The attributes of sustainable urban development - Identification and analysis on the example of Olsztyn City

Abstract

Urban space is an important place in the context of ongoing changes and their impact on the surrounding environment. Urban area is subject to constant and extremely dynamic transformations. It is influenced by environmental (proximity of leisure objects - lakes, forests, parks, etc.), legal (regulations on both local and strategic levels), technical (spatial barriers or lack of development of the technical infrastructure, transport availability, etc.), social (demographic structure, facilities and quality of social infrastructure) economic factors (the existence of large companies, the level of unemployment, the dominant industrial branches) and other ones not classified above. There are many measures of urban development, but the authors want to test the hypothesis whether real estate transactions can indicate the most favorable locally areas from the point of view of real estate buyers. Indication of these areas will help to define attributes of sustainable urban development. The case study research was carried out on the basis of transactions recorded on the real estate market in Olsztyn City (Warmia and Mazury Province, Poland) for properties designated for residential purposes in 2011-2012. The authors conducted a statistical analysis of transaction prices and geo-spatial analysis performed with GIS tools. The attributes of sustainable urban development were identification and their analysis led to identification of particular areas with the biggest amount of them in Olsztyn City. Data for statistical analysis derived from the Register of Real Estate Prices and Values (RCiWN).