Sustainable Development, Socially Responsible and Ecologically Managed, Increases the World’s Ecological Security: Research on Poland and Polish Regional Cities

Abstract

The essence of the research was to fill the gap in knowledge about ecological safety consistent with social responsibility, sustainable development and environmental management. The conceptualization of research problems allowed the preparation of methodological assumptions for the analysis and assessment of the ecological security of the country, on the example of its regional cities. Theoretical and empirical studies were carried out. The scientific and utilitarian purposes of the research are given. Research thesis: the concept of the state as an ecologically safe organization is based on the concept of cities as an object of knowledge—as opposed to cities as a tool of action. The assumptions were related to environmental aspects. Among other things, the adopted development strategies for regional cities in Poland were analyzed. Models for the development of ecological security have been created. Overall statement: the lack of a single ecologically safe country is sufficient proof of the lack of global ecological security. The author formulated and provided definitions of: city, smart city and ecological security of the state.

1. Introduction

The term security refers to all measures taken to protect the area it covers and its resources [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. A state that gives a sense of confidence and a guarantee of behavior as well as a chance to improve safety is therefore a special value that an individual may have.

The concept of global, regional, international and national security is based on the integrity of three types of security, which are variable and negotiable tools, but offer a specific value, due to their relationship to the area of the state [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]: (1) ecological security, which determines the durability and continuity of the process aimed at achieving the desired state in nature and securing the peaceful and healthy existence of all elements of the ecosystem, using various instruments consistent with the principles of internal coexistence of the state and the international community, (2) internal security, creating stability and harmony of a given entity (e.g. system, facility or system) and (3) external security, determining the absence of threats from other entities and forces of nature.

These three types of security are further defined in 10 areas of security: ecological safety, social safety, cultural safety, physical safety, economic safety, energy safety, identification safety, information technology (IT) safety (i.e. cyber and information and Communications Technology (ICT)), political safety and military safety. They are values that confirm a specific ownership in various forms. Value and the resulting ownership are characterized by the impossibility of trading security, i.e. transferring value or ownership from one entity to another. Security is inalienable—owed to every individual. Moreover, security can be certified to confirm its value and ownership.

Generally, it can be said that the importance of a given type or field of security is based on its value or ownership that is revealed in a state of peace or a state of emergency, with specific state resources requiring protection. The states of emergency here include a state of emergency, martial law and a state of natural disaster. However, it cannot be ignored that the scope of restrictions in human rights and freedoms during martial law, a state of emergency or a natural disaster cannot limit the rights and freedoms defined as human dignity, citizenship, protection of life, humane treatment, criminal liability, access to court, personal, conscience, religion, petitions, family and child. It is also unacceptable to limit freedom and human rights solely because of race, gender, language, religion Or lack thereof, social origin, birth or even property. However, the scope of restrictions in human freedoms and rights in a state of natural disaster may limit their freedoms and rights defined as freedom of economic activity, personal freedom, inviolability of the home, freedom of movement and residence within the territory of the state, the right to strike, the right to property, the freedom to work, the right to safe and hygienic working conditions and the right to rest.

The author assumes: the hierarchy of types or areas of security results from other values professed by the state (or another entity operating on the territory of the state), which values determine the actual existence of the state in order to protect all its resources—in a state of peace or in a state of emergency. A state of emergency includes a state of exception, martial law and a state of natural disaster.

The author also assumes: ecological security is a value coherent with other types and fields of security, due to its natural properties. Although natural safety properties are difficult to maintain in their entirety, it is possible to fulfill this obligation [1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10].

Research on the state as an ecologically safe organization was made by referring to regional development works in Poland. The term organization cannot be omitted, because it means [11]: a company, corporation, firm, enterprise, authority or institution, located inside or outside the Community, Or part or combination thereof, whether incorporated or not, public or private, which has its own functions and administration.

The studied community were regional cities in Poland. The statistical significance of the obtained research results was therefore multi-aspect to prove whether the country is or is not an ecologically safe organization. Additionally, the tests were carried out on the sensitivity limit of the newly developed and improved method. Moreover, the research was complicated by difficult epidemic conditions; the research period was 2019–2022. The research method made it possible to establish connections between their theoretical and empirical parts. The differences have helped to establish and explain the meaning of global, international, regional and national security [8, 9, 12, 13].

2. These essences of research

2.1 Achievements

The success of research on the state as an ecologically safe organization is based on the continuity of analyses and assessments of the multi-aspect development of the organization that is the state, because each state pursues many interests, while functioning in the environment of other states. By participating in international relations, the state strives to ensure and maintain security, because it guarantees its survival, ensures comprehensive development and gives a sense of security to its citizens. Socially responsible participation in global sustainable development depends on the political and environmental aspects of all countries, the entire biosphere and humanity. In their context, social and economic aspects serve sustainable innovation changes and public-private partnerships.

In the model study, the author relates political aspects to common problems in maintaining the constant readiness of state structures to take up challenges, use opportunities and reduce risks, as well as the ability of state structures to eliminate threats. There are six political threats: (1) weakness of the rule of law and civil society structures, (2) the inability of state institutions to maintain the stability of the constitutional order and protect citizens from discrimination and intimidation by armed groups or criminal organizations, (3) failure to respect human rights and freedoms, (4) terrorist acts and practices, (5) various extremisms and fundamentalisms (e.g. ideological and religious) and (6) lack of international cooperation.

The benefit in the political aspect is ensuring a high level of political security of the state. This benefit can be obtained by implementing nine strategic goals: (1) protection of the constitutional order, (2) ensuring the functioning of state institutions, (3) respecting the rights and freedoms of its citizens, (4) protection of citizens against lawlessness, (5) eliminating terrorist threats, (6) creating appropriate conditions for economic, social and intellectual development, (7) counteracting extremism and fundamentalism, (8) efficient functioning of the crisis management system and (9) maintaining positive relations with other stakeholders of international relations.

In the model study, the author relates environmental aspects to the obligations of a democratic state of law, whose territory is the common good of all citizens. These obligations are intended to implement the principles of human rights, social justice and sustainable development [7, 10, 11, 12, 14]. This is possible based on environmental management. Such a state, while pursuing a policy ensuring security, fulfills four constitutional tasks, i.e.: (1) treats equally and does not discriminate in political, social or economic life for any reason, (2) indicates areas of health protection, (3) fights epidemic diseases and (4) prevents the negative health effects of environmental degradation.

From the point of view of state security policy, the process of managing the state’s territory as a common good is a tool used in a state of peace and a state of emergency. The results of management in a state of peace and in a state of emergency are losses in resources (social, spatial and economic). The scale of losses expressed in the value of lost resources is sufficient to constantly search for other solutions to state security. The author relates the effectiveness of these other solutions to the speed and continuity of identifying positive and negative environmental aspects of the state’s development, i.e. the indicator is still discretionary.

According to the author, in global security policy, the effectiveness of other development solutions should rather be based on an increase in the obligation to identify positive environmental aspects in all countries and eliminate negative environmental aspects in these countries. Therefore, it is necessary to create such an “investment climate” that there is a genuine willingness to change. This could be a promising start to the full realization of resilient and competitive change, because it is sustainable in creating real security.

The state’s ecological security policy therefore requires considering the difference between the public and the privacy of the resources of all organizations in the state, also the difference between the intentional and unintentional actions of these organizations, as well as the difference between the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information about the environmental aspects of the same organizations. This act of differentiation makes it possible to determine the state and quality of the state’s security policy [1, 2, 5, 11, 13]. We cannot ignore the fact that the difference-in-differences method is a quasi-experimental approach, i.e. a comparison of changes in results over time between the population covered by the study and the population not participating in the study. Therefore, the value lies in the differences between these environmental aspects of development that determine the condition and quality of the national regional development policy, voivodeship development strategy, city development strategy or commune development strategy [1, 2, 7, 11].

The state’s ecological policy requires engineering and technical, urban and architectural, medical and pharmaceutical tasks to ensure a decent quality of life for citizens. Therefore, four subsystems are important in security policy: management, executive, operational (i.e. defense and protection) and support (i.e. social, spatial and economic). In this context, the national regional development strategy refers to four objective realities: (1) spatial development plans, government and local government administrative decisions and environmental protection programs, (2) the effectiveness of urban development, (3) institutional development and urbanization processes and (4) diversification of development tasks in order to satisfy the public interest.

From the point of view of the obligations of public authorities, the conceptualization of research required focusing on the analysis and assessment of the coherence of three development concepts: social responsibility, sustainable development and environmental management. The author relates this composition to ecological security, understood as protection of the health and life of citizens and environmental protection, in the context of knowledge about the environmental aspects of the state, Figure 1. Environmental management is here a real process revealing the obligation—and even the right—to determine the environmental aspects of the state. The narrowing of development policy is the result of considering only the positive environmental aspects of this development, in the inverted truncated cone illustrating the space in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

The idea of coherence of social responsibility and sustainable development, in the context of the law on the protection of human health and life, environmental protection law and the law on environmental management of organizations, in the country. Color codes: Brown—Green transformation of the economy; lavender—A symbol of the fight against cancer; green—Zero emissions; blue—Use of specific precautions or personal protection; yellow—Various types of dangers or their risks.

The idea of coherence of three concepts expressed in Figure 1—social responsibility, sustainable development and environmental management—refers to the rights of every human being. This law is understood here as: (1) the maintenance of health and life, by an individual or group, and (2) sticking to a healthy environment. The term to hold means being in good condition and quality. However, the term protection means that there is a danger that must be defended against. This means a different approach to the functioning of the internal body of the state and its external connections, i.e. it is necessary to know where this law ends. This idea takes into account a different analysis and assessment of development factors (i.e. determinants), because it establishes the obligation to determine the positive and negative environmental aspects of any development, not only their voluntary recognition [11]. Only in this way can one obtain knowledge—as it seems—where the ecological effectiveness of changes in the development of each organization ends [3, 4, 5, 15, 16, 17].

Maintaining focus on the ecological effectiveness of development is unpredictable in the diverse socio-economic conditions of the country. It requires optimal demonstration of an ecological development plan or its modification to model and shape safe environments (social, spatial and economic). Therefore, it is advisable to analyze various environments in the context of knowledge about environmental aspects, as indicators for assessing social responsibility and sustainable development, expressed in the development strategies of various organizations in the country.

The research method I adopted helped me to regulate the methodological assumptions of the research and improve research supervision. Additionally, I referred in my research to the knowledge used in them, which concerns legal issues, social and economic issues, urban issues, the nation, the region, international affairs and the World [15, 16, 17]. Moreover, the concept of otherness here refers to being, a new life—based on positive environmental aspects and in the context of human prosperity and well-being. This means that strategic development planning, operational development planning and the effects of development activities are predicted on the basis of previously identified positive environmental aspects of the organization, and their negative environmental aspects are excluded.

This concept allowed me to determine how the results of theoretical research will be used to develop and present empirical data.

Specifying the differences between four concepts—ecological security, social responsibility, sustainable development and environmental management—revealed changes that need to be introduced in development strategies (mentioned earlier).

In general, it can be said that the lack of a single ecologically safe country is sufficient evidence of the lack of global ecological security. This statement is based on the concept of sustainable development [18]: the lack of one of the sustainabilities, i.e. social, spatial or economic, constitutes a lack of sustainability at all.

2.2 Objectives, thesis and scope of research

In the social sciences, it is not possible to distinguish subdisciplines according to one criterion [3, 5, 11, 12, 19]. I adopted the concept of ecological security as a criterion for theoretical and empirical searches. Theoretical research has been structured and directed to empirically identify differences in socially responsible and sustainable development as it is environmentally managed.

I reflected the issues related to the conditions of the organization of an ecologically safe state in the scientific and utilitarian purposes of the research.

The scientific aim of the research was to theoretically describe the state as an ecologically safe organization and to establish a uniform theoretical framework for the development of the state as an ecologically safe organization, because it is responsible for protecting the life and health of citizens and the protection of the natural environment.

The utilitarian aim of the research was to indicate a new approach to the importance of four concepts of state development policy: state ecological security, state sustainable development, state social responsibility and state environmental management. A continuation of the utilitarian goal was to provide comprehensive definitions of the city, the definition of a smart city and the definition of the ecological security of the state, created by the author.

The research thesis was as follows: the concept of the state as an ecologically safe organization is based on the concept of cities as an object of knowledge—as opposed to cities as a tool of action.

I assumed, first, that the development of the state as an ecologically safe organization results from the environmental aspects of the state—its cities and their regions—which aspects determine the impact of development on the territory of the state. Environmental aspects are elements of the state’s internal and external security policy, therefore ecological security is both a type and a field of security. The definition of an environmental aspect states that it is a component of an organization’s activities, products or services that affect or may affect the environment [11].

Second, I assumed that environmental aspects determine the reality to be presented by regional development strategies, city development strategies, municipal development strategies and even development strategies of other organizations. The lack of environmental aspects means utopian development strategies [13, 15, 16].

The overall research concept understood in this way allowed me to organize a coherent search for answers to four questions. Is ecological safety a lasting trend and a recognized international standard relating to the management of the country and its cities? How is the perception of urban development changing around the world, in Europe and in Poland? Was the previously dominant analytical concept of the state sufficient to understand the role of ecological security in contemporary spatial organization? Shouldn’t this concept be expanded to include an objective concept?

Looking for answers to these four questions, I conducted research on a deliberately selected group of 18 regional cities in Poland. I assumed that the collective nature of regional cities has features resulting from the advanced social and economic development of these cities. Cities should conduct international cooperation and have widely used digitalization, because only then can such a city be considered smart [20, 21, 22]. Additionally, each regional city should consider direct or potential socio-economic benefits from the natural environment, in accordance with the theoretical framework and initiatives supported by the government, regional or local authorities, on the basis of the development policies of these cities. During the research period, these also included obligations resulting from the global COVID-19 pandemic in 2019–2022; it was also a time of research. The essence of the latter context results from its leading role in the world of modern technologies. The author relates the government’s responsibility for the sustainable creation of a mobile and digital society to three activities at the level of the city, commune, district and region in the country: (1) increase in the use of digital technologies in education, (2) developing people’s digital competences and skills, and (3) data analysis to improve future forecasting.

I took into account the negation of the purpose of the study, i.e. the possibility of missing a certain amount of data and other information in the research material.

In response to the questions (posed above), I took into account the complexity of the political importance of cities and their regions against the background of changes taking place in Europe and around the world. I also took into account the fact that state management is linked in a superior way to city management. Cities, on the other hand, are related to the infrastructure of municipal management, housing management, real estate management and spatial development [10, 22].

Additionally, I analyzed the “National register of the participation of organizations in the Community Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)” and my own research questionnaires (surveys) on the topic “Model of an integrated city eco-management and audit system with the goals of sustainable city development and city social responsibility.” They were addressed to the presidents of the surveyed regional cities.

I analyzed and assessed 18 development strategies for Polish regional cities, because these strategies determine long-term city development cycles. I compared historical development data with the current state of development of Poland’s regional cities. I analyzed the differences in the development of these cities. I assessed variability trends in the development of the same cities. I verified the development challenges, adopted development directions, strategic development goals and operational development goals, and assigned development tasks and expected effects of development activities—which were approved in the development strategies of Polish regional cities. The validity of data in city development strategies referred to 2020 with a perspective to 2023 and 2025 or to 2030 and even to 2050.

I used a multi-criteria comparative and descriptive analysis of the collected research material as an instrument supporting social responsibility and sustainable development in spatial and urban planning.

The complexity of the methodological problem of research is illustrated by the consolidation model of the state as an ecologically safe organization, Figure 2, which takes into account three types of security: ecological, external and internal. This model also expresses environmental management of relationships within a nation and its economy. These relations are developed in a public-private partnership, managed according to the principles of social responsibility and sustainable development.

Figure 2.

The concept of the consolidation model of the state as an ecologically safe organization.

The consolidation model of the state as an ecologically safe organization creates six concentrically overlapping circles with factors (which are determinants) of development. The system of determinants makes us realize the main role of ecological security in the development of every country. This role is based on various interrelated responsibilities: public authorities, organizations operating within the territory of the state and the country’s stakeholders. The structure of concentrically overlapping determinants of the country’s development represents a system of inclusive relationships (i.e. without mutual exclusion). Each stakeholder of the inner circle also belongs to the outer (i.e. wider) circle, i.e. to the more inclusive outer circle (but never the other way round), Figure 2.

From the point of view of the international concept of a better world [23], an important feature of the model of concentrically overlapping circles with determinants of (for each country) development are the positive environmental aspects of the country (see Figure 1), because the circles interpenetrate. Negative environmental aspects of any development are excluded, because their presence creates utopian security. It is worth noting that all organizations are at the center, because their decisions and practices are influenced by continuous and interconnected other determinants (Figure 2).

The originality of research on the state as an ecologically safe organization results from the adopted five research practices:

1. inventory of the elements of the structure of the development strategy of regional cities;

2. assessment of the elements of the structure of the development strategy of regional cities, in the context of the sources (or lack thereof) of sustainable urban development, social responsibility of cities and environmental management of cities, with particular emphasis on the environmental aspects of these cities;

3. demonstrating and justifying the need to introduce activities identifying the environmental aspects of cities and their regions into city development tasks, also in the context of the cross-border impact of negative environmental aspects of cities; and

4. defining the scientific basis for managing the state and its cities to the extent that allows meeting the needs of the current generation and the aspirations of future generations, in the context of only the positive environmental aspects of cities.

The research concept formulated in this way allowed us to organize knowledge about cities in order to harmonize their development in the country and the development of the state. Additionally, the developed research concept allows for the integration of knowledge from various fields and scientific disciplines. The discussed research concept allows for a different explanation and prediction of the results of the state’s development activities.

In general, it can be said that the essence of the values and properties of ecological security result directly—i.e. intentionally—from the importance of the state’s social responsibility, sustainable development of the state and environmental management of the state, in a state of peace and under the complex burdens of a state of emergency.

The significant contribution of this research to global science is to fill the scientific gap in the field of “social sciences” and the discipline of “safety science” and the discipline of “management and quality science” as well as in the field of “engineering and technical sciences” and the disciplines of “environmental engineering” and “environmental protection.” This fulfillment refers to the research results and description of gaps in knowledge about the mechanisms of changes in the strategies of utility development of cities and their regions, in the context of the ecological security of the state.

3. Research results

The basis of the new paradigm of ecological security are three political premises, i.e. external relations of the state, internal relations within the state and factors of state development. Therefore, we can assume the existence of real scopes of competences and skills in managing global ecological security, when the new paradigm is characterized by strong external relations of all countries. It is worth remembering, however, that the new paradigm is characterized only by internal relations and state development factors, because fundamental change occurs only from within the state or states.

From the point of view of the adopted research practice, I distinguished 10 research results on the state as an ecologically safe organization, based on the example of Poland and its regional cities, i.e.:

1. I formulated the definition of a city and the definition of a smart city;

2. I demonstrated the impact of social responsibility, sustainable development and environmental management on the increase in safety;

3. I specified the sub-policies for the development of regional cities;

4. I developed catalogs of elements of the structure of the development strategy of these cities;

5. I specified the impact of environmental aspects of cities on the current and future state and quality of the state’s ecological security;

6. I identified gaps in meeting the requirements of city management;

7. I proposed changes to documents important for the development of cities;

8. I proposed changes to the spatial databases of central and local government administration, so that development policies determine ecological safety;

9. I requested a state inventory of environmental aspects as an element of the constitutional obligation to ensure safety; and

10. I provided the definition of the state’s ecological security, so that science related to urban planning and architecture could plan the development of countries differently.

The first result of my research was the lack of a clear definition of the concept of a city, sometimes used interchangeably with the—also essentially undefined—concept of a smart city, but no attempt has ever been made to justify such interchangeability. The diversity of the spatial structure of cities is one of the reasons why the definition of a city is not agreed at the international level. However, it is accepted that the concept of a city is not always limited to its administrative borders, and therefore the number of its inhabitants does not reflect their actual population [21, 22, 24, 25]. As a result of my research, I created and provided a comprehensive definition of the city and it is as follows [26]: socially responsible and sustainable development of the city as an organization means universally accepted ecological issues, i.e. in the process of city management, in the system of organizing the urban community and in economic relations with interested parties. The city as an organization creates a coherent system of values for the community using the city’s natural and technical space. This space is used to achieve real ecological security of the city. In this context, the environmental aspects of the city are continuously identified in its six spatial forms, i.e. production, consumption, power, symbolism, exchange and residence.

I also created and provided a synthetic definition of a smart city [26] and it is an ecologically safe place for social and economic life. The site is environmentally managed. The city’s organizational structure, city planning activities and social responsibilities—in the context of the city’s practices, procedures, processes and all resources—serve to develop, implement, achieve, review and maintain that city’s environmental policy. The city’s ecological policy is the basis of the smart city development policy based on the city’s environmental aspects [26]. This definition is unambiguous for all urban areas because it is not only based on the needs of social space, cultural heritage and city stakeholders, but also on the context of ecological safety policy.

These two definitions present a different approach to the issues of development, because it is related to the functions of the supreme authorities, based on the best available techniques, justified by European and even global achievements. Both definitions are clear for urban areas, as they concern spatial needs, i.e. their harmonious development. These definitions exclude ecologically sound development when urban development policies are not consistent with information and communication technology services in the physical structures of cities. Moreover, security relates to cultural heritage.

I related the second research result to the relationship between ecological safety and the degree of coherence of social responsibility, sustainable development and environmental management (of each organization). This relationship is sufficiently justified by international law [e.g. 3–7, 11, 23]. The fact that law is “voluntary” [11]—as a feature of ethical action, constituting a necessary or sufficient condition for being subject to moral assessments—in the context of ecological safety is a legislative defect. The lack of ecological security here means a lack of ethical action and moral judgments. Research on the development potential of Polish regional cities showed that 91 entities, i.e. 0.002% of all entities operating in the territory of Poland, were registered voluntarily in the national eco-management and audit system in the Community in 2020. This legislative defect can be removed by the existence of a necessary or sufficient condition: the organization’s consent to the obligation of eco-management and audit in the organization management process. Consent is the efficient cause of organization. The place of consent may be—as it seems—a specific or random application for financing any activity affecting the socio-natural environment of cities and their regions. As a result, each organization identifies its environmental aspects. The essence of the consent is to increase the security of national regional development, Figure 3.

Figure 3.

Scheme of the national regional development policy, taking into account the development policies of lower-level authorities in the country, in the context of socially responsible and sustainable development, environmentally managed.

The real obligation of public authorities is based on the scenario of socially responsible and sustainable development, which is environmentally managed by all organizations operating in the territory of the state (Figure 3). This scenario includes a consolidated report, i.e. informing about the state and quality of health and life of citizens, in connection with the state and quality of the natural environment. In this way, in five development areas, all local government units are responsible for creating and adopting the state’s ecological security. These are: (1) studies of conditions and directions of spatial development, (2) local spatial development plans, (3) environmental protection programs, (4) information on environmental aspects and (5) decisions of expert units assessing environmental aspects for the organization’s development strategy.

I related the third research result to the state’s ecological security policy, which should optimize various sub-policies of development of a given city, so that its development success is based on the positive effects of this development. A comparative analysis of 18 development strategies of Polish regional cities showed the existence of 18 development sub-policies, and these are: (1) sub-policy of the environmental protection, (2) sub-policy of the spatial order, (3) sub-policy of the health care, (4) sub-policy of the employment promotion, (5) sub-policy of the development culture, (6) sub-policy of the development of sports, tourism, recreation and leisure (7) sub-policy of the development of cities and metropolitan areas, (8) sub-policy of the development of rural areas, (9) sub-policy of the development of science and increasing the innovativeness of the economy, (10) sub-policy of the development of pro-social behavior communities and structures of civil society, (11) sub-policy of the human resources development, (12) sub-policy of stimulating the creation of new jobs, (13) sub-policy of creating and modernizing social infrastructure, (14) sub-policy of creating and modernizing technical infrastructure, (15) sub-policy of supporting modernization state institutions, (16) sub-policy of supporting the development of entrepreneurship, (17) sub-policy of supporting economic growth and (18) sub-policy of increasing the competitiveness of the economy. These sub-policies are related to unequal access to resources of strategic importance for the state.

I referred the fourth result of the research to the development of catalogs of elements of the structure of the development strategy of regional cities in Poland. The catalogs contain information about sets of investment services and the limits of the impact of these services on space in the context of a given development sub-policy (i.e. subset). Previously, there were no such catalogs in the development system of regional cities in Poland. As a result of the research, I developed 13 catalogs of elements of the structure of the development strategy of Polish regional cities, containing 1738 services provided to satisfy the public interest. These are: (1) a catalog of urban development challenges; (2) a catalog of the strengths of urban development; (3) a catalog of development opportunities for cities; (4) a catalog of cities’ development weaknesses; (5) a catalog of urban development threats; (6) a catalog of urban development directions; (7) a catalog of urban development activities; (8) a catalog of strategic city development goals; (9) a catalog of detailed urban development objectives; (10) a catalog of objectives for the operational development of cities; (11) a catalog of strategic city development tasks; (12) a catalog of tasks for detailed urban development; and (13) a catalog of the results of urban development activities.

Cataloging and presenting these services is based on five activities: (1) analysis and assessment of elements of urban development strategy structures, in order to isolate and collect development services and determine what they concern, (2) dichotomous verification that the services apply to all units and do not contain noticeable errors to determine their usefulness and clarify any ambiguities, (3) determining the differences in services so as not to deform their spatial significance, as a consequence of the fact that the differences are to some extent dependent on the assumptions made, (4) summing up how many of the designated criteria a given service meets and (5) the number of criteria met indicated how problematic the service was from the point of view of development sub-politics. The analysis of the dynamics and directions of development changes in Polish regional cities was carried out both in the entire individual set and in subsets designated by the typological procedure.

The fifth result of my research was focused on creating a catalog of positive and negative environmental aspects in order to assess the expected effects of development activities on their basis. In this context, positive environmental aspects determine ecologically safe development policies, referred to as a smart city. However, negative environmental aspects constitute a lack of ecological security in development policies.

The sixth research result kept this concentration in check, but showed the lack of identified environmental aspects by those approving the development strategies of Polish regional cities. Therefore, there is no specific, non-utopian, prediction of the effects of the development of regional cities. This important public interest in states of peace and states of emergency is also evidence of the lack of effective environmental protection programs in urban areas.

The seventh research result is my proposal for changes in knowledge and development documents consisting in eliminating the shortcomings (mentioned above) in all formal requirements and a constructive approach to spatial data. Additionally, the change is intended to supplement knowledge about the real and sustainable impact of the “investment climate” on the environment, i.e. according to identified environmental aspects.

The eighth research result expresses three premises for institutional and legal changes, i.e.: (1) the emergence of new concepts for managing public space in urban areas, resulting from monitoring the development of cities, (2) changes in the economic space of urban areas as a result of the use of all the resources of these areas and (3) adapting the theory and practice of public space management to international and national urban policy in the field of functional areas and metropolitan areas.

The ninth research result distinguishes three institutional and legal effects of environmental management, i.e.: (1) improving the reliability of the estimation of the consolidation model of development of the country, its regions and cities, in the context of socially responsible and sustainable development, (2) updating the assessment of the state territory in the context of natural capital, social capital and human capital and the ways of using them, (3) redesigning the development activities undertaken—including corrective, restrictive or temporary ones—to increase the importance of security in the function of the state, its regions and cities.

And finally, the tenth research result emphasizes the general cause-and-effect relationship between global security and local security. In this context, I created and presented [26] a definition of the state’s ecological security, which states that it is comprehensive security, i.e. protection of health and life of people and environmental protection, protection of cultural heritage and protection of property, as well as a rigorous and wide-ranging system of advance protection, which involves preparing for and effectively responding to a state of emergency (e.g. martial law, state of emergency or state of natural disaster).

This fundamental definition of ecological security argues that the concept of state development is based on the concept of city development as an object of knowledge—as opposed to the city as a tool of action. The city and its region are therefore always understood as an object of knowledge. The essence of this knowledge are environmental aspects and respecting them.

In general, it can be said that the developed method of researching the state as an ecologically safe organization creates an opportunity for a constructive approach to improving the assessment of the state and quality of planning for sustainable development of urban areas and making changes for the security of the state.

4. Discourse—a synthesizing approach

The term ecological security is included only in one Polish legal act—the Constitution—as the fundamental law of the Republic of Poland. At the same time, neither this legal act nor other legal acts contain any definition of ecological safety. Meanwhile, the concept of ecological security, according to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, requires public authorities to take actions to protect citizens and their future generations. This means that you are already experiencing threats to focus on creating barricades against the risk of their unpredictability. This issue refers to the state of peace and states of emergency resulting from insufficiently harmonized socio-ecological, economic-ecological and socio-economic development [26].

The term ecological safety may indicate strict, technical tools for receiving applications according to previously adopted assumptions. The mathematical models of urban development used in engineering and management practice are mainly phenomenological. This fact does not ensure ecological security, i.e. one that does not involve significant threats due to the capital-intensive economy.

In terms of the state as an ecologically safe organization, the author believes that there is one appropriate administrative division of the state, i.e.: (1) combining sustainable development with social responsibility and eco-management in the development strategies of cities and their regions, and (2) multi-level approach to cities and their regions, taking into account all levels of government, in the context of ecological security. The author relates the research concept formulated in this way to “the obligation” to identify environmental aspects of cities and their regions in order to strive for an idealistic interpretation of the availability and use of their resources. In the traditional approach to accessibility, importance is attributed to the development of cities within their administrative borders [1, 4, 5, 17, 20, 22, 27, 28, 29].

Table 1 illustrates general data about 18 smart regional cities in Poland. From the point of view of managing the digitization process in Poland, 94% of all cities with more than 200,000 citizens and 84% of all cities with 100,000 to 200,000 citizens have strategic documents covering digitization issues. Only in cities with more than 200,000 citizens do the fastest connections prevail, i.e. above 1 Gbit/s. The essence of regional city offices is to offer services and handle matters online. However, it is significant that one regional city—Wrocław—is registered in the national EMAS register and has an EMAS certificate.

No.	City Name	City area in square kilometers	Number of citizens	Unemployment rate in percent	Number of entities of the national economy	Apartments put into use	Dealing with matters online	An EMAS-certified city
1.	Bialystok	102	292,600	5,0	41,852	2131	yes	no
2.	Bydgoszcz	176	354,006	2,2	46,037	2288	yes	no
3.	Gdansk	683	486,345	2,5	95,275	4575	yes	no
4.	Gorzow	86	122,141	2,5	18,717	555	yes	no
5.	Katowice	165	302,397	1,1	54,824	1725	yes	no
6.	Kielce	110	195,942	4,6	31,189	941	yes	no
7.	Krakow	327	766,683	1,9	175,542	8206	yes	no
8.	Lublin	147	342,039	4,3	53,368	2915	yes	no
9.	Lodz	293	696,708	4,4	103,953	3704	yes	no
10.	Olsztyn	88	173,718	1,9	25,672	930	yes	no
11.	Opole	149	118,303	3,0	23,707	585	yes	no
12.	Poznan	262	540,365	1,1	130,003	3874	yes	no
13.	Rzeszow	129	183,901	4,1	35,326	2159	yes	no
14.	Szczecin	301	404,461	3,6	75,304	1942	yes	no
15.	Torun	116	199,469	2,9	28,893	1516	yes	no
16.	Warszawa	517	1,861,975	1,4	548,529	11,620	yes	no
17.	Wroclaw	293	674,132	1,6	147,620	7154	yes	yes
18.	Zielona Gora	278	139,278	2,8	25,040	373	yes	no

Table 1.

Regional cities in Poland—basic data.

Another approach to development stipulates the obligation to identify the environmental aspects of each organization. This approach should inspire representatives of all fields of science and scientific disciplines to further research on their essence in the context of the external and internal security of each country. From the point of view of global ecological security (Figure 4), the discrediting of its understanding means that any discourse can be conducted without knowledge about the environmental aspects of countries. Inspiring representatives of various fields of science and scientific disciplines to further research work is of comparative importance here; especially when development is differentiated by states of peace or states of emergency. The attitude of citizens toward global ecological security policy can therefore be considered in the context of two terms after analyzing the dynamics of negative (i.e. aggressive) dependencies between countries: (1) prosperity, which here means good economic conditions as a balance in structural changes, social and economic development; excludes bad economic conditions, i.e. a decline Or stagnation in production, prices, national income, trade in goods and a disturbed general balance in development, and (2) well-being, which here refers to the field of psychology and means the subjectively perceived sense of satisfaction with the physical, mental and social state of one’s life.

Figure 4.

Scheme of pursuing a global ecological security policy by increasing the quality of life, prosperity, well-being and well-being of citizens, in the context of peace—Expressed in the internal and external security of countries—Which is based on socially responsible, sustainable and environmentally managed development.

Importantly, the method of further research on the development of the state as an ecologically safe organization must take into account environmental aspects—so far “programmatically” omitted in Poland. This method is not based on the question of whether to identify environmental aspects in all organizations operating in the territory of the country—it is based on the obligation to identify environmental aspects of each urban or rural area. The lack of compliance of the assumptions of the urban development strategy with the planned positive effects of urban development refers here to the lack of environmental aspects, and these appear in local conditions; before they are observed in global conditions.

From the point of view of urban policies, standardizing and aggregating information on environmental aspects (generated by diverse investments) —made available and used—is the first stage in establishing cultural conditions. Taking into account the influence of cultural factors on the selection and application of environmental aspects is important when determining potential opportunities for increasing the spatial and architectural culture of cities. Additionally, when taking into account national, regional or local identity, such activities can have a positive impact on global security (Figure 4).

From Poland’s point of view, the existing spatial data (i.e. location, size and topological relationships between these objects, phenomena or processes), which are used to describe and calculate the resources of cities and even the country, are not fully reliable. These are estimated and approximate data, and some of them may, and even should, change after recognizing the environmental aspects of cities and the country [2, 3, 4, 5, 16, 17]. For this reason, estimates of spatial resources are not reliable. Previous efforts to identify urban spatial resources do not provide sufficient information about the negative results of city management. In the case of many spatial resources of cities (and the country), the degree of reliability of individual urban parameters and sociological maps, in the context of the shape and structure of these resources—in order to create their digital model and simulate the exploitation of the same resources—depends on the degree of their actual estimation, and there are several estimation methods.

It cannot be ignored that global governance of countries’ development is rightly linked to global urban development policy, but these connections are usually not properly analyzed and presented. In this context, policy is a system of goals and means as well as procedures for achieving them. Measures and procedures result from applicable national law and spatial development. It can therefore be assumed that development planning, as an activity superior to further stages of the management process, should more or less precisely define: (1) directions of development, but only according to positive environmental aspects and (2) protection programs, due to negative environmental aspects.

In general, it can be said that the discussed method of researching the state as an ecologically safe organization makes a significant contribution to better understanding and characterizing the current state and determining the development prospects of each state. Nowadays, countries can and even should have the status of ecologically safe states, important in sensitive states of peace and states of emergency. Examples include: wars (biological, chemical or nuclear) and industrial accidents (in mining, transport and others) and natural crisis events (climate changes, earthquakes, floods or strong storms).

5. Conclusions

The author’s intention was to present organized threads that appear in the four questions given in subsection 2.2. “Significant research achievements.” The author’s answer to these questions is to continue her research from the point of view of three issues: (1) the concept of development of other countries, (2) prospective development of their urban areas and (3) the importance of environmental management in protecting the health and life of citizens and protecting the natural environment. Determining these three issues may be crucial to achieving ecological security in other countries. In this context, the state and its cities are undoubtedly among the important issues of the scientific community. The main task of the science system—any system—was and is the legitimization of the political status quo, as well as the scientific justification of all political and social transformations.

Research on the state as an ecologically safe organization showed the mechanisms of development in the local system and revealed the barriers encountered and ways of overcoming them, by Polish regional cities. The developed method for determining the ecological safety of the state and its cities can be used for scientific analyses in the context of urban structures, consolidation of scientific concepts of spatial development and opinions on political decisions, mainly military ones. This method facilitates the selection and location of each investment considered in the context of its real environmental aspects, not only those voluntarily identified.

The basic theory used to catalog and present the elements of the structures of the development strategy of Polish regional cities is based on the assumption that each service is characterized by a certain natural size—an environmental aspect, usually hidden in the service. This result is based on catalogs with sets of services that are interconnected, therefore some services can be included in at least two sub-policies for the development of regional cities. Importantly, these services include environmental aspects in a non-obvious way—the importance of each of them may increase or decrease—but none of them can disappear. This has very important consequences. It can be said that positive environmental aspects “reward” the progress made in socially responsible and sustainable development. They also allow changes to be financed from “significant” funds. Polish needs in this matter are enormous.

The state as an ecologically safe organization is significant due to the environmental aspects of the state, because they are identified with strengthening development and minimizing, or even eliminating risks or threats of this development [11]. Therefore, such methods and means in the processes of identifying environmental aspects are expected to precisely adjust the investment only to a positive development result—difficult to predict at the development planning stage.

In general, it can be said that the success or failure of the global ecological security policy is determined by those environmental aspects that may hinder or facilitate conclusions about the trends in the development of the geo-political security system [11, 20, 28]. For this reason, the concept of a consolidation model of an ecologically safe state should be the starting point for developing new teaching modules in university study programs to complement the theory and practice of managing the state’s internal and external security. Future research: it is worth taking into account the responsibilities of the authorities and the resulting environmental aspects in the context of Russia’s war with Ukraine and Hamas’ war with Israel inside Gaza.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.