The main principles of the smart city concept rely on modern, environmentally friendly technologies. One manifestation of the smart city concept is investments in renewable energy sources (RES), which are currently a popular direction in urban transformation. It makes sense, therefore, to analyse how Polish cities are coping with this challenge and whether they are including the implementation of RES facilities in their development strategies. The aim of the article is to analyze and assess the level at which renewable energy facilities are being implemented or developed in the urban space of cities in Poland as a pillar of the implementation of the smart city concept. This goal is realized on two levels: the theoretical (analysis of strategic documents) and the practical (analysis of the capacity of RES installations, questionnaire studies). The study shows that renewable energy installations are an important part of the development strategies of Polish cities, and especially of those that aspire to be termed “smart cities”. Moreover, it is shown that the predominant RES facilities are those based on solar energy.

Recent decades saw a global degradation of ecosystems and climate change caused by rapid anthropogenic socio-economic growth. The paper investigates spatio-temporal changes in green areas in Polish cities. The study involved two levels: macro (all 936 towns and cities in Poland) and micro (zooming in on Kraków and Toruń) from 2006 to 2018. The authors analysed 64,312 records of statistical data and 32,317 polygons representing areas of specific land use categories in the Urban Atlas with GIS tools and algorithms. Results for the entire country (a macro level) indicate that the area of forests in cities is in decline, but the total share of green urban areas is increasing slightly. Polish towns and cities also exhibit a positive balance of shrub count and a negative balance of tree count. At a micro level, land use analysis indicates a slight decrease in green urban areas, but an increase in the forest area. Moreover, an analysis of the spatial distributions of changes in green areas in Kraków and Toruń demonstrated specific trends. Sites exhibiting a significant decrease in green urban areas were found mainly along main transport routes. Moreover, incomplete green belts around highly urbanised zones turned out to be a characteristic component. The slight differences in results at a micro and macro level are due to a more significant generalisation at a macro level. Micro-level research focuses on an individual case. Hence, it should be used mainly to juxtapose cities, while the macro-level perspective is adequate for cross-country analyses, for example. The results are relevant to urban policies deployed by local and regional authorities, the European Green Deal and climate neutrality.

Nowadays, the pace of social and economic development is constantly growing, which has led to many negative effects. In order to stop this negative impact, reference should be made to the assumptions of sustainable development (SD), and young people – Generation Z – should be considered its main promoters. The main objective of this article is to present Generation Z’s perception of sustainable development in Poland. A Computer-assisted web interviewing survey (CAWI, N=1172) was conducted to understand the basic demographics, general issues, SD in a daily context, and SD-related knowledge in 936 cities of Poland. The results have shown that Generation Z in Poland recognises the social and inclusive role of SD. Cost of commodities, social disparities and conflict, and disrupted economic growth were identified as the emerging challenges for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Polish cities.

Green spaces are an important element of the spatial structure in large prefabricated housing estates. They have their strengths and weaknesses and generate a number of opportunities and threats, the identification of which allows the potential of these areas to be realised and further developed. The goal of the study is to present the general condition and future of green spaces in large prefabricated housing estates in Poland. It is important to note that to date no research works have been published in the literature that would investigate green spaces in such estates using the SWOT/TOWS method, as confirmed by a search of the Web of Science and Scopus databases. The study area included two such estates located in two Polish cities: Toruń (Rubinkowo I) and Kraków (Bronowice Nowe). The study used the SWOT/TOWS method and an urban-architectural inventory research walk. The results of the study indicate that the best strategy for developing green spaces in estates of this kind is the competitive strategy, which involves taking advantage of opportunities while reducing the weaknesses of green spaces. The research walk also identified a diverse composition of green space species and a high proportion of green spaces in the overall estate area. In addition, green spaces are socially inclusive and can be an important element of urban resilience. The results of this research contribute to the discussion on the condition and future of green spaces in the estates.