Atrakcyjność przyrodnicza miast Cittaslow północnej Polski
Natural attractiveness of Cittaslow towns in northern Poland

Summary/Abstract: The main aim of the article is to identify the natural attractiveness of 29 Cittaslow towns of northern Poland (located in the Warmian-Masurian, Pomeranian and West Pomeranian provinces) in terms of the presence of forms of nature conservation and urban green areas. The article consists of three parts. The first one analyzes the existing research related to Polish Cittaslow towns, includ-ing a detailed analysis – quantitative research. In the second one, the query of statutory definitions of forms of nature conservation, their number and mode of appointment and the definition of green areas was conducted. In the third part, a study was conducted independently for (I) forms of nature conservation and (II) urban green areas. Because the forms of nature conservation (apart from mon-uments of nature) were rare in towns – the descriptive method was applied only presenting the data in a table. However, in the case of urban green areas, two overlapping methods were applied. The first one was the calculation of a synthetic index being the sum of the percentages of shares of green areas owned by municipal authorities. The second method was cluster analysis. Pearson correlation coefficient was used to search for links between individual forms of nature conservation and urban green areas. In the case of forms of nature conservation, there were eight variables in the analysis, namely: (1) nature reserves, (2) landscape parks, (3) protected landscape areas, (4) special protection areas (birds), (5) special areas of conservation, (6) ecological areas, (7) landscape-nature complexes and (8) monuments of nature. In the case of urban green areas, four variables were used, namely: (1) walking and leisure parks, (2) green areas, (3) housing estate green areas and (4) communal forests. Finally, a ranking of the natural attractiveness of the Cittaslow towns in northern Poland was created, according to which, taking into account the surface area of forms of nature conservation, the highest ranked were Sępopol, Ryn, Lidzbark, Gołdap, Węgorzewo and Wydminy, and due to the presents of monuments of nature – Sianów, Węgorzewo and Orneta. Taking into account the areas of urban green areas, the most attractive are Górowo Iławeckie and Bartoszyce, as well as Lidzbark and Reszel. It has also been shown that local authorities can contribute to raising the natural attractiveness of towns.

• Details
• Contents