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The social function and the ecosystem services provided by green urban areas (GUAs) have long been acknowledged by both the scientific community and the public. They become even more relevant to urban sustainability and human welfare in the post-pandemic world, which still has to confront social, environmental, and energy-related issues. This study aims to provide an example of how to perform a temporal dynamics-focused analysis of GUAs in an unsatisfactory data context by comparing the results obtained via spatial and statistical datasets of 35 cities in Romania considering the 2006–2018 period as a reference. This integration represents a compromise solution that should offer insights into the GUA’s dynamics in difficult monitoring conditions determined by the absence of both high-resolution spatial datasets and metadata-enhanced statistical datasets. Specific patterns of the GUA’s dynamics are identified, and the differences between the spatial data and statistical data-based findings are discussed. For at least 78% of the analysed cities, the official statistical data show that the GUAs are larger than the ones computed via GIS, in all reference periods. The findings call for the improvement of the GUA quantification and mapping regulations and programmes, which target, among other elements, their transparency and validation.

The study of English language as a foreign language for the Geography students in the universities of Romania has an important role in students' professional development and in the integration of Romanian academic education in the international context. The implementation of the Bologna Process' international programmes in "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Ia?i (including the Department of Geography), the exchange of students and teaching staff among universities from different countries, the worldwide dissemination of geographic research results require better knowledge of English language in the field of Geography. In such a context, in the Geography Department of "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Ia?i, a new approach on teaching English language has been implemented since 2014, ELG (English Language for Geographers), a unique approach in Romania. This paper presents the characteristics and the advantages of this new way of teaching English language, materialised in the publication, in 2017, of a textbook for the Geography students, "English Language for Geography Students" (Daniela Larion), the first textbook of this kind in Romania.

In light of the increased frequency of multi-hazards, the dynamics of vulnerability across time, space, and different hazards emerges as an intriguing but challenging research topic. Within multi-hazard contexts, both the impacts of hazards and mitigation strategies can augment vulnerabilities, adding layers to the complexity of multi-risk assessments. Delving into these interactions, this study aims to analyse new connections in rising vulnerability that result from impacts and adaptation options, as well as their implications, putting co-occurrent powerful river flood events and the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania under the magnifying glass, taking 2020 and 2021 as references. The proposed framework relies on an impact chain that was enhanced to include new elements (i.e. augmented vulnerabilities and derived impacts) and links (i.e. connections that describe the augmentation of vulnerability), which were also used to rank the vulnerabilities based on their augmentation. The impact chain draws on various data and information sources, including the scientific literature, the feedback of first responders, reports, legislative documents, official press releases, and news reports. This research work makes a significant contribution to the field of disaster risk reduction (DRR) by broadening the purpose of the impact chain, transforming it into a first-hand, semi-qualitative tool for analysing vulnerability dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific research is of critical importance for salient decision-making aiming to reduce flood risk, but the interwoven character of risk-related terminology and the demanding task of operationalising concepts like hazard and vulnerability frequently hinder scientific advancement. This paper documents the i) meaning of the terms hazard and vulnerability, and ii) operationalisation of these concepts, in the scientific research focusing on river floods in Romania. A 4-step semi-systematic literature review was performed, setting the time frame to 2000-2022. The literature review points out the conceptual and operational overlapping of the flood hazard and vulnerability, as well as their dynamics and spatial focus. Flood hazard is operationalised mostly through hydraulic modelling and spatial analysis, while flood vulnerability is frequently assessed via index-based methodologies. There are several studies that operationalise flood vulnerability or hazard using a methodology that targets flood risk. Another tendency observed in the literature is to choose titles referring to one of the flood risk components, but to formulate aims that concern the other; in certain cases only to assess their intersection. By addressing these issues, we aim to open the way to flood hazard and/or vulnerability assessments that properly fit the terminological and methodological paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seismic vulnerability is of particular interest to the scientific community, authorities and general population in Romania, given the fact that the territory of the country is mainly subject to strong intermediate-depth earthquakes that originate in the Vrancea Seismogenic Zone. However, little has been done to strengthen the resilience of urban settlements, which are especially vulnerable to earthquakes. This paper represents a summary of the seismic vulnerability problem in Romania that focuses on its various sources and on the scientific works elaborated on this topic. Also, several proposals that target both future earthquake vulnerability research and modelling actions are presented, in the endeavour to stress out the necessity of using scientific findings as grounds for decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]