fg
Volume XI |

Industrial landscape expansion and evolution in Bucharest’s District 4

Abstract: New urban and environment policies were drafted after 1990 for Bucharest as the Romanian capital city adapts from planned to market economy and reintegrates itself into the European community. As these policies are not from the start fully effective or take time to implement, large areas inside the city, corresponding to former industrial parks, enter a long process of decay. Residential development is making a heavy presence both inside and around the city. As a consequence of these phenomena, the urban and industrial landscape changes dramatically. The study assesses the industrial landscape evolution over time and space in District 4 of Bucharest using available maps for 1900–2010, GIS and field observation forms. Three distinct periods were delimited: 1900–1945 with incipient industrial activity, 1946–1990 when large industrial parks were developed and 1989 – present time, with deindustrialisation and land use change. Environmental problems related to industrial areas decay need to be addressed as the residential area is expanding and neighbours or replaces former industrial sites.

Volume IX |

Indoor Air Quality in Bucharest Housings in the Framework of Present Environmental Changes

Abstract: The indoor air quality represents one of the factors conditioning housing quality in urban residential spaces. The paper analyses the spatial and temporal distribution of parameters defining the indoor air quality from representative housings in Bucharest, correlated with their influence factors. The characterisation of permanent, seasonal and circumstantial influence factors was realised using the US EPA (1991) and WHO (2006) methodologies. Between November 2008 and February 2010 there were applied questionnaires for appreciating the dimension of influence factors inside and outside the housings. In the same time, for determining the values of representative indicators analysing the indoor air quality, measurements were realised in selected housings. From analysing the obtained results, it can be stated that in the indoor habitat of most residential spaces from Bucharest, the quality of air is unsatisfactory, values of human comfort recommended by international legislation being exceeded at indicators such as: volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide or particulate matter. The building’s ventilation systems are mostly dismantled or not functioning, and as a result the thermal isolation of buildings only aggravates these problems as it isn’t compensated with an improvement of the ventilation systems. The significant expansion of areas affected by Sick Building Syndrome, which are economically, ecologically and/or sanitary inefficient, in the framework of recent environmental changes, it requires an integrated approach of problems concerning the air quality management in Bucharest residential spaces.