1 Department of Geography, Faculty of History and Geography, "Stefan cel Mare" University,
Universitatii Street, no. 13, Suceava, Romania 2 National Meteorology Administration, CMR Moldova - Iasi, Suceava Weather Station, Romania
DOI:
10.4316/GEOREVIEW.2013.23.2.81
Pages:
22 - 33
Abstract:
Unreasonable use of land is an actual problem both for
local authorities and European Union, as a result of population growth
and economic activities development, which causes many changes in
geographical landscape. Irrespective of the cause of enlargement /
reduction of certain land use categories (residential, economic) it has a
major impact on ecosystems. The present study aims at performing a
spatial and temporal land use analysis in the Soloneţ river catchment
(right tributary of the Suceava River, with an area of 211 km ²) through
digital mapping, in order to obtain results on the dynamics of
geographical landscape for the interval 1856 - 2011. We therefore used
the 1856 Austrian cadastral maps (scale 1:2880), the 1982 cadastral
plans (scale 1:5000) and ortophotoplans from 2011. Comparative
analysis revealed that, within the studied region, geographical landscape
has undergone significant changes over the past 150 years. The most
important change is that of the forest-covered area, a response to the
expansion of built and agricultural areas, but also the main cause for the
occurrence of geomorphologic, hydrologic and climatic risks. In our
opinion, in the absence of any measures to stop this phenomenon, the
irreversible process will continue to directly affect land use structure by
further expansion of built areas at the expense of woodland and arable
land. Moreover, the problem of land susceptibility to geomorphologic,
hydrologic and climatic risks becomes increasingly acute.
Keywords:
land use, the Soloneţ river catchment, GIS, geographical landscape, changes, risks