Spatial-Temporal Analysis of Land Cover and Use Changes Using Gis Tools. Case Study Băneasa Neighborhood, Bucharest

The paper topic is related to the use of Geographic Information System and remote sensing in analysing the spatio-temporal dynamics of a post-socialist city. The purpose of this study is to highlight the changes in the land use of the Băneasa neighbourhood, located in the northern part of the capital city of Romania. The changes have been analysed from the nineteenth century to the present. The authors used historical mapping using old maps, as well as digitizing aerial photographs using the Geographic Information System. There has been an accelerated territorial evolution in the last 70 years, marked by the impact of the socialist policy of intensive urbanization, when the urban-type systematization was applied through the construction of collective dwellings, to which were added some important industrial units. After 1990, the dynamics of the tertiary sector generated significant changes in the physiognomy of the urban landscape, observing the increase of the built space (commercial spaces, new residential areas) at the expense of green spaces, tree nurseries, greenhouses and industrial sites. The most recent stage of evolution, however, has brought the most profound changes in the landscape of the Băneasa district, as a result of the new political and socio-economic context, marked by the collapse of communism. Thus, in the last 30 years, the capital city has registered an uncontrolled urban growth dynamic, this being characteristic of other large urban centres at the national level as well favoured by less strict, inconsistent and incomplete urban legislation.