Environmental, social and economic determinants of sustainable development in the process of managing municipalities illustrated using the example of the lesser Poland voivodeship

In an age of climate change and increasing negative environmental effects of the development of urban agglomeration, it is becoming more and more important to implement sustainable development principles in governing urban municipalities (Polish: gminy). The three areas of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental, have been extensively explored in scientific research over recent years. These studies have mostly covered international or regional areas and, to a lesser extent, local ones. Six environmental, economic and social indicators of sustainable development were examined for 14 urban municipalities located in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. Only a selected group of indicators from these areas was assessed due to limited data availability. Social and economic measures showed a strong Spearman's rank correlation. Based on the collected research material, benchmarking was developed for the units under evaluation, indicating that over the period between the year 2014 and 2019, the city of Krakow occupied the highest position, on average, among urban municipalities of Lesser Poland Voivodeship, considering the measures analysed.