The article is devoted to economic reasons for creation of artificial lands, including artificial islands, and problems related to their functioning. The scientific achievements of economic geography constitute a theoretical basis of the analysis. Economic reasons for constructing artificial islands in particular may, to a large extent, be explained by reference to a new economic geography of Paul Krugman. Therefore, the Authors associate the dynamically developing phenomenon of building artificial islands with the process of glocalisation. On the other hand, functioning of artificial islands – in their opinion – may basically be reduced to a concept of the balance of a company, as an artificial island may be treated as its counterpart. It has been adopted worldwide to talk about artificial islands in two ways – as potential areas of conflict and as oases of luxury – a perfect place to live, isolated from the hustle and bustle of the city and from unwanted people. These types of territories can contribute to the creation of ideal cities, turning into reality the utopian visions of happy cities, mentioned by philosophers over the centuries, starting from the time of Plato. However, an artificial island can also contribute to the escalation of various conflicts in the international arena, as the creation of artificial lands brings some kind of competitive advantage in economic or military terms. An additional area of land may in fact contribute to the development of, for example, transport – here, the seaports or airports may be created. It can also be a space for the development of the wind power industry or, for example, chemical industry, which are often somehow burdensome to the local community. Artificial islands may also be some kind of storages, where it is possible to securely locate, for example, powerful servers that store data. Artificially created lands happen to become also the areas contributing to military advantage, where military bases, radar stations are built, and the transit of goods transported by ships can be controlled. Thus, it is clear that an artificial island can become an important element shaping the development of a given country, but assuming that its construction is carried out under control, in accordance with a specific law. The maritime law differentiates here the terms of island and artificial island. An island is a common name for a land surrounded by water [Jędrusik, 2005], created as a result of natural geological processes, which must rise above the surface of water [Galea, 2009], also during a high tide. Islands have their own territorial waters, contiguous zones, exclusive economic zones [UNCLS]. Whereas, artificial islands are made by man, who used to create these types of spaces from the Middle Ages, both in Europe, and in the area of the Pacific Ocean or in South America. The definition of an artificial island was first formulated in 1930, during the Hague Codification Conference, where it was established that an artificial island becomes an island when it is fixed to the seabed [Grote Stoutenburg, 2015]. This artificially created land should also – according to the lawyer Gilbert Gidel – fulfil the same functions as natural islands, so it should be possible for man to exploit it [Galea, 2009]. It should also be remembered that according to these arrangements, an artificial island cannot be a temporary installation, i.e. it cannot be removed overnight [Galea, 2009], which is possible in the case of a drilling platform, although the law in this matter is still not clear. One important information is also the fact that, according to the law in force, artificially created areas do not have their own territorial sea [UNCLS, V, 60, 8]. This entry was established so that individual states would not increase their territories [Galea, 2009]. Nowadays, however, it turns out that the definitions and the law in force have become insufficient in the situation where new technologies of construction of artificial islands are in place. For instance, the definition of an artificial island does not cover the case of floating islands. According to the United Nations Convention on the law of the sea, only the coastal countries have the right to build artificial islands [UNCLS, V, 60, 1], and they can exercise power over them, which is connected with issuing relevant decisions with regard to customs, fiscal, health, security and immigration laws and regulations [UNCLS, V, 60, 2], that should be binding thereof. The involved countries also have some responsibilities, as they must inform the whole world about having built or destroyed this kind of land [UNCLS, V, 60, 3]. Also the location of an artificial island is crucial, as it cannot interfere with the existing sea routes [UNCLS, V, 60, 7]. A country having an artificial island is also obliged to establish a protection zone around this type of area [UNCLS, V, 60, 4]. This last entry can induce individual states to feel that by means of creating artificial islands, they can increase their territorial range, and thus, achieve a kind of advantage over other countries, which can lead to all sorts of conflicts. This article is mainly devoted to the economic rationales in favour of creating this kind of artificial lands and their functioning. It seems that economic geography is a good theoretical platform for this kind of considerations. In this context we can observe that building artificial islands is related to the process known as glocalisation. The economic motives for building artificial islands can be largely explained by reaching to Paul Krugman’s new economic geography. Whereas, the functioning of artificial islands in principle can be narrowed down to the concept of microeconomic equilibrium of firm, as an artificial island can be treated as its analogue. Artificial islands as a manifestation of glocalisation also the formation of artificial islands can be interpreted in the light of the phenomenon of glocalisation. It is justified by the fact that glocalisation is a universal process and affects, similarly to globalisation, almost every field of human activity. It is mainly concerned with, but not limited to, economic activity. The worldwide processes of integration described by the above-mentioned notions (i.e. glocalisation and globalisation), take place not only in the area of economics, but also, for example, in culture, and have already taken place (and they still occur) in technology. However, in the area of economics, these processes have a somehow more intricate nature. In this case it is not only about imitation, i.e. transferring of certain patterns and their possible local adaptation or not, as it is especially in the case of culture (and in technology to some extent). It is not just about the fact, as it is especially in technology (although in the culture to some extent as well) that the nature of the physical world is similar everywhere, so optimal technical solutions applied in different places should be quite similar. The point is that in the area of economics, these processes are the result of mechanisms also other than imitation or resulting from a unitary physical nature of the world, since in the economics, these two processes are the effect of transformations mutually conditioning themselves that change the functioning of economic algorithms governing the world economy. Explaining the nature of these processes in this case is a bit more difficult from the theoretical point of view. Whereas, from the practical point of view, the formulation of possible recommendations for the economic policy, both for the entire countries as well as for individual microeconomic entities, turns out to be very difficult. Of course, in the area of culture, these phenomena can also be complex, but without so significant consequences for politics and decision makers, as in the case of economics. The notion of glocalisation and the essence of glocalisation as a two-way process Lexically, the notion of glocalisation has been created by the fusion of the words globalisation and localisation, and according to the intention of its first users, this term was supposed to mean a process that combines the trend to produce for the global market, with simultaneous adjusting of the product to local conditions and needs. It is, therefore, about working according to the principle “think globally act locally”, and originally this term referred only to the narrow area of economics, that is to marketing. However, today, the process of glocalisation includes also, for example, indigenisation, creolisation, and hybridisation accompanying globalisation. These notions were originally related to phenomena occurring in culture, after the notion of glocalisation has been transposed by R. Robertson [2004] from marketing economics to culture. It turns out, though, that also in the area of economics as such, these three phenomena occur and they can be extensively explained on the basis of the theory of trade, and especially on the basis of the so-called new economic geography of P. Krugman [1997, 1998]. A deeper analysis leads to the conclusion that on the grounds of economic theory, glocalisation should be interpreted as a process of trade expansion, which has certain specific features, observed for some time in the economic reality of the world [compare Kuciński, 2011 a]. Currently, glocalisation should not be understood only as originally, as a globalisation taking into account the needs of the local recipient of a “global product”, i.e. a product intended for the market of the entire world. This is also the situation, when a local product becomes a global one, even if it happens only partially (i.e. the product is subject to internationalisation, although not necessarily immediately becoming a global one). In the first case, we have only the situation, where the global product is produced in some different versions, in order to respond better to the needs of the local consumer, and increase sales, in this way getting ahead of the competition. In the second case, we have the situation, where opening of local markets to the production intentionally planned for the market of the entire world is accompanied by opening of the world to the local production. For the global product to penetrate further to numerous but narrow local markets, it must be adjusted more to the local needs and conditions, also, for example, cultural ones. At the same time however, the vast world market is able to absorb even not so much excellent local products, usually produced in relatively small volumes. The window for glocalisation becomes a window to the world in the opposite direction, which means it can be, but does not have to be, a development opportunity for particular locations. Static reasons behind glocalisation The static reasons for the occurrence of glocalisation include the logistic and the economic reasons sensu stricto. The first relate to the natural transport economics, consisting in that the consequential costs of transport can be lowered if on the way back the means of transport is used in some manner. This results in searching for goods that for a small fee are barely profitable to be transported in the return stream of the means of transport. The basic stream of appealing goods can, thus, partially cover the costs of transport of goods that are less attractive on the way back – goods that in the existing cost conditions would not be transported independently. Still, these goods are transported because the means of transport must return to its initial point, to make its another basic course. “Breaking the window” to a local market, consisting in, for example, building a port that can operate in both ways or abolishing administrative restrictions (duties), will also generate exports of local goods, and not only imports of global products, just for logistic reasons. Such a port can involve the creation of an artificial island. Apart from logistic reasons, there are also sheer economic (also static) reasons, resulting from the nature of international trade. A trade imbalance consisting of a surplus growth in imports over exports in terms of value, causes (to be more precise, contributes to) a fall in the exchange rate of the local currency, so the foreign products become relatively more expensive on the domestic market and the domestic products relatively cheaper on the foreign markets. This phenomenon will foster a relative growth in the value of exports of local products, for which the price elasticity in exports is high. These exports, at least partially, will compensate for the surplus in imports. Also in the countries prevailing on the market of global goods (usually it applies to more developed economies), a similar phenomenon will occur, but in the opposite direction. The trade imbalance consisting of a surplus growth in exports over imports in terms of value, will cause (contribute to) an increase in the exchange rate of the currency of the given country. This will cause the foreign products to become relatively cheaper on the domestic market and the domestic products relatively more expensive on the foreign markets. This phenomenon will foster a relative growth in the value of imports of local products from other countries, at least partially compensating for the surplus in exports (and also here it is about products with high price elasticity). These purely economic processes are here understood in value terms, i.e. all goods and services subject to exchange are expressed in monetary units. A very large non-equilibrium in the balance of foreign trade is therefore unsustainable in the long run. The penetration of global goods, usually produced by technical civilisations preponderant in a given period (i.e. the centres belonging to the so-called core), to foreign local centres that do not belong to the core (the so-called periphery), will be always accompanied by a transport of local goods from the periphery to the core. This usually means a continuous presence of a development opportunity for countries that are relatively retarded, which theoretically can use exports as a development lever in overcoming their relative backwardness (vide the so-called Asian Tigers) [Kuciński, 2011 a]. Here, we are considering the total streams of exports and imports. The imbalance in economic terms in bilateral relations can be compensated in multilateral trade (polygonal trade), which is facilitated by e.g. the application of a unified standardised container technology from the point of view of logistics. Dynamic reasons behind glocalisation The above mentioned static reasons concerned a situation in which the cost algorithms governing the foreign trade did not change substantially. However, in the long run, the most important component of cost circumstances in international trade, i.e. the costs of transport, can significantly change. Their reduction can happen as a result of the technological progress, including in particular the introduction of new propulsion technologies in the means of transport, such as: sail, steam engine, internal combustion engine, electric engine, which subsequently are more and more economically efficient in the field of their application. A particularly important matter is also the introduction of new construction materials, that is mainly steel, instead of former materials, that is mostly wood, allowing for designing and building of larger means of transport with larger capacities, which due to the positive economies of scale are cheaper per units of transported goods. Substantially important is the investment activity in the scope of building an infrastructure supporting the means of transport. This applies to the investments in structures such as ports, channels, roads, bridges, rail roads, etc. Also a suitable investment level into the replacement of older generations of the means of transport by the new ones is important. Recently, decreasing in sizes gained importance, in particular in the weight of the newer generations of some goods, which are much cheaper in transport, while maintaining their utility. Such goods have a larger market range compared to the traditional ones. For example, flat-screen TVs, and computer monitors, keeping the same or even better utility, are much cheaper in transport compared to traditional CRT devices. So, they are able to “penetrate” the space of the international trade much more. One of the elements of this process of lowering costs of transport may also be an artificial island as a seaport or an airport, when there is no other way to avoid the use of this solution. The decrease in the costs of transport per unit causes, firstly, an increase of the number of goods, the shipment of which is profitable. More and more goods which were untradeable (untradables) become commodities that can be internationally traded (tradables). This happens until a ceiling is reached, at which all goods become tradables, except for some relatively small group of goods, and particularly services closely related to a given location. Secondly, the streams of trade of each commodity will grow. Theoretically, this is going to happen until a certain level is reached, at which the distribution of all goods becomes uniform (proportional to the spatial distribution of the aggregated demand) in the entire space of the integrated markets, assuming uniform tastes and needs of the consumers [Kotlewski, 2013]. In theory, each commodity, which used to be untradeable, will eventually become a commodity uniformly available throughout the common trading space, that is in the entire common market. In the history of civilisation, there were also new products, which immediately became tradables (such as cars), and nowadays also goods that immediately become global products (such as mobile phones). Significant differences in consumer tastes and needs are levelled following globalisation. With respect to a single commodity or rather a group of substitutable goods, these processes firstly cause the appearance of a competition between many centres that initially produced a given commodity (or a group of substitutable goods), as the barrier in the form of high costs of transport, protecting from competition, disappears. This competition is won by some centres at the expense of others, and finally centres prevailing in the production of a given good evolve, due to an initial advantage resulting from a favourable geographical position or an advantage achieved historically. Because of some substitutability between many goods and their frequent complementarity, and most of all, due to their similarity in relative transport conditions, this issue should be analysed for a “bundle” of goods with similar transport costs, the bundle of commercial goods specific for a given historical period. In this way, the above-mentioned centres that belong to the so-called core and the so-called periphery emerge in terms of economic activity. In a given historical period, the centres belonging to the core are usually more advanced than those from the periphery also in other civilisation fields. This phenomenon has been accelerated and amplified in the 19th century, causing over time that the economics gained preponderance, or in any case, started to play a far greater role, in relation to the political and military factors, in the emergence of such centres forming a “constellation” of countries belonging to the core. The last stage of this process, especially from the economic point of view, is globalisation. Its final result is the formation of three super-centres, of a triad of countries. It includes some of the countries of the Far East (starting from Japan), Western Europe and North America. The countries of this triad, gained an almost complete dominance over the rest of the world in exports of global goods. The dynamics of the falling costs of transport does not stop at this level, though. With further decrease of the costs of transport, the logistic infrastructure associated with the countries of the core can be used by the peripheral countries to distribute the goods produced locally on the immense global market, as the costs of transport will gradually fall further, below the difference in the costs of production between the core and the periphery, difference resulting mainly from differences in the costs of labour and the costs of congestion (e.g. prices of land and renting premises). This phenomenon leads also to the so-called relocation of the economic activity from the core to the periphery. Given the size of the global market compared to a local market, in the conditions of increasingly lower costs of transport, the local centre can effectively sell its own, local products, which are not necessarily outstanding in quality. Taking over of the relocated production of goods subject to standardisation, strengthens this process of bilateral trade integration even more. In its later development, this centre, which was initially peripheral, can move from price competition to quality competition, which ultimately can mean further a shifting of the given local centre to the group of countries belonging to the current core – but it requires time, and as it is known is not always successful (vide the middle development trap), also because it increasingly interferes with the interests of countries of the current core. In turn, at this stage of development, the centres belonging to the core are left only with further adjustment of the global product to the already less numerous unconquered small local markets, that is acting in accordance with the original marketing meaning of the term glocalisation or, what can be increasingly difficult, but in more modern times often proved to be effective, the continuation of bringing to life new global products at the faster pace than the process of relocation of the manufacturing of standardised products. In the economy based increasingly on services, the countries of the core also take over for themselves supplying the global market with the most profitable kinds of services. Il va de soi, that currently glocalisation in the field of international economics and in the field of regional science, must be understood more broadly as a process involving also the migration of production factors, besides the two-way movement of goods. The so-called relocation is naturally accompanied by indigenisation, creolisation, and hybridisation, as the market economy will explore different combined solutions on its own in the search for the best one at a given stage of development and in the given conditions. When we divide goods into bundles with similar costs of transport, it can be concluded that for many such bundles of goods, the process of relocation is already well advanced, while for other bundles of goods the process of concentration continues in the centres belonging to the core. This last phenomenon, involving simultaneous occurrence of relocation and concentration of the economic activity should also be considered as a phenomenon consistent with the process known as glocalisation and it is also the integral part of the new economic geography of P. Krugman [1997, 1998]. Unpredictability of global integration process outcomes The processes described above cause, among others, that the future development of the centres belonging to the core and the existing periphery becomes difficult to be correctly predicted. It is not exactly clear in which direction will the evolution of the economic geography of the world go, as an element of chaos is appearing in this process and it is happening at the time, when with Paul Krugman’s new economic geography the above phenomena are successfully formally explained, and it can be said that they were basically predictable, with the exception of the political and military factor which used to be more important before in the creation of core civilisation centres. The creation of artificial islands as ports of strategic importance, sometimes determining even the civilisational development of certain areas, can be considered as an intervention element in these processes. Such an example would be Venice, which given some assumptions, can be regarded as a kind of structure in the nature of an artificial island. Unpredictability here means as much as the fact that it is unknown whether and which centres of the core are doomed to fail in the coming future. It is also unknown which parts of the periphery will become part of the core. The core, consisting of a constellation of a certain number of countries, in a very long run, takes the form of an “amoeba” crawling over the planet, whose behaviour, much before the occurrence of these considerations on globalisation, glocalisation and the new economic geography, was governed by processes not quite deterministic. It is because this evolution is subject to too many variables and by some analogy, it can be stated that it is governed by chaos. This analogy is the move of multiple stars in the space. It is well known that the location of double stars can be foreseen, it is difficult to foresee the location of triple stars, but the location of multiple stars, starting from quadruple stars cannot be deterministically foreseen, as the number of variables in the equations precludes their solution, and this problem remains impassable, also on the grounds of theoretical mathematics. In this case, the deterministic issue changes into a probabilistic one. What are the variables that for the purpose of this analysis (rather qualitative) will be grouped and named more generally as circumstances? In the bilateral relationship between the core and the periphery, we have at least three groups of them. Firstly, it is not known whether the given country from the periphery will make use of the chance to join the core in the conditions of today’s stage of the broadly understood glocalisation, as it is known that it happens only sometimes (e.g. in the case of the above-mentioned Asian Tigers). The process of joining the core is not only a deterministic mathematical economic process at the macroeconomic level, but it is also related to the development of some cultural and institutional features (business culture, work ethos, law and order institutions, education, optimistic mentality, etc.). The leadership of the given country must be of high quality for a long period of time and be fortunate when making some risky decisions. There were countries that made rational decisions, but which historically turned out to be wrong. Secondly, since not everyone will join the core, it cannot be prejudged whether a country of the established core will not be able to stay there. Its strength on the world market as a large country of the core can allow it (like to the Sumo wrestler) to carry out such an economic policy which will compensate for these elements of the glocalisation process that are disadvantageous to the centres belonging to the core. A natural economic process can be turned into a controlled one, taking into account a deliberate use of the advantage already held, such as, for example, in the case of the so-called strategic trade policy. Large countries of the core can dictate to their economic environment regulatory solutions and standards that are most comfortable to them and are responding to their own geographical positions. They can also monopolise some activities (e.g. stock exchanges), which with the force of inertia will remain in the existing area of the core. Thirdly, what is also associated with the above-mentioned second group of circumstances, services, that are gaining in significance, are largely free from Krugmanian algorithms. For banking, financial and insurance services, the costs of transport are irrelevant, whereas the initial advantage of the massiveness of the core over the peripheral countries is significant. The peripheral countries in a given period, the so-called emerging markets and emerging economies, can get stuck mostly in the so-called middle development trap. Internationalisation and indigenisation of economic activity The internationalisation of the economic activity in the context presented here should be understood as a phenomenon consisting of not only the production of goods intended in advance for the global market, but also consisting of the use of global resources during their production, without discrimination on the grounds of origin. Those are resources such as raw materials, but also (and especially) semi-finished products and components. Today, most of the global products contain components from many parts of the world. For the countries of the core it means relocation of some stages of production to the peripheral countries. It is facilitated as the so-called “brand” of the product, usually insurmountably guarded by the countries of the core, refers rather to the finished product. Relocation of a part of the production from the core means locating the production on the periphery. In this way, the creation of a more competitive global product starts to be accompanied by the search for relevant locations, which have not been taken into account previously, for the production of its components. This phenomenon should also be considered as part of the glocalisation process. Of course, the resources include also the capital resources (in the case of which globalisation happened earlier), which nowadays flows in two directions, i.e. both from the core to the periphery, and from the periphery to the core, and the labour resources (although in this case to a limited extent), when e.g. appropriate experts are searched for on the global labour market. But there is also the indigenisation of the economic activity. It is a situation, when during the production of the global product, located in a particular country partly on the basis of external factor resources, i.e. for example external components and external management, and possibly others, these external factor resources are replaced by local factor resources. The variants of these phenomena are creolisation and hybridisation. Creolisation best refers to culture, and means blending of “global” culture with local culture (formerly culture of a metropolis controlling a given colony with the own culture of the colony) inseparably. In the case of production of goods, it can be understood as the production on the basis of a mixture of components of different origin, including in particular mixed components, containing inseparably both the elements produced locally and globally, elements involving also the mixed production factor resources, including the mixed local and world technical knowledge (which somehow approaches this phenomenon to an analogous one occurring in culture). In turn, hybridisation concerns the production of products on the basis of combining some components, or larger parts from different geographical origins, components that are sometimes based on completely different technical thoughts (e.g. the construction of portions of aircraft fuselage from aluminium in the “honeycomb” technology or from composite materials, sometimes completely interchangeably). In this context, indigenisation, creolisation, and hybridisation should also be considered as a manifestation of glocalisation. An artificial island treated as a real and virtual port (which will be discussed later on) will strengthen these processes. Homogenisation and heterogenisation of locations Homogenisation of locations is about different locations becoming uniform between each other, as a result of displacing of local products by global products that are similar around the world. It can include also local products which by means of internationalisation gradually take on the features of global products. Due to their continuously increasing share on the local markets, the growth rate of global products is higher than that of the local ones in the so-called long run. This results in their more beneficial impact on the pace of economic growth than in the case of local products. The peripheral countries that want to catch up with the countries of the core and to join the core should, therefore, launch the production of global products in their homelands (even if they are only components), and transform their own local products into internationalised products, and in time even global products. As these global products are heterogeneous, from the point of view of their components (more generally, the contribution of production factors of different origin), it is mainly about the participation in their production. Of course,

Postępujące zmiany klimatyczne negatywnie wpływają na środowisko życiowe człowieka. W przestrzeniach miejskich szczególnie uciążliwy jest wzrost temperatury powietrza, który prowadzi do coraz częstszych i intensywniejszych fal upałów. W celu dostosowania przestrzeni miejskich do nowych warunków klimatycznych konieczne jest badanie oraz realizacja działań o charakterze adaptacyjnym, takich jak rozwiązania oparte na przyrodzie (NBS – nature based solutions) – inspirowane naturą, zrównoważone oraz wydajne ekologicznie, społecznie i finansowo. W niniejszym artykule przedstawiono zastosowanie pnączy na ścianach budynków jako przykład rozwiązania opartego na przyrodzie, które prowadzi do obniżenia emperatury powietrza oraz wzrostu komfortu termicznego. Przeprowadzone badania dowodzą, że dla analizowanej przestrzeni osiedlowej w dzielnicy Warszawa-Bemowo istnieje możliwość wprowadzenia proponowanego rozwiązania oraz że jest ono akceptowane przez większość mieszkańców.

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W nowej, "ekologicznej" erze budynki, parki, ciągi komunikacyjne powinny nie tylko kreować przestrzeń, ale promować nowe koncepcje związane ze świadomo-ścią odpowiedzialnego użytkowania środowiska naturalnego w miastach. Narzę-dziem do wdrożenia tego niesłychanie ważnego zdania mogą zostać mikroalgi. Ich zastosowanie w najprostszej postaci polega na użyciu ich jako elementu fasad budynków, zielonych części ciągów komunikacyjnych oraz jako instalacji w parkach miejskich. Mikroalgi oprócz funkcji dekoracyjnych mogą w przyszłości stać się ważnym elementem w produkcji tlenu, redukcji dwutlenku węgla, oczyszczania zanieczyszczeń z wody oraz produkcji biopaliw i żywności -gdzie budynki, parki, pasaże zmienią swój charakter z pasywnego na mający zdolność adoptowania się i dostosowania do aktualnych potrzeb użytkowników, jako żyjący, oddychający obiekt wspomagający zrównoważone funkcjonowanie miast przyszłości.Słowa kluczowe: mikroalgi, fotobioreaktor, zielona ściana, współczesna architektura krajobrazu 1. Wprowadzenie -znacznie funkcjonalnych kompozycji roślinnych we współczesnych miastach na przykładzie zastosowania fotobioreaktorów z mikroalgami W dzisiejszych czasach powstaje coraz więcej nowych form architektury krajobrazu, które mają za zadanie nie tylko kreować estetyczny wizerunek miasta, ale również korzystnie wpływać na kształtowanie się jego klimatu, redukcję CO2, oczyszczanie i magazynowanie wody, a nawet produkcję żywności. Coraz częściej dla projektantów ważne stają się problemy ochrony środowiska oraz zwiększenia bioróżnorodności w miastach (fauna i flora), a także przeciwdziała-nie negatywnym skutkom urbanizacji. Stąd tak wiele nowych form kształtowa-nia zieleni miejskiej odnosi się do skali małej, bezpośrednio związanej ze struk-1 Agnieszka Dudzińska-Jarmolińska, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Wydział Geografii i Studiów Regionalnych, Instytut Studiów Regionalnych i Globalnych, Zakład Geografii Rozwoju i Planowania Przestrzennego, ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 32, 00-927 Warszawa; tel. 022 552 32 44; a.dudzinska-ja@uw.edu.pl 118A. Dudzińska-Jarmolińska turą budynku lub jego bliską obecnością. W dzisiejszych czasach tradycyjne formy kształtowania architektury krajobrazu stają się zbyt drogie i nieadekwatne do oczekiwań użytkowników i mieszkańców miast. Dlatego też architekci krajobrazu powinni coraz częściej sięgać po struktury, które można nazwać "roślin-nymi kompozycjami funkcjonalnymi" spełniającymi konkretne i istotne funkcje w mieście. Takimi kompozycjami mogą stać się obiekty, które w swojej strukturze zawierają mikroalgi. Mikroalgi to organizmy małe, przeważnie jednokomórkowe, tak jak inne rośliny w procesie fotosyntezy wytwarzają biomasę, wykorzystując energię sło-neczną, CO2 oraz substancje organiczne zawarte w wodzie. Przy czym mikroalgi przeprowadzają proces fotosyntezy bardzo wydajnie, przez co produkują dziesięciokrotnie więcej tlenu niż np. drzewa. Można również znaleźć gatunki alg, które wytwarzają biomasę bez udziału światła wykorzystując do tego cukry [6]. Znaczenie mikroalg w kształtowaniu miast...