Regional Development from the Perspective of Polycentricism

The study proposes an integrated approach of polycentricism based on assessing the issues of the Romanian urban and rural spaces. The first step was the definition of a few evaluation indices of the polycentricism level within the rural and urban areas and the establishment of a general indicator aggregating the first ones. The analysis made for each development region is focused, on the one hand, on the specific component elements for defining the polycentricism level and, on the other hand, on the possibility of covering each used indicator with official statistical data. These indicators may be used in the development of the new Regional Development Plan for the upcoming period of 2014-2020, based on the Improvement Territorial Regional Plans and Metropolitan and Regional Development Strategies.