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Abstract Forest loss and fragmentation pose extreme threats to biodiversity. Their efficient characterization from remotely sensed data therefore has strong practical implications. Data are often separately analyzed for spatial fragmentation and disorder, but no existing metric simultaneously quantifies both the shape and arrangement of fragments.Objectives.We present a fractal fragmentation and disorder index (FFDI), which advances a previously developed fractal index by merging it with the Rényi information dimension. The FFDI is designed to work across spatial scales, and to efficiently report both the fragmentation of images and their spatial disorder.Methods.We validate the FFDI with 12,600 synthetic hierarchically structured random map (HRM) multiscale images, as well as several other categories of fractal and non-fractal test images (4880 images). We then apply the FFDI to satellite imagery of forest cover for 10 distinct regions of the Romanian Carpathian Mountains from 2000–2021.Results.The FFDI outperformed its two individual components (fractal fragmentation index and Rényi information dimension) in resolving spatial patterns of disorder and fragmentation when tested on HRM classes and other image types. The FFDI thus offers a clear advantage when compared to the individual use of fractal fragmentation index and the Information Dimension, and provided good classification performance in an application to real data.Conclusions.This work improves on previous characterizations of landscape patterns. With the FFDI, scientists will be able to better monitor and understand forest fragmentation from satellite imagery. The FFDI may also find wider applicability in biology wherever image analysis is used. Context.Forest loss and fragmentation pose extreme threats to biodiversity. Their efficient characterization from remotely sensed data therefore has strong practical implications. Data are often separately analyzed for spatial fragmentation and disorder, but no existing metric simultaneously quantifies both the shape and arrangement of fragments.Objectives.We present a fractal fragmentation and disorder index (FFDI), which advances a previously developed fractal index by merging it with the Rényi information dimension. The FFDI is designed to work across spatial scales, and to efficiently report both the fragmentation of images and their spatial disorder.Methods.We validate the FFDI with 12,600 synthetic hierarchically structured random map (HRM) multiscale images, as well as several other categories of fractal and non-fractal test images (4880 images). We then apply the FFDI to satellite imagery of forest cover for 10 distinct regions of the Romanian Carpathian Mountains from 2000–2021.Results.The FFDI outperformed its two individual components (fractal fragmentation index and Rényi information dimension) in resolving spatial patterns of disorder and fragmentation when tested on HRM classes and other image types. The FFDI thus offers a clear advantage when compared to the individual use of fractal fragmentation index and the Information Dimension, and provided good classification performance in an application to real data.Conclusions.This work improves on previous characterizations of landscape patterns. With the FFDI, scientists will be able to better monitor and understand forest fragmentation from satellite imagery. The FFDI may also find wider applicability in biology wherever image analysis is used.

The complexity in the styles of 1200 Byzantine icons painted between 13th and 16th from Greece, Russia and Romania was investigated through the Kolmogorov algorithmic information theory. The aim was to identify specific quantitative patterns which define the key characteristics of the three different painting schools. Our novel approach using the artificial surface images generated with Inverse FFT and the Midpoint Displacement (MD) algorithms, was validated by comparison of results with eight fractal and non-fractal indices. From the analyzes performed, normalized Kolmogorov compression complexity (KC) proved to be the best solution because it had the best complexity pattern differentiations, is not sensitive to the image size and the least affected by noise. We conclude that normalized KC methodology does offer capability to differentiate the icons within a School and amongst the three Schools.

The first aim of this article is to present a comprehensive analysis of industrial heritage ‘in situ’, highlighting the cultural and technological importance of the Rosia Montana archaeological site. This is an ancient gold-mining area, exploited since the Iron Age, and the site is one of the most representative of Romania in terms of cultural patrimony, with elements of mining heritage, vernacular architecture, archaeological remains from Roman period. The documentation has been drafted for the inclusion of the Rosia Montana archaeological mining site on the UNESCO World Heritage monuments tentative list; this is currently being assessed by the Romanian Ministry of Culture. The second aim of the article is to anticipate the impact of the resumption of extractive activity by a Canadian company. This situation is one of the most controversial topics in Romanian society, as a result of the response to the negative impact of mining, including the pollution of surface waters with cyanide and the flood...

The research focused on the impact of obtaining the status of European Cultural Capital on the dynamics of the business sector. Special attention was paid to the dynamics of tourism economy, the main economic activity which benefited from obtaining the status of the European Cultural Capital. The analyses focused on the impact of this obtained status on the adaptive capacity of each economic sector. Research was based on a number of relevant indicators to the structural dynamics of local economy: the evolution of the number of firms, the evolution of the number of employees, the evolution of turnover, profit evolution. All these indicators were analyzed in terms of NACE code - Classification of National Economy Activities for 2000-2012. Based on these indicators tendency matrixes were drafted projecting the dynamic picture of local economy. Analyses identified the superior dynamics of this local economic system due to capital inflows and to adaptive planning initiated by the decision-making structures.

Creative industries represent a real indicator for development of any territorial system. This study aims to highlight the distribution of creative industries in the national network of settlements, and how such distribution is determined by other characteristics of territorial systems. An important consideration is the ability to attract creative industries and other economic activities, in the relations with production or other investors’ confidence, in the ability of local systems to produce added value. The researches show the importance of creative and cultural activities on the local, regional or national contribution bring to GDP, and by creating and maintaining a large number of jobs. The purpose of this study is to design a network of the creative centers in Romania, goal achieved by quantifying the evolution of each economic activity, classified as creative industries (according to the National Classification of Economic Activities NACE). In each NACE code, between 2001-2012, the following indicators were analyzed: the evolution of the number of firms, changes in turnover, the profit and the evolution of the number of employees. Another important objective of this study is to identify how creative industries reacted during the economic crisis in the territory of each system. To analyze the poles of creativity in Romania is an important goal of many support documents for achieving National Spatial Development Strategy, for 2014-2020 horizon. The detailed analysis of entrepreneurial profiles, made for the territorial systems in the study area, shows the growing share of creative economic activities that tend to contribute significantly to the increasing of the functional complexity of local economies.

The study aims to identify the SPA tourism contribution to the development of local economies in Romania, during 2000-2012, a period in which Romanian tourism has seen a spectacular dynamic. Spa tourism has become today one of the major forms of the international tourism, generating an increase in the local systems of functional complexity. The study aims also to examine the importance of the SPA tourism in Romania territorial systems, which have been developed based on the SPA resources. The study is based on analysis of a rich bibliography on the development of health tourism, as well as a quantification of this process, for the period 1993-2012. The Spa tourism phenomenon was measured based on the evolution of the number of tickets issued (National House of Health Insurances - CNAS), tourist traffic in the SPA's, and the evolution of the accommodation, made by the National Institute of Statistics in Romania. A database of NACE (Classification of National Economic Activities) was built, for the period 2000-2012, to analyze the evolution of the number of firms, number of employees and the annual growth business and profit. The database was built for the SPA's and the total local economy also. The results confirm the working hypothesis of the importance of the SPA tourism in the sustainable development of the local economies that have specific resources.

The authors of the present study aim to highlight the territorial distribution of creative industries at the level of national settlement network and the way that the pattern of distribution is influenced by the territorial systems specificities. The undergone research evidences the importance of creative industries for the local, regional and national economies through its contribution to the GDP, and also through the creation and maintaing of jobs. The finality of this study is to design a network of creative poles in Romania. The authors took into consideration every NACE code corresponding to creative industries from 2001 until 2011, focusing on indicators like the total number of companies, turnover, profit and number of employees. Another important objective is to identify the way that the creative industries acted and reacted during the economic crisis at the level of each territorial system. The present study also searched the links between the importance of localization and the type of reaction towards the economic crisis. The identification of creative poles in Romania is an important objective of numerous support documents for the National Strategy of Territorial Development for 2014-2020.