Adaptation to Climate Change—A Challenge for Small Towns

Abstract A compact city is one of the leading solutions to counteract the negative impact of climate change. It is also considered a node in the Transit-Oriented Development network. However, while a higher urban density can, on the one hand, positively influence public infrastructure, transport and economics, on the other hand, as we learn from the analysis of Berghauser Pont et al., it can have negative environmental, social and health impacts. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to look for the trade-offs, including density and provision of open green areas that will serve climate change adaptation. While climate change adaptation has been explored through extensive literature, there is still much to research, especially when dealing with small towns as an element of the region. Therefore, this paper focuses on a small town—Zgierz (less than 60.000 inhabitants) post-industrial town in central Poland near Lodz. The study presents the quantitative analyses of the urban form of Zgierz town centre, prepared using GIS using open-source data. First, we estimated the current residential densities and calculated population densities by applying the morphological types’ framework. Then we examined the provision and the actual distances to green areas. Moreover, the results were compared with local urban development documents. In conclusion, this paper presents the recommendations for balancing the density and amount of open green areas for the town centre of Zgierz and the scenarios for densifying urban lots in the heritage part of the town.