Tom 42 (2023): Zeszyt 1 (March 2023)

Excessive amounts of artificial light emitted into the lower atmosphere at night have already become an everyday feature of modern urban landscapes, and gradually also a phenomenon associated with areas located outside large human settlements. Urban islands of light have been the subject of targeted research conducted for several decades by scientists representing miscellaneous fields of science. In Toruń, regular research on the phenomenon of light smog has been carried out for several years at a number of sites located throughout the city. Recently, research has been started on the variability of the night sky brightness in a vertical gradient. To this end, repeatable measurements were made at specific altitudes at two locations in the city using a drone with an automatic light metre on board. The values of the night sky brightness thus obtained allowed us to determine its variability in the vertical gradient up to an altitude of 120 m, as well as to test the possibility of using drones in targeted studies of the light pollution phenomenon.

This dissertation has presented the results of measurements regarding the surface area of Morskie Oko and Wielki Staw lakes performed throughout the period of 140-years with the use of various measurement technologies and analyses of cartographic resources. The research has clearly demonstrated that the obtained results are diverse, which could be influenced by various environmental factors and the time difference of surveys conducted at the analysed objects. Wielki Staw is currently the largest lake in the Polish Tatra Mountains. Its surface area in 2021 covered 33.44 ha. Thus, it appeared to be larger than Morskie Oko, the surface area of which is 1.51 ha. It was also concluded that the difference in the size of these two reservoirs might increase over time since Morskie Oko is situated in an environment that undergoes dynamic transformations and, consequently, has an impact on the evolution of this lake. Moreover, the area surrounding Morskie Oko is one of the most popular tourist locations within the Tatra National Park, which may intensify the anthropogenic impact on the course of, among others, the shoreline.

The aim of the study is to characterise the changes in the proportion of impervious surfaces (ISs) in Poland and their impact on changes in temperature, air humidity, and cloud cover. The results of satellite image classification from 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2020, as well as meteorological data from the period 1981–2020 for the warm half of the year, were used. An analysis was performed making it possible to compare the changes in the proportion of ISs in 3 decades, i.e. 1991–2000, 2001–2010 and 2011–2020. In Poland, in the years 1991–2020, the total area of ISs increased by approximately 30%. At the same time, statistically significant positive trends in maximum temperature are visible throughout Poland, ranging from 0.48°C per 10 years to >0.90°C per 10 years. Trends in the magnitude of low-level cloud cover are negative throughout Poland and range from −2.7% to −2.3% per 10 years. The frequency of stratiform clouds is decreasing, while that of mid-level Cirrus and Cumulus clouds is increasing. The results show a relationship between the increase in ISs in Polish cities and changes in meteorological elements in their area and in the immediate vicinity, which were most pronounced in the first decade of the 21st century.

This study aims to evaluate land use and land cover (LULC) changes and associated impacts in the landscape structure and ecosystem services (ES) value in Lousã municipality, in Central Portugal. The results show that significant changes in LULC were recorded over the study period (1974–2018). Agricultural abandonment, expansion of woodland due to the promotion of the eucalyptus (EU) monoculture (chiefly Eucalyptus globulus), the invasion of exotic species (mainly Acacia dealbata) and the increase of built-up areas are the most significant changes that have shaped the landscapes of the study area. The analysis also revealed that the mean patch size has decreased whereas the number of patches increased. The results showed that although the EU and deciduous forest (DF) increased the ES value, the overall total ES value fell around 10% between 1974 and 2018, mainly due to the decrease in the supply of agricultural goods. Studies of this kind on local rural landscapes are vital when it comes to devising appropriate land management policies for the landscape level by considering the interaction between each element for sustainable development.

The research identified patterns in the multiannual course of start and end dates, and length of growing season (GS) in Central Europe since the end of the 19th century in selected cities of Central Europe in the period 1893–2020. GS start in the analysed stations was characterised by high year-to-year variability, particularly in those located more southwards, i.e. in Prague and Vienna. A smaller variability occurred in GS end dates. The GS was subject to prolongation, although these changes in particular cities were uneven and had different causes. In Toruń and Potsdam, its increase was caused by a greater shift of the end date, and in the remaining stations, it was determined by its earlier start date. Two subperiods were distinguished that differ in terms of intensity of changes of the start and end dates, as well as the length of the GS. The intensification was observed recently.

Kalimantan experiences fire hazards almost every year, which threaten the largest tropical forest in Southeast Asia. Climatic conditions, such as increasing surface temperature and decreasing rainfall, become important especially when El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) occurs. Studies on fire are commonly conducted based on the climatic condition such as the dry or wet season, but those which focused on analysis of fire occurrences with the specific ENSO phases are still limited. This study aims to identify the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall, land surface temperature, and soil moisture and analyses the distribution of hotspots in Kalimantan from 2014 to 2020 during different ENSO phases. The data used are Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) for hotspot analysis, Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) for rainfall analysis, MODIS Land Surface Temperature (LST) for surface temperature analysis and Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) for soil moisture analysis. The methods used were descriptive and spatial analyses based on each ENSO phase, which were then combined to analyse the temporal and spatial distribution of fire, rainfall, LST and soil moisture. The temporal distribution shows a positive relationship between ENSO, rainfall, LST, soil moisture and hotspots with a confidence level of 90% in the dry months of August–October. Fire occurred in most parts of West and Central Kalimantan, associated with low elevation, organic soil types and agricultural peatland. The average trend of increasing hotspots is 17.4% in the El Nino phase and decreasing hotspots by 84.7% in the La Nina phase during August–October in Kalimantan.

Generative adversarial networks (GAN) opened new possibilities for image processing and analysis. Inpainting, dataset augmentation using artificial samples, or increasing spatial resolution of aerial imagery are only a few notable examples of utilising GANs in remote sensing (RS). The normalised difference vegetation index (NDVI) ground-truth labels were prepared by combining RGB and NIR orthophotos. The dataset was then utilised as input for a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) to perform an image-to-image translation. The main goal of the neural network was to generate an artificial NDVI image for each processed 256 px × 256 px patch using only information available in the panchromatic input. The network achieved a structural similarity index measure (SSIM) of 0.7569 ± 0.1083, a peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of 26.6459 ± 3.6577 and a root-mean-square error (RSME) of 0.0504 ± 0.0193 on the test set, which should be considered high. The perceptual evaluation was performed to verify the method's usability when working with a real-life scenario. The research confirms that the structure and texture of the panchromatic aerial RS image contain sufficient information for NDVI estimation for various objects of urban space. Even though these results can highlight areas rich in vegetation and distinguish them from the urban background, there is still room for improvement regarding the accuracy of the estimated values. The research aims to explore the possibility of utilising GAN to enhance panchromatic images (PAN) with information related to vegetation. This opens exciting opportunities for historical RS imagery processing and analysis.

The development of geotourism already represents an element that must be taken into consideration by the Administrative Territorial Units (ATUs) in order to obtain a sustainable economy. This study was divided into three main stages. In the first part of the study, an assessment of geomorphosites from the Carpathian and Sub-Carpathian area of Vrancea County was done, resulting in the ranking of geomorphosites. The second stage focussed on an analysis of the local economies in the studied area at the level of each ATU and four-digit Classification of National Economic Activities (NACE) code for a period of 19 years (2000–2018) using four economic indicators to determine the share of the tourism sector in the economy of each ATU. The data was used to generate trend matrices and relevant cartographic materials about the contribution of tourism to each ATU's local economy in the analysed area. The last stage consisted in drawing a parallel between the concentration of geomorphosites in the analysed area, the score obtained by them in the evaluation and the tourism sector's share trend in local economies. This study shows how the ATUs with a positive share trend in the tourism sector of the economy are directly influenced by the presence of geomorphosites in their administrative territory or in their proximity. It also emphasises the significance of geomorphosites in increasing tourism complexity in the study area, as well as in the development of tourism and local economies.

This paper focuses on the analysis of the urban macroform in terms of urban compactness and dispersion (urban sprawl) in the inter-communal grouping of Batna, which is composed of four adjacent interconnected communal districts: Batna, Tazoult, Oued Chaaba and Fesdis. First, the urban macroform is examined by mapping the urban areas that are characterised by morphological changes over a period of 36 years utilising remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) through satellite images taken from Landsat TM and ETM +, Sentinel 2 (1984, 1996, 2008 and 2020). Next, the Shannon entropy method is utilised to determine compactness or dispersion of urban growth over time. In addition, a fractal analysis based on the box-counting method is used to assess the complexity and to explain the morphological reality of the macroform through urban changes. In order to predict the future change scenarios and spatial distributions of land use and land cover in the coming years the hybrid cellular automata (CA) – Markov method is used. The results of the remote sensing, Shannon entropy values and fractal indices demonstrate that Batna inter-municipal grouping has experienced moderate urban development according to the observed urban sprawl between 1984 and 2020. These data are helpful in the urban planning and to provide decision-making tools.

The functioning of plant associations, including forest associations, in the coastal cliff edge zone of the Pomeranian Bay in the Wolin National Park (WNP) is determined by short-term factors related to the dynamics of erosion and denudation processes and long-term phytoclimatic conditions' changes. The study presents a temporary analysis of the occurrence of sea abrasion and water and aeolian erosion, based on the applied hydrometeorological threshold values. The influence of changes in phytoclimatic conditions on the development and productivity of coastal forests with the dominant species of Fagus sylvatica was also presented. Assessments of spatial susceptibility to erosion of the cliff coast and the existing plant associations were also carried out in conditions of the risk of coast erosion. It was found that 55% of the cliff edge zone of the Pomeranian Bay of the WNP and the forest associations (mainly Luzulo pilosae-Fagetum) occurring there are in the zone of particular risk of increased erosion and denudation processes. In addition, unfavourable trends in changes in phytoclimatic conditions in the 21st century were found, which reflect climate changes unfavourable to the development of beech forests on Wolin Island.

The present study concerns the determination of the characteristics of bioclimatic conditions, as well as the synoptic situations related to the occurrence of thermal stress conditions, in Poland. The study was based on daily data obtained from the Institute of Meteorology and Water Management – National Research Institute from the period 1966–2020 for 37 synoptic stations in Poland. Based on the obtained data, values of the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) were calculated. The occurrence of heat stress increases from the north to the south, corresponding with the variability of influx of solar radiation, and is modified by factors at a smaller spatial scale. The results of this paper evidently point to the cooling effect of the waters of the Baltic Sea. In circulation conditions favouring strong and very strong heat stress, e.g. in two of the designated circulation types (T1 and T2), the occurrence of an expansive high-pressure ridge in the Atlantic-European area is typical, stretching from the region of the Azores High towards the north-east, with a secondary high developed within its boundaries. In the third of the designated circulation types (T3), the high-pressure area extends from the Azores eastwards, reaching the Black Sea. Each of the three circulation patterns associated with the unfavourable biometeorological conditions of very strong and extreme cold stress in Poland is characterised by strong pressure centres formed in the Euroatlantic region, triggering the airflow from the northern (T4) or eastern (T5, T6) sector.