The Sustainable Urban Development Challenge. How Green Are The Romanian post-Socialist cities?

International audienceAccording to the “Europe 2020” Strategy, at least 5% of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) resources allocated to each member state are to be invested in actions that will set the course for a sustainable urban development. The green urban spaces are without doubt, a key element that assures the sustainability of an urban area, as it represents the reminiscences of nature in an artificialized area. Therefore, preserving the green urban spaces (parks, public gardens etc.), as well as creating space for new ones, if possible, should be one of the main aims of the urban development strategies and policies in the context of the sustainable urban trend promoted by the European Union. Hence, this paper address the problem of an uneven and uncontrolled urban development in what concerns the green areas in the Romanian cities in the post-socialist era. Naturally, the main objectives of this research question the problem of green urban spaces in terms of potential accessibility, spatial distribution patterns and quantitative aspects. The methodology used for analyzing the GMES Urban Atlas 2012 database involved a complex of methods derived from statistics and GIS. The results state the necessity of a coherent development policy in what concerns the green urban spaces in the post-socialist Romanian cities, as there are major differences regarding their availability to the population