Analysis of operator models for rainwater management in Poland – towards the integrated management model

Abstract

Over the last decade, Poland has witnessed a statutory change in the definition of rainwater. It stopped being regarded as wastewater. Municipalities in Poland have developed different models for rainwater management and various ways of financing them. The aim of the study is to identify and describe the most important elements of rainwater management models in Poland with the use of operators. It focused not only on constitutive features of the system but also on financial aspects, such as fees and investments (with the omission of fiscal ones). The study helped to identify three organisationally distinguishable operator models and indicated strengths and weaknesses of each of them. Such a systematic and structured analysis lays the groundwork for the assessment of these models and enables other municipalities to make a conscious decision on which model to implement.