PUBLIC POLICIES IN THE BUCHAREST METROPOLITAN AREA – INERTIAS AND CHALLENGES FOR LOCAL ADMINISTATION

Bucharest, the most developed city from Romania, covers perhaps most superlatives in any field for describing its importance in the national territory. This city is the only European capital without having an integrated and coherent urban policy adopted by the state. There are the short term local interventions of adjusting trend, specific to Romania, that don’t rely on general directions of territorial development, because they are neither intended nor assumed by the competent decisional authorities. In general, the problem is lack of partnership between the project elaborating actors and the implementing actors of those projects. Bucharest municipality has important potential reserves, but the general status is far from corresponding to the demands recommended by the European development policy. The loss of potential, as a result of the decision of modernization postponements, produces both immediate negative effects, and also induces vast losses on a medium and long term. It requires greater costs, with resonance in the entire economic system and in the living conditions of the area. In present study, we try to evaluate the public policies regarding the Metropolitan Area of Bucharest which should be centered on 2 main issues – territorial cohesion and polycentric policy. Because of the difficulties of their understanding by the politicians and thus, the slowness of their use, the evaluation made by us is using a qualitative approach. Our conclusions drift from the result of the efforts made by the CPUMB for convincing the politicians of using and implementing the results drawn by researches and studies made.Bucharest Metropolitan Area (BMA), public policies, territorial cohesion, polycentricity

Dietary Willow Bark Extract for Broilers Reared Under Heat Stress

A 28-day feeding trial was conducted on 60, Cobb 500 broilers (14 days), assigned to 2 groups (C, E) housed in an experimental hall (32° C, 23 h light regimen). Compared to the conventional diet C, the experimental diet (E) included 1% white willow bark extract (WBE). At 42 days of age, 6 blood samples /group were collected and 6 broilers/ group were slaughtered and caecal content was collected. The dietary WBE didn’t influence broiler performance. The serum concentrations of glycaemia, cholesterol and triglycerides were lower (P <0.05) in E group than in C group. E broilers had the lowest count (P<0.05) of Enterobacteriaceae, E. coli and staphylococci colony forming units in the caecal content. The inclusion of WBE (1%) in the diet of broilers reared at 32° C had an hypocholesterolemiant and hypoglycaemic effect and reduced the pathogenic bacteria in the caecum

POLICY CONVERGENCE IN EUROPEAN EMERGING POLITIES: A CONTENT ANALYSIS ON SELECTED CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION STRUCTURE

The paper starts from the hypothesis that the viability of emerging territorial units depends on the way their members reach a converging approach towards issues of common concern. Based on previous results, we rank ten selected cross-border cooperation structures (CBCS) according to their institutional strength as a measure of assessment of their viability as polity. Data are then collected for each CBCS for three areas of cooperation, i.e. economy, society, and environment, in the form of policy documents. The analysis uses text mining techniques to explore the content of documents on each selected region and on each areas of cooperation. The results are further explored inside a thematic mapping of clusters, which is analysed through content analysis. The goal is to investigate and assess what is the cross-border cooperation level of policy convergence inside EU selected case studies, based on the emerging themes

Quantitative population loss assessment: seismic scenarios for Bucharest using 2002 census data . GI_Forum|GI_Forum 2016, Volume 1 – open:spatial:interfaces|

In this research, we calculate the probability and scale of population losses that may occur due to earthquake hazard in Bucharest. Losses are quantified in direct relation to the social vulnerability of people who are exposed to an earthquake event. Social vulnerability is based on index construction, using spatial decision rules to assess weights in a criteria tree using the SMCE-module of Ilwis software. To estimate building vulnerability, we used the Improved Displacement Coefficient analytical method in the SELENA software. For the earthquake loss estimation, we used the percentage of severely damageable residential buildings in each census unit (CU). The population loss estimation for the selected earthquake scenarios was obtained by multiplying the complex social vulnerability index with the estimated ratio of severely damageable buildings, for three selected earthquake scenarios and using the population numbers in each census unit. The maps represent the maximum affected population values, per census unit, in percentages. We provide useful estimates of the scale and severity of injuries, and link these with current levels of medical preparedness. In all scenarios, the CUs forming the Rahova neighbourhood revealed high loss values, due to significant problems in terms of the built environment and social vulnerability

Quantitative population loss assessment: seismic scenarios for Bucharest using 2002 census data . GI_Forum|GI_Forum 2016, Volume 1 – open:spatial:interfaces|

In this research, we calculate the probability and scale of population losses that may occur due to earthquake hazard in Bucharest. Losses are quantified in direct relation to the social vulnerability of people who are exposed to an earthquake event. Social vulnerability is based on index construction, using spatial decision rules to assess weights in a criteria tree using the SMCE-module of Ilwis software. To estimate building vulnerability, we used the Improved Displacement Coefficient analytical method in the SELENA software. For the earthquake loss estimation, we used the percentage of severely damageable residential buildings in each census unit (CU). The population loss estimation for the selected earthquake scenarios was obtained by multiplying the complex social vulnerability index with the estimated ratio of severely damageable buildings, for three selected earthquake scenarios and using the population numbers in each census unit. The maps represent the maximum affected population values, per census unit, in percentages. We provide useful estimates of the scale and severity of injuries, and link these with current levels of medical preparedness. In all scenarios, the CUs forming the Rahova neighbourhood revealed high loss values, due to significant problems in terms of the built environment and social vulnerability

Quantitative population loss assessment: seismic scenarios for Bucharest using 2002 census data . GI_Forum|GI_Forum 2016, Volume 1 – open:spatial:interfaces|

In this research, we calculate the probability and scale of population losses that may occur due to earthquake hazard in Bucharest. Losses are quantified in direct relation to the social vulnerability of people who are exposed to an earthquake event. Social vulnerability is based on index construction, using spatial decision rules to assess weights in a criteria tree using the SMCE-module of Ilwis software. To estimate building vulnerability, we used the Improved Displacement Coefficient analytical method in the SELENA software. For the earthquake loss estimation, we used the percentage of severely damageable residential buildings in each census unit (CU). The population loss estimation for the selected earthquake scenarios was obtained by multiplying the complex social vulnerability index with the estimated ratio of severely damageable buildings, for three selected earthquake scenarios and using the population numbers in each census unit. The maps represent the maximum affected population values, per census unit, in percentages. We provide useful estimates of the scale and severity of injuries, and link these with current levels of medical preparedness. In all scenarios, the CUs forming the Rahova neighbourhood revealed high loss values, due to significant problems in terms of the built environment and social vulnerability

Energy Cooperation – The Strength of the Eu’s Economic Development

Continuous economic development of the European Union countries has reached a stage in which both intra- and inter-state cooperation together with the interaction of economic actors, have become biggest strength. The present paper analyze the level of cooperation between European Union countries and the European Union policies in the energy field to emphasize a better image of the European Union energy security level and its future geopolitical trends. In spite of numerous consensus problems among Member States towards a unitary common direction, every state appears to have the same objective – to secure its economic development through energy. As such, the centre of economic gravity in the European Union countries has to be energy cooperation and all policies should be focused on it