International Workshop Environmental Conflicts: Planning, Issues and Resolution
Organizer: Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies, University of Bucharest
Partners: SURE – Society for Urban Ecology, Faculty of Geography, Association for Biodiversity Conservation, Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI
Date: September 4-6, 2014
Venue: Bucharest, Romania
Final report of an excellent research:
For celebrating 150 years since the establishment of the University of Bucharest, the Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies, in partnership with the Department of Geography, the Association for Biodiversity Conservation and S.U.R.E. (Society for Urban Ecology), has organized on September 4th – 6th,2014, The International Workshop entitled Environmental conflicts – planning, issues and resolution. The venue of the Workshop has been the picturesque location of the Alumni House Bucharest (Casa Universitarilor).
The aim of the workshop was to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue between academics, practitioners and public authorities dealing with aspects such as environmental conflicts analysis, assessment as well as conflicts resolution.
The International Workshop Environmental conflicts – planning, issues and resolution provided an ideal opportunity to share perspectives and to discuss important topics for scientific research in the field of Environmental Science. The topics were related to the advanced assessment of environmental conflicts. An important session of the workshop focused on the presentation of the scientific results achieved within the research project PN-II-RU-TE-2011-3-0285 Modeling of environmental impact induced by the typologies of incompatible land uses in human settlements, funded by the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI.
The main research topics of the workshop concerned:
- Environmental conflicts: conceptual and practical issues
- Methodologies for the spatial and temporal assessment of environmental conflicts
- The socio-economic projection of environmental conflicts
- Types of environmental conflicts
- Measures for the anticipation and resolution of environmental conflicts
The opening remarks on the workshop were given by Magdalena Platis, Vice-Rector of the University of Bucharest, who emphasized the importance of organizing such events in order to increase the international visibility and to maintain University of Bucharest at the top of the higher education institutions from Romania.
The opening statement was followed by a message from the Dean of the Geography Department, Laura Comănescu, who stated how pleasant is to have such scientific events organized by the young researchers who have achieved notable scientific results at international level in the field of Environmental Science.
Also at the opening ceremony, Professor Jurgen Breuste, President of S.U.R.E. (Society for Urban Ecology), emphasized the state-of-the-art science that the workshop debates and expressed his hope that the Centre for Environmental Research and Impact Studies will become an important regional chapter for SURE in Eastern Europe in the future.
During the workshop sessions, four plenary speakers, recognized as important scientific personalities, have been invited:
- André Torre – Institute National de la Recherche Agronomique, France – The role of conflicts and negotiations in environmental and land-use conflicts;
- Ioan Ianos – University of Bucharest – Land-use conflicts – genesis by a passive urban management;
- Anna Hersperger – Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research – Land-use conflict anticipation and resolution: insight for spatial planning;
- Jürgen Breuste, University of Salzburg and president of SURE) – Urban Ecosystems Services: Urban green spaces as providers.
Each of the four plenary sessions were followed by scientific discussions of different case studies related to environmental conflicts, presented by researchers from Romania, Poland, Belgium, Germany and Malaysia.
Of particular interest was the presentation of the articles published within the research project PN-II-RU-TE-2011-3-0285 Modeling of environmental impact induced by the typologies of incompatible land uses in human settlements, funded by the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS – UEFISCDI.
- Iojă. I.C., Grădinaru, S.R., Onose, D.A., Vânău, G.O, Tudor, A.C. (2014), The potential of school green areas to improve urban green connectivity and multifunctionality, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 13(4), dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2014.07.002
- Iojă, I.C., Niță, M.R., Vânău G.O., Onose, D.A., Gavrilidis A.A. (2014), Using multi-criteria analysis in identifying spatial land-use conflicts in the Bucharest Metropolitan Area, Ecological Indicators, 42(1), p.112-121, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2013.09.029
- Niță, M.R., Iojă, I. C., Rozylowicz, L., Onose, D., Tudor, A. (2014), Land use consequences of cemeteries evolution in Bucharest Metropolitan Area, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 57(7), p. 1066-1082, DOI:10.1080/09640568.2013.815607
- Tudor, C.A., Iojă, I.C., Stupariu, I., Niță, M., Hersperger, A. (2014), How successful is the resolution of land-use conflicts? A comparison of cases from Switzerland and Romania, Applied Geography, 47, 125-136, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeog.2013.12.008
- Tudor, A.C., Iojă, I.C., Hersperger, A., Patru-Stupariu, I. (2013), Is the Residential Land Use Incompatible with Cemeteries Location? Assessing the Attitudes of Urban Residents, Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 8(2), p. 153 – 162, www.ubm.ro/CJEES/viewTopic.php?topicId=329
During the workshop, the Department of Geography awarded two personalities with “Simion Mehedinti” Medal of Honour: Prof. Jurgen Breuste, President of Society for Urban Ecology and Anna Hersperger, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research. It was a sign of recognition for their long term cooperation with the University of Bucharest in the field of Geography and Environmental Science.
The workshop included three practical sessions which were focused on presenting the areas with environmental conflict in Romania.
“The outstanding efforts of the organizing committee of this scientific event were fully worth. The enormous input regarding the research methodologies for environmental conflicts brought by the four invited plenary speakers, the productive discussions on a multidisciplinary topic, the validation and dissemination of our research conducted within the research project Young Teams funded by UEFISCDI, the future potential collaborations with participants from other countries, and the participation of a significant number of students from the Master Program «The Integrated Assessment of Environmental State» and the Bachelor Program «Environmental Geography», all these I consider the strongest arguments for the success of this scientific event”, said Prof Cristian Iojă, the President of the Organizing Committee.
See the Worshop Schedule for more information
Publishing
Papers presented in the conference will be published as articles in Carpathian Journal of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Papers must fulfill the editorial requirements of the journal. The articles will follow the revision process of the journal, facilitated by the organizing committee.
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