Diffusion of emerging technologies is following the need of solving particular problems. Each innovation produce also some undesirable consequences. Many examples from the past have shown that along with the spread of each technology their side effects are accumulating until the level they need to be solved. One of the examples is automobile, which advantages and disadvantages were already described including its spatial consequences....

The European Commission puts a growing emphasis on the smart specialization as a tool of regional development. This term is present in a number of strategic development documents in the European Union, including Europe 2020, published by the European Commission in 2010. It implies the need for countries and regions to specialize as well as focus the development of innovation on areas that are consistent with their endogenous potentials. Objectives...

In 1999, ten years after the great political changes in Poland, 16 self-governed regions (in Polish: voivodeship) were created. According to Polish law, voivodeship spatial development plans, or regional plans in short, determine basic elements of the settlement network. No detailed regulations indicate the specific elements of the settlement network or what features of these elements should be determined. For this reason, centres...