Keywords

1 Introduction

Quality of life (QoL) is a broad term to define, and experts have not agreed on a single and inclusive definition of this concept. It is considered as a multidisciplinary term found in the current use (Farquhar 1995a, b) and a vague term ‘used by many, but with nobody clearly knowing how to use it’ (Campbell et al. 1976). It is a measure of social well-being and life satisfaction of individuals in an area (Bhatti et al. 2017). QoL is relative, resulting from the assessment of the individual’s living conditions and his or her needs and aspirations and require a complementarity between what the society offers and the demands of citizens (Veenhoven 2000). QoL also depends on the individual’s ability to cope with daily problems and economic growth does not automatically determine wealth and happiness in society or at the individual level.

QoL in the urban environment is one of the top concerns of contemporary society in the context of an increasing number of population and cities (Pacione 2013; Muller and Zeller 2002). More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and it tends to increase. The issues of QoL are significant for a wide range of academics in the field such as human geography, urban planners, urban sociologists and economics. Understanding the relationship between population and environment (natural or social) is one of the focus of human geography studies related to the QoL amid the development of critical social sciences (Held 1980) or debates around radical geography (Peet 1977). In the context of urban studies, the congruence between population and the surrounding urban environment is analysed (Keys et al. 2007). A particular attention has been paid to the social problems of QoL in urban areas, such as the decline of city centres, deindustrialisation which led to specific issues related to unemployment, demographic ageing, housing quality and high-income population leaving central areas.

The concept of land use can be defined as the totality of arrangements, activities and inputs that people engage within a particular type of land cover (FAO & UNEP 1999). The cities have to respond functionally and operationally to the flows generated by the population and its needs. Contemporary cities are more dynamic than in the past due to their numerous functions and increasing agglomerations of population. These aspects make it increasingly challenging to create local urban development policies, as well as to identify methods and practices for their implementation in order to ensure a balance between development needs and the quality of urban life.

The analysis of how land use in urban areas influences QoL can be a starting point in urban development policies. They can assist policymakers and practitioners in improving the balance between urbanisation and living environment (Bhatti et al. 2017). Land use planning and regulation at a basic territorial level (neighbourhood) can create the premises for ways to improve QoL in a city (Serag El Din et al. 2013). Proper urban planning through land use regulation can positively influence QoL.

The development of built-up areas within the city and its densification may have adverse effects on the population’s health, but also on its mental state and QoL in general (Chiessura 2004). The management policies of green areas within cities are increasing in the hands of authorities, who need to take into account of new concepts in urban planning and land use related to sustainable and smart cities (Yubing 2015).

During the socialist period (1947–1989), Romania went through an intense urbanisation process by increasing the number of cities and encouraging the rural–urban migration (Dumitrache et al. 2016a). The transition period from the centralist system to that of the market-oriented economy has led to the emergence of new concerns related to the urban environment, particularly the requirements of the population for economic competitivity, as well as the provision of public services to a level that will improve the QoL (Dumitrache et al. 2016b). The urbanisation rate in Romania is approximately 55%, but it can be a little higher if we consider the population of the rural–metropolitan area as urban, and in this condition, the urbanisation rate could be of about 65%. The cities and regional planning are regulated by Romanian Law 350/2001, with the aim to promote a balance social and economic development across the country. The law covers the managing of natural resources, protecting the environment, spatial planning of land use, and promoting the coherence of different administrative levels.

QoL is seen as an evaluative concept that can be defined as the reporting resultant of living conditions and activities that make up human life, needs, values and aspirations. It refers both to evaluate the overall life (how much it is satisfying different individuals, social groups or collective people) and to assess various conditions for living or life satisfaction: environment, work, interpersonal relationships and family life. According to the MEA (2005), there are four types of services, vital to human well-being, namely: (a) supply services—providing goods such as food, water, wood; (b) regulating services—such as controlling climate, rainfall, floods, waste and spread of diseases; (c) cultural services—relating to recreation and spiritual welfare; (d) support services—including soil formation, photosynthesis and nutrient cycles, etc.

This paper provides a short overview on QoL as a phenomenon dependent on and firmly connected with ecosystem services. Ecosystems are the basis of life and all human activities (de Groot 2006). They provide a variety of benefits to people, that are known as ‘ecosystem goods and services’ (Costantza et al. 1997). This paper mainly focuses on mapping different land use patterns in the BMA and identifying the goods and services produced by land use in relation to QoL.

2 Study Area

Bucharest City, the capital of Romania, is the leading industrial, cultural and academic city. Geographically, it is located in the south-eastern part of the country, approximately 100 km south of the Carpathian Mountains, 200 km to the west of the Black Sea and 60 km north of the Danube River (Fig. 22.1).

Fig. 22.1
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Source authors

Study area in Romania.

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The BMA analysed here is comprised of Bucharest City (which subdivides into 6 administrative sectors) and Ilfov County (8 towns and 32 municipalities-communes) (Fig. 22.2). The BMA is situated in the Romanian plain region. Natural conditions allow for the practice of agriculture due to soft slopes and do not require specialised equipment for crop management. Temperate climate features, with warm summers and cold winters, allow for the cultivation of cereals and vegetables, but lower rainfall makes irrigations a necessity/determined the use of irrigations. Soils have a high agricultural potential, most of them being very productive.

Fig. 22.2
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Source authors

Administrative map of the study area.

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The total population of 2.3 million ranks the city 37th among all of the metropolitan regions in Europe. The population of Bucharest City declined from 2,067,545 to 1,883,425 during 1992–2011, but the population of Ilfov County increased to 35% between 1977 and 2011 pointing the absolute number from 287,738 to 388,738 (Table 22.1).

Table 22.1 Population evolution of the Bucharest metropolitan area
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In the last decades, the population number evolved unevenly, both regarding time and space, according to the dynamics of the main demographic phenomena (Simion 2010). Evolution of population after 1990 shows a decrease in the number of the population due to the decline of birth rates and a high level of mortality rates. The demographic behaviour has changed by reducing the number of children per family. Also, a large number of Bucharest’s population moved into new, single-family residences in the rural areas of Ilfov County.

The metropolitan spatial dynamic has been for a long-time spontaneous and uncontrolled: there has not been any indication of a broader development or changes of local master plans which would be correlated with a metropolitan strategy (Simion and Nistor 2012). Most investments in residential, commercial, industrial and service sectors were not connected with other infrastructure facilities such as transport and communication networks, water supply or sewerage. Currently, a new master plan for the City of Bucharest (Planul Urbanistic General—PUG) is undergoing, which will redefine and update the previous plan. According to Romania Planning Law 350/2001, PUG is a strategic and regulatory document, providing a legal framework for urban development and investments.

In the field of regional planning, three plans overlapping concerns the BMA: a. PUG managed by the Bucharest City Hall; b. a master plan for Ilfov County managed by Ilfov County Authority; c. Regional Development Plan for Bucharest-Ilfov led by Bucharest-Ilfov Regional Development Agency. The Regional Development Masterplan for Bucharest-Ilfov 2012–2020 aims to prioritised strategies on competitivity, social cohesion and sustainable development. Local strategies differ from city to city, reflecting exclusive local expectations. They have little clear focus on QoL, directing the investments in transport system or public infrastructures such as water and waste systems or disaster plans.

BMA has several significant competitive advantages that can contribute to improving QoL over the next decades. Its economic hinterland covers in a one-day drive by truck from the centre of Bucharest City a population of 11 million; within a two-day drive, it has access to a market of 83 million people. The region has the most educated labour force in Romania: 33% of the active population has vocational and tertiary education level compared to less than 15% in the rest of the country. Labour cost is the third lowest in Europe.

BMA dominates Romania regarding population and economy. It accounted for almost 25% of the national GDP in 2010, up from 11% in 2000. The region’s share of the country population increased from 9.7% in 1977 to 11.3 in 2011 and is expected to continue over the next years. Raising income allows many people with Bucharest residence to move to the suburbs, despite poor public services like schools, mass transport system or retail facilities.

3 Methods and Data Sources

Several techniques have been used to obtain the datasets. Land use data are derived from the topographical map (1:50,000 scale) for the 1970s, and the CORINE Land Cover (CLC) maps for 1990 and 2012. The topographical maps were scanned and geo-referenced using GIS software, to allow overlapping with CLC maps for data comparison. To compare data from these different sources, a common classification system in eight classes was generated and counted the area and share for each category (Table 22.2). To calculate changes, the year 1970 was used as the base year for comparisons with the subsequent years. The methodology also involves empirical data gathered from two villages during field surveys and questionnaires applied in the metropolitan municipality halls. In addition, secondary data provided by Romania National Institute of Statistic were included.

Table 22.2 Land use classes share (%) in Bucharest metropolitan area
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4 Land Use Patterns

BMA has recently experienced a dynamic and complex reorganisation process, as a response to the political, institutional, economic and social changes. Land use patterns have undergone intense changes, particularly regarding the conversion of agricultural land and forests into residential, industrial and commercial uses (Figs. 22.3 and 22.4). The analysis of spatial dynamics of Bucharest shows that the area is currently going through the second phase of the urban lifecycle called suburbanisation, characterised by developing and enhancing the relationships between the metropolis and its metropolitan area (Plăcintescu et al. 2005: 9). Data derived from CLC2012 shows that 58.5% of the total BMA area is represented by agricultural land (arable, vineyards, orchards and pastures), 14.6% by forests and 22.4% by built-up lands (Table 22.2).

Fig. 22.3
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Source Based on author’s mapping from CORINE Land Cover maps (1990)

Land use/land cover map (1990).

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Fig. 22.4
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Source Based on author’s mapping from CORINE Land Cover maps (2012)

Land use/land cover map (2012).

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Over the last century, the landscape has transformed from mixed land use, characterised by houses with gardens, orchards and vineyards, to a socialist landscape, dominated by large residential areas with apartment blocks. The built-up landscape is marked by suburbanisation, with gated communities and transfer of several industrial activities in the metropolitan area (Mihai et al. 2015). In the area affected by urban growth, significant changes are the decrease of vineyards, orchards and arable land.

Agricultural land suffered intense pressure from urban growth and the primary income source for some of the landowners became the sale of their land properties. Arable lands shares in the total area slowly decreased from over 69.7% in the 1970s to around 55.3% in 2012. Once the land restitution process happened after the fall of the socialist regime, metropolitan farmers could sell their plots for different investments such as single-family homes or warehouses. The strategy on land use demonstrates the preference of landholders for arable land and led to the diminishing of vineyards and orchards.

Vineyard cultivation has had a strong tradition in the past, but their spread decreased. Mainly, they are now cultivated in private gardens, in small plots near villages, alternating with other vegetables (onion, melon, cucumber and tomatoes). In 2012 on the CLC map, vineyards accounted for only 0.1% of the total area. The quality of vineyards is weak, as just hybrid grapes are predominantly cultivated. Orchards, based on CLC 2012, occupy an area which represents 1% of BMA. In the last 40 years, areas grown with fruit trees decreased at almost half. The existing data on pastures is not conclusive enough. Identifying their extension on topographical maps was not possible. The CLC showed a ratio of 1.8% pastures of the total metropolitan area in 1990 and 1.9% in 2012.

One example of reshaping geographical space as the effect of land use changes is Băneasa-Feeria commercial area, located in the suburban area, with a Carrefour hypermarket, Ikea, DIY stores (Dedeman, Brico Depot), cash and carry (Metro). The area’s development is related to the several favourable elements such as the airports, residential buildings, forests and accessibility to the national road DN1.

Pantelimon town is located near Bucharest City, being one of the largest settlements of BMA with 23,110 inhabitants in 2012. It has excellent natural resources—soils, land with development potential, water and forest landscapes and several cultural-historical sites—and human resources. During the socialist period, there were state farms and factories located here. The labour force was represented by local people but also people from the other areas of the country which transformed it into a bedroom town. After the fall of the socialist regime, the restructuring of the state industry resulted in the loss of jobs which has dramatically affected the local QoL.

Pantelimon Master Plan anticipates recent trends in rapid urbanisation and stipulates that almost all agricultural land would become buildable, only a small plot of forest remaining unaffected. Benefiting from low land prices and low taxes it attracted many new companies, some of them industrial. Services are also present, mainly commercial activities: wholesale warehouses, supermarkets and storage spaces. The development opportunities are given by the residential attraction, represented by two new residential areas located north and west of the city core. Agriculture is not a typical activity for the households, only a few farmers are certified as agricultural producers. The average land property is 1–2 ha, and some of the families grow vegetables mainly for domestic consume.

Snagov municipality went through a dynamic suburbanisation after 1989. It is located 30 km north of Bucharest City, in the area of Snagov Lake, and is one of the largest municipalities of BMA, with a population of 6,748 inhabitants in 2012, and a tremendous natural potential offered by forest and beautiful lake landscape attractive for residential development. Before 1990, the investments were oriented through recreation and leisure centre for the socialist elite. Most of the landowners are interested in the sale of farmland because of the increase of production costs and the diminishing profits, while from the land sale they earn much more than would gain from agriculture. The pressure on land market increased and determined the municipality to transfer the use of land from farming to available building area. The Masterplan of 2005 established the strategy for local development as a centre for services and leisure activities and approved the extension of building area with about 1,000 ha. Such development strategy was expected to have a positive impact on the QoL of inhabitants.

The suburbanisation process had a negative impact on the environment, especially during early 1990, when few people were aware of the need for minimal public infrastructure for extensive residential development. The lake water was polluted by spilling directly into the lake the wastewater and sludge from the house’s toilets.

5 Services of Land Use Patterns

5.1 Subsistence and Commercial Agriculture

Land reform laws were passed after the fall of the socialist regime in 1989 and determined a return to the property structures existing before the socialist period, but the situation in agriculture and in the countryside had changed in the last seventy years. The single symbol of land restitution for farmers was regaining their sense of ownership and had little to do with their ability to cultivate the land. In fact, the land owners only recuperated their property, while the other components of the production chain remained the same or went through an extreme decline.

The landholders took back their lands from the socialist associative farms but they were missing the machinery needed for practising modern agriculture. The first crops affected by this situation were vineyards and orchards, which from an economic point of view are high maintenance crops.

Rusu (2005: 79) claims that most of the agricultural labour is operated inside self-contained households: self-employed (farm leader) and unpaid family members. Self-employed workers are predominantly seniors, 2/3 from among them are over 50 years old and 1/3 have exceeded the age of 65. Only very few farms are controlled by young farmers (less than 34 years). The primary income sources of households are in order of prevalence: wages, sell off the own land, agriculture and pensions (Table 22.3). The spatial differentiation is related to the remote rural areas where the primary household incomes are wages, pensions and agriculture. The situation is profoundly different in the municipalities surrounding Bucharest City, where suburbanisation is the most intense; here the prevalence of income is represented by salaries and land transactions. The current situation of household income is determined partially by their dependence on financial aid from the government, dependence on family members who work abroad and from alternative income sources. There is a correlation between the degree of population ageing and reliance on government aids.

Table 22.3 Income sources and migration rates of the BMA population
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Changes in land ownership give new characteristics to crop cultivations. Natural features have determined differences regarding the importance placed on certain crops (regarded as a percentage) as opposed to others. For instance, the increasing shares of cereals (wheat and corn) compared to other crops, especially the industrial plants, are best illustrated by the percentage of areas cultivated for sugar beet, but due to some economic problems the sugar factories has significantly decreased resulting in situations where cultivation is completely stopped.

A significant impact on the type of farming is given by the role of neighbouring, meaning the cultivation together of the same crops to promote a lower cost of planting and harvesting. Both crops and livestock are also influenced by national and international market and the financial capacities of farmers or government agricultural policies.

Geographical distribution of the settlements in the proximity of Bucharest City defines two contradictory attitudes of the landowners. On the one hand, in some settlements agriculture has lost its importance, farmland being sold and occupied by built-up areas (residential, offices, warehouses logistics). On the other hand, further away from Bucharest City, subsistence agricultural practice is the main feature, determined by the high share of population ageing, and higher transport cost to markets. Farmers cultivate mainly cereals with the opportunity to sell the product in one trail, often to traders who buy directly from the farm.

One aspect that questionnaire sent to BMA municipalities was focused on the percentage of household which cultivated wheat, corn, sunflower, potatoes and vegetables. The responses showed that in most of the metropolitan municipalities, households are characterised by multi-cropping, meaning a mechanism of subsistence based on sequentially cultivating different crops, to both trade out and consumption within the family. Moreover, this system covers risk management, i.e. if a particular yield will be affected by natural events or low prices, investments can be recovered partially from another plant/crop, which will prevent bankrupting the farm and ensure farming in the next year.

Farming is a source and a resource for local development in the BMA. Bucharest as the main city in Romania has been for a long time a massive market for agricultural products. This was enhanced by its increasing number of inhabitants who consume and demand a more complex variety of food. The importance of the settlements from suburban areas as vegetable suppliers for the city is emphasised by the number of people with farmer certificates. Farmer certificates are issued by local municipalities for those who want to sell their farm production in urban markets (Table 22.4).

Table 22.4 Indicators of agricultural products commercialisation
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The indicator regarding farmer certificates might very well be mirrored by the percentage of farms which consume more than 50% of the production within the household. The questionnaires revealed that on average more than half of families’ household absorbs most of the products. In close relation to the above question is the one concerning the percentage of farmers who sell over 50% of total products directly to consumers. The result revealed that there are less spatial differences within the metropolitan area. An additional question included in the questionnaire has shown as a predominant response to the fact that trading would take place directly in markets between producers and consumers. Fieldwork has also revealed enough evidence that there are plenty of cases where intermediaries are involved.

5.2 Housing, Real Estate and Land Market

So far, land acquisition for agricultural use purposes has been limited. This is because agriculture has limited importance in the metropolitan economy and land is subject to accelerated urban growth and landowners prefer to wait for their property to be marked by municipalities’ master plans as a built-up land, meaning an increase of land prices.

Agricultural land transactions are regulated with the pre-emption right established by the law, which can be carried out by the co-owners, landlords and tenants in the immediate neighbourhood. Implementation of pre-emption right is made in all cases by the local council in the jurisdiction in which the land is situated. Most of the agricultural lands included in the built-up areas are used for residential or commercial sites, industrial spaces or warehouses. The agricultural to built-up land conversion takes place mostly in the surrounding area of Bucharest, predominantly in the northern and north-eastern parts due to their proximity to the city as well as due to the presence of the transport infrastructure and lower land prices. For such kind of development project (residential, industrial, commercial) at least 10–25 ha of agricultural land is required.

Suburbanisation specific to the early 1990s was characterised by promising to the new suburban residents something that we might call the illusion of rural life but with city convenience. The houses previously built have all the internal standards, in opposition to the exterior shared public spaces such as streets, which can hardly accommodate two cars/lanes, resulting in street congestion. The lack of sewerage networks led to water and air pollution as well as contamination of the surrounding lakes. Later, some of the mentioned problems have begun to be corrected by building residential gated communities that have own adequate infrastructure for housing.

Bucharest reached a new phase of its urban evolution that can be named as ‘development of new urban economies and gated communities’. This phase makes the transition from a centrally planned economy of the socialist period to a market-oriented economy of the present or the development from a communist industrial city to a service-based city. It concentrates the permanent headquarters of multinational companies both in the city centre and at the peripheries in the shape of business parks.

The agricultural activities producing fresh food supply for the city has decreased and still activate a lower scale away from the city. Residential projects were developed both in the city, mainly replacing the industrial platforms, and in the suburban area, predominately in the north. Land prices, in general, reached the highest values during the period 2005–2008 and this particularly in the northern region reached to about 2,000–2,500 €/m2. For parcels smaller than 1,000 m2. This is considered as a giant leap compared to the prices in 2003 when investors had to pay 200–400 €/m2. (Colliers International 2006: 72). The context of economic crisis started in 2008 that determined a collapse of the real estate market and consequently, land prices dropped considerably (Grigorescu et al. 2012).

The suburban area continues to attract investments in the real estate market, mainly in the northern region, facilitated by its proximity to one of the main roads of the country. Investments localisation in BMA, mostly close to Bucharest, was facilitated by the lower price of the land, affordable labour market and some tax facilities from local municipalities. There was a wave of urban decongestion of industry and services activities that have been relocated in the suburban area, and these activities transformed and diversified the economy and increased household income and local budgets.

The agricultural land, due to its availability close to the city, became after the 1990s the most attractive area for houses and as a result, many persons even living in the city centre like to have a second home. A representative case in this sense is Pipera, located in the north-eastern part of Bucharest where an entire quarter has been developed and the former agricultural land and pastoral activities were replaced or abandoned. Another example of suburbanisation is Snagov, an exclusivist area, attractive for rich people. This area was developed mainly after the 1950s when it saw investments in tourism and sports facilities. The newcomers preferred private houses, built-up in the region bordering Lake Snagov or isolated dwellings located further in the agricultural fields.

Most of the industrial areas located in the city were abandoned or converted to other uses because of the pressure of land prices, which made the land more profitable for sale than for industrial purposes, due to the environmental regulation that forced the factories’ management to close some of the more polluting activities. Retail centres represent the first major foreign investments in Bucharest’s local economy. These centres contributed to the reconfiguration and reorganisation of urban spaces, large areas of agricultural land being converted for retail, alongside with amusement parks or/and residential.

5.3 Semi-natural Habitats

Forests and surface water were considered as part of semi-natural habitats. Table 22.2 shows that lowland forests cover 14.6% of the BMA, consisting mostly of different species of quercinee and elm, linden, ash, etc. in smaller shares. Lakes and rivers are adding up 3.6% of the total BMA and have specific features: lakes are mostly anthropogenic, and are, for the most part, ponds arranged along the river paths.

In the past, due to reduced population, the forestry operations were done traditionally within a system of sustainable land management. Since the mid-eighteenth century, population growth was followed by intensified forestry operation which reduced the area occupied by forests at the expanse of areas intended for agriculture, construction and infrastructure. Logging various timber species is occasional. Operations regarding other forest products—fuelwood, medicinal plants, berries, mushrooms, materials for crafts, are sporadic. Thus, the data available to measure income generated by the goods and services produced by semi-natural ecosystems or the number of goods produced are limited or non-existent. Their most important role is leisure services. From an economic and social point of view, these services, if well managed, can be an indispensable source of income, mainly, for rural households.

6 Conclusions

Land use plays a key role in the development of rural areas of BMA and in achieving an increased QoL. The economic growth together with diversity and complexity of the social dimension were deciding for the land use patterns. Thus, the primary land use patterns identified were: commercial and subsistence agriculture, infrastructure, housing, industries and services, natural and semi-natural habitats. The paper identifies critical relationships between the land use patterns and QoL. Land use patterns deliver a set of goods and services that are essential for the population’s survival and welfare. The land plays a central role in the QoL of families and communities. Services provided by different types of land use are essential resources for many people. In addition to the economic value associated with these services, there are also historical and cultural values, which should not be ignored because, in time, they have shaped the communities’ social organisation. Therefore, land, as the most important natural resource, should be considered and analysed in a natural, social, economic, and cultural context. QoL’s implications show the need for public actions, residential mobility, economic growth and the sustainable use of natural resources.