Urban planner becomes twice winner of the Minister's award for her doctoral dissertation | Gdańsk University of Technology

PhD, Eng. Arch. Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska from the Faculty of Architecture won two competitions for the award of the Minister of Development, Labour and Technology - for diploma theses, doctoral dissertations, publications and innovative solutions in the field of geoinformation, as well as in the fields of architecture and construction, planning and spatial development of housing in the 2020 edition. She received the award for the dissertation entitled ‘Spatial development of small towns in the context of the metropolisation process on the example of the Pomeranian Voivodeship’, which was prepared under the supervision of prof. Piotr Lorens, PhD,. DSc, Eng. Arch. head of the Department of Urban Design and Regional Planning at Gdańsk University of Technology.

The author of the awarded doctoral dissertation designed a model that uses Big Data and available spatial information resources collected and processed by local government institutions and public administration. The model makes it possible to conduct spatial monitoring, i.e. it allows to assess what changes occur in the space of cities and the region. Thus, it can be a support tool for shaping spatial policy, both at the local and regional level. The author used it to assess the effects of the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot metropolis on the development of the functional and spatial structure of the settlement network in the region.

The idea to create the model appeared during the laureate's work at the Pomeranian Regional Planning Office, where she worked on the spatial development plan for the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the plan for the metropolitan area.

– I noticed then that it is not possible to define the same planning recommendations for all small towns in our region due to the diversity of processes taking place in the cities themselves, but also in the voivodeship - explains the town planner. - The growing role of the Gdańsk-Gdynia-Sopot metropolis contributes to changes in the region, for example the dynamics of the suburbanization process. So far, if we have conducted such studies, they were largely based on data from public statistics or qualitative assessments. However, in Poland we have more and more available spatial information resources, i.e. georeferenced data. They make it possible to follow the changes taking place in cities in more detail and to observe spatial conflicts at various scales.

The planner's ambition was to capture the diversity of spatial processes, and thus more precisely define planning recommendations aimed at shaping the sustainable development of the settlement network in the region. The use of the model allowed to assess the scale of spatial challenges faced by Pomeranian cities and the region, including issues related to suburbanization.

Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska, PhD, Eng. Arch.  is an assistant professor at the Department of Urban Design and Regional Planning at Gdańsk University of Technology and co-creates the GUT Urban Data Lab. She is currently conducting research on the possibility of using data from social media to assess the perception of city space. The latest published article devoted to this subject was posted on the Most Wiedzy portal.