Volume 23 (2019): Issue 4 (October 2019)

Old maps, mainly from the period between 1890 and 1940, have been collected in the framework of the project “Old Maps of the Jizera Mountains”. These maps provide us with a complex picture, mainly of tourism, in this currently Czech–Polish territory.

The territory of the Jizera Mountains was inhabited mainly by a German-speaking population on both sides of the border until 1945. Yet it is interesting to examine how the border between the two states – in those times Czechoslovakia and Germany, now Czechia and Poland – was illustrated on these old maps. This article argues that the border was not perceived as a barrier as such until later on, mainly due to the ethnic change in the borderlands. It also reveals that the borders on the maps are of manifold nature and cannot be simply limited to the national borders.

Indian civilization has over 2500 years of mapping tradition. With the establishment of the Survey of India in 1767, British rulers initiated the mapping of colonial India with high precision and accuracy. They started mapping to establish British power and supremacy in the Indian subcontinent that portrayed a British image of India. Following independence in 1947, the Survey of India and other national agencies started mapping India for planning and development. Hence, questions have been raised that, how far British image of India have been transformed into an Indian image. In this context, in this paper an attempt has been made to analyse the mapping of India from the perspectives of transforming a colonial into a postcolonial image. The transformation occurred mainly in terms of purpose i.e. maps as a tool for the expansion of territory to planning, development and governance, from analogue to digital in method and in strategy from restricted to liberal access.

The paper presents the analysis of spatial suburbanization using a multi-indicator method. Based on features related to geodetic areas (according to the directions of their use) such as built-up areas, urbanised lands, arable lands, residential, recreation and leisure areas, road transport areas as well agricultural and forest areas transformed into local land development plans - six suburbanization indicators were developed. After the standardisation of such indicators, a summary index was obtained making it possible to determine the suburbanization degree. The validation of the proposed method was made by comparing individual municipalities with the unit type determined using the Webb method. The analysis made it clear that the only four units with spatial features of the city lying in the proximity of Warsaw, for which Polish capital could be enlarged are: Piastów, Pruszków, Marki, Józefów and possibly Sulejówek.

The form assumed contemporarily by spatial organization in South and Central America as a network of nodes and spatial linkages represents the outcome for the space of this region of long-acting external influences plus internal conditions that have – at different times in different ways – shaped spatial relationships and the manner in which space in this part of the world is planned. Naturally, the spatial structure of today’s economy is influenced further by globalization, with growing competition for access to resources, be these either mineral deposits or agricultural in nature. These impacts ensure that, notwithstanding the widely-voiced opinion on the need to protect nature in areas of the continent supporting moist tropical forests, and in the high Andes, the governments of the different countries continue to award concessions allowing corporations of global reach to exploit resources of value that are in demand worldwide. This aggressive “resources race” has its serious consequences with regard to the forms and scope the region’s spatial management and organization assume.

These processes ought to be regulated by spatial planning, which is thus failing to play its proper role at regional levels. Those researching South America refer without hesitation to the lack of planning and overexploitation of raw materials, with all the serious consequences this has for society, not least with regard to internal migration, expulsions, the impoverishment of groups in society deprived of their land, and so on.

Based on a survey of inter-municipal unions (IMUs) and inter-municipal companies (IMComs) in Poland, this article identifies the most common motives for launching inter-municipal cooperation and the most frequently reported outcomes. The declared motives are compared with the perceived outcomes, with a particular focus on mismatch situations: disappointments (when the expected gain was not realised) and unexpected outcomes (when the reported outcomes exceeded initial expectations). The research shows that the latter are reported more frequently than the former. The most frequently indicated motives for cooperation were related to financial benefits and included cost reduction and applying for additional funding. The “defensive” motive of IMC – cooperation to maintain the status quo – is practically absent. The data also suggests that cooperation can be perceived as “a value in its own right”.

The presented research concerns the methodology for selecting settlements and road networks from 1:250 000 to 1:500 000 and 1:1 000 000 scales. The developed methodology is based on the provisions of the Regulation of the Ministry of Interior from 17 November 2011. The correctness of the generalization principles contained in the Regulation has not yet been verified. Thus this paper aims to fulfil this gap by evaluating map specifications concerning settlement and road network generalizations.

The goal was to automate the selection process by using formalized cartographic knowledge. The selection operators and their parameters were developed and implemented in the form of a generalization model. The input data was the General Geographic Object Database (GGOD), whose detail level corresponds to 1:250 000 scale. The presented research is in line with works on the automation of GGOD generalization performed by the National Mapping Agency (NMA) in Poland (GUGiK). The paper makes the following contributions. First, the selection methodology contained in the Regulation was formalised and presented in the form of a knowledge base. Second, the models for the generalization process were developed. The developed methodology was evaluated by generalizing the settlements and roads in the test area. The results of the settlement and road network generalization for both 1:500 000 and 1:1 000 000 detail levels were compared with the maps designed manually by experienced cartographers.

Inquiry based science education has been more and more popular strategy in teaching sciences in recent years. Transregional pressure put by international, standardized knowledge and skills tests (e.g. PISA) to converge curricula (Rundgren 2015) of different European states paradoxically helps to promote the open inquiry method which involves the student in the teaching process. Earlier research done in many countries such as Turkey, Israel, Sweden, The Czech Republic (Heinz et al. 2017), Ireland (Dunne et al. 2013) or The Netherlands (Uum van Martina et al. 2016) shows the increase of interest in IBSE both in Europe and in the world.

Teaching geography in Polish primary schools follows international educational trends. This study analyses several proposals of educational activities connected with Space which support geography teaching. All of them are conducted with using open inquiry method, which is recommended in New National Curriculum of geography (Core Curriculum, 2017, Geography-classes V-VIII).