Category: Teachers & Academicians

Katarzyna Leśniewska-Napierała and Tomasz Napierała represented SPOT project team during celebratory seminar for the 20th Anniversary of ERDN (European Rural Development Network). The event was held on September 14-16, 2022 in Mielno (Poland), and organized in cooperation with the Koszalin University of Technology. The title of the seminar was ‘Cooperation and experience of science in support of policies for rural development’.

The celebratory seminar for the 20th Anniversary of ERDN was the outstanding opportunity to meet all members of the network. The ERDN was established in 2002 as a forum for exchange of ideas and research experience and a platform for cooperation between Polish and European scientific and research institutions in the field of rural development and agriculture, especially in the perspective of the European Union enlargement and its future policies.

Katarzyna Leśniewska-Napierała and Tomasz Napierała contributed to the seminar for the 20th Anniversary of ERDN by the presentation entitled ‘Going back/forward to rurality: Case of tourism in Bełchatów industrial district’. The goal of the presentation was to discuss rurality as the neglected context of the wider perspective of co-evolution of tourism and core industries of the Bełchatów industrial district: lignite mining and energy production. The Bełchatów industrial district in Central Poland is the case study area. It consists of the city of Bełchatów and thirteen rural communes. The case study area was delimited based on industrial transformation of rural landscape resulting from lignite mining and energy production and fitted into administrative divisions at local level.

The roots of tourism development in Bełchatów industrial district date back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At that time, it did not stand out against the economic background of the region, remaining a typically agricultural area with limited expansion of holiday homes along newly built railway line connecting Warsaw and Vienna. The first triggering event for the development relied on the discovery of rich and accessible lignite deposits. Since the mid-1970s, the case study area has undergone rapid and permanent structural changes with unprecedented development of opencast mining and energy production. That included stimulation of leisure and tourism through organizational and financial support targeting employees and their families, as well as direct investment in facilities for holidaymakers (social tourism).

Economic transition is considered as a second triggering event shaping co-evolution of tourism and industrial sectors of Bełchatów industrial district. In 1990, lignite mining and energy production were marketed in Poland. Bełchatów Mining and Energy Complex was included in assets of the company currently called PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna (Eng. Polish Energy Group). Development of a large enterprise in Bełchatów industrial district stimulated significant increase of both demand and supply of business tourism. In 2014 the exhibition of ‘PGE Giganty Mocy’ (PGE Giants of Power) was opened. This event triggered the development of educational tourism in the case study area.

The future of Bełchatów industrial district is shaped by the European Green Deal and implementation of Just Transition Mechanism. To make the European Union (EU) climate-neutral by 2050, the lignite mine in Bełchatów industrial district will be closed, and the way the power plant works will be transformed. It is proposed that tourism, in particular leisure tourism, might become one of new developmental functions of Bełchatów industrial district. It should be emphasized that all mentioned processes of both mass tourism and industry development were triggered by political decisions at regional, national and European level.

The perspective of the local stakeholders is substantially different from supralocal once. Local actions groups operating in the case study area identified folklore, history, local traditions, culture, and material heritage, as well as – interestingly – contemporary economic and social challenges, as the most significant elements of local identity. Sustainable tourism development is directly indicated as a way to increase social participation and social capital. Thus, promoting agritourism and ecotourism combined with organic farming and ecological food processing is requested.

In both spatial and development strategies in the case study area it is clearly stated that the focus on quality of local spatial policy and spatial order will affect the increase of supralocal interest in developing areas for second homes construction. It should be indicated as a great chance for Bełchatów industrial district to keep relations between the inevitable outflowing population and its recent places of permanent stay. The path from industrial dwelling-places towards rural second homes should be considered as the bottom-up alternative for top-down decisions. This is the path going back/forward to rurality.

Project SPOT actively contributes to the Annual AESOP Congress 2022 ‘Space for Species: Redefining Spatial Justice’ in Tartu (Estonia), July 25-29, 2022.

Just green transition – Polish case study of co-evolution of tourism and heavy industries

The SPOT project team had the opportunity to present one of our case studies during the Annual AESOP Congress 2022 in Tartu. The session chaired by Katarzyna Leśniewska-Napierała (University of Lodz, SPOT) was about culture and tourism. During the session, the SPOT project’s researchers from the University of Lodz (Katarzyna Leśniewska-Napierała, Marta Nalej, Tomasz Napierała, and Iwona Pielesiak) delivered the presentation entitled ‘Lignite mining and energy production in Bełchatów industrial region: a threat or opportunity for tourism development?’.

In Bełchatów industrial region, all tourism changes have been and will be related to transformative moments such as the development and then the extinction of the core developmental functions in the region: lignite mining and energy production. Exploration of co-evolution of tourism and both of industrial sectors is the focus of a case study conducted by SPOT project’s researchers from the University of Lodz. Recently, the decision on liquidation of the lignite mine and power plant is a consequence of the EU policy related to reducing the use of coal in the energy sector and switching to renewable energy. The Bełchatów Power Plant is responsible for the largest emissions of carbon dioxide in the entire EU.

The announcement of the closure plan of the power plant and the lignite mine was a necessary step in obtaining funds from the Just Transition Fund. It forced both the regional authorities and the state company that owns the complex to set a schedule to shut down the lignite mine (until 2038) and the power plant (2030-2036). This will result in workplaces losses as the employment in the energy complex in Bełchatów is more than 14,500 people. About 4,500 people work in the mine and about 3,000 in the power plant. Another almost 7,000 people are employed in subsidiaries. These numbers should be confronted with the fact that the case study area is populated by more than 130 thousands of inhabitants for now. Just green transition of the Bełchatów industrial region results in substantial economic, social, and demographic consequences.

The fundamental goal of the transformation should be, on the one hand, to convert the economy to modern and green technologies, especially in the area of energy. As the energy infrastructure is an unquestionably strong side of the Bełchatów region. The economic diversification of the region should also be one of the transformation priorities, but it is necessary to focus on the use of existing potentials. The transformation of the Bełchatów industrial district also requires the recultivation and revitalization of areas degraded by open-cast lignite mining. It is expected that tourism, in particular leisure tourism, might become one of the core functions of the Bełchatów industrial region, and a chance for the regional economy to be impacted by the loss of a significant number of workplaces. The recultivation plan is already partially implemented. The Kamieńska mountain was formed at the external dump of the Bełchatów field. Using that, a 760-metre long ski route was created. In the summer, Kamieńska mountain is available for cyclists and off-road vehicles. In total, the area of 7,886 ha will be recultivated. The main focus of the recultivation will be afforestation. It is also planned to create a water reservoir in part of the present Bełchatów field. The process is expected to last until 2070.

Some inconsistencies of the recultivation plan should be indicated. Neighbouring areas of the Bełchatów excavation field are planned to be used as a municipal waste dump, water reservoir, and recreational centre at the same time. There is also a huge time gap between the moment when the lignite mine and the power plant will be shut down (2030-2038), and the moment when the water reservoir will be created and the area will be ready to launch the recreational centre (2070). Moreover, in the strategy for just green transition of Bełchatów industrial district it is estimated that mass leisure tourism development based on a recreational centre will allow to create 50 new workplaces only. Last but not least, the exclusion of local communities from strategic and spatial planning should be mentioned as well. It resulted in significant inconsistencies between the territorial just transition plan for Bełchatów industrial district on the one hand, and local strategies and master plans on the other. While the supralocal document is focused on the development of mass leisure tourism, local strategies and plans mainly consider the development of second homes. All of this brings us to the most fundamental question of planning reminded by Maroš Finka (Slovak University of Technology, President of AESOP) during the opening ceremony of Annual AESOP Congress 2022: Should we plan for people or with people?

Social and territorial impact of just green transition

The SPOT project team joined the round table of Annual AESOP Congress 2022 led by Kejt Dhrami (Polis University, Co-PLAN Institute for Habitat Development) entitled ‘Fit For Green: Social and Territorial Impact of Just Green Transition’. Giancarlo Cotella (Politecnico di Torino, SPOT) was one of the contributors.

The discussion started with regional similarities and specificities of just green transition. Maroš Finka (Slovak University of Technology, President of AESOP) emphasised that diversity is the main common feature of regions significant from the perspective of green transition. Diversity should be discussed in the context of geographical proximities and dependencies. He noticed that Russian aggression over Ukraine moves Europe ahead, which also refers to the problem of just a green transition. However, any action cannot be successful without the focus on: integration (interdependencies between actions and territories of their implementation), synergies (between all single actions undertaken), and efficiency (as we have limited resources to undertake actions).

Giancarlo Cotella noticed that it is difficult to identify regional specificities of just green transition across Europe. ‘Low-carbon’, ‘post-carbon’ or ‘zero-carbon’? – it is very challenging to discuss EU policies when the goals of those policies are changing so fast. On the other hand, green Europe and just Europe are seen for now as the two main long-term goals of the future Europe. ‘No one left behind…’ is the main construct of social justice – Carlos Tapia (Nordregio) mentioned. Transitions affecting both nature and societies (including their economies) are difficult to engineer, and their outcomes are hard to predict. Giancarlo Cotella emphasised that it is a great progress that the EU does not sweep under the carpet the negative social and economic effects of a green transition.

Thanks to Maroš Finka and Bianca Mitrica (Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy) we had an opportunity to address the issues from the national perspectives of Slovakia and Romania respectively.

Maroš Finka concluded that the EU is at the end of the process of transfers addressing solidarity. Now, we are shifting to the EU focused on transfers addressing local services. We understand that not every region or locality has to be industrial, but every area can contribute in some way to the development of the EU. Rodon Miraj (Open Regional Fund for South East Europe) noticed that in a discourse on just green transition, gender issues are missing, especially that it is well evidenced that women are mostly affected by negative effects of economic transitions. Ledio Allkja (Co-PLAN) concluded that the biggest question is how we can go from the neoliberal economic-centric approach to more just and green. There is also a big question about the winners and losers of just green transition.

Giancarlo Cotella chosen as the new Secretary General of AESOP

Last but not least, we are pleased to inform you that Giancarlo Cotella (leader of the Politecnico di Torino team in a project SPOT) has been chosen as the Secretary General of AESOP. Giancarlo Cotella has over 15 years of international research experience on the comparative analysis of territorial governance and spatial planning systems in Europe and beyond with particular reference to the impact of EU policies on domestic contexts. His work focused extensively on the potentials for transferability of good practices and policy recommendations within the European space. Congratulations!

The team of Erasmus+ SPOT participated in the congress of the International Geographical Union “Time for geographers”, which took place in Paris, University of Sorbonne, between July 18th and 22nd, 2022.

After a few IGU conferences held online in 2020 and 2021, almost 2,200 geographers from 92 countries all around the world finally gathered “face to face” at this prestigious event. Also, an additional 300 scholars were present online. This IGU Congress was the Centennial Congress of the International Geographical Union, which celebrated 100 years of regular meetings. The host and main organiser of this extraordinary event was the French Committee of Geography (CNFG).

After opening the IGU Congress and addressing the contemporary challenges of geography and geographers by keynote speakers, the congress consisted of numerous round tables, almost a hundred scientific sessions, exhibitions and various social events.

Some outputs of the SPOT project have been presented during the scientific session entitled “Tourism governance in the Anthropocene: enhancing landscape, local knowledge and pro-environmental behaviour for facing environmental crisis” organised by the IGU Commission Geography of Governance. Presentation entitled “Diverse challenges of tourism spatial planning: evidence from Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Turkey” was presented by Denis Cerić and Konrad Czapiewski from the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning – Polish Academy of Sciences.

Denis Cerić and Konrad Czapiewski presented the outcome of the SPOT project regarding tourism governance development in five different countries. Answers on two research questions have been elaborated: 1) How the challenges of spatial planning in tourism destinations are addressed in the strategic documents of five selected European countries – Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Turkey?, and 2) Which changes in spatial planning of tourism could be observed regarding the COVID-19 pandemic?

Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal and Turkey are countries characterised by substantially different locations within the continent, different importance of tourism in creating national income, different nature of tourism, and different ways in which tourism is managed and planned. Authors argued that the comparison of such different countries can make an important contribution to discussions on addressing tourism spatial planning challenges in strategic documents prepared by central and sub-central governments. The research’s empirical layer was based on peer-reviewed theoretical and case study reports on spatial planning systems, concepts and tourism developments in mentioned five countries developed by SPOT project beneficiaries.

Content analysis has been employed to identify the challenges for spatial planning in observed countries and the output summarises and underlines the common challenges and those specific to a particular area. Common elements of tourism spatial planning could be found in planning tradition, regulatory layer, the desire for a fast response to the challenges of socio-economic development processes and challenges related to the social dimension, and other various common challenges of spatial planning of tourism destinations.

The chosen topic fit well inside this session of IGU Congress: a couple of questions being asked after the presentation, a few comments and interest in the SPOT project itself, and the appreciation from the sessions’ chair Federica Burini (University of Bergamo). The topic will be published as a chapter in a SPOT project’s book entitled “Contemporary challenges of spatial planning in tourism destinations” edited by Tomasz Napierała, Katarzyna Leśniewska-Napierała (University of Lodz) and Giancarlo Cotella (Politecnico di Torino). Follow our project for detailed results and conclusions – the publication is in preparation.