Urbanization is a complex process undergoing in towns and also involving their surrounding areas. It concerns various aspects of economic and social life as well as town planning issues. Modern conversions of urban space have changed the relations between cities and their immediate surroundings. Economic development and globalization process made large cities enter a new phase of urbanization i.e. the metropolisation phase. In Poland, only several years after it has joined the world economy circulation, the processes of mertopolisation and the increase of metropolitan functions can also be perceived. Apart from Warsaw only 3–5 Polish cities have the chances of different degree for faster metropolitan development.

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