1 Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Technical and Human Sciences, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Calea Sighișoarei 2, 540485, Târgu Mureș/Corunca, Romania
Nowadays’ (Transylvanian) urban landscape as a complex, built and natural, social and economic environment is undergoing a sudden and accelarated transformation. Urbanization is a defining feature of current spatial/urban metamorphosis in Transylvania, too, yet the current model of urban development profoundly alters the natural environment, often reducing biodiversity and ultimately threatening human wellbeing. Present not only in academic theory, but in a broader sense in the daily public debate for the past decades, ecological perspective has become one of the leading design principles in nowadays’ professional practice and theory in urban and spatial planning, a compulsory attribute of the contemporary mindset and (urban) landscape. Proposed research on ecological perspective in current urban (landscape) planning in Transylvania, Romania is focusing specifically on the role ecological perspective can play in understanding, the applying the more general and complex phenomenon of sustainability in the planning and management of landscapes. The idea of sustainability, the ecoregional approach are not only traditional attributes of the historical landscape, but also generators in present day development of cities around Transylvania, Romania. The ecological approach can enhance finding solutions in urgent social and environmental challanges regarding efficient management of resources, sustainable urban and spatial planning.