Landscaping is an essential activity of human society, whose value and complexity increase as technology develops and human civilization. The concept of arrangement has its origin in the need to adapt space to the problems raised by population growth and economic development, the need to use the territory for human society, to use the resources of that space to meet human needs in the long run, without causing great damage to the natural component.
Landscaping, in its simplest form, is the set of actions to prepare a territory by performing equipment, sanitation, leveling, planting, deforestation, desalination, terracing, etc., to make it appropriate to functions and destinations established by systematization study.
The complex arrangement of the territory is an important tool for modeling the geographical space, according to its economic values, social particularities and natural specificity, and represents, in turn, the totality of technical measures and works undertaken in a set of coordinated actions. of space, superior capitalization of natural and human resources, equipping the territory with communication routes, zoning of agricultural production, etc. (Erdeli G. et al., 2000).
Spatial planning aims to reconcile human needs (individual and social) with resources, the real potential of the natural and / or built environment - on the one hand - with the technological level and available land resources - on the other hand - under the conditions of protection and conservation of existing heritage.
The territorial and local arrangement (systematization) is made in accordance with the programs and provisions of the socio-economic development strategy, the provisions of the national programs for the development of different branches and activities, as well as the development plans in regional or zonal profile, creating the harmonious development of the territory. , improving the quality of life of people and human communities. It fulfills two logical conditions: it is concrete, ensuring the satisfaction of the management and current and perspective development requirements, ie it takes into account the need for further changes in the sustainable development process (I. Bold, A. Craciun, 1999, p. 103).
▪ The arrangement involves transformations that must be made in correlation with the quality of the natural systems, the size of the surface. The arrangement creates spaces with a greater heterogeneity than the initial ones, the effects of the arrangement consisting in:
- differentiation of regions or spaces;
- division of production and investments in the arranged space;
- division of environmental costs;
- redistribution in space of economic activities in general (sustainable use and management);
- solving some social problems (available labor force, infrastructure).
▪ The finalities of the arrangement (after Ph. Pinchemel) are of order:
- economic (exploitation of resources with a minimum of investments), but a distinction will be made between the planning policy and the development policy;
- social (for the welfare of the population, development of services);
- ecological (gentle interventions in ecosystems, in order to prevent irreversible imbalances).
Arrangement involves the transformation, by man, of a natural system, respectively, the replacement of some of its components. At the same time, the arrangement may target the environment already used by humans, requiring a study to assess the support capacity. The transformations initiated must be in accordance with the particularities of the region. Depending on the magnitude of the transformations triggered, in the arrangement it becomes necessary to work with specialists from various fields of activity (biologists, agronomists, sociologists, economists, architects, geographers, geologists, surveyors, etc.).
▪ The foundations of territorial planning can be deduced from the following considerations:
- The territorial arrangements must be made with costs that a national economy can bear in one year, from the moment of application.
- In most states, the succession followed started from the development of agriculture and, depending on its performance, related to natural resources, investments were made to the capitalizing industrial fields (textiles, food, etc.).
- A basic condition is to ensure the freedom of movement of the labor force, depending on income. Failure to comply with it makes it impossible to make forecasts.
- The costs of spatial planning must be as low as possible, so that the population is attracted to them. These will be borne by both private owners and taxpayers (respectively the state budget, oriented towards this field.
▪ The laws underlying the territorial arrangement can be stated as follows:
- In a certain space, the territorial arrangement does not directly regulate disappearances between the center and the periphery, nor those between the developed regions.
- The territorial arrangement must be based on the aptitude of the space in which it is to be made, on the specialization of this space, on all its elements and factors (national, social, etc.), which dictate the way in which the arrangement, costs and maintenance will be made. in the long run.
- The management of the territory will be carried out by the local authority in favor of those who populate the respective region, following that the resulting surplus will be offered to the neighboring regions, or located at greater distances.
▪ The main objectives of spatial planning are structured around some basic concerns, recognized and promoted at European level:
- The balanced economic-social development of the regions and areas of the country, aiming at reducing the zonal imbalances and supporting the areas left behind.
- Improving the living environment of the inhabitants (housing and their endowment, public services for the population, etc.).
- Responsible management of natural resources and environmental protection (reducing conflicts between increasing resource requirements and the need to conserve them, but also protecting the natural environment).
- Rational use of land, especially agricultural and forestry.
- Selective correlation of sectoral development proposals within spatial planning plans, depending on their impact on the living conditions of the population.
In Romania, the landscaping activity acquires an increased importance and an increasing complexity during the transition period, taking into account the following phenomena and processes:
▪ the process of administrative-territorial decentralization, the exercise of local autonomy and responsibility, democratic openness to the participation of communities
to the decisions regarding the composition of the living environment;
▪ the need to adapt the structure of the settlements and to redefine the relations of the settlement with the territory, as a result of the installation of the private property right over the lands and real estates;
▪ expanding privatization in the field of housing and introducing the concepts of market economy in the field of habitat, services and public institutions;
▪ the modification of some tendencies in the evolution of the socio-demographic processes and the appearance of new social values (pluralism, autonomy, participation, etc.);
▪ the new management conditions of the territory and localities, in the presence of modern methodologies of analysis and intervention, by extending the computerization and modernizing the technologies.
On these coordinates, the activity of territorial arrangement is constituted in a field of synthesis, polemically anchored in the restructuring-reform process. Its role, in the perspective of the next millennium, is to foreshadow, in a global conception and in a long-term vision (10-15 years), strategic and coherent alternatives in terms of:
▪ the programs for the development of the basic infrastructure of the country, for the management of some vital resources and for the safeguarding of the values of national patrimony or for the identification of the problems of the locality network;
▪ promoting the European partnership in the integration of transport, telecommunications, energy infrastructures, considering the capitalization of Romania's potential advantages in the European context, due to its geographical position, natural and socio-economic resources;
▪direct integration in issues and programs of European and international interest, such as: connection to pan-European transport networks - including the Rhine-Main-Danube highway; development of the Black Sea area or of the area of special scientific interest - the Danube Delta.