Among other forms of land use are settlements, transportation, terrain used for extraction of minerals and idle land. All of these forms of land use show a growing trend. This means that the share of roads and railways, residential and industrial construction, strip-mines and idle land is growing.

In the last fifteen years the area of terrain used for transportation purpose increased from 958,000 ha (3.1% of the area of Poland) to 998,000 ha (3.2% of the area of Poland). At the same time the area taken up by settlements increased by 112,000 ha (from 840,000 ha in 1980 to 994,000 ha in 1994). This takes up 3.0% of the territory of Poland. The terrain used for extraction of minerals occupied 37,000 ha in 1980 and 42,000 ha in 1994. This is slightly more than 0.1% of the area of Poland.

Poland is a country where idle land occupies a minuscule part. We distinguish between natural idle land such as coastal dunes or naked rocks in the higher parts of the mountains and idle land which came into existence as a result of the economic activities of people. Due to these activities the amount of idle land in Poland has increased. The total amount of idle land (natural and man-made) in 1980 was 477,000 ha, which amounted to 1.5% of the total area of Poland, whereas in 1994 it grew to 505,000 ha, 1.6% of the area of Poland.

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