The environment is crucial to socioeconomic development and to human well-being. Properly performed spatial planning efforts allow the natural environment to be shaped in a rational way, by identifying the possibilities and directions for its development.

Ecological Awareness and Social Capital and Implementation of Sustainable Development. The importance of social commitment to sustainable development and the need of forming of the homo cooperativus attitude are underlined in the principles of sustainable economics. Environmental awareness and social capital are two key factors that influence the implementation of sustainable development. The main aim of the article is to analyze of both concepts definitions and to indicate the relationship between them. It also classifies social attitudes resulting from the level of social capital and ecological awareness.

The Opole region struggles from the most unfavourable demographic situation among all Polish administrative regions. The region is not only losing its population but also reports a growing number of inhabitants aged 50 and more. For this reason, demographic challenges are high on the region’s development agenda. The establishment of the Special Demographic Zone for Opolskie Voivodeship (SDZ) has provided an incentive to take measures, both on the local and regional scale, to reverse the undesirable situation.

This article discusses one of the SDZ packages, namely Package 4 Golden Autumn intended for persons aged 50 and move. Based on surveys held in the municipalities of the Opole region, the author seeks to answer questions related to the perception of the existing demographic processes as developmental barriers and looks at different initiatives and action taken by local self-governments for 50+ residents.

Środowisko ma kluczowe znaczenie dla rozwoju społeczno-gospodarczego i dobrostanu ludzi. Planowanie przestrzenne pozwala racjonalnie kształtować środowisko przyrodnicze przez określenie możliwości i sposobów jego zagospodarowania.

One of the principles of green infrastructure (GI) design is a multi-scale approach. Each scale requires taking into account various, differently aggregated GI building blocks. Eco-spatial indices are an important tool for implementing GI. These planning tools make it possible to define the proportion between built-up areas and blue-green areas of a project site. The Ratio of Biologically Vital Area (RBVA) is an indicator that is widely used in Polish spatial planning practice. The objective of this study was to determine how the RBVA is shaped in existing local spatial plans for single- and multi-family residential areas in 20 small and medium-sized towns, and to analyse whether and under what conditions the ratio used would guarantee the implementation of GI. The subject of the study were 814 local spatial plans of residential areas. The authors applied a document analysis method using the READ approach. In addition, statistical analyses of the data obtained and a detailed analysis of three selected plans were carried out. The most common ratio for multi-family residential areas was found to be at the level of 30%, while for single-family residential areas, it was 40%. Statistical analysis showed no significant differences between small and medium-sized towns for single-family residential areas. In turn, considerable differences were observed for multi-family residential areas (RBVA higher in medium-sized towns). The research corroborates that RBVA is a commonly used indicator. However, it guarantees only to a limited extent the possibility of GI implementation at the local scale.