The Forest Area Changes in the Prut River Watershed (Romania)
15th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2015, sgem.org, SGEM2015 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7105-35-3/ISSN 1314-2704, June 18-24, 2015, Book 2, Vol. 2, 1131-1138 pp
9 Pages Posted: 9 Dec 2015 Last revised: 10 Feb 2016
Date Written: June 22, 2015
Abstract
Prut river is a border river between Romania and Moldova and it's watershed is extended in both countries. This study is focused on the analysis of the Romanian part of the watershed. The transformations in the forested areas were described for a period of 110 years, based on several historic maps and satellite images, integrated in the G.I.S environment. In order to track the transformations underwent by the forested areas, we used topographic materials of the 1893-1894 edition at the scale of 1:50 000,the 1945 edition at the scale of 1:20 000, the 1975 edition at the scale of 1:25 000 and Corine Land Cover for the year 2000. It notes two stages: the first stage (before the communist regime) is marked by a decrease of forest area for grasslands and deforestation for farmland or land-winning housing, and the second (stage during the communist regime), during which there was controlled logging, followed by plantings.
During the period between 1890-1945 stands uncontrolled logging policy for the period 1945-1975 and controlled logging, followed by afforestation. In the last period 1975-2000 there is an increase in forest area due also to controlled logging and numerous plantations for the protection of degraded lands. Another observation made was that of an increase in forest surface as a result of the natural vegetation growth. The most dynamic area is in the southern part of the Prut basin whereas in the central and eastern portions, the region is almost entirely deforested, whilst in the north-west, west and south the forested areas are predominant. In the Bucecea and Ruginoasa gorges, from the wooded area of the Suceava Plateau, as well as in most of the forest steppe from the Moldavian Plain, the natural spontaneous vegetation was replaced by crops.
Keywords: land use, deforestation, afforestation, uncontrolled logging, GIS, forest fragmentation
JEL Classification: Q23, R14
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation