The paper presents the possibilities of use of waste aggregates in civil engineering. Laboratory tests made on recycling aggregates pointed to their higher values of water absorbability and porosity in comparison to those parameters referring to ordinary aggregates. Hydrophobic additives made the water absorbability of aggregate lower. Preliminary studies carried out on recycling aggregate concretes pointed to the possibility of recycling aggregate use for constructional concretes. Chemical additives used for concrete increased its strength and decreased its water absorbability.

Self-compacting concrete (SCC), increasingly popular in Japan, USA and western countries of Europe, is an accepted structural material for the future. More and more common use of in engineering objects (congested reinforcement elements, foundations, bridge piers, slabs, tanks, precast industry) makes it possible to apply SCC technology in the village infrastructure. Particular advantages, regarding both fresh concrete (elimination of vibration) and hardened concrete (high strength and durability) and also economical aspects seem to be especially prosperous. Elimination of vibration is achieved by the proper choice of SCC constituents, including high effective super plasticizer, compatible with cement and mineral fillers, such as fly ash, silica fume, etc. The correct selection of the aggregate seems to be an important aspect of SCC technology as well. The aggregate is one of particularly changeable component of the concrete, taking into account its origin. Hence, the development of a suitable procedure for design of the aggregate stock is the essential issue in SCC technology. The paper presents results of studies on self-compacting concrete mixes designed at the different quantitative relation between the coarse and fine aggregates. Particular attention was paid to the value of sand point (30, 35, 40, 35%). The authors tried to verify Chinese mix design method for SCC, decreasing the amounts of cement. The properties of fresh concretes (initial slump, slump-flow, air content) and hardened concretes (compressive strength) were compared and analyzed.

Taking advantage of meteorological data which come from automatic stations, published by WIOŚ, it was tried to assess the intensity of urban heat island in Warsaw. This was based on air temperature values measured at the height of 2 m above the ground which were gathered in a period from IX 2003 to VIII 2006 in four urban background stations in Warsaw, one of them in Piastów and one regional background station in Legionowo. The last one was situated behind the influence of Warsaw agglomeration. On the base temperature values the differences between each of Warsaw and Legionowo stations were stated what allowed to define the intensity and the time of occurrence of the urban heat island. The schedule of frequency of those differences was made and the special graphs shows development and disappearance of the heat island in various parts of the day depending on different seasons.

The distance from a habitation is one of the fundamental characteristics of the plot spatial layout, determining its location within a farm. The necessity to establish the above mentioned distance is required mainly in case of taking decisions concerning land transformations including land mergers. Estimation of distance between the allotment and the habitation is a time-consuming activity, nevertheless it may be considerably improved or even automated by means of presenting a numerical map. The article is dedicated to issues related to the separation of road network in a rural area and its presentation in a form of a graph showing options in terms of passage or access from habitations to cultivated land. The road network graph is one of the output data required in case of automated determining of distance between land and habitations.

The process of solid particle sedimentation in fish ponds has not been so far examined at a large scale. Many authors investigated sediments from water reservoirs and lakes as well as those deriving from check-dams. These sediments, however, differ greatly from pond sediments. The paper presents the results of chemical property investigations (especially content of heavy metals what may indicate to the way of their agriculture utilization) as well as the process of bottom sediment deposition in six chosen fish ponds of different physiographic properties of the catchment whose rivers supply the ponds. It was shown that the sedimentation process in six ponds proceeds in a similar way with evident characteristic sedimentation phases and the heavy metal content in sediments is not harmful and can serve for agricultural purposes.

The article presents a model of water-management subsystem for the sustainable development of the Raszynka River catchment area up to its 10+300 km. The model was crated for two stages of infrastructure development: the one existing in 2000 and future one for 2015. Quantitative and qualitative identification of an existing and planned water resources and demands was performed for two management catchment areas: Z-1 and Z-2. The existing state of the water management system was evaluated using water-management balance method. The water-management subsystem consisting of the two analyzed catchment areas did not fulfill basic requirements of sustainable development. Technical infrastructure (water-supply and sewage-disposal) proposed for a period ending in 2015 will considerably increase sustainability level of both catchment areas.