The city of Petrosani, as well as the whole area known as Jiu’s Valley, is integrated in a general vision of transforming a mining region into a tourist destination and, in this context, the aspects related to the quality of the urban landscape must be taken into account in a vary serious manner. Although the Petroșani municipality is located in an area considered by many to be idyllic (being surrounded by hills and mountains with altitudes of over 2000 m, being crossed by spectacular valleys and gorges) the intensive industrialization (mining exploitation: Dâlja, Livezeni; mining machinery and equipment companies: UMIROM, UPSRUEM) from the communist era left a significant mark on the urban landscape. Moreover, after 1995, with the restructuring of the mining sector, many of these industrial buildings lost their usefulness and are currently abandoned. Of course, the restructuring of the mining sector, in particular, but also the lack of jobs in alternative sectors of activity led to the massive depopulation of the municipality, which led to the increase of the number of abandoned buildings, which are currently in different stages of degradation. The urban landscape should not be ignored, this being the first that comes in contact with the tourists who will visit this region and will contribute to the economic well-being of the inhabitants. As these buildings, beyond the degradation of the urban landscape, constitute true outbreaks of infection and, being exposed to the arson and collapse they constitute a public danger, in the present paper we set out to evaluate quantitatively and qualitatively the urban landscape of Petrosani municipality and to estimate the impact that some of the abandoned buildings have on the urban environment in general. For this purpose we have used specific methods for analyzing the urban landscape and we have adapted the methods for identifying/estimating the anthropic impact on the environment (the network method and the impact matrices) for the situation under study.

Petroșani, urban landscape, abandoned buildings, environmental impact

environmental engineering

Presentation: oral