Urban Bioregions and Territorial Identities in Romania. The Role of Information and Communication Technology

Abstract

This article explores the current measures and initiatives implemented in Romania to determine what is the role of information and communication technology (ICT) in creating bioregions, and especially in how cities, as potential urban bioregions, play a part in this process. The exploratory documentation and database creation was done through keyword-search on the Google search engine, because of the current COVID-19 restrictions. The initiatives found by keyword searching were then divided into two categories, ICT-related, and non-ICT, and represented in table format. The keyword-based search has led to several results, which were displayed using ArcMap 10.5 and analysed by being superimposed on the historical and development regions of Romania. Firstly, results showed that, in Romania, a bigger concentration of population did not necessarily correlate with a higher number of sustainable practices. Secondly, that cities’ bio/eco food demand, as well as fertile soil, created the premise for the start of numerous eco/bio-certified farms and businesses. Thirdly, cities, and especially the four major regional capitals (Bucharest, Iași, Cluj-Napoca, and Timișoara) had more practices and especially smart-based ones. Finally, results indicated a large regional inequality in terms of the number of sustainable practices, with eastern regions being shallower, while western regions and those counties in proximity to important urban centres being favoured. This exploratory study helps to understand the stage of reaching the aims of the bioregional paradigm in Romania.

Smart city: A critical assessment of the concept and its implementation in Romanian urban strategies

“…A constant result of these studies is presenting the difficulties to empower smart city partnerships as a prerequisite in effectively managing smart infrastructure and technology. -Smart environment -comprehensive approaches addressed the issue of urban bioregions and territorial identities through the lens of smart cities perspective, focusing on improvement and innovation of municipal waste management in the context of smart cities (Aceleanu et al, 2019;Muntean et al, 2021), or assessing the utility of Machine Learning to mitigate air pollution (Popa et al, 2021). -Smart living is addressed through a series of papers focusing on smart home technologies (Maer et al, 2021), renewable energy systems creating Nearly-Zero energy buildings (Manco et al, 2021), the digital synchronization of Romanian communities with EU initiatives (Tavella et al, 2021), or the reduction of plastic waste in households (Cerasi et al, 2021).…”

Resources Management for a Resilient World: A Literature Review of Eastern European Countries with Focus on Household Behaviour and Trends Related to Food Waste

“…In Europe, the lack of full awareness and careless handling of food will soon increase food demand [7][8][9][10][11] and generate shortages, which might result in higher food pricesthe so-called foodflation [12] and possible government intervention impacting mainly producers. Several European Union policies [13][14][15] aiming at the regulation of food waste management in Europe and some interesting studies conducted by the European Commission through Eurostat are ringing the bell to signify the importance of green behaviour, but the solutions offered have not fully been assessed by governments, public organisations, or private companies [16].…”