Geography of Poland

1. Geography of Poland

2. Poland (Polish: Polska), officially the Republic of Poland (Polish: Rzeczpospolita Polska; Kashubian: Pòlskô Repùblika) Is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast (a Russian exclave) and Lithuania to the north. The total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometers (120,726 sq mi), making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the sixth most populous member of the European Union.

3. Poland is a unitary state made up of 16 voivodeships.

4. Climate The climate is mostly temperate throughout the country. The climate is oceanic in the north and west and becomes gradually warmer and continental towards the south and east. Summers are generally warm, with average temperatures between 18 °C (64 °F) and 30 °C (86.0 °F) depending on a region. Winters are rather cold, with average temperatures around 3 °C (37.4 °F) in the northwest and −6 °C (21 °F) in the northeast. Precipitation falls throughout the year, although, especially in the east; winter is drier than summer.

5. Drainage Nearly all of Poland is swirled northward into the Baltic Sea by the Vistula, the Oder, and the tributaries of these two major rivers. About half the country is drained by the Vistula, which originates in the Tatra Mountains in far south-central Poland. The Vistula Basin includes most of the eastern half of the country and is drained by a system of rivers that mainly join the Vistula from the east. One of the tributaries, the Bug, defines 280 kilometers of Poland's eastern border with Ukraine and Belarus. The Oder and its major tributary, the Warta, form a basin that drains thewestern third of Poland into the bays north of Szczecin. The drainage effect on a large part of Polish terrain is weak,however, especially in the lake region and the inland areas to its south. The predominance of swampland, level terrain, and small, shallow lakes hinders large-scale movement of water. The rivers have two high-water periods per year. The first is caused by melting snow and ice dams in spring adding to the volume of lowland rivers; the second is caused by heavy rains in July.

6. TERRAIN Terrain In Poland, by far outweigh the lowlands (below 200 m), covering as much as 75 % of the country , the average height is only 173 meters above sea level, the median of 149 m above sea level Lowlands are in the north and center , while the Mountain and upland areas in the south. Poland is one of the few countries in Europe which have lake district and along with Germany has the largest glacial valleys.Polish Land leans from the south to the north- west. The amount , however, does not decrease gradually , but leaps and bounds, i.e., alternating the land below and above raised, which are arranged bands that stretch from west to east . Starting from the south divided into the following bands : mountains, valleys , highlands , central lowlands , lake districts and coasts .The highest and lowest points are located at opposite ends of the country. The lowest is located at a height of 1.8 m below sea level , near the village of Handles Elbląskie the Vistula Vistula delta . The highest point is Scratches in the mountains , where the tip reaches 2499 m In comparison with the size of the world record is not impressive: the lowest place on land ( sheet of the Dead Sea ) is about 416.2 meters lower , while the highest peak ( Mount Everest ) rises to about 6349 m above .

7. Natural resources mined in Poland 1.Nature has bestowed Poland generously with both non-renewable and renewable resources. The latter, such as wind and solar energy, are used more and more frequently, their growing popularity supported by great advances in technology. Poland is a country rich in minerals. It is among the world's biggest producers of hard and brown coal, copper, zinc, lead, sulphur, rock salt and construction minerals. As early as in antiquity, the country was famous for its amber, transported along the Amber Route from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic coast. The largest amounts of amber, often called Baltic gold, were found at the mouth of the Vistula and on the Sambia Peninsula (now in Russia's Kaliningrad Region). It was a much valued material at that time and played a major role in barter trade with the Meditterranean. Today Poland remains a major supplier of this material, with its resources estimated at 12,000 tons. The richest deposit is Mozdzanowo, where a variety of colours and shades can be found, including some 60 percent of transparent amber. Significant deposits also exist at the base of the Hel Peninsula, but they are located too deep (130m). Curiously, new and promising deposits have been rich.

8. 2. Hard and brown coal: Poland's reserves of hard coal are estimated at 45.4 billion tons. Withthecurrent annual production of 102 million tons (in 2000), they will sufficeto meet the country's demand for almost 500 years, that is twice as long as the world's average. In fact, they will suffice for much longer as coal is being replaced in Polish economy with environment-friendly natural gas. For this reason, by 2020 the production of hard coal will be reduced to some 82 million tons a year, and by 2050 to about 40 million tons. Poland has three major Upper Carboniferous coalfields, with 130 deposits of which 47 are currently exploited, their documented resources estimated at 16.6 billion tons.ntly discovered in the Lublin Upland. Hard coal Brown coal Natural resources mined in Poland 3. Oil and natural gas: Although the world oil industry was born in Poland, the country can't compare with Kuwait. Most active inthefield of hydrocarbonsexplorationin Poland are theAmericans.Apache Poland holdsmore licenses than anyother foreign prospector and has the largestseismic base. Its first success was the finding in 2000 of theWilga natural gas depositincentral Poland, estimated at 1 bcm.

9. 4.Metals, non-metals and rocks: The biggest resources of metals in Poland are thoseof Cooper, Zinc and Lead. Poland is one of theworld's leading producers of copper. The resources are estimated at 2.5 billion tons of ore, including 49 million tons of metallic copper. Poland also has immense deposits of sulphur and is one of the biggest exporters of it. The deposits located in three areas of the Carpathian Depression - Staszow, Tarnobrzeg and Lubaczow -are among the richest in the world (504 million tons). Over the last few years sulphur production has dropped significantly and in 2000 it was 1.4 million tons, of which over50% was exported. The most important for the economy are carbonate rocks: limestone, marl, dolomites and natural aggregate, used for road-building. Natural resources mined in Poland Cooper Zinc Lead

10. 4.Renewable resources: One treasure of Poland that until recently was used little or not at all is geothermal waters, their resources ranking among the richest in Europe. They are to be found at one-third of the country's area and are equivalent to some 3.5 billion tons of oil. This is sufficient for heating the houses of about 30 million people. Poland is not a major player in hydropowerengineering but it has an over century-long tradition in this field and excellent natural conditions to utilize the energy of flowing water.Almost one-third of Poland's territory is conducive for building wind power plants. The best area is the coastal belt from Swinoujscie to Gdansk, notably aroud the Rozewie Cape, followed by the Suwalki region, south-west Poland, parts of Wielkopolska and almost the entire Mazovia. Currently Poland has about a dozen of modern wind power plants with a capacity of about 2.5 MW each plus a few tens of smaller plants. The electric energy produced by wind power plantsis estimated to account for some 0.002% of the country's total production. Optimistic assumptions hold that by 2030 wind power plants will have 6000-9000 MW of installed power, producing 10 TW of energy a year. Natural resources mined in Poland Poland also has a relatively large potential of biomass from wastes, which can be used to produce heat. It is also possible to utilize solar energy by constructing solar collectors. The country's climatic conditions allow for the yearly production of 300-500 kWh of energy from every square meter of collector surface, which is equivalent to 70-100kg of coal. Renewable resources do not contribute significantly to Poland's economy but this contribution is bound to grow like in other European countries.

11. Typical animals Many animals that have since died in other parts of Europe still survive in Poland, such as ancient woodland bison in the Bialowieza Forest and in Podlaskie. Other species include the brown bear in Białowieża, in the Tatras, the Beskids, wolf and lynx in various forests, moose in northern Poland, and the beaver in Masuria, Pomerania, and Podlaskie, white-tailed eagle and the White Stork, who is in Poland in the summer season.