SPATIAL PLANNING AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL URBAN TOWNS – VISIONS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Today, spatial planning is playing a more and more significant role in forming spatial development at the local level (municipality, town/city). It is closely connected with numerous documents underlying the implementation of the sustainable policy in the sphere of local development. The article presents an analysis of relevant planning documents at the national level, especially, at the level of the Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie and Opolskie Voivodeships (provinces). Based on the analysis of spatial functioning in the range of small cities (towns) located in two provinces in the so-called Poland B (Eastern Poland) and one province in the so-called Poland A, the initial recognition of the impact of small urban centres on theregional development was made at different levels. The current economic system rooted in the premises of the innovative development of regions requires conducting detailed studies in the field of investigating its internal structure and external dependencies. As a complex, dynamic mechanism, generating an increase in the quality of life corresponding to the human resources, it also requires an appropriate management remaining in harmony with modern, strategic and spatial economy. The article selectively determines the problems appearing in the economic system of a region and indicates the need to solve the most essential development problems, e.g. those arising due to the obligatory introduction of social and economic scientific descriptions as the fundamental documents for the needs of creating sustainable development of the small-town landscape.