Resource information
In Poland significant changes in landscape intensified after the political transformation in late 1980’s. One of the signs of the changes are more transformations of agricultural land into developed land (industry, housing, services). At the same time, abandoned land started overgrowing with trees and brushwood. These are a result of changes in living and housing conditions, technical progress and changes in legislation. Local spatial plan is a planning act that defines the designation of the land in Poland. This act is optional at the level of communes (the lowest level of administrative division). If there is no local spatial plan, the designation for non-agricultural and non-forest purposes is determined by an administrative planning decision usually on the basis of the designations of the adjacent plots. The study shows that the direction of changes in land use is affected mainly by local planning policy, including local spatial plans that are perceived to be an instrument of managing suburbanisation in rural areas. Local spatial plans are legal acts; therefore they are binding for the inhabitants and allow for “controlled” spatial development of the communes. But they may be a threat for agricultural areas as they encourage the expansion of developed areas.
