Health Tourism Contribution to the Structural Dynamics of the Territorial Systems with Tourism Functionality

AbstractThe study aims to identify the role of health tourism (SPA) in developing the territorial systems, characterized by the tourism functionality, in Romania, for the period 2000-2012, a period marked by spectacular transformations, especially for this economic sector. Tourism has now become a true economic engine, generating an increase in the functional complexity of the territorial system, which is based on exploiting tourism resources. To quantify how tourism has contributed to the economic development of these territorial systems in Romania a database of NACE codes was set up, specific for the tourism activity, for the period 2000-2012, for territorial mainframe systems with functionality resort. Based on this statistical support analyzes on the evolution of the number of companies, number of employees, turnover and profit were made. The results show the important role of health tourism in generating multiplier effects on other components of the economic subsystem. They were defined two categories of territorial systems: territorial systems where tourism plays a complementary role function and territorial systems in which health tourism has a preeminent role in the local economy

Use of Fractal Analysis in the Evaluation of Deforested Areas in Romania

Spectacular spatial dynamics of forest areas is one of the biggest challenges for the scientific world, concerned with completing the methodologies devoted to new methodological approaches, to provide new information that is indispensable in assessing the impact of deforestation within the ecosystem. In this study, we analyzed the evolution of the deforested areas, using the fractal fragmentation index (FFI). The research is based on high-resolution satellite images of forest areas between 2000 and 2017. The use of fractal algorithms allowed the modeling of the grinding patterns, identifying obvious differences between compact and fragmented cuts. Information is needed especially in the evaluation of the areas cleared because of illegal actions. Research has shown spectacular increases in deforestation in the mountain area, the northern and central groups of the Eastern Carpathians being the most fragmented geographical regions in Romania. The study showed that deforestation led to the fragmentation of forests, which generates major natural changes. The results obtained can contribute to the identification of new approaches in national forest fund management policies by establishing a critical fragmentation threshold

Using fractal analysis in modeling the dynamics of forest areas and economic impact assessment:Maramureș County, Romania, as a case study

This study uses fractal analysis to quantify the spatial changes of forest resources caused by an increase of deforested areas. The method introduced contributes to the evaluation of forest resources being under significant pressure from anthropogenic activities. The pressure on the forest resources has been analyzed for Maramureș County, one of the most deforested counties in Romania. In order to evaluate this, the deforested areas were calculated for the period of 2001–2014, by using the Global Forest Change 2000–2014 database. The Fractal Fragmentation Index (FFI) and Fixed Grid 2D Lacunarity (FG2DL) were used to quantify the degree of fragmentation and dispersion of the forested areas, and thereby the extent to which a forest area is affected by deforestation. The process of quantifying the pressure on forested areas included the creation of a database for the period of 2000–2014 containing economic activities (turnover) related to woody recourses, important indicators of forest exploitation. Taken together, the results obtained indicate a dramatic increase in deforested areas (over 19,122 ha in total for the period of analysis), in Maramureș County

Assessment of textural differentiations in forest resources in Romania using fractal analysis

Deforestation and forest degradation have several negative effects on the environment including a loss of species habitats, disturbance of the water cycle and reduced ability to retain CO2, with consequences for global warming. We investigated the evolution of forest resources from development regions in Romania affected by both deforestation and reforestation using a non-Euclidean method based on fractal analysis. We calculated four fractal dimensions of forest areas: the fractal box-counting dimension of the forest areas, the fractal box-counting dimension of the dilated forest areas, the fractal dilation dimension and the box-counting dimension of the border of the dilated forest areas. Fractal analysis revealed morpho-structural and textural differentiations of forested, deforested and reforested areas in development regions with dominant mountain relief and high hills (more forested and compact organization) in comparison to the development regions dominated by plains or low hills (less forested, more fragmented with small and isolated clusters). Our analysis used the fractal analysis that has the advantage of analyzing the entire image, rather than studying local information, thereby enabling quantification of the uniformity, fragmentation, heterogeneity and homogeneity of forests

BATHYMETRICAL CHARTING OF THE BUDEASA RESERVOIR

The study of the bathymetrical characteristics of lake basins aroused interest long ago, leading to a continuos evolution of the investigation methods. Technical instruments and processing of data gathered on site have evolved and the results can be observed in the accurate reproduction of lake basin morphology. At present, the introduced method for bathymetrical mapping is based on highly accurate instruments, with a possibility of future layouts based on the same profiles. The information is rendered in a precise and expressive form

COMPLEX STUDY OF THE LACUSTRIAN ECOSYSTEMS OF MOHOŞ SWAMP

Mohoş Swamp is an oligotroph swamp, formed in a volcanic crater on the site of a former lake, which permanently changes. Using a series of modern methods such as ultrasound bathymetry, we want to set up a reference base so that in the future one can be able to determine the rhythm and direction of the development of this complex ecosystem, both in terms of morph metrics and chemical hydrology parameters point of view. Bathymetry and geomorfological study represents the most important stage because it makes it possible to establish the concrete characteristics of the investigated lakes as well as their placement

Flood and Flash Flood Hazard Mapping Using the Frequency Ratio, Multilayer Perceptron and Their Hybrid Ensemble

The importance of identifying the areas vulnerable for both floods and flash-floods is an important component of risk management. The assessment of vulnerable areas is a major challenge in the scientific world. Adaptation and mitigation have generally been treated as two separate issues, both in public politics and in practice, in which mitigation is seen as the attenuation of the cause, and studies of adaption look into dealing with the consequences of climate change. Studies on the impact of climate change on flood risk are mostly conducted at the river basin or regional scale. Remote sensing and GIS technologies, together with the latest modelling techniques, can contribute to our ability to predict and manage floods. Various methods are commonly used to map flood sensitivity. Recent methods such as multicriteria evaluation, decision tree analysis (DT), fuzzy theory, weight of samples (WoE), artificial neural networks (ANN), frequency ratio (FR) and logistic regression (LR) approaches have been widely used by many researchers

Some specifics considering the urban territories river discharge determination

Urban territories are specific territories with a significant anthropogenic influence on the natural environment. As a result most of the existing natural conditions have been modified. Parts of them cover the natural forms of river beds and floodplains. Concerning to the humans safety, comfort and needs, while keeping ecosystems healthy function, different artificial structures also have been created. The process is connected to the well understanding and good quality data obtaining about the existing conditions and river flow behaviour, that are interconnected and relevant to the river discharge determination and its variations description – key issue for the entire river structures project, water extremes mitigation and maintaining a healthy state of the ecosystems. For the purpose various contact measurements and monitoring procedures are implemented. To clarify the process this material aims to present some specifics connected to the urban territories river discharge determination and the possibility for related monitoring networks creation. It is focused on the most used methods, their specifics and possible challenges for practical application. Main specifics connected to the related decision support systems creation and implementations are also presented. Main purpose is such state of the art dissemination, in help of decision makers and professionals in the area

Flood Hazard Mapping Using the Flood and Flash-Flood Potential Index in the Buzău River Catchment, Romania

The importance of identifying the areas vulnerable for both floods and flash-floods is an important component of risk management. The assessment of vulnerable areas is a major challenge in the scientific world. The aim of this study is to provide a methodology-oriented study of how to identify the areas vulnerable to floods and flash-floods in the Buzău river catchment by computing two indices: the Flash-Flood Potential Index (FFPI) for the mountainous and the Sub-Carpathian areas, and the Flood Potential Index (FPI) for the low-altitude areas, using the frequency ratio (FR), a bivariate statistical model, the Multilayer Perceptron Neural Networks (MLP), and the ensemble model MLP–FR. A database containing historical flood locations (168 flood locations) and the areas with torrentiality (172 locations with torrentiality) was created and used to train and test the models. The resulting models were computed using GIS techniques, thus resulting the flood and flash-flood vulnerability maps. The results show that the MLP–FR hybrid model had the most performance. The use of the two indices represents a preliminary step in creating flood vulnerability maps, which could represent an important tool for local authorities and a support for flood risk management policies