IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v17y2025i3p864-d1573372.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Directions of Spatial Development of Metropolitan Areas in Poland Based on the Automated Typology of the MA Localities as a Sustainable Solution to the Urban Sprawl Issue

Author

Listed:
  • Mariusz Porczek

    (Laboratory of Spatial Information Systems, Department of Geoinformatics, Cartography and Remote Sensing, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland)

  • Piotr A. Werner

    (Laboratory of Spatial Information Systems, Department of Geoinformatics, Cartography and Remote Sensing, Faculty of Geography and Regional Studies, University of Warsaw, 00-927 Warsaw, Poland)

Abstract

Urban settlements in Poland have developed over time, leading to problems such as overpopulation and spatial expansion, which threaten the environment and create spatial chaos. Changes in the demographic structure in Poland led to the need for systematized settlement development. Since 1989, Polish urban areas have undergone significant metamorphosis, with some becoming depopulated and others becoming metropolitan areas. The high autonomy of municipalities allowed for uncontrolled growth of the settlement network, also in typically rural directions. The 2006 Act mandated regional development strategies and urban spatial development plans for voivodship self-governments, but this has not produced adequate results. Cities continue to grow, often causing problems for society, local authorities, and natural ecosystems. This study examined the potential for urban settlement development using k-means cluster analysis to calculate the buildable area, taking in the detail of three case studies: Warsaw, Lodz, and Olsztyn. This allowed the classification of towns into zones corresponding to their level of urbanization. The k-means method used in the study gave similar and even more efficient results than the manual classification. This may contribute to stopping the growing urban expansion into rural areas inadequately prepared for the change in urban structure. This research can help to maintain sustainability and compensate for the problems of pollution in urban and rural areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Mariusz Porczek & Piotr A. Werner, 2025. "The Directions of Spatial Development of Metropolitan Areas in Poland Based on the Automated Typology of the MA Localities as a Sustainable Solution to the Urban Sprawl Issue," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-23, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:864-:d:1573372
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/864/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/3/864/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jaroslava JANKŮ & Ondřej JAKŠÍK & Josef KOZÁK & Adéla Marie MARHOUL, 2016. "Estimation of land loss in the Czech Republic in the near future," Soil and Water Research, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 11(3), pages 155-162.
    2. Mariusz Porczek, 2023. "Typology of Localities in the Warsaw Metropolitan Area Resulting from the Spatial Development Structure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-28, November.
    3. Michael Ekers & Pierre Hamel & Roger Keil, 2012. "Governing Suburbia: Modalities and Mechanisms of Suburban Governance," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(3), pages 405-422, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eric Charmes & Roger Keil, 2015. "The Politics of Post-Suburban Densification in Canada and France," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 581-602, May.
    2. Antoine Grandclement & Guilhem Boulay, 2021. "From The Uneven De-Diversification Of Local Financial Resources To Planning Policies: The Residentialization Hypothesis," Post-Print halshs-03322259, HAL.
    3. Jing Shen & Shaogu Wang & Yuyin Wang, 2024. "Environmental Inequality in Peri-Urban Areas: A Case Study of Huangpu District, Guangzhou City," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-20, May.
    4. Rahel Nüssli & Christian Schmid, 2016. "Beyond the Urban–Suburban Divide: Urbanization and the Production of the Urban in Zurich North," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 679-701, May.
    5. Rodrigo Castriota, 2024. "HOUSING BEYOND THE METROPOLIS: Inhabiting Extractivism and Extensions in Urban Amazonia," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 32-52, January.
    6. Fulong Wu, 2018. "Planning centrality, market instruments: Governing Chinese urban transformation under state entrepreneurialism," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 1383-1399, May.
    7. Zhixi Cecilia Zhuang, 2019. "Ethnic Entrepreneurship and Placemaking in Toronto's Ethnic Retail Neighbourhoods," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 110(5), pages 520-537, December.
    8. Youngmee Jeon & Saehoon Kim, 2020. "Housing abandonment in shrinking cities of East Asia: Case study in Incheon, South Korea," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(8), pages 1749-1767, June.
    9. Antoine Grandclement & Guilhem Boulay, 2021. "From the uneven de-diversification of local financial resources to planning policies: The residentialization hypothesis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1454-1472, September.
    10. Jean-Paul D. Addie & Roger Keil, 2015. "Real Existing Regionalism: The Region between Talk, Territory and Technology," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 407-417, March.
    11. Verstegen, Judith A. & Goch, Katarzyna, 2022. "Pattern-oriented calibration and validation of urban growth models: Case studies of Dublin, Milan and Warsaw," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    12. Beall, Jo, 2020. "Whither the region? Re-thinking the space and place of regions and cities in international comparative perspective," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 102507, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    13. Roger Keil & Jean-Paul D. Addie, 2015. "‘It's Not Going to be Suburban, It's Going to be All Urban’: Assembling Post-suburbia in the Toronto and Chicago Regions," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 892-911, September.
    14. Jaroslava Janků & Kristina Heřmanová & Josef Kozák & Jan Jehlička & Mansoor Maitah & Karel Němeček & Jan Vopravil & Daniel Toth & Karel Jacko & Tomáš Herza, 2020. "Industrial zones and their benefits for society," Soil and Water Research, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 15(4), pages 258-272.
    15. Cattivelli, Valentina, 2020. "Planning peri-urban areas at regional level: The experience of Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna," MPRA Paper 101189, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Sofia Pagliarin, 2018. "Linking processes and patterns: Spatial planning, governance and urban sprawl in the Barcelona and Milan metropolitan regions," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 55(16), pages 3650-3668, December.
    17. Idt, Joel & Pellegrino, Margot, 2021. "From the ostensible objectives of public policies to the reality of changes: Local orders of densification in the urban regions of Paris and Rome," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    18. Geoff DeVerteuil & Maxwell Hartt & Ruth Potts, 2021. "Emerging anti-poverty infrastructural gaps in suburbia: Poverty and the voluntary sector across Metropolitan Sydney," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 371-388, March.
    19. Fan Yang & Zhifeng Zhao, 2022. "The Research on the Spatial Governance Tools and Mechanism of Megacity Suburbs Based on Spatial Evolution: A Case of Beijing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-12, September.
    20. Lisa Freeman, 2017. "Governed Through Ghost Jurisdictions: Municipal Law, Inner Suburbs and Rooming Houses," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 298-317, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:3:p:864-:d:1573372. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.