Journal Archives

Geographic maldistribution of the physician workforce in Romania: urban-rural divide and need for better planning and retention strategies

Author: , , and

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Issue: Volume 17, Issue 1, 2023

Historical GIS: mapping the Bucharest geographies of the pre-socialist industry

Author: , , and

This article aims to map the manner in which the first industrial units crystalized in Bucharest and their subsequent dynamic. Another phenomenon considered was the way industrial sites grew and propagated and how the first industrial clusters formed, thus amplifying the functional variety of the city. The analysis was undertaken using Historical GIS, which allowed to integrate elements of industrial history with the location of the most important industrial objectives. Working in GIS meant creating a database with the existing factories in Bucharest, but also those that had existed in different periods. Integrating the historical with the spatial information about industry in Bucharest was preceded by thorough preparations, which included geo-referencing sources (city plans and old maps) and rectifying them. This research intends to serve as an example of how integrating past and present spatial data allows for the analysis of an already concluded phenomenon and also explains why certain present elements got to their current state.

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Issue: Volume 10, Issue 2, 2016

Effects of postsocialist deindustrialization in Central and Eastern Europe: Results of an industrial site survey and GIS mapping in Bucharest City, Romania

Author:

This paper examines effects of postsocialist deindustrialization through a case study from Bucharest City, Romania. The paper use scientific papers and real estate company reports to analyse the postsocialist transformation of former industrial buildings in Central-Eastern European countries, and an industrial site survey and GIS mapping for Bucharest City. The results show a common pattern for the postsocialist countries, with effects on diminishing the role of industry in the total economy, the tendency to convert the plants to residential and commercial use. In several cases the plants are fragmented in small production units or abandoned awaiting for a new purpose. Socio-economic transformation suggests a transition to service sector for the labour market. The paper concludes that transformation of postsocialist plants might required attention from owners and public administration, especially for the buildings with the historical and architectural meaning.

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Issue: Volume 10, Issue 1, 2016

The Urban Nexus: Contradictions and Dilemmas of (Post)Communist (Sub)Urbanization in Romania

Author: , , , and

The process of urbanization in Romania was a very tumultuous and slightly different one compared to other Central and Eastern European countries, being marked by the constant willingness to increase the degree of urbanization. The communist period was the most significant from this point of view, by considering both the number of newly declared towns and urban population growth. The urbanization of communist era corroborated with the excessive and forced industrialization has generated imbalances in the urban system and created distortions in the urban hierarchy. However, the legislative inconsistency and the lack of urban regulations during the post – communist period have lead to the increasing number of new (quasi) urban units (many of which without urban amenities) to the chaotic sub-urbanization of cities and urban decline. In many cases, the ability of local authorities to manage the urban development in the early years of transition has been hampered by inadequate legislation that regulates the urban growth in a completely different socio-economic system. Thus, the lacks of specific urban policies and urban regeneration plans have determined indirectly a hypertrophic evolution and an uncontrolled suburban expansion. Bucharest, the capital of the country has been most affected by these processes determining multilayered space transformation within the city and open space conversion to commercial and residential use, both affecting the urban environment and quality of life of urban-rural communities. The paper focuses on the patterns, the driving forces and the consequences of two opposing processes: socialist forced urbanization vs. post-socialist chaotic urbanization unfolding across the national urban landscape.

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Issue: Volume 10, Issue 1, 2016

Spatial structure changes inside post-communist capital city of Bucharest

Author: and

The paper focusses on the analyses of the recent development concerning post-socialist urban transformation of Bucharest, the Romanian country capital. The paper describes the spatial typology of metropolitan landscapes, and underlines the changes occurred inside the residential, commercial, services and industrial areas. The most noticeable occurrence is the urban sprawl and multiplication of the buildings and implicitly the diminishing of the agricultural area., It has been confirmed, at least theoretically, that spatial development of the largest cities determined a continuous decreasing of agriculture in the metropolitan area, landowners preferring selling or seeking to sell their land. The paper is empirically trying to argue the fact that post-socialist development of the land market in Bucharest metropolitan area determined a decline of agriculture in the city’s proximity. It is also showing that at increasing distance from the Bucharest city agriculture still has its importance as subsistence activity – in the south-eastern part, or as market oriented – in the south-western part or in the northern border.

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Issue: Volume 6, Issue 1, 2012

The Spatial Changes of Land Use in the Bucharest Metropolitan Area 1970s – 2000s

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The article explore the dimension of spatial changes of land use in the Bucharest Metropolitan Area (BMA) over the past forty years. Using GIS-based land use data sets of the years 1970, 1990 and 2000, combining with statistical data, we

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Issue: Volume 4, Issue 2, 2010

Geographical Analysis of the Land Fragmentation Process Based on Participatory Mapping and Satellite Images. Case Studies of Ciorogârla and Vănătorii Mici From the Bucharest Metropolitan Area

Author:

Farm fragmentation, in which a household operates more than one separate parcel of land, is common phenomenon in the Romanian agriculture. Two case studies of land fragmentation in Bucharest metropolitan area were conducted to develop appropriate techniques for quantifying it

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Issue: Volume 2, Issue 1, 2008
About journal

Title: Human Geographies - Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography
ISSN online: 2067-2284
ISSN print: 1843-6587
Imprint: University of Bucharest
Frequency: Biannual (May&November)
First volume: 1/2007
Current volume: 17/2023
Language: English
Indexed in: SCOPUS, ERIH PLUS, EBSCO (SocINDEX), ProQuest (Social Science Journals, SciTech Journals, Natural Science Journals), Index Copernicus, National Technical Information Service (NTiS), Bodleian Libraries, ExLibris SFX, DOAJ, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library, Google Scholar, Ulrich
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EDITORS


Prof. dr. Liliana Dumitrache
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Daniela Dumbrăveanu
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Mariana Nae
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

Dr. Gabriel Simion
University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography- Human and Economic Geography Department, 1 Nicolae Balcescu Av., 010041, Bucharest, Romania

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