Vision and strategic objectives for sustainable development of the Apuseni mountains mining settlements

The restructuring of the mining sector in Romania since 1989 has had extremely serious social, economic and environmental consequences for the mining settlements. Following the mine closure pro- grams and socio-economic and environmental regeneration efforts the situation has only slightly improved, the settlements being still very vulnerable in terms of quality of life and prospects for sustainable development. In this paper the authors have developed a vision for sustainable development of the Apuseni Mountains mining areas that would support policy writing and lead to the identification of appropriate solutions for socio-economic and environmental development of the studied area

The evaluation of the environmental quality in Romania

The evaluation of the environmental quality concerns the analysis of the physical, chemical, biological and statistical features that allow the scientists to classify a territory in a certain category or hierarchic scale. In the model used in this study, the environmental quality was assessed at the administrative unit level (county), as a result of the interaction of different components. Fifty indicators were selected and included into 6 major groups based on several factors (natural hazards, air quality, biodiversity, water quality, human health, soil quality, economic activities) that increase the communities' susceptibility to different negative aspects concerning the environment. Each indicator was classified on a scale from 1 to 5 (1-very good…5-very weak). The sum of the indicators was reclassified according to the same model, until the total environmental quality was finally determined. The analysis of the environmental quality on a departmental level provides the opportunity to identify the regions that need to be allotted financial resources in order to diminish the negative impact of the disturbing (anthropic and natural) factors. At the same time, by focusing the research on the most vulnerable counties, a more detailed analysis has revealed the most vulnerable administrative units (towns and communes)