THE IMPACT OF LANDSLIDE AREAS ON MUNICIPAL SPATIAL PLANNING

Municipal spatial planning is one of the key elements of a national spatial policy and the local land use plan is the most important tool for shaping this policy. The local land use plan, as opposed to the study, is a provision of the local law. The study, however, is mandatory for the whole area of the municipality, while the local land use plan is, in principle, voluntary and subject to certain exceptions.

One of the elements which ought to be included in the spatial policy a municipality is taking into account the threats to the safety of its inhabitants and their property, as well as identifying areas of natural geological hazards. Therefore, both the study and the local land use plan of the municipality should include, among others, areas of particular risk related to the subsidence of soil masses, i.e., landslide areas. Landslide areas are of a limited use for investment purposes, including residential, industrial or service development, as particularly vulnerable to the phenomenon of rock masses, eluvium or sediments sliding down slopes under the force of gravity.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the legal and economic consequences resulting from changes to the local land use plan, related to the qualification of an area as a landslide area. This paper examines the changes to the local land use plan for the town of Wieliczka, located place on the border of the Outer Carpathians and the Carpathian Foredeep. The transition from a mountainous terrain into a plane gives rise to numerous natural forms of relief which are prone to landslides. The study of landslides in the municipality of Wieliczka conducted in 2008, resulted in changing the qualifications of many areas to areas at risk of soil subsidence. The effects of the study have been reflected in the new local land use plan introduced in 2010.