Suchergebnisse

The paper highlights the impact of excessive industrialization during the centralized economy era on urban spatial identity, as well as the disruption of this identity through political-administrative decisions, a phenomenon characteristic of the Central and Eastern European region during the era of centralized economies. The tendency to rebalance urban territorial systems is achieved through deindustrialization, together with reindustrialization and tertiarization. All these changes affect functionality, physiognomy as well as urban culture, and can be quantified through the changes in the memory of places. Urban toponyms related to industrialization are disappearing and are replaced by toponyms that illustrate the historical past of the city and, in general, its spatial identity. The paper aims to contribute to the development of research on the impact of oversized industrialization on the memory of places, in the context of the transition from industrial to service-based economies, a process that affected the states of the former Communist Bloc after 1990. Based on bibliographic sources and field research conducted between 2008 and 2020 in two cities in Romania (Bucharest, the country's capital, and Galați, the largest river and seaport and the main centre of the steel industry in the country), we have evaluated quantitatively these changes with the help of indices resulting from the toponymic changes resulting from these processes. The study shows that the functional disturbances due to the oversized industrialization that characterized the communist period only managed to a small extent to affect the correlation between the spatial identity of the two cities and their toponymy.

The structural changes brought about by the collapse of the communist system also included the reconfiguration of social memory, so that future generations have a more objective imagining of the impact of the communist period on the societies from Central and Eastern Europe. In this view, the depoliticization of recent history is a top priority. The present study aims to highlight the way in which the schoolbooks in Romania bring into the memory of the young generation a strictly secret episode in recent (pre-1990) history: anti-communist dissent. Two categories of methods were used: researching the data and information contained in history textbooks and other bibliographic sources on anti-communist dissent in Romania in the overall socio-political context of that era; and assessing—with the help of a set of surveys—the degree of assimilation by young people in Romania of the knowledge about communism conveyed through textbooks. Research points to the conclusion that the Romanian curriculum and textbooks provide an objective picture of the communist period in this country, but young people's perception of communism in general and of Romanian communism in particular tends to be distorted by poor education, poverty and surrounding mentalities rooted in that period.

The paper highlights the impact of excessive industrialization during the centralized economy era on urban spatial identity, as well as the disruption of this identity through political-administrative decisions, a phenomenon characteristic of the Central and Eastern European region during the era of centralized economies. The tendency to rebalance urban territorial systems is achieved through deindustrialization, together with reindustrialization and tertiarization. All these changes affect functionality, physiognomy as well as urban culture, and can be quantified through the changes in the memory of places. Urban toponyms related to industrialization are disappearing and are replaced by toponyms that illustrate the historical past of the city and, in general, its spatial identity. The paper aims to contribute to the development of research on the impact of oversized industrialization on the memory of places, in the context of the transition from industrial to service-based economies, a process that affected the states of the former Communist Bloc after 1990. Based on bibliographic sources and field research conducted between 2008 and 2020 in two cities in Romania (Bucharest, the country's capital, and Galați, the largest river and seaport and the main centre of the steel industry in the country), we have evaluated quantitatively these changes with the help of indices resulting from the toponymic changes resulting from these processes. The study shows that the functional disturbances due to the oversized industrialization that characterized the communist period only managed to a small extent to affect the correlation between the spatial identity of the two cities and their toponymy.

24 cm ; Currently, in Romania, nearly 7,500,000 inhabitants (34% of the country total population) live in the metropolitan areas. Following the political and socio-economic changes which came after the post-communist period, the metropolitan landscape witnessed significant transformations, mainly related to urban sprawl (suburbanisation), in terms of land use/land cover changes and conversion to residential, commercial or services areas triggering both deconcentration and spatial redistribution of the population. The authors intend to assess the main urban sprawl-related housing dynamics in connection with some triggering driving forces in terms of the spatial transformations of built-up areas, changes in population patterns, residential expansion, etc., while focusing on the most important Romanian metropolitan areas: Bucharest, Oradea, Iaşi and Constanţa. Therefore, using GIS computer mapping techniques, statistical data and field surveys, the current study seeks to provide an insight into the connections between the main patterns of change and the residential development pathways in the Romanian metropolitan areas. ; 24 cm ; Currently, in Romania, nearly 7,500,000 inhabitants (34% of the country total population) live in the metropolitan areas. Following the political and socio-economic changes which came after the post-communist period, the metropolitan landscape witnessed significant transformations, mainly related to urban sprawl (suburbanisation), in terms of land use/land cover changes and conversion to residential, commercial or services areas triggering both deconcentration and spatial redistribution of the population. The authors intend to assess the main urban sprawl-related housing dynamics in connection with some triggering driving forces in terms of the spatial transformations of built-up areas, changes in population patterns, residential expansion, etc., while focusing on the most important Romanian metropolitan areas: Bucharest, Oradea, Iaşi and Constanţa. Therefore, using GIS computer mapping techniques, statistical data and field surveys, the current study seeks to provide an insight into the connections between the main patterns of change and the residential development pathways in the Romanian metropolitan areas.

Under the European Union (EU) energy efficiency targets that Romania has assumed, increasing the share of solar energy has been one of the main points to be considered. The most important solar energy resources are found in the lowlands and low hills in southern and south-eastern parts of the country. The current paper is focused on the Romanian Plain, which has the best environmental conditions to support the development of photovoltaic (PV) farms. One hundred and ten PV farms have been identified and mapped which cover a total area of 1393 hectares. Although it provides a clean and sustainable energy source, the related environmental implications of PV farms could be either positive or negative. In this study, some of the main categories of impacts have been selected for identification and analysis of their environmental consequences. Several indicators have been computed: the share of PV farms from the main land use/cover categories and main soil types, and the distance of PV farms to forests, water bodies, or protected areas. The overall results of the study reveal the current and potential impacts of PV farms in order to understand the interactions between the environment and the use of renewable energy sources and further support science-based solutions for sustainable development.

Since 1990s, many Chinese immigrants have come to Romania and they are numbering, nowadays, 2017 people (83% of the total legal Chinese residents live in urban areas). The aim of this paper is to analyze the territorial, economic and socio-cultural hallmarks of the Chinese minority established in the Romanian urban areas. To meet this objective, both qualitative (interviews and observations) and quantitative (selecting, structuring and valorizing the statistical raw data) methods were used. This study is important due to its multi-territorial levels approach and to its results (e.g. revealing that the economic hallmark influences and shapes the territorial traces of the Chinese minority, identifying the Chinese children as being a sort of "driving force" which would facilitate the social and linguistic integration of the Chinese minority into the Romanian society) which could support and suggest new topics for the geographical research.

The structure and pattern of agriculture in Romania has been facing significant
changes over the past decades in relation to the contextual social, political and economic
transformations. The current study is seeking to assess the determinants of agriculture in
the main agricultural region of Romania (Romanian Plain) based on selected socioeconomic factors. The authors selected nine socio-economic indicators (agricultural
surface, labour renewal index, economic dependency index, economically active
population, employment in agriculture, vitality index, share of young labour, share of
female population and roads and railway density) which were aggregated into an index of
socio-economic determinants of agriculture. Overall, the final index values revealed
spatial differences which enabled a certain separation between the eastern, central and
western parts of the Romanian Plain: socio-economic favourability for agriculture in the
central and, to some extent, in the eastern parts and a significantly reduced favourability
in the western area. The current research could become an important step for in-depth
assessments of environmental and socio-economic determinants of agriculture,
developing strategies and supporting policies at different spatial scales.