European spatial planners deal with two major concerns: adaptation to climate changes (ACC) and the design and management of green infrastructures (GIs). ACC calls for the renewal of spatial planning with constant appeals to the need to adequately prepare for extreme climate events. GIs deliver ecosystem services (ES), which consist of beneficial functions to living beings in terms of, for example, helping people adapt to climate change. An effective implementation of adaptation measures at the regional and sub-regional scale is based on an efficient and prompt spatial planning system and GIs management. In this paper, we aim at comparing the attitudes of Italian and Polish spatial planning systems with respect to the integration of concepts related to ACC and GIs. We describe commonalities and differences between the two spatial planning frameworks by scrutinizing regional plans adopted in Sardinia (Italy) and Wielkopolska (Poland). We found out a scarce consideration of both ACC and GIs planning and management. The findings suggest that the regional spatial planning tools need to be updated to be fully satisfactory in terms of ACC and GIs concepts.

To assess the dynamics of changes in CORINE Land Cover classes in areas of the Natura 2000 ecological network, three landscape metrics were examined. Traditional pixel-based classification, with majority rules aggregation based on the example of the CORINE Land Cover dataset, was applied. To identify the possible differences in the considered metrics, according to the year as well as to the country, statistical analysis between the linear mixed model and the variance model with repeated measurements was performed. The results of both tests are very similar. In the 1990–2012 period, the share of CORINE Land Cover class “Artificial areas” in all tested areas increased by 21.1% (the highest growth ratios were recorded in Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and in Spain). On the other hand, such countries as Slovakia, Romania, Germany, Lithuania and Estonia are characterised by the loss of artificial areas. At the same time, the share of “Forest and semi-natural areas” as well as “Water bodies” increased slightly. Negative trends that took place in the periods 1990–2000 and 2000–2006 were effectively stopped in the subsequent period, 2006–2012. Overall, for all the analysed countries, a minimal loss in environmental and landscape diversity was observed. Our results may be used as a basis for drawing conclusions on the effectiveness of environmental and landscape management systems in various countries. They might also constitute the starting point for detailed analysis of the management process.

Poland ratified the ELC in 2004 and by 2015 the existing forms of landscape protection constituted a major tool for its implementation. The ecological efficiency of landscape protection in Poland in terms of the different kinds of protection status was evaluated. The main goal was to get general information about the dynamics of the changes in the landscape fragmentation process and the relationships between the landscape changes and the level of landscape protection on a national scale. A set of metrics using a CLC data-set at four points in time: 1990, 2000, 2006 and 2012 were examined. The metrics calculations were completed using FRAGSTATS 4.2.1 and Statistica software. Results confirmed that landscape protection depends on the level of protection assigned to it (the regime). In addition, it was demonstrated that the forms of the protected landscape areas are characterised by lower efficiency and higher landscape fragmentation dynamics when compared to those in unprotected areas. It also turns out that the newly established protection types such as Natura 2000 areas are characterised as insufficient tools to efficiently counteract growing human pressure. Although over 40% of the area of Poland falls under protection, merely 3% of this is characterised by a high efficiency of landscape protection.