The JESSICA initiative introduced under the EU Cohesion Policy as revolving instrument, aimed at the regeneration processes and sustainable development of the cities. One of its main assumptions was to increase efficiency and effectiveness of the projects supported by JESSICA. The paper aims to identify whether all the projects implemented in Poland in the years 2007-2015 bring revenue and whether there is a relationship between the amount of the JESSICA loans/projects and the legal form of beneficiaries. The Polish case study based on the analysis of all the projects implemented in the five regions reveals that not all the projects bring revenues from their main operations. The legal form of a beneficiary plays also an important role with regard to the size of the loan/the value of the projects and determines a type of the results (economic, social) achieved by the projects. Thus, the recommendations for policy-makers responsible for the implementation of JESSICA 2 can be formulated 1 .

Successful leadership in local development requires not only a vision, but good communication skills, stakeholder involvement, strategic planning and coordination and popular support via public participation. Our empirical study contributes to filling the gap in the literature about the role of non-profit leadership in urban and regional development. We study the characteristics of politicians in civil society and that of civil society’s leaders in politics as a prerequisite for successful local development. For this, we draw on the survey data of 374 local politicians from four large cities in Central Europe: Prague, Bratislava, Budapest and Poznań. The research affirms that non-profit non-governmental organisations do play an important role in local development and reveals similarities in all analysed cities, though with some variance. Local political elites are identified as engaging significantly in civil society organisations, despite low levels of general trust in these countries. About two-thirds of the local politicians who took part in the survey participate actively in civil society organisations in their respective cities but not coming from a previous non-profit non-governmental organisation employment. Not only are they active, but many of them also have positions as managers or directors, or as members of the board of directors in these organisations. Although neither membership nor leadership in non-profit non-governmental organisations appears to increase a local politician’s chance of being elected, except when those are engaged in local development or environmental issues. As spatial leadership plays an important role in the construction of new agendas and identities we have also investigated the views of local politicians on decentralisation, government service provision efficiency and the importance of several local policy topics, and found some puzzling differences across our V4 cities that possibly reflect cultural differences. Non-profit leadership in urban development is a neglected topic so far in the literature, our study adds empirical results from Central and Eastern Europe, yet there is ample room for future research.

This study analyses periurbanisation as a specific process of changes caused by the expansion of cities towards rural areas that are situated at a greater distance from the core city but still within the framework of the functional urban area. Peri-urban areas are determined by a particular set of urban and rural characteristics that coincide, but seem to be dominated by the rural aspect. By using a trans-disciplinary approach based on multivariate analysis, the authors identified peri-urban areas within three Polish metropolitan areas. Results show that the areas mostly predestined to be peri-urban are territories classified as rural gminas (communes) and rural areas of urban rural gminas, which are peripherally located in relation to the main city. In general, the findings are relevant from the point of view of policy-making because they provide new insights into the very complex nature of peri-urban areas.

StreszczenieW artykule dokonano charakterystyki peryurbanizacji jako procesu transformacji urbanistycznej zachodzącego na obszarach wiejskich leżących w strefie odziaływania miast i predysponowanych do rozwoju wielofunkcyjnego. Następnie za pomocą metod taksonomicznych przeprowadzono ocenę procesu peryurbanizacji w ramach jednostek terytorialnych wchodzących w skład Poznańskiego Obszaru Metropolitalnego. Uzyskane wyniki wskazują, że największa dynamika zmian w zakresie cechy peryurbanizacji występuje na terenie gmin wiejskich i części wiejskiej gmin miejsko-wiejskich, których układ przestrzenny tworzy mozaikę wokół Poznania. Tym samym potwierdzono założenia teoretyczne peryurbanizacji.

StreszczenieW pracy na przykładzie zlewni (cieku wodnego) Skórzynki, zlokalizowanej w obrębie Poznańskiego Obszaru Metropolitalnego, podjęto próbę wyznaczenia najkorzystniejszego wariantu ochrony przed powodzią, suszą i deficytem wody poprzez poprawę zdolności retencyjnych zlewni przy użyciu metody AHP. W analizie przyjęto cztery kryteria określające warunki osiągnięcia celu nadrzędnego (społeczno-ekonomiczne, retencyjne, środowiskowe, społeczne) oraz trzy alternatywne rozwiązania (zbiornik małej retencji, zabiegi agrotechniczne, systemy zagospodarowania wody deszczowej.Na podstawie przeprowadzonych analiz wykazano, że najlepszym rozwiązaniem prowadzącym do poprawy retencyjności zlewni są zabiegi agrotechniczne, które powinny być priorytetowo traktowane w programach adaptacji do zmian klimatycznych.Słowa kluczowe: retencyjność zlewni, AHP, planowanie w gospodarowaniu wodami, Skó-rzynka,