Cities occupy only about 3% of the Earth’s surface area, but half of the global population lives in them. The high population density in urban areas requires special actions to make these areas develop sustainably. One of the greatest challenges of the modern world is to organize urban spaces in a way to make them attractive, safe and friendly to people living in cities. This can be managed with the help of a number of indicators, one of which is walkability. Of course, the most complete analyses are based on spatial data, and the easiest way to implement them is using GIS tools. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to present a new approach for measuring walkability, which is based on density maps of specific urban functions and networks of generally accessible pavements and paths. The method is implemented using open-source data. Density values are interpolated from point data (urban objects featuring specific functions) and polygons (pedestrian infrastructure) using Kernel Density and Line Density tools in GIS. The obtained values allow the calculation of a synthetic indicator taking into account the access by means of pedestrian infrastructure to public transport stops, parks and recreation areas, various attractions, shops and services. The proposed method was applied to calculate the walkability for Kraków (the second largest city in Poland). The greatest value of walkability was obtained for the Main Square (central part of the Old Town). The least accessible to pedestrians are, on the other hand, areas located on the outskirts of the city, which are intended for extensive industrial areas, single-family housing or large green areas.

The purpose of this study was to verify the applicability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to update cadastral records in areas affected by landslides. Its authors intended to compare the accuracy of coordinates determined using different UAV data processing methods for points which form the framework of a cadastral database, and to find out whether products obtained as a result of such UAV data processing are sufficient to define the extent of changes in the cadastral objects. To achieve this, an experiment was designed to take place at the site of a landslide. The entire photogrammetry mission was planned to cover an area of more than 70 ha. Given the steep grade of the site, the UAV was flown over each line at a different, individually preset altitude, such as to ensure consistent mean shooting distance (height above ground level), and thus, appropriate ground sample distance (GSD; pixel size). The results were analyzed in four variants, differing from each other in terms of the number of control points used and the method of their measurement. This allowed identification of the factors that affect surveying accuracy and the indication of the cadastral data updatable based on an UAV photogrammetric survey.

The need for accurate registration of underground objects in the 3D cadastre is becoming increasingly common throughout the world. Research studies conducted in this area mostly focus on objects related to transportation or other public utilities and services. However, in settlements with a long history, apart from new objects, there are also various historical objects underground. Such places are not fully discovered, and sometimes they are not even fully inventoried with surveying methods. The aim of this work therefore is to try to describe the possibility of introducing historical undergrounds to the real estate cadastre created for three dimensions, in case of its creation, and to check ground laser scanning as a method of measuring such objects in order to introduce them to the 3D cadastre. Considerations on the inclusion of underground historical objects into the three-dimensional cadastre database began with conceptual considerations. Their result is the elaboration of UML schemas describing relationships among 3D cadastre objects including underground objects. According to the authors, such underground objects should constitute a completely new class called ‘EGB_BuildingBlockUnderground3D’ and be part of the legal space of the entire building represented by the class ‘EGB_BuildingLegalSpace3D’ (the prefix EGB is an acronym of Polish cadastre name ‘Ewidencja Gruntów i Budynków’; in English, it stands for ‘Land and Building Cadastre’). In order to verify in practice the possibility of introducing historical underground objects into the 3D cadastre database, the inventory of the Underground Tourist Route in Rzeszów (Poland) was used. This route consists of a network of underground passageways and cellars built between the 14th and 18th centuries. The measurement was carried out with the application of the Faro Focus 3D terrestrial laser scanner. The underground inventory showed that at the time the current cadastre of land and buildings in Rzeszów was being founded, the boundaries of the cadastral parcels were established without knowing the location of the underground passageways under the Main Market Square. This resulted in a situation in which the objects located underground became parts of more than one cadastral parcel. If a 3D cadastre is created, such a situation must of course be recorded accordingly. The article proposes solutions for such situations.

The paper concerns spatial planning in Poland and its connection with the cadastre. The Polish spatial planning system defines the set of colours, lines, hatches, etc. destined for the preparations of spatial plans, though this has so far not been followed by a spatial planning model or application schema. The aim of this paper is to create a preliminary concept of the unified modelling language (UML) schema of database integrating 3D cadastre and 3D spatial planning. The authors initially define five unified modelling language classes representing spatial planning objects (four representing spatial objects and one a dictionary list). As spatial planning and cadastres are very strongly connected, these classes are implemented into a cadastral model that had been earlier enriched with 3D classes. The final results of this research are UML diagrams based on the Polish cadastral model as defined earlier in legal regulations. They comprise original cadastral model classes, 3D cadastral objects added in earlier research work, classes representing spatial planning objects and the relationships among them. Such a solution better connects cadastre and spatial planning on a structural level and introduces 3D elements into spatial planning which has basically been done in two dimensions.

In the age of the impending climate crisis, and further forecast ecological catastrophes, humankind has begun to think with growing interest about replacing existing energy sources with renewable ones. An increasing number of people have begun to discuss the need to implement registries that collect information about the energy potential of specific parts of the environment we live in. Additionally, the simultaneous registration of installations used for obtaining energy from alternative sources is desirable. In addition to quantitative attributes, such databases should also contain comprehensive spatial information. Since, in the era of globalization, the creation of such databases ought to be standardized, the purpose of this study is to indicate the directions in which the cadastre of renewable energy sources should be developed by: (i) reviewing the solutions of renewable energy sources that have been described in the scientific literature; (ii) analyzing the content of selected geoportals containing data on renewable energy sources. The literature review was preceded by a detailed bio-metric analysis, whereas the content analysis of the geoportals led to the creation of a flow chart containing a proposal for a renewable energy source cadastre, and a ranking of the analyzed portals. Nevertheless, the conceptual work was limited to the solar cadastre only.

Road transport is one among the sources of air pollution in a city, which results in lowering the comfort of life and increases the occurrence of respiratory diseases. The level of pollutants emitted in the city is variable, and it depends on the type and nature of the source and the manner of land development. For this reason, the purpose of the article is an attempt at a spatial (inner) diversification of a city in terms of air quality, using a study of perception and semantic differentials (SD). The research, which covered the period from June to November 2021, was performed in Kielce—the Polish Smart City—among local experts, people well acquainted with the city and knowledgeable about air quality and the impact of pollution on human health. The results allowed the demarcation of areas with the best and the worst parameters in terms of air quality within the city. Verification of the survey was carried out using the ADMS-Roads (Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling System) software for modeling pollution levels and GIS software, using data on road traffic. The verification allowed checking whether the respondents participating in the research accurately evaluated the city space. The modeling proved that within the two selected areas, the pollution level is similar, and it does not exceed the permitted values. This might indicate that in society there is still low awareness of air quality, particularly in terms of knowing the sources of pollutants and their impact on human health, and perception of areas with the best and the worst air quality was the result of an analysis of the manner of land development and its morphology.