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 increas…

Monitoring uncontained built-up area expansion remains a complex challenge for the development and implementation of a sustainable planning system. In this regard, proper planning requires accurate monitoring tools and up-to-date information on rapid territorial transformations. The purpose of the study was to assess built-up area expansion, comparing two freely available and widely used datasets, respectively, Corine Land Cover and Landsat, to each other, as well as the ground truth, with the goal of identifying the most cost-effective and reliable tool. The analysis was based on the largest post-socialist city in the European Union, the capital of Romania, Bucharest, and its neighboring Ilfov County, from 1990 to 2018. This study generally represents a new approach to measuring the process of urban expansion, offering insights about the strengths and limitations of the two datasets through a multi-level territorial perspective. The results point out discrepancies between the datasets, both at the macro-scale level and at the administrative unit’s level. On the macro-scale level, despite the noticeable differences, the two datasets revealed the spatiotemporal magnitude of the expansion of the built-up area and can be a useful tool for supporting the decision-making process. On the smaller territorial scale, detailed comparative analyses through five case-studies were conducted, indicating that, if used alone, limitations on the information that can be derived from the datasets would lead to inaccuracies, thus significantly limiting their potential to be used in the development of enforceable regulation in urban planning.

Assessing the relentless expansion of built-up areas is one of the most important tasks for achieving sustainable planning and supporting decision-making on the regional and local level. In this context, techniques based on remote sensing can play a crucial role in monitoring the fast rhythm of urban growth, allowing the regular appraisal of territorial dynamics. The main aim of the study is to evaluate, in a multi-scalar perspective, the built-up area expansion and the spatio–temporal changes in Ilfov County, which overlaps the surroundings of Bucharest, capital of Romania. Our research focuses on processing multi-date Landsat satellite imagery from three selected time references (2000, 2008, 2018) through the supervised classification process. Further on, the types of built-up area dynamics are explored using LDTtool, a landscape metrics instrument. The results reveal massive territorial restructuring in the 18 years, as the new built-up developments occupy a larger area than the settlements’ surface in 2000. The rhythm of the transformations also changed over time, denoting a significant acceleration after 2008, when 75% of the new development occurred. At the regional level, the spatial pattern has become more and more complex, in a patchwork of spatial arrangements characterized by the proliferation of low density areas interspersed with clusters of high density developments and undeveloped land. At the local level, a comparative assessment of the administrative territorial units’ pathway was conducted based on the annual growth of built-up areas, highlighting the most attractive places and the main territorial directions of development. In terms of the specific dynamics of built-up areas, the main change patterns are “F—NP increment by gain”, followed by “G—Aggregation by gain”, both comprising around 80% of the total number of cells. The first type was prevalent in the first period (2000–2008), while the second is identified only after 2008, when it became the most represented, followed in the hierarchy by the previously dominant category. The spatial pattern differentiations were further explored in three complementary case studies investigated in correlation with socioeconomic data, revealing a heterogeneous landscape.

The study compares the on-going naturbanization processes in and around two Natural Parks under the impact of newcomers, but also tourists from Barcelona and Bucharest and their metropolitan areas. The landscape value of these areas attracts the urban population, which contributes to local sustainable development process but also promotes construction. New businesses associated with rural multifunctionality and value-added activities related to environmental quality were identified. New residents have contributed introducing responsible patterns of consumer, ecoentrepreneurship by women, recovery of abandoned buildings and intensification of rural-urban relationships. Negative impacts such as intensive construction of second homes, with a lower use, in some areas around Cadí-Moixeró threaten biodiversity and habitat connectivity. Insufficient integration of environmental policies, particularly in the Comana wetlands, reduces the potential for rural renewal. Research methods included a review of the counterurbanization literature and the statistical data related to processes of naturbanization in both areas, along with the conduct of 30 structured interviews with key local actors in each area. Naturbanization still offers the potential to enhance local development; however, it is urgent to assess social perspectives in natural parks management in order to achieve environmentally friendly built-up areas.

This article represents an analysis on the way in which the perennial values influence the cultural landscapes resilience. First of all, the perennial value is defined, as key element in the cultural landscape sustainability. Secondly, an analogy of cultural landscape dynamics with the territorial systems dynamics is made, in order to show the specificity of the cultural landscape resilience. The article tries to answer also the question linked to the way in which the perennial values might be individualised through a creative destruction of the cultural landscapes