State Urban Policy – concept, Institutional scope and structure in integrative management of the development. The management of space, as a common good, closely linked with economic and social development in Poland – meets a number of barriers. One of the major barriers is flawed and inefficient system of spatial planning and the lack of explicit national urban policy. The causes of this situation are manifold and complex. There is a week understanding that spatial planning has regulatory function and that is a main measure of intervention in inefficient – by its nature – market mechanism of real estate development and location of new construction objects. The existing in Poland since 2015 formal document under the title “National City Policy” is in fact the part of cohesion policy. It formulates only very soft policy recommendations concerning spatial development which are identified in different cities and their functional areas, whereas financial measures go separately through sectoral programs. In the article author consider the future place of national urban policy in integrative system of development policy which combine economic, social and build environmental dimensions. Than he analyzes the relationship between national spatial policy and the urban polices at the national and local level. Finally he presents some general conclusions and recommendations. According to the author, because of complexity of the issues and challenges, the detailed formulation of state urban policies and its implementation must lie within the competence of a strong governmental institution (responsible for research, monitoring and evaluation, elaboration of visions and scenarios in a broad global context). The primary partner in the state urban policy, co-responsible for its success, should be adequately, provincial and local governments. Through the cooperation of state and territorial authorities, is the most strongly manifested multilevel model of “public governance”. The special role belongs to the local authorities due to their assigned competence in creation of local by law in respect of land use and building allocation. Efficient urban policy must have two dimensions; horizontal and territorial. Horizontal domain should belong to the state (national planning, passing the law, systemic intervention, etc.). Territorial dimension should belong first of all to local urban policies but formulated and implemented within the framework and measures defined by national spatial policy and operational state urban policies.

Assumptions of the major political and legal documents of the European Union, dedicated to energy efficiency and energy performance of buildings provide the Member States with relevant instruments supporting improvement of the ambient air qualityby dissemination of measures reducing energy demand and promotion of renewable energysources. Mainstreaming EU legislation into national regulations constitutes initial stage of the long term process of supporting implementation of energy efficiency measures. Experience in the improvement of energy performance of the residential buildings revealslimited efficiency of the measures implemented up to date, which results in significantair pollution of Polish cities. The national Action Plans had adopted a limited scope of recommendations included in the EU directives, hence the process meets significant challenges.The article describes adaptation of the relevant EU directives as well as the National Urban Policy in terms of the potential to effectively address faced challenges.

In the era of transition to a low-carbon economy, optimal use of the developmental resources within urban regions expresses the need to limit suburbanization and increase the energy efficiency. Solutions are sought as an alternative for the suburban housing estates embodying the image high-quality life in the American Dream style. Aspects of the urban innovation, serving the public sector as a tool for improvement of the quality in residential environment, are considered in the article. Selected examples (mainly German) are described with reference to 1) the changes in the standards of housing development, 2) large-scale renewal programs for residential areas, 3) development and dissemination of urban design (the technique). The interaction between scientific research and the implementation sphere, remaining in the hands of local governments, is important here. Synergy, at a local level, is of key importance in at least four aspects in urban development: 1) solving complex, atypical problems, 2) the public sector being a strong (independent) partner, 3) adaptation of foreign concepts, from other planning systems/cultures and morphologically different urban structures, 4) strengthening the position in relations with the EU.

The main objective of the article is an attempt to indicate factors which determine the image of a city as a good place to live as well as to reveal the ways in which they affect the citizens’ quality of life. In order to do so, the author selected the city of Gdynia which is perceived as the best city to live in by its citizens. Among the most important factors determining the quality of life in general there are: the scale of a city, local identity, public spaces, symbolic places, housing environment, perception of a place, personal satisfaction of a place where a particular person lives, urban policies as well as presence and activeness of local leaders. The article presents the results of a social study carried out by the author herself during two periods of time – in 2004 and 2014 as well as the results of the Social Diagnosis 2015.

Participatory budgeting has become an important element of empowerment of the residents in the process of spatial planning in Polish cities. The citizens gained the right and a concrete tool to implement their ideas on how to change the city spaces. Many of the projects of participatory budgeting are the results of serious negligence in basic infrastructure in the cities. On the other hand, some of them are an expression of great ingenuity and innovative approach of the citizens to the modernization and arrangements in urban spaces. The civic projects improve quality of life and increase the utility value of public spaces. The main aim of the paper is to review and classify tasks changing public spaces under the formula of participatory budgeting. The research in a form of diagnosis enables to present the directions of participatory budgeting. It helps to monitor and evaluate the social impacts in the process of city space transformations. The subject of analysis are participatory budgets in Łódź and Katowice based on editions in 2015/2016 and 2016/2017.

During the last decades we observe growing importance of cities for socio-economic development, what concern especially larger cities. Currently patterns of socio-economic processes are very diff erent from those registered at the end of XX century. An important role in revival of cities played cohesion policy of European Union. Poland is an example of very well structured settlement system what could be used as an asset to avoid medium development trap for polish economy. In Poland issues of urban policy formulation are much better addressed in last generation of development strategies on central and regional levels.

A number of thorough studies characterizing national and regional innovation systems have been published over the last years but what is relatively new is the theme of local innovation systems. In the era of increasing emphasis on urban issues in the development policies of countries and organizations such as the European Union and the location of innovation in the centre of regional development debate, it is justifi ed to ask how the measures are directed to the provincial cities. The article concentrates on 5 voivodeship cities as the main centers of regions with the highest number of institutions that usually build local innovation systems, three of which are located in the less developed regions in Poland.

The article describes selected activities included in the climate change adaptation program implemented by the city of Lisbon. It analysed changes in public spaces, ways of implementing individual tasks, as well as planning documents, architectural, technical and natural solutions. Special attention was paid to the role of research in shaping and directing urban policy.
Economical management of drinking water and rainwater is integrated with the creation of new public green spaces with different functions. It is evident that there is a desire to create a continuity of green zones, where new plantings not only promote the improvement of perceived thermal comfort, but also become new attractive pedestrian and bicycle routes. Of great interest to residents are the newly created allotment gardens, aimed at the development of urban agriculture. Some of the investments, located in tourist areas, are also of image importance, which helps build the ‘green brand of the city’, and the appreciation of Lisbon’s efforts in this regard was the award of the title of European Green Capital in 2020. The biggest challenge, however, is still to improve the accessibility and quality of public transportation.
Observing the implementations, it can be seen that all pro-climate measures coincide with the broader public interest and have positive effects on the quality of the design of public spaces.