Volume VI, Number 1, 2010

ABSTRACT – Reform of Collectivities and Regionalisation in France: A Horizon of Variable Geometry. Initially considered as a highly profitable solution that best fits the spatial organization of France, the resulted administrative cutting gave rise to the multiplication of some supra-communal and intra-departmental structures, contrary to the purpose they had been created for: socio-economic efficiency, territorial cohesion, as well as to institutionalisation. What territorial organization in France is lacking at present is exactly the absence of the interrelations between different territorial levels, the legislative levers being those that can manage these intra- and extra-regional relations. The consequences of decentralization, interpreted by the existence of a multitude of territorial entities between department/county and communes, non-hierarchized, without assuming any responsibility, can and must be corrected by legislative regulations, the reform of territorial collectivities – a regional reform at the same time, left in the hands of Balladur committee, being one of them. The main directions of territorial organization require a focus on merging, namely on suppressing the territorial-administrative units (e.g. canton), the decrease in the number of regional councillors, the promotion of intercommunal associations, the suppression of regional assemblies, the equivalence of the number of regions with the number of regional metropolises, the strengthening of interterritorial relations, directions found only partially in the Balladur report.

ABSTRACT – Irrespective of their univocal or biunivocal structure, gravity axes facilitate the emergence of nucleation phenomena, the genesis of certain settlements with polarizing functions of various ranks and hierarchical levels. The formation of the habitational nuclei takes place in the areas where natural gravity reaches representative parameters, such as river confluences, depressions and the more spread out sectors of the river meadows, where a concentration of the vectors of the geomorphologic evolution is remarked. The nucleation processes follow a spiral of conditionings, being triggered by the natural facilities and subsequently amplified by the diversification and the intensification of the human activities.

ABSTRACT – The paper analyzes the role of some societal level factors which determine citizens’ participation in environmental non-governmental organizations in the case of ten former communist European countries, now members of the European Union, based on the data of the 62.2 Special Eurobarometer. The analysis practically re-verifies on the case of these countries previous considerations made on the level of very different states of the world regarding the macro-level determinants of participation, respectively adds to these previous findings the possible role of opportunity structures (number of ENGOs) and that of societal trust. Results confirm the role of the classical factors (national wealth, democratisation and environmental conditions) on participation. No matter participation have declined compared to the beginning of the transition period, democratisation still constitutes a helping force for participation in these countries as far as it creates the climate and opportunity structures for involvement. It is however interesting that ENGO participation is much more dependent on a country’s democratic climate than on the number of opportunity structures, in spite of the fact that the latter is correlated with democratisation.

ABSTRACT – Education is highly significant for the functional system of a nation, which eventually reflects the vitality and the real possibilities of development and creates some potential interrelations at national and continental level. In Romania, the numbers regarding the educational indicators registered in the last years reflect a certain state of facts, valid for the entire national area. They reveal a significant decrease in the number of students for all educational levels and a precarious qualitative state of school infrastructure and teaching staff. This phenomenon is becoming more concerning especially in rural areas, where the threats from this perspective are greatest. The Inner city area of Sinaia-Buşteni-Azuga-Predeal-Râşnov-Braşov (Poiana Braşov) reflects a similar situation. Therefore, this study reveals the current complex analysis of the major educational indicators.

ABSTRACT – In the following paper aims at studying the evolution of the population size in the Apuseni Mountains during 1880 – 2008, on different spatial scales. From the second half of the 20th century, the area has recorded a continual decrease of the demographic potential, accompanied by the deterioration of the age group structures because of the increase of the migratory effect. Following the same downward trend, different subregional evolutions determined by social and economic factors can be highlighted on the LAU1 scale (counties) and at the scale of three altitudinal-delimited areas (as the expression of the increasing limitations of natural agrarian factors). At the LAU2 scale (communes and towns), on the same decreasing trend, positive dynamic of the population appears in some towns of the area. However, we found the most diverse evolutions at the settlement level. In this study, we cover the demographic evolution of the villages that are commune centres and villages with population below 50 residents. Both categories highlight spatial and functional transformations that have occurred and are to take place in the rural mountain.

ABSTRACT – Located on the territory of two neighbouring “land”-type regions and approached from a diachronic perspective, the grazing activity represents the subject of debate in this article. The first part of the paper focuses on the amplitude of grazing during the 15th – 20th centuries in the local economy, of the practiced grazing types and number of sheep, the occurrence causal factors and the impact of grazing upon the economic life are rendered. The second part of the article pursues the present functional significances of grazing, by the analysis of sheep and goats and wool production dynamics or by the outline of viable alternatives of grazing perpetuation.

ABSTRACT – In its relation with tourism, relief fulfils three roles: of attractive resource, of support for tourist infrastructure and activities, and of landscape background, respectively. While the first two undertaken roles are easily identified, in the third case, confusion may appear which is actually aroused by the different manner in which tourists perceive the morphological elements. For some tourists, elements such as Piatra Cetii, Colţii Trascăului or the steep slopes of the Bedeleu represent first-rank tourist objectives, while, for others, they are just the landscape background for other objectives or for tourist activities whose development is not related to their presence. This role appears more clearly in the case of a less spectacular relief, which only frames, from the landscape viewpoint, a tourist resource of prime importance. The study of the relief’s role as landscape background for tourism has high importance in the sense that in any attempt to create a hierarchy of the tourist objectives in the Trascău Mountains, the attractiveness coefficient of the background, of the landscape in which the objective is an integral part, must be taken into consideration.

ABSTRACT – The geographical space of the Land of Loviştea, presented as a particular structural and functional territorial unit defines itself by means of its components and established interactions. In this regard, the locative fund represents a component of the habitat with an important role in the settlement and the perpetuation of the human element (enforces the sheltering function and preservation of the anthropic element) which imposed certain development directions and utilization of the existing space. The geographical distribution of the human dwellings in the Land of Loviştea marks out a dispersion and a dissymmetry situation so that a consolidation of the locative fund in the depression area is identified, with favorable conditions for the cultivation of the crops (an economy of the existing space), as well as a diffusion in the high hilly and mountain area where the land is used in breeding activities.

ABSTRACT – The analysis of the main climate elements allows the characterization of the geographical area of the Târgovişte Plain from the climatic viewpoint (located at the contact of two major physical-geographical units, the Sub-Carpathians and the plateau, the Târgovişte Plain has benefited from the natural and human resources offered by the two units, as well as by the presence of the Ialomiţa and the Dâmboviţa rivers on the margins; within the Romanian Plain, the Târgovişte Plain has a peripheral position, being bordered by the subsidence plain of Titu-Sălcuţa in the south, south-west and south-east, and by the piedmont plain of Cricovul Dulce). This analysis was made based on the data recorded at the weather station of Târgovişte (located at 228 m altitude, 44056′ N latitude, 25026′ E longitude) and at the weather station of Titu (125 m altitude, 45036’ latitude N, 26025’ longitude E) during the period between 1961 and 2007. The annual, seasonal and monthly values of the Standardized Precipitation Anomaly (SPA) was calculated and interpreted.

ABSTRACT – The Getic Sub-Carpathians show permittivity from their position, altitude, valley’s orientation, mild climate, from the circulation and habitation favourability viewpoint. This way, they become a space of Carpathian contiguity. The humanization of this sector has deep roots in this space history. The fact that they have been a good place for the development of human settlements, through the attributes offered by the physical-geographic characteristics of the territory, is shown by the presence of the three old settlements that took the role of capitals: Câmpulung, Curtea de Argeş and Târgovişte. Depressions represented the right places for the settlements’ genesis and evolution; the valleys crossing them have been the ways for the development of communication routs; the Sub-Carpathian heights offered some of the pastures necessary for animal feeding; they also played the role of shelter against the natural (e.g. the attenuation of cold air masses) and human factors.