PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
COUNTRY PROFILE ON HOUSING AND LAND MANAGEMENT
Republic of Moldova
PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Author: Nikolai Bobylev
Contents
Contents
Challenges in spatial planning (impact of structural reforms of transition and
globalization on the cities’ development ); ............................................................... 2
Major challenges in urban development (including socio-spatial disparities in
cities, spatial cohesion of living areas, impact of demographic changes on urban
development, deteriorated/distressed urban areas) ................................................... 3
Spatial planning and housing (including housing infrastructure, green spaces, large
housing development projects vs. reconstruction of built-up areas - greenfield
development vs. brownfield regeneration) ................................................................ 8
Control on development and enforcement .............................................................. 14
Policy framework for spatial development and land-use regulations (master plans,
zoning, etc.) ............................................................................................................. 15
Conclusions and recommendations ......................................................................... 18
References ............................................................................................................... 20
Additional References ............................................................................................. 21
Pictures .................................................................................................................... 23
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Challenges in spatial planning (impact of structural reforms of transition
and globalization on the cities’ development );
Livelihood-agricultural land
Moldova, as a former Republic of the USSR, inherited reasonably adequate system of spatial,
land use, and urban planning. The Soviet system recognized priority of agricultural land, which
is one of the most fertile in Europe and represent a valuable resource for sustaining livelihoods
of Moldova population. Moldova possess rich agricultural black soils and a temperate climate,
agricultural land use covers about 75% of Moldova’s total land area. It is estimated that 73% of
agricultural land is arable, and only 12% of it is under perennial plantations. Forests cover about
12% of total land area (World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2011). Nowadays
agriculture is the main source of income for Moldavian economy - agricultural production in
2011 amounted for 22619 mil lei (National Bureau of Statistics). Moldova is still a very rural by
the European standards country, with urbanization rate 52% (World Bank UNECE, 2013), its
surface area is roughly divided in 91% rural and 9% urban (Government Decision No. 468 of
26.07.2012). Moldova inherited a strong legal background for protection of agricultural land
from the USSR. The policy for protecting agricultural lands in terms of restricting its use to
agriculture is adequate given the country economic profile. However, there is an increasing need
for urban and rural housing development, which is hampered by a difficult process of changing
the land use purpose from agricultural to any other. Thus, finding the right policy, legal, and
planning balance for alternative use of agricultural lands is a present challenge for Moldova.
Here we are not talking about major agricultural lands conversion to industrial or housing use.
The areas in focus are cities and towns fringes, which are often de facto already have been used
for minor construction. These developments usually have an ad-hoc legal status, unregulated, or
even illegal status. Thus providing a proper regulatory framework for already developed lands
(private housing by majority) constitutes another challenge.
Administrative structure and local spatial planning responsibilities
Administrative division and ensuing consequences for local governance represent the major
challenge for spatial planning. Spatial and urban development plans are the responsibility of
local authorities, which often do not have capacity to take care of this issue. Moldova is divided
into 1681 administrative units (localities), 982 localities have their own Local Public Authorities
(LPAs), of which five have municipality status, 66 have city status, and 916 are villages with
commune status; the other 699 villages are too small to have an independent administration, and
belong to either cities (40) or communes (659) (World Bank UNECE, 2013). Some LPAs are
responsible for population of as little as less than 1000 people. Obviously it is not feasible that
local authorities would take care financially and human resource vise for developing spatial
plans in such a small locality. It is an open question whether authority for preparing a local
development plan should be delegated to a higher level, or small municipalities should get help
and capacity for taking care of the plans themselves. Currently there is a Decree by Central
Government about developing spatial plans (Decree on approval of a mid-term programme on
the development of master plans for human settlements for 2013-2016 years. Decree #493, dated
04.07.2013. signed by Prime Minister).
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Economic and demographic situation related to land use
One of the major drivers to Moldova economy is its population which is working abroad. Indeed,
currently Moldova has a negative population growth of -1% (World Bank UNECE, 2013). It is
estimated that about 20% of working population is living and working abroad (Moldova National
Statistics, 2013). Working immigrants often has extended families in Moldova, supporting
Moldova economy by remittances to families, investments, and spending during their visits to
motherland.
Work abroad situation has been taking off the pressure for urban development and housing, since
actual population growth is negative. However, buying urban and peri-urban property (housing
land lots and flats) is an attractive investment for those who work abroad. Flat sales in Chisinau
are growing 8% annually (Moldova Cadastr, 2013). For land use it means that there is a growing
demand, although the land is not used intensively, which provides a room for maneuver in
infrastructure provisioning (e.g. urban transport). Since a new construction and land acquisition
is progressing, there is a need to have adequate spatial development plans in place.
Rural-Urban Migration
While in the Soviet time people migrated into cities, the current trend is migration out of cities
(Ministry of Economic Development, 2013 interview). Migration process is modest, and not
targeted remote villages, but rather peri-urban areas, where formal and semi-formal housing
(dachas) is being developed and flourishes. Currently sub-urbanization represents a significant
challenge for spatial planning, since vast areas of urban sprawl should be properly included into
urban structure, with transport, public services, and infrastructure planning implications.
Major challenges in urban development (including socio-spatial
disparities in cities, spatial cohesion of living areas, impact of
demographic changes on urban development, deteriorated/distressed
urban areas)
State-of-the-art in human settlements spatial arrangement
There are 57 urban and 1614 rural settlements in Moldova (Decree #493, 2013). Moldova
inherited Soviet urban spatial arrangement standards, which are still widely adhered. Typical city
or town would be arranged according to linear planning, having wide main streets accompanied
by wide pedestrian walkways. The main road, walkway, and buildings are typically separated by
wide green spaces, usually encompassing green loan and one or two rows of trees. This street
layout is typical for settlements in Moldova, rows of mature trees (predominantly poplar) along
roads are a distinctive feature of the country. Rural settlements and towns typically have single
carriageway streets with pedestrian pavements. The current spatial arrangement of the human
settlements is robust, providing room for further development, in terms of new infrastructure
installation (roadside infrastructure, utilities). There is ample share of green spaces in urban
settings. Roads and many buildings are in deteriorated condition, and require cosmetic
renovation, however on the whole the deemed structurally sound. Table 1 details urban
indicators (population, area, and population density) in some cities and towns in Moldova.
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Table 1. Population, area, and urban densities in Moldova cities of different size (city-townsmall town).
City
Population Area, km2 Population density, persons per km2
Chisinau 671,800
123
5,461
Balti
78
1,919
149,700
Kriuljani 7,887
Sources: Demographia 2013 World Urban Areas: 9th Annual Edition (2013.03)
http://www.demographia.com/
Master planning
In Moldova, the urban plans are prepared at three levels: general plans, zonal plans, and detailed
plans (World Bank UNECE, 2013). In practice, only a few localities have updated urban plans of
any level. Provisioning with updated Master plans for human settlements appears to be the major
challenge for Moldova. While developed during Soviet time Master plans represent a robust
bases for further urban planning, they are absolutely outdated, lost (in minority of cases), and do
not any more reflect the development needs and on site realities.
The situation with absence of Master plans have occurred due to: (1) financial hardships during
the country economy transition period, (2) low demand for urban development associated with
negative population growth, (3) local authorities bearing responsibility for developing Master
plans, however not possessing the capacity of doing so in the most cases.
Just 33% of urban settlements and 1% of rural settlements possess modern Master plans or are in
the process of developing them (Decree #493, 2013). Soviet period Master plans (1952 – 1991)
had covered all the urban settlements and 99% of rural settlements (Decree #493, 2013).
Decree on “Approval of a mid-term programme on the development of master plans for human
settlements for 2013-2016 years” (Decree #493) specifies that local authorities are responsible
for the programme implementation, i.e. organizing and paying for development of the Master
plans. The Decree suggests that a range of budgets that can be used to finance elaboration of the
Master plans (central government, local governments, international donors, private bodies).
Unfortunately the possibilities and conditions for each financing mechanism are not detailed; and
potential conflicts of interests have not been discussed. The Decree estimates costs for
elaborating a Master plan: 10 000 Euro for a rural settlement and 15 000 Euro for an urban one.
Thus the total investment required for provisioning Master plans in all settlements of Moldova is
estimated as 14.93 million Euros. The Decree is accompanied by a table detailing schedule for
elaborating the plans, however without fixed financing sources. The Decree does not bare
mandatory status, but rather recommendable one, as specified in the article 3 of its preamble.
Practices to promote citizen participation in land use planning (i.e. participatory planning, open
access to information) have not been fully developed yet. Public consultations during the past
preparation of the regulations for the Chisinau urban plan were the first case of known
consultations so far. Furthermore, information on how regulations affect individual plots of land
is not easily available to residents. (World Bank UNECE, 2013).
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Due to absence of Master plans, authorities of all levels have been currently deprived of a
significant instrument to govern socio-economic development, and must rely on an ad-hoc
arrangements to resolve land development issues.
Master planning in Chisinau (Capital city, population 671 800)
The Chisinau General Urban Plan (Master Plan) was approved in 2007 and the subsequent
regulations were approved in 2008. This is the fourth plan developed for the city since 1991.
(World Bank UNECE, 2013). The current Master plan has a time span of 15 years, i.e. until
2022. The Master plan includes transport scheme, which has provisions for developing tram
lines. Master plan specifies functional zoning, however de facto it is not enforced (USAID,
2013). Buildings height is not regulated.
Chisinau Master Plan has some deficiencies, namely the descriptive and numerical parts are
outdated and some figures are judged as unreliable by local experts (Chisinauproiect, 2013;
Urbanproiect, 2013).
In Chisanau, “Chisinauproiect” is responsible for land use planning, it issues a permit for design
for the new developments, provides co-ordination with road and utility management companies.
Table 2 details urban indicators (population, area, and population density) in Chisanau compared
to selected European cities. Chisinau has been having a modest population growth over past
years, accompanied by the area expansion, which moderated increase in population density. Thus
we can see a classic urban sprawl, although retained in a moderate pace. Population density in
Chisinau is relatively high for a European city, but is comparable to other European cities of a
half to one million size.
A density development strategy would be important for future Master planning in Chisinau. As
Chisinau’s population grows, the question is whether LPAs decide to increase city area, or
maintain compactness. These two directions will have implications for infrastructure (mainly
transport) development strategies; hence LPAs may want to compare future Chisinau to cities
with similar densities. In this sense a compact city solution would require a closer look at e.g.
Bucharest, while classic “sprawling” process would be exemplified by e.g. Nottingham and
much bigger cities presented in table 2.
Table 2. Population and comparative urban densities in Chisinau and selected international cities.
City
Population
Area, km2
Population
density, persons
per km2
Chisinau (2004)
550,000
104
5,300
Chisinau (2013)
671,800
123
5,461
Moscow
15,788,000
4,403
3,600
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Paris
10,869,000
2,845
3,800
Saint Petersburg
4,899,000
1,191
4,100
Nottingham
666,000
159
4,200
Voronezh
879,000
158
5,600
Bucharest
1,931,000
285
6,800
Sources: Demographia 2013 World Urban Areas: 9th Annual Edition (2013.03)
http://www.demographia.com/
Master planning and urban development in Balti (Regional centre, population 149 700)
The current Master plan of Balti was approved in 2007, but since then has undergone many
changes, and the major amendments were made to make arrangements for a free economic zone,
introduced by the Central Government Order in 2011. Balti can be considered as one of the few
industrial and steadily developing cities in the country.
Balti is surrounded by agricultural lands, which are currently protected from any other use.
However Balti need more space for new development. There are some opportunities for
redevelopment of ineffectively used lands within the city, but those opportunities are hampered
by outdated protectionist regulations. (1) For instance, several unused dormitory buildings can be
potentially redeveloped, but they belong to higher education property category, which is
protected from any other use; on the other hand ministry of higher education does not have funds
to redevelop the buildings, so they have been unused for long time and require significant
renovation. (2) Another problem is unfinished construction due to developers’ bankruptcy or
legal disputes. While taking action on both of the above problems seems to be too difficult for
the LPA from variety points of view (legal, planning, technical), LPA resorted to lobbing new
development outside city borders on a free land. This situation is typical for Moldova
successfully developing regional centers.
Development outside city borders on a free land while having disused land within the city is, of
course, undesirable solution from an urban sustainability point of view, since it facilitates
unnecessary urban sprawl, while built stock and population densities in the city remain relatively
low. Many cities in Moldova would benefit from urban redevelopment programmes. While there
are not many industrial brownfields and contaminated sites, disused buildings and “forgotten”
areas are in abundance. It appears that some problems lie in zoning and Master plans, which
needed to be revised to enable compact city strategies at least for the city and town centers. In
this sense Balti exemplifies typical land use challenges Moldova towns are facing.
Balti have a 60 hectares landslide risk zone in the city centre, which currently represent green
unmaintained area.
Balti has a typical for Moldova urban problems regarding: (1) unregulated dacha settlements; (2)
access to water and sanitation - coverage is just below 70%, and 25 000 persons has no access;
(3) MSW management – just collection and landfilling services are provided; (4) aging
infrastructure networks – cold water loss in conduits amounts to 47%; (5) most serious problems
with central heating system – 45% of users in multi flat houses opted out or were disconnected
for debts.
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Master planning and urban development in Kriuleni (a town, population 7 887)
Kriuleni is a small town of 7887 citizens at Dniester river about 43 kilometers from Chisinau.
The town build up is represented by multi flat up to five floor houses (35%), and individual
houses (65%). Water and gas are fully provided across the town, but sanitation provisioning
significantly varies between multi flat houses (100% coverage), and individual ones (just 10%
coverage). Town Master plan was adopted in 2005.
Nature Environmental Risks
Moldova is prone to earthquakes, floods, droughts, landslides and extreme temperatures. Gullies
represent the major problem. Gullies are often formed during water run off after heavy rainfalls
on vast cultivated fields. Agricultural land loss due to gully formation is a significant problem in
Moldova. Gullies and landslides also occur in urban areas. For instance, a large area cannot be
used due to landslides risks in the center of the second largest city of Moldova – Balti.
Chisinau possess a map of dangerous geo environmental processes, however the map does not
correlate to Master plan and zoning directly.
Dachas in Moldova
“Dacha” is a word of the Russian origin, meaning a summer house or a cabin, usually people
would permanently live in a city and spend their summer time at a dacha. It was a widespread
practice in the USSR that urban dwellers would be given 1200 or 600 m2 of land in city vicinity.
These land lots were initially meant for gardening and vegetables growth, to ease urban food
supplies, construction activities were restricted to sheds and simple summer houses.
In Moldova dacha lots were given even with more restrictions than in other parts of USSR. One
land lot was just 600 m2 size; and a shed for gardening tools was the only structure formally
allowed. The dacha communities were allocated non agricultural land (or less valuable
agricultural lands). Since initially this land lots were not meant for devilling, planning process
was ad-hoc, some roads are of just 3m wide, none of the infrastructure or utilities were planned.
Land given to develop dachas, or rather individual agricultural lots in case of Moldova, were
random, in many cases prone to natural disasters like flooding and landslides.
Nowadays many dachas have been developed into comprehensive permanent housing, with
many people permanently living there. The process of dacha transition from a vegetable land lot
to a cottage with a small garden have not been regulated in any way, and facilitated by
communities of land owners.
In Chisinau dachas cover about 3000 hectares (Chisinauproiect, 2013).
Nowadays dachas are associated with many points of concern:
Legal. The land and ownership form must be regulated, there should be a special process for
creating a legal framework for dachas. In many cases dacha land is agricultural or “other”
category according to existing land use plans, but de facto represent classical urban sprawl
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
(Urban sprawl involves relatively low-density building on arable and other land outward from
the metropolitan core (Carruthers, 2003)).
Planning. There are no Master plans of dacha settlements (except of ad-hoc ones produced by
land owners communities).
Utilities. Dachas usually would have electric power supply, sometimes water, sanitation
infrastructure is absent. Obviously, since land owners are investing in building houses on their
land lots, they are to a certain extend potentially interested in investing in better infrastructure
(usually gravel roads, electricity, security, water supply). However since initially settlements
were not planned for permanent residence, there is often no space for utilities infrastructure
installation. Often new infrastructure installations are ad-hoc without proper planning. Waste
collection appears to be a problem as well (Chisinauproiect, 2013).
Vulnerability. Environmental and specifically geohazards risk assessment has never been
performed for dacha communities. While housing land lots in proper planning system would
have such risks assessments prior to assigning “housing” land category, vulnerabilities of dacha
land lots is unknown.
State services. Since many dachas have now permanent residents, in theory the state should
provide standard services to them (medical, firefighting, police). However dacha communities
have not been taken in by the governmental system, and currently are a burden to adjacent LPA,
who are providing emergency services. It is obviously a very complicated issue to resolve, since
if dachas would be taken in, their residence would need to have voting rights, LPAs need to have
budget and services, meaning new villages or towns formally emerging overnight.
Socio-spatial disparities in cities, spatial cohesion of living areas
Moldova still keeps inheritance from the USSR as a very egalitarian state. However in the future
social disparities will most probably increase, as few are getting considerably rich while may
remain poor. However this social divide visually manifests itself just in expensive car ownership,
and did not make it in to land use and class-divided urban areas or blocks. This makes quite
optimal spatial cohesion in Moldova cities, where few rich houses and shops are located in
between buildings of a common standard. Social disparities can’t easily be seen in the streets, no
they made it into city spatial arrangement. There are no any adverse policies by the Government
which could facilitate segregation or mistreatment of vulnerable groups (e.g. Roma), but perhaps
some segregation and disparity will increase as the wealthiest are tend to develop new real estate
in the prime areas (no particular areas can be identified yes, just perhaps few groups of
buildings/private land lots).
Spatial planning and housing (including housing infrastructure, green
spaces, large housing development projects vs. reconstruction of builtup areas - greenfield development vs. brownfield regeneration)
Urban infrastructure overview
The urban utility infrastructure, primarily district heating and hot water provisioning is of the
major concern due to its deterioration and complicated socio-economic issues that affect it.
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Portable water provisioning and sanitation require attention as well, mostly in terms of
improving its energy efficiency and coverage. Electricity and natural gas provisioning is stable
and the services are of reasonable quality and coverage.
Apart from utilities infrastructure, road networks, and the other physical infrastructure is in
reasonable condition, but can be further improved. Telecom (mobile telephony, broadband
internet) are developing dynamically driven by consumer demand and private investments.
Municipal solid waste (MSW) infrastructure is of a concern, because of its literary absence and
just collection services provided.
Public physical infrastructure in Moldova faces two major challenges: coverage and efficiency.
The major concerns are (1) coverage with sanitation (predominantly villages and towns) and
MSW disposal (throughout the country); (2) efficiency of district heating systems (in cities).
Water and sanitation
Clod fresh water supply covers 100% of urban settlements and 40% of rural ones, sanitation
coverage figures are low: 70% of urban settlements and 10% of rural ones (Ministry of
Environment, 2013). In 2013, 847 million m3 of water was collected from natural wells, while
losses during transportation accounted for 62 million m3 (7.3%) (National Bureau of Statistics
Moldova 2011 (1.3.7. CONSUMUL (UTILIZAREA) APEI )).
In Chisinau water supply coverage is 100% and sanitation coverage is just 70%. Chisinau has a
separate household wastewater and street rainwater collection and treatment. Surface rainwater
runoff is poorly treated (Apa Canal Chisinau, 2013). Table 3 presents basic statistical data on
sewerage infrastructure in Chisinau and Baliti.
Table 3. Sewerage systems in main Moldova cities.
City/Country
length of
sewers, km
Capacity of water
treatment plant, %
in use
Average energy spent to
pump and treat 1m3 of
water, kW/h/m3
Chisinau
(coverage 70%)
1023
32,3
0,4
Balti (coverage
50%)
150
32,4
0,5
Population
served, people
Sources: Association «Moldova Apa-Canal», 2011 http://www.amac.md/
Due to limited natural freshwater resources and their poor quality, organizing a good quality
water supply is a major challenge for Moldova. Many water supply and sanitation projects are
supported by international donors. For instance, EBRD considering financing building a 70 km
long 1.2 m diameter water main to the city of Balti, which would enable to increase coverage of
nearby villages and connect 100 000 more households. GIZ proposed investment in water supply
in Leova District, in which out of 2 towns and 37 villages, only the district centre town (Leova)
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
benefits from qualitative water and sanitation services (GIZ, 2013). However the challenges
remain huge, for instance the GIZ project plans to connect 14,700 people during the first project
stage by 2030, while the population of the district is projected as 61 060 people. Another project
in the city of Orphey will provide a modern sewerage treatment plant for 30,000 people; the
plant will use modern technology of constructed wetlands which will be operated by just 5
members of staff. The project cost is about 5 million euro (Ministry of Environment, 2013).
Housing heating and hot water supply infrastructure
Throughout the year Moldova has a very comfortable climate, however in winter average
minimum temperatures are ranging from -2 to -9 degrees Celsius with records below -20 degrees
(BBC weather). Energy provisioning represent the major challenge to Moldova in general, with
minimal own energy resources (hydropower) country relies on importing gas, oil, and electricity
(Ministry of Economic Development, 2013 interview). Winter housing heating prices are very
high in comparison to average income, and can constitute up to 80% of households budgets (Ion
Gumene, State Chancellery, 2013 interview).
The Government has a good understanding of energy challenges across the economy sectors,
efforts has been put into energy efficiency programs, including housing initiative supported by
EBRD (Moreff, 2013). Housing sector, including heating infrastructure represent an ample
opportunity for reducing energy consumption.
In majority of cities and towns heating is central (district heating system) and infrastructure has
been inherited from the Soviet times. Hot water is heated at a power plant and distributed to
users via network of conduits. In Moldova hot water for heating is usually separated from hot
water communal supply.
Heating supply companies faces increasing technical and structural challenges (outdated aging
infrastructure, poor system for collecting fees). High energy costs and low efficiency result in
high prices for private consumers, many of whom prefer to opt out and heat their apartments by
electricity or gas. This results in revenue loss for heat providers but not in reduction of actual
consumption, since heating systems in a multi apartment houses would roughly require the same
amount of energy due to heat circulation arrangement via pipe network and heat migrating
between apartments. Eventually heating becomes even more expensive to consumers who
decided not to opt out.
The situation where consumers are opting out from district heating is not unique to Moldova, and
has been reported in a number of former Soviet republics, including Tajikistan (UNECE Country
profile Tajikistan, 2011). In Dushanbe, the Capital of Tajikistan, almost 80% of the residents in
multifamily houses have dismantled radiators and hot water pipes, which have resulted in
electricity overconsumption and outages during winter times (UNECE Country profile
Tajikistan, 2011). Obviously situation in Moldova is much more stable, with just 15% of
consumers opted out from heating supply (TERMOCOM, 2013), however technical and
structural (social) efficiency of district heating is a major concern.
According to TERMOCOM, heating supplier in Chisinau, there is an average discrepancy of
36% in meter readings between hot water supply in a multi-apartment building and a sum of
readings for individual apartments (TERMOCOM, 2013). While during the last 10 years 15% of
consumers opted out from heating supply, energy consumption by TERMOCOM has fallen just
5%, which suggests 10% loss in efficiency. TERMOCOM estimates losses of energy in its
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
networks (prior to entering buildings) as 21% in energy terms, of which 2% are due to leakages
and 98% due to insulation. Heating provisioning is the major problem for cities in Moldova.
Mayor of Balti estimates that 130 multi-apartment houses in the city have a completely outdated
utility networks.
Housing cold water supply infrastructure, infrastructure efficiency
Clod fresh water supply covers all major settlements; in smaller villages groundwater wells are
used. City freshwater supply is sourced from surface reservoirs and rivers. Chisinau has good
fresh water quality, with recently upgraded water preparation system using ionization instead of
chlorine. Average water consumption is 6 m3 per person per month.
According to Apa Canal Chisinau, freshwater and sanitation provider in Chisinau, there is an
average discrepancy of 16% in meter readings between cold water supply in a multi-apartment
building and a sum of readings for individual apartments (Apa Canal Chisinau, 2013). Apa Canal
Chisinau estimates losses in its networks due to leakages (prior to entering buildings) as about
20-30%, which is quite high according to international standards of 5-10% in developed
countries.
Utility infrastructure has not been upgraded for many decades, its operation efficiency is low. It
is estimated that modernizing pumping equipment in water supply and sanitation networks can
reduce electricity consumption by 25-30% (Ministry of Environment, 2013).
Table 5 introduces a concept of unaccounted-for water, which helps to better understand
typology of water network losses and develop a strategy for more efficient utility systems, which
is a great need for Moldova. Unaccounted-for water results from physical losses (leakages) and
commercial (e.g. discrepancies in meter readings). Unaccounted-for water represents the
difference between "net production" (the volume of water delivered into a network) and
"consumption" (the volume of water that can be accounted for by legitimate consumption,
whether metered or not) (UNESCO-IHE). According to the World Bank study (table 4)
unaccounted-for water values ranging from 6% to 63% have been reported.
Table 4. Components of Unaccounted-for water.
Country/City/Year ---Components of Unaccounted-for water
(%)
Physical Commercial Total
Balti
Chisinau
27,7
20.6
16
36,6
Kriuljani
50
Tokyo
3.6
Singapore 1989
4
7
11
Spain, Barcelona 1988
11
12
23
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Philadelphia Water Department; (highest in the USA, 2010)
31
Costa Rica, San Jose 1990
21
25
46
Sources: Water and Wastewater Utility Data – 2nd edition 1996. Yepes, Guillermo; Dianderas,
Augusta. 1996. Water & wastewater utilities: indicators 2nd edition. Washington, DC: World
Bank; Association «Moldova Apa-Canal», 2011 http://www.amac.md/; : National Bureau of
Statistics Moldova 2011 (1.3.7. CONSUMUL (UTILIZAREA) APEI ); Control and Mitigation
of Drinking Water Losses in Distribution Systems. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
November 2010; Bureau of Waterworks Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 2013
https://www.waterworks.metro.tokyo.jp/eng/supply/index.html;
Table 5. Guidelines for interpreting water loss within distribution systems
Unaccounted-for water, %
Recommended action (UNESCO-IHE)
< 10
Acceptable, monitoring and control
10-25
Intermediate, could be reduced
> 25
Matter of concern, reduction needed
Source: UNESCO-IHE presentation on SWITCH*.
http://www.switchurbanwater.eu/cities/index.php *SWITCH is a European Commission funded
major research partnership on urban water issues.
Table 5 gives guidelines according to UNESCO-IHE as to which percentage of unaccounted-for
water is acceptable. Both presented in table 4 Moldova utility companies fall into the least
acceptable category, which suggests that efficiency in water distribution sector should be one of
the current policy priorities. Currently Tokyo has one of the most efficient water systems in the
world. Tokyo was successful in reducing leakage rate from 20% in 1956 to 3.6% in 2006.
(Tokyo: Population served 12,822,722 people; Total length of distribution pipes 26,219km).
Reductions in leakages saves significant amount of energy as well. Table 6 presents some
statistical data on portable water supply infrastructure in Chisinau and Balti.
Table 6. Data on cold portable water infrastructure in Chisinau and Balti.
City
Unaccountedfor water, %
length of
distribution
pipes, km
Population
served,
people
Average water
consumption,
liters per person
per day
Average energy
spent to process
and deliver 1m3
of water,
kW/h/m3
Chisinau 36,6
1,816
166
0,8
Balti
261
71
1
27,7
Sources: National Bureau of Statistics Moldova 2011 (1.3.7. CONSUMUL (UTILIZAREA)
APEI ); Association «Moldova Apa-Canal», 2011 http://www.amac.md/
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Municipal solid waste (MSW) management
Municipal solid waste (MSW) appears to be the major problem for almost all settlements in
Moldova, including the capital Chisinau. In Chisinau, the MSW management system is abridged
to waste collection; 1 200 000 m3 of MSW is collected per year, of which 75% in from
households and 25% from organizations. The waste is transported by tracks to “a temporary
storage site” (LPA, 2013). The 21 hectare landfill has been closed due to its oversaturation.
There is no waste sorting, recycling, separate collection of hazardous waste.
It’s actually unclear how much waste is collected. The MSW is collected by a special enterprise,
and paid for according to the following fixed norms: Chisinau urban: 1.3 kg person day;
Chisinau rural: 0.25 kg person day; Balti urban: 0.8 kg person day. There is a need to make these
norms more transparent, and perhaps to conduct a study of how much waste is actually generated
and what is morphological composition of the MSW.
Road network and public transport
Road construction and repair is one of the national priorities for Moldova (Ion Gumene, State
Chancellery, 2013 interview). Motorization rate is still low: 113 passenger cars per 1000
population (World Bank, 2010), but it is growing steadily. Country and city roads are usually
well planned, road surface is not in an ideal but reasonable condition. Moderate traffic
congestion is observed in city centers, including Chisinau. Generally a lot of parking space
seems to be available, however some improper parking can be observed in prime business and
commercial areas in Chisinau. Currently car street parking is free of charge; it seems to be no
consistent enforcement on car street side parking. Chisinau developed a feasibility study for a
ring road.
Country public transportation system is based on buses; there is a railway that connects major
regional centers. Urban public transport is represented by buses and ample coverage by
trolleybuses. Length of trolleybus lines in Chisinau – 246 kilometers, in Balti – 40). Buses and
trolleybuses are in a good condition and used widely.
Infrastructure networks and city planning
Variety of utilities and infrastructure are managed by respective companies, which presumably
hold a database of their assets. There is no centralized database of infrastructure and
communication lines and collectors, at least in Chisinau City planning department would not
know where utility lines are unless asking respective providers. It is advisable to hold a central
GIS database of at least approximate location of communications. This will facilitate informed
urban planning and ease new development process. “One window” service for developers, and a
modern GIS based knowledge base for LPAs as well, would be an important step forward in
urban planning and development.
A number of organizations concerned with city management (“Urbanproiect”; Chisinau LPA)
reported difficulties regarding accuracy and length of procedure in co-coordinating maintenance
and redevelopment of different infrastructures.
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Housing development and redevelopment
Volumes of new construction of multi-apartment houses are rather modest in Moldova (ref), the
projects are usually driven by private investors.
Soviet era panel multi-apartment houses are an upcoming problem for Moldova, as for all other
CIS countries. These houses, built in the 60s and 70s have low energy efficiency, apartments
layout does not correspond to modern improved living standards. There is a need to upgrade,
renovate, or demolish and redevelop these housing blocks. Blocks of these houses, consisting
usually of five-storey buildings, have low build stock density and ample green areas. In case of
high land prices demolition of these houses while providing new apartments for its residents can
be economically viable, and there have been pilot projects in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. In
Moldova, Chisinau is the prime city where such programs might be interesting in the future,
when land prices and citizens’’ purchasing power increase. At the moment Chisinau City
Government has a pilot feasibility study on panel multi-apartment houses upgrading in Rizkovka
district (Urbanproiect, 2013; Chisinauproiect, 2013).
Buildings international certification, safety
Moldova does not possess any LEAD or BREAM certified buildings at present.
Construction norms and building codes are adequate, but could be modernized, in accordance
with e.g. EU legislation. Building safety should be at a higher standard in some cases (Figure 1).
Control on development and enforcement
Formal process for executing construction and new development
Formally construction works are carried out upon obtaining City Planning Certificate and
Building Permission (art. 41 of the Law No. 835-XIII of 17 May 1996m (Official monitor No. 1–
2 dated 02 January 1997) on Urban Planning and land Improvement Principles; Decree #493,
2013). There is also a legal stipulation (Construction Code, 1999) that developments should be
carried out in accordance with Master plans, however with de factor absence of them
construction can proceed with a City Planning Certificate. The urban planning certificate and the
building / demolition permit are issued by mayors of municipalities, towns, communes and
villages for construction (construction /demolition works) of any purpose and type of property.
The urban planning certificate for designing is developed based on the urban planning and land
improvement documentation by local architecture and urban planning authorities of local
governments. In the absence of the urban planning and land improvement documentation, the
issuing authority is required to develop, via its empowered services, a layout scheme of the
building / land lot and utility networks, which, being endorsed by the chief architect, state
supervision authorities (center of preventive medicine, environmental inspectorate, fire and
rescue service), "Urbanproiect" (for all settlements except Chisinau municipality),
"Chisinauproiect" (for Chisinau municipality), will serve as a basis for the development and
issuance of the urban planning certificate for designing.
The City Planning Certificate should be approved by “Urbanproiect” in cases where Master
plans are absent (except of Chisinau). “Urbanproiect” is a state owned design institute,
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
specializing in urban planning. Apart from usual design project work this institution also carries
out the above mentioned regulatory and permitting functions. While an ad-hoc process of
approving new construction and developments by “Urbanproiect” is a reasonable arrangement
for a time being, it is not so in a long term. There is a potential conflict of interests for
“Urbanproiect” as a project designer and approver at the same time.
In general, urban plans have been ineffective for controlling urban growth. As a result, new
housing units are being erected without service infrastructure (World Bank UNECE, 2013).
A large part of the designs are executed using outdated topographic studies that do not
correspond to existing regulatory and legal acts in force performed by people who have no the
necessary education and qualifications, are not licensed in the topographic and geodesic
prospects; in some cases the work projects are carried out using topographic materials prepared
in the period of 50-80 years of last century, cadastral plans, ortophoto materials, satellite images
and others, flagrantly violating the law in force (Modernization of local public services in the
Republic of Moldova - Intervention area 1: Local services. Construction and registration of
facilities of technical and utility infrastructure. Final report. March 2012. Published by: Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ)).
Enforcement
Enforcement of planning regulations and compliance with buildings codes represent a problem
during many new building developments (Anatolie Zolotcov, Ministry of Construction, 2013).
For example, minimum plot size regulations are not checked during registration to cadastre;
developers are known to circumvent built area restrictions by declaring an area larger than the
plot where the construction is located (World Bank UNECE, 2013).
Note: this passage is a quote from World Bank UNECE, 2013. In general, LPAs have low
capacity to enforce land use and building regulations. Land use change is prohibited in certain
categories of environmentally sensitive land and restricted for certain categories of agricultural
land. These restrictions, however, are often violated, by way of the construction of permanent
structures on forest land and the use of grazing pastures for other purposes. The process to obtain
building permits is regulated and payments are affordable, but in practice speed and
predictability are a problem. Deadlines are generally not met and the use of informal payments is
widespread. Inappropriate discretion in the enforcement of regulations is common. This is
influenced by low salary and fee levels preventing land use planning departments to act on a
cost-recovery basis. LPAs supervise constructions, but they do not have the authority to
regularize infractions. When the LPA declares that a construction is illegal, a fine is imposed and
demolition is ordered. The person can appeal the case to a judicial court. In 73% of cases
submitted to the court, the judge ruled in favor of the owner. Hence, the courts are in fact very
often regularizing unauthorized construction. (World Bank UNECE, 2013).
Policy framework for spatial development and land-use regulations
(master plans, zoning, etc.)
Management of Public Land
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Note: this passage is a quote from World Bank UNECE, 2013. The lack of demarcation and clear
assignment of responsibilities hinder the effective and transparent management of public lands.
Public lands account for about 45% of Moldova’s surface area. The ownership of public lands is
roughly divided between 781,500 hectares under the state ownership and 732,900 hectares under
the LPAs. However, only about 12% of state-owned public lands are demarcated, out of which
34% have their boundaries demarcated. For LPA-owned public lands, about 15% are registered
out of which 81% have their boundaries demarcated. The lack of demarcation causes conflicts by
contributing to insecurity of tenure for the individuals adjacent and inside public lands
conducting agricultural, grazing, and forestry activities. There is also a lack of clarity over who is
the entity responsible for the management of the public lands, which for example hinders the
signing and supervision of leases and concessions. Some public lands are leased out to jointstock companies. However, these companies are not properly supervised and there have been
reports of improper management of land assets. On the other hand, information on land
concessions is published in the official gazette and available to the public. All public land
disposed in the last three years has been through public auctions. There are areas in the collection
of payments from leasing plots in public lands. The general rule is to sell or lease public land at
market prices, but some exception apply in the cases of employees of state institutions,
pensioners and socially vulnerable families. (World Bank UNECE, 2013).
Urban development policies and strategies
It is important to have in place elaborated policies or strategies of urban development. Cities and
towns in Moldova unfortunately lack such documents. Although LPAs are aware of their
localities development needs, these knowledge is usually not formalized and put in writing into
any strategic development documents. There is a great need for such documents that would
address pressing urban problems (e.g. transport, housing, waste management), provide strategy
for their tackling, specify overall policy goals and intermediate targets including time span for
achieving them, set performance indicators and their monitoring arranges. Currently LPAs seems
to be addressing majority of issues that are strategic by nature (e.g. infrastructure provisioning)
by ad-hoc arrangements.
Table 6 details urban indicators and their performance under two alternative urban development
strategies: sprawling and compact urban growth. While it is widely accepted that urban sprawl is
undesirable strategy globally and in developed countries in particular (UN Habitat, 2013); given
Moldova land use and socio-economic conditions, urban development strategies should be
mixed. In Moldova, private housing should be encouraged and some sprawl would be inevitable,
however compact strategy should be directed on using in boundaries city land resources as much
as possible. Table 6 uses examples from cities of Chisinau and Balti, and details standard
implications and features of both strategies tailored to the above cities. One the basis of
indicators analysis within both strategies LPAs can be consulted on the strategy that would fit
particular location, especially when developing and updating Master plans.
Table 6. Urban indicators and development strategies in urban planning sector. Amended and
extended, based on Litman, 2012. Recommended for Chisinau, Balti.
Urban
indicator
(theme)
Density
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Strategy: Sprawling
Allow lower-density growth on urban
fringes.
Strategy: Compact
Encourage inner city development and redevelopment,
discourage individual construction on city fringes.
PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Growth pattern
Land use mix
Drawbacks: high infrastructure and
transportation costs, ineffective land
use in the city core, dispersion of
economic activity.
Urban fringe (greenfield)
development.
Drawbacks: loss of agricultural land.
Homogeneous (single-use,
segregated).
Drawbacks: higher development costs for individual
housing, lower affordability of housing.
Infill (brownfield) development.
Drawbacks: higher costs for remediation and risk
assessment.
Mixed land uses.
Drawbacks: none.
Scale
Public services
(schools, parks,
etc.)
Transport
Drawbacks: need for widespread
transport infrastructure, higher cost of
economic activity.
Large scale. Larger blocks and wider
roads. Less detail since people
experience the landscape at a
distance, as motorists. This is the
current situation in e.g. Chisinau.
Drawbacks: discourage walking, no
room for implementing “sustainable
mobility”
Regional, consolidated, larger.
Requires automobile access. The
trend will be social segregation.
Drawbacks: social segregation.
Automobile-oriented. Poorly suited
for walking, cycling and transit.
Public transportation will require
significant investment, if to be
preserved.
Human scale. Smaller blocks and roads. Careful detail,
since people experience the landscape up close, as
pedestrians. This is the current situation in some
Chisinau activity areas. This should be encouraged by
allowing small businesses development, having sanitary,
green, fire, etc. safeguards in place.
Drawbacks: unauthorised and unregulated development.
Local, distributed, smaller. Accommodates walking
access. Current situation in Chisinau and should be
maintained.
Drawbacks: none
Multi-modal. Supports walking, cycling and public
transit. Multi-modal transport should be encouraged in
Chisinau by providing reserved, safe space for walking
and cycling; current street layout easily allows this.
Drawbacks: none
Connectivity
Street design
Drawbacks: high overall and public
sector costs.
Hierarchical road network with a
need for big transit streets. Currently
there is enough big transit streets in
Chisinau, however outer city roads
can be better developed.
Drawbacks: high costs, no human
scale, increased community
segregation and traffic safety
concerns.
Streets designed to maximize motor
vehicle traffic volume and speed
(current situation in Chisinau).
Drawbacks: non human scale,
community segregation.
Planning
process
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Unplanned, with little coordination
between jurisdictions and
stakeholders – this is current situation
with dachas, it should be resolved by
developing and enforcing Master
plans.
Highly connected (grid or modified grid) streets and
nonmotorized network (sidewalks, paths, crosswalks and
shortcuts). This should be encouraged, however it should
not be the only strategy for Chisinau.
Drawbacks: risk that it would not work and result in big
traffic jams.
Streets designed to accommodate a variety of activities
(current situation in some smaller streets in Chisinau).
Should be encouraged, private car parking should be
controlled (limited in the future).
Drawbacks: with poor enforcement private cars will
push other activities aside (walking, bicycle, small
business)
Planned and coordinated between jurisdictions and
stakeholders – this is the situation in the city core of
Chisinau, which results from Soviet zoning policies.
Currently should be reformed to fit modern economic
requires.
PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Public space
Drawbacks: too much regulation will
push up construction costs.
Emphasizes private realm (yards,
shopping malls, gated communities).
This is the trend in wealthy areas
(minimal so far), it should be
controlled.
Drawbacks: strict zoning might mislead and hamper
urban economic growth, if developed misfortunately.
Emphasizes public realm (streets, walking environments,
public parks, etc). This is by majority the present
situation in Chisinau, and should be further encouraged.
Drawbacks: none
Drawbacks: diminished public space
Conclusions and recommendations
Master plans
While the Government absolutely rightly has been recognizing the need to have a modern Master
plans in place (Decree #493), it is still not very clear how the Master plans are going to be
developed. The immediate challenge seems to be of a financial nature. However there is a need
to look one step further and develop a policy document that would address issues of stakeholders
involvement in elaboration of Master plans, and quality assurance process for Master plans
approval. There is a danger that while local authorities have a formal responsibility for Master
plans provisioning, and not having the recent experience, expertise, and capacity for doing so,
the Master planning process could be hijacked by “sponsors” and will be eventually biased, not
fully addressing needs for land use related socio-economic development in a specific locality.
It is very important for Moldova that country specific concerns are not overlooked in the Master
plans. These concerns are: (1) environmental risk assessment of geological processes (addressing
gully formation, landslides and floods as well); (2) designating and reserving space for
infrastructure development (water supply and sanitation, waste management); (3) taking into
account concerns of vulnerable population groups.
A Master plan is an important tool for steering urban development in a wider sense; policies
addressing socio-economic and environmental issues can be built in to a Master plan. Since
Moldova has a major challenge with modern Master plans provisioning, this important urban
policy tool have been missing yet.
Land use governance framework
While the legal systems clearly defines breakdown in responsibilities between tires of
government regarding urban and rural planning and development, there should be more capacity
in monitoring and assessment of different localities performance regarding land use planning and
actual use. More comprehensive cross sectoral and geographical data will allow for better policy
elaboration and implementation by the government.
Urban policies and progress indicators
Different tires of government should be encouraged to have in place policy documents that
would address specific to locality problems. The problems should be prioritized, there should be
strategy for their tackling and indicators to monitor progress towards specific targets and
milestones. Such policy-strategy-programs could be directed on e.g. transport, waste
management challenges. These policies could and should be linked and based on spatial data to
monitor the present situation and have projections for the future.
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
There is a need to set up policies to address most pressing problems (e.g. waste management)
and develop strategy documents at a local level. The key locally specific problems should be
identified, and relevant urban sustainability indicators should be set up ad monitored. This would
enable informed decision making by LPA within an agreed policy framework, rather than ad-hoc
process for tackling prolonged and persisting problems.
Sub-urbanization and dachas
Being a very rural country, of favorable climate, soils, and limited industrial development,
Moldova and its citizens relay on land as a livelihood. While in Soviet time people migrated to
cities, now they migrate out of the cities (Ministry of Economic Development, 2013 interview).
Migration process is modest, and does not target remote villages, but rather peri-urban areas,
where formal and semi-formal (dachas) housing is being developed and flourishes. Moldova still
has ample amount of lands available, unused and not intensively used. In this situation
combating urban sprawl aggressively would not be the right policy, but rather regulating it while
enabling people built their own houses and have domestic agriculture and farming.
There is a need for a policy appraisal exercise to determine whether peri-urban individual hosing
development would revitalize economy, and if so, what would be an optimal size for a land lot
and what functional use should it carry (housing, individual agriculture, animal farming). This
policy appraisal exercise should include assessment of infrastructure needs, specifically study on
transport systems. Eventually it should be determined to which extend individual housing could
be a promising policy and strategy for an economic growth, and under which conditions and how
it should be encouraged or discouraged.
Since significant urban sprawl occurs de facto, there is a need for a policy that would make it as
sustainable as possible.
Infrastructure efficiency
Infrastructure efficiency appears to be one of the major problems Moldova is facing. In general
the Government and LPA are on the right track for addressing the problem. However without
major investments and structural reforms the progress might be quite limited. It is recommended
that in multifamily houses standards would be set up regarding utilities provisioning according to
technical specifications and requirements of a particular (standard) building type. This might
bring confidence to utility companies that individual consumers are not opting out and will
facilitate investments in renovation of infrastructure.
It is recommended to prioritize utility networks efficiency improvement since this will bring
down operational costs for utility companies and enable them to start plans to increase coverage
to peri-urban areas, where there is a great need for water and sanitation, and at the same time
proximity to main urban utility network makes this investment feasible. By increasing efficiency
utility companies would be able to serve more consumers without operation expenditure
increase.
Major new water and sanitation projects are currently not feasible without significant support
from outside Moldova LPA or central government budgets.
It is recommended to have a comprehensive GIS based database of infrastructure assets. This
will increase efficiency and shorten time for new development permitting process, as well as for
routine urban planning by LPAs.
Training and capacity building
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
In some instances it has been reported that professional responsible for certain types of work lack
required qualifications, or their knowledge and qualifications are not up to date. This particularly
have been observed in case of mapping and topographic works (World Bank UNECE, 2013);
management of utility infrastructure. Often professionals has been caught in locally specific
problems and attained significant experience in crisis management and ad-hoc solutions,
however this does not provide them with the knowledge and motivation to move beyond the
state-of-the-art and facilitate new policy and/or technical solutions implementation. In this regard
international co-operation and exchange would be most useful.
References
Anatolie Zolotcov, Ministry of Construction, 2013 interview
Apa Canal Chisinau, 2013 interview
Association «Moldova Apa-Canal», 2011 http://www.amac.md/
BBC weather. http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/618426
Carruthers, J.I. (2003), “Growth at the Fringe: The Influence of Political Fragmentation in
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Chisinauproiect, 2013 interview
Cities' Achievements and Challenges in the Fight against Climate Change. C40 Cities Climate
Leadership Group (2009) http://www.c40cities.org/c40events/c40-seoul-summit
Control and Mitigation of Drinking Water Losses in Distribution Systems. U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. November 2010
Decree on approval of a mid-term programme on the development of master plans for human
settlements for 2013-2016 years. Decree #493, dated 04.07.2013. signed by Prime Minister
Demographia 2013 World Urban Areas: 9th Annual Edition (2013.03)
http://www.demographia.com/
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 2013
GIZ, German Agency for International Cooperation, 2013 interview
Global water supply and sanitation assessment 2000 report. 2000 WHO and UNICEF ISBN 92 4
156202 1
Government Decision No. 468 of 26.07.2012
Ion Gumene, State Chancellery, 2013 interview
Law on Urban Planning and land Improvement Principles No. 835-XIII of 17 May 1996m
(Official monitor No. 1–2 dated 02 January 1997)
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Litman T (2012) Smart Growth Reforms: Changing Planning, Regulatory and Fiscal Practices to
Support More Efficient Land Use. 10 December 2012. Victoria Transport Policy Institute.
Canada. www.vtpi.org
Ministry of Economic Development, 2013 interview
Ministry of Environment, 2013 interview
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services. Construction and registration of facilities of technical and utility infrastructure. Final
report. March 2012. Published by: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ)
Moreff, 2013
National Bureau of Statistics Moldova http://www.statistica.md/index.php?l=en
TERMOCOM, 2013 interview
UNECE Country profile Tajikistan, 2011
UNESCO-IHE presentation on SWITCH was a major research partnership funded by the
European Commission http://www.switchurbanwater.eu/cities/index.php
Urbanproiect, 2013 interview
USAID, 2013 interview
World Bank UNECE 2013
World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2011
Yepes, Guillermo; Dianderas, Augusta. 1996. Water & wastewater utilities : indicators 2nd
edition. Washington, DC: World Bank.
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/1996/05/696572/water-wastewater-utilitiesindicators-2nd-edition
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Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2005.
Bobylev, N. (2007) Sustainability and Vulnerability Analysis of Critical Underground
Infrastructure (pp. 445-469). In: Linkov, I., Wenning R., and Kiker G., Managing Critical
Infrastructure Risks. NATO Security through Science Series. Springer Netherlands. DOI
10.1007/978-1-4020-6385-5_26. ISBN: 978-1-4020-6385-5
Bobylev, N. (2013) Urban physical infrastructure adaptation to climate change. In: J.B. Saulnier
and M.D. Varella (eds.), Global Change, Energy Issues and Regulation Policies, Integrated
Science & Technology Program 2, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6661-7_4, Springer
Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013, pp. 77-102.
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Brundtland Commission, (1987) Our Common Future, Report of the World Commission on
Environment and Development, World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987.
Published as Annex to General Assembly document A/42/427, Development and International
Co-operation: Environment August 2, 1987
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EEA, http://reports.eea.europa.eu/
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and vulnerability. Contribution of working group II to the fourth assessment report of the
intergovernmental panel on climate change. In: Parry ML, Canziani OF, Palutikof JP, van der
Linden PJ, Hanson CE (eds) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
International Energy Agency, (2003). Energy to 2050: Scenarios for a sustainable future.
International Energy Agency. 224pp
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ISBN 978-92-64-04048-9
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Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). ISBN13: 978-0-415-83888-7
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https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/11845
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Pictures
Figure 1. A staircase on one of the public offices in Chisinau. A gap about 25 centimeters wide
can be seen between the wall and the stairs on the right. A gap would be enough for a child to
fall into. Generally, buildings safety is of a reasonable standard in Moldova, but requires
improvement in some cases. Photo: Bobylev, 2013.
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Figure 2. Abandoned shop in the Centre of Chisinau. Urban densification would be possible and
desirable. Photo: Bobylev, 2013.
Figure 3. One of the typical streets layout in Chisinau. There is still a lot of space for walking
and bicycle, but the danger is that unregulated parking might fragment and waste this spare
space. Photo: Bobylev, 2013.
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Figure 4. Map of Chisinau
Figure 5. Map of Chisinau
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PART III. SPATIAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, N Bobylev, August 2013
Figure 6. Map of Chisinau
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