Intelligent urban space as a factor in the development of smart cities

The quantity and condition of urban greenery directly affect the quality of life of residents and space users. This quality is linked to measures that reduce the negative impact of climate change. It was assumed that urban greenery should not only be protected but also should have its stock increased, which is not easy in a historical, compact structure under statutory conservation. This paper discusses the issue of green areas in the strict city centre of Krakow, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1978. The study area includes two medieval towns that had their town charters issued in the 13th and 14th centuries, which together formed a central town and a satellite town. Kazimierz and Stradom were subjected to a detailed investigation. A review of the literature and other sources made it possible to identify changes in the structure of green spaces in terms of chronology and quantity. Changes in the area, accessibility and the legal provisions arising from the various forms of statutory conservation and their consequences were analysed. Multi-criteria analyses of the historical urban structure and the types, forms and potential for introducing greenery into the historical area were also performed. The intention was to strengthen green infrastructure, which is a key element in climate change mitigation.

Intense global urbanization, including spatial planning development, is an essential area that determines sustainable development. It is known that urban development is typically tied to an increase in socioeconomic productivity while also creating considerable inequalities. Despite mounting evidence of intense urban area development, little is known about its consequences on the sustainable development of territories adjacent to said areas. Despite the positive and negative consequences of urbanization and their impact on sustainable development often being highlighted, there is little understanding of and a dearth of analyses on sustainability processes that include spatial planning development. To fill this gap, it must be assessed where sustainable development is actually taking place. Such analyses should not only be confined to the four essential areas: economic development, social development, environmental development, and institutional development, that are tied to sustainable development index calculations. They should also determine the transformations experienced by the areas and factor in a fifth analysis area: spatial planning development. In this paper, detailed data sourced from the Statistics Poland were used to formulate sustainable development indices for urban, rural–urban, and rural communes of the Podkarpackie region of Poland. The data concerned the five areas listed above. Using data standardization and the averaged index method, sustainable development index values were quantified to demonstrate that they displayed various levels of inequalities for the two reference periods of 2015 and 2020. These statistics indicate the key role of spatial planning development in assessing sustainability indices. The findings show that it is not only possible to enhance standard calculation methods to include other data and use them in time and space to create a simple and general quantitative rating of sustainable development, but urbanization can also be factored in that includes spatial planning development. The findings show that a modified computation approach is a reliable and relatively complete index of sustainable development that compensates for the deficiencies of current metrics.

The paper aims to compare the existing spatial planning system in both countries, their spatial planning laws, documents and planning approaches. It focuses on the level of land use and urban planning instruments at the local level. It addresses the administrative and procedural characteristics of the two countries as well as experiences and examples of best practices that can be shared in the future. The results presented show that the countries are quite similar in terms of both the planning system and the typology of spatial planning acts. There are clearer differences in the planning approaches at the local level and in the current challenges regarding the stakeholders' participation in the planning processes.

Krakow is a city that has undergone an immense transformation in recent years. At the end of the 1980s, the period of communism ended and Polish local governments began to operate based on the principles of subsidiarity, decentralisation and independence. In 2004, Poland joined the European Union, which opened up new prospects for development, including in regional and local terms. The world has become a networked and digitized entity susceptible to the influence of innovation. Due to metropolitisation processes, cities, especially those offering above-average earnings, a diversification of economic resources and a relatively high quality of life, began to develop even more dynamically, which had and still has negative consequences. In Poland, there are five cities in which development dynamics have a highly specific dimension. Apart from the capital city of Warsaw, these are Krakow, Wrocław, Poznań and the agglomeration of the so-called Tri-city (Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia). The aim of this study is to show how Krakow, the second-largest city in Poland, has evolved over the last three decades at the level of demographics, urban development and economy; how it changed in the historical “milestones” indicated above. Therefore, depending on the availability of statistical data, several time periods were selected and compared with each other in the most important areas of Krakow’s functioning. The research hypothesis is as follows: Krakow’s development policy in key areas optimally uses the opportunities resulting from contextual conditions (social, economic and cultural changes that have taken place in recent decades). The study focuses on the three main problems of the city’s development (the abovementioned key areas of the city’s functioning and development): socio-demographic, spatial and economic changes. The analysis assessed data from the literature, city reports and other available sources, as well as public quantitative data (assessment of data from the National Census for the years 1988, 2002, 2011, 2022; Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland and otherrepositories and reports).

Współczesne miasta doświadczają dynamicznych zmian przestrzennych związanych z czynnikami demografi cznymi, społecznymi i gospodarczymi. W wyniku tych czynników mogą występować całkowicie skrajne wyzwania rozwojowe tych ośrodków miejskich. Część miast podlega bowiem procesom depopulacji związanym zarówno z ujemnymi trendami demografi cznymi jak i wzrostem bezrobocia oraz brakiem ofert pracy dla ludzi młodych. Drugą część miast stanowią ośrodki dysponujące lepszym potencjałem rozwoju wywodzącym się najczęściej z ich historycznej roli w procesie rozwoju całego kraju realizowanych na różnych płaszczyznach. Ta różnorodność czynników rozwoju jest kreowana przez sprawne funkcjonowanie instytucji naukowych, kulturalnych oraz prywatnego sektora gospodarczego. Atrakcyjność tych miast wynika z większej i zróżnicowanej oferty na rynku pracy oraz lepszych warunków życia dla ich mieszkańców realizowanych między innymi poprzez dostępność wysokiej jakości przestrzeni publicznej.W badaniach nad procesem transformacji miast, aspekty przestrzenne wydają się mieć mniejszą wagę w zestawieniu z aspektami gospodarczymi, demografi cznymi czy społecznymi. Mimo, że niekwestionowana jest ich współzależność to jednak właśnie zmiany przestrzenne stanowią wynikową trzech pierwszych aspektów. Analiza dokumentów planistycznych i strategii rozwoju miast wykazuje że większość z nich jako główne cele wskazuje poprawę jakości życia mieszkańców oraz realizację zasad zrównoważonego rozwoju. W niniejszej pracy autorka podejmuje próbę badania procesów transformacji jakie zachodzą we współczesnych miastach.