Instruments for assessing the biological diversity applied to socio-economic systems. Case study: Romanian regions of development Cover Image

Instruments for assessing the biological diversity applied to socio-economic systems. Case study: Romanian regions of development
Instruments for assessing the biological diversity applied to socio-economic systems. Case study: Romanian regions of development

Author(s): Alexandru-Ionuţ Petrişor, Ioan Ianoș
Subject(s): Environmental Geography
Published by: INCD URBAN-INCERC
Keywords: biodiversity; geodiversity; ethno-cultural diversity; Shannon-Wiener index; Simpson's index

Summary/Abstract: When referring to environmental diversity, the components (the variety of ecological systems and species, the genetic diversity, and the heteroge-neity of anthropized and anthropic systems) vary at different spatial scales. This study proposes a method for assessing the latter component, based on a correlation between its spatial levels and the territorial statisti-cal units. Consequently, Shannon-Wiener's informational entropy index, its associated measure of evenness, and Simpson's measure of dominance are used to characterize three components of the ethno-cultural diversity in Romania: ethnic, religious, and territorial. The results indicate that the three components exhibit lower values than natural systems, suggesting the possibility of assimilating them to young systems, and display a heter-ogeneous spatial distribution varying in time and across components in-fluenced by administrative and political changes, which seem to control anthropic systems.

  • Issue Year: 3/2012
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 27-34
  • Page Count: 8
  • Language: English
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