fg
Volume XVII |

Using GIS methods to analyze spatial characteristics of urban transportation system in Craiova city

Abstract: In a world of technology, where the increasing urbanization tries to cope between sprawl and the need to actively manage a sustainable land and resources use, transportation remains among the main challenges for physically active cities like Craiova. The city is the major growth pole located in South-West Oltenia, which connects most of the settlements in the region (both rural or urban) economically and socially. Thus, the transportation system represents the key element in the relation between time and place in this metropolitan area in a continuous development process. While the city expands, the transportation network, inherited from the past, suffers a slower transformation, despite the increasing demand for mobility coming from both passengers and freights. The spatial analysis of new residential areas emerged in the continuous process of urban expansion indicate an additional pressure on the existing road infrastructure and which intensifies especially during peak hours on the access routes to the city and city center. Starting from the analysis of the spatial structure and distribution of the pre-existent rural structure, the present study tries to emphasize the need for an innovative and integrated infrastructure that should connect at its best space, services and people in terms of speed, capacity and cost efficiency. First, using the GIS mapping methods, the authors present the spatial distribution of the transport infrastructure that is correlated with population density and land use, also analyzing the areas with high density of jobs and elements of the urban landscape that may generate attractivity. A special attention is paid to the urban form – street pattern relation, exemplified by case studies in problematic intersections of Craiova city. All these factors are important in order to establish the present capacity of the urban transportation system during peak hours, and what are the main deficiency of the transport system: traffic jams, insufficient parking places, need of new connections in public transportation. The results of the research may be used to improve passenger transport inside the city of Craiova and may also suggest some solutions that mitigate for the introduction of new concepts like car sharing, electric public transportation, hybrid vehicles or new alterna-tives for peoples’ movement.

Volume X |

The Problem of the Sanitary System in the Land of Severin With Respect to Regional Development

Abstract: The difficulties with the health system, occurred after 1989, are mainly induced by the lack of appliances and human resources and by the natural consequences due to the interruption of the reform process, which negatively influenced the repartition of medical service within the urban and rural spaces, in the Land of Severin. The supply and access to medical services are the major problems concerning the assurance of a better living standard and also social and economic development, especially in rural areas. Villages with a dispersed population (in the mountainous and piedmont area in the Land of Severin), represent quite a unique challenge for the management and use of medical services. The claim to improve the support is laid by vulnerable groups, as elders and those who live in isolated places (e.g. Marga, Negrușa and Moisești villages) or people who compulsory need dialysis three times a week. The low level of economic development have induced problems concerning the existence, the quality and accessibility of social services and difficulties in case of temporary or permanent health care services. The present reformation measures take into consideration the way of organization and operation of health care services, the problem concerning the financial means and equipment of sanitary units and, the provision of last generation medical technique correlated with a continuous training process of medical staff and health care personnel. Currently, by means of the Local Development Programme 2006 – 2013 and with the help of the European structural funds, the authorities want to establish and implement a special programme to modernize the medical cabinets in villages, to convey pharmaceutical products to this area, to eliminate the daily travel of doctors and to provide ideal conditions for them and for the nurses to integrate into local communities.

Volume IX |

Social Vulnerability and Risks Associated to the Balkan Endemic Nephropathy in Mehedinţi County

Abstract: The Balkan Endemic Nephropathy (BEN), commonly known as “the dry kidney disease”, was observed for the first time in 1957 in Ergheviţa village from Mehedinţi County. Although, the phenomenon was mainly studied by doctors for a period of approximately 50 years, the number of cases increased, but the actual cause of the disease was not discovered yet. Among the mainly incriminated elements, there is to be mentioned the underground water that crosses through the coal deposit located in the Huşnicioara mines. It is important to notice the fact that this disease affects only the rural space, most of the effective areas of the disease being concentrated around the urban centres like Drobeta Turnu-Severin, Baia de Aramă, Strehaia and Vânju Mare. The respective rural communities are considered to be truly vulnerable to the poor quality of underground waters. Given the fact that new cases of nephropathy are continuously discovered, one of the hypothesis is that the risk induced by the pollution of underground water layers is significant and that the human communities are highly vulnerable to this element.The present study identifies the actual status regarding the symptoms and the extension of the disease, as well as the economical-social circumstances that favour the occurrence of the cases, representing a strong signal concerning the human communities vulnerable to the pollution of a natural resource that is indispensable to human life – water.