Riverside Placemaking outside Big Cities—The Case Study of Three Polish Rivers

Most placemaking activities have both tangible and intangible aspects. However, the most significant division line comes from the driving force behind the process, which can be either top-down formal actions or bottom-up informal ones. This article presents how placemaking works and what types of related actions dominate in rural areas, focusing on the riparian zones of three lowland rivers in Poland with a total length of 300 km. The main goal was to demonstrate the specificity of placemaking in riverfront areas outside large cities and to investigate the answers to the following questions: (1) How do public spaces emerge there? (2) Which entities are responsible for their creation, type, form, and location? To achieve these objectives, a detailed field inventory from the water level and interviews with creators, caretakers, and users of selected places were conducted. This research showed that informal placemaking is very common outside of cities and is also integrated into the creation of less numerous but more impressive public and private recreational areas. In terms of form, “Do It Yourself” (DIY) objects overwhelmingly dominate in all types of places. Both of these characteristics, informality and DIY, clearly indicate the specificity of rural riparian areas and the need to consider them in planning and strategic actions in areas outside large cities

The Methodology of Landscape Quality (LQ) Indicators Analysis Based on Remote Sensing Data: Polish National Parks Case Study

Landscape quality (LQ) encompasses diverse characteristic of the natural and cultural environment. The most effective tool to analyze LQ is the use of indicators. The main problem in the assessment of LQ is not the lack of indicators, but its multitude. That is why, the indicators’ categorization is a problematic issue. The paper aims to introduce and test the methodology for selecting the suitable indicators based on the example of two national parks located in the south-east part of Poland. The method composed of the following stages: (1) Selection of spatial units being analyzed; (2) selection of indicators type(s); (3) selection of specific indicators; (4) calculation of indicator set no 1; (5) analysis of the correlation between indicators’ pairs; (6) selection of a final set of indicators; (7) analysis of effectiveness. The latter stage, refers to the statistical analysis of significance between results obtained dependently on the data sources, a spatial unit of analysis and analyzed regions. The results showed that the categorization composed of ten, mainly composite indicators, can be applied to conclude on different levels of LQ of protected areas. The differences between two analyzed data sources, different spatial units, as well as diverse regions, occurred to be statistically insignificant. Generally, the results of the effectiveness analysis showed that a final categorization of LQ indicators is adequate to conclude on the diverse dimensions of LQ of analyzed protected areas

Landscape indicators as a tool of assessing landscape quality

Landscape quality (LQ) is understood as the state in which its (landscape) spatial, functional and visual structure is found at a given time. To measure this landscape characteristic different research methods and data types are needed including GIS techniques and remote sensing data as well as interviews and questionnaires, results of social perception studies, analysis of documents, registers and statistical data, landscape visual studies and 3D drawings. Presented study aims to fully analyze the LQ of the Roztocze region based on above mentioned methods. To do so, the categorization of 24 quantitative indices was applied. Results indicated high structural and ecological values, medium visual values and values of spatial harmony and low cultural and perceptual properties of analyzed area. The study results also showed the great importance of spatial data and GIS techniques in LQ assessment

Viewpoints as distributors of cultural ecosystem services (ces). A case study of Kazimierz Dolny (Poland)

Kulturowe usługi ekosystemowe (ang. CES- Cultural Ecosystem Services), to usługi świadczone przez ekosystemy i krajobrazy, które cechują się wartościami niematerialnymi. Usługi te nie byłyby „konsumowane”, gdyby w przestrzeni nie funkcjonowały obiekty przekazujące te usługi od producentów (ekosystemów, krajobrazów) do odbiorców (człowieka). Takimi dystrybutorami CES są punkty widokowe. Celem pracy jest określenie klas CES podlegających dystrybucji za pośrednictwem punktów widokowych oraz wskazanie klas cieszących się największym zainteresowaniem wśród odbiorców. Badania prowadzono na terenie miasta Kazimierz Dolny. Wyniki pokazują, że badane punkty widokowe mają w swojej ofercie szeroki wachlarz CES, jednak popyt na te usługi jest znaczenie węższy i uzależniony od położenia i promocji punktu. Wyniki pokazały także, że płatne punkty widokowe charakteryzują się podobnie szeroką ofertą CES jak punkty bezpłatne.Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) refer to services provided by ecosystems and landscapes that have non-material values. These services would not be „consumed” if there were no objects in the environment that transmit these services from produ-cers (ecosystems, landscapes) to recipients (humans). Such distributors of CES are viewpoints. The purpose of this work is to determine the classes of CES that are provided through viewpoints and to indicate the classes that are most popular among recipients. The research was conducted in the town of Kazimierz Dolny. The results show that the viewpoints in the study area offer a broad range of CES, but the demand for these services is much smaller and depends on the location and promotion of the viewpoint. The results also showed that pay-to-enter viewpoints have a similarly broad CES offer as those that are free of charge