A little over a decade ago, a number of legislative changes were made in Polish law dealing with spatial planning in relation to floodplains and water management. More specifically, the amendments were a consequence of the adoption of the relevant Floods Directive by the European Parliament and the European Council in 2007, which was introduced as a countermeasure to the allegedly increasing flood risks associated with the ongoing urbanisation of floodplains. It was recognised that the risks of material and non-material damage associated with increasing urbanisation are so great that appropriate legal provisions must be introduced to reduce them. More than a decade has passed since the introduction of these provisions (the Floods Directive was adopted in Poland in March 2011). Over time, it has become apparent that the implementation of many legislative changes in Poland related to spatial planning in floodplains has been impractical and has had a very negative impact on the spatial and economic development of these areas. In this article we focus on the Lower Bug Valley and show how these new laws have led to a deterioration of the living situation in the floodplains. Indeed, the problem of economic decline in the floodplains and Natura 2000 sites is very serious and affects people who have lived for years in a 2–5 km wide strip in quiet surroundings flood-prone areas and along the river bend. Restrictions on livestock and the decline of agriculture are compounded by the lack of interest in acquiring habitats and land. These areas are becoming an open-air museum with residents living on social benefits and pensions.

This article discusses the impact of economic, environmental and legal policies on management of the companies involved in investment projects in the area of industrial construction in Poland. Our empirical research relied on conducting a survey in a group of construction managers and experts. The survey involved 158 Polish companies from the SME sector dealing from the industrial construction. The questionnaire responses were thoroughly analysed and interpreted with the use of a method called exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The results provide an insight into successful management of investment processes realised by construction companies implementing projects in the area of industrial construction. The most important factors identified with the use of this research method turned out to be the availability of technology in a stable political system, stability of economic and tax systems, stable social policy, stability and transparency of the legal system and well-targeted environmental policies. In general, it can be stated that the effective management of industrial construction projects is influenced by the economic, environmental and legal policies of the state.

This article examines the impact of economic factors, such as changes in interest rates and inflation, on the primary housing market in Poland from January 2019 to September 2022, with particular focus on the Covid-19 pandemic. The research problem is to understand howthese economic factors have affected the housing market, and the research objective is to analyze the activity of developers, building permits issued, investments started, and housing loans granted. The research methodology involves the analysis of data from various sources, including official statistics and reports from developers and investment funds. The research findings suggest that the decreased demand for housing loans has led to a significant decline in the allocation of new housing. However, the emergence of new major players, such as leading European and global investment funds, could provide opportunities for developers. The study concludes that caution is warranted in starting new construction activity and that the best performance in housing production in the transition period to 2021 is unlikely to be exceeded in the current or subsequent years. The implications of this study are that developers need to consider economic factors and market trends when making decisions about new construction and that investment funds may play an increasingly important role in the housing market.

The implementation of construction projects in Warsaw is associated with increasing difficulties in preparation, obtaining the relevant building permits and licences, partly due to the lack of water and sewage infrastructure and the inadequate management of rainwater in the city. All this leads to an increase in the cost of the construction projects undertaken. To illustrate a number of issues related to stormwater management in the city and the resulting problems, the study provides a number of different case studies, stylised facts and abductive conclusions to develop the best explanation for the existing problems. Specifically, the study presents the barriers to stormwater management in the city of Warsaw through an analysis of a hypothetical investment process (related to the Wawer Canal). The case studies analysed concern the deterioration of the “Bernardine Water” reservoir and the lack of appropriate investments in the Sluzewiecki Stream catchment, as well as a number of conflicting conditions in stormwater management in Warsaw. In contrast, examples of successful investments in stormwater management are also shown, e.g. Radex Park Marywilska, Stegny Południe settlement, Fort Bema settlement in Bemowo. In this way it is shown that with the right approach it is possible to carry out construction investments in water and wastewater infrastructure in an appropriate way, thus avoiding many stormwater management problems. The main conclusion of the study is that insufficient consideration of stormwater drainage issues in spatial planning will lead to further flooding and increasing water management problems.

This study focuses on the problem of mapping impervious surfaces in urban areas and aims to use remote sensing data and orthophotos to accurately classify and map these surfaces. Impervious surface indices and green space assessments are widely used in land use and urban planning to evaluate the urban environment. Local governments also rely on impervious surface mapping to calculate stormwater fees and effectively manage stormwater runoff. However, accurately determining the size of impervious surfaces is a significant challenge. This study proposes the use of the Support Vector Machines (SVM) method, a pattern recognition approach that is increasingly used in solving engineering problems, to classify impervious surfaces. The research results demonstrate the effectiveness of the SVM method in accurately estimating impervious surfaces, as evidenced by a high overall accuracy of over 90% (indicated by the Cohen’s Kappa coefficient). A case study of the “Parkowo-Lesne” housing estate in Warsaw, which covers an area of 200,000 m², shows the successful application of the method. In practice, the remote sensing imagery and SVM method allowed accurate calculation of the area of the surface classes studied. The permeable surface represented about 67.4% of the total complex and the impervious surface corresponded to the remaining 32.6%. These results have implications for stormwater management, pollutant control, flood control, emergency management, and the establishment of stormwater fees for individual properties. The use of remote sensing data and the SVM method provides a valuable approach for mapping impervious surfaces and improving urban land use management.

Biologically active areas play an extremely important role in the structure of a city and increasing their coverage, especially in large urban centres, is an activity with a number of advantages. This article compares, in terms of green spaces, two European cities of similar size – Warsaw (517.2 km2) and Oslo (454 km2). Both cities are capitals of their respective countries but implement different spatial policies in the scope of the Green Deal. In Warsaw, many industrial and post-industrial areas still exist and simultaneously urban green areas are decreasing year by year. In Oslo, a strategy based on deindustrialisation of the city and possible maximum use of urban greenery and public spaces is implemented. The research described in this article involved analysing the coverage of the analysed cities and their districts with biologically active area and then checking the correlation with other indicators that can be affected by this coverage. These included data on the incidence of the most common diseases among residents, the attractiveness of living for the elderly and families with children, as well as air and soil pollution and the occurrence of negative effects of climate change. The correlation of urban space use in terms of the presence of industrial land in relation to currently existing green spaces in the districts concerned was subsequently determined.