The role of neotectonic movements in shaping the ice-marginal and river valleys of the Polish Lowland during the Quaternary is poorly understood and is generally marginalised in favour of explanations invoking climaticfactors or changes in the base level of erosion. However, the author points to their morphogenetic significance within the ice-marginal valley and the lower Drwęca valley, particularly in the Konstancjewo, Elgiszewo and Młyniec basins. The hypothesis was tested through analyses of the older basement, lineaments, and the morphology and morphometry of the ice-marginal valley and the southern part of the Chełmno Moraine Plateau, based on existing studies and a Digital Terrain Model. The results indicate the involvement of neotectonic movements during the period from the deglaciation of the study area to the end of the last glaciation.
The studies of solar radiation, its intensity, and its structure are among the key issues addressed by meteorologists and climatologists. The inflow of solar radiation is crucial to the functioning of the Earth’s climate system. Currently, the most commonly observed characteristic of solar radiation is its global value (Kglob). However, for numerous application studies e.g. in human bioclimatology, agroclimatology, solar energy orurban climate, there are required information on thethe seasonal pattern and spatial distribution of individual radiation fluxes: direct (Kdir), diffuse (Kdif), and reflected from the ground surface (Kref). Thus the aim of the current research is to propose a statistical model for determining the Kdif values for the climate zone of Central Europe based on available observations of global solar radiation. The model uses the Ångströmclearness index (ACI) which illustrates the attenuation of global solar radiation reaching the Earth’s surface relative to its intensity at the upper boundary of the atmosphere. The development of a statistical model consisted of two stages: model development and model verificationwith the use of the set independent observational data representing lowland area of Poland (Dfb climate zone) as well as Beskid Sądecki Mts. (Dfc climate zone). The applicability of the model was also tested for other climate zones (southern Vietnam and central Mongolia). The results indicate that the proposed ACI-based model accurately approximates the amount of diffuse radiation for the lowland region of Central Europe. The method provides the satisfactory Kdif approximation in mountainous regions. The study results suggest also that the proposed ACI-based Kdif estimation model can be applied to other climate zones as tested for Aw zone of southern Vietnam, and Csazone of central Mongolia.
This article examines the works of Norman Davies through the lens of geohistory, drawing on the traditions of Paul Vidal de la Blache and Fernand Braudel. Davies situates historical events within their geographical contexts – spatial, environmental, and place-based – highlighting the dynamic interplay between place and human agency. He incorporates concepts such as milieu and longue durée, while simultaneously emphasizing narrative plurality and historical contingency, thus presenting history as a kaleidoscope of intersecting scales and processes. Cities, regions, and landscapes are treated as active participants in historical development rather than as passive backdrops. Davies’s work demonstrates how mobility, trade, and cultural exchange shape both local and global histories, while geography structures opportunities as well as constraints. Ultimately, his approach bridges analytical and narrative methodologies, showing that space functions simultaneously as a framework for action and as a tool of historical interpretation. This perspective underscores the continuing relevance of spatial thinking for understanding past, present, and future historical processes.
International law institutionalises a presumption of navigational openness, yet contemporary maritime geopolitics repeatedly produces situations in which sea-space becomes de facto constrained, filtered, or temporarily “closed.” This article conceptualises this gap as a problem of maritime rebordering: the activation of multi-actor mechanisms that reconfigure the practical openness of maritime borders despite formal passage regimes. Building on processual border theory (bordering–debordering–rebordering) and recent work on oceanic bordering and governance, the paper develops a mechanism-based model explaining how rebordering is produced through coercive-security practices, regulatory–juridical gating, risk–market pricing, information–surveillance regimes, and material–infrastructural/environmental constraints, while treating irregular migration, piracy, and other non-state violence as recurrent activation drivers that mobilise these mechanisms. The model is operationalised through four diagnostic case studies: Hormuz, Gibraltar, the Bab al-Mandeb–Suez corridor, and the Danish Straits/Kiel Canal, analysed via a common matrix. The paper contributes a transferable typology and a flowchart of “rebordering activation logic” that clarifies why maritime borders are increasingly experienced as selectively permeable infrastructures of power – open to some flows, filtered or closed to others – under conditions of geopolitical volatility, securitisation, and environmental disruption.
Long-term changes in saturation, actual water vapour pressure, and saturation deficit in Poland were studied. For that purpose, data from 48 meteorological stations covering the 1966-2020 period were used. A significant trend was found in the saturation water vapour pressure, which influences other humidity conditions. In contrast, changes in actual water vapour pressure were generally negligible. Due to a notable change in saturation water vapour pressure that determines the saturation deficit, its trend was also significant. The most pronounced changes in humidity properties occurred mainly during spring and summer, particularly in Southern and Central Poland.
