometeorological Institute Kočkovská 18, 400 11 Ústí nad Labem: Czech Republic

Abstract

The development of large-scale transects in ecological studies has provided a newtool for investigating ecosystem behavior under changing climate. These studies do not replaceexperimental research, but provide a complimentary tool that substitutes space for time in the investigationof complex ecological responses that cannot be easily examined in controlled experiments.Examples of two large-scale transect studies are described, and selected results regardingthe allocation of C within ecosystems in response to climate are highlighted.

Keywords: global change, transect studies, gradient studies, carbon cycling

David D. Reed, School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI 49931 USA
Glenn D. Glenn D., School of Forest Resources and Environmental Science Michigan Technological University Houghton, MI 49931 USA

Abstract

The natural environment and its place in physical planning can be approached in a variety of ways. In an extreme case, the environment can be treated as the subject matter of a plan; alternatively, it can be one of the elements constituting the subject of planning. It can be treated as material defining the spatial framework of development, or as its factor and limitation, etc. The way we approach the environment depends primarily on how we under-stand the nature-man relationship, and what model of the operation and development of nature we adopt. Two such models can be considered: (1) of the autonomous development of nature, and (2) of controlled nature-man interactions. In the latter, two types of interaction are involved: of the spatial integration or spatial separation of nature and man. These assumptions can underlie various approaches to the environment; their elucidation is the subject matter of the present paper.

Keywords: natural environment, physical planning, nature-man relationship

Jerzy J. Parysek [parys@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland
Lidia Mierzejewska [mierzeja@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

The present discourse demonstrates the thoughts related to the possibilities and consequences of an adaptation for the geographic settlement systems research of the methodological approaches and concepts taken from natural sciences, especially the concept of deterministic chaos along with the concept and measures of entropy.

Keywords: settlement system dynamics, supra-national urban system

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Piotr Korcelli [korcelli@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Zbigniew T. Wierzbicki, Institut de Philosophie et de Sociologie de l'Académie Polonaise des Sciences. Varsovie

Berardo Cori, Department of Environmental and Spatial Sciences, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

R.d. Hill, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Adam Kertesz, Geographical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
Jeno Szilard, Geographical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest

Gerhard Mohs, Martin-Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Therese Pippan, University of Salzburg

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Abstract

The aim of this article is to examine the development of transport infrastructure (modernisation of railway tracks and development of the motorway and expressway network) and its possible effects on regional development in Slovakia. Accessible transport infrastructure (mainly the motorway network) has influenced many decisions concerning the location of industrial investments. The impact of transport infrastructure on the reduction of regional disparities in Slovakia is limited mainly due to the concentration of transport infrastructure investment in the more developed regions of Slovakia. Poorer regions in eastern Slovakia and the southern part of Central Slovakia are still affected by the unfavourable level of accessibility to the transport infrastructure that creates important conditions affecting their development.

Keywords: transport infrastructure development, regional development, travel time, industrial investment location, regional disparities, regional structure, Slovakia

Daniel Michniak [geogmich@savba.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Stefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovakia

Abstract

This paper discusses the cloud cover and its relation to atmospheric circulation over Spitsbergen during 1983-2015. It focuses on monthly and seasonal cloud covers and on the frequency of days with specific cloud cover (cloudless, clear, cloudy and completely overcast sky) and their relation to various circulation types. In the research period the cloud cover characteristics were differentiated over the island on both monthly and seasonal scales, and they strongly depended on the direction of air advection. The highest mean daily cloud cover was reported for circulation types with air advection from the south (S+SWc and S+SWa). The greatest variation in the cloud cover distribution was observed during the polar night (at Svalbard Lufthavn and Ny-Ålesund) or in the autumn (Hornsund). The long-term variability in the cloud cover significantly depends on the frequency of N+NEa type (negative correlation) and on S+SWc and W+NWc and Cc+Bc types (positive correlation), particularly in spring.

Keywords: cloud cover, atmospheric circulation, Spitsbergen, the Arctic

Ewa Łupikasza, Department of Climatology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland
Oskar Lipiński, Department of Climatology, Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland

Abstract

This paper presents the funeral ceremony as one of the factors helping to preservenetworks and relationships among families in the countryside. The development of family relationshipsin the countryside is discussed on the basis of an analysis of attendance at funeralceremonies in model areas of the Czech countryside. The precise forms assumed by funeralceremonies (church funeral vs. civil funeral, funeral without ceremony, attendance, associatedtraditions) differ in relation to culture on the state, regional and local levels as well. The differentiationto forms of funeral ceremony and burial processes depends on a number of factors,of which the main ones are religiosity rate and community size at regional level and traditionat local level. In the Czech regions, mainly in the countryside, the extraordinary attendanceat funeral ceremonies is typical. Attendance at a funeral ceremony via a representative of thefamily is considered a social duty. This tradition of family get-togethers for funeral ceremonieshas been maintained from generation to generation. Through it families that may now bescattered are able to keep together the network of relationships of inhabitants in countryside.

Keywords: network, family, burial, necrogeography, countryside, Czechia

Martina Hupková, Department of Social Geography and Regional Development, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Albertov 6, CZ-12843 Prague, Czechia

Abstract

Based on the case of the military-industrial city of Ust’-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan,this paper explores (a) Soviet and post-Soviet era migration into former closed cities, and (b) thepresent housing situation of migrant groups living in them, paying particular attention to theirethnic background. The study is based on a survey carried out by the author and the regionalstatistical authority in January 2001. The principal findings suggest that there has been a clearincrease in migrants from the oblast’s rural areas to the regional capital, which is attributableto the regional urbanisation pressure which had been created during the city’s period of ‘closure’,and that the origin of these migrants has shifted in favour of areas with larger Kazakh populations.Also, contradicting the Soviet goals, and resulting from structural factors re-enforced bythe closed city regime, the ethnic housing gap is greatest among those who arrived during theSoviet period.

Keywords: Closed cities, Kazakhstan, migration, ethnicity, housing, residential

Michael Gentile, Stockholm School of Economics Box 6501, SE-11383 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract

The socio-spatial transition of the urban system has been widely discussed by social scientists in Hungary since the early 1990s. Although urban studies became increasingly practi-cal and highly influenced by the prevailing paradigm of neoliberalism, socio-spatial differentia-tion and the emerging conflicts of the transition period stimulated a shift in social geography to locality studies and new methodology. In this paper, social restructuring and local conflicts stimulated by the transformation of economic and political institutions and by the shift to a new accumulation regime (i.e. from socialism to late capitalism) are put into focus. Although global agents and national regulations had a decisive role in urban restructuring, the presented analysis of local people's attitude to the socio-spatial transition of their city provides a deeper insight into the mechanisms underpinning the social relations that supported/hindered urban development in the transition period and after.

Keywords: urban restructuring, civic participation, local state, transition, Hungary

Erika Nagy, Centre for Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences Békéscsaba, Szabô D. u. 42. 5600, Hungary

Abstract

The article presents the most significant territorial divisions of the contemporary Czech Republic with respect to the Czechs’ subjectiveperception of them, as well as in comparison with the divisions found in Poland. The author focuses on the differences in the perceptionof the following territorial dichotomies: the capital – the peripheries, the city and town – the village, the borderland previously inhabitedby Germans (commonly referred to as the Sudetes Region and known even more widely as Sudetenland) – the interior of the state, andthe perception of the cultural, historical, religious and administrative regions. All of the issues discussed are documented by statisticaldata and the author’s own research, as well as observations made by the author who has lived in the country since his birth.

Keywords: territorial division, perception, mental maps, cultural regions, administrative regions, Czech Republic

Tadeusz Siwek, University of Ostrava Faculty of Science, Department of Human Geography and Regional Development Dvořákova 7, 701 03 Ostrava: Czech Republic

Abstract

Shaping of the Mała Wisła (‘Little Vistula’) Valley allowed economic use to be made of it by the early Middle Ages. At first,this took the form of the constructing of many mill streams, but then the system of fish ponds characteristic of the Valleylandscape to this day was also put in place (in the 16th-17th centuries). However, the numerous floods affecting the Valleydown the centuries regularly devastated the ponds, as well as filling in or changing the courses of the mill streams.Archive records, sketches and topographic maps all show that the receding of floodwaters was followed by the rebuildingof ponds albeit mostly with shapes, sizes and layouts of embankments different from those that had been present before.This therefore brought about significant changes in the landscape of the Valley. By the end of the 19th century, floods hadproduced very marked changes in the landscape of the Valley under study. In contrast, floods do not now bring aboutpermanent changes in the Valley because the construction of the Goczałkowice Reservoir led to a lowering in the level ofepisodes of peak high water.

Keywords: Poland, Mała Wisła Valley, changes in landscapes, human impact, floods

Stanisław W. Czaja, 18th-20th Century Flood-Induced Changes In The Landscapes Of The Mała Wisła Valley Within The Oświęcimska Basin

Abstract

The aim of the study was to analyse transborder relations at the local level in the Polish‑Germanborderland. In order todescribe the character of the relations, all the communes (gmina) in the Polish part of the borderland and all the districts(Kreise) in the German part have been examined. An additional aim of the analysis was to answer the question as towhether, in the relations between Polish and German territorial units, a co‑operativeor competitive attitude is prevailing.To this end, a questionnaire survey was conducted (in April 2011) among the local‑governmentauthorities in the Polish‑Germanborderland. The area under investigation is comprised of communes (NUTS5) belonging to the districts neighbouringthe Polish side of the border, and districts (NUTS3) situated along the German side of the border. On the basisof empirical data, the intensity of the level of co‑operationhas been evaluated. The study also allowed us to determinethe impact of co‑operationon borderland areas. Furthermore, the effects in different fields (i.e. socio‑cultural,economic,infrastructural), have been analyzed. The selected results that were obtained were then compared to analogous researchconducted in 2003.

Keywords: transborder relations, cross‑border co‑operation, transborder competition, borderland region, Polish‑German borderland

Sylwia Dołzbłasz [sylwia.dolzblasz@ uwr.edu.pl], University of Wrocław Institute of Geography and Regional Development Kuźnicza 49/55, 50‑138 Wrocław: Poland

Abstract

The migration process within the politically unified Berlin seems to be anexcellent indicator in how far these two sub-systems have already merged socially andeconomically or have restructured under the present global economic stress. Classical questionson the behaviour of an intraurban migration system include: (i) What is the stage ofdevelopment back to an unique migration core? (ii) What is the stage of a re-developed orre-established radial pattern of stepwise out-migration flows? (iii) Is there a converging ordiverging behaviour towards an integrated intraurban migration system? (iv) How do migrantsperceive distance, and (v) are there imaginary walls that structure a migratory urban systeminto sub-systems? An origin-destination constrained interaction model and descriptive statisticsare used to address these questions. Preliminary results provide sufficient evidence todisaggregate the complexity of the migration flows into two levels comprised of local andglobal systems.

Keywords: Urban restructuring, globalisation, migration path ways, spatial interaction model, urban GIS, stage of unification

Michael Tiefelsdorf, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3C5
Gerhard O. Braun, Department of Geography - Urban Studies and GIS Free University of Berlin, GrunewaldstraBe 35, 12165 Berlin, Germany

Abstract

The authors discuss the average air temperature and mean precipitation amounts in long-term and short — time variability. This research may be a starting point for combining GCM's models (GFDL and GISS) used to forecast spatial distribution of climatic changes in hydrological models on the territory of Poland.Methods of grid simulation using 90-year and 30-year sequences provide sufficient statistical material for a relatively precise estimation. Authors presented stochastic generation of meteorological data in others time step (daily, monthly and yearly) by Markov chain.

Keywords: scenarios of global climate change; GCM models application (GFDL, GISS); generation of meteorological data (air temperature, precipitation); Markov chains application

Małgorzata Gutry-Korycka, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland
Bogumił Jakubiak, Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modelling, Warsaw University Pawińskiego 5a, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland

Bernard Barbier, Institut de Géographie, Université d'Aix-Marseille II, Aix-en-Provence, France

A.n. Rakitnikov, Faculté de Géographie, Université de Moscou, URSS

Konstantin A. Salichtchev, Professeur, Université d'État M. V. Lomonossov, Moscou, U.R.S.S.; Ancien Président de l'As-sociation Cartographique Internationale

Abstract

The characteristic features of the lower Vistula River valley are numerous widenings known from the literature as basins. Their geologic structure and relief differ considerably from the adjacent valley reaches as a result of differential action of both glacial and fluvial processes. This is particularly true for the largest widening of the lower Vistula River valley — the Grudziądz Basin.

The origin of this basin have been discussed for a long time. So far, two hypotheses have prevailed: the first, put forward by A. Jentzsch (1911), relates the formation of the Grudziądz Basin to a large proglacial lake at the mouth of the Mątawa River outwash, the second, advanced by R. Galon (1934), regards lateral erosion of the meandering Vistula River as the main process responsible for its origin.

The present paper is a new attempt at solving the problem based on geo-logic and geomorphologic research (E. Drozdowski 1974, 1975), including re-sults of pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating. It emphasizes the hitherto unrecognized glacial landforms and deposits associated with the melting of dead-ice blocks which — as it turned out during the field examination — occur in that area together with distinctive fluvial features. This fact justifies the conclusion that the fluvial processes operating in the valley in the Late Glacial period were intimately associated with glacial processes. Consequently, the former existence of the Scandinavian ice sheet and its geomorphologic activity are regarded here as a substantial factor which affected the formation of the discussed widening of the Vistula River valley.

Eugeniusz Drozdowski, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Kopernika 19, 87-100 Toruń, Poland

Zbyszko Chojnicki, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan

Maria Kiełczewska-Zaleska, Institut de Géographie Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Stanisław Szczepankiewicz, Geographical Institute University of Wroclaw

Michael J. Wise, The London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Kazimierz Klimek, University of Silesia , Earth Sciences Faculty, ul Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland

Rajmund Galon, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń

Abstract

There is still no consensus on the definition of urban governance, which can be attributed to gaps in its empirical foundation across both time and space. The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (1867-1918), with its complex state structure, serves as an ideal historical and geographical subject for unveiling aspects related to the birth of modern urban governance within a Central European context. To conduct comparative research, this study examines selected cities from two territorial autonomies of the empire: Zagreb, Osijek, Varaždin, and Zemun from Croatia-Slavonia, and Lviv and Cracow (Krakow) from Galicia. Urban governance within territorial autonomy, particularly from a historical standpoint, is a unique subject that lacks a substantial presence int he literature of urban studies and territorial autonomy. In this paper, an analytical framework was developed based on the key components of the transformation thesis of urban governance and metagovernance theory. The findings of the study indicate that the process of designating territorial autonomies and the various political factors behind them significantly shaped the formation of urban governance systems.

Keywords: urban governance, territorial autonomy, metagovernance, historical geography, Croatia-Slavonia, Habsburg Galicia, Austro-Hungarian Monarchy

Bálint Hilbert [hilbert.balint@tk.hu], Institute for Sociology HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences Tóth Kálmán str. 4., 1097 Budapest: Hungary

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of changes in the level and character of unem-ployment in Poland in the years 1990-1998 on the basis of a national and a regional approach. It embraces: (1) relations between national unemployment and changes in the economy, (2) a classification of regions on the basis of relative unemployment, and (3) the testing of the process of petrifaction of the regional structure of unemployment using the T-technique of principal components analysis.

Keywords: Poland, national unemployment and stages of transformation, regional vari-ation in unemployment over time, T-technique of principal components analysis

Teresa Czyż [tczyz@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland
Paweł Churski [chur@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland
Jan Hauke, Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

The longest instrumental rainfall series have been investigated for the North Assam subdivision and 4 meteorological stations in Northeast India. Analysis of trends to annual and seasonal rainfall show these to be very stable, with no change in the rainfall over North Assam during the last 150 years. The Fourier analysis of fluctuations in rainfall series shows that the periodic signal of T=3.5 year is the strongest one. Such a signal, with the same phase, has been found for all rainfall stations of the North Assam subdivision and in all investigated seasons.

Keywords: monsoon rainfall, trend, periodicity, northeast India

Paweł Prokop [pawel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Adam Walanus, Institute of Archaeology, University of Rzeszów, Hoffmanowej 8, 35-016 Rzeszów

Abstract

The existing typologies of rural-urban regions can be divided into three categories, based ondifferent criteria that refer to alternative concepts of the region and of urban–rural relations. The fi rstcategory is represented by studies in which the hierarchical structure of rural–urban regions is exposed,as determined by the functional profi le as well as the range of functions performed, the populationpotential, and the political and administrative status of the main urban centre. The second categorycomprises typologies based on criteria related to level of urbanization, i.e. the extent to which a givenarea has an urban vs. rural character. These typologies also tend to include criteria related to spatial forms– the morphology of settlement, as well as the density and redistribution of population. Typologicalstudies in the third category focus on the interdependence of, and interaction between the urban, periurban,and rural zones of rural–urban regions. Studies of the latter kind are rather rare, owing to theirexacting requirements as regards data, in particular with respect to fl ow data.

Keywords: urban-rural regions, regional typologies, functional urban regions, peri-urban areas.

Piotr Korcelli [korcelli@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland
Ewa Korcelli-Olejniczak [eko@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

In the 19th century throughout Central Europe fl oods became increasingly intense; a similarsituation pertained in the area of lake districts and the coastal zone. Maximum water levels recordedat the end of the 19th century (particularly in the years 1888-1892) to the present day on many watergaugestations (particularly those located in rivers’ lower courses) were the highest ever observed.Yet in the half on 19th century the need for regulation works became increasingly apparent. On thePomeranian rivers these works began in 1860; they reached their greatest intensity in the fi rst twentyyears of 20th century.Regulation activity was conducted which led to a distinct shortening of riverbeds; on longer sectionsof the river the reduction amounted from over 12 to 20 or more percent, in some places even50%. It caused the aggravation of bottom erosion, and also lateral erosion, which was particularlyapparent beneath the water power stations.In the last few decades the ending of work that interferes with the riverbed has resulted in thegradual restoration of the primary character of Wieprza River bed. It is also worth mentioning thateven when notable fl oods have appeared (for example, in 1980), which were comparable to those thatappeared at the end of 19th century, they did not lead to any fundamental change to any section of theWieprza River bed geosystem.

Keywords: hydrotechnic structures, Wieprza river, fl ood, river bed response, reservoir, fl oodplain.

Wacław Florek, Department of Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Geograpghy and Regional Studies, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Partyzantów 27, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland
Jolanta Jaromij, Department of Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Geography and Regional Studies, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Partyzantów 27, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland
Magdalena Skwierawska, Department of Geomorphology and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Geography and Regional Studies, Pomeranian University in Słupsk, Partyzantów 27, 76-200 Słupsk, Poland

Abstract

Thus far, the process of obtaining basic data and information from governmental agencieswith a view to its being used in the information industry has seemingly been a troublesomeand sometimes discouraging operation in most European countries. Re-users in both the publicand private sectors are faced with extensive barriers reflecting increasing commercialization inthe operations of government agencies, data protection, high license fees and a short-sightedappeal to profitability principles. However, a trend towards the provision of “free data” at deliverycost only now appears to be gaining currency both in society and with governments. It can beargued that “free data provision”, unlike short-term cost recovery policies, will generate optimalsocio-economic benefits. But “free data” in our digital era is one side of the picture. The otheris that national governments will be forced to re-think their role in the information society, andlast but not least in their relationship with the private information industry. Neither full publicdominance nor a private monopoly seem optimal solutions from the societal viewpoint.

Keywords: data re-use policy drivers, data protection, government commercialization, information society, digital era, creation of derived and new data sets, knowledge-based economies, socio- economic benefits, information industries, value-added information servic

Ton W. Donker, Stakeholder and Contract Management, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), P.O. Box 201, 3730 AE De Bilt, Netherlands

Abstract

Geography always relies on regional approaches, since it deals with areas. However,in the last two centuries, the concept of the region has undergone profound changes. Whilegeographers long sought a delimitation and description of objective units on the Earth’s surface,the last forty years has seen them focus mainly on the significance of places, the meaning of territoriesand the role regional approaches have played in the building of identities. This paperhas sought to track the changing role of the regional concept in geography and to reveal the wayin which links up with other scientific disciplines (e.g. the natural sciences, sociology, economicsand history). The author concludes with an opinion regarding the current coexistence of the twoapproaches. Though stressing different factors where the shaping of terrestrial reality is concerned—and applying different concepts to express it—the two approaches seem to complementeach other as they work to explaining the social texture of space. What is more, the regionalapproach in the scientific study of human societies no longer constitutes a stage coming after allthe others, but is rather something to be used from the very beginning.

Keywords: region, regional geography, home country/pays, territory, identity, regional organization, symbol

Paul Claval, UFR de Géographie et Aménagement, Université Paris Sorbonne (Paris IV), 191, rue St.Jacques; 75005 Paris, France

Abstract

Metropolitanisation is one of the processes observed in the contempo-rary world that has an ever increasing influence on its economic and social development and that is an object of various types of scientific inquiry, including geographical. However, as this complex and multi-faceted process is perceived and interpreted in a variety of ways, it might be useful to resolve it more fully. The article therefore seeks to elucidate the terms metropolis and metropolitanisation in such a way that, by focusing on the functions and spatial structures characteristic of metropolises, the process of metro-politanisation is described in the context of urbanisation and globalisation. A classification of metropolises is also proposed and carried out, and European and Polish metropolises are described. In regard to Polish metropolises, which are still rather metropolises-to-be, attention is centred on the progress of metropolitanisation and prospects for the develop-ment of metropolitan functions within the next few years.

Keywords: metropolis, metropolitanisation processes, metropolitan functions, spatial-functional structures, globalisation, cities, global cities

Jerzy J. Parysek [parys@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

The article presents the variability to selected extreme climatic phenomena in Poland in the second half of the 20th century. The main attention is paid to the search for exceptional values for indicators or trends that might be regarded as effects of global warm-ing. Among the circulation indicators considered are the variability to the influx of Arctic and tropical air masses in the period 1951-1999, as well as the numbers of days with fronts. In turn, elaborated for the period 1966-1999 was the variability in absolute maxima and minima for pressure, as well as extreme values for pressure tendency, and the occurrence of very strong winds. The greatest changes were found to have occurred in the case of extremes of temperature: from 1982 onwards in the case of absolute maxima and from 1973 on in the case of absolute minima and amplitudes of temperature. These generally attest to an increase in the oceanicity of the Polish climate. In the case of extreme precipitation events, a transition to a rather wetter phase of climate has been noted since 1995. However, there is no sign of any departure for any of the elements studied that has exceeded the values typical for fluctuations of climate in the 20th century, and could therefore be taken as indicating a per-manent change in the climate.

Keywords: climatic change, extreme climatic events, Poland

Tadeusz Niedźwiedź, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia Będzińska 60,41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland. Institute of Meteorology and Water Management Borowego 14, 30-215 Kraków, Poland.

Abstract

New advances in air quality monitoring techniques, such as passive samplers for nitrogenous (N) or sulphurous (S) pollutantsand ozone (O3), have allowed for an improved understanding of concentrations of these pollutants in remote areas.Mountains create special problems with regard to the feasibility of establishing and maintaining air pollution monitoringnetworks, due to their complex topography and difficult access. Therefore, careful design of monitoring networks, selectionof monitoring equipment, and a reliable workforce are essential for successful mountain monitoring campaigns. TheUSDA Forest Service team, in collaboration with various partners in Europe and North America, has conducted numerousmonitoring campaigns in order to determine concentrations of O3, nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ammonia (NH3), nitric acidvapor (HNO3), and sulphur dioxide (SO2) in remote areas. These results, aided by geostatistical methodologies, haveresulted in the creation of maps that are essential for a better understanding of the distribution of various air pollutantsin the Carpathian Mountains (specifically, the Tatras, Retezat, and Bucegi ranges) in Europe; the Sierra Nevada (includingSequoia, Kings Canyon and Yosemite National Parks), the San Bernardino Mountains, the White Mountains, and JoshuaTree National Park in California; the Columbia Rivers Basin in Oregon; and the Athabasca Oil Sands Region in northernAlberta, Canada. Information on the concentrations and distribution of air pollutants which have been measured inthose areas provides an understanding of their potential risks to human health, ecosystem health and sustainability, andecosystem services.

Keywords: monitoring, air pollution, forests, remote areas, mountains, human health, ecosystems, Europe, North America

Andrzej Bytnerowicz, USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station Riverside, CA 92507, USA
Witold Frączek, Environmental Systems Research Institute Redlands, CA 92373, USA

Abstract

The effects of global warming on reference évapotranspiration are investigated and discussed in this report. There are numerous methods for estimating évapotranspiration in the literature. However, we chose to use two acceptable methods for an arid climate: the "Penman method" proposed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), and the second one after Budyko-Zubenok, for the purpose of comparison.The amount of water needed for agriculture with and without climate change is estimated and discussed. A computer program based on Penman's method is used, with the necessary data, provided by a separate computer program. To compare results of different models, two climate scenarios were used in these analyses. The results show that the évapotranspiration will increase from north to south, due to an increase in temperature which is the result of the increase in the content of CO2, as well as of other greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere.

Keywords: water scarcity, climate change, évapotranspiration, Libyan case study

Ali A. Almabruk, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences ul. Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

It is argued that positive explanations of retail location in Polish cities have simply described spatial patterns and have inadequately explored causative processes. Central to the latter is the concept of urban managerialism. The paper focuses on the Łódź managers, or gatekeepers, who have laid down the rules for privatisation, drawn up minimum bid-rents for different zones, and have discriminated in favour of certain types of shop. Recent retail changes in the main shopping street, Piotrkowska, are analysed, and an assessment made of the role of the urban managers.

Keywords: bid-rent zones, Łódź, privatisation, retailing, urban managerialism

Ray Riley, Department of Geography, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth POI 3HE, U. K.
Anna Małgorzata Niżnik, Instytut Geografii Ekonomicznej, Uniwersytet Łódzki, al. Kościuszki 21, 90-418 Łódź

Abstract

The vertical alteration of geomorphic systems results from Quaternary evolution. The huge stabilized landslides are the main feature of the slope morphology. They were produced in a periglacial zone of the older Rio Blanco glaciation. The present glacial and cryonival systems were affected by the Punrun glaciation phase and postglacial climatic conditions. The valley bottoms and the lowermost parts of the slopes were transformed by mass movements and mud/debris flows in the postglacial period.

Ludwik Kaszowski, Institute of Geography, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Abstract

The present study is mainly intended to examine the concept of the functionalurban region. In accordance with this concept, the boundaries of the outerzone of the Warsaw agglomeration are regarded as identical with the extentof the area displaying spatial links with its inner zone, following from thedistribution of places of residence and work. Practically, it has been assumed that thedaily extent of the investigated area is determined by commuting to work in Warsawfrom suburban areas as in 1973, while the percentage relation of people commutingto work in Warsaw to the number of people employed in the nonagriculturalsectors in the given administrative unit (community or town) is taken as thebasic measure of link intensity. The marginal value of the indicator of linkshas been taken to be 0.01, less than the analogous marginal values used in theliterature up to now (Fig. 1, see also Potrykowska 1983).

Alina Potrykowska, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Maria Pelczar, Institute of Geography, Gdańsk University, Gdańsk

Yakov G. Mashbits, Institute of Geography. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Moscow. USSR

Mirosław Bogacki, Institute of Physical Geography, Warsaw University, Warsaw

Abstract

For good reasons the Eastern Alps have been considered to be a regionin which the medieval settlement expansion process in general — and that ofthe High Middle Ages in particular — have proved to be of great importance.Settlements which date back to that time constitute a high percentage of thetotal number of settlements in the Eastern Alps. Numerous special investigationsmade by several authors have always confirmed anew that feudal landlordsor sovereigns initiated and regulated the process of settlement expansion.Therefore it seems understandable that the settlement expansion process directedby landlords is still today considered as the significant type of innercolonization in the Eastern Alps during the High Middle Ages.What has been scarcely noticed, however, is the fact that at the same timethere existed still other types of settlement expansion. Recent publicationshave produced a number of individual examples for this fact; particularly forthe central region in the south of the Eastern Alps. Therefore previous conceptionsof only one type of inner colonization characteristic for the time ofthe High Middle Ages will necessarily have to be modified — at least as faras the region investigated is concerned.On the basis of our present knowledge a first attempt to systematize the differenttypes of medieval settlement expansion for the south of the EasternAlps shall be made and put up for discussion. In addition to that I shall tryto outline the exceptional position of the different types under some aspects ofsocial geography in this special historical period.

Yakov G. Mashbits, Institute of Geography. Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Moscow. USSR

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Romania has experienced considerable growth in agritourism able to meet the demand for sustainable tourism generated on both domestic and European markets. A picturesque landscape, other unique features and cultural heritage have all acted directly to increase agritourism in the country. Against this background, the work detailed in this paper sought to employ a quantitative approach in assessing if the above development of agritourism correlated directly with financial assistance allocated under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Findings in fact point to a direct impact of funding disbursed under the CAP, while payments disbursed under the so-called second pillar are not found to have impacted on the growth of agritourism. Outcomes with the Epanechnikov kernel method highlight a significant shift in the subsidies allocated under the Common Agricultural Policy via its first and second pillars, with an increase in the total fund disbursed in 2013 as compared with 2007. Subsidies allocated via the second pillar of the CAP can thus be said to havehad a pivotal role in supporting investment in on-farm diversification, in this way achieving a partial integrationof farmers’ incomes in Romania.

Keywords: panel data, rural development, rural tourism, fixed effect, countryside, multiple regression model, agritourism, Common Agricultural Policy, Romania

Nicola Galluzzo, Associazione Studi Geografico-Economici delle Aree Rurali Via Salaria per L’Aquila, 76 scala A, Rieti: Italy

Abstract

The paper concerns investigations on urban geomorphology. The subject of the paper is the historic centre of Kraków (or Cracow) where the pre-human relief became masked due to the rapid increase in cultural deposits from the mid-13th century onwards. The aim of the investigation is the reconstruction of the original topography, relief and hydrography of this area based on rich sources of materials in papers and non-publisheddata on geology, geoengineering, archaeology, history, and also on maps and panoramic drawings of the town. A digital elevation model has been generated, which showed the topography of the study area in the period before the mid-13th century. Structural analysis, cross validation test and estimation by ordinary kriging method were carried out. The final cartographic work was prepared with the use of QGIS and Surfer software.The distribution of landforms in the study area in the mid-13th century is presented as a proposed variant of the geomorphological map prepared by the authors. The former relief was evaluated in terms of its potential for encouraging settlement.

Keywords: pre-urban morphology, Kraków, Vistula, meandering river, limestone horst, Pleistocene terrace, Holocene floodplain, digital cartography, geostatistics, ordinary kriging

Adam Łajczak [alajczak@o2.pl], Institute of Geography Pedagogical University of Krakow Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Krakow: Poland
Roksana Zarychta [roksana.zarychta@up.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography Pedagogical University of Kraków Podchorążych 2, 30-084 Kraków: Poland

Abstract

This paper examines specific runoffs in the catchments of the rivers Ina, Rega, Parsęta, Radew and Wieprza in the hydrological years 1981 through 2019. The magnitude of specific runoff is an indirect measure of water resources in a given region. Except for the Radew catchment, mean annual specific runoffs have diminished in all the analyzed catchments through the study period. In some or all of the catchments, runoffs from April through July have also diminished. The largest changes have been observed for June in the In a and Parsętacatchments. These changes are basically due to the increase in air temperature.

Keywords: Pomeranian Lake District, Southern Baltic coastlands, temporal trends in river runoff, climate change effects, water resource depletion

Małgorzata Świątek [malgorzata.swiatek@usz.edu.pl], Institute of Marine and Environmental Sciences University of Szczecin, ul. Mickiewicza 16, 70-383 Szczecin: Poland
Szymon Walczakiewicz, Institute of Marine and Environmental Sciences University of Szczecin, ul. Mickiewicza 16, 70-383 Szczecin: Poland

Abstract

The parallel study of past and present-day environmental changes helps in the betterunderstanding of the relations between processes, their effects, and the long-term trends to themas well as in the recognition of the relations between various temporal and spatial scales. Theauthor characterizes two means of deduction: from processes to effects and in the opposite direction.Especially valuable are studies on the last centuries, in which all groups of methods may beused simultaneously.

Keywords: parallel study on past and present, environmental changes, processes, long-term trends

Leszek Starkel [starkel@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

This study examines the propositions that: 1. in high-mountain areas, the differentiationof vegetation units at the landscape (supra-ecosystem) scale is closely linked to variations in thegeomorphology of slopes and valley bottoms across various morphodynamic units; 2. morphodynamicunits constitute the natural boundaries of the vegetation-related landscape units; 3. differenttypes of geomorphological unit at the landscape scale are characterized by the vegetationtypes growing on them. These propositions were tested by comparing overlays of digital maps ofvegetation and geomorphology. A characteristic combination of plant communities was determinedfor each of the five types of morphodynamic unit identified.

Keywords: geomorphology, morphodynamic units, vegetation, landscape units, vegetation-relief links, Tatra Mountains, Poland

Anna Kozłowska [a.kozl@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Zofia Rączkowska [raczk@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland

Abstract

Forests can contribute to increases in atmospheric levels of greenhouse gases (deforestation, bad harvest), are affected by changes in climate (change of natural range of forest tree species) and at the same time offer a unique opportunity to help mitigate future climate change. Forests contribute to the fight against the greenhouse effect in three ways: (1) carbon sequestering; (2) CO2 avoidance through substitution by wood of energy-intensive materials such as plastics, aluminium, steal, cement and brick, (3) CO2 avoidance by using timber instead of fossil fuels for generating energy. The effect of utilization of wood is even greater than that of fixation. Carbon storage would be optimized in plantation forests (refore-station and afforestation), harvested at the time of maximum mean annual increment, when the lifetime of the products exceeds the rotation period. The rate of carbon absorption by trees and forests is a function of growth and age - the rate is higher when they are fast-growing and young. There are some possibilities to increase the carbon accumulation ability of our forests: reconstruction of stands into ones of more adequate species composition; tending of the forest and to the creating of an opportunity to obtain so-called "thinning-induced incre-ment"; the introduction of an understorey which could result in a increment in standing volume; the increase in the fraction of humus in forest soils which could be regulated by means of a preference for the forest regeneration model; resignation from clear-cutting and the afforesta-tion of abandoned agricultural land. The role of Polish forests in reducing global change is not so important as far as the proportional contribution to world forest cover is concerned (0,002%) but from the domestic point of view and in the light of the obligation under the Kyoto Protocol, forest, forestry and wood utilization present a high interest for our environmental policy and an important element in the national development strategy into the 21st century.

Keywords: carbon sequestration, wood utilization, forest management, climate change

Kazimierz Rykowski, Forest Research Institute, Department of Ecology and Environmental Protection, Sekocin Las, 09-090 Raszyn, Poland

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Abstract

The Carpathian river valleys experience catastrophic floods every few years. Floods are the result of continuous rainfall with daily amounts exceed-ing 100 mm (T. Niedźwiedź, 1972). Floods play the major role in channel transformation and they are moving waste materials accumulated in the val-ley-floors at flood-free intervals (K. Brykowicz et al., 1972; W. Froehlich, 1972; M. Gałka, 1973; M. Klimaszewski, 1935; M. Niemirowski, 1972; L. Starkel, 1972; M. Woźnowski, 1935; A. Zierhoffer, 1935; T. Ziętara, 1968, 1974). Both intensity and magnitude of the waste removal process is reflected in the sus-pended sediment transport. During floods the Carpathian rivers can carry more than half of the material transported per year (J. Brański, 1968; J. Cyberski, 1969; W. Froehlich, 1972; Z. Kajetanowicz, 1938; A. Welc, 1972; H. Ziemska, 1928). For this reason, detailed studies of the then removed material are neces-sary to know the extreme intensities of the present-day waste removal from the Carpathian flysch catchments.Both the activities of man and land use affect the transport of materials by rivers (J. Douglas, 1967). Researches into the mechanism of sediment transport-ation during floods and of waste supply from the small catchments with various land use have as yet been lacking.

Wojciech Froehlich, Homerka Laboratory of Fluvial Processes, Institute of Geography, Polish Academy of Sciences, Frycowa, Poland

Nikolai T. Agafonov, Gosplan of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, Leningrad
Sergei B. Lavrov, Leningrad University

Vladimir G. Davidovich, Moscow Institute for Engineering and Economy

Andrzej Samuel Kostrowicki, Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement du Territoire. Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Abstract

In the study, which has served as the basis for this paper, tendencies in transformations in the spatial organization of agriculture were investigated by established by means of the method of extrapolation of the past tendencies and the rate of development. The results of the extrapolation were then revised on the basis of information as to the tasks set before Polish agriculture for the de-cades 1970-1980 and 1980-1990 and means to be allotted for their implementation by the State Planning Commission. The trends of transformation in the spatial organization of agriculture were also determined by the use of the analogy method, i.e., by drawing conclusions from experiences gathered by other coun-tries or regions where the level of agricultural development is higher, whereas the conditions of development are comparable.

Jerzy Kostrowicki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Luna B. Leopold, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.
William W. Emmett, United States Geological Survey, Washington, D. C.

Tadeusz Wilgat, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, Lublin

Jerzy Grzeszczak, Institut de Géographie Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie.

David V. Harvey, University of Bristol

Ludwik Straszwicz, Department of Economic Geography- Lodz University

Brian J. L. Berry, Center For Urban Studies The University of Chicago

Roman T. Gajda, Geographical Branch, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Contemporary Polish-Lithuanian relations are heavily burdened by radically different assessments of the situations of the national minorities in the two countries, i.e. Poles in Lithuania and Lithuanians in Poland. However, assessments are fraught with difficulties reflecting a complicated history and the different potentials of the two minorities, and also warped by a great many stereotypes. The main aim of this paper is to compare the situations of the Polish minority in Lithuania and the Lithuanian minority in Poland by reference to criteria that are objective (demographic potential, legal status, organisational activity, education) or subjective (the opinions of leaders of national organisations), as well as to attempt to determine how the different situations of the two minorities affects their relations with the authorities, the majority and the foreign homeland.

Keywords: ethnic geography, national minorities, interstate relations, Polish minority, Lithuanian minority, Polish-Lithuanian relations

Marek Barwiński, University of Łódź Faculty of Geographical Sciences Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź: Poland e-mail: marbar@geo.uni.lodz.pl
Katarzyna Leśniewska, Department of Political Geography and Regional Studies Faculty of Geographical Sciences, University of Lodz

Abstract

City inhabitants are becoming more and more sensitive to weather changes and extreme atmospheric events. According to certain scientific reports mortality from cardiovas-cular and respiratory diseases is associated with oppressive weather conditions. In the years 1994-1995 a significant rise in mortality was found for Warsaw when particularly hot weather conditions, characteristic of a subtropical air mass, occurred. A synoptic approach in this type of research has been confirmed, and consideration of the influence of combined meteorological parameters on humans (via a biometeorological index) is seen to be much more fruitful and justified than using separate meteorological parameters in calculations.

Keywords: mortality, weather, air pollution, Warsaw

Magdalena Kuchcik [mkuchcik@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Mountain-top detritus characterizes the two high summits of the Gaspésie Mountains,eastern Canada. It is suggested that these angular rock-rubble accumulations developed from thedisintegration of coarse-grained igneous bedrock exposed to thermal stress and ice segregationduring prolonged episodes of permafrost formation in the cold periods of the Pleistocene. Frostwedging and frost heaving (‘jacking’) were the primary mechanisms. Today, climatic conditionson the summits permit only thin and marginal permafrost bodies. Stone nets and stripes aredeveloped where a residual bedrock-derived debris mantle is present. They reflect frost-inducedmovements within the active layer. The latest of these movements probably occurred during thecold period following the LGM and persisted into the mid-Holocene. The transition from nets tostripes relates to slope angle.

Keywords: mechanical weathering, permafrost, blockfields, patterned ground, Gaspésie Mountains, Québec, Canada.

Abstract

In Lesko and Lublin, Poland, from 1981 to 2005, the UTCI values were calculated for 8 observation terms a day. Thefrequency of the UTCI classes determined as ‘cold stress’ was dominant in Lesko and in Lublin (65-66%). The frequency ofclasses determined as ‘heat stress’ was observed in 3% of all situations. On the other hand, restricted to the 12 UTC Julyand August term, the frequency of heat stress classes exceeded 40% in Lublin. Correlation between the UTCI in Lesko andLublin (Poland) was stronger in spring and autumn than in summer and winter. Correlation between the UTCI and themeridional circulation index was more significant than between the UTCI and zonal circulation index in the period fromApril to November in both stations. The opposite situation occurred in February.

Keywords: UTCI, cold stress, heat stress, atmospheric circulation, zonal circulation index, meridional circulation index

Marek Nowosad [marek.nowosad@poczta.umcs.lublin.pl], Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Faculty of Earth Science and Spatial Management al. Kraśnicka 2 cd, 20-718 Lublin: Poland
Beata Rodzik, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 1, 20-031 Lublin: Poland
Sylwester Wereski, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Faculty of Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science pl. Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej 1, 20-031 Lublin: Poland

Abstract

Climatic variation in the growing seasons of the 1990s was examined using 10-day values for the normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) in five regions in Poland. The NDVI values were compared with climatic conditions, by calculating multiple correlation coefficients and regression equations for the 10-day means of NDVI on the one hand, and temperature, precipitation, and sunshine anomalies on the other, in the period between April and September. The frequency of appearance of forest fires was analysed for the same regions. The relationships between the frequency of occurrence of forest fires and NDVI values, air temperature, and precipitation were identified.

Keywords: climate variations, vegetation, normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI), forest fires

Krzysztof Kożuchowski [kkozuchowski1@wp.pl], Department of Environment Dynamics and Bioclimatology, University of Łódź, Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland
Elwira Żmudzka [e.zmudzka@uw.edu.pl], Department of Climatology University of Warsaw, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Budapest is not only one of he most relevant and dynamically-developing cities of Eastern Europe, it is also the most significant industrial centre in Hungary. This paper demonstrates the most important changes in the industry and industrial areas of Budapest after 1989. The new tendencies in industry (organizational, structural changes, privatization, dein-dustrialization etc.) have directly or indirectly affected the location of industry, and the size and utilization of industrial areas. Thus, industrial restructuring has contributed to local urban restructuring too, as has been the case in other European cities.

Keywords: restructuring, industry, deindustrialization, urban development, Budapest, Hungary

Eva Kiss [kiss.eva@csfk.org, kisse@helka.iif.hu], Geographical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1112. Budapest, Budaörsi út 45, Hungary

Abstract

Crop-growth simulation models need long-term daily weather data to assess possible modifications in farm production in changed climatic conditions. Presented here is a stochastic weather generator LARS-WG that provides synthetic long time series of climatic elements. The generator gave an adequate simulation of weather parameters for a selected station in Poland and was next applied to construct climate change scenarios on the basis of UKTR model data.

Keywords: Weather generator, general circulation model (GCM), climate change scenarios, climate variability

Anna Olecka, Climate Protection Center, Institute of Environmental Protection ul. Kolektorska 4, 01-692 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

Consideration of spatial policy on the part of national governments is usually predicated on the assumption that state planning is directed towards some general welfare objectives. While any planning strategy is likely to benefit some people in some places more than others elsewhere, it is not often recognised that the beneficiaries of spatial policy may be a small and perhaps unrepresentative minority. It is even less frequently the case that state planning and spatial policy has as its objective the perpetuation of some form of society which most if not all other nations find morally repugnant, but such is the case with South Africa under apartheid. In these circumstances, South Africa provides an unusual as well as an interesting illustration of state planning with a strong spatial component, with important implications for the process of uneven development in this deeply troubled land.Core-periphery differentiation is a repetitive feature of uneven development within nations. However, the manner in which core and periphery are related is subject to considerable variation, reflecting the historic process of development as well as specific contemporary economic, political, social and cultural conditions. This paper takes the case of South Africa to show how core and periphery are drawn into a distinctive relationship under the government's apartheid policy. It will be shown that black labour supply is the key to understanding the particular form of domination of periphery by core in a country where uneven development has strong racial overtones. Some specific outcomes expressed in the process of urbanization will also be examined, and there are some concluding observations on the significance of the present phase of "unrest".

David M. Smith, Department of Geography, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, London, United Kingdom

Fosco Ventura, Department of Social and Economic Geography, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden
Olof Warneryd, Department of Social and Economic Geography, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden

T.a. Solovtsova, Faculty of Geography, Moscow State University, USSR

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to, first, briefly describe the recent changes in industrial employment in post-war Poland, particularly as these changes refer to the theoretical generalizations which constitute the socialist spatial develop-ment model, and, secondly, to present an econometric analysis which models the developmental dynamics of Polish industry over space during 1950-1970.

Many attempts have been made to investigate industrialization in Poland sc as to evaluate the results of economic development over space during the period 1946-60. Widely varying in time dimension, areal differentiation, and methods of analysis, five of these studies demand review here for they offer a series of empirical results and methodological demarcations in the measurement oi Polish industrial development.

Lawrence W. Murray, Jr., Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
Gerald J. Karaska, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Piotr Eberhardt [p.ebe@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Stanisław Herman, Institute of Geography- Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Abstract

The origin of place-names in the U.S.A. is as complex and heterogeneous as American society itself. The intricate geographical nomenclature in that country includes many foreign names, among them some of Polish origin.We have limited the scope of this paper to places that bear Polish names, and have excluded those settlements that either no longer exist or have been swallowed up by larger conurbations. We have not paid attention to names such as Stanisławowo or Wojciechowo, commonly used by the American Polonia denoting only districts within large urban agglomerations, furthermore, towns whose names have been changed from Polish to American forms were omitted from this analysis.Towns and settlements bearing names of Polish origin have been correlated with the distribution pattern of Americans of Polish descent in the U.S.A.This article presents a synthesis of the research which has been carried out so far; the work is by no means completed.

Elżbieta Lyra, Institute of Geography- Polish Academy of Sciences Warsaw
Franciszek Lyra, Department of English Language M. Curie-Sklodowska University, Lublin

Stanisław Leszczycki, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Stefan Kozarski, Committee of Geographical Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences

Władysław Biegajło, Institute of Geography PAN, Warsaw

Abstract

The impact of a dispersed settlement on the changes of the land cover (LC) and landscape diversity (LDI) in the years 1950, 1986 and 2016 was analyzed on four spatially different levels: on the level of the whole cadastral area, 60 circular areas – hinterlands of hamlets, 15 circular areas in agricultural land outside hamlets and areas outside circular areas. The primary hypothesis that the landscape with a dispersed settlement is internally differentiated in terms of LC and LDI changes and that a dispersed settlement itself is an important driving force of these changes has been confirmed.

Keywords: dispersed settlement, hamlets, land cover change, landscape diversity, Slovak Republic, Hrušov

Ján Hanušin [hanusin@savba.sk], Institute of Geography Slovak Academy of Sciences Štefánikova 49, 814 73 Bratislava: Slovak Republic

Abstract

The article discusses avalanche occurrence in the Slovenian Alps (SE Alps) in the context of climate change. It analyses the relationship between the North Atlantic Oscillation and maximum snow depth over the last two centuries, and the relationships between maximum snow depth and avalanches over the last three decades. We argue that higher temperatures lead to precipitation in the form of rain at higher elevations even in winter, so that major wet avalanches occur already in winter rather than in early spring, as was more common in the past. A case study of extreme avalanches in January 2021 is presented to support the hypothesis.

Keywords: Geography, climate change, avalanche, maximum snow depth, North Atlantic Oscillation, Upper Soča Valley, SE Alps, Slovenia

Blaž Komac [blaz.komac@zrc-sazu.si], Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) Anton Melik Geographical Institute Novi trg 2, 1000 Ljubljana: Slovenia
Matija Zorn [matija.zorn@zrc-sazu.si], Anton Melik Geographical Institute Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Novi trg 2, SI – 1000 Ljubljana: Slovenia

Abstract

The paper is concerned with the role of innovation during the transition period. It presents indicators of the national innovation system and spatial impact of the economic trans-formation on research and development. While in the early transition years, spatial differences were largely determined by FDI in manufacturing, the new directions of innovation have recently become the main driving force that differentiates economic space. Preconditions for the innova-tion-led development are to a large extent jeopardized by the shallower innovation potential of the regions and the dominant role of Budapest. The final section deals with the regional policy implications, discussing the innovation-oriented regional policy approach.

Keywords: economic transformation, national innovation system, R&D, geographical disparities, regional innovation policy.

Zoltan Gal, Centre for Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, University of Kaposvâr PO.BOX 199, 7601 Pecs, HUNGARY

Abstract

On the basis of data concerning small catchments not polluted bymunicipal and industrial sewage we calculated the solute yield from rural areas.Calculations were carried out in a simplified way, taking into consideration the meansolute concentrations from data for the years 1976-1985, and mean discharges of riverwaters. For 20 selected larger catchments of the Vistula tributaries we also calculatedthe total solute yield, i.e. including the sources of municipal and industrial wastewater.On the basis of these and other data we attempted to analyse the balance of the soluteyield. Components taken into account come from: precipitation, agricultural chemicals,farm sewage, municipal and industrial wastewater, and chemical denudation of thelithosphere. Results were considered in relation to regional differentiation. Essentialchanges in the solute yield structure were also noted in comparison with the period ofthe 1930's.

Keywords: anthropogenic impact, chemical denudation, municipal and industrial wasterwater, solute concentration and yield, Vistula River, Eastern Poland

Henryk Maruszczak, Department of Physical Geography and Paleogeography, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Akademicka 19, 20-033 Lublin, Poland
Maria Wilgat, Department of Physical Geography and Paleogeography, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Akademicka 19, 20-033 Lublin, Poland

Candida Ciaccio, Université de Palerme, Italie

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present the application of drainage density exclusivelyfor evaluation of the mean ratio of base flow to total runoff, or in other words,the share of base flow in total runoff, within ungauged basins. Only a few basins,especially those of small areas have been observed long enough to evaluate themean outflow, including base flow. In majority of small drainage basins the outflowhasnot been measured. For this reason it would be useful to find a relationshipbetween base flow and a parameter, by origin bound to base flow. Drainage densitycan be considered such parameter. In this paper drainage density has not been usedas an input for rainfall-runoff modelling, so it can be treated as a static parameter.Knowledge of the ratio of base flow to total runoff may have practical applications.On the basis of this ratio it is possible to, indirectly, estimate water resources.The higher the ratio, the less variable the discharges and the lesser the droughts.

Irena Dynowska, Institute of Geography, Jagiellonian University. Cracow, Poland

Andrzej Samuel Kostrowicki, Institut de Géographie et d'Aménagement du Territoire. Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Joanna Plit [plitjo@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

White, coral sand beaches, interrupted occasionally by low limestone cliffs form the west coast of Barbados for 20 km between Harrison Point in the north and Fresh Water Bay near Bridgetown. Clear, usually calm seas wash the coral reefs that fringe the coast and sunshine exceeds 3000 hours in the year. It is hardly surprising that tourists from northern countries have increased ten fold in the past seventeen years to more than a quarter million persons annually. Although today they produce an income for the island comparable with that from sugar, the traditional economic leader, they have brought with them inevitably various environmental, economic and social problems. Not least of these is the danger that continuing pressure from hotel construction and from the new and large, if albeit transitory, population along the coasts will be fol-lowed by degradation of the inherently high quality coastal environment that attracted visitors in the first place.

Damage to the littoral physical environment may include pollution of the beach and adjacent terrace areas, pollution of inshore waters with destruction of the reefs, and alteration of the beach morphology and associated sediments. This third aspect forms the core of the present study. The environmental system of the shore zone is dynamically complex due to the interaction of physical vari-ables of both marine (waves, longshore currents) and terrestrial (fluvial, ground-waters, etc.) origins, biological variables (coral, beach vegetation), and man's activities since settlement commenced in the early seventeenth century. The basic environmental question facing recreational planners on the west coast of Barbados is whether a steady state exists between the interdependent variables, and over what duration of time this has been achieved; and particularly wheth-er changes in specific variables generate further changes, normally perceived as being degradatory, or do feedback relationships exist so that the system is selfregulatory at least until a specific threshold of disruption is reached.

J. Brian Bird, Professor, Department of Geography, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

Abstract

Complex landscape research enables us to identify terrain types. Theselatter units, while internally resembling each other in terms of lithology andrelief (cf the definition given by F. N. Milkov 1970), consist each of a numberof smaller units called urotshistshes (or urotshistshe complexes), tat are nonhomogeneous.In the hierarchy of natural surface units the terrain type representsan intermediate form between urotshistche and landscape.

A number of methods are in use for identifying terrain types. For example,in the Opatówka basin of the Sandomierz loess plateau, R. Czarnecki (1969)identified by his detailed mapping of the components of the geocomplex anumber of terrain types: a flat loess plateau, dry valleys and slopes of a mainvalley, areas above flood level in river valleys, flat bottoms of river valleys,and others. The main criterion applied in this identifying is morphogenesis,but the application of this criterion, though sometimes objective, is usuallysubjective and differs among authors. This is particularly the case in areasof glacial accumulation where terms like kames dead ice moraines, endmoraines, frontal moraines, outwash terraces and river terraces can be misleadingand should be avoided in identifying terrain types.

Tadeusz Bartkowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań

Maria Kiełczewska-Zaleska, Institut de Géographie Académie Polonaise des Sciences, Varsovie

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Zbyszko Chojnicki, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
Teresa Czyż [tczyz@amu.edu.pl], Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Space Economy, Adam Mickiewicz University, Fredry 10, 61-701 Poznań, Poland

Marek Jerczyński, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

At the expense of over-simplification, one may identify several different approaches or emphases which have successively characterized the study of agricultural geography in the United States. These include:

1. Commodity studies, especially studies of individual crops.
2. Small-scale studies of crop-land relationships.
3. Large-scale field studies of agricultural land-use and landscapes.
4. Studies using the cultural-historical approach, and
5. Studies using a theoretical-quantitative approach.

I would propose a sixth approach to the geographical study of agriculture, which I will call the systems approach. I believe that it can encompass all of the best objectives and methods of each of the previous approaches. It is a con-ceptual framework designed to accommodate within a single interrelated body of knowledge the comparative study of any or all of the diverse elements and varieties of agriculture that exist in the world.

Clarence W. Olmstead, Department of Geography University of Wisconsin Madison, Wise. USA

Abstract

Geomorphological studies carricd out on the NE side of the Holy CrossMountains, from the Jeleniów Ridge to the northern boundary of the1 : 100 000 map of the Opatów region, have led to some new conclusionson the development of relief in the period before the Quaternary. In contrast to the southern part of the Holy Cross Mountains, the areapicked for research has been part of a land mass without interruptionfrom Upper Turonian times (Upper Cretaceous) to the present day andis particularly suitable for studies of land processes taking place in theTertiary.The conclusions reached are based on geological and geomorphologicalobservations. The greatest attention was paid to analyses of sedimenttype and the way of its accumulation.

Danuta Kosmowska-Suffczyńska, Warsaw University, Warsaw, Poland

Bogumił Krygowski, Geographical Institute Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan

Abstract

The snow avalanche is one of the major processes that shapes the landscape of high mountains. A significant manifestation of its activity is changing the course of the timberline, whose course and growth disturbances constitute a good source of information about the history of avalanche activity. The aim of this study was to: i) detail the temporal and spatial reconstruction of snow avalanche events within the three surveyed couloirs in the Rybi Potok Valley, in the High Tatras, ii) analyse of the relationship between the relief of the runout zoneand the course of the avalanches. Dendrogeomorphological, geomorphological and cartographic methods were employed here. Detailed geomorphological maps comprising the runout zone were prepared and use to divide the runout zone into subzones of similar relief. The dendrogeomorphological reconstructions of avalanche events were carried out on two scales, i.e. for the entire runout zone and for the determined subzones. The courses of major avalanche events in the studied couloirs over the past 100 years were reconstructed. A detailed dendrogeomorphological analysis in the subzones allowed the identification of additional local avalanche events whose extent had not covered the entire avalanche path.

Keywords: snow avalanche, relief, dendrogeomorphology, tree-rings, Tatra Mountains

Michał Lempa, Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Ryszard J. Kaczka [ryszard.kaczka@us.edu.pl], Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41 -200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Zofia Rączkowska [raczk@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Karolina Janecka, Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41-200 Sosnowiec: Poland

Abstract

The utilisation of accessibility potential models is widespread in geographical studies of transport. A problem emerges, however, when these models are applied in that their inter-pretations and results may result in some difficulties and ambiguity. In order to eliminate this problem, we have developed a method which is convenient for breaking down the accessibility potentials into four univocal elements. This article analyses the features of these factors and the interrelationships of their spatial development patterns by using the example of the EU NUTS3 regions.

Keywords: accessibility potential; regional development, European Union

Abstract

The study was based on the research completed by the authors. The research for the study was based on the use of a relatively broad selection of cartographic materials as well as scientific literature. The characteristics of 17 kinds1 of natural landscapes and 31 variations of landscape of the Chełmno-Dobrzyń Lakeland, Ursziilewo Plain and the neighbouring Vistida and Drwęca Valleys were described. The origins of the terrains provided the main criteria used for identifying the kinds of landscapes. A relationship to the appropriate sort of natural landscapes (glacial, glacioaquatic, aeolian, depression, river and channel valley), and the morphology and hypsometry of the land reliefs (flat plains, undulated plains, hills, ridges, high slopes) determined the terrain origin. When identifying the different variations of natural landscape, the following were of major importance: the land relief (defined as the kinds of landscape), and lithology of the surface deposits, and land use (forests, arable land, meadows and pastures). Urban areas and large excavations were described separately. Similar distinctions of kinds and variations of landscape used by other authors, are noted elsewhere.

Keywords: typology and evolution of natural landscapes, kinds and variations of landscape, phys-ico-geographical mesoregions

Niewiarowski Władysław, Institute of Geography, Nicholaus Copernicus University, Fredry 8. 87-100 Toruń, Poland
Kot Rafał, Faculty of Earth Sciences Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń Lwowska 1, 87-100 Toruń: Poland

Abstract

The daily minimum and maximum temperatures at seven Polish stations were used in ananalysis of the occurrence of heatwaves in the years 1951-2006. Heatwaves were defi ned as days withtemperatures exceeding selected thresholds (tmax ≥25°C, tmax ≥30°C, tmin ≥18°C). The mean length ofa wave of very warm days lasts from 2-4 days, the longest no fewer than 23 days. Waves comprising hotdays and nights are shorter. The frequencies of very warm and hot days and hot nights increased in theanalyzed period, especially its second half (1979-2006). The occurrence of heatwaves characteristicallylinks up with high-pressure systems over Central Europe, along with associated blocking episodes.

Keywords: extreme temperatures, Sen’s slope, Lund classifi cation, composite method, Poland

Joanna Wibig, Department of Meteorology and Climatology, Faculty of Biology and Earth Science, University of Lodz Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland
Agnieszka Podstawczyńska, Department of Meteorology and Climatology, University of Łódź Narutowicza 88, 90-139 Łódź, Poland
Marcin Rzepa, Department of Meteorology and Climatology, University of Łódź Narutowicza 88, 90-139 Łódź, Poland
Piotr Piotrowski, Department of Meteorology and Climatology, University of Łódź Narutowicza 88, 90-139 Łódź, Poland

Abstract

On the accession of Poland (and nine other states) to the European Union on 1 May 2004, three countries decided to open fully their labourmarkets to Poles (United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden). Even before that date, Poles emigrated to various European countries in searchof seasonal work, especially in agriculture (e.g. collecting fruits and vegetables), either relying on their German passports (e.g. residentsof Silesia) or working illegally. There were several factors that made the labour market of the British Isles particularly popular with Poles,including their knowledge (even if, for some, it was relatively poor) of English, especially among the young (in the 1990s it became thebasic and dominant foreign language taught at Polish schools), and the relatively high earnings. This is why research was conducted onPolish economic migration to the Republic of Ireland in the initial stage of the opening of its labour market, i.e. in the years 2004-2007.The potential difference model was employed to delimit the leading areas attracting Polish migrants to Ireland. The Polish migrant ischaracterised on the basis of the survey research that has been conducted, and the various manifestations of the socio-cultural life ofPoles in Ireland are identified. An analysis is also made of the facilities catering to Polish migrants in the urban space of Cork, one ofthe major clusters of Poles outside the Irish capital.

Keywords: economic emigration, potential difference model, Ireland, Little Poland

Roman Matykowski, Adam Mickiewicz University Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management Dzięgielowa 27, 61-680 Poznań: Poland
Alicja Andrzejewska, Adam Mickiewicz University Institute of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management Dzięgielowa 27, 61-680 Poznań: Poland

Abstract

Previous work on the urban system in Australia emphasised metropolitan primacy. Australia developed in the nineteenth century as six separate colonies with economic activity concentrated in the capitals, which also served as the principal ports. This pattern persisted into the twentieth century and was reinforced by national industry protection policies. There is evidence that Australia's urban system is changing. Since the mid-1970s there has been growth in the number and total population of regional cities. It is argued that this growth is a product of restructuring and the de-regulation of the Australian economy. Regional cities have become more prominent in the national economy as centres for manufacturing, as a consequence of the growth of tourism and recreation industries, through the decline in some areas of smaller urban settlements and as a result of new mining developments. The growth of regional cities challenges established notions on the nature and future development of Australia's urban system and suggests that these centres will become more prominent in Australian economic, social and political life.

Keywords: Urban system, Australia, Regional cities growth, restructuring, national urban system

Andrew Beer, Geography Discipline, Faculty of Social Sciences, Flinders University of South Australia GPO Box 2100 Adelaide, South Australia, 5001

Abstract

In account of a recent statutory prohibition of spreading data from Frenchcensus for spatial units below 5 000 inhabitants, the author of this paper, after twentyyears of research on microscale analysis of urban sphere — Housing, Populations —has chosen to present a defense of this model of analysis. Thus, he demonstrates theunique and unimpeachable contribution of block analysis for a full knowledge ofspace's organisation and differentiation in the urban sphere.

Keywords: organization and social differentiation of space in urban sphere, blocks, urban geography, urban populations

Jean-philippe Damais, Centre d'Etudes des Populations et des Activités Urbaines, Université de Paris-Nord (XIII), Université de Paris I, Paris, France

Abstract

Results of field investigations at the northern foot of East Kunlun Mts. as well as the known so far literature data allowed a reconstruction to be made of the history and type of glaciation and déglaciation of this area during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. The former glaciers had developed as piedmont glaciers debouching into the high-glacial Qaidam Lake. The largest glaciers at their maximum stage reached about 45 km in length and at least 20 km in width, producing great quantities of glacial and glaciofluvial material which have been fixed in thick sequences within the area of the former Qaidam Lake. At the decline of the Pleistocene, the piedmont glaciers underwent a large-scale stagnation probably brought about by a rapid decrease in moist air flux. In consequence, kame terraces abutting on the mountain ridges were formed. They are interstratified and covered with angular debris of supraglacial derivation, protecting them against post-depositional erosion and denudation. The latter feature contributed to the fact, that the kame terraces have remained in almost unshaped form up to the present. The thermoluminescence dating of kame sediments yielded a date which suggests that local déglaciation of the investigated foot of the East Kunlun Mts. took place early in the Holocene, around 8000 years BP.

Eugeniusz Drozdowski, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Kopernika 19, 87-100 Toruń, Poland

Abstract

The present study is (1) an attempt to outline the reasons for and the course of the ageing transition in Austria, and (2) to predict what might be the social consequences of this process.It seems clear that the social outcomes of demographic ageing and increased longevity discussed in this paper represent only a very selective view of societal consequences for the demographic development of the coming decades. The entire complex raises essential questions about one's place in society and meaning of life in the some twenty years between, first, ceasing gainful employment and finally, death (Imhof 1981; Neugarten and Neugarten 1986; Gockenjan and Kondratowitz 1988; Ehmer 1990). Both society as a whole and the individual will be faced with the necessity to answer these questions. Together with other academic disciplines, demography and population geography can share the attempt to answer these questions.

Josef Kytir, Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria

Abstract

The last two decades have brought an intensive development of various demo-graphic models and thereby an increased interest in the data concerning all the demographic phenomena. Simultaneously, one could observe a tendency towards comparative studies on the results obtained in different countries, with different models and on the basis of diverse data. It is on these grounds that there grew a broad research program, carried out within the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) under the leadership of A. Rogers and in collaboration with several dozens of scientists from almost twenty countries. The key to the successful implementation of the program was the adoption of the unified methodology, described in Rogers (1975), i.e. the so-called Rogers model, as well as the application of the widely available program packages (Willekens and Rogers 1978). In spite of unified methodology "... comparabi-lity is, however, severly handicapped by the considerable degree of incomparability of the input data, in particular the migration data." (Rees and Willekens 1981, p.73). This incomparability resulted from different ways of data collection (registration data versus census data) and from differences in the periods for which data were collected.The work presented is an effort at performing a comparative analysis of the results obtained by the Rogers model when two types of migratory data are fed into this model. The analysis was conducted for the three following aspects: (1) mobility patterns of population represented by raw data were compared, (2) results of the Rogers model for two data types were compared, (3) the usefulness of the data on these two types for forecasting purposes was assessed. The hypothesis was adopted, according to which the two data types, used to generate — in the projections — spatial distribution and population structure settings, display specific features.It should be emphasized that the main goal of the work presented is the study of the influence exerted by methods of measuring migration, and not of the migratory behaviour patterns. In view of the methodological nature of this work it was decided to limit the number of regions considered, so as to simplify the making of comparisons. Basing on such assumptions the study concentrated on two regions: urban and rural. Projections were produced separately for women and for the whole of the population, with disaggregation into 18 five — year age groups.

Zbigniew Rykiel, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa, Poland

Gerold Kind, Technical University. Dresden. G DR

Emilio Casetti, Department of Geography, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Grant Thrall, Department of Geography, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Robert Sinclair, Department of Geography and Urban Planning, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 48202, USA

Zbyszko Chojnicki, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan

M. Luknis, Université de Bratislava

Abstract

This article deals with changes in political boundaries, border regimes and border policies that have taken place in the area between the Baltic and the Mediterranean, which corresponds in the broadest sense with the term ‘Europe-in-between’. An important generator of problems here has been the multi-ethnic composition of the population, a source of diffuse political processes often even giving rise to conflict. Border policies have served as indicators of the relationships pertaining between countries, though they have an even broader exponent relating EU policies and peacekeeping missions, among other things, and thus offering nothing less than a laboratory for geopolitics both old and new. In the three parts present here, the first represents a short theoretical discussion concerning national systems, while the second offers an empirical analysis of border changes and policies in the area stretching from Kaliningrad to the Bosphorus and Trieste. Finally, a third, synthetic, part discusses recent challenges to border policies in the area in question posed by processes of European integration, as set against the new security paradigms of our era. Particular emphasis is placed on strong immigration pressure, pan-Turkish strategic aspirations, the Balkan area and its policies and the relationship between the EU and Russia.

Keywords: border politics, border changes, Central and Eastern Europe, security, new geopolitics

Jernej Zupančič [jernej.zupancic@ff.uni-lj.si], Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva 2, SI-1000 Ljubljana: Slovenia
Jan A. Wendt [jan.wendt@ug.edu.pl], Uniwersytet Gdański, Wydział Oceanografii i Geografii
Alexandru Ilieş [ilies@uoradea.ro], Department of Geography, Tourism and Territorial Planning University of Oradea Universitatii st., 410087, Oradea: Romania

Abstract

Landslides are common disaster phenomena in many countries causing great economic losses. The Darjiling-Sikkim Himalayas in India is known to be the most severely affected. Even a glance at landslide statistics gives some idea of the enormity of damage done and the ever present threat to lives and property. It has been observed that even 50 mm of rainfall in an hour would cause landslips. Unauthorized structures in the unsafe zones, absence of an adequate drainage system and unplanned growth of settlements have accelerated the process of ecological imbalance. In recognition of the acuteness of problems related to landslides, this paper summarizes our knowledge of slope stability so as to provide information on the origin of slope movements and the methods of their investigation, prevention and control. A series of case studies in the Darjiling-Sikkim Himalayas have been undertaken to provide a better understanding of this acute natural disaster problem.

Keywords: disaster phenomena, inadequate drainage, landslide, slope stability, unsafe zone, India

Subhash Rajan Basu, Department of Geography, University of Calcutta, 35, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata - 700019, INDIA
Sunil Kumar De, Department of Geography, Union Christian Training College, Berhampore -742101, W.B., INDIA

Abstract

The studies were done between 8th and 20th August 1998, in an area extending between 1820 and 1880 m a.s.l. (located in the altitudinal zone of alpine vegetation). The study location named Kocioł Kasprowy is the corrie on the upper part of the slope. The magnitude of the heat flux in the active layer was measured with a heat flux sensor of diameter 5 cm, placed on special stands close to the soil surface. The research showed that factors other than incident solar radiation having a major influence on the size of the energy flux flowing through the active layer are site exposure and inclination. The work confirmed that the frequency of occurrence and amount of precipitation influences energy conductivity in soil markedly, and hence also the size of the heat flux.

Keywords: Tatra Mountains, heat flux, active layer

Jarosław Baranowski [j.bar@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

The paper outlines the creative achievements of nine Polish scholars and political activistsliving in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They were the precursors of the idea of the politicalunifi cation of Europe. They argued, in their various works, that it was necessary to establish the unityand brotherhood of the nations of Europe. They postulated the liquidation of political boundaries and theestablishment of a community of free states on the European continent.

Keywords: Europe, 18th and 19th centuries, integration concepts

Piotr Eberhardt [p.ebe@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

This article compares the observed water level changes during a hydrological year, in the two Carpathian reservoirs:the Besko and the Klimkówka. The analyzed reservoirs are located within the same physico-geographical unit – the LowBeskids, but the reservoirs operate on rivers with different hydrological regimes (the Wisłok River and the Ropa River). Theperformed analysis shows that during the year, the analyzed reservoirs are characterized by different water level dynamics.The water level changes of the reservoirs are determined by the management of the reservoirs, and more importantly,by the inflow volume as well as the supply distribution throughout the year. The analysis uses archive material provided bythe Regional Water Management Board in Kraków, Poland. The material pertains to the change of water levels in theBesko and Klimkówka Reservoirs between 1996 and 2011.

Keywords: Besko Reservoir, Klimkówka Reservoir, hydrological regime, the Low Beskids, the Polish Carpathians, the Ropa River, the Wisłok River, water level

Łukasz Wiejaczka [wieja@zg.pan.krakow.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Św. Jana 22, 31-018 Kraków, Poland
Katarzyna Wesoły [kwesoly@krakow.rzgw.gov.pl], The Regional Water Management Board in Kraków Marszałka J. Piłsudskiego 22, 31-109 Kraków: Poland

Abstract

Damage caused by extreme weather events is projected to increase on account of climatechange. However, the assessment of losses is a weak point of the systems concerning preparednessfor and management of weather extremes. Methods of ex post loss assessment arediscussed here, with particular emphasis on floods. Approaches based on restoration value andmarket value are presented. Methods addressing indirect tangible losses and intangible damageare also reviewed. Restrictions and ambiguities connected with the methods are presented, anddifficulties with data collection discussed.

Keywords: Loss estimation, extreme weather events, floods, intangible damage, tangible damage

Roman Mańczak, Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences, 60-809 Poznań ul. Bukowska 19, Poland
Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz, Research Centre for the Agricultural and Forest Environment, Polish Academy of Sciences Bukowska 19, 60-809 Poznań, Poland

Abstract

The paleogeographic analog method has been applied to estimate future changes inthe state of the main components of the environment on the East European Plain at three timeintervals within the 21st century (the 2030s, 2050s, and 2080s). Two warm epochs of the past, theHolocene optimum (c.5.5 kyr BP) and the Mikulino (Eemian) interglacial optimum (c.125 kyrBP) have been chosen as the paleoanalogs. In the first decades of the 21st century the most probablechanges involve herbaceous plants and tree regrowth. It will only be by the end of the centurythat tree-species penetration of new areas and shifts of zonal boundaries may be expected.The predicted increase in potential evaporation may result in a reduction of wetland areas andslower peat formation. In the north of the Plain, soil-forming processes will presumably respondto warming mainly via accelerated humification. Somewhat enhanced leaching would be typicalfor the subzone of podzolic soils at the end of the century, thus bringing about the initial phase ofsod-podzolic soil formation. The area of chestnut soils will show a tendency to decrease as comparedwith the present day. Some undesirable geomorphological processes and natural hazardsare also considered.

Keywords: warming of climate, changes in vegetation and soils, the paleogeographic analog method, East European Plain

Andrej Alekseevič Veličko, Laboratory of Evolutionary Geography, Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetny per. 29, Moscow 119017, Russia
O. K. Borisova, Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny per. 29 109017 Moscow, Russia
E. M. Zelikson, Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny per. 29 109017 Moscow, Russia
T. D. Morozova, Russian Academy of Sciences Staromonetny per. 29 109017 Moscow, Russia

Abstract

The purpose of the current article is to provide a closer look at the processes of economic transition and integration in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) since the early 1990s. Focal points are regional and sub-regional integrative processes with regard to trade and foreign direct investment. Three complementary aspects of integration of the BSR are addressed. The first is a critical assessment of the BSR as a region within the European economic system. Secondly, on the basis of an analysis of economic flows within the region and to the outside the paper tries to evaluate whether the BSR constitutes a coherent functional economic region. Finally, an attempt is made to identify sub-regional economic units within the BSR. The analysis of economic linkages in the Baltic Sea Region shows no unequivocal picture of the BSR in the European spatial system. An evaluation of the pattern to bilateral trade and FDI flows within the region and between the region and external partners allows it to be concluded that most countries have more intensive relations with outside partners than with countries within the region. This does not mean that internal trade and FDI are unimportant. On the contrary, it seems that intra-BSR linkages are of major importance for the three Baltic countries in particular. The latter is also indicated in the results of industrial networking study. Similar indications are found with regard to the spatial concentration of foreign direct investment in the industrial networking survey. The analysis of economic linkages in this paper cannot prove that the BSR is a functional region according to the common understanding of the concept. External linkages are stronger than internal. This does not mean that integration is failing to take place in the BSR. We have found indications of geographical concentration of linkages (sub-regional integration) as well as close sectoral cooperation.

Keywords: economic transition, regional and sub-regional integrative processes, trade, foreign direct investment (FDI)

Andreas Cornett, University of Southern Denmark, Grundtvigs Alle 150, DK-6400 Soenderborg, Denmark
Folke Snickars, Royal Institute of Technology, Fiskartorpsvagen 15A, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract

The paper contains some remarks on detecting climate variability or climate change in river discharge processes. The selection of adequate non-parametric statistical tests is discussed as well as the conditions which should be fulfilled by data records of the considered processes. After statistical analysis had been carried out on the basis of more than 150 long-term river-discharge time series, using non-parametric tests at the 5% significance level, it was found that the stationary hypothesis could not be rejected in most cases. Moreover, no conclusion could be drawn as to an regional pattern of trends in runoff characteristics: in some cases, neighboring river catchments show trends in the opposite direction.

Keywords: climate, non-parametric tests, non-stationarity

Henryk T. Mitosek, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences ul. Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

In this paper we present the preliminary results of measurements of diurnal changes in the isotopic composition of atmospheric CO2 in Kraków. We present four experiments done in different seasons of the year. Results show that the isotope composition is influenced by biospheric activity and local meteorological conditions.

Keywords: Stable isotopes, CO2 concentration, carbon cycle, diurnal cycle

Mirosław Zimnoch, Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques The Academy of Mining and Metallurgy Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Jarosław Nęcki, Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques The Academy of Mining and Metallurgy Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland
Tadeusz Florkowski, Faculty of Physics and Nuclear Techniques The Academy of Mining and Metallurgy Al. Mickiewicza 30, 30-059 Kraków, Poland

Janusz Paszyński [j.pasz@twarda.pan.pl], Institut de Géographie et d'Amenagement du Territoire. Académie Polonaise des Sciences. Varsovie

Mieczysław Hess, Department of Climatology, Jagiellonian University, Cracow
Tadeusz Niedźwiedź, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia Będzińska 60,41-200 Sosnowiec, Poland. Institute of Meteorology and Water Management Borowego 14, 30-215 Kraków, Poland.
Barbara Obrębska-Starklowa, Department of Climatology, Jagiellonian University, Cracow

Bronisław Czyż, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Janusz Paszyński [j.pasz@twarda.pan.pl], Institut de Géographie et d'Amenagement du Territoire. Académie Polonaise des Sciences. Varsovie

Henryk Maruszczak, Department of Physical Geography and Paleogeography, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Akademicka 19, 20-033 Lublin, Poland
Roman Racinowski, Geological Institute Department of Sea-Coast Geology- Szczecin

Abstract

The Alpine-Carpathian mountain system enters into the territory of Moravia by the mountain system of the Western Carpathians, i.e. by the zone of the outer Carpathians' depressions, by the zone of the outer Car-pathians and by the inner Carpathian depression of the Dolnomoravsky uval (depression). The depressions of the outer Carpathians form a stripe of a lowland up to hilly relief on few resistant Neogene and Quaternary deposits in front of the outer Carpathians.

The relief of the outer Carpathians is predominantly an erosion-denu-dation one, modelled in a folded flysch series of strata of the compacted marine deposits of Paleogene and Cretaceous age. In the south the Dolno-moravsky uval with the flat relief on Neogene and Quaternary deposits penetrate into the mountain ranges of the outer Carpathians.

Tadeáš Czudek, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography, Brno
Jaromir Demek, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Institute of Geography, Brno
O. Stehlik, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences

Bolesław Augustowski, Teachers' Training College Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz

Abstract

The pattern of timberline distribution on mountain ranges world-wide is related to global factors. The basic factor is temperature and the amount of radiation, which falls with increasing distance from the equator. Additionally, this basic relationship is overlaid by the specific features of the type of climate on the massif (degree of continentality or oceanity) and the mass-elevation effect. In the Carpathians, the mass elevation effect seems to have bigger impact on the location of timberline (R2 = 0.71, p = 0.00) than their latitudinal location (R2 = 0.56, p = 0.00). The timberline altitude changes by 70 m a.s.l. (±20 m) with each degree of latitude. The influence of the type of the climate is complex and it is not clearly visible due to past and recent human impact.

Keywords: timberline, global factors, latitude influence, mass-elevation effect, the Carpathians

Barbara Czajka, Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41 -200 Sosnowiec: Poland
Adam Łajczak [alajczak@o2.pl], Institute of Geography Pedagogical University of Krakow Podchorążych 2, 30 -084 Krakow: Poland
Ryszard J. Kaczka [ryszard.kaczka@us.edu.pl], Faculty of Earth Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Będzińska 60, 41 -200 Sosnowiec: Poland

Abstract

Morphological intensification is a distinct feature of the transition from the relaxed andsprawl-based growth of a city towards growth within, with a special emphasis on the use of variousspatial reserves. The work described here entailed an analysis of selected aspects of the abovephenomenon as exemplified by the city of Banská Bystrica in central Slovakia. In particular, itfocuses on the origin, development and present state of 306 areas within the overall built-up zonethat had not been put to urban use, on the nature of, and spatial variability to, the morphologicalintensification process, and on the potential for intensification of three city zones (delimited bydifferent historical and socio-economic development), i.e. the main growth zone, the annexedsettlements zone and the extensive growth zone.

Keywords: morphological intensification, spatial reserves, extensive growth zone, annexed settlements zone, main growth zone, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia

Richard Pouš, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Geography, Geology and Landscape Ecology, Matej Bel University, Tajovského 40, Banská Bystrica, 974 01, Slovak Republic
Tomáš Hlásny, National Forest Centre, Forest Research Institute, T.G.Masaryka 22, Zvolen, 969 92, Slovak Republic

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to present the temporal and spatial characteristics of the bioclimatic conditions ofthe Lubuskie Voivodeship. The daily timed values (12UTC) of meteorological elements in the period 1971-2006 from threestations (Słubice, Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra) were used as the basis for the calculations. In order to assessthe bioclimatic conditions, a thermal stress index UTCI (Universal Thermal Climate Index) that is calculated with theuse of BioKlima 2.6 software was applied. The analysis shows that thermal stress related to ‘slight and moderate coldstress’ and ‘no thermal stress’ is a dominant factor (80%) affecting the bioclimatic conditions of the Lubuskie Voivodeship.During the analysed period, days with thermal stress related to cold stress occurred more frequently than thosewith thermal stress related to heat stress. On the basis of a linear regression trend, a positive trend for thermoneutralconditions days and heat related stress days (UTCI>32°C), as well as a negative trend for cold related stress (UTCI<-13°),were ascertained.

Keywords: UTCI, bioclimatic conditions, stress category, Lubuskie Voivodeship, linear trend

Agnieszka Mąkosza [agnieszka.makosza@zut.edu.pl]

Abstract

Borderlands are areas where competitiveness develops in a very particular way. On the one hand, they are often preferredareas, which are less socio‑economicallydeveloped. At the same time, the development of integration processes facilitatesthe establishing and realisation of cross‑bordercooperation. This is accompanied by increasing competitive pressure fromneighbouring regions across the border, which is mostly linked to the building‑upof the competitiveness of territorial units.The Polish‑Germanborderland is an example of a region characterised by the greatest discrepancies in the level of socio‑economicdevelopment in the European Union and for this reason it was chosen for analysis.The purpose of this paper was to analyse spatial variation in the level of competitiveness of territorial units in the Polish‑Germanborderland (NUTS2 regions). The position of the borderland in the socio‑economicstructure of both countries wasdetermined on this basis and the level of competitiveness of the regions on both sides of the border was compared. Theanalysis was dynamic in character and covered the years 2002 and 2008.In the light of the research conducted it was concluded that spatial preference was analogous to economic preference when analysingthe relationship between the German part of the borderland and the rest of the country. On the Polish side of the borderlandsuch a coincidence did not occur. The more advanced development level on the German side, although considerably higher,does not constitute „a civilization gap”. In some respects Polish regions had a better competitive position than the German ones.The study revealed similarities in the main factors contributing to competitiveness on both sides of the border. However,the significance of these factors was different.

Keywords: competitiveness, cross‑border cooperation, Polish‑German borderland

Małgorzata Leśniak‑Johann, University of Business in Wrocław Ostrowskiego 22, 53‑238 Wrocław: Poland
Andrzej Raczyk [andrzej.raczyk@ uwr.edu.pl], University of Wrocław Pl. Uniwersytecki 1 50‑137 Wrocław: Poland

Abstract

The paper presents an attempt at defining the factors which cause a high decth rate in Warsaw as a result of civilizational diseases. It has been stated that the reason for this in the city area as a whole may be environmental pollution, namely air, drinking water and field crop pollution. In the city centre of Warsaw the higher death rate for civilizational diseases may be caused by too high concentration of transport-generated air pollution.

Keywords: Mortality, health status, environmental pollution

Zdzisław Biernacki, City Institute, ul . Mokotowska 57, 00-542 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

The study presents the results of bioclimatic investigations carried out in Department of Climatology of the Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The aims of this research involve evaluation and regionalization of a bioclimate of Poland in different spatial scales from the point of view of climatotherapeutical and recreational potential as well as work under an open air. Bioclimatic weather classification and human heat balance method were used in this study.

Keywords: bioclimatic mapping, weather classsifications, human heat balance

Krzysztof Błażejczyk [k.blaz@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Teresa Kozłowska-Szczęsna [klimat@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland
Barbara Krawczyk [b.kraw@twarda.pan.pl], Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Twarda 51/55, 00‑818 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

The absolute dating of the deglaciation in South Sweden has been based on a number of different methods. Among those are ¹⁴C-dates on a) marine molluscs, algae, mammals, and sediments, b) limnic sediments and macrofossils, and c) terréstric macrofossils and mammals. Other methods have been to use varved clay connected with the present or local varve-chronologies added to the l4C-chronology. Correlations between the differently dated regions have therefore appeared to be difficult. A correlation method based only on glacial deposits and striations indicated a time-discrepancy between the differently dated deglaciation ages on the west and east coasts. Recent research on the difference between ¹⁴C-years and varve-years during the Late Weichselian suggests that much of the found differences between differently dated regions can be explained by steadily increasing ^l4C production during the deglaciation of South Sweden. The hitherto available data indicate that the time-scales "meet" sometime between 12 700 and 12 800 BP. During the following millennia the gradually higher ^l4C-activity led to gradually younger radiocarbon dates (relative to varve dates). A partly new, preliminary deglaciation chronology, taking these new data into account, is presented with correlations between the west and east coasts. Differences between regions, regarding deglaciation pattern, are discussed as well as possible glaciodynamic and climatic reasons for these anomalies.

Svante Bjôrck, Department of Quaternary Geology. Lund University, Tornav, 13, S-223 63 Lund, Sweden
Björn E. Berglund, Department of Quaternary Geology. Lund University. Tornav. 13 S- 223 63 Lund. Sweden
Gunnar Digerfeldt, Department of Quaternary Geology. Lund University, Tornav, 13, S-223 63 Lund, Sweden

Mieczysław Banach, Institute of Geography and Spatial Organization Polish Academy of Sciences, Kopernika 19, 87-100 Toruń, Poland

Abstract

To think back twenty-five years — just one generation — in urban geography is to enter a quite other world. When I was in university in 1958, twenty-five years ago, we had no formal course in urban geography. In studying what now we would call urban topics, the texts that we could call on were few and far between and were predominantly descriptive, historical and evolutionary. I recall reading Griffith Taylor and the apocalyptic views of Lewis Mumford. Some of the ideas of central place theory were just beginning to seep into the British curriculum from America. Twenty five years on, what intellectual gymnastics the new urban geographers have been through. We have had a wealth of research and a welter of textbooks. Yet now it would be a brave man who could confidently define the scope of urban geography or resolve its numerous apparent aims and concerns. Many would even question whether it exists as a subject. It was as long ago as 1968 that Castells asked 'Y-a-t-il une sociologie urbaineV; he could as well have asked it of a geographie urbaine. More than the subject as a whole, urban geography has bent and twisted its way through a panoply of different emphases, of different philosophical starting points and of different goals. Has it, like the city itself, flourished briefly if dramatically as a kind of intellectual comet with a brief if brightly shining head and a tail that is long in its dying?

Brian T. Robson, Department of Geography, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

Abstract

One of the objectives of the author's research programme in soil-geography has been first to determine — at an accelerated rate and in a way suitable for comparisons — the infiltration and runoff fractions of rainwater precipitat-ing onto a sloping soil surface, the dependence on the rate of precipitation and the angle of slope, and then to develop a relevant mapping method.The achievement of these objectives is important for science, planning and agricultural practice alike.

Laszlo Goczan, Geographical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

Abstract

The aim of this article is to demonstrate how the basic concepts of mathematics are reflected in the theory of regionalization and what importance various branches of mathematics may have for regionalistics.

Ивана Франко, Head of the Chair of Geomorphology in The Lwow, Ivan. Franko State University

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to a program of the demolition of thousands of housing estates built during the Khrushchev period in the Federation of Russia. Although this process has been undertaken since the beginning of the twenty-first century, it has seen a significant growth in 2017 within the program called Renovation. The paper begins with the historical and geographical context that  led to the birth of this layer of the Soviet architecture and presents Renovation as it has been completed in 2018 in Moscow, as well as the reaction of the inhabitants of these blocks.

Keywords: Russia, Moscow, demolition, Khrushchevki, Renovation, urban policy

Guénola Inizan [guenola.inizan@univ-lyon2.fr], Univ Lyon, Université Lumière Lyon 2, CNRS UMR 5600 EVS UFR Temps et territoire 5, avenue Pierre Mendès-France,F-69676 Bron cedex: France
Lydia Coudroy de Lille [lydia.coudroydelille@univ-lyon2.fr], Institute of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences University of Silesia in Katowice Bankowa 11, 40-007 Katowice: Poland; Université Lumière Lyon 2 CNRS EVS 4 rue de l’Université, 69007, Lyon: France

Abstract

Stratigraphy of alluvia and chronology of the Holocene flood events were studied on thebasis of 50 radiocarbon dates as well as sedimentological and palynological analyses made on 20depositional sequences of sediments in the lower section of the Wisłok River valley. These sitesevidence the occurrence within the 4–5 m and 6–7 m high levels of the floodplain of separatealluvial fills and palaeochannel systems, recording phases of increased Wisłok activity and frequentfloods dated at: the Alleröd-Younger Dryas Phase, 9,900–9,600 BP, 8,500–8,000 BP, 6,600–6,100 BP, 5,400–5,000 BP, 4,400–4,000 BP, 2,100–1,700 BP, as well as the 11–13th centuries AD andthe middle of the 18th century AD. These periods are in accordance with the phases documentedearlier within the Upper Vistula River drainage basin, particularly in the for-mountainous sectionof the Wisłoka River valley, Vistula River valley downstream of Kraków , as well as in theLower San River valley.

Keywords: stratigraphy, alluvia, flood phases, Holocene, Wisłok River, SE Poland

Piotr Gębica [pgebica@ur.edu.pl]

Abstract

Białka is a typical river that has its origins in the high mountains of the High Tatra andthe Belanske Tatra Mountains. Transport of gravel from the Tatra Mountains down to the foot ofthe mountains over a long period of time, during the Pleistocene and the post-glacial era, led tothe formation of a typical braided river channel. During the last 150 years the river channel wasgradually narrowed and deepened. This process has clearly intensified since the end of the 1960sdue to human intervention that changed the course of the river channel. Exploitation of the riverchannel by extraction of sediment also had an impact. From the geomorphological and ecologicalpoint of view, the changes occurring in the Białka River channel, which are still continuing, arenot progressing in a positive direction.

Keywords: mountain river channels, braided river, fluvial processes, the Western Carpathians

Elżbieta Gorczyca [elzbieta.gorczyca@uj.edu.pl]
Kazimierz Krzemień [kazimierz.krzemien@uj.edu.pl], Institute of Geography, Jagiellonian University, Cracow, Poland
Michał Łyp [michal.lyp@gmail.com]

Abstract

Since most hydrological quantities are regarded as random variables, it is important thattheir distributions of probability be identifi ed. This paper therefore presents the results of a fi tting ofmost frequently-applied probability distributions to a series of minimum yearly fl ows. Specifi cally, theseries of minimal annual discharges derived from 119 stream gauges located throughout Poland and relatingto the period 1971-1990. The main task was to adjust one of the probability distribution functionsapplied most frequently (Fig. 1). Maps generated provide for the identifi cation of several regularities.

Keywords: hydrology, Poland, fl ow, rivers, frequency distributions, low-fl ow

Adam Bartnik, Department of Hydrology and Water Management University of Łódź Narutowicza 88, 90-139 Łódź, Poland

Abstract

A negative image of Czech housing estates was created in the past. After a period of disinterest on the part of Czech politicians and municipalities in these estates, they and their future in the emerging urban housing markets are becoming an inherent part of housing policies. Ongoing privatization and the ageing of both the populations and physical structures in housing estates are new challenges for municipalities, as well as for residents of housing estates, and may become an issue for the European Union also. The article describes recent changes in, and new problems of, housing estates, as well as identifying new roles for the actors and stakeholders in the upgrading and revitalization of housing estates. It also presents some ideas on how to face the challenges in question.

Keywords: housing estates, urban revitalization, housing policy, Czech Republic

Karel Maier, Czech Technical University in Prague Thakurova 7 CZ 16634 Praha 6

Abstract

This paper interprets a contemporary crisis in the farming and food sector of the United Kingdom and evaluates the response in national state intervention in reorienting the sector from 'productivity' towards 'sustainability'. Policy documents from an advisory Policy Commission on The Future of Farming and Food and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in England are examined. The analysis reveals three dimensions in an emerging discourse on the sustainable development of farming and food, namely competition, environment and rural development, together with a continuing tension between the three dimensions in policy making, and constraints placed on national state intervention by the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union.

Keywords: farming and food, sustainability, competition, environment, rural development, United Kingdom

Ian Bowler, Department of Geography, University of Leicester, Leicester LEI 7RH, United Kingdom

Abstract

Global patterns in forest leaf litter decomposition has been studied for decades. The result has been the formulation ofa range of models relating organic matter decay rate to climatic and litter-specific factors. It is now commonly acceptedthat the prime factor determining the litter decomposition rate on a global scale, is actual evapotranspiration (AET).However, this main effect can be seriously modified by the chemical composition of organic matter itself, resulting in largevariance at local scales. Among leaf litter components, the lignin concentration, content of water-soluble compounds,concentration of nitrogen and some other nutrients have been indicated by different authors as the major determinantsof litter decomposition rate. Unfortunately, our understanding of the factors regulating the decomposition is still far fromsatisfactory as indicated by the failure of existing models to predict properly litter decay rate in many cases. These includeespecially ecosystems from outside the temperate climate, such as boreal and wet tropical forests. The existing modelsstill cannot explain the large differences in litter decomposition rates between species, even within reasonably wellstudiedtemperate forests. My article presents several reasons for the problem of finding satisfactory litter decompositionmodels. The most important reason is the bias in studies towards temperate ecosystems, high inter-correlations betweenchemical characteristics of litter and soil, and the lack of properly designed studies on very broad geographic scales.

Keywords: chemistry, climate, decay, models, organic matter, soil, turnover

Ryszard Laskowski, Department of Ecosystem Ecology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Jagiellonian University, Ingardena 6, 30-060 Krakow, Poland.

Abstract

In the first part of the paper various approaches to the formulation of regional climate scenarios are described. In the second part an example of a climate scenario for Poland based on results from the ECHAM1/LSG general circulation transient model is presented. Two perturbed runs of the model are considered: A — "business as usual" and D — "accelerated policies". The hydrological regime of Polish catchments in changed climate conditions is evaluated using the CLIRUN 31 watershed model. Some of the results are discussed.

Keywords: regional climate scenarios, general circulation models, global climate change, downscaling, water balance model, hydrological impact assessment

Małgorzata Liszewska, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland
Marzena Osuch, Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences Księcia Janusza 64, 01-452 Warszawa, Poland

Abstract

This paper discusses the output of Polish climatologists dealing with climate changes. Some results of the studies carried out by A. Pietkiewicz (1889), R. Merecki (1914), J.P. Rychlinski (1923), W. Gorczyñski (1915), H. Arctowski (1934), J. Lambor (1954), E. Romer (1947), W. Okolowicz (1948) et al. are reported.Climatic forecasts for Poland are presented (with the development of the "greenhouse effect" taken into account). These assume that with doubled CO2 concen-tration air temperature in Poland will rise by 2-5°C (Fig. 1). The results of forecasts concerning precipitation are diverse.Circulation factors take part in forming climate fluctuations. The paper presents a 500 hPa configuration determining thermal and precipitation anomalies in Poland (Fig. 2). The duration of circulation epochs and development stages of continental and oceanic features of Poland's climate were compared (Table 1).The analysis of many-year meteorological observations reveals quasi-cyclic climate fluctuations whose spectrum ranges from 2, 3-4, 6, 8, 11, 30, 80 and 180-year periods. The two latter cycles — "secular" and "bisecular" — determine falling temperature trends for the nearest future. On the basis of the observed temperature fluctuations their relationship with the 11-year solar cycle was found (Fig. 3).Research problems concerning the scenario of climate changes for the nearest decades were listed.

Keywords: climatic change, global warming, climate forecasts, climatic cycles, atmospheric circulation

Krzysztof Kożuchowski [kkozuchowski1@wp.pl], Department of Environment Dynamics and Bioclimatology, University of Łódź, Lipowa 81, 90-568 Łódź, Poland

Berardo Cori, Department of Environmental and Spatial Sciences, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy

Peter Schöller, Ruhr-University, Bochum, Federal Republic of Germany

Sandor Somogyi, Geographical Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest

Adam Jelonek, Institute of Geography, Jagellonian University, Cracow, Poland

Kazimierz Dziewoński, Instytut Geografii i Przestrzennego Zagospodarowania PAN ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 30, 00-927 Warszawa

Maria Stopa-Boryczka, Warsaw University

William J. Carter, School of Economics, University of Mexico Mexico 12, D. F., Mexico

Henryk Maruszczak, Department of Physical Geography and Paleogeography, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University Akademicka 19, 20-033 Lublin, Poland

Abstract

The paper identifies mechanisms that potentially inhibit convection at a time when extreme values of selected atmospheric instability indices are recorded. The study involved six indices (LI, SI, CAPE, KI, SWEAT, TTI). Data sources involved records from three Polish data stations collecting upper air soundings and covered the period 2005-2014. Additional data were obtained from SYNOP codes on present and past weather and reportson severe meteorological phenomena from the European Severe Weather Database. The methodology adopted allowed the selection of 26 cases where no convective phenomena were observed despite extreme atmospheric instability. A detailed analysis demonstrated that the occurrence of isothermal or inversion layers in the lower and middle troposphere were the most frequent mechanisms inhibiting the vertical air movement. Convection was also inhibited when the area was free from the influence of atmospheric fronts, convergence zones, low pressure troughs or when high altitudes of LCL occurred.