THE ECONOMIC, SOCIAL, DEMOGRAPHIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF THE ECONOMIC REORGANIZATION WITHIN PETROSANI DEPRESSION

• Published in: Analele Universităţii din Craiova. Seria geografie Vol. X; pp. 127 - 135
• Main Author: Florentina-Cristina IANCU
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editura Universitaria Craiova 01-01-2007
• Subjects: active population; demographical and environmental impact; economic; economic restructuring; economic structure of population; population by age group and sex; social; underdeveloped area; unemployment
• ISSN: 1224-4112; 2069-6191

The paper synthesizes the multiple consequences induced by the restructuring process of mining industry within Petroşani Depression. The analysed area is an underdeveloped one because of its mono-industrial character resulting from the importance of the mining sector for the economy of the area. After 1990, coal exploitation was unprofitable and it was necessary to apply the industrial restructuring process that has left its marks not only on the economic sector (low income level, some mines were closed), but also socially (unemployment, family abandonment), environmentally (land degradation, land use change, floods, and pollution), demographically (decrease of birth rate, regression of evolution number of the population, decrease of active population rate, regressive migration). Even nowadays there is a dependence of the labour force on the mining industry (40 percent of the active population work in mining industry). Although it was necessary, the process has not been applied properly, causing the economic decline of the Jiu Valley. The environmental impact can only be diminished by ecological reconstruction and by implementing new production technologies. In this new stage of development, so called postindustrial, when the importance of industrial activity is decreasing, the settlements within Petroşani Depression must be considered beyond their industrial dimension, as cultural centres which have varied tourist resources that can attract many types of visitors.