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Location: Central Europe, east of Germany
Geographic coordinates: 52 00 N, 20 00 E
Map references: Europe
Area:
total: 312,685 sq km
land: 304,465 sq km
water: 8,220 sq km
Area - comparative: slightly smaller than New Mexico
Land boundaries:
total: 2,888 km
border countries: Belarus 605 km, Czech Republic 658 km,
Germany 456 km, Lithuania 91 km, Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast) 206
km, Slovakia 444 km, Ukraine 428 km
Coastline: 491 km
Maritime claims:
exclusive economic zone: defined by international treaties
territorial sea: 12 nm
Climate: temperate with cold, cloudy, moderately severe
winters with frequent precipitation; mild summers with frequent
showers and thundershowers
Terrain: mostly flat plain; mountains along southern border
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Raczki Elblaskie -2 m
highest point: Rysy 2,499 m
Natural resources: coal, sulfur, copper, natural gas, silver,
lead, salt, arable land
Land use:
arable land: 47%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 13%
forests and woodland: 29%
other: 10% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 1,000 sq km (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: NA
Environment - current issues: situation has improved since
1989 due to decline in heavy industry and increased environmental
concern by postcommunist governments; air pollution nonetheless
remains serious because of sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired
power plants, and the resulting acid rain has caused forest damage;
water pollution from industrial and municipal sources is also a
problem, as is disposal of hazardous wastes
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Air Pollution, Antarctic-Environmental Protocol,
Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution,
Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides,
Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur
94, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol
Geography - note: historically, an area of conflict because
of flat terrain and the lack of natural barriers on the North European
Plain
Geography
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland (Polish Rzeczpospolita
Polska), country in Central Europe. Poland's capital and largest
city is Warsaw.
Poland shares borders with the Baltic Sea, the Russian Federation,
Belarus, Ukraine, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic
and the Federal Republic of Germany.
Climate
Poland's climate has features of both the moderate climate of western
Europe and the more severe climate of eastern Europe.
The climate of the western part may be classified as marine west
coast, and the eastern part as humid continental with cool summers.
Weather conditions are highly variable, particularly in the winter.
Background:
Poland is a large central European nation that borders on the Baltic
Sea. Warsaw is Poland's capital and largest city. Poland is named
after the Polane, a Slavic tribe that lived more than a thousand
years ago in what is now Poland.
The name Polane comes from a Slavic word that means plain or field.
Flat plains and gently rolling hills cover most of the country.
Rugged mountains form part of the southern boundary of Poland, and
thousands of small, scenic lakes dot the northern regions of the
country.
Poland gained its independence in 1918 only to be overrun by Germany
and the Soviet Union in World War II. It became a Soviet satellite
country following the war, but one that was comparatively tolerant
and progressive.
Labor turmoil in 1980 led to the formation of an independent trade
union "Solidarity" that over time became a political force and by
1990 had swept parliamentary elections and the presidency. Complete
freedom came with the implosion of the USSR in 1991.
A "shock therapy" program during the early 1990s enabled the country
to transform its economy into one of the most robust in Central
Europe, boosting hopes for early acceptance to the EU. Poland joined
the NATO alliance in 1999.
Poland is a large central European nation that borders on the Baltic
Sea. Warsaw is Poland's capital and largest city.
Poland is named after the Polane, a Slavic tribe that lived more
than a thousand years ago in what is now Poland. The name Polane
comes from a Slavic word that means plain or field.
Flat plains and gently rolling hills cover most of the country.
Rugged mountains form part of the southern boundary of Poland, and
thousands of small, scenic lakes dot the northern regions of the
country.
Poland
GEOGRAPHY
Size: 312,683 square kilometers, including inland
waters.
Topography: Chiefly plains, most notably in vast
central lowlands; significant highlands in southwest (Sudeten Mountains)
and southeast (Tatra Mountains, northernmost part of Carpathian
range). Only 3 percent above 500 meters, about 90 percent below
300 meters. Wide lake region above central lowland dotted with lakes
occupying about 10 percent of surface area.
Climate: Dominant continental climate year round,
but considerable winter snow and fog from maritime air currents.
Summers less humid with occasional showers; rainy season in November.
Longest growing season in southwest, shortest in northeast. Average
annual precipitation 600 millimeters, higher in mountains. Summer
precipitation averages twice that in winter.
Data as of October 1992
Poland
PHYSICAL SETTING
Generally speaking, Poland is an unbroken plain reaching from the
Baltic Sea in the north to the Carpathian Mountains in the south.
Within that plain, terrain variations generally run in bands from
east to west. The Baltic coast lacks natural harbors except for
the Gdansk-Gdynia region and Szczecin in the far northwest. The
northeastern region, called the Lake District, is sparsely populated
and lacks agricultural and industrial resources. To the south and
west of the lake district, a vast region of plains extends to the
Sudeten (Sidetu) Mountains on the Czech and Slovak borders to the
southwest and to the Carpathians on the Czech, Slovak, and Ukrainian
borders to the southeast. The country extends 649 kilometers from
north to south and 689 kilometers from east to west. Poland's total
area is 312,683 square kilometers, including inland waters--a slightly
smaller area than that of New Mexico. The neighboring countries
are Germany to the west, the
Czech and Slovak Federative Republic to (see Glossary) the south,
Ukraine and Belarus to the east, and Lithuania and the Russian province
of Kaliningrad to the northeast.
Data as of October 1992
Poland
Topography
The average elevation of Poland is 173 meters, and only 3 percent
of Polish territory, along the southern border, is higher than 500
meters. The highest elevation is Mount Rysy, which rises 2,499 meters
in the Tatra Range of the Carpathians, 95 kilometers south of Krakσw.
About 60 square kilometers along the Gulf of Gdansk are below sea
level. Poland is traditionally divided into five topographic zones
from north to south . The largest, the central lowlands, is narrow
in the west, then expands to the north and south as it extends eastward.
Along the eastern border, this zone reaches from the far northeast
to within 200 kilometers of the southern border. The terrain in
the central lowlands is quite flat, and earlier glacial lakes have
been filled by sediment. The region is cut by several major rivers,
including the Oder (Odra), which defines the Silesian Lowlands in
the southwest, and the Vistula (Wisla), which defines the lowland
areas of east-central Poland.
To the south of the lowlands are the lesser Poland uplands, a belt
varying in width from ninety to 200 kilometers, formed by the gently
sloping foothills of the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges
and the uplands that connect the ranges in southcentral Poland.
The topography of this region is divided transversely into higher
and lower elevations, reflecting its underlying geological structure.
In the western section, the Silesia-Krakσw Upthrust contains rich
coal deposits.
The third topographic area is located on either side of Poland's
southern border and is formed by the Sudeten and Carpathian ranges.
Within Poland, neither of these ranges is forbidding enough to prevent
substantial habitation; the Carpathians are especially densely populated.
The rugged form of the Sudeten range derives from the geological
shifts that formed the later Carpathian uplift. The highest elevation
in the Sudeten is 1,602 meters, in the Karkonosze Mountains. The
Carpathians in Poland, formed as a discrete topographical unit in
the relatively recent Tertiary Era, are the highest and most picturesque
mountains in the country. They are the northernmost edge of a much
larger range that extends into Czechsolvakia, Ukraine, Hungary,
and Romania. Within Poland the range includes two major basins,
the Oswiecim (Auschwitz) and Sandomierz, which are rich in several
minerals and natural gas .
To the north of the central lowlands, the lake region includes
the only primeval forests remaining in Europe and much of Poland's
shrinking unspoiled natural habitat. Glacial action in this region
formed lakes and low hills in the otherwise flat terrain adjacent
to Lithuania and the Baltic Sea. Small lakes dot the entire northern
half of Poland, and the glacial formations that characterize the
lake region extend as much as 200 kilometers inland in western Poland.
Wide river valleys divide the lake region into three parts. In the
northwest, Pomerania is located south of the Baltic coastal region
and north of the Warta and Notec rivers. Masuria occupies the remainder
of northern Poland and features a string of larger lakes. Most of
Poland's 9,300 lakes that are more than one hectare in area are
located in the northern part of the lake region, where they occupy
about 10 percent of the surface area.
The Baltic coastal plains are a low-lying region formed of sediments
deposited by the sea. The coastline was shaped by the action of
the rising sea after the Scandinavian ice sheet retreated. The two
major inlets in the smooth coast are the Pomeranian Bay on the German
border in the far northwest and the Gulf of Gdansk in the east.
The Oder River empties into the former, and the Vistula forms a
large delta at the head of the latter. Sandbars with large dunes
form lagoons and coastal lakes along much of the coast.
Data as of October 1992
Poland
Drainage
Nearly all of Poland is drained northward into the Baltic Sea by
the Vistula, the Oder, and the tributaries of these two major rivers.
About half the country is drained by the Vistula, which originates
in the Tatra Mountains in far south-central Poland. The Vistula
Basin includes most of the eastern half of the country and is drained
by a system of rivers that mainly join the Vistula from the east.
One of the tributaries, the Bug, defines 280 kilometers of Poland's
eastern border with Ukraine and Belarus. The Oder and its major
tributary, the Warta, form a basin that drains the western third
of Poland into the bays north of Szczecin. The drainage effect on
a large part of Polish terrain is weak, however, especially in the
lake region and the inland areas to its south. The predominance
of swampland, level terrain, and small, shallow lakes hinders large-scale
movement of water. The rivers have two high-water periods per year.
The first is caused by melting snow and ice dams in spring adding
to the volume of lowland rivers; the second is caused by heavy rains
in July.
Data as of October 1992
Poland
Climate
Poland's long-term and short-term weather patterns are made transitional
and variable by the collision of diverse air masses above the country's
surface. Maritime air moves across Western Europe, Arctic air sweeps
down from the North Atlantic, and subtropical air arrives from the
South Atlantic. Although the Arctic air dominates for much of the
year, its conjunction with warmer currents generally moderates temperatures
and generates considerable precipitation, clouds, and fog. When
the moderating influences are lacking, winter temperatures in mountain
valleys may drop to -40° C.
Spring arrives slowly in April, bringing mainly sunny days after
a period of alternating wintry and springlike conditions. Summer,
which extends from June to August, is generally less humid than
winter. Showers alternate with dry sunny weather that is generated
when southern winds prevail. Early autumn is generally sunny and
warm before a period of rainy, colder weather in November begins
the transition into winter. Winter, which may last one to three
months, brings frequent snowstorms but relatively low total precipitation.
The range of mean temperatures is 6° C in the northeast to
8° C in the southwest, but individual readings in Poland's regions
vary widely by season. On the highest mountain peaks, the mean temperature
is below 0° C. The Baltic coast, influenced by moderating west
winds, has cooler summers and warmer winters. The other temperature
extreme is in the southeast along the border with Ukraine, where
the greatest seasonal differences occur and winter temperatures
average 4.5° C below those in western Poland. The growing season
is about forty days longer in the southwest than in the northeast,
where spring arrives latest.
Average annual precipitation for the whole country is 600 millimeters,
but isolated mountain locations receive as much as 1,300 millimeters
per year. The total is slightly higher in the southern uplands than
in the central plains. A few areas, notably along the Vistula between
Warsaw and the Baltic and in the far northwest, average less than
500 millimeters. In winter about half the precipitation in the lowlands
and the entire amount in the mountains falls as snow. On the average,
precipitation in summer is twice that in winter, providing a dependable
supply of water for crops.
Data as of October 1992
Poland
ENVIRONMENT AND POLLUTION
Poland suffered as heavily as any other East European country from
the environmental negligence inherent in the central planning approach
to resource development. Although some warnings reached the public
during the 1980s, the communist regimes typically had portrayed
economic activity in the capitalist countries as the true enemy
of the environment. Investigations after 1989 revealed that enormous
damage had been inflicted on water, air, and soil quality and on
forests, especially surrounding the industrial centers in Upper
Silesia and the Krakσw region. But because the economy had depended
for over forty years on unrestrained abuse of Poland's natural resources,
environmental planners in the early 1990s faced the prospect of
severe economic disruption if they abruptly curtailed the industrial
practices causing pollution.
Data as of October 1992
Poland
Environmental Conditions and Crisis
In 1991 Poland designated five official ecological disaster areas.
Of the five, the densely concentrated heavy industry belt of Upper
Silesia had suffered the most acute pollution. In that area, public
health indicators such as infant mortality, circulatory and respiratory
disease, lead content in children's blood, and incidence of cancer
were uniformly higher than in other parts of Poland and dramatically
higher than indicators for Western Europe . Experts believed that
the full extent of the region's environmental damage was still unknown
in 1992. The situation was exacerbated by overcrowding; 11 percent
of Poland's population lived in the region. With 600 persons per
square kilometer, Upper Silesia ranked among the most densely populated
regions of Europe. In 1991 the region's concentrated industrial
activity contributed 40 percent of Poland's electrical power, more
than 75 percent of its hard coal, and 51 percent of its steel.
A variety of statistics reflect the effects of severe environmental
degradation in Upper Silesia. In 1990 the infant mortality rate
was over 30 deaths per 1,000 births, nearly five times the levels
in some countries of Western Europe; some 12,000 hectares of agricultural
land had been declared permanently unfit for tillage because of
industrial waste deposition; and between 1921 and 1990 the average
number of cloudy days per year had increased from ten to 183. Average
life expectancy in southern Poland was four years less than elsewhere
in the country .
Water and air pollution affect the entire country, however. A 1990
report found that 65 percent of Poland's river water was so contaminated
that it corroded equipment when used in industry. After absorbing
contaminants from the many cities on its banks, the Vistula River
was a major polluter of the Baltic Sea. River water could not be
used for irrigation. In 1990 about half of Poland's lakes had been
damaged by acid rain, and 95 percent of the country's river water
was considered undrinkable. Because Polish forests are dominated
by conifers, which are especially vulnerable to acid rain, nearly
two-thirds of forestland had sustained some damage from air pollution
by 1990. In 1989 Polish experts estimated total economic losses
from environmental damage at over US$3.4 billion, including soil
erosion, damage to resources and equipment from air and water pollution,
and public health costs.
In 1988 about 4.5 million hectares, or 14.3 percent of Poland's
total area, were legally protected in national and regional parks
and reserves. But all fourteen national parks were exposed to heavy
air pollution, and half of them received substantial agricultural,
municipal, and industrial runoff.
A special environmental problem was discovered when Polish authorities
began inspecting the military bases occupied by Soviet troops for
forty-six years. Uncontrolled fuel leakage, untreated sewage release,
noise pollution from air bases, and widespread destruction of vegetation
by heavy equipment were among the most serious conditions observed
when inspections began in 1990. The government of Prime Minister
Tadeusz Mazowiecki was late in pursuing the issue with the Soviet
government, however, and in 1991 the Soviet Union continued its
longstanding refusal to pay fines and natural resource usage fees
required by Polish law. In 1992 the Poles dropped all demands for
compensation as part of the withdrawal protocol
Data as of October 1992
Poland
Environmental Groups
The burst of political activity in the late 1980s and the early
1990s included establishment of over 2,000 organizations with environmental
agendas. A precedent for such groups was set in 1980, however, when
the Green Solidarity movement forced closure of an aluminum plant
in Krakσw. The diverse groups that appeared in the next decade achieved
some additional successes, but lack of cohesion and common goals
deprived the movement of political influence. No environmental group
or party was represented in the Polish legislative branch in 1992.
Among the objects of protest in the 1980s were Poland's lack of
a national plan for dealing with ecological disasters; construction
of a Czechoslovak coking plant near the Polish border; continued
reliance on high-sulfur and high-ash coal in electric power plants;
and the severe environmental damage caused by Soviet troops stationed
in Poland. In 1986 the explosion and resulting fallout from the
Soviet Union's Chernobyl' nuclear power plant galvanized environmental
activism, which in Poland was dominated by the professional classes.
But environmental groups faced several obstacles. Volunteer recruitment,
a critical aspect of organizational development, was hindered by
the necessity for many Poles to work two jobs to survive. Refining
practical operational priorities proved difficult for organizations
whose initial inspiration came from broad statements of environmental
ethics. And the agendas of the many activist groups remained fragmented
and dissimilar in 1992. Meanwhile, the most influential political
parties were split between advocates of preserving jobs ahead of
protecting the environment and those who saw unchanged economic
activity as the paramount danger to the health of workers and society
. Public attitudes toward environmental problems also were divided.
In a 1992 nationwide survey, only 1 percent of Poles cited the environment
as the country's most serious problem, although 66 percent rated
environmental issues "very serious." By contrast, 72 percent cited
economic issues as the country's most serious problem.
Data as of October 1992
Poland
Government Environmental Policy
Poland established a Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural
Resources in 1985, but the new department exerted little authority.
Between 1987 and 1988, for example, government investment in environmental
protection increased by only 6 percent. In 1990 the initial postcommunist
environmental timetable was to achieve "substantial" reduction of
extreme environmental hazards in three years and to reach the level
of European Community (EC--
) requirements in seven to ten years. In early 1991, the ministry
drafted a new state ecological policy, the core of which eliminated
the communist rationale of "social interest" in the arbitrary consumption
of natural resources. Instead, the new policy fixed responsibility
for the negative results of resource consumption at the source.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources officially
identified the eighty enterprises causing the most pollution and
promised to shut them down if pollution were not reduced. The role
of nongovernmental environmental organizations in policy making
was recognized officially for the first time. In late 1991, a State
Environmental Protection Inspectorate was established, with broad
powers to regulate polluting industries. Penalties for environmental
damage also were increased at that time.
At the same time, government policy steered carefully away from
measures that would sacrifice economic development, and policy makers
debated the appropriate standards for comparing immediate economic
growth with the estimated longer term gains of beginning a rigorous
cleanup program. Accordingly, in 1990 the Ministry of Environmental
Protection and Natural Resources adopted a policy of "ecodevelopment"
emphasizing modernization and restructuring measures that theoretically
would curtail pollution while they streamlined production operations.
The policy included distribution of information to the public to
gain acceptance of economic sacrifice for environmental improvement;
linkage of environmental law to the new market mechanism slowly
being created; promotion of an awareness in Western Europe of the
transnational impact of Poland's air and water pollution; and application
of foreign capital and technology to environmental cleanup problems.
At the end of 1990, Western banks began opening credit lines for
Polish environmental protection, and plans for some multinational
ecological enterprises included Poland. In 1991 the United States
government agreed to forgive part of Poland's debt in exchange for
domestic investment in pollution control.
Data as of October 1992
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