Abstract
Urbanization is a dynamic process performed at the expense of natural and/or semi-natural areas, with direct impacts on the ecosystem services provided to human society. The increasing population density in urban areas and the associated demand for housing and public services have led to progressive changes in the structure, architecture, and design of urban areas. The present study analyzes long-term urban development in Western Romania, focusing on green/blue areas’ strategies in Timisoara over centuries. The empirical results of a literature review carried out with a historical perspective have delineated the time periods that favored “urban green development” (1716–1918 and 1918–1940) and those restricting their development (1940–2000), as well as the factors that influenced long-term urbanization dynamics and the evolution of green/blue areas. These factors can be generalized to other socioeconomic contexts in Eastern Europe. Characteristic issues of this geographical area impacting the evolution of urban green/blue areas include (i) common historical aspects (e.g., the influence of geo-political and strategic dimensions, the dominations of former great empires such as the Turkish empire and the communist period) and (ii) population migration after 1990.
Highlights
The relationship between urbanization and environment is complex and difficult to be defined and quantified [1,2,3,4,5]
The present study investigates the evolution of urban areas and associated green and blue areas in Western Romania, with Timisoara and its neighboring peri-urban zones as the study area
Based on the descriptive analysis of multiple sources, the historical approach developed in this study provides the necessary knowledge base required to contextualize urban green/blue area development vis à vis long-term urbanization dynamics
Summary
The relationship between urbanization and environment is complex and difficult to be defined and quantified [1,2,3,4,5]. It is probable that the less studied urbanization processes came from Socialist countries in Eastern Europe, where urbanization was strictly planned in the aftermath of World War II, under substantially different conditions (e.g., property regimes) compared with Western Europe [18,19,20,21,22]. In this sense, the relationship between urbanization and the environment in Eastern Europe has been poorly investigated. Soil sealing in Romania increased by 19% in only 5 years (1989–1994), representing
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