Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska, PhD awarded by the Polish Academy of Sciences | Gdańsk University of Technology

The National Spatial Development Committee of the Polish Academy of Sciences announced the settlement of the competition for the best doctoral dissertations in the field of spatial management. Two equal main prizes were awarded, one for the third place and two honorable mentions.

The laureates include Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska, PhD, a graduate and former doctoral student at the Faculty of Architecture at Gdańsk Tech. Her doctoral thesis, defended at Gdańsk University of Technology, was appreciated by the competition jury, which, in the course of discussions and after analyzing expert assessments, unanimously decided to award two main prizes. Below you will find the full list of winners:

• 1st place - Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska, PhD for the thesis: "Spatial development of small towns in the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the context of the metropolisation process",
• 1st place - Paweł Sudra, PhD for the thesis: "Methodological and empirical study of the dispersion and concentration of buildings in the Warsaw agglomeration after 1989",
• 3rd place - Katarzyna Nowakowska, PhD for the thesis: "Investments in housing construction and shaping a compact city",
• Distinction - Edyta Bąkowska-Waldmann, PhD for the thesis: "Participatory geographic information systems (PPGIS) in decision-making processes in spatial management",
• Distinction - Kinga Mazurek-Matuszewska, PhD for the thesis: "Durability of land cover in areas of diversified anthropopressure".

The award ceremony will take place during the plenary session of NSDC PAS on 27 September 2021. The award in the NSDC PAS competition is yet another award for the doctoral dissertation of Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska, PhD. Earlier, the same work received two ministerial awards - you can read more about this in the article on the Gdańsk Tech website.

Justification of the competition jury of NSDC PAS:

Dissertation by Hanna Obracht-Prondzyńska PhD, Eng., Arch, entitled "Spatial development of small towns in the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the context of the metropolisation process" presents the relationship between the processes of metropolisation and the future of development of small towns, presented on the example of the Pomeranian Voivodeship and the Tri-City metropolis. The author uses an original analytical model that uses large data sets and spatial information resources. She assesses these resources. The Jury’s attention was drawn to the duality of the approach: regional (based on the analysis of the strengths and consequences of metropolitan impact) and local (based on the analysis of development processes in small towns). The author conducted in-depth studies of development processes on both scales, documenting their results in the form of extensive spatial analyzes. She presented the complexity of the approach, unprecedented in the works of young scientists, combining the issues of urban and regional analyzes, as well as those concerning socio-economic and spatial issues. The author also formulated valuable recommendations for development policy at local and regional levels, and the developed analytical model can be used in the process of researching other areas.