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Instability is an omnipresent process that creates the conditions for adaptation and change. A territorial system cannot develop without instability. A high degree of system instability points out an acute structural and functional disorder. The present study proposes a method to measure system instability through economic structural and functional changes inside urban territorial systems. The analysis is done by quantifying the changes and transfers in internal economic hierarchies. System instability shows the role that the system plays in its environment and consequently the measures that can be taken to amplify or hinder (depending on the desired outcome) that role. The conceptual framework captures the adaptive processes associated with system instability and both structural and functional changes are evidenced. The non-linear processes were analysed for the urban territorial system of Baia Mare (Romania) underlining their role in the city's adaptation to the changing of its environment. The proposed method starts from the assumption that internal systemic hierarchy is a very stable parameter of state. If the system is unstable, significant changes of the internal hierarchy will happen, and this will be reflected in a strong structural and functional shift. Measuring system instability helps better understanding the impact that change and adaptation have over the territorial system and its environment. Understanding these processes may offer policy makers the evidence they need to take actions in a conscious manner.

The 'Europe 2020 Strategy' was issued in 2010 by the European Commission. This document constitutes a growth scheme for the decade 2010-2020 that aims to help the European Union to emerge from the current crisis through the so-called smart, sustainable and inclusive dimensions of growth. In this context, the basic aim of the SIESTA ("Spatial Indicators for a 'Europe 2020 Strategy' Territorial Analysis") Project has been to illustrate the territorial dimension of the 'Europe 2020 Strategy'. In other words, to show how this document acts territorially, particularly at the regional scale, but, when possible, also at the urban level. The SIESTA Project has been funded by ESPON ("European Observation Network for Territorial Development and Cohesion"), a European Commission Programme whose mission is to support policy development in relation to the aim of territorial cohesion and a harmonious development of the European territory. This book includes most of the main findings and conclusions obtained through research of the SIESTA Project. The contents were presented and discussed as keynote addresses or communications at the SIESTA Final Conference held in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, on 4-5 April 2013.

The present study is a concise form of some of the researches conducted within
the Interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Researches on Territorial Dynamics of the
University of Bucharest, which had as an objective identifying the relationships between the
development of the poles network and the evolution of demographic indicators. The study's
objectives are related to identifying the role of decisional impulses from the development
poles level in the functional structuring of the local settlements system. The analyses were
done at each census level, and the measures adopted by the decision makers in order to
stimulate the economy of development poles were underlined. A special attention was
given to the communist period, when decisional impulses were followed by immediate
effects at the level of dissipative capacity of towns, towards which the investments
allocated in order to develop industry were oriented.