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On a global scale, traffic incidents are a leading cause of mortality and material damage. Romania exhibits the highest rate of road traffic fatalities both in the European Union and worldwide, requiring a comprehensive examination of its overall influence on a national level. The current study uses an extensive approach centering on a spatial analysis model based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Employing a series of spatial databases, this model delineates the geographical distribution and characteristics of road accidents to establish both their cumulative national impact and the identification of high-risk areas. The spatial database, containing traffic incident data, is constructed using geolocation techniques and integrated through network analysis to evaluate the impact in relation to distance. The AHP framework is applied in analyzing the impact across five key dimensions: accident severity, occurrence mode, prevailing weather conditions, traffic restrictions, and road markings. This multi-level AHP analysis not only identifies high-risk hotspots but also confirms the effectiveness of the proposed spatial model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial planning decisions form the basis of territorial progress by enhancing the resilience and opportunities for local and regional development. Therefore, decisions made as a result of multidisciplinary studies based on GIS assessment of all involved factors can provide a real and up-to-date image of the analyzed territory. In this context, geomorphic processes are among the factors restricting development, affecting built-up areas, transport infrastructure, and economic activities. This paper assesses geomorphic processes at the level of Cluj County, Romania, which mainly consist of active landslides that directly impact the accessibility of communities and their degree of safety, while accelerated soil erosion severely affects the output of land used for agriculture. GIS technology and a semi-quantitative model for determining the landslide hazard were used to classify landslides across occurrence probability classes. This methodology was implemented in Romania through Government Decision no. 447/2003. The USLE model was used to determine the soil erosion. As a result, the territory of Cluj County, which is the study area of this paper, was entirely included in one of the classes of risk concerning active geomorphic processes. Another important aspect consisted of categorizing transport infrastructure according to risk classes. A population risk assessment was also performed, taking into account the degree of accessibility of the territorial emergency department in the event that such hazards and processes occur. These results form the basis of proposals to efficiently plan the county territory, adapting decisions to the present trends in the evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The NRCS-CN (Natural Resources Conservation Service curve number) method, developed by the USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) is among the most widely used for the estimation of surface runoff from watersheds. Ever since its introduction in the 1950s, although it has been used to a great extent by engineers and hydrologists, the applicability of the original procedure used to determine its main parameter, the curve number (CN), to various regions with diverse environmental conditions, is still subject to many uncertainties and debates. This study presents a comparative analysis of different methods applied to determine curve numbers from local data in four watersheds located in the central part of Romania, within the mountain region surrounding the Brașov Depression. The CN values were not only computed using rainfall–runoff records from 1991 to 2020, but also determined from the standard NRCS tables documented in the National Engineering Handbook part 630 (NEH-630), for comparison purposes. Thus, a total of 187 rainfall–runoff data records from the study watersheds and five different methods were used to assess the accuracy of various procedures for determining the CN values, namely: tabulated CN (CN values selected from NRCS tables, TAB), asymptotic fitting (AF) of both natural and ordered data, median CN (MD), geometric mean CN (GM) and the arithmetic mean CN (AM) methods. The applicability of the aforementioned methods was investigated both for the original fixed initial abstraction ratio λ = 0.2 and its adjustment to λ = 0.05. Relatively similar results were found for the curve number-based runoff estimates related to the field data analysis methods, yet slightly better when the λ was reduced to 0.05. A high overall performance in estimating surface runoff was achieved by most CN-based methods, with the exception of the asymptotic fitting of natural data and the tabulated CN method, with the latter yielding the lowest results in the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender-biased perceptions can influence the amplitude of vertical segregation within a region, as women face covert social obstacles and patriarchal attitudes in their struggle for career advancement. This study proposes a mixed methodology for analysing the underlying causes of the existing glass ceiling in North-West Region of Romania. Qualitative data collection techniques are mixed with statistical and spatial analysis in order to identify spatial clusters of communities with high levels of gender prejudice. Using a CATI cross-sectional survey, a total of 1007 respondents expressed their perception on gender equity and women's economic empowerment opportunities. The identified biases are then included in Geographically Weighted Regressions that can highlight other objective causes for patriarchal mentalities by analysing a series of explanatory variables (unemployment, education rates, local investments, LHDI, etc.). Results show the impact local development levels can have on the upsurge of gender inequalities, despite the pre-existing cultural and psychological features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global pandemic of COVID-19 has had a significant influence on public transportation usage and service provision. As many countries begin to return to normality, new public transportation planning standards are being developed. Considering these new standards, there is a critical shortage of understanding the possible impact of the pandemic on public transportation systems and models that can help service planning face these challenges. This paper analyzes data collected in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), from late- February 2020 to late-March 2021. As local authorities began to remove restrictions aimed at limiting the propagation of the SARSCoV-2 virus, the study investigates the travel changes in various modes of transportation, travel plans, and user categories. Results confirm that low-income groups depend on public transit the most; consequently, they had considerably lower declines in usage during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also identifies various daily average patterns of demand for public transportation in Cluj-Napoca throughout each stage of the pandemic. All of these data contribute to extending the global understanding about COVID-19's influence on transport usage by comparing these outcomes with the ones from other cities. They offer pertinent information for transportation authorities to develop adaptation policies to a major event like this pandemic. Although there is still apprehension about using public transportation, the collected data show that the regular public transport users from before the pandemic have been gradually returning to their transport of choice once the restrictions have been relaxed (March-May 2020). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The region of Romania is characterized in terms of continental temperate climate with oceanic influences. Thus, the precipitation regime and the thermal regime in this part of Europe are strongly influenced by the frequency of cyclones whose trajectories cross Europe from west to east coming from the Atlantic Ocean. The present study analyzes the variation of the amount of precipitation in Romania depending on the frequency and variation of the geographical position of the trajectories of the North Atlantic cyclones in the area of the European continent. Using the classic method of identification and tracking, 1189 cyclones were found that crossed Europe north of the Alps in a period of 30 years between December 1, 1985 - November 30, 2015, of which 71% generated precipitation in Romania. Their influence on the amount recorded at meteorological stations in Romania varies between 43% in the northwest of the country to 13% in the southern regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper represents the third part of a larger study concerning tourism in Sălaj County, taking into consideration the tourism infrastructure in the county. The paper analysed statistical data regarding the accommodation establishments and their capacity, available online from the National Institute of Statistics (TEMPO-ONLINE database) for a period of 33 years, between 1990 and 2022. The total number of accommodation establishments dropped from 23 in 1990 to 16 in 2007, but then increased significantly, reaching 127 accommodation units in 2022. Most of these recently emerged units, such as bungalows and guesthouses, have however a small capacity. Therefore, the evolution in terms of the total number of available beds in certified accommodation units has not been equally spectacular. There was the same decreasing trend, from 1922 beds in 1990, to 754 beds in 2008, followed by an increase, which nevertheless reached a maximal value of 1923 beds in 2016. Since then, the overall capacity has slightly decreased. Most of the beds are currently available in accommodation establishments located in towns (mainly in Zalău) and spa resorts, especially in hotels, hostels, and guesthouses. The general trend in recent years has been to improve the degree of comfort, which in Zalău gave rise to several 4-star hotels, in addition to the existent 3-star hotels. Recreational facilities are mainly available in the two spa resorts, Băile Boghiş and Bizuşa-Băi, but there are some similar facilities in Zalău, Jibou and şimleu Silvaniei, while most of the seats in public catering facilities are located in Zalău, Boghiş and Ip. The positive trend in terms of tourism infrastructure is expected to be maintained in the following years, as tourism is the economic activity most likely to be strategically important for the sustainable development of Sălaj County in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this research is to develop a set of vulnerability indicators and to analyze the effect of climate factors on social vulnerability. While the main aim of the study is to improve the existing methodology by quantifying the effects of climate change on social vulnerability, it also represents a novel scientific contribution in the field, as it delimits for the first time in the Romanian literature the most vulnerable areas from this point of view. This study aims to facilitate the decision-making processes and planning efforts targeting the increase of resilience and adaptive capacity of local communities. By applying the principal component analysis, we have selected 45 variables and have constructed four aggregated indexes. The Climate-Related Social Vulnerability index (CleSoVI) has pointed out that the largest impact on the current vulnerability of settlements in the test region (Cluj County) can be attributed to the lack of adaptive capacity and increased poverty, the most vulnerable areas being represented by the eastern and north-western parts of the county. From a socio-economic point of view, local authorities' efforts should concentrate on reducing the vulnerability of these regions and preparing them to cope with- and adapt to the impact of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mediterranean cyclones (MCs) affect not only the countries neighboring the Mediterranean basin, but also the weather conditions in regions that are not in direct contact with the Mediterranean basin such as Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, including Romania. They are associated, in general, with extreme weather events. This study considered data over a 30-yr. period (December 1, 1986 - November 30, 2015). For MCs identification and their track tracing, the mean sea level pressure, 500 hPa geopotential heights, 500-1000 hPa relative topography and 850 hPa pseudo-equivalent potential temperature were employed. The European spatial domain was delimited as 30°-60° N latitude and as 20° V - 45 ° E longitude. To select those cyclones influencing the weather in Romania a square-shaped area whose external limits are located about 500 km from the center of Romania was used. For tracing the trajectory, the low-pressure center position at every 6 hours was considered. Frequency of occurence and track density were analyzed considering two temporal approaches: i. for the entire period and for three 10-yr subperiods; ii. the annual and seasonal scale for the entire period. For track density, the anomalies for each 10-yr sub-period and for each season were calculated. The main findings of this study are: the most exposed area to MCs are central and eastern Mediterranean regions, 43.39% of the cyclones generated in the Mediterranean basin crossed the region of Romania; seasonally, the highest occurrence frequency is specific to winter and the lowest to summer; no significant changes in the annual or seasonal occurrence was detected; during the second 10-yr sub-period weak to moderate positive anomalies were detected, whereas during the first and the last ones, positive and negative anomalies were found depending on the season and region; seasonal average position of the MCs tracks revealed the largest shift from one sub-period to another in winter and the smallest in autumn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anthropogenic heritage represents an integral part of the primary tourism supply. Together with the natural attractions, manmade attractions represent the essential reason for the emergence and development of tourism in Sălaj County or anywhere else. The identification and structuring of the anthropogenic attractive resources in Sălaj County was adapted to the configuration and specificity of the existing heritage in the analysed space, including the following types: archaeological sites and historical monuments, museums and memorial houses, monuments, statues, cultural and artistic events, as well as the intangible heritage (traditions, customs, music, dances, crafts). The data were collected from various bibliographical and online sources, as well as directly in the field. However, except for Porolissum archaeological site and Jibou Botanical Garden, many of these attractions are virtually unknown even in Romania, and they are mostly visited by locals, and by pilgrims in the case of churches and monasteries. Therefore, there is need for the setting up of a better overall image of Sălaj County as a tourist destination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tourism resources integrate the totality of attractive elements within a territory. The natural attractions of Sălaj County have been approached in this paper by analysing the four categories that are long-established in the scientific literature: morphological, climatic, hydrological and biogeographical tourist attractions. The geographical location of Sălaj County provides a privileged situation and a relative geographical unity, marked by a complex and complementary natural environment derived from the presence of a varied morphology. The karst morphology includes caves (Cuciulat, Măgurici), gorges (Babei Gorges), karst springs (Barcău Springs), and other attractions. The alternation of hard rocks and softer rocks, more friable and less resistant to erosion, led to the emergence of interesting forms, the result of differential erosion, such as the Dragons' Garden (Grădina Zmeilor), the Devil's Rock (Stânca Dracului), "The Old Man and the Old Woman" ("Moșu și Baba"). Mineral and thermal waters are used for curative purposes at Băile Boghiș, Băile Bizușa, Jibou and Șimleu Silvaniei. The biogeographical potential is represented mainly by the vegetation cover, which is very diverse, including both forests and valuable flowering plants. Sălaj County has a significant natural potential, which is yet to be capitalized from the perspective of tourism, because natural attractions in Sălaj County are still little known to tourists, even in Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban sprawl and population growth are the main triggers of land use reconversion around big cities. Due to the expansion of metropolitan areas, many land use categories (grasslands, arable lands, forests, pastures) have been transformed in living spaces. Determining the built-up area growth rate from satellite images, in correlation with demographics and dwellings data, leads to a better comprehension of sustainable urban development and the negative effects of chaotic urbanization. This study analyses the built-up area expansion growth rate in Cluj Metropolitan Area in 1991-2017 using the normalized difference built-up index and soil-adjusted vegetation index applied on Landsat imagery. Results highlight different spatial patterns within the studied area, based on the correlation between the growth rates of built-up area expansion and demographic data. The land use types most impacted by the urban sprawl are meadows and arable lands near the metropolitan centre and grassland in areas located at the periphery of the metropolitan area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this study was to analyze the perception of the influence of various weather conditions on patients with rheumatic pathology. A group of 394 patients, aged between 39 and 87 years and diagnosed with degenerative rheumatic diseases, were interviewed individually by using a questionnaire created specifically for this study. Further on, to assess the relationship between pain intensity and weather conditions, a frequency analysis based on Pearson's correlation matrix was employed. The most important results are as follows: the great majority of the participants (more than 75%) believe that their rheumatic pain is definitely or to a great extent influenced by different weather conditions; most of the patients reported intensification of their pain with weather worsening, especially when cloudiness and humidity suddenly increase (83.8% and 82.0%, respectively), air temperature suddenly decreases (81.5%), and in fog or rain conditions (81.2%). In our research, alongside simple meteorological variables, we established that complex weather variables such as atmospheric fronts, in particular, the cold ones and winter anticyclonic conditions, greatly intensify the rheumatic pain, whereas summer anticyclonic conditions usually lead to a decrease in pain severity. In terms of relationships between pain intensity and weather conditions, we found the strongest correlations (ranging between 0.725 and 0.830) when temperature, relative humidity, and cloudiness are constantly high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the anthropogenic tourism resources of Iara-Hăşdate Basin, which are the result of the combining effect of history, development of human civilization and typology and traditions of ethnic groups inhabiting the basin. The result is a unique cultural heritage belonging to both material and spiritual legacy, with visible attractive products for tourism materialized mostly in architecture, clothing, customs, music and gastronomy. The historical evolution of the area is reflected not only by culture, traditions and attitudes of the people towards lifetime events, but also by the relatively high number of tourism attractions from different historical periods, generating iconic architectural, historical and religious landmarks. Considering the complexity of tourism resources available in Iara-Hăşdate Basin, there are multiple types of tourism offered by the area. Existing natural conditions favor various forms of recreational mountain tourism from traditional winter leisure tourism, hiking and hunting tourism to more extreme ones like mountain climbing, caving and extreme tourism. The rich historical cultural heritage of the studied area offers very good premises for the development of various cultural tourism forms, mostly rural and religious tourism. The results of tourism resources assessment can be used to coordinate tourism development strategies for a superior endorsement and to better prioritize tourism related policies with a focus on economic development, land use management, territorial identity and environmental quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the spatial and economic characteristics of commuting to work in one of the most dynamic areas of Romania, Cluj County. Based on the 2011 census data, the study reveals a strong connection between accessibility and commuting intensity, while the urban network determines the spatial orientation of the dominant commuting flows. However, we found no significant relation between dynamic economic performance and commuting intensity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the spatial structure of accessibility in Romania before and after the implementation of some major national and/or European road infrastructure projects. This study suggests a new index for accessibility measurement by combining gravity-based models with Place Rank and adapting it to the Romanian system of settlements. Based on the GIS estimation of travel time, this index evaluates not only the geographical position of a specific community relative to the road network, but also the level of accessibility of rural and urban communities to the social services located in central places. The GIS-based maps indicate the existing disparities (between well-connected and isolated regions in terms of accessibility to the central places) and the impact of new infrastructure projects on these disparities. The resulting maps can be used as efficient tools for transport planning and development at different scales (international, national, regional and local). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on previous works on the connectivity index applied to the settlements of Banat (Rusu, 2007; Rusu, 2008), the paper assesses the road connectivity index for the same settlements using a slightly different approach, based on the road distance from every settlement to the nearest central places, ranked on nine levels. Therefore, it is not the position on a certain road that counts, but the means by which specific groups of people (either urban or rural communities) might access a set of services or facilities deemed socially necessary and located in the above-mentioned central places. The welfare of the communities depends mainly on the standards of connectivity and accessibility to such services or facilities. We considered that the most valid measure of connectivity would then be the assessment of the space (distance) needed to be crossed for the population of every settlement to reach specific destinations. The overall values for each settlement have been interpolated using GIS in order to produce a map of the road connectivity index in Banat. The map clearly shows the existing disparities between well-connected regions, especially around the main cities, and isolated areas, usually in the mountains, the hills or along the borders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study follow the assessment of geomorphological heritage of the Macin Mountains for geotourism development in the area. In order to analyze geomorphological features of this area and to achieve a digital map, we created a GIS databases comprising topographic map sheets, digital ortophotos and satellite images. Using these datasets the main geomorphologic features were extracted. As a result of this study we combined the most representative elements of the topography and we realized a digital map of landforms with geotouristic potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to improve the existing methodology by quantifying the effects of climate change on social vulnerability by developing a set of vulnerability indicators. It delimits for the first time in Romania the most vulnerable areas from this point of view and facilitates the decision-making processes and planning efforts targeting the increase of resilience and adaptive capacity of local communities. We selected 35 variables and constructed four aggregated indexes by applying the principal component analysis, and then the Climate-Related Social Vulnerability index (CleSoVI) index was derived. It pointed out that the most significant impact on the vulnerability of settlements in the test region (Cluj County) can be attributed to the lack of adaptive capacity and increased poverty. The most vulnerable areas are located in the northern and south-eastern parts of the county. From a socio-economic point of view, local authorities' efforts should reduce the vulnerability of these regions and prepare them to cope with and adapt to the impact of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying regional variations and agronomical records can turn into a function of magnitude and timing for sustainable maize production. The crop characteristics are directly related with the temperature and precipitation from the growing season. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to highlight maize crop requirements from the most suggestive records from Romania. A literature search was performed based on keywords related to both maize crop and agrometeorological requirements. After the evaluation of the temperature requirements on maize phenology's principal stages, some inconsistencies were identified. These are related to the leaf development stage and the development of the fruit stage, where the minimum temperature interval overlaps with the optimum. A wide variety of assessments were also made, taking into account mainly the monthly temperature and precipitation requirements. The number of principal growth stages assessed differed greatly from one source to another. The growth degree days has been incoherently expressed and calculated, and these details must be taken into account for developing further models. The results regarding phenology aim to propose the setting up of comparable records at a regional (PannEx area) and global scale. This review will help to develop new climate projections in Romania in the climate change context through the project Agroclim. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of global climate change, the agricultural sector is one of the most responsive. This study focused on changes detected in temperature requirements for maize crops based on growing season length and the growing degree day indices in Central Romania (Cluj County). Daily air temperature data over the period 1981–2013 was derived from two databases with different spatial resolutions: Agri4Cast Resources Portal and ROmanian ClimAtic Dataset. Further analysis, performed for the entire period and three 10/13-y sub-periods, focused on calculating and mapping the area of arable land for each suitability zone. The main findings were: there were differences up to 16% in the area of suitability zones when switching from the results obtained based on the coarse spatial resolution to the improved one; the differences were larger for the shorter and more recent sub-periods than for the entire period or for the first decade; and there was considerable improvement of thermal conditions for maize crops in the focus region over the considered period—suitability zone I was not detected for the first sub-period and became dominant for the last one. It can be concluded that using or developing a better spatial resolution database is very important for maximizing the profitability of agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]