On 20 November 2020, Edyta Bąkowska-Waldmann, MSc, and Piotr Hektus, MSc BEng defended online their PhD dissertations at the Faculty of Human Geography and Planning. The first doctoral thesis was entitled ‘Participatory information systems (PPGIS) in decision-making processes in spatial management’ and the latter ‘Location factors of wind power plants in Poland’.
The work of Edyta Bąkowska-Waldmann, MSc, was written under the supervision of Prof. Dr hab. Tomasz Kaczmarek at the Department of Urban Systems and Territorial Governance of the Faculty of Human Geography and Planning. The dissertation aimed to assess the possibilities and effects of using participatory geographic information systems (PPGIS) in decision-making processes in spatial management on the examples of case studies of the Poznań agglomeration area. The PhD student in her work showed an interdisciplinary approach of the issue of using Internet methods of public consultations that apply possibilities of geographic information systems in the context of multi-entity governance in local government units and the digitalisation of society, including also the COVID-19 pandemic challenges. The work was reviewed by Prof. Dr hab. Iwona Sagan from the University of Gdansk and Prof. Dr hab. Piotr Werner from the University of Warsaw. By the decision of the Scientific Council of the Discipline of Socio-Economic Geography and Spatial Management, the doctoral dissertation of Edyta Bąkowska-Waldmann, MSc was awarded.
The dissertation of Piotr Hektus, MSc BEng, was prepared under the supervision of Dr hab. Eliza Kalbarczyk, AMU Prof. (Faculty of Human Geography and Planning AMU) and reviewed by Prof. Dr hab. Marek Dutkowski (University of Szczecin) and Dr hab. Alina Kulczyk-Dynowska, UPWr Prof. (Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences). The primary objective of the work was to identify location factors of wind power plants in Poland. The analysis was conducted particularly in terms of the attractiveness of communes for the location of this type of installation. In the paper the wind energy sector was situated in location theory and a wind turbine location model was constructed. Moreover, on the basis of the formulated definition of the location factor of wind power plants, what was made was the organisation and division of the factors identified. The empirical part determines the power of impact and the hierarchy of the analysed spatial location factors on the location of wind power plants. This action enabled the construction of an indicator determining the attractiveness of communes for the location of wind power plants, on the basis of which this attractiveness was identified. When formulating the model, it was recognised that wind power plants should be located in open areas with good wind energy conditions, where social conflicts related to the proximity of turbines can be minimised, with a small or zero share of environmentally valuable areas, with an appropriate structure of groups of farm areas and low grid connection costs. More than a half of the total of the country’s rural areas was classified as class 4 (moderately attractive) or 5 (very attractive). The application objective was to formulate recommendations that may contribute to the controlled and planned development of land-based wind energy in Poland.