The region of Kłodzko belongs to the most important tourist areas in the Lower Silesia. It is also a very important region in the context of health resorts. Because of significant impact of weather conditions on both tourism and health issues, a crucial aspect is to evaluate the influence of weather on human organism and various forms of climatotherapy, tourism and recreation. The goal of the paper was to evaluate the biometeorological conditions of Kłodzko, considering its bio-thermal conditions as well as the usefulness of weather for climatotherapy, tourism and recreation. The basis for the analysis was meteorological data for 1971–2015 from the IMGW-PIB station in Kłodzko. The evaluation of biometeorological conditions included the bio-thermal index of UTCI and the weather suitability index for tourism and recreation (WSI). The WSI is calculated on the basis of the MENEX model which enables an assessment of the human heat balance. The climate tourism information scheme (CTIS) was also considered. It enables an evaluation of recreational potential with a consideration of bio-thermal conditions and the impact of particular meteorological variables. Based on the mentioned methods, a structure of heat stress categories and the annual course of usefulness of weather for climatotherapy, tourism and recreation were presented. The results of the research showed that weather conditions related to no thermal stress prevail on an annual scale. As for the context of the impact of weather on tourism issues, the best conditions are observed in the warm season, especially in the spring and autumn period. The results of the study can be a source of information for tourists and bathers visiting the region. They can also be a basis for increasing the knowledge on biometeorological conditions of the Sudetes.

Visiting monasteries and staying there have become an attractive tourist experience shared by numerous tourists and perceived by them as truly “touching and authentic”. Not only is a monastery in itself a subject of tourists’ interest with all of its physical attributes, but also the idea and the specific way of life behind it. In the paper, a special attention was paid to the participation of Polish contemplative monasteries in the so-called “monastic tourism”, in order to establish to what extent this phenomenon is close to religious tourism as well as to different forms of cultural tourism meant in the broad sense. Answers to these questions should lie in the results of a survey conducted among the Polish contemplative monasteries preceded by an analysis of motivations and conditions transforming ‘a monastery’ into a tourist destination (external individual attributes such as history and architecture were rejected).

The presence of the so-called „Lokalne Grupy Działania” (Local Action Groups, LAGs) has been clearly recognizable in the Polish rural and small-town landscapes for at least a dozen years. By under taking activities on various grounds they obviously support local development, being – at the same time – a source and an effect of local entrepreneurship. According to the principle ”think globally, act locally”, LAGs realize tasks in the field of local tourism development, in terms of tourism facilities, formation of human capital, and tourism promotion. The latter is the goal of the research in this paper. The research resulted in a determination of the broad range of promotional activities and tools used by LAGs. Simultaneously, their effectiveness and the range of influence were evaluated and common good practices in the field of tourism promotion were described. Apart from the generally positive evaluation of tourism promotion provided by LAGs and based on their knowledge on  the local tourism potential, specific conditions negatively affecting the durability of results and the period of influence of the promotional message were indicated.

The author made an attempt to present the demographic aspects of the Frederician colonization in central Poland within the present Łódź Voivodeship. In the first section of the paper, analyses in the field of historical geography dealt with the formation of colonies at the turn of the 18/19th century. Based on archival sources, the dynamics, number and origin of incoming population were shown. The second section of the paper contains an analysis of the demographic development of Frederician settlements till their end in 1945. The research included e. g. comparisons of the lists of German settlers drawn up for selected time periods.

Present urbanization processes are characterized by unusual spontaneity, reflected in numerous problems in defining urban population and determining real city boundaries. Of particular interest, from a scientific point of view, is the case of China, where a considerable dynamics of socio-economic transformations, as  ell as political and administrative issues are reflected in a complex urban structure. Serious complications in determining the real Chinese urban population number, or determining real city boundaries are the complicated administrative division, manifested by an unnatural size of the cities, and the inclusion of rural population under their urban jurisdiction. In addition, the question of social duality between the countryside and the city,caused by the Hukou register system, seriously hampers estimations of a city resident number. Mass migration from the countryside to cities, in most cases without updating the Hukou system, resulted in a lack of complete and accepted statistics concerning the population of Chinese cities. It is also worth mentioning, that rural migrants in urban areas are often a secondary category of citizens facing socio-economic discrimination, leading to a visible and tangible polarization among Chinese urban residents.

The aim of this paper is to systematize the existing literature on the effects of cohesion policy and specifically on the effectiveness of public investments in human capital through typology of research. The conclusions are used to give recommendations both for the academic as well as the public sector. There is a need for long-term statistical and macroeconomic analyses as well as in-depth qualitative research on the quality of interventions and differences between different types of investments. While there is a lot of potential in human capital investments to stimulate regional development, they are not a sole key to success and should rather be considered as part of a horizontal and complex development strategy.