Assessment of the Urban Development Degree Based On Integrated System of Indicators for Sulina Case Study

Abstract

Any human settlement bears the imprint of society’s defining characteristics, which is why urban planning requires scientific knowledge of the territorial distribution of demographic phenomena, social-economic and urban spatial elements, that represent the framework for the urban social life. Given the fact that Sulina is the only town in the Danube Delta, it was chosen as a case study for identifying the specificity of its urban area and for measuring its degree of development by approaching an integrated system of indicators covering a wide range of areas: sociodemographic, socio-economic, urban space and the integrative index of urban development. This analysis can be further used to support public policies and can represent the base for the strategy for sustainable development of human settlements. The study aims to capture how Sulina has evolved over the last decades when deltaic space has undergone numerous changes in its structure, functionality and status, geo-demographics and economic phenomena with their territorial manifestations, presenting spatial discontinuities and their effects.

Keywords

• urban planning
• integrative index of urban development