The author is an employee of the City Spatial Planning Office of Kraków and describes the process of adopting Local Spatial Management Plans of the area in Krakow, which was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The description begins in 2003 with no Local Spatial Managements Plans in valid, and ends in 2020, when the UNESCO area is completely protected by local spatial plans, however 50% of the buffer zone stays without any spatial law protection. The article focused on the authors of Local Plans, who — on behalf of the Mayor of the City of Krakow — drawn up the spatial documents. The documentation of this aspect is tremendously important, after deregulation of the profession of urban planners.

This article presents the historic town of Røros, which has been inscribed into the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1980. Røros is located on the river Glomma, in central and eastern Norway, in the Sør-Trøndelag region. Settlement in this area developed around the mid-17th century when rich copper deposits were discovered. Not only the mining tradition of the town from that period, but also timber houses, a water transport system and relics of a former foundry as well as machines used for copper mining have survived until the present. The indicated elements of the cultural heritage of the town confirm its unique character on the European scale, while the cooperation between the local community and authorities in order to protect and revalorise the complex is exemplary. According to the Authors, such cooperation is indispensable for the process of protection and revalorisation of cultural heritage to run smoothly, of which Røros is proof.

The paper presents an in-depth analysis of the soundscape within Sarek National Park, the oldest national park in Europe, situated in Lapland, northern Sweden. The comprehensive acoustic measurements, ambisonic recordings, and 360° video recordings were carried out during a scientific expedition in the summer of 2020. The aim of the paper is to show the soundscape analysis of carefully selected characteristic locations in various parts of the valley. The paper extensively discusses the findings derived from the recorded data using both classical acoustic methods and the soundscape approach. The classic acoustic parameters, commonly employed in environmental acoustics as well as eco-acoustic indices such as: ACI (acoustic complexity index), ADI (acoustic diversity index), AEI (acoustic evenness index), NDSI (normalized difference soundscape index), BIO (energy level of biophony), amplitude index (M), and total entropy (H) were calculated. To gain further insights, listening tests, facilitated through virtual reality tools, were conducted, enabling participants to engage in soundwalk experiences. By employing a combination of traditional acoustic methods and innovative soundscape approaches, the paper presents a holistic evaluation of the auditory environment in Sarek National Park. The main contribution of the presented research is providing new data from the unique, geographically inaccessible region of the world, the Sarek National Park. This research not only enriches our understanding of the national park’s soundscape but also offers valuable insights into the interaction between the natural environment and human perception of sound.

This article discusses the development of international law concerning the underwater cultural heritage (UCh), with particular emphasis on the 2001 UNESCO Convention on the subject. It attempts to set out the main legal solutions adopted in the 2001 Convention. however, in order to achieve this aim, it traces the genesis of the Convention and identifies the problems which prompted UNESCO to initiate the negotiations that ultimately led to the adoption of the 2001 Convention. hence, before analysis of the UNESCO treaty it firstly describes the initial phase of the development of law regarding UCh, which was mostly based on the national laws of particular coastal States, as well as in some instances on the laws of salvage. Subsequently, the article turns to the discussion concerning the (in)famous two provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) dealing with archaeological objects, as well as the efforts that were undertaken within the framework of the Council of Europe to adopt a convention on UCh.