SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE LOW DANUBE AREA

Urban development raises numerous sustainability related issues both in social and ecological plan. There a range of international organization involved in urban development. The main challenges faced by urban development planning are coming from providing a healthy and steady environment in the framework of a more and more dynamic and open economy, with profound changes spread by geo-economics concentration centers. Romanian Danube side cities face a paradox. They are aware that their position represents an important advantage, but on the other hand, the social and economic realities do not express in any form these advantages. Bearing in mind the most recent advances on aggregating sustainability indicators, cities were compared and established hierarchies envisaging to enlighten the spatial relation and other complex interactions established along the Danube. Considering such criteria and indicators, cities were grouped in different classes for a better appropriation of priority set up. The main outcome regarding sustainability was that diversifying local economies, which undergone a heavy involution in the last decades, is crucial.