IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B
Abstract
This article aims to assess the effectiveness of the tool (the local spatial development plan) in relation to the protection of the cultural landscape of medium-sized cities in Poland. The problem of maintaining the identity of cities concerns many cities and is a global issue. This study focused on the city centers of the Mazovian Voivodeship. Poland, as one of the countries of the so-called Eastern Bloc, experienced many processes after the political transformation that threatened the identity of Polish cities. One of the tools that could serve as local law to regulate the protection of valuable elements of the urban landscape is the local plan. Currently, Poland is introducing legislative changes aimed at better supporting the protection of valuable elements, e.g. through landscape audits, however, they are not local law. The study aims to examine whether and to what extent local plans in selected cities have contributed to the protection of the city’s cultural landscape. The city center zones were chosen to illustrate the issues under study and provide the opportunity for comparative analysis. The study was also a pretext for analyzing Polish legal regulations concerning protection to identify their imperfections and formulate recommendations for changes, using good practices from other countries. Cities with more than 20 thousand inhabitants were examined, acting as critical administrative centers with a preserved functional and spatial historical structure. The analyses are based on archival cartographic studies, a topographic database, and GIS software with analysis and visualization of geospatial data. The conducted research aimed to identify the elements that make up the cultural landscape and to check to what extent the tool in the form of a local plan was used in this respect in the cities. The study showed inequalities in the use of the tool and its imperfections.
Justyna Zdunek-Wielgołaska, Ph.D. Eng. Arch. Associate professor at the Urban and Spatial Planning Department at the Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland. Beneficiary of Fulbright scholarship (visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley, USA); and a laureate of the Start for Young Academics programme of the Foundation for Polish Science. Leader and member of research projects. She conducts research in the field of urban planning on green infrastructure, urban sprawl, suburbs, and protection of urban and architectural heritage.
MaÅ‚gorzata Denis – architect, urban planner, assistant professor at the Department of Spatial Management and Environmental Sciences at the Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography of the Warsaw University of Technology. Doctor of Technical Sciences in the field of architecture and urban planning. Conducts research on the suburban zone, regional and spatial monitoring, compact city, efficiency of life in cities, and the suburban zone, public spaces. Author and co-author of many local planning studies for municipalities.
Anna Majewska – architect and urban planner, specialist in urban design and spatial planning. Habilitation in the field of engineering and technical sciences, in the discipline of Architecture and Urban Planning. Graduate of postgraduate studies in the field of: Urban Planning and Spatial Management (2005) and Protection of Cultural Heritage – Historical City (2016). Since 2022, she has held the position of professor at the Warsaw University of Technology. She is the author and co-author of over 90 publications. Research interests include suburbanization processes and processes of urban transformation of the structure of small and medium-sized cities, especially the Warsaw metropolis, and urban renewal, taking into account cultural values ​​and heritage protection.
9:00 am - 10:30 am
Friday 11th July, 2025