ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Sustainable Development in Polish Regions:
a Shift-Share Analysis
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1
Institute of Geoinformation and Cartography, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland
2
Institute of Geography and Land Management, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland
3
Department of Agrotechnology, Agricultural Production Management and Agribusiness, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland
Submission date: 2017-09-05
Final revision date: 2017-12-11
Acceptance date: 2018-02-10
Online publication date: 2018-09-07
Publication date: 2018-12-20
Corresponding author
Iwona Cieślak
UWM in Olsztyn, Department of Geoinformation Analysis and Cadastre, 10-720 Olsztyn, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(2):565-575
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ABSTRACT
Sustainable development is a multi-dimensional phenomenon, and its assessment is not easy and cannot
be measured and expressed by one characteristic. The authors made an attempt at designing a synthetic
measure thanks to which changes in sixteen regions of Poland between 2003 and 2013 are presented with
respect to the level of sustainability based on three components: social, economic, and environmental
order. This enabled an analysis of the structure of sustainable development using the shift-share method.
The force of impact of the internal structure was defined, along with external determinants of individual
regions, which have influenced the level of sustainable development.
The performed analysis showed that the indicators of sustainable development, both for individual
regions and for the whole of Poland, had not changed significantly in the determined two moments of time
(2003 and 2013). However, the increase in indicators for individual regions is greatly diversified, and in the
majority of provinces has a negative character with a slight value. In several regions, positive values can
be noticed, whereas the increase in their values is high. This diversity testifies to the uneven development
of Polish regions.