Geography and Environment

The paper aims to reveal one integrated global map which points out the major geographical inequalities in providing basic utilities across the countries using multivariate analysis and thematic cartography. Sixteen indicators with global coverage were selected taking into account the waste collection services, sanitation facilities, drinking water sources, energy, electricity, habitat and demographic conditions. Several data are broken down for the total, urban and rural population in order to outline the rural-urban disparities between and within countries. A special focus is given to waste collection coverage, in order to compute a comprehensive global assessment of this key indicator of public health, which is one of the poorest monitored basic utility. The world countries were divided into 10 classes according to the hierarchical cluster analysis. Each class has particular features outlining the gaps between high, middle and low-income countries with direct impact on quality of life, public health, and environment.

The paper examines the biowaste management issues across rural areas of Romania in the context of
poor waste management infrastructure in the last decade (2003-2012). Biowaste is the main fraction of
municipal waste, thus a proper management is a key challenge in order to sustain a bioeconomy in the
near future. The amount of biowaste generated and uncollected by waste operators is generally uncontrolled
disposed if not recovered through home composting. The paper points out the role of home composting in diverting the biowaste from wild dumps and landfills for the regions covered or not by waste collection services. Home composting and the biowaste losses are further assessed based on several scenarios (worse-case, pessimistic, realistic, optimistic) where the net loads of greenhouse gasses (GHG) are calculated at national and regional levels. The transition of home composting techniques, from open piles to plastic bins with respect to standard guidelines will improve the home composting performance in terms of compost quality and net GHG's savings, supporting a bio-based economy which will lead towards a sustainable rural development. Regional disparities are revealed across Romanian
counties and the paper opens new research perspectives regarding which options should be adopted by
counties and rural municipalities in the biowaste management process.

The entry begins with a definition of geography and with a description of what the discipline shares with the other social sciences and what makes it distinctive among them. Terminological clarifications are provided with regard to the relationship between human geography and physical geography, and between human geography and urban geography. After a brief history and overview of human geography’s engagement with social theory, the entry offers a discussion of the politicization of contemporary human geography and of how this phenomenon is reflected in theory building and concept development.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118430873.est0464

Demonic geography is an approach to practicing human geography that operates from the premise that there are no such immaterial entities as 'souls', 'spirits', 'minds', integrated, stable 'selves', or conscious 'free will'. This paper elaborates the theoretical framework of demonic geography by spelling out how it is different from non-representational theory and by articulating it with recent developments in experimental psychology, neuroscience, and the philosophy of mind. Counterintuitively, the paper shows that the deflationary, materialistic ontology of human nature espoused by demonic geography need not lead to meaninglessness, unhappiness, or the collapse of moral behaviour. Instead, subscribing to demonic geography opens up new ways to find meaning, to pursue happiness, and to live the good life.

Barnes and Sheppard (2009) assume that an anti-monist and anti-reductionist economic geography is desirable and that this desirability is so obvious that no argument needs to be advanced in its support. This commentary challenges this assumption and suggests that a monist and reductionist economic geography organized around the idea of truth-seeking is neither unthinkable nor unpalatable. In order to flesh out this idea, the commentary builds on recent work in the philosophy of scientific induction to show why one of its less publicized advances – error statistical theory – holds far more promise for the future development of economic geography than Barnes and Sheppard's vague and nebulous 'engaged pluralism'.

The paper examines the  per capita  waste generation rates from  from rural areas  of Neamț County (Romania) using thematic cartography. Geographical approach of this issue is difficult because the lack of  a geostatistic database at commune  scale. Spatial analysis of waste indicators reveals several disparities between localities.  Comparability of data between communes located in various geographical conditions must be carrefully made according to local waste management systems. Several dysfunctionalities are outlined  in order to compare these results, on the one hand, between localities and on the one hand, between recent years. Geographical analysis of waste generation rates is imperative  for a proper monitoring of this sector. Data from 2009, 2010 and 2012  shows  that rural waste management is in a full process of change towards a more organized, stable and efficient system.

Landfills are the most common and easiest methods to dispose the municipal waste in Romania and still prevails in current waste management options. This type of critical infrastructure was designed to dispose urban waste generated over years or even decades and ultimately led to create new landforms in urban landscape. On the other hand, these sites are major sources of complex pollution unfulfilling EU regulations, being scheduled to be closed. This paper aims to analyze landfills as anthropogenic landforms by applying GIS techniques emphasizing them in a geographical context and not only in situ. The location of these sites usually on alluvial plains of rivers leading to positive landforms that may change hydrogeomorphology dynamics or to be exposed to the floods. The other side, their location in hilly or mountainous regions increase vulnerability to other geomorphological process (gully erosion, landslide). Also, the extension of human settlements and land use is influenced by the presence of such a site either it is closed. The implications of these landforms are varied and must be linked to geographical realities from around. Thus, the mapping of these anthropogenic landforms contribute to a better understanding of the systemic interactions from local environment. This approach may be an important tool for EIA studies, in the process of rehabilitation, post-monitoring and reintegration of these landfills.

Municipal waste management in the last two decades has become a global environmental priority in the context of increasing amounts of waste generated due to the development of a mass consumer society. Various issues of waste management , territorial and temporal variability, spatial analysis of treatment or disposal facilities, systemic implications on the environment, the harmonization of international policy at national, regional and local level are solid arguments for studying this field by geography. Mostly technical or economic studies, lacking a vision of territory are supplemented in the conceptual and methodological level by geographers. This paper performed on the one hand, an overview of various approaches in current literature on waste management issue and on another hand analyses the geographical contributions in this field. Our conclusions lead to the idea that waste management must be performed according to the geographical features of the territory concerned.

The paper examines tourism as potential source of waste generation in urban and rural areas from Neamț County. An assessment method is proposed and the final result is mapping the process at local scale. In order to analyze the tourism impact on local waste management system, the waste generated by tourists (estimated values) is related to local household waste generation. This paper outlines the disparities within cities and communes and it also analyses the bad practices of tourists supported by field observations.

Landfilling prevails in waste management options in Romania like others new EU members, being contrary to the concept of waste hierarchy promoted in recent years by EC. Waste disposal is done usually in non-compliant landfills and Government established a program to close these sites. This paper aims to analyse the transition from traditional waste management systems to an integrated system at national, regional and local scale. Assessment of landfills location based on buffer analysis (using GIS techniques) is made according to the proximity of five critical factors (CF) such as: residential area, industry & commercial units, agricultural lands, rivers & lakes, forest and protected areas, all these factors being sensitive to pollution. Thus, most of these old sites are badly or improperly located related to surroundings and only few have an acceptable location in the study area! Therefore, the proposed method can be a necessary tool in EIA studies of these environmental threats at regional scale.

Simandan D (2005) "New Ways in Geography" Timisoara, Editura Universitatii de Vest/ West University Press, 230 pp.

The first part of the volume - "Old Ways" - addresses the question whether geography as we know it is worth keeping. The first chapter argues that traditional scientific disciplines are not as bad as we sometimes like to think they are. This argument is then deployed in the second chapter to investigate whether geography specifically is worth keeping. The chapter concludes that even if we admit a Cinderella status for geography among the disciplines, this aspect brings some secondary benefits out of which a rejuvenated geography can emerge. The second part of the book – "New Ways" – discusses some lines of flight towards this rejuvenated geography. Given the editorial constraints, I selected three possible new ways on which I have started to work lately. Thus, chapter three explores the stakes of an engagement between geography and metaphysics in the analytic tradition, chapter four makes some suggestions about how to understand the relativity of norms in geographical practice, and chapter five brings together two case studies that help explain why we need to pay sustained attention to the vicious logic of epistemic neglect.

Simandan D (2006) "Marginally Modern. Psychoanalysis and the deconstruction of inadequate communities" Arad, ‘Vasile Goldis’ University Press, 264 pp.

The book aims to present a critical history of the process of modernisation in the margins of Europe, more specifically in Romania and, to a lesser extent, in Norway. By modernisation I mean the assemblage of theories and practices produced by the European Enlightenment and concerned with how to develop rather primitive cultures into civilized cultures (industrialised, urbanised, educated). This broad definition includes neoliberalism and communism as particular ways in which modernisation can proceed. Throughout the book, I analyse modernity in its various guises: Ceausescu's communist regime, Norway's welfare capitalism, or the neoliberal transformations taking place in both Norway and Romania since the early 1990s. The feeling of inadequacy resulting from the marginal condition of both countries has been crucial in triggering their juxtaposition in my research project. One can be modern in a number of ways. What Romania and Norway have in common is that they are marginally modern. The signifier "marginally" produces many slippages of meaning, but they all tend to suggest a negative register. What I do try to show is that a psychoanalytical reading of the history of modernisation in the two countries is very fruitful for deconstructing current hegemonic discourses in both Norway and Romania. There are still many politicians and intellectuals in the two countries who recite the tropes of inadequacy, and their recitations serve the political purposes of neoliberalism and neo-imperialism. I have tried to show that there is nothing inherently wrong with being Romanian and/or Norwegian and that the very obsession that something is fundamentally wrong indicates a cultural neurosis of marginality that does not help the two countries in any way.

Sanitation services still not fully cover the urban population and this leads to different types of pollution and affects the urban
landscape. This paper aims a geographical approach by highlighting territorial disparities in the Romanian counties regarding the urban population access to waste collection services and to examine the environmental issues. Statistical database processed by ascending hierarchical cluster analysis are mapped at the level of Romanian counties achieving a spatial-temporal analysis for the period 2003-2008. The paper also discuss about the current dysfunctions existing in urban waste management from Romania. Development of waste
management facilities are in the process of transition from a traditional system based only on landfilling towards an integrated waste management system which develops the recycling and recovery of waste generated. Romania as an EU member country must improve the quality of sanitation services. Each city must provide the full collection of municipal waste generated in order to eliminate the illegal dumping.
Keywords: waste management, sanitation services, urban population, territorial disparities

Low coverage of urban and rural population to waste collection services leads to various environmental threats caused by uncontrolled waste disposal. New EU regulations on waste management issues transposed into national laws have improved this sector, but, the population access to such services is still low compared to others new EU members. A multi-scale approach of this indicator is a necessary tool
for a proper analysis of this environmental issue. The maps reveal that Romanian development regions (NUTS 2) have the lowest coverage rates at EU level in 2008. Furthermore, major disparities are reflected between Romanian counties in 2010. Thematic maps outline a comparative analysis at national and regional scale (Romanian counties & cities and communes of North-East Region) between urban vs rural areas in 2010. These geographical approaches are necessary for a better
monitoring process of waste management sector.

Lack of waste management facilities from mountain region often lead to uncontrolled disposal of waste on river banks polluting the local environment and damaging the tourism potential. Geographical conditions influences the distribution of human settlements which are located along the rivers and its tributaries. This paper aims to estimate the amounts of household waste generated and uncollected disposed into mountain rivers, taking into account several factors such as:proximity of rivers to the human settlements, the morphology of villages, length of river that crosses the locality(built up areas), local population, the access to waste collection services and waste management infrastructure. Vulnerability of rivers to illegal dumping is performed using GIS techniques, highlighting the localities pressure on rivers in close proximity. For this purpose, it developed a calculation model for estimation the amounts of waste (kg) that are dumped on a river section (m) that crosses a locality (village) or it is in close proximity. This estimation is based on the "principle of proximity and minimum effort" it can be applied in any mountainous region that are lacking or partially access to waste collection services. It is an assessment tool of mountain rivers vulnerability to waste dumping, taking into account the geographical and demographic conditions of the study area. Also the current dysfunctions are analyzed based on field observations.

The cities are facing illegal dumping of municipal solid waste (MSW) because the waste collection facilities do not cover the entire population. Furthermore, this sector is poorly developed in small towns or villages annexed to administrative territory units (ATU) of cities , MSW are disposed in open dumps polluting the local environment. This paper analyzes on the one hand the urban disparities on public access to waste collection services (WCS) in the North-East Region on the other hand, it performs a comparative analysis between 2003 and 2010 outlining the changes made in the context of Romania's accession to EU. Also, it performs a quantitative assessment method of uncollected waste at urban level and correlated to demographic features of each city. Spatial-temporal analysis of waste indicators using thematic cartography or GIS techniques should be a basic tool for environmental monitoring or assessment of projects from this field in every development region (NUTS 2). The EU acquis requires the closure of noncompliant landfills, the extension of waste collection services, the development of facilities for separate collection, recycling and reuse according to waste hierarchy concept. Full coverage of urban population to waste collection services is necessary to provide a proper management of this sector. Urban disparities between counties and within counties highlights that current traditional waste management system is an environmental threat at local and regional scale.

Various critiques of transboundary natural resource governance in southern Africa have questioned the efficacy and social equity dimensions of prevailing strategies for protecting transnational ecosystems, highlighting the importance of sociological research on the potentially 'other-ing' impacts of mainstream conservation policy discourse. We draw on research in the Chimanimani Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (TFCA) on both sides of the Zim-babwe–Mozambique border, scrutinizing simplifications inherent in terms such as ''illegal foreigners'' that obfuscate histories and contemporary realities of cross-border social ties. Engaging perspectives of park authorities and chiefs as well as people who have taken up artisanal mining, we explore two related themes—how 'belonging' is negotiated as well as how conservation agendas are instrumentalized by state and non-state actors. Bringing attention to gaps between policy discourses surrounding TFCAs and territorialized practices of exclusion, the article concludes by calling for greater attention to the mutating significance of colonially established boundaries as well as the dynamic influences of social networks in borderland spaces.

Open dumps was the main option of the local communities in household waste management, this practice being banned after July 16, 2009. The paper examines the correlation between dumpsites volumes, population density and local geographical conditions in the context that in most rural administrative-territorial units of the county there were no facilities for waste collection. The geographical distribution of dumpsites volumes reflects the disparities between different areas of the county and on the other hand, it highlights the spaces exposed to pollution. Also, the comparative analysis between 2004 (preaccession) and 2009 (post-accession) reflects a rudimentary waste management system in this period which favored the waste dumping. This paper analyses the issues of rural waste management and its environmental implications at local scale. Such approaches are necessary for a proper analysis of EU environmental policies implementation at regional and local level.

This paper proposes a performance assessment method (PAM) at urban scale, based on five specific waste indicators such as: population access to waste collection services (%), separate collection (%), reuse & recycle (%), landfilling (%) and amounts of waste uncollected (Qwu-%). Values of each indicator are correlated to an assessment table for three different years (2004, 2007, 2010) highlighting the disparities between urban localities from Neamț County. The paper also examines the changes and dysfunctions of urban waste management systems between preaccession vs post-accession period. PAM should be a necessary tool for environmental authorities or decision-makers for monitoring process of municipal solid waste systems from various cities on regional scale particularly for new EU members.

Unicorns stalk Silicon Valley (promising huge returns to investors), big pharma ramps up drug prices on the back of knowledge monopolies (buying back their shares with the profits), multinational corporations hide ‘their’ intellectual property in offshore shell companies (avoiding much-needed taxes), and governments turn the air we breathe into a financial asset (giving it away to polluters). Contemporary capitalism is different; it is increasingly dominated by forms of rentiership rather than entrepreneurship, by the extraction of economic rents rather than the creation of new products and services (Birch 2017a; Felli 2014; Sayer 2015; Swyngedouw, 2010; Ward & Aalbers, 2016). Economic rents can be defined as the value extracted from economic activity – broadly conceived – as the result of the ownership and control of a particular resource, primarily because of that resource’s inherent or constructed degree of productivity, scarcity, or quality. As geographers, it is necessary to unpack how we analyse and understand – theoretically, politically, and ethically – the diversity of modes of ownership and control of resources in contemporary capitalism, including sociotechnical platforms (e.g. Uber), business model sorcery (e.g. Google), prosumer productivity (e.g. Facebook), Big Data mining (e.g. consumption patterns), and financial warlockery (e.g. interchange fees). This unpacking opens up opportunities to return to some of the geographical classics (e.g. David Harvey, Neil Smith) on economic rent, as well as engage with more recent literatures pushing forward debate in this area (e.g. Andreucci et al. 2017; Birch 2017b, 2017c; Haila 2016; Langley & Leyshon 2016; Maurer 2017; Schwartz 2017; Slater 2017; Storper 2013; Tretter 2016; Ward & Aalbers, 2016; Zeller 2008).

Rural areas of the new EU Member States face serious problems in compliance of EU regulation on waste management. Firstly, the share of rural population is higher and it has lower living standards and secondly, the waste collection services are poorly-developed covering some rural regions. In this context, open dumping is used as an appropriate waste disposal solution generating complex pollution. This paper analyzes the disparities between Romanian counties regarding the rural population access to waste collection services in 2008 which reflects the geographical distribution of rural dumpsites in 2009. It examines on one hand , the role of waste management services to reduce illegal dumping and on the other hand, the dysfunctions of traditional waste management system from rural areas and their implications on local environment.

Inadequate waste management leads to many environmental issues and the adoption of an efficient and sustainable waste management has become a priority objective of the EU. However, besides the demographic factors, the various socio-economic and geographical conditions of this complex space lead to major disparities in municipal waste management between North and South, East and West. This paper aims to do a spatial-temporal analysis of the Eurostat indicators using ascending hierarchical cluster analysis that divides the member states into five typological classes. The resulted maps highlight territorial disparities among Member States on municipal waste management and also reveal the evolution of environmental policies between 2003-2009 related to the EU acquis.

Rural areas of the new EU Member States face serious problems in compliance of EU regulation on waste management. Firstly, the share of rural population is higher and it has lower living standards and secondly, the waste collection services are poorly-developed covering some rural regions. In this context, open dumping is used as an appropriate waste disposal solution generating complex pollution. This paper analyzes the disparities between Romanian counties regarding the rural population access to waste collection services in 2008 which reflects the geographical distribution of rural dumpsites in 2009. It examines on one hand , the role of waste management services to reduce illegal dumping and on the other hand, the dysfunctions of traditional waste management system from rural areas and their implications on local environment.

Landfilling is the main method for municipal waste disposal in Romania. Access to sanitation services are limited on rural territory and that leads to uncontrolled waste disposal with negative implications on the geosystem. Implementation of EU acquis on waste disposal from rural areas requires local authorities to close the landfills by July 16, 2009 . Following this deadline, municipalities are obliged to provide waste collection and transportation to the existing urban landfills. Under these conditions,this article is proposing a territorial review of closing and rehabilitation of rural landfills from Neamt county. Also, this paper analyzed the existing environmental dysfunctions supported by field observations.

About fifty people lost their lives in the recent disasters that occurred on May 8, 2016 and which affected mainly districts of Northern province, particularly Gakenke district. Similar disasters take place yearly and they are likely to continue, even to a higher extent, unless serious studies and measures are taken for their prevention. This study was conducted to that end. It focused on landslides and floods in North-western part of Rwanda. The study reveals that these disasters result from the combination of the factors related to rainfall, topography, vegetation cover, bedrock, soil development and human activities. Deep analysis shows a big effect of unsuitable land use. The study proposes appropriate preventing measures.
Key words: Disaster, Hydrogeological risk, North-western Rwanda, landslide, flood

Landfilling is the main method for municipal waste disposal in Romania. Access to sanitation services are limited on rural territory and that leads to uncontrolled waste disposal with negative implications on the geosystem. Implementation of EU acquis on waste disposal from rural areas requires local authorities to close the landfills by July 16, 2009 . Following this deadline, municipalities are obliged to provide waste collection and transportation to the existing urban landfills. Under these conditions,this article is proposing a territorial review of closing and rehabilitation of rural landfills from Neamt county. Also, this paper analyzed the existing environmental dysfunctions supported by field observations.

Landfills are the most common and easiest methods to dispose the municipal waste in Romania and still prevails in current waste management options. This type of critical infrastructure was designed to dispose urban waste generated over years or even decades and ultimately led to create new landforms in urban landscape. On the other hand, these sites are major sources of complex pollution unfulfilling EU regulations, being scheduled to be closed. This paper aims to analyze landfills as anthropogenic landforms by applying GIS techniques emphasizing them in a geographical context and not only in situ. The location of these sites usually on alluvial plains of rivers leading to positive landforms that may change hydrogeomorphology dynamics or to be exposed to the floods. The other side, their location in hilly or mountainous regions increase vulnerability to other geomorphological process (gully erosion, landslide). Also, the extension of human settlements and land use is influenced by t...

Sanitation services still not fully cover the urban population and this leads to different types of pollution and affects the urban landscape. This paper aims a geographical approach by highlighting territorial disparities in the Romanian counties regarding the urban population access to waste collection services and to examine the environmental issues. Statistical database processed by ascending hierarchical cluster analysis are mapped at the level of Romanian counties achieving a spatial-temporal analysis for the period [2003][2004][2005][2006][2007][2008]. The paper also discuss about the current dysfunctions existing in urban waste management from Romania. Development of waste management facilities are in the process of transition from a traditional system based only on landfilling towards an integrated waste management system which develops the recycling and recovery of waste generated. Romania as an EU member country must improve the quality of sanitation services. Each city must provide the full collection of municipal waste generated in order to eliminate the illegal dumping.

The descriptions of the Saraswati River in the Rig Veda match with the Luni that flows from Pushkar to the Rann of Kutch. However, descriptions of the Saraswati in the Mahabharata match with the Sarsuti-Ghaggar River that flows from the Shivalik Mountains to the Rann
of Kutch. We suggest that the Saraswati of the Rig Veda was the Luni while the Saraswati of the Mahabharata was the Ghaggar.

The paper examines tourism as potential source of waste generation in urban and rural areas from Neamț County. An assessment method is proposed and the final result is mapping the process at local scale. In order to analyze the tourism impact on local waste management system, the waste generated by tourists (estimated values) is related to local household waste generation. This paper outlines the disparities within cities and communes and it also analyses the bad practices of tourists supported by field observations.

Various natura! and humarı factors are effective on development of human activities and on establishment of
settlement units. Among these factors natura! environment conditions such as; geomorphologic, hydrologic, climatic, and soil are most influential ones in taking shape of geogtaphy environment. Bismil district, located in the Tigtis part of South- Eastern of Anatolia, administratively is an unit of Diyarbakır. lt is located on the basin of Tigris and surrounded by Silvan plateau to ·the North and Mardin plateau to the South. Bismil depression,
situated between these t:wo zones, lies down from East to west lines, is filled with old Neogen and PlioQuaternary sediments. The Tigtis River, situated in west- east direction in this depression, flows by meandering and accumulates alluvial substances due to low slope. These alluvial (fertile) lands have been shelter to inhabitants for thousand years. Hundred mound and topical settlement units were the fırst settlement area for societies when before they began to settle down from nomadic life. Growing units of settlements in this rich geographic area brings out the importance of hydrogtaphical forrnation and soil elements. Thus; development of settlement units in Bismil depression and geogtaphy environrnent conditions, which has been in change up to now, by analyzing ,vith GIS, will contribute much to development of vital activities and to application of planning possibilities. In tlıis paper, it is aimed to emphasize, by referring to GIS, relation between natura! environment properties in the Tigtis River basin and settlement units.
Keywords: Bistııil District, CIS, the Tign's River, Geographical Environment, Bismil Basin.