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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 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 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 main aim of this study was to examine the co-existing phenomena that occur dynamically in an urbanized area. This goal was achieved by analyzing trends and the rate of changes in geolocation data. The input data were obtained from statistical registers kept for administrative units (municipalities). The method was verified for a group of municipalities forming a cohesive urbanized area (a city and neighboring municipalities). The rate of changes was compared in two countries, including four cities in eastern Poland (Olsztyn, Białystok, Kielce and Lublin) and four cities in the region of Transylvania in Romania (Cluj-Napoca, Braşov, Târgu-Mureş and Sibiu). The studied areas encompassed the territories within the administrative boundaries of the analyzed cities as well as their neighboring municipalities in 1995-2016. The surveyed objects were characterized by a similar area, population and residential floor area per capita. [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]

The present article analyzes the concept of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) and its role in the development of local transportation strategies and plans, investigating how SEA acts as an effective tool to integrate environmental issues into transportation planning. The paper provides local authorities with useful advice on how to comply with the European and national legislation requirements in the environmental permitting process for transportation plans. At the same time, it points out useful information for practitioners in the field of the strategic environmental assessment in the elaboration of the Environmental Report, as the key factor in SEA procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of the study is to provide a comparative perspective on the pronatalist policies of the two communist countries: Romania and Hungary. Beyond the general ideological and political context of the entire Communist Bloc, the paper focuses on three major coordinates: 1. gender differences and the way they were handled by each state; 2. the drafting of legislation on abortion, family and social protection, and the effective implementation of pronatalist policies (restrictive measures vs. incentives); 3. assessing the impact of these policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The setting up of metropolitan areas is a process which is still in progress in Romania. The legislative framework for the creation of these areas has been built up only since 2001, and there are still a number of juridical inconsistencies concerning the association of administrative units to form metropolitan areas. On the other hand, political reasons and the fear of losing a certain degree of authority and to become subordinates of the large cities (in the case of rural municipalities) also hindered the development of metropolitan areas in Romania. Nevertheless, the metropolitan areas already in existence are running a number of projects that are beneficial for most members of the association. Such positive examples may trigger the creation of the other metropolitan areas. Although the existing metropolitan areas did not yield spectacular results, the time passed since their foundation is yet too short to correctly assess their usefulness and territorial meaning. For the moment, the following metropolitan areas exist in Romania: Iaşi, Oradea, Braşov, Constanţa, Bacău, Cluj-Napoca, Târgu Mureş and Craiova. Bucharest, Timişoara, Ploieşti and Galaţi-Brăila metropolitan areas are still in process of setting up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]