Research was carried out in 51 country parks in the Sandomierska Basin to characterise the floral and phytosociological diversity of their herb layer. The parks, minimum 2 ha in area, were established in the 18^th or 19^th century in a landscape style on the Tilio-Carpinetum (Małopolska variety) sites. The country parks were divided into groups according to two variables: (i) tending (understood as mowing of the herb layer), and (ii) size. The results of the research indicated that both variables have an effect on the species composition of plants in the herb layer. The percentage cover of Querco-Fagetea plant species in the herb layer of non-tended large-sized country parks and natural oak-hornbeam forest communities is higher than in tended parks.

The ecological indicator values of vascular plants according to Ellenberg et al. and Zarzycki et al. were used for determining the main relationships between the abiotic environment and the species composition of the herb layer of parks. The research conducted in 51 country parks located in the Sandomierska Basin showed that the vegetation cover of the parks significantly depends on the elements of the abiotic environment (light, soil moisture, physicochemical composition of soil). Mowing was found to influence the species composition of the herb layer, eg. the proportion of synanthropic plants in the vegetation cover was higher in tended parks (with mown herb layer) because of the greater changes to the habitat.

Research carried out in 51 tended and untended landscape-style country parks (18th and 19th century) situated in the Sandomierska Basin, Poland, provided a basis for determining the extent to which the vegetation of the parks has been transformed. Using the historical-geographical classification of plants it was found that autochthonous species have a larger percentage cover in the vegetation layers (trees, shrubs, herbs) of untended parks, i.e. objects with a non-mown herb layer. The species composition of the vegetation of untended parks bears greater similarity to natural oak-hornbeam forest communities, which indicates that the sites of such parks have been changed to a small degree. The vegetation of the country parks, especially the large-sized untended ones, reflects the natural succession transformations.

The study determined the loads of selected physicochemical components deposited with precipitation and carried away with outflow from two small catchments having similar habitat and climatic conditions but differing in land use and management pattern. The research was conducted in the hydrological years 2000 and 2001 in the Górka catchment (0.87 km²) and Barnczak catchment (1.21 km²) situated in the western part of the Małopolskie province (southern Poland). Samples of precipitation and outflowing water were collected twice a month on average. The concentrations of total suspended solids, ammonium and nitrate nitrogen, phosphates, dissolved substances, sulphates, chlorides, calcium, magnesium, potassium, manganese and iron were determined in a laboratory. These concentrations and the measured precipitation and outflows were used to compute the loads of the components, which were then compared between the two objects. For most components the loads carried away with outflow proved larger than those supplied by precipitation. The exceptions were ammonium nitrogen and manganese, whose removal was considerably smaller than supply, and in the Barnczak catchment also phosphates, with slightly smaller removal. The findings corroborated a thesis that precipitation constitutes an important source of non-point pollution, particularly with biogenic compounds. Larger loads of total suspended solids, ammonium nitrate, phosphates, potassium, manganese and iron flowed away from the Górka catchment having a higher proportion of built-up areas with disorderly water supply and sewage disposal management. The loads of the other components were bigger in the water flowing away from the Barnczak catchment, wholly used for agricultural purposes, with prevailing arable land.

The paper presents the diversity of plant communities from Agropyretea intermedio-repentis class in Szczecin (Poland) and their connections with different types of urban landscape. The following six communities are characterised: associations Convolvulo arvensis-Agropyretum repentis, Convolvulo-Brometum carinati and Convolvulo-Brometum inermis, and communities with Cirsium arvense, with Calamagrostis epigejos and with Saponaria officinalis. The communities are expansive especially in areas with low-density development and a large proportion of open space. Showing a low species diversity, retarding succession, and having poor recreational and esthetic value, these communities adversely affect urban space. A sole positive contribution to the urban landscape is through their rapid growth on wastelands, which, however, in the longer term makes it difficult to replace them with cultivated plant cover.