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Volume IX |
Human and economic geography

The Use of the Digital Terrain Model in Analyzing the Natural Potential of the Muntele Mic – Poiana Mărului – Ţarcu Mountains Tourist Area to Extend and Plan the Ski Domain

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Abstract: The present study aims at examining the natural potential of the region as a prerequisite for the planning and the expansion of the ski domain, in order to reinvigorate the resorts Muntele Mic and Poiana Mărului. The factors taken into account to identify the best areas for planning new ski tracks are: the altitude, the slope, the orientation of the slopes to the solar radiation, the duration and the thickness of the snow layer, the land use, the risk of snow avalanches occurrence and the degree of accessibility. Because the factors considered don’t have the same importance for the favorability, before the combination of the factors, we used the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) implemented by the IDRISI Andes software to assign for each factor a relative weight to use in the analysis. The risk of snow avalanches occurrence was considered as restrictive factor (Boolean factor). The combination of factors by Weight of Evidence method resulted in the creation of the final model, which presents the probability map for new ski tracks. The probability degree varies continuously in space, from a very high probability (255) to a very low probability (0) depending on the combination mode in a certain area of the considered factors and their weight. We considered as optimal areas only the areas with values above 200. The best areas to expand the ski domain are the detached secondary peaks of Muntele Mic towards north and the northern slopes of the Nedeia Ridge. These areas could allow for the development of certain ski tracks at least the same size as the ones of the Prahova Valley. The development of the ski domain in these areas will connect the two resorts, Muntele Mic and Poiana Mărului, and could increase the touristic potential of the study area.

Keywords: , , , , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 01-11-2010 Online: 21-11-2010
Affiliations:
  • 1 Department of Geography, West University of Timişoara, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • torok@cbg.uvt.ro
  • voicu@cbg.uvt.ro
  • mircea@cbg.uvt.ro
  • florentina.popescu@cbg.uvt.ro
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: This work was supported by CNCSIS–UEFISCSU, project number PNII–IDEI 1075/2009 and by CNCSIS–UEFISCSU, project number PNII–IDEI 1066/2009.
Copyright: © 2010 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume IX |
Human and economic geography

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

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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.

Keywords: , , , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 01-11-2010 Online: 21-11-2010
Affiliations:
  • 1 Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Geography, University of Craiova, 13 Al. I. Cuza Street, Craiova, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • mihaela_licurici@yahoo.com
  • oana_ionus@yahoo.com
  • cristiana_oana@yahoo.com
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to kindly acknowledge the county and local institutions that supplied important information from their statistical database, respectively the Mehedinţi County Statistics Office, the Mehedinţi County Public Health Office and the Renamed Medical II Dyalisis and Nephrology Centre, Drobeta Turnu-Severin. Further gratitude goes towards all persons that were willing to participate in the social survey in 2009. The National Council of Scientific Research in Higher Education supported the research in the framework of the RFFI Grant No. 973/2008, the project entitled "Vulnerabilitatea versanţilor la alunecări de teren în Piemontul Bălăciţei. Utilizarea SIG şi realizarea hărtilor digitale ale vulnerabilităţii (Slopes vulnerability to landslides within Balaciţa Piedmont. GIS utilization and achievement of vulnerability digital maps)".
Copyright: © 2010 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume IX |
Human and economic geography

Responsible Tourism and Tourism Ecology

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Abstract: Many efforts have already been made and several ideas have been promoted to solve the problems in the development of socially and economically underprivileged, peripheral areas. Most of the proposals suggest supporting rural tourism and its management based on local natural, cultural, agrarian etc. traditions and help them this way to catch up with the more developed regions of the country. According to our surveys, it can be stated that sustainable and responsible rural tourism development is unbelievable without the application of ecological thinking. Consequently tourism ecology, as theory and practice, naturally helps developing the tourism of rural areas based on local natural, social, and cultural resources. Sustenance of tourism is a double task: we have to provide long-term reservation and guarantee that entrepreneurs’ input of capital will return and their firm’s will better their economic etc. state in the same time. Sustainable tourism has to be endurable and economically executable on long term, but at the same time, it has to be socially and ethically fair in relations to local people. Nevertheless, it is also an expectation that actors of the system, i.e. tourists must continue an active and responsibly sustainable practice (responsible sustainable tourism).

Keywords: , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 01-11-2010 Online: 21-11-2010
Affiliations:
  • 1 Károly Róbert College, Department of Tourism and Regional Development, Gyöngyös
  • 2 Geosciences Doctoral School, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Pécs
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Copyright: © 2010 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
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