Category: 2008

Man induced impact on the environment as a result of hydrocarbons’ exploitations within the Amaradia hills

Viorica TOMESCU, Liliana POPESCU, Elisabeta CIOCAN, Cristina MARA, Ştefan NEGREANU

Abstract: The contents of the present research comprises the case studies of two areas, which are referential for the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the Amaradia Hills, with major impact on the environment: Brădeşti area, in the south-west of the region and Vârteju area, situated norther, on the Plosca brook valley, a tributary of the Amaradia river.
The paper aims at evaluating the pollution degree which affects the components of the environment, within the extraction areas of hydrocarbons, in order to point out the necessity of the precautionary measures to reduce the negative impact on the environment, all this with a view to applying the principles of sustainable development of the region.

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Criteria for the thermal comfort analysis within urban ecosystems

Ioan MARINESCU, John WOOLNER

Abstract: The understanding and evaluation of thermal comfort in urban ecosystem is a basic need for bioclimatic urban design including the green urban structures contribution. The study aims at establishing a set of criteria for the assessment and dynamic analysis of thermal conditions in close relation with extended knowledge about urban climate effects and microclimatic conditions of the city. Thermal conditions are among the factors that greatly influence human activities and behavior inside city boundaries.
The use of specific criteria for the precise measurement of physiological equivalent temperature (PET) is needed for urban thermal sensations assessment. The final outcome is concerned with the developing of a simplified methodology in order to analyze thermal comfort conditions and present them in urban climate maps for urban planning and open space design.

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The temporary lowering of water level from the phreatic of Jiu river meadow in the western area of Craiova municipality. Case study: West Gate Mall

Constantin ENACHE, Oana IONUŞ

Abstract: In order to carry out the foundation of WEST GATE MALL establishment, because the phreatic water level proved to be 1-2 m higher than the geotechnical study preestablished one, it was necessary its temporary lowering. For this problem to be solved we have suggested a double series of drillings with submersible pumps and between these foundations could be safely executed. Thus, according to our calculations presented in the article, the distance between the series of drillings has been established at 20 m, the dislevelment in the drillings reaching 4 m.

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Extreme hydrological phenomena in the hydrographical basin of the Danube. The floods from the spring of 2006 along the Oltenian sector of the river

Vasile PLENICEANU, Oana IONUŞ, Mihaela LICURICI

Abstract: Among the natural hazards that confront the human civilisation and its activities, floods represent hydro-meteorological phenomena with high frequency and with destructive effects, both in the economic and in the social sectors.
The Oltenian sector of the Danube Floodplain develops between Drobeta-Turnu Severin and Corabia, being 335 kilometres long and covering a surface of about 105 thousand hectares, which represents around 1/5 of the entire surface of the floodplain displayed by the Danube on the Romanian territory. Under the conditions of this geographical space, the Danube Floodplain presents high vulnerability.
It is necessary to explain the somewhat differentiated flooding of the Oltenian sector of the Danube Floodplain on the two sub-sectors: the one stretching between Drobeta-Turnu Severin and Golenţi – Calafat, as compared to the other, which extends downstream of Calafat, all the way to Corabia and Islaz. Also, it is important to show the reasons that led to the flooding of certain human settlements located within the southern sub-sector, on the morphological levels offered by the low and inferior terraces of the Danube, respectively the settlements that exist between Rast and the confluence between the Olt and the Danube rivers. Finally, taking into account the stipulations of the new National Strategy for Risk Management, we shall formulate certain recommendation to increase the resilience of the area to flood phenomena.

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Land use and impact on slope modelling within the Sebes river basin

Marioara COSTEA

Abstract: The Sebeş basin represents a morphohydrographical entity, covering a surface of 1,289 square km, at the contact of the Southern Carpathian Mountains with the Transylvania Depression. The combined action of both the internal and the external factors determined a distinctive evolution of the relief within the basin, which is subordinated to the two morphostructural units. The background of the current geomorphologic processes in the Sebeş basin represents the consequence of the association among rock types, geological structure and modelling agent. The natural modelling processes are powerful and doubled by the man-induced processes, as a consequence of man’s intervention in the riverbeds, but also in the interfluve surfaces and slopes through the activities specific to the hydroenergetical, forest and agricultural use. The man-induced impact, through the location of the settlements, lines of communication, economic units and moreover, the land use and the change of its destination, determine an obvious differentiation of the slopes stability status. In order to evaluate the man-induced impact in the erosion of the slopes and their susceptibility to various processes, we have taken into consideration the permanent correlation of the geomorphologic indices with the forests’ extension degree for the topographical surface, the compactness and the consistency of the forest layers or the dispersion and fragile character of the vegetal layer in pastoral areas. There can be also added the dispersion or the concentration degree of the settlements, the pastoral economy and the hydroenergetical exploitation, specific to the mountainous area and the predominant agricultural and industrial use in the depression and plateau areas.

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Targu Jiu: The analysis of environmental perception and usage of a living environment

Simona MĂLĂESCU

Abstract: The one who aims at investigating the way in which a life environment is perceived and used by the residents – as a basis for the analysis of the way in which that particular space is gradually modified and structured – methodologically, to try replacing or avoiding methods that already made a mark, like mental maps analysis, activity space-syntax analysis, paths and life polygons analysis and so on along other means to reach the individuals’ representations, is difficult and forced. What is left to be done when some of these eventually fell into disuse or are covered by controversies? To resume with lucidity the analysis from the point it was left of, to delimit the accurate and methodologically useful components from the error generator ones, and to construct other means, or at least, to obtain new combinations of existing methods, which will offer the possible maximum of accuracy for that moment in time, in order to reach the mental representations of the individual about a certain space. For this study, there was used a combination of method – instruments: mental maps investigation, inquiry with questionnaires and life polygons; we considered necessary a re-evaluation of the mental maps as method (and here we limited to the re-evaluation of that, but it is recommendable that this re-evaluation to be extended to other instruments and methods), through the research in the last decade in the adjacent sciences. For as long it is seconded in application by other instruments (like the questionnaire, space-syntax methods, life polygon, interviews), which may offer information, for each subject, about how selective the graphic representation is and it may complete it, the mental map remains an irreplaceable means to access a certain type of information, especially regarding the ensemble spatial relations. In the theoretical field the conceptual delimitations must be given the adequate attention. Besides the theoretical – methodological explanations that the present article brings, it represents a manner of highlighting the representation and the specific secondary aspects, totally specific to this town but also to other urban centers of Romania of similar demographic size.

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The role of architecture in the cultural tourism of Sighisoara

Camelia TEODORESCU, Elisabeta CIOCAN

Abstract: The architecture of Sighişoara is represented by a mixture of styles in which Gothic, Renaissance and baroque elements are found. The urbanistic structure has been preserved through all the defining elements of the Medieval period. The great density of architectural monuments: public buildings, the dwellings that make up the assembly, but also the defence works that have been preserved up to 90%, make the area unique by its historical value. In the town, there is a great difference between the architecture of the Citadel and that of the Downward Town, the latter having been much more affected by the transformations which came along with the passing of years.
After 1950, new utilities have been introduced and they generated changes in the arrangement of interiors and annexes, according to the newest functional requirements. But, these changes are reversible. The transformations, imposed to the houses because of permanent inhabitance, have been realised from the same materials, using the same techniques, the plastered gravels, the brick walls and the roofs with high tiles. The walls with ornaments of many houses represent a characteristic of Sighişoara city and it reflects authenticity to the architectonic outlook.

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To be or not to be afraid of globalization in tourism?

Mirela MAZILU

Abstract: In the context of Romania’s recent adherence to the European Union, the tourism represents one of the real opportunities that the near future offers to our country.
Or, the gained experience, existent facilities and prices competitiveness are factors that recommend Romania as an attractive destination but, in the same time, the imperative action of all the ones involved in tourism will have to focus on the offered services considered to be of best quality (conformable with the ones of other European countries) and on maintaining a natural environment – its raw material – in complete harmony being known the fact that then when the environment and tourism coexists in harmony, the environment takes benefit of the tourism (and vice versa!).
The importance of this reciprocal relation also reflects itself in the positive actions of preserving the tourism potential or rehabilitating the environment, but we must not overlook the destructive actions of some activities of tourism such as: the excessive use of some environment components (water, air, soil etc) in recreational purposes amplified by an irrational, often brutal intervention, of people upon the environment and its natural resources.
In this purpose, the lasting tourism is and will remain in harmony with the environment and place population and culture, in such a way that its development will take place in their profit and not their disadvantage.

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Using G.I.S. for identifying mobility problems in Milan city

Sorin AVRAM, Ştefan NEGREANU

Abstract: Becoming an indispensable instrument in the integrated management of settlements, GIS has become very useful for territorial organization, the fluidization of the traffic representing the priority problem from both the environmental and the social costs point of view. Thus, through various informatical systems and mathematical modeling, a series of thematical layers can be realized, taking into account different variables which enter the equation of the territorial mobility, which, once overlapped, can generate extremely precise information regarding the neuralgic points for mobility, the hours with congestions and the road arteries on which they take place, the finality of information hence obtained being integrated in the territorial organization planning that will solve the main town-planning problems taking into account the valid legislation.

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The systematization of the navigation and communication ways at Iron Gates until the end of the 19th century

Florian OLTEANU, Ionuţ ŞERBAN

Abstract: The authors aimed to present the evolution in time of the main arrangements made in the Iron Gates area. The engineer works during the emperor Trajan’s epoch are shortly presented; they have been taken back only in the 19th century, at the initiative of the Austria-Hungary. The originality is represented by the mentioning of two diplomatic documents discovered in the Romanian and Italian archives, which refer to this particular moment, considered to have great importance for the region.

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Current changes in the structure of agricultural fields use in the rural geographical area of the Bailesti plain

Anca CEAUŞESCU, Diana PĂUNOIU

Abstract: The Băileşti Plain, a physico-geographical subunit of the Oltenia Plain ranges among the regions of the country where the agricultural branch clearly dominates as an economic activity. The favorability of the natural background allowed the outline of a landed macrostructure in which the main percentage is held by the agricultural fields, which represents more than 81% of its total area.
Along the years, there have been transformations in the agricultural fields usage, passings of some lands from one usage category to another, a process owed either to excessive behaviours of some natural factors (floods, drought, erosion), or to antropical action (land improvement workings and land organization, measures of haphazard economic policies or legislative-administrative ones etc.). Between 1989-2006, in the context of slight diminution of the agricultural surface (from 167,833 ha to 164,325 ha), there have been different evolutions for each component category of use: the arable land diminished with 878 ha, the lands occupied by orchards and trees nurseries with 765 ha, the pastures and natural hay fields areas with 3,409 ha while vineyards and vineyards nurseries areas registered increasings with about 1470 ha.

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Orientations and tendencies in the didactic methodology for the initial formation of the teaching staff

Alexandrina Mihaela POPESCU

Abstract: The training centered on the pupil gains ground in the theory and the Romanian educational practice, fact that determines the formation of the professor in this sense. In these conditions of the change of the paradigm, the initial preparation of the professor acquires consistency and quality by means of the cognitive and constructive methodology.

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The formation of an ecological ethic / environmental education’s utmost objective

Mihaela Aurelia ŞTEFAN

Abstract: We live today in a world defined by the following parameters: change, speed, complexity, globalization. Defending and improving the environment for present and future generations have become people’s primary objective, a task whose implementation will be coordinated and harmonized to achieve the fundamental objectives laid down already, peace and economic and social development worldwide. It involves the transmission of knowledge, its reflection into one’s conscience, the formation of beliefs and, eventually, their externalization in positive attitudes towards the environment.
The implementation of the “new education” supposes elaboration and application of some special pedagogic and social strategies. They aim:
– “new education’s” penetration in school programs in the form of recommendations or modules of independent study and running through modern systems of communication: television, radio, computer networks etc.;
– “new education’s” involvement in educational programs designed as alternatives to various pedagogic formulas: complementary training modules, guides, methodological guidelines, fundamental papers centered on the great issues of the contemporary world;
– rethinking the systems of selecting and organizing information as part of a curriculum which either “introduces specific modules” as distinct optional disciplines in the educational plan, either introduces the specific contents of a “new education” in the sphere of several disciplines, through an “approach of infusion”.
Ecological Education (environmental protection) is an essential component of the effort made in different countries in order to make education more efficient.
Education is meant to approach researchers and policy makers, with the purpose to be achieved. As long as students will not know the essence of the new world that surrounds them and will not be susceptible to quality, they will not pursue the maintenance of ecological balance and environmental health. Moreover, acquiring knowledge and understanding these issues do not necessarily guarantee a resolution. On the contrary, it must be obtained a transfer between understanding the phenomenon and the individual behavior. Education has a crucial role in this process.

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The carpathian-danubian-pontic space, the geographical area of the birth of the romanian christianity

Petre MOCANU

Abstract: The activities undertaken by Constantine the Great in the Danube, but particularly in the north of them, will contribute not only to return the territory part of borders in Dacia Traian Empire, but also to strengthen of the Romanity and the large spread of Christianity.
This activity is resulting in a first phase, between 324 -328 years, in building a bridge over the Danube between Oescus and Sucidava, having intended to law Empire of the Carpathian-Danubian both because of the threat got that threaten northern borders, but especially to facilitate links between South-eastern Romanity and the Northern Danube. The bridge was inaugurated in the year 328 and is also known as the historical-literary sources and from observations on the ground.
Between 364-378, witnessing a weakening of the Roman rule in the Roman Oltenia, deducted from the monetary crisis in this period and attributed to the Gothic attacks in the south of the Danube and the riot of the usurper Procopius against Emperor Valens (364 – 378). A similar situation characterizes the period and 378 – 383, while also observed a monetary crisis, caused by the Germanic and Hun collisions.
Much more conclusive by the words attributed to the Emperor Iulian the Apostate (361 – 363) of Constantine the Great (306 – 337), which would have said: “the facts are perpetrated against the usurpers above Traian only, and are undoubtedly match His resume of the lands through which it acquired earlier ..”, the text is abundantly clear that what seems unsure if Constantine Chlorus, is undeniable on his son Constantine the Great.
A return to the Roman-Byzantine rule at the North of the Danube will take place in the true sense of the word, with bullish on the throne of Emperor Justinian. Between 530 and 533, it will send at the Lower Danube the General Chilbudios, which, after many expeditions against Slavs will conquest again some strategic points of Oltenia and Muntenia.
An important role in spreading Christianity and the north of the Danube must be played many bishops established in the IV century in close proximity to the Danube, which include: Aqua, Bononia, Ratiaria, Oescus in Dacia Ripensis, Naisus, and Sarda in Remesiana Dacia Mediterranean, and whose holders are attested during sinoade kept in different danubian territories. They sent probably horepiscopoi to strengthen the Christian faith in souls Dacian-Roman population, especially during and after the rule of Constantine the Great, and to consecrate some priests for the community needs.

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Free zones. Some theoretical aspects

Silviu COSTACHIE

Abstract: The study presents some theoretical aspects regarding the most important functional construction specific to nowadays economic context: free zones. There are presented the main theoretical concepts regarding these zones, the historical evolution of the term and concept, but also the examples referring to the specific subtypes of this functional construction. Also, there are references to the numerous local and regional particularities that make up a complex image of the free zones, with all their functional subtypes, in connection with the terrestrial, fluvial and maritime areas in which these constructions are included.

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“Regional development and european integration” research center, University of Bucharest

Silviu COSTACHIE

The University of Bucharest represents the first institution of upper education in Romania, having a tradition of over 140 years in the didactic field and, in the same time, of theoretical and applicative research in our country. It is not surprising that the most distinguished scientists of the modern and contemporary society came up from the 21 faculties that now make up this academic institution. Within the University of Bucharest, together with the permanent evolution of the didactic aspect, a powerful theoretical and practical scientific research emphasized both before 1989, but moreover after this moment, with great results at the national level and a well-deserved recognition at an international level.

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