Development of technical infrastructure in rural areas of Poland in the years 2003-2010

The subject of the article is the availability of technical infrastructure equipment in rural areas. Analysed were both the availability of technical infrastructure facilities and the tendencies of development in this area. Spatial analysis covered rural areas in Poland per provinces in the years 2003-2010. The studies comprised the following elements of infrastructure: water-pipe network, sewerage network, gas grid and road network, as well as individual and collective sewage treatment plants. For the sake of the article, which aims at the assessment of the level of technical infrastructure development in rural areas of Poland in spatial and time arrangement, the author applied methods of statistical multidimensional analysis using a construction of synthetic measure. The results of analysis obtained in the work greatly confirm commonly known situation of rural areas in Poland. However, it is worth noticing, that despite the intense investment activities undertaken by local self-governments and noticeable improvement in the technical infrastructure facilities availability, interregional differences are diminishing only slightly. On the basis of the joint assessment, in 2010 the highest level of the technical infrastructure facilities availability in rural areas was noted in the Małopolskie and the lowest in the Lubuskie province.