A An na al l e el l e e U Un ni i v ve er rs si i t t ă ăŃ Ń i i i i d di i n n O Or ra ad de e a a – – S Se er ri i a a G Ge eo og gr ra af f i i e e Year X XX XI II II I, no. 1 1/ /2 20 01 13 3 (June), pp. 6 62 2- -7 72 2 ISSN 1 12 22 21 1- - 1 12 27 73 3, E-ISSN 2 20 06 65 5- -3 34 40 09 9 Article no. 231108-608 http://istgeorelint.uoradea.ro/Reviste/Anale/anale.htm GEO-DEMOGRAPHICAL CHANGES IN THE INFLUENCE AREA OF REIłA CITY George MERCIU University of Bucharets, Faculty of Geography, Bucharest, Romania, e-mail: merciugeorge@yahoo.co.uk Cristian BRAGHINĂ University of Bucharets, Faculty of Geography, Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Researches on Territorial Dynamics, CICADIT, Bucharest, Romania, e-mail: cristianbraghina@yahoo.com Daniel PEPTENATU University of Bucharets, Faculty of Geography, Interdisciplinary Center for Advanced Researches on Territorial Dynamics, CICADIT, Bucharest, Romania, e-mail: peptenatu@yahoo.fr Abstract: The importance of the analysis of the influence area of the city of ReiŃa results, on the one hand, from the part played by it as a local development hub in the Banat Mountains, and on the other hand by the city’s influence in driving ahead the economy of the localities inside its influence area. The industrial reorganization that impacted on the city of ReiŃa has influenced the neighboring area, influencing the evolution of the main demographic indicators, too. The influence area of the city of ReiŃa is characterized by a rich history, a situation that determined the evolution of the effects of political and historical factors, which, at certain periods of time, had an overwhelming influence on both the evolution of the population numbers and on the evolution’s quality-related matters (religion, culture). Keywords: urban influence area, territorial relations, population, rural, spatial, temporal * * * * * * INTRODUCTION In time, various relations of economic, social, cultural, or other nature are established between urban centers and the neighboring areas (Pintilii, 2008; Drăghici, 2012). Furthermore, the city is considered „an optimal, open, thermodynamic and informational system” (Ianoş, 2004, p. 4), a system that develops and survives thanks to the multitude of relationships it establishes with the other, neighboring systems in the territory (Drăghici, 2011, p. 304). A city’s connections with the adjacent area indicate a mutual dependence and they may define the form of the respective urban center’s influence area (Iano, 1987). By means of its economic power, a city may dynamize the area it polarizes (Iano, 1987) or on the contrary, slow down the process of economic development of the adjacent area (Staac & Bucur, 2010). Most of the time, the relation between the polarizing city and the surrounding rural area reveals that rural areas are vulnerable to changes of an economic nature in the city, with direct consequences on the demographic potential, too (Zamfir et al., 2011). Population is the most active component in the dynamics of an area of influence (Cicharska, 2011).