ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION IN FUNCTIONALLY RESTRUCTURED URBAN AREAS: CASE STUDY – THE CITY OF BUCHAREST

Abstract

This study aims at analyzing the changes that the functional restructuring of economic activities developed in the communist period brought upon the quality of the natural environment. It has been done an individualization of the main areas affected by the marked dynamics of economic activities in Bucharest due to numberless sources of emission distributed all over the city. The striking lack of balance in the condition of the environment is determined by the profound alterations inside the urban structure. Once the location of performing economic activities has been shifted towards the outskirts of the city, other economic activities have been developed inside the urban structure causing tides to compress, thus exceeding the capacity for support of the road structure. As a consequence the polluting emissions are greater than the admitted maximum limits in many areas of Bucharest. Besides road traffic, numerous construction sites inside the city which are not suitably organized, add to the increase of polluting emissions. The local authorities have initiated great projects which aim at easing the traffic flow inside the city and developing systems of redirecting the road traffic at city entrances.