Description

Location and cartography

Change detection

Problems and risks

Use of Remote sensing and GIS

Links

Location and cartography

Warsaw area and district

Warsaw is the capital and the largest city of the Polish Republic. It is located on the great Polish plain in the region of Mazovia (Mazowsze) and standing on the river Vistula. The city covers 494 sq km and following government decentralisation in 1999 it becomes the administrative centre also of a newly defined Mazosze region (Województwo). Warsaw itself is further subdivided into 11 local districts (gminy).

Downtown Warsaw (Sródmieście) lies on the West bank of the Vistula with the famous old town (Stare Miasto) to the North at the end of Warsaw's best known thoroughfares, Nowy Swiat (New World) and Krakowskie Przedmieście. Along these avenues lie some of Warsaw's other famous landmarks: the residence of the Polish president, the Europejski and Bristol hotels, leading finally to the rebuilt Royal Castle, the Zygmunt column (1646) and the old town market square. Central Warsaw is dominated hewever by the Palace of Culture (when completed in 1955, at 230 m, the second tallest building in Europe), with the Central Station (early 1970's), the Marriott-LIM tower (1989) and the Hotel Forum (early 1970's).

Warsaw centre

While the old town (Stare Miasto) was rebuilt to replicate what had existed before 1939, most of the city is built in our current modern style lacking a clear style. Housing is mainly tower block apartments around the city centre.

While the city expanded outwards in the 1950's through to 1970's, in the 1990's a major wave of city centre reconstruction was initiated with new hotels, offices and condominium blocks being erected on cleared city centre sites. One problem of such redevelopment is the unearthing of unexploded Second World War ammunition. Another major feature of 1990's life in the city is the fast growing car ownership that generates frequent traffic jams along Warsaw's still underdeveloped trunk routes. The main East-West European highway passes through Warsaw's heart (Trasa Lazienkowska) contributing to enormous road wear.

Stare Miasto – Historic Centre

While the old town (Stare Miasto) was rebuilt to replicate what had existed before 1939, most of the city is built in the modern unimaginative post-war style. Housing is mainly tower block apartments around the city centre.

While the city expanded outwards in the 1950's through to 1970's, in the 1990's a major wave of city centre reconstruction was initiated with new hotels, offices and condominium blocks being erected on cleared city centre sites. One problem of such redevelopment is the unearthing of unexploded Second World War ammunition. Another major feature of 1990's life in the city is the fast growing car ownership that generates frequent traffic jams along Warsaw's still uderdeveloped thrunk routes. The main East-West European highway passes through Warsaw's heart (Trasa Lazienkowska) contibuting to enormous road wear.

No buffer zone has been delimited around the protected area of the Historic Centre which was a normal procedure at UNESCO at the time (inscribed on the list in 1980).