Environmental fragility in a mining area is evaluated both in terms of its biophysical (natural) and socio-economic components and their anthropogenic interactions. We identified multiple criteria and indicators for this task, but then reduced these according to responses given by 60 experts in domains related to spatial planning. We used the selected criteria and indicators to develop environment fragility indices for each territorial administrative unit (LAU2) in Gorj County in south-western Romania. The resulting indices reveal quite large spatial variations in fragility and evidence that highly fragile human and physical environments are to some extent intertwined. In this respect, such environmental components as climate, soils, ecosystems, natural hazards and economic issues provide constraints on human activities, whilst humans themselves can, without sufficient care, increase fragility and adversely affect the quality of living environments for present and future generations. We also explore how such estimates of natural and anthropogenic fragility might enable better specific planning for local and regional development that aims to ameliorate both environmental and human adversity in an integrated way.
Several factors contribute to the lower quality of living of post-communist countries like Romania, such as housing quality, access to basic infrastructure or services including healthcare, and low income and education levels. To evaluate to what extent the quality of living is related to social and economic factors, including access to medical services, a field questionnaire was applied to 703 respondents from 8 settlements located in the South-East of Romania. Using the Principal Component Analysis, four determinants were selected to compute a Quality of Living Index (QoLI): sewage, room surface per dweller, dwelling accessibility and fuel use for cooking. The QoLI computed for each respondent varied between 29.7 and 94.8 with a mean value of 58.5. It was directly related to the level of education and income and with several healthcare parameters. The mean value for each Local Administrative Unit was used to establish a ranking, with the commune of Mihail Kogălniceanu (Constanța county) having the highest average QoLI, and the commune of Brăești (Buzău county) having the lowest average QoLI. The QoLI of investigated settlements was in line with the results reported by other studies that assessed the socio-economic development of towns and it can be used as a tool to establish the level of living conditions and to prioritize the need of intervention.
Urban sprawl is widely considered to be a major issue for the functioning of urban areas, threatening long-term sustainability and affecting the quality of living. The aim of this research is to develop a methodology for assessing the negative effects of uncontrolled suburbanization in metropolitan areas through a multicriterial approach. Based on the existing body of knowledge, we have defined a set of indicators for assessing the impact of suburbanization, covering themes such as land use, water, biodiversity and economy or social issues. A questionnaire was applied to experts in the field in order to find out the final set of indicators and their perceived importance. The product of our research is an urban sprawl restrictiveness index at the local level, tested on five of the most dynamic metropolitan areas in Romania. The results highlight the concentration of negative effects of urban sprawl in the areas most accessible from the city core, where additional in-depth analyses were performed for validation. This study thus proposes a novel method for assessing the negative impacts of urban sprawl. The index could be used in other comparative studies at the national or international level while also aiding policymakers in better managing metropolitan areas.
Measuring territorial disparities is the first step in studies aiming to improve territorial cohesion. As intraregional disparities are often higher than inter-regional ones, an analysis of development at local level is needed in order to define areas of intervention for specific targeted policies. The aim of this study is to individualise deprived areas in Romania’s South West region through the use of the Principal Component Analysis run on 15 social, economic, demographic and physical indicators defined at local level (LAU 2 units). By computing a global index of deprived areas, 13 areas were individualised at regional level, with the results being compared with other studies on deprived areas (Romania’s poverty map, Social Development Index and Less-favoured areas). The final output showcased the differences in defining deprived areas according to the used methodology, with a need to standardise such methods for policy targeting in the future while also considering environmental quality factors.
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