The Intensity of Urban Sprawl in Poland

The issues of urban sprawl are current in both global research as well as the sphere of activities by public authorities in developed and developing countries. Urban sprawl is a phenomenon that goes beyond the administrative boundaries of cities, which forces monitoring of the phenomenon on a wide territorial scale, i.e., regional and national. However, assessing the level of urban sprawl on such a scale still remains a research challenge in many countries. Poland is such an example, where there is a deficit in assessing the level of the phenomenon, its spatial specificity, as well as comparisons between other national urban areas. The presented research uses the urban morphology method to assess urban sprawl in Poland. The method assumes the use of square grids and building locations for the quantification of sprawl. Based on the 14 urban areas that aggregate 296 communes, it was pointed out that the level of urban sprawl in Poland is moderate. The results indicate that there is not a significant sprawl or compact structures.