SUMMARY OF Ph-D Thesis, with title RESEARCH STUDIES ON MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT OF MARITIME AND RIVER TRANSPORT ACTIVITY IN THE COASTAL AND DANUBE DELTA AREA FROM AN ENVIROMENTAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE From the dawn of time to the present, the Black Sea and Danube River, but also the inland waterways have played a critical part in the development of Romanian culture, identity and history. Frequently, they represented the most important natural factor, which encouraged the appearance of human dwellings, generated economic and social progress, welfare and a high standard of living. Based on all these considerations, the aim of the doctoral dissertation named Studies regarding the improvement of maritime and river transport activity in the seaside and Danube Delta area from an ecological, economic and social point of view is to study the maritime and river transport activity in the seaside and Danube Delta area, as a stimulating factor for the development of the connected rural area, to assess the related influences (environment, economic and social influences) on this region, as well as to pinpoint a solution for the improvement of the management of this activity in view of its recovery and development. Chapter I of the paper, named Maritime and river transport between necessity and reality, summarizes the network of navigable and access waterways in the seaside and Danube Delta area, specifying the fundamental issues regarding the institutional framework within the field of maritime and navigable inland waterway transport specific to the national naval transport network (including the sea and Danube area). Based on these social and economic development particulars resulted from the capitalization of the area potential, which are emphasized in this chapter, the development priorities of the navigable waterway network, supporting the development of the connected rural area, are structured. The water transport is performed within an ecosystem, on a smaller or bigger area. The coalescence and integration of ecosystem and infrastructure require a specific strategy, policy and organization of technical and economic processes in order to obtain the highest possible performances. The development of navigable waterways network in Romania is a priority which can be found in those identified and assumed at national level regarding the development of naval transport infrastructure.
The main objective of the water transport infrastructure is the development of specialized and efficient physical infrastructure networks compatible with the European and international infrastructures which will support the sustainable development of the area under study. Here are some of the specific priorities of the area development: The use of the competitive advantage of the Danube River (European Corridor VII) in the context of EU accession; the development of operating and storage capabilities of the Danube harbors; the development and increase of the in-transit traffic of goods of the maritime, and maritime and river harbors; the development of cruise tourism on the Danube River; the stimulation of private initiative by setting up a maritime fleet under the Romanian flag adapted to the requirements of the national economy, etc. On all these priorities, together with those which already are or will be identified, the governmental, non-governmental or local regional development programs or projects shall be based. In chapter II named Navigable maritime and river waterways in the seaside - Danube Delta area and the connected rural development" elements are presented related to the appearance and numerical evolution of localities, in relation with the existence and development of the navigable access waterways, the crucial part played in the capitalization of the economic and touristic potential of the area, typological elements specific to the dwellings according to their position to the waterways, the synthetic description of the Danube Delta localities, their position within the territory and the morphostructural features of the rural and urban dwellings Based on these statements, it is known that most of the developed countries have had a mostly agricultural economy with its specific features. The industrialization effects on the geographical and demographical balance are significant, resulting in a high concentration of the economic activity and an important migration of population to the urban environment, the result being the depopulation of the rural area. An important part in the diminishing of these effects is played by the water transport as well as by the related infrastructure due to their specificity of being inseparable from the natural area in which the rural area occupies the most part. The economic and touristic potential of the area is also analyzed. Due to its natural and anthropic touristic potential, the Danube Delta is unique in Europe and even in the entire world, from the point of view of ecology and type of habitat in the Danube environment, with a special
landscape, morpho-hidrological and fauna diversity and originality. Due to these singularities, the delta was declared a Biosphere Reservation, which lead to some limitations in tourism activity. Thus, it is necessary to promote only those types of tourism, which observe the requirements for the protection, and preservation of the environment. Throughout this analysis, the important part played by the development of navigable inland waterway transports is emphasized, as stimulating factor for the increase of agricultural production and of non-agricultural activities within the rural environment, resulting in integration with benefic effects both for agriculture and for industry as a whole. Another issue discussed by this paper is The implications of the development of maritime and river transport activity in the seaside and Danube Delta area presented in Chapter 3. It is mentioned that the vectors for the development of this sector are reflected as related economic, social and ecological impacts. The presence of a transport infrastructure has favourable consequences on the economic activity of the area where it is located, but this is not the sole requirement for the development. Another mandatory requirement is the profitability of the naval transport. When the transport infrastructures manifest their direct profitability, meaning the savings related to the transport made by the users exceed the expenses for building the infrastructure, a production surplus is created. It comes from the use of a smaller quantity of production factors for the accomplishment of the same level of production. If the production factors thus spared are used again in a new productive cycle, the national wealth will increase with the same amount of the spared production factors. The existence and development of the naval transport infrastructure have had a major influence on the development of some specific economic objectives (capabilities) with a major part in zonal and national economic development. This chapter also emphasizes the fact that a scientific and rigorous approach to these issues can be made only based on sustainable principles which take into account the implications on the ecosystems of Danube Delta, the impact on the ecosystem of the Black Sea, the ecological implications of harbor activity, and the issue of harbor pollution, respectively. The main conclusion of this chapter is that the development of maritime and river transport based on European Maritime Policy plays a strategic part. Chapter 4 of the paper presents the Role and place of navigable waterway transport in the context of regional development programs. The specific elements and aspects of the
reviewed problems show the complexity of the approached field. In this regard, the following are presented: Zonal development projects affecting the waster transport infrastructure; the projects related to the defense against floods in the Danube Delta, projects for the integrated management of coastline area, etc. Taking into account the large amount of resources involved in these projects, the paper presents directly that their solving is possible only by promoting some specific management techniques aimed to attracting funds from European programs. The development of transport infrastructure shall play an important part in the internal market integration and shall capitalize the geographical position of Romania as transit area, at the intersection of Pan-European Transport Corridor IV and Pan-European Transport Corridor IX. The position of Romania at the intersection of numerous roads connecting Western and Eastern Europe, as well as Northern and Southern Europe, as well as the location of the country on the transit axes between Europe and Asia represent an important element for establishing the strategic options regarding the development and updating of transport infrastructure. Thus, the opportunity created by the Danube-Black Sea Channel and Danube Delta may represents a key element for attracting international flows of goods, connected to the relations between Europe and other continents. Also, Danube River, by a proper exploitation of its potential shall contribute to the sustainable connection and accession of Romania to the European Union, also creating the opportunity for Romania to acquire a key position for attracting flows of goods connected to the relations between Europe and other continents. An advantage is the relatively harmonious distribution of transport infrastructure within the national territory, but it is necessary to begin some consistent actions for the development of intermodal transport. This mean of transport allows the transport of raw materials and goods at low costs, taking also into account the achievement of the sustainable development objective. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a balance between the railway transport and the road transport and to increase the importance of air and naval (maritime and river) transport. In the field of the naval transport, the updating and sustainable development of maritime and river transport infrastructure are aimed to increase the market share of this mean of transport, the amount of goods in transit through the Romanian harbours and to use efficiently the existent harbor infrastructure, to strengthen the trading potential of the maritime and river Romanian harbours, as well as to strengthen the geostrategic position in the Black Sea and Danube area
providing a safe, solid infrastructure which is well integrated in the trans-european transport network (TEN-T) in order to establish a proper basis for the promotion of free access, safe circulation of person, goods and services. The solutions for the recovery and development of transport activity on navigable and access waterways as an incentive of rural development" are presented in Chapter 5 of the paper. According to the medium and long-term sectoral development principles of the European Union, and also to the regulations of international conventions in the field of maritime and river safety, an important part in organizing, planning, performance and development of command and control actions in the field of transport on navigable waterways play the regulatory authorities/agencies. From this point of view, in Chapter 5 of the paper, the following solutions are presented synthetically: - The Romanian Naval Authority (including its operative territorial bodies) manages the naval transport activity; - The management of the maintenance and development of navigable waterway network is performed by; Compania Naţională Administraţia Porturilor Maritime S.A. Constanţa, Compania Naţională Administraţia Porturilor Dunării Fluviale S.A. Giurgiu, Compania Naţională Administraţia Porturilor Dunării Maritime Galaţi, Administraţia Fluvială a Dunării de Jos Galaţi. - Stimulation of rural development activities through the navigable inland waterways transport. A community policy for the promotion of quality and safety of naval transports shall be combined with the capitalization of the best cards of the European fleet features. Countries with well-established naval transport activity have understood that a safe and efficient transport is based on three fundamental elements: Man, ship and environment. Starting from the established objectives, the national strategy in the field of naval transport shall be focused on the following components: - The use of the Danube competitive advantage (European Corridor VII) in the context of accession to the European Union; - Development of operating and storage capabilities of the Danube harbours; - Development and increase of the in transit traffic of goods through the maritime and maritime and river harbours;
- Development of Danube cruise tourism; - Updating and development of the river fleet for goods and passengers; - Stimulating the private initiative in creating a maritime fleet under Romanian flag, adapted to the requirements of the national economy correlated with the offering of flag facilities in order to reintegrate Romanian in the international maritime transport circuit, and to use the special conditions that exist in our country for preparing and training the maritime navigating personnel. The analysis of this paper is focused on two issues in close connection with the maritime and river transport activity. If, in a first stage, the sustainable development issue leaves no space for the separate analysis of environmental economics, changing the method of approaching the development problems and defining the environment as an amount of different (esthetic, ecologic and economic) values, in the second stage the second issue is focused on the naval field in its entire complexity which, at regional and national level can be refreshed and updated by various technical and administrative projects. In its entirety, the paper presents a new approach to the water transport issues. On the one hand, the maritime and river transport activities represent an important factor for the social and economic development, on the other, these activities have a high impact on the environmental degradation of seaside and Danube Delta area. The suggested approach opens for the future an important research line based on the two EU concepts related to the water transport: Sustainable economic and social development and the new environmentally friendly shipping promoted successfully in countries like Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany.