Can Polish Cities Meet Their Urban Challenges Through Nature?

Cities face growing environmental, social, and economic challenges. The densification of built-up areas, soil sealing, and urban sprawl reduce biodiversity, disrupt water management, and worsen local climatic conditions. Heatwaves, flash floods, and droughts are becoming more frequent, endangering the well-being of residents. In response, approaches such as green infrastructure and nature-based solutions are gaining popularity. These methods draw inspiration from natural ecosystems to enhance urban resilience and quality of life.

Green infrastructure refers to a planned network of natural or semi-natural spaces in urban areas. These aim to provide a variety of ecosystem services, such as climate regulation, stormwater management, or the creation of recreational spaces. Nature-based solutions, on the other hand, are targeted interventions that replicate or reinforce natural processes to address specific problems. They can take the form of rain gardens, green corridors, or green roofs. Both concepts complement each other and allow action at different scales, from neighborhoods to entire cities.

In Poland, several cities have begun to integrate these approaches, but their adoption remains limited and uneven. The obstacles are numerous: insufficient legal frameworks, lack of coordination between municipal services, limited financial resources, and a lack of awareness of potential benefits. Smaller towns, in particular, struggle to mobilize the necessary expertise and budgets. Yet, feedback from experience shows that these solutions offer multiple advantages. They improve air quality, reduce urban heat islands, promote biodiversity, and strengthen social cohesion by creating pleasant and accessible living spaces.

A recent study conducted in ten Polish cities identified the main urban challenges that these approaches could help overcome. These include the degradation of public spaces, inefficient management of green spaces, low citizen participation in urban projects, and the effects of climate change. Practitioners also emphasize the need to better protect existing natural areas, restore degraded ecosystems, and connect green spaces with each other.

To overcome the barriers to their development, Polish cities propose several avenues. These include clarifying regulations, strengthening collaboration between municipal services and residents, training local teams, and securing sustainable funding. Some cities have already established standards for planting and maintaining trees or developed pilot projects such as de-paved schoolyards or community gardens. These initiatives show that concrete changes are possible, even with limited resources.

The challenge now is to move from a logic of isolated projects to a systemic approach, integrating these solutions into long-term urban policies. This requires better assessment of their impacts, sharing best practices between regions, and greater involvement of citizens and local businesses. In Europe, cities like Copenhagen and Barcelona serve as models, proving that nature can become a key lever for more sustainable and livable cities. Poland, with its specificities and challenges, has much to gain from accelerating this transition.

Credits and Attributions

Primary Source

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-025-02336-0

Title: Systemic approach to green infrastructure and nature-based solutions uptake: Insights from the Polish cities

Journal: Ambio

Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Authors: Iwona Zwierzchowska; Małgorzata Stępniewska; Grzegorz Wolszczak