Functional urban areas (FUA) have became an important component of polycentric settlement structure of all European countries. FUAs have been defined as labour market basins, composed on large city and its surrounding areas (commuting zones). The very spatial and economic concept formed the foundation of old industrial regions. Old industrialized regions with all the spatial challenges and economic problems could be also perceived as a specific type of functional urban area. In Poland, National Spatial Development Concept 2030 (NSDC 2030 2013) describes restructuring and revitalization of degraded areas and cities in terms of spatial policy measures addressed to the supporting of cohesion in problematic areas. That is why integrated revitalization programs of functional urban areas may become key instrument of regional spatial policy and urban strategies. In response to the problems of degraded land and related land-use conflicts, it can significantly help in establishing valuable solutions, as well as ensuring connections between environmental, social and economic needs in the development of functional urban areas.

The paper presents a synthesis of approaches to development and functioning of Functional Urban Areas. The authors present typology of such areas and determine how they facilitate the flow of various types of potentials, paying particular attention to creativity and innovations. The emphasis is put particularly on non-spatial factors of development of such areas. The process of forming the functional area basing on common strategy of development founded on various types of potentials is presented on two examples.

A number of thorough studies characterizing national and regional innovation systems have been published over the last years but what is relatively new is the theme of local innovation systems. In the era of increasing emphasis on urban issues in the development policies of countries and organizations such as the European Union and the location of innovation in the centre of regional development debate, it is justifi ed to ask how the measures are directed to the provincial cities. The article concentrates on 5 voivodeship cities as the main centers of regions with the highest number of institutions that usually build local innovation systems, three of which are located in the less developed regions in Poland.

The emphasis on the territorial dimension of the public policy can be reduced to transition from a sectorial approach to an integrated territorially approach, which is based on the integration of activities of various public entities towards the territories referred not so much administratively as functionally. The functional areas (FA) is defined as spatially separated territory, which shares a common geographical differences, spatial and socio-economic conditions and the system of functional relationships and on this basis shares the uniform development objectives, ensuring effective use of its space. This understanding of the functional areas are to be the subject for intervention of the public policies. The regional development policy implemented by the voivodeship governments closely follows the findings of EU and the national strategic documents and intentionally uses a territorial approach to developmental challenges and problems. Such policy is focused (and will be focused) on the use of endogenous potential, including the territorial resources and knowledge, and will also allow for the interventions adapted to the local conditions. Thus, implementation of policy conceived in that matter is associated with geographic and thematic concentration with respect to the areas and key issues in achieving goals of the regional development. Identification of areas for which public intervention is necessary to fully exploit their endogenous potential – will be pursued with the assumption that they can have a problem character, but they can also be the potential poles of regional growth. The aim of the paper is to identify the integration processes between territorial units forming urban functional areas on regional level. In particular, it focuses on clarification the intensity of existing relationships and on the attempt to create and verify a list of criteria for delimitation of functional areas at the sub-regional level (by k-Means and Huff’s methods), assuming that each urban centre on metropolitan, national and regional level also carry-out the functions at sub-regional level.

Estimates of the Losses Incurred by the Society Living in the Functional Urban Areas. The study presents estimates of the losses incurred by the society living in the Functional Urban Areas of regional capitals of Poland in connection with the phenomenon of urban sprawl. The estimates are presented in terms of diagnostic to 2016 and as projected reaching 2030. The results of the analysis indicate that the social losses due to the urban sprawl in Poland can be evaluate as high, as it amounts to 25.4 billion PLN per year. In the 2030 losses could reach nearly 0.5 trillion PLN, of which 264 billion PLN of losses incurred directly, and 227 billion PLN on the value of lost time.

The article aims to present the scope of influence of Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI) on the sustainable development of urban functional areas (FUAs) in Poland. Against the background of the general principles of the implementation of the both instruments, practical aspects of the implementation of ITI in FUAs have been presented. Detailed analyses in the financial and spatial aspect were carried out using the Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI). These provided the basis for presenting the practical aspect of supporting the sustainable development of urban functional areas in the EU Cohesion Policy 2014–2020.

Soil sealing is a threat to soil and its ecosystem services. One of the main drivers of soil sealing is land degradation resulting from the expansion of urban areas, where it leads to such problems as the growing risk of flooding and local inundations, urban heat islands, or water shortages. The article focuses on analyses and quantification of the general degree of soil sealing in 2012–2018 in eight functional urban areas (FUA) in Poland, taking into account their division into the urban core (UC) and the commuting zone (CZ). We used the high resolution layer imperviousness density (HRL IMD) data to quantify soil sealing as well as data on land cover and land use with different spatial resolutions, i.e. from the European Urban Atlas project (UA) and the National Database of Topographic Objects (BDOT10k) to quantify artificial surfaces. The research determined the spatial differentiation of UCs and CZs in terms of the degree of soil sealing. We further observed higher average growth of sealed land in CZs. Quantitative and spatial analyses determined the spatial patterns of soil sealing in the FUA in Poland. Soil sealing intensified from 2012 to 2018. The process should be expected to continue in the coming years in light of the continuous transformation of vegetated areas into artificial ones. The conclusions should be considered valuable for the implementation of the spatial policy concerning sustainable land use and soil protection in suburban areas.