Towns In Poland Research Articles

The influence of brine graduation towers on biometeorological conditions, on the example of Ciechocinek spa town (Poland)

The paper provides an analysis of the influence of brine graduation towers on biometeorological conditions, on the basis of the example of Ciechocinek – a spa town in Poland. Using the records of air temperature and relative air humidity in the years 2018-2020 at two locations near Graduation Tower 1 and at the reference site near Spa Hospital No. 1 it was demonstrated that the graduation towers caused a mean drop in air temperature of 0.5–0.7°C with maximum diff erences 7.5°C. The average humidity due to brine evaporation was 3.6–4.6% higher, but maximum differences exceeded 30%. Based on mobile measurements the effects of the graduation tower were found to be limited to its vicinity, where air temperature was lower and humidity higher. The distribution of air temperature and humidity changed depending on wind direction. Cooler and more humid air was carried downwind of the graduation tower. The calculated biometeorological indices showed that neutral, comfortable or refreshing conditions prevailed at the graduation tower and the sensation of heat or thermal stress leading to body overheating was less frequent.

Funkcje rolnicze miast bardzo małych w Polsce

One of the criteria for identifying settlements is the functional aspect, according to which the town is defined through the prism of non-agricultural functions. Agriculture is one of the activities that declines in importance with the size (population) of the town and can play a significant role in small towns. Moreover, small towns play a significant role in the process of shaping the agricultural space, which results from the concentration of various types of elements related to the local needs of the population, agricultural activity, as well as the market needs of the environment. The aim of the study is to identify agricultural functions in small towns in Poland, for which two indicators were used: the share of agricultural entities in the total number of entities and the area of agricultural land per capita. On this basis, the importance of the agricultural function in individual small towns was determined.

The development of small towns and towns of well-being: Current trends, 30 years after the change in the political system, based on the Warsaw suburban area

Contemporary urban development is evolving towards towns with good social capital, where good living conditions are key. The article aims to define the directions of transformation of small towns in Poland following the political transformation (i.e. over the last 30 years), while also looking at how these transformations may affect the living conditions in these towns. The article uses theoretical, empirical and cartographic research methods, taking into account the evolution of the analysed areas. It looks into whether the analysed towns are compact, have diverse functions, sustainable public transport and adequate public green space. The collected data were used to calculate the growth of urbanised areas and to record changes in their spatial layout. Aspects important for the well-being of residents of small Polish towns were pointed out. A key prerequisite for the development of soft towns and towns of well-being is the creation of 15–30-minute towns, in which housing and multifunctional services are all accessible within walking distance or by public transport to all inhabitants. The results of the study allow the development opportunities and threats to be specified not only for small towns in Poland, but also for towns of a similar size in Eastern Europe with a converging historical context.

Sterowana promocja miasta. O politycznym rodowodzie „Ptolemeuszowej Kalisii”

A Manipulated Promotion of a City. From the Political Genealogy of the “Ptolemeo’s Calisia” Author of this contribution aims to offer a historical panorama of the so called „18th- Centuries of Kalisz”, a jubilee of this Polish town – claimed officialy to be the oldest in this country during series of events, organised in 1960. A deep background and goals of this politically-fueled anniversary can be traced in and reconstructed from archives, press reports and postwar city guides. A precisely prepared event, the jubilee is analysed in terms of critical gesture of local political elites and official discourse of historiography, aiming at critical discontinuation from the interwar legacy of Kalisz, a town restored and reconstructed after the Great War. Author presents various aspects of the 1960-anniversary of Kalisz as manipulations in social memory, discussing also investment campaign initiated by the socialist authorities in the 1960s and related to the jubilee. As a result of alliance between the local and state-dictated political discourses of the anniversary, Kalisz has still been “the oldest town in Poland”, despite the irrelevance of this claim to historical facts, obscuring the real urban legacy of the town.

Attractiveness of Central Public Spaces in Small Polish Towns Based on a Spatial Order Analysis

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the attractiveness of centrally located public spaces (main squares) in select new small towns in Poland. The evaluation was conducted from the spatial order perspective. Spatial order is composed of five elements: architectural and urban planning, functional, aesthetic, social, and “green” orders. The new small towns included in this analysis are settlement units, which in 2020 were populated by up to 20,000 inhabitants and received municipal rights in the 21st century. We used the point bonitation method in our research based on the source material collected during a field study. A total of 286 inventory cards of buildings and nine cards of town squares were compiled. The analysis demonstrated that the main squares in the towns studied are characterised by low or average levels of attractiveness from the spatial order perspective. The architectural–urban planning order in the towns in question was related to the number of inhabitants as well as the period over which a given settlement unit had municipal rights. A larger number of inhabitants had a positive influence on the functional diversification of the central squares and their development, whereas a small number limited both the functional diversification and the number of small architectural elements found at the square. The social order in the given towns was not connected to the number of inhabitants. The elements of social order were assessed favourably, both in larger towns that revitalised their central squares and in smaller settlements. The aesthetic and green orders were strongly related to the revitalisation of public space.

Factors affecting housing conditions: a case study of Cittaslow towns in Poland

Factors affecting housing conditions: a case study of Cittaslow towns in Poland

The effectiveness of screening for major cardiovascular risk factors in the population of small towns in Poland

The effectiveness of screening for major cardiovascular risk factors in the population of small towns in Poland

The accuracy of parental suspicion of hearing loss in children

ObjectivesParental suspicion of hearing impairment in their children is generally inaccurate. Parents tend to underestimate hearing problems in their children. The aim of the study was to assess the accuracy of parental suspicion of hearing loss in their children. MethodsThis was a population-based, epidemiological study conducted in elementary schools in villages and small towns in Poland. The study sample was 64,750 children aged 6–13 years old. The children underwent hearing screening with pure-tone audiometry. The parents answered a question about hearing problems in their children.The outcome parameters were sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of parental perception of hearing problems in their children. Parental suspicion of hearing problems was assessed by a questionnaire. Pure-tone air-conduction hearing thresholds were obtained from 0.5 to 8 kHz. Hearing loss was defined as a pure-tone average higher than 20 dB in one or both ears in at least one of the three following pure-tone averages: four-frequency pure-tone average, high-frequency pure-tone average, and low-frequency pure-tone average. ResultsPositive results of hearing screening were obtained in 16.3% of children. Hearing loss was detected in 6025 children (9.3%), of whom 1074 (17.8%) were correctly perceived by parents as having hearing problems. The degree of hearing loss was a significant factor which influenced the sensitivity of parental suspicion of HL in their children. Sensitivity of detecting hearing loss by parents reached about 20% for mild hearing loss and above 31% for moderate or worse hearing loss. ConclusionsParents underestimate hearing problems in their children, but they are more able to accurately detect hearing loss if it involves speech-related frequencies and is at least a moderate hearing loss or bilateral loss.

Urban Green Spaces—An Underestimated Resource in Third-Tier Towns in Poland

Urban green spaces are frequently presented as being important for urban quality of life and urban development in general, but more detailed interpretations and discussions are typically confined to large urban centers, the so-called first- and second-tier cities. Not enough attention has been paid to smaller urban units, the third-tier towns. The main goal of this article is to investigate the share and types of urban green spaces in five selected towns in Poland. We compare different sources of data based on satellite imagery and land-use maps with those used in public statistics, to check whether town authorities are managing all potential green spaces or only a selected part of them. We find that the predominantly used data, based on what is classified as “urban green space” for the purposes of public statistics, obscure the complexity of urban green spaces and focus on the narrowly understood formally managed public green spaces (which occupy 3.5–5.7% of town areas). Meanwhile, based on other sources, such as the national land-use map (BDOT10k), Urban Atlas, and satellite imagery (Landsat 8), what is considered to be green space turns out to cover 50–80% of the town area. The latter large numbers are associated with the predominance of arable land, grasslands, and forests, overlooked in any green space management practices based on data and definitions adopted for the purposes of public statistics. The situation found in our five case study towns resembles that identified in larger cities in Poland, and it exhibits the inadequacy of public statistics definitions and the related management practices, hindering the management of urban green spaces as an interconnected system of urban green infrastructures.

Recent Thornton Wilder Scholarship: 2016–2020

Recent Thornton Wilder Scholarship: 2016–2020

The Force of Jewish Law in Isaac Bashevis Singer’s Fiction

This study evaluates a collection of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s short stories that portray the lives of the Jews living in small towns in Poland before World War II; how Jewish law enforcement shaped the community as a whole and every individual Jew abiding by the law. To show the effects of law on the individual characters’ relationship with other Jews in the stories, we cast light on the Jewish people’s reception of those characters, who are more or less different from the rest of the Jewish community. Moreover, the Devil’s part in assisting and endorsing the characters’ decisions to pursue their iconoclastic beliefs and goals is explained. We see Singer’s characters, being exposed to law, attempt to fulfil their desires and also express their reluctance to accept the law, and consequently we see the communal law’s resolution in determining the defiant characters’ fate and their isolation from the rest of the people.

Cycling as a Sustainable Transport Alternative in Polish Cittaslow Towns

It is well known that growing motor traffic in urban areas causes air pollution and noise which affects the environment and public health. It is hardly surprising then that cycling should be used as an alternative mode of transport, not just in major cities but also in smaller ones including those that are members of the Cittaslow network. Their approach is based on sustainable development, care for the environment and transport solutions which will support a healthy lifestyle, reduced energy consumption and fewer emissions. The objective of the article is to analyse how well cycling is used as a means of transport in Polish Cittaslow towns. For this purpose, an analysis was conducted to understand how towns use their transport space to ensure accessibility and road safety. Reference is made to revitalisation programmes of Cittaslow towns with focus on what has been done to improve and build cycle paths in each town and outside of it. The work uses the following research methods: analysis of the literature, analysis of documents, including analysis of road incidents and traffic count. It has been demonstrated that cycling infrastructure in the towns under analysis has been marginalised. As a result, recommendations and suggestions are given which may inform decisions on how to build and transform cycling infrastructure in Cittaslow towns and in similar towns in Poland and abroad.

The role of cultural heritage sites in the creation of tourism potential of small towns in Poland

Historical sites may be found in nearly all small towns in Poland. Some are listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. The purpose of the paper is to discuss the role of these resources in the broader set of elements shaping the tourism potential of towns, and also to illustrate the regional differences among small towns in Poland in terms of their potential to develop a local or regional tourism sector. The study provides a typology of towns based on local natural and landscape elements, cultural heritage resources as well as hotels and other tourist accommodations. The statistical data discussed in this paper was obtained from the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland for the period 2012–2014, while historical sites were chosen from the National Heritage Board of Poland. The study covers all small towns in Poland and has shown unequivocally that the presence of a historical site is not necessarily a factor in the overall development of a local tourism sector. The cultural resources appear to be an undervalued asset, which can be used to develop a local tourism sector, especially in towns which are searching for new development paths.

Health status of woman from a small and big town in Poland: the subjective and objective assessment

The way of defining the concept of health varies depending on the age, sex, social position of a person conditioned by place of residence, economic and family situation. The aim of the study was to assess subjective and objective health status of women over 65 living in a small and big town. In the subjective assessment of the nutritional status were the MNA questionnaire used, in the objective assessment was BMI used. Body composition analysis was carried out using the bioimpedance method. Lab tests were made using standard methods. The quantitative assessment of the diet was made using the 24-hour intake method, the results calculated in software Dieta 5. Significantly more often women from Nysa than from Wroclaw assessed their health status in comparison with their peers as just as good or better (p <0.05). The BMI value among Nysa women shows the overweight, and among women from Wroclaw, obesity. The average content of adipose tissue among all examined women indicated significant fatness of the examined group (36 - 37%). The average energy supply in the food rations of women from Nysa and Wroclaw differed statistically significantly and did not meet the accepted norms. In conclusion, we can say that older women from a small city assessed their health as better or as good compared to older women in a large city. The implementation of dietary norms and recommendations in the food rations of the subjects was insufficient. However, women from a small town provided statistically significantly more nutrients in their diets.

Does the process of shrinking concern also small towns? lessons from Poland

Abstract The approach to the issue of shrinking cities is undergoing constant changes. Originally, this process was referred primarily to the progressing depopulation connected with a deteriorating economic situation. Presently, works on shrinking cities mainly focus on the challenges posed by the problem rather than the delimitation questions. Do the shrinking also apply to the situation of small towns, and if so, to what extent may small towns shrink? Being conscious of the multidimensional nature of the topic discussed, the authors took measures aimed at singling out a group of shrinking towns from the whole set of small towns in Poland. The identification of depopulating centres consisted in pointing to those shrinking both in terms of their demography and economy. This type of research gives rise to all types of methodological problems such as which tools should be used to measure town shrinking or which data should be selected for the research, an issue particularly important for small towns where the range of indicators available is rather limited. What conclusions may be drawn from the conducted analysis? Do small towns in Poland shrink? On the basis of the conducted research the answer is no. With regard to demography, the process of shrinking concerns only 30 towns (4.5%). And this group includes only four which additionally shrink in economic terms.

Jak opowiedzieć o zwycięstwie nad Cezarem? Próba nowego spojrzenia na przekaz Mistrza Wincentego (I, 17)

The article deals with the story of Master Vincentius Kadlubek about the triple victory of Prince Lestek III over Julius Caesar and the foundation of two towns in Poland by the sister of the latter. With the use of comparative material, it is proved that this story was built on the basis of travelling literary motifs to show Poland’s independence from the Empire.

Starzenie się ludności w polskich miastach

Mieszkańcy miast w Polsce stanowią ponad 60% ludności kraju. W systemie osadniczym naszego kraju występuje wykształcona, kilkustopniowa struktura hierarchiczna miast, a stolica kraju odznacza się niewielką, na tle innych krajów europejskich, przewagą nad innymi ośrodkami regionalnymi. Rozmieszczenie miast, zwłaszcza małych i średniej wielkości, jest równomierne w przestrzeni. Te cechy systemu osadniczego wskazują, że jest to system policentryczny. Obserwowane od kilkudziesięciu lat przemiany demograficzne w Polsce, w tym także starzenie się ludności, dotyczą mieszkańców miast zarówno dużych, średnich, jak i małych. Jednak poziom starzenia się mieszkańców miast różnej wielkości, a także dynamika tego procesu są zróżnicowane przestrzennie. Głównym celem opracowania jest określenie poziomu i dynamiki starzenia się mieszkańców miast małych, średnich oraz dużych w Polsce.

Original historical spatial development research methodology

The aim of this article is to present an original methodology that was prepared for the research concerning the history of spatial development of historic towns and their conservation protection. The methodology, already repeatedly verified by the Author in the course of research on the origins, urban model and restoration of selected medieval towns in Poland, is universal and so applicable also during the research carried out in towns outside Poland. In this article it will be exemplified by the studies on the spatial development of the medieval town of Skawina located in Lesser Poland. The methodology consists of five stages. The first stage of research involves the so called “desk study”, which is conducted in selected archives, both in the country where the selected town is located, and abroad. The second stage involves field research in the analysed town. The research is accompanied by an inventory of the area of the chartered town, including its preserved elements such as e.g. the market square, the settlement block or the settlement plot. Photographic documentation is also collected during field research. The third stage of research uses aerial archaeology to analyse the urban layout of a given town. The fourth stage involves confronting the research results obtained at previous stages, primarily comparing archive plans and aerial photographs, as well as analysing them in order to identify changes occurring in the urban layout of the studied town. The final, fifth stage involves assessing the cultural values and the necessary methods for protecting the analysed historic town. The discussed methodology allows for drawing conclusions combined with hypotheses concerning the shape and functional-spatial structure of the examined town in the past, as well as its current values in the context of protecting the cultural landscape. The need to prepare it sprang from the current situation in historic towns which are not always properly protected, and scientific studies of their history are often insufficient. The situation and the need for better protection of historic towns has also been indicated in international documents prepared by the ICOMOS and UNESCO, such as the International Charter on the Conservation of Historic Towns of the ICOMOS from 1987, and the UNESCO Recommendation concerning the historic urban landscape from 2011.

Współpraca partnerska wybranych małych miast w Polsce

Idea miast partnerskich jest koncepcją rozwijaną od czasu zakończenia II wojny światowej. W jej ramach miasta realizują wspólne cele gospodarcze, społeczne czy kulturowe. Do tej pory współpraca partnerska między miastami opisywana była głównie w kontekście miast dużych i średnich. W niniejszym artykule wypełniono lukę w badaniach współpracy międzynarodowej miast małych. Celem opracowania jest określenie ilościowego i przestrzennego wymiaru partnerstw zawartych przez wybrane małe miasta (od 10 000 do 15 000 mieszkańców) w Polsce. Ponadto dokonano oceny znaczenia współpracy partnerskiej oraz zakresu oddziaływania idei miast partnerskich na funkcjonowanie i rozwój małego miasta na przykładzie Nowego Miasta Lubawskiego. Wykazano, że analizowane małe miasta różnicują się pod względem liczby zawartych umów partnerskich, a najczęstszymi partnerami są miasta z najbliższej przestrzeni geograficznej – Niemiec, Czech i Ukrainy. Analiza treści umów partnerskich wskazuje, że cele nawiązywanej współpracy świadczą o bardzo dużym znaczeniu partnerstw dla małych miast w Polsce.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon and heavy metal contents in the urban soils in southern Poland

In this study, we examined how urban and industrial sprawl has affected the concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals (HMs) in the soils of two towns with different levels of urbanisation and industrial development. The concentrations, sources and spatial distributions of PAHs and Zn, Pb and Cd in the soils of the central, residential and green areas of the second largest town in Poland (Krakow) were compared to similar parameters in analogous areas of Zakopane, a small tourist town. The concentration ranges of the PAHs were much higher in the Krakow (337–59,694 μg kg−1) than in the Zakopane (55–1180 μg kg−1) soils. The Krakow soils were also characterised by higher levels of Cd (2.33–4.18 mg kg−1) and Pb (24.2–82.1 mg kg−1) than the Zakopane soils, in which the Cd and Pb concentrations amounted to 0.57–2.29 and 17.8–67.8 mg kg−1, respectively. Positive matrix factorisation (PMF) analysis identified the emission sources of the soil PAHs in both studied towns. In the Krakow soils, the main sources of the PAHs were traffic emissions, petroleum combustion and the steel-industry, while in the Zakopane soils, they were coal and biomass combustion, used for heating houses, followed by vehicle and gasoline emissions. A human health risk assessment, based on the toxic equivalency factors of benzo(a)pyrene (BaPeq), indicated a low level of PAHs contamination in most of the studied areas. Only in one area in central Krakow the BaPeq concentration exceeded the permissible value by nine-fold.