EN
Studies on the relations between natural conditions and human activity have been for a long time one of the main subjects of geographical research. The natural conditions of the distribution of population and settlement have been studied along two lines: historical-geographical - mostly by historians as a part of the methodology of the humanities, and the antropogeographical, which after the time of prosperity at the turn of the 19th century, began to decline, and, at present, is almost completely abandoned. One of the weaknesses of the antropogeographical research was the use of the measurable research methods to insufficient degree. At the end of the 60s at Warsaw University (B. Dumanowski with his team) the cartometrical and statistical studies on the problems of natural conditions of settlement which were based on the methodology of natural science were undertaken. It was found that a greater diversity of the environment and the physico-geographical borders favour, in general, the location and evolution of settlement, however the influence of these factors varies much according to the local circumstances. Besides the publications with measurable results of research, about one hundred Master's theses have been written. All that has constituted a sort of experimental range in the research of the Team, where the new approaches and methods were tested, regarding various areas and the degree of generalization and scales of the source maps used for research. The continuation of geographical research of the problems is justified and needed because of the long-year tradition of such studies in the field of geography and abundance of works on the matter, as well as the increasing tendency to conduct the interdisciplinary research. Such studies respond to the social demand which appears in connection with the globalization of the human civilization activity and its increasing pressure on Nature.