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The main aim of this study was to identify the direction and dynamics of changes in basic parameters describing the real estate market in Poland and to identify the causes of the observed changes in its legal environment. The changing regulations concerned, among others, the field of trade in real estate and cost-effectiveness of running agricultural activity, particularly factors affecting the supply and demand of agricultural land. The authors proposed a new indicator referred to as the change rate indicator and verified its usefulness in research of this type.

The research focused on the areas adjacent to the city, analysing the dynamics of changes in urban space. In connection with the above, a research hypothesis has been proposed that the residential area per capita is the most reliable indicator of spatial changes in the urbanised area. The authors propose a methodology for analysing the dynamics of urban spaces in six the largest cities in Poland which were surveyed in 2002–2016. The proposed method is based on an analysis of the trend and the intensity of changes concerning geolocation data. The input data were obtained from national statistical registers kept for administrative units (municipalities and communes). The proposed method makes it possible to analyze dynamic the phenomenon of urban sprawl. Based on the conducting research we confirmed that the neighbouring communes (mostly rural areas) are presently under the strong influence of developing cities, what can be caused by migrations from rural to urban areas. The relative dynamics of urbanisation is much higher than in the centres of the largest cities.

Knowing the exact number of fruits and trees helps farmers to make better decisions in their orchard production management. The current practice of crop estimation practice often involves manual counting of fruits (before harvesting), which is an extremely time-consuming and costly process. Additionally, this is not practicable for large orchards. Thanks to the changes that have taken place in recent years in the field of image analysis methods and computational performance, it is possible to create solutions for automatic fruit counting based on registered digital images. The pilot study aims to confirm the state of knowledge in the use of three methods (You Only Look Once—YOLO, Viola–Jones—a method based on the synergy of morphological operations of digital imagesand Hough transformation) of image recognition for apple detecting and counting. The study compared the results of three image analysis methods that can be used for counting apple fruits. They were validated, and their results allowed the recommendation of a method based on the YOLO algorithm for the proposed solution. It was based on the use of mass accessible devices (smartphones equipped with a camera with the required accuracy of image acquisition and accurate Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning) for orchard owners to count growing apples. In our pilot study, three methods of counting apples were tested to create an automatic system for estimating apple yields in orchards. The test orchard is located at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. The tests were carried out on four trees located in different parts of the orchard. For the tests used, the dataset contained 1102 apple images and 3800 background images without fruits.

In many transitional economies all over the world, government and state land agencies continue to intervene in agricultural land market. For example, in post-socialist countries, the frequent legal changes have been affecting i.e. the structure of agricultural land ownership and area of agricultural holdings. The main purpose of this article is to suggest a research method to investigate the influence of legal instruments on the process of transformation of state-owned agricultural land and then to test the applicability of this method in a selected area. Because legal regulations affect various spheres of life, and such effects can be measured on different scales or in different ranges, the dynamics indicator used in this study serves an adequate tool for studying and comparing changes occurring over time. Additionally, the graphical analysis allowed to compare the observed developments. The analyses carried out for the exemplary post-socialist European country - Poland as a whole country and for every province as well showed that the actual impact of legal regulations on agrarian changes is different in areas which are different spatially and environmentally. In further research the influence of the government intervention should be also considered along with legal regulations concerning private sector.

The main aim of this study was to determine the communication value of urban space. This goal was pursued in several research stages. For the needs of this study, the concept of communication value of public transport was defined as the ease of transit between points in space by means of public transport. The communication value of urban space is directly proportional to the number of lines serving a given stop, the number of lines departing from a given stop, and the distance to a public transport stop. The indicators of communication value were determined. The theoretical assumptions for developing a method for the determination of communication value were also developed. The proposed method was verified in the study area, and the applicability of the proposed method was discussed. The study was conducted in the city of Olsztyn where two types of public transport are available: buses and trams. In the analyzed period, Olsztyn had 35 bus lines, including 25 regular lines, 3 commuter lines, 5 seasonal lines, and 2 night lines. There were also 3 tram lines in the city. The main public transport operator had a fleet of 160 vehicles. The results of the study indicate that the proposed method supports the identification of areas with high communication value as well as areas where public transport requires improvement. Due to its universality, the method is applicable in many areas, from city planning through the process of estimating the market value of the property to the decisions made by the inhabitants when choosing their place of residence. Acoustic value maps have recently gained popularity in urbanized areas. A map of the communication value of urban space based on the proposed method is likely to become equally popular.

Road development projects are expansive and they exert a significant impact on the environment, landscape, spatial planning, and land management. In this study, we developed a research hypothesis that analysis of the shape factor of plots can be the basis for determining the factors affecting the level of urbanization. This article evaluates changes in the spatial structure of plots resulting from the construction of a city bypass. The proposed method is based on a morphological analysis of plots located in the vicinity of the motorway lane. In the next steps, lines located at a distance of 400 m and 800 m from the beltway were determined and then shape indicators were determined for the plots cut by these lines. The analysis confirmed the change in the shape of the plots, along with the distance from the beltway. Plots located further from the bypass of the city had smaller areas and the aspect ratio was similar for plots intended for development. The proposed method allows us to identify spatial effects occurring after entering a suburban road. The method should be used at the design stage of the beltway and not at the stage of impact assessment after its construction. This will allow for maintenance of a coherent spatial policy at the interface between urban and rural areas. At the same time, the study of changes in the morphology of plots allows earlier identification of urban processes.

Corresponding author: Cezary Kowalczyk. E-mail address: cezary.kowalczyk@uwm.edu.pl http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2014.124 © 2014 The Author. Published by VGTU Press. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Section: Sustainable Urban Development