The peri-urbanisation effect: Emerging functional spatial patterns in Romania
The peri-urbanisation effect: Emerging functional spatial patterns in Romania

Case study on 4 major cities: Brașov, Cluj-Napoca, Iași and Timișoara

Summary/Abstract: Spatial planning is currently facing conceptual and practical challenges caused by an increasing number of issues required to be addressed at the intercommunal level. The aim of this paper is to discuss the concept of functional urban areas as emerging spatial patterns generated by the extensive peri-urbanisation process in the Romanian territory, employing both morphological and functional analytical approaches. The study focuses on the analysis of the territorial dynamics registered over the past 10 years around the major urban centres in Romania. The methodology compares two different contours – on one hand, the administrative limits of the metropolitan areas set according to the Government Decision (GD 998/ 2008) and on the other hand, the analytical limits of the functional urban areas, delineated through a recent World Bank’s study. The selected case studies include four major cities in the Romanian settlement’s network, namely Brașov, Cluj-Napoca, Iași and Timișoara, considered among the fastest growing urban centres in the past decade. The results of this study confirm the initial hypothesis that the spatial impact of peri-urbanisation around large urban centres (mainly reflected by population growth, increase in the built-up area and the development of residential units) is not limited to the outline of the current metropolitan areas. Based on this argument, we support the need to review the current boundaries of the metropolitan areas, following a set of methodological guidelines driven by both morphological and functional considerations. This approach will not only solve the problem of updating territories in which priority investments from European and national financing programs will be made, but it will also provide a well-grounded preliminary framework for a potential future metropolitan reform.

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