Urban parks are important elements of city green infrastructure. Many studies highlight their positive influence on the quality of life and human well-being as well as their significance for sustaining natural processes in built-up areas. For the last decade, much has been written about urban ecosystem services (ES), however in comparison with the abundance of studies on the potential for delivering ecosystem services by different land use and land cover types, research on the capacity of parks to deliver these services depending on site-specific elements, is relatively uncommon. Thus, this paper reports on research that explored levels of local regulating and cultural ecosystem services delivered by Warsaw parks, as these services are considered as the most important for urban dwellers. The authors based the study on data included in existing policy documents related to environmental and spatial planning for Warsaw, and evaluation of Warsaw green spaces. The assessment included 10 ecosystem services: micro-climate regulation, air quality regulation, noise reduction, balancing rainwater peaks, recreation, social inclusion, physical health benefits, nature experiences, aesthetic appreciation, and sense of identity. The assessment was performed for all Warsaw public parks, covering an area over 2 ha (n = 82). The results enabled us: (1) to assess all parks with respect to their actual impact in delivering 10 studied ecosystem services; (2) to designate their potential capacity to deliver regulating and cultural services; and (3) to allocate all assessed parks into categories that represent their predominant character (multifunctional, with cultural advantage, with regulating advantage or without any predominant function).

While green infrastructure (GI) is now a widely referenced concept, in Poland it is still only discussed among academics and has yet to be implemented. In 2013, the EC recommended that Member States promote the implementation of GI approaches. In recent decades, ecological discourse has dominated Polish cities’ planning practice. In Warsaw, this discourse has evolved into the formation of the Warsaw Natural System (WNS) concept. This study examines means of transforming the WNS, which is strictly related to ecological discourse, into a Warsaw Green Infrastructure (WGI). In doing so, we utilise basic principles of GI, namely: integration, multifunctionality, connectivity, and multi-scale and multi-object approaches. The authors expose the main challenges associated with utilising the WNS concept as a point of departure for WGI implementation.

This chapter aims to draw out the essential ideas as to how urban allotment gardens are or could be embedded in spatial development visions and concepts. After 1989 and the transformation of Europe which followed, issues surrounding the social aims and means of spatial and urban planning intensified and allotment gardens as a land-use category started to attract increasing attention. The history of allotment gardening in Poland dates back to the end of nineteenth century. Allotment gardens or ‘garden colonies’ as they are called in Slovakia – are a particular characteristic of cities and urban environments. Since the late 1990s the municipality of Basel has been experiencing an increase in population so that new housing had to be constructed within the already dense city borders. In the contemporary European landscape, the planning of allotment gardens faces a somewhat contradictory situation. Sketching out future scenarios for allotment gardens in Europe is mostly the responsibility of urban development planning.

Eco-spatial indices are commonly used tools to improve the quality of the environment in cities. Initially modelled on the Berlin BAF, indices have evolved to address current challenges, particularly climate change adaptation. The Ratio of Biologically Vital Areas (RBVA), introduced in Poland in the mid-1990s, is an early planning tool for implementing Nature-based Solutions (NbSs) at the site level. This research aimed to assess the effectiveness of the RBVA in Poland compared to its counterparts in Oslo and Malmö. The study employed a serious simulation game developed under the Norwegian-funded CoAdapt project, testing six development scenarios, varied in terms of applied NbSs, for a typical multi-family housing estate. The adaptive potential of the tested scenarios was assessed based on the values of five environmental parameters calculated in the game; that is, air temperature, oxygen production, CO₂ sequestration, rainwater harvesting, and biodiversity. The findings revealed that the RBVA, in its current form, has limited effectiveness in supporting climate adaptation. Its two-dimensional nature makes it less effective than the more comprehensive Green Factors used in Oslo and Malmö. The research presented in the article proves that better-constructed indices result in the efficiency of applied NbSs and consequently better adaptation to climate change.