There is a potential threat to lakes and water reservoirs from contamination released due to the flooding of objects that can pose an environmental risk (cemeteries, sewage treatment plants, sewage pumping stations, landfills and industrial plants) located in areas prone to inundation. The analysis covered large lakes and reservoirs (those with the area of over 50 ha), identified as bodies of surface water located in areas potentially affected by flooding of high (10%), medium (1%) and low (0.2%) probability of occurrence. These areas are presented on flood hazard maps and flood risk maps. The results of analyses revealed that the scale of potential threat to Polish lakes, defined as bodies of surface water, with contamination from objects of environmental flood risk is marginal, however, in the case of reservoirs – significant.

A municipality is a basic local government unit (LGU) in Poland. It is responsible for the safety of its citizens, especially in circumstances of flood hazard. A municipality is a unique social-ecological system (SES), distinguished by its ability to adapt to flood hazard. It is impossible to specify the conditions a municipality has to reach to achieve the highest adaptability to flood hazard, however, it is possible to assign a level of adaptability to a municipality, one that corresponds to the position of a given municipality among the population of assessed municipalities threatened by floods. Therefore, a tool was developed to rank municipalities by their adaptability on the assumption that the assessment of municipal adaptability was influenced by 15 selected features. The research was carried out using data from the period of 2010–2016 for 18 municipalities-SESs located in the Nysa Kłodzka sub-basin. It was indicated that municipalities located in the higher course of the river possess higher levels of adaptability. At the same time, the size of a flood stands for each municipality position with regards to the synthetic adaptability index (SAI).

Climate change causes a problem for the energy system in Poland, which is based on the availability of water resources throughout the year. In situations of water scarcity resulting from increased demand or due to water deficits caused by the phenomenon of drought, it is necessary to develop efficient management methods that take into account the needs of all stakeholders and obtaining approval for new investments. The principles of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) enable this efficiency to be achieved. The research used 51 questions in 3 surveys to assess the potential for IWRM implementation in 3 catchments located in an area of southern and south-western Poland with different topography, regional and socio-economic characteristics, i.e., the Białka (tourism domination), the Nysa Kłodzka (potential for hydropower) and the Widawa (lowland character). In order to interpret the results, the author’s method of grouping survey questions from different sources was applied. The results of the study showed that there is considerable social potential and willingness to develop cooperation between different stakeholder groups but there are barriers related to the state of knowledge and its transfer between stakeholders. It is important not to ignore the stakeholders whose resistance can effectively delay investment processes.

The aim of this article is to present the social–ecological system (SES) as a unit of analysis for sustainable water management under conditions of anthropogenic pressure in Poland. In the face of accelerating climate change and growing human impacts, Polish water systems are exposed to increasing ecological stress and to material and immaterial losses affecting local communities. The SES approach provides an integrative analytical framework that links ecological and social components, enabling a holistic view of adaptive and governance processes at multiple spatial scales, from municipalities to areas that transcend administrative boundaries. Methodologically, this study triangulates three complementary approaches to strengthen explanatory inference. This conceptual SES review defines the analytical categories used in the paper, the bibliometric mapping (Scopus database with VOSviewer) identifies dominant research streams and underexplored themes, and the qualitative Polish case studies operationalize these categories to diagnose mechanisms, feedbacks, and governance vulnerabilities under anthropogenic pressure. The bibliometric analysis identifies the main research streams at the intersection of SES, water management and sustainable development, revealing thematic clusters related to climate change adaptation, environmental governance, ecosystem services and hydrological extremes. The case studies - the 2024 flood, the 2022 ecological disaster in the Odra River, and water deficits associated with lignite opencast mining in Eastern Wielkopolska - illustrate how anthropogenic pressure and climate-related hazards interact within local SES and expose governance gaps. Particular attention is paid to attitudes and social participation, understood as configurations of behaviors, knowledge and emotions that shape decision-making in local self-government, especially at the municipal level. This study argues that an SES-based perspective can contribute to building the resilience of water systems, improving the integration of ecological and social dimensions and supporting more sustainable water management in Poland.

Adaptability of a socio-ecological system. The case of a polish municipality at risk of flood

For Polish municipalities – basic units of local government (LGU), flood constitutes a significant source of material losses resulting both from flood damages and from the costs of restoring the regular functioning of the municipalities after the disaster is gone. Authors stated a thesis that the municipality, despite its constitutional obligations connected with providing the safety for its citizens, is not capable to bear the financial burden shaping the flood protection system in the basin. It is, however, due to support the flood protection system by strengthening its adaptive potential and adaptive capacity for efficient limitation of adverse consequences of flood. To justify this thesis, the financial condition of the municipalities threatened with flood was compared to the size of potential flood losses for floods of the medium probability of occurrence (p = 1%). Authors have shown that the municipality’s structure, more than its budget size decides about its financial potential. Especially the municipality’s own revenue is an evidence for the determined financial potential, at the same time, it can be a source of the undertaken actions in order to increase the level of the municipality’s adaptability in the context of flood hazard. Conducted analyses allow to shape the flood risk management policy, both at the municipal level and on a national scale.