Współczesne procesy rozwoju miast i obszarów miejskich

Contemporary transformations of urban and metropolitan structures are associated with many different issues and can become a subject of interdisciplinary research. The purpose of this article is to discuss some of these related to the problem of shaping urban structures of the Polish cities in the light of the sustainable development paradigm principles. As the starting point for these considerations the factors deciding about the transformation of the contemporary city were adopted. As the background of these the theory of the urban development cycle – described by Klaasen – was used. On this basis the key processes and challenges associated with metropolization and reurbanization of cities were presented. In result of these considerations the final conclusions, associated with the need of elaboration and implementation of the compact city policy (as the exemplifi cation of the need of saving undeveloped spaces as the “rare good”), were elaborated.