Suburban Areas of Historical Value as an Important Element of the Ecological Buffer of Warsaw

Abstract The article aims to identify areas of historical, cultural, and landscape values that are located in the suburban area of Warsaw and which may play an essential role in stabilizing the urban ecosystem of Warsaw in the future. Since it turns out that the most effective form of preserving these values is to take them under legal protection, the article shows good and bad practices in this area, identifying the most significant threats and indicating opportunities and scenarios worth considering for the future. Finally, the purpose of the article is to draw attention to the importance of spatial and scenic connections, emphasizing the importance of the surrounding landscape, which was once an immanent feature of, e.g. suburban estates. The hypothesis is that in the face of progressing climate change and melting natural resources, it is worth paying attention to the importance of all urban ecosystem elements, even smaller ones, because they are a component of a larger whole and are required for ecological balance. Existing resources should be strengthened and protected, and new places for protection should be sought. Such sites may be the former foregrounds, the immediate surroundings of monuments, which in the past functioned as larger compositions and should be protected as such.