Urban green resilience: Experience from post-industrial cities in Poland

De-industrialisation triggered economic, spatial and environmental changes in cities. Therefore, this study identifies whether there has been a reorientation of spatial development in post-industrial cities towards the creation of green spaces. The aim of the study is to analyse and evaluate the transformation of green spaces in 32 major cities in Poland, including 12 post-industrial cities. Data sources were vector land cover data models from the Urban Atlas for 2006 and 2018, administrative boundaries from the National Boundary Register and building layers from the Topographic Objects Database. The research procedure was carried out using the GIS environment, through spatial analysis, geoprocessing algorithms, and spatial statistics. The results have shown that post-industrial cities do not develop their urban resilience based on the expansion of green spaces and, consequently, do not build green urban resilience. In addition, the research has proven that the greatest loss of green spaces is noticeable in parts of post-industrial cities with medium and high development intensity, where there is an intensification of construction activity. The dominant direction of the transformation of green spaces has been the conversion of agricultural areas into green spaces (87.79%). In contrast, the main direction of loss in green space has been the creation of new industrial units (24.80%) and the expansion of the urban fabric (23.53%). The article is original due to the fact that there is a gap in the literature regarding the study of green spaces in post-industrial cities with regard to the concept of green urban resilience.