This paper aimed to present a model of natural environment management in national parks in Poland in the context of increased tourist traffic. The research area comprised Polish national parks as they are characterized by barely altered nature, little human impact, and undisturbed natural phenomena. The methods involved the observational method, literature analysis and criticism, and the in-depth interview method employed in November 2019. The respondents included national park management staff. The questions were prepared in accordance with the Berlin Declaration principles of sustainable tourism development and were extended with the authors’ own items. The questionnaire contained 17 questions, grouped in four parts: science and documentation; tourism; cooperation and education; environmental threats. The results indicate that in order for actions to prove efficient in a park, a conservation plan should be carefully developed. Its correctness requires monitoring the state of the environment, tourist traffic size and trends, and tourists’ impact on the environment. An important condition for effective tourism management in parks is to increase the competences of the administering bodies and knowledge regarding individuals’ responsibilities. Boards should be able to evaluate and modify conservation plans, spatial development plans, municipality development strategies, and projects for investments within the parks.

Brownfields are remnants of the functional and spatial transformations of urban areas in Poland. They are particularly abundant in old industrial districts, based on coal mining and metallurgy. The aim of this study is to identify the transformation directions and functional changes of brownfields in the former Upper Silesian Industrial Region in southern Poland, which has evolved into the Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolis (GZM) through the process of socio-economic transformation. The study makes use of the χ2 test of independence and Cramer’s V as a post-test, and the method of in-depth interviews. The results indicate that the most popular new functions of post-industrial sites are production and services. When we consider large brownfields such as, in particular, disused mine dumps, dumping sites, settling ponds and workings, the most popular new form of land use is green spaces. Moreover, the study shows that the size of brownfields impacts their new forms of land use.

The article presents an analysis of directions of internal and international migrations undertaken by Polish pensioners. A typology of migration directions is proposed. We use the method of a table of signs to define five major types of pensioner migrations. We show the variability of these types over time, from the Type J (moderately mobile, consistent) in the 1990s to the Type H (moderately mobile, mixed) at present. A detailed analysis reveals a major difference between international and internal migrations: The former are mainly due to economic reasons and the latter to reasons related to housing. The obtained results allow us to conclude that pensioner migrations constitute an important factor in the social and economic development of local communities, especially in the day and age of society ageing and lengthening life expectancy.

Celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie skali i kierunków migracji emerytów w Polsce. Artykuł posiada wprowadzenie teoretyczne, wskazujące główne teorie migracyjne. Kolejnym elementem jest zaprezentowanie tła regionalnego w postaci migracji emerytów w Europie i ukazanie istotnych różnic w migracjach emerytów w Polsce i na zachodzie Europy. Zaprezentowanie skali zjawiska migracji seniorów w Polsce jest ważną kwestią, szczególnie w kontekście uświadomienia samorządów o zwiększającym się napływie migracyjnym do ich gmin. Zjawisko migracji emerytów zostało przedstawione szczegółowo w podziale na przedziały wiekowe seniorów oraz na przedziały wielkościowe gmin.

Although population ageing is progressing, seniors migrate with increasing frequency. This paper explores the question why Polish pensioners decide to migrate, as existing research has not provided satisfactory explanations. Reasons for migrations were determined on the basis of pensioners' answers to a questionnaire survey. The results show that migration decisions are taken for a number of reasons, which depend, inter alia, on the respondents' education level, age, and sex. For women as well as for men, the economic aspect plays a crucial role (e.g., building or buying a new house). Ward's method was employed to distinguish five main migration types according to the main motivating factor; that is, family and finance, family, environmental, economic, and health. An analysis of internal as well as external migrations of Polish seniors shows that they differ considerably from migrations of seniors in other countries. Due to their unsatisfactory finances as well as deficits in knowledge of foreign languages, Polish pensioners, unlike their peers in other countries, rarely decide to settle down abroad. The Polish model of multigenerational family in which seniors assist their children in raising their grandchildren also contributes to lower emigration.

In the 21st century, the form of presenting information plays an incredibly important role in arousing interest in research problems. Stereoscopy is among the imaging techniques that have evoked much interest in the recent years. Its numerous applications that can be observed in various fields (such as medicine, space science, law, marketing, or entertainment industry) suggest that we should also use this technology for didactic purposes. The aim of the article is to discuss the process of creating three-dimensional photography and the opportunities offered by stereoscopy, which makes it possible to obtain images with depth effect and impression of solidity. The authors describe different ways to obtain three-dimensional images and the devices applied in the process, as well as techniques of presenting three-dimensional material to a wider audience. The methods of free-viewing (the oldest method of viewing stereoscopic images), anaglyph (a simple method applied in printing and displaying static images and movies on screen), lenticular raster (employing a series of narrow vertical cylindrical lenses), and stereoscopy (in which mirrors, lenses, prisms, or filters are used) are discussed. Also, the application of computer technology is reviewed and the ways in which stereoscopy can benefit from this medium owing to the use of LCD shutter glasses. Contemporary technology offers considerable opportunities, at the same time posing ever-increasing demands, which are mentioned in the paper, too. Teaching is most effective when information is received through multiple channels, combining verbal and visual messages. Owing to 3D images, the recipients grasp more information details, remember them longer, and are more interested in the message content. Creating didactic presentations with the use of three-dimensional photographs or films is presented as a way of arousing interest, allowing direct participation in the cognitive process, and facilitating the reception of the transmitted content.

The article discusses the problem of growing depopulation of large cities in Poland, resulting from demographic changes and migrations, in particular. The author focuses on the process of moving away from cities, and the main goal is to show the influence such migrations exert on Polish suburbs. In addition, the article elaborates on possible evaluations of the phenomenon of urban depopulation: Is it to be seen as something negative or neutral? The research to date has shown that the urbanization of Poland (i.e., the percentage of Poles living in urban areas) has been decreasing in recent years. Researchers, interested in this phenomenon, conclude that it is a clear symptom of suburbanization.

Spatiotemporal modelling of infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) involves using a variety of epidemiological metrics such as regional proportion of cases and/or regional positivity rates. Although observing changes of these indices over time is critical to estimate the regional disease burden, the dynamical properties of these measures, as well as crossrelationships, are usually not systematically given or explained. Here we provide a spatiotemporal framework composed of six commonly used and newly constructed epidemiological metrics and conduct a case study evaluation. We introduce a refined risk estimate that is biased neither by variation in population size nor by the spatial heterogeneity of testing. In particular, the proposed methodology would be useful for unbiased identification of time periods with elevated COVID-19 risk without sensitivity to spatial heterogeneity of neither population nor testing coverage.We offer a case study in Poland that shows improvement over the bias of currently used methods. Our results also provide insights regarding regional prioritisation of testing and the consequences of potential synchronisation of epidemics between regions. The approach should apply to other infectious diseases and other geographical areas.