The impact of transport on the quality of the environment in cities of Poland – a statistical analysis

The main purpose of the study was an analysis of differences between Polish cities in the field of the quality of the environment. For this purpose the multi-dimensional analysis of correspondence on the basis of the developed complex matrix of markers was used. Due to a large number of variants of the analysed variables, the Ward’s method was applied. It allowed to establish connections between variants of variables. The value added of the research results presented in the paper is the approach to the evaluation of the environment quality in cities of Poland proposed by the authors. In this approach, apart from normally analysed variables directly describing the environment quality in the examined cities, the set of indicators related to the quality of the environment was used. According to the conducted studies, voivodeship cities in Poland are very differentiated in terms of the quality of the environment. It is related to the general social and economic development of cities, the level of industrialisation, the level of urbanization, etc. The development of cities requires not only the rational management of natural resources but also activities related to their protection.