The IG&G staff (Z. Młynarczyk, K. Rotnicki and W. Stankowski) have designed and patented several laboratory devices for measuring physical characteristics of deposits and simulating sedimentation processes. An important achievement has also been the designing, constructing and patenting equipment for geological and geophysical fieldwork. It includes a MERES drilling rig (photo) which makes it possible to sample unconsolidated deposits with an undisturbed structure. It reaches down to 30 m and also allows the structure-preserving sampling of loose medium- and coarse-grained deposits lying below the groundwater level.

A. Karczewski, S. Kozarski and K. Rotnicki are co-authors of a general geomorphological map of Poland first published in the 1980s. Since then it has been reissued several times as a separate publication and as part of the country's atlas. Its creation was one of the results of an ambitious programme of a detailed geomorphological mapping of Poland whose co-author and ardent champion was Prof. Bogumił Krygowski. Under this programme, in the 1950s and '60s a Geomorphological Map of the Wielkopolska Lowland at a scale of 1:100,000 was prepared, which covered an area of some 69,000 km² and consisted of 77 sheets. To the present day it has often been used for planning and engineering purposes. The year 1998 saw the publication of the Geomorphological Map of the Szczecin Lowland and Myślibórz Lakeland at a scale of 1:100,000 prepared by A. Karczewski. The IG&G staff have also been editors, co-editors and authors (A. Karczewski, A. Kostrzewski, P. Kłysz and others) of two sheets of geomorphological maps of Spitsbergen: Hornsund, 1:75,000, published in 1984, and Petuniabukta, 1:40,000, published in 1990. Of great economic importance is the project of a detailed geomorphological mapping of Poland at a scale of 1:50,000 conducted by the State Geological Institute. K. Rotnicki of the IG&G has been co-author of several sheets of this publication.

Also in the IG&G, a computer program has been devised (A. Stach) to calculate the flow of water in small streams using the conductometric method (diluting the solution of a salt). The program has been incorporated into a popular, universal electrochemical field gauge manufactured by the firm Elmetron from Gliwice. A. Stach has also co-authored (with J. Tamulewicz from the Institute of Physical Geography and Environmental Planning) a raster database of monthly rainfall totals in Poland for the multi-year period 1956-1980 in a 2 km x 2 km grid. Another result of this project has been a new, continuous, spatial-temporal classification of the precipitation field of our country.

Commissioned by the Chief Inspector for Environmental Protection, the IG&G staff has also worked out the conception and implementation programme of the Integrated Monitoring of the Natural Environment. The programme has been running for 14 years now, and its co-ordinating centre and database are located in the IG&G in Poznań.