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In general, the elaboration of the synthesis of water quality in Romania is based on the processing of a large volume of information coming from primary analytical data collected with a constant frequency by the organisms with a specific role in water quality monitoring. This study proposes a novel methodology for multi-criteria analysis aiming to evaluate the degradation state of lake ecosystems. The cornerstone of the newly presented methodology is a geographic information system (GIS) automated tool, involving the assessment of potential degradation sources affecting the watershed that supply the lakes with water. The methodology was tested by performing an analysis on 30 lakes in Romania. The lakes belong to different geographical areas, owing various natural specific conditions and were selected to fit to various types and specific local conditions. The calculation of the WRASTIC-HI (Wastewater–Recreation–Agriculture–Size–Transportation–Industry–Cover–Hazard Index) revealed that, out of 30 lake ecosystems selected as the case study, two lakes were fully degraded, 24 lakes were semi-degraded, and four were in a natural state. The four lakes characterised by a natural state are located in mountainous regions or in the Danube Delta. The results obtained on the selected lakes proved that the proposed index calculation corresponded in all case studies to the real field situation, highlighting thus the accuracy of the assessing process and increased advantages of the assessment’s automation.

Large urban settlements are being organized in metropolitan areas, with a polarizing city influencing and shaping the landscape of the hinterland. Transport infrastructure networks are the main vectors for the permanent flux of resources, and these exchanges should be maintained undisturbed. A poor transportation network impedes the continuity of these flows, causing unsatisfaction, ultimately generating planning-based conflicts within metropolitan zones. This study aims in assessing the potential occurrence of metropolitan conflicts generated by the transportation network design. We used a quantitative approach based on a set of new proposed indexes. The methods were applied on nine metropolitan zones from Romania. The results show that each metropolitan zone has specific potential for conflict occurrence. The higher potential was recorded within the more recent established metropolitan zones. Our results raise the question on whether the Romanian metropolitan zones are fully functional and worthy of this status. The study provides a useful and usable tool in assessing the effectiveness of the transportation networks within metropolitan areas, establishing the potential conflict occurrence and it provides interesting insights about the metropolitan transportation issues, raising red flags toward local and regional decision makers and planners.

Maintaining and improving landscape connectivity represents a central objective in biodiversity conservation. The present study aims to evaluate the functional connectivity of the Romanian Natura 2000 forest sites for mammals, and to determine the importance of individual forest patches in maintaining landscape connectivity. We established three groups of mammals according to the dispersion distance and the average home-range size: small mammals (1 km; 1 ha), intermediate (10 km; 100 ha) and large mammals (100 km; 1000 ha). For measuring the connectivity we used a graph theory approach and the software CONEFOR 2.6. The importance of each patch as an indicator for the connectivity of forest surfaces was determined using a binary index, the Harary index (dH). Forest surfaces included in the Natura 2000 network present a high connectivity for terrestrial mammals with a large dispersion value and home range when compared with other categories of mammals. Furthermore, results evidence that the connectivity objective of the Natura 2000 network is not totally fulfilled, especially for protected forest surfaces, requiring the focus of future activities on increasing the connectivity of the network.

As urban development has become an increasing problem, urban planning is required to integrate social and economical needs with the sustainable use of natural resources. Lately planners have been using GIS techniques, based on international and local databases, in finding the most probable scenarios and the best available solutions. Four models of natural resources conservation have proved effective in the influence areas of cities: protected areas, yellow-green belts, regional parks, and oxygen generating surfaces. The establishment and management of these can be better realised by GIS techniques, because of their efficiency and ease of use, and the suitability and general availability of data.