The Twitter as a source of geographic information

In recent years, social media has gained significant popularity. The popularization of portable devices has produced a significant number of posts on social media along with a geolocation. Twitter is especially interesting. Thanks to an open Application Programming Interface ( API ), it ensures free access to published content. Data obtained this way gives new possibilities for social and geographic research. The research literature emphasizes the usefulness of Twitter for the purpose of the monitoring of extreme phenomena. This paper presents the main trends in research on Twitter tweets and technical solutions enabling data downloading.

Some instruments of impact on economy and social stratification in Poland – sustainable development contexts

Sustainable development is characterized by the existence of two components: the natural and the socio-economic one. It seems that the key to real action to protect the environment is to use instruments of sustainable development for enhance social cohesion. In the context of social exclusion characteristics can be assumed that individualizing operations, using full potencial of educational system, creating better conditions for the development of enterprises, enabling easy access to specialist psychological support, including basic therapeutic support, are basic actions need to be done. Necessary is also a change of mind: the minimum wage, intervention buying-in, subsidies and cheap loans to farmers, benefits for the poor and unemployed, and ways to design competitions for EU funds, not only do not help, but sometimes are even harmful for sustainable development

Tourism and trade in borderlands – an example of Polish eastern borderland

The main objective of the paper is to present Polish eastern border problems in a particular geopolitical context including efforts such as shopping tourism, which helps overcome border problems and associated limitations. National borders serve as a factor of separation between different political and institutional systems, but on the other hand, borders can be a source of contact between different groups of people or different societies. It is important to understand the nature and various types and functions of borders and the related factors that make nearby regions special destinations for tourists. National borders may prove highly valuable to local autonomy as well as tourism planning and destination marketing organizations making border area economics less prone to recession. The paper describes the main motivations for borderland tourism – that is shopping – giving many different reasons to travel across national borders. Shopping tourism close to Poland’s eastern  border is characterized via an analysis of commercial endeavors, the frequency of border crossings, as well as the structure and average costs. National border area tourism plays an important role in local economies, making them more prosperous and/or enlarging the black market zone. The European Union’s Schengen eastern  border is a special example of the occurrence of these problems. This borderland faces serious economic and demographic problems due to the political function of the eastern border as a strong barrier to development. In this situation, it is important to examine relevant trends and observe if tourism is one of the ways for local area residents to deal with economic stagnation.

Public green open spaces according to city sustainable development

This paper consists of quantitative analysis of different types of green open spaces in 26 towns and cities in Poland. It shows a few examples of good ideas of multifamily residential areas built in 50. and 60. of XX century in Lublin. Quality of green open spaces in Polish multifamily residential areas is considered by three examples – Żabiniec and Ruczaj in Cracow and LSM in Lublin. Polish spatial planning law system was analysed through local plans, especially Stare Podgórze-Krzemionki local spatial planning law. A part of this plan is focesed on green open space called Bednarski Park.

Green City – Sustainable City

Bad urban policy leads to environmental degradation and a reduction in the quality of life in cities. Therefore, local government action ought to be guided by the principle of sustainable development. The application of the green city idea can have a positive effect on the natural environment and urban quality of life. The research  methods presented in this paper concern the development of green cities, which are most vulnerable to the risk of what can be called excessive urbanization. The conversion of degraded or neglected cities into green urban centers may be the answer to environmental, social, and economic problems in such cities. Urban planners increasingly more often pay attention to the link, which exists between the idea of green cities and the urban concept of a garden city. However, this novel idea assumes not only the creation of green areas, but also a reduction in dust and gas emissions, likewise noise and waste, renewable energy, implementation of sustainable transportation, and promotion of organic food staples. Cities that properly apply these principles are called green cities or eco-cities. Many Scandinavian and North American countries base their policy on sustainable development. Local governments in Poland, as well as urban planners in Poland, must derive inspiration from the environmental approach employed in other countries. Greenery plays important roles in urban aesthetics; therefore, it is necessary to take it into consideration in land use planning, city development strategies, and local programs linked with urban revitalization. New housing projects should assume the existence of such spaces, which would interfere with the natural environment as little as possible. Developers should also be required to restore destroyed green areas. The revitalization of Polish housing units must be rethought in the spirit of the green city concept. Greenery should dominate in all housing complexes, which would refresh and enrich the landscape through so-called living walls. This would have a positive effect not only on the aesthetic appearance of buildings, but also it would help maintain a more comfortable temperature throughout housing estates in the winter and in the summer. So-called green roofs could be built on the flat roofs of all existing housing  blocks. Geographers and landscape ecologists should be permitted to evaluate new construction projects. Community participation and environmental education both play a key role in pro-environmental policy. Moreover, city residents should have some influence on the appearance of their city.

The use of geothermal energy in Poland

Geothermal energy is one of the renewable sources of energy, which is extremely important from the point of view of the idea of sustainable development. In modern Poland, the use of geothermal energy is so far limited. There are several plants that use geothermal energy for heating purposes, but the cost-effectiveness of this type of investment is low. For several years, a rapid development of so-called thermal parks has been observed, which is related with a newfound fashionability of the healthy lifestyle. Particularly advantageous geological conditions in the region of Podhale, as well as the significant tourist popularity of this area in general all year round, make this type of investment substantially profitable. In other parts of the country, only a few relatively small thermal parks are operational and development is not easy because of the high start-up cost and difficulty of providing adequate financial resources

Preservation of the industrial landscape as an element of sustainable development – the example of Upper Silesian urban area

The first part of the paper presents the basic terminology associated with the industrial landscape, which is a specific type of the cultural landscape, and the concepts of landscape preservation and sustainable development. In the following part of the paper, basing on the example of the Upper Silesian urban area, the typical characteristics of the industrial landscape are specified. Its most important virtues, which are the reason why it should be protected in the context of sustainable development, are also presented. The author tried to identify the obstacles to preservation of the industrial landscape, including the problem of its negative perception. The paper also contains the analysis of presently applied legal forms of preservation of the industrial landscape basing on same examples form Upper Silesia. There is also an example from Ruhr Region presented in the purpose of comparison. The demanded actions, which should take place in the Upper Silesian urban area basing on the German experiences, are presented in the summary.

The development of ski tourism in the light of idea of sustainable development – state of research

The development and functioning of ski resorts brings many economic an social benefits for the mountain regions. However, this results in many cases, with the significant cost in environment. Reducing disadvantageous changes due to the development for the mass skiing movement in the late 80th and 90th twentieth century resulted in the need to revise the current model of ski tourism development. The aim of this study is to present – on the basis of the current state of research – contemporary problems of ski tourism development in the world in the context of achieving economic and social benefits, while preserving the value of natural environment of mountain areas, according to the principles of sustainable development. Despite of the negative environmental impacts, resulting from the development and functioning of ski resorts and unfavorable predictions of climate and demographic changes, ski tourism should continue to develop in the traditional ski regions. For many  communities, this activity is the most important sector of the local economy, supporting other forms of development, as well as inhibit the phenomenon of emigration in search of work. Activities which seek to ” balance ” the development of ski tourism have environmental, economic and social dimensions. Environmental aspects relate to eliminate negative environmental impact of ski infrastructure and ski tourism movement includes: modernization of ski lifts, cableways and snowmaking system, appropriate waste management, improvement of air quality, continues monitoring of natural environment quality, the planned development of ski resorts, participation in voluntary environmental programs and initiatives aimed to raising the ecological awareness of employees, visitors and local communities. Economic aspects financial performance though the development of new tourism products. In order to achieve a competitive advantage, in many ski resorts are conducted market research and marketing actions in order to create a good image of the company, locality and region, and to search for niches of the market. However, very important issue is to implement social activities by the ski resorts consisting primarily on employing local communities, meeting the expectations of tourists referred to their satisfaction with the stay, educating tourists of the safety on ski slopes and adapting some of ski resorts to disabled ski tourists. The concept of sustainable development of ski resorts can be applied in the developed mountain tourist regions, where the economy is dominated by mass ski tourism or in areas, where this form of tourism is still developing. The preservation of development of specialized and addicted to this form of tourism regions requires to conduct active marketing actions, continues monitoring and preventive procedure in the event of a deterioration in economic conditions or reduction in the quality of tourist values. Sustainable tourism development assumes conscious adaptation and adjustment to its objectives both by tourists, leisure organizers, local authorities and representatives of host communities, but this goal in practice may be difficult to achieve.

Sustainable consumption. Sources of concept and implementationc

The aim of this article is to draw attention to the two approaches to the concept of sustainable consumption. This consumption, so popular among consumers, policy makers and entrepreneurs is meant to refer to the concept of sustainable development and to be an alternative to consumerism. The alternative, which in effect is to contribute to the reduction of environmentally and socially devastating effects of consumer culture. In the first part of this article I attempt to present philosophical , cultural and legislative basis for the concept of sustainable consumption. In the second part, I discuss the theoretical and practical problems of this kind of consumption. The problems are a result of dominative approach to sustainable consumption based on the idea of innovation and rationalization of production as a successful and sufficient way to approach sustainable consumption. In economic discourse such approach is called weak sustainable consumption as an opposite to strong sustainable consumption.

This paper repeats results of the research of Delphi method organized by Jonathan Tourtelot at the end of the year 2006. Delphi method is one of the best scientific method for measuring of unmeasurable phenomena. The topic of the research was estimation of general conditions for tourism every places of UNESCO World Heritage List. This evaluation required weighing such subtle issues as aesthetics and cultural integrity as well as balancing good points against bad ones