The aim of this paper is to distinguish a number of factors that allow for a better understanding of investment process management in the housing construction industry. The research work that we performed consisted in conducting a questionnaire survey. A total of 192 Polish companies dealing with housing construction took part in the survey. The collected questionnaire responses were then subjected to a thorough analysis and interpretation, with the use of a method called exploratory factor analysis (EFA). In a nutshell, our analysis consisted in reducing the number of survey variables (73) in order to identify a few pivotal factors (4) with the greatest impact on investment processes management in the field of residential construction in Poland. These factors include: the activity of companies in the market environment (1), pro-social policy of the state (2), highly advanced technologies (3) and the use of appropriate market relations (4). In our study, we aim to show how successful construction processes are perceived by industry professionals. The scientific method that we used allows for assignment of a certain order of priority to specific groups of questionnaire variables, dependent on the eigenvalues-related percentage of explained variation.

Urban flooding is an increasingly common phenomenon around the world. The reasons are usually attributed to the insufficient capacity of the combined sewer system and its inability to adapt to the changing dynamics of rainfall. This is also the case in Warsaw (the capital of Poland), where the sewage system was designed in the 1960s. The aim of the article is to highlight possible hydrological solutions that would significantly improve Warsaw’s situation in terms of rainfall runoff. The article looks at some solutions that were previously mentioned in the literature and presents an assessment of the possible changes in land use/land cover on the hydrological processes and improvements in the general hydrological situation of Warsaw. In addition, the article points out the need to update the programme and spatial approach to the discharge of water from specific watersheds in Warsaw, as well as to establish a single manager for stormwater drainage in the city of Warsaw. An important issue is the restoration of natural retention basins in the city and the construction of artificial basins in places with frequent local flooding. The article emphasises the importance of building individual detention basins (as well as low-impact developments) for newly planned investments. Other important aspects are as follows: the construction of suitable underground or open channels, the need to disconnect Ursynów’s stormwater runoff from the catchment area of the Służewiecki Stream and to channel it along the southern bypass for Warsaw (S-2) to the dry lakes and ponds in Wilanów. Finally, the article discusses the application of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS) and Real-Time Control (RTC) in urban drainage systems as a possible solution to improve wastewater management in urban areas.

Insufficient due planning policy in Poland is subject to widespread and justified criticism. This applies to all levels of spatial management. Legal instruments governing spatial planning in Poland are passive -setting out only the legal framework corresponding to a particular area. They regulate what might be developed within its boundaries, however, they do not specify how it is to be accomplished. Therefore, there is a need to develop an integrated spatial development planning, in which also investors and/or stakeholders would be involved. Apart from answering to the question of what is going to be developed, it will also provide a very comprehensive and flexible implementation strategy having regard to different timelines and local amenities (facilities).This paper also brings an example showing how the spatial planning strategy was conducted for the development of the "Fort Bema" housing estates in the Warsaw district of Bemowo. It highlights the relevance of the planning phase for the subsequent in-use (operating) phase.

The problem with evaluating investment projects is that there are many factors that determine the degree of their successful conclusion. Consequently, there has been an active debate for years as to which critical success factors (CSFs) contribute most to the performance of construction projects. This is because the practice of empirical research is based on two steps: first, researchers choose a particular model from the space of all possible models, and second, they act as if the chosen model is the only one that fits the data and describes the phenomenon under study. Hence, there are many CSF lists that can be found in the literature, owing to the uncertainty at the model selection stage, which is usually ignored. Alternatively, model averaging accounts for this model uncertainty. In this study, the Bayesian model averaging and data from a survey of Polish construction managers were used to investigate the potential of 28 factors describing a diverse set of characteristics in explaining the performance of construction projects in Poland. Determinants of successful completion of investment projects are categorized by their level of evidential strength, which is derived from posterior inclusion probabilities (PIPs), i.e., providing strong, medium and weak evidence.

In this article, we present our own construction process model consisting of 16 stages and eight phases, which is particularly applicable to large investment projects. In the context of each project phase, we examine how the appropriate way of scheduling construction processes affects the problem of the risk of prolonging individual phases and the whole project, as well as of not meeting deadlines (which is one of the main problems faced by management practitioners in the construction industry). There are many methods for assessing risk in this context, but they tend to be overly complex and rarely used by construction practitioners. On the other hand, the risks associated with potential schedule delays can be considered holistically. One tool that can serve this purpose is the combined Monte Carlo simulation and Time-at-Risk (TaR) approach, which originates from the world of finance. We show how the implementation of the process model (individual phases) and the whole project can be considered in the context of the covariance matrix between all its phases and how changes in the arrangement of these phases can affect the risk of time extension of the whole project. Our study is based on simulation data for a large development project (Fort Bema/Parkowo-Leśne housing estate complex) in Bemowo, a district of Warsaw, carried out between 1999 and 2012. The entire investment project involved the construction of almost 120,000 m2 of floor space.