Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 11, No 2 (2015)

Abstract

The small size of green areas in Romanian urban settlements remains a problem of current urbanization, having a negative impact on the healthy lifestyle of the population. Nowadays, the green areas from most of the Romanian cities are under the WHO standard of 50 m²/inhabitant, under the E.U. standard of 26 m²/inhabitant, and also under the national standard (94 urban settlements-29.4% have less than 10 m²/inhabitant of green area in 2013). Furthermore, the evolution of green areas after 2002, shows that almost a quarter of Romanian urban settlements (24.5%) recorded significant declines, some towns having less than one square meter per inhabitant. This study presents a detailed analysis of Romanian urban green areas, their evolution over the period 2002-2013, based on the latest data provided by INS (National Institute of Statistics), identifying in the same time the causes and effects that led to the current situation. Mapping the results and identifying regional disparities, along with proposing measures to increase urban green areas are also objectives achieved in this study.