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Volume XIX |
Geomorphology, GIS and Remote Sensing

Landslide-susceptibility Analysis, Mapping and Validation in the Bălăcița Piedmont (South-West Romania)

1, 1,*, 2, 1, 1

Abstract: This work presents the results of applying the GIS matrix method (GMM) to the mapping and validation of landslide-susceptibility analysis in different sectors of the Bălăciţa Piedmont. The main objective of the paper concerns the achievement of landslide-susceptibility maps based on the inventory, classification and description of the landslides within the study area. The starting point was represented by the DEM and, subsequently, based on the lithological data, other determinant factors were analyzed and reclassified in a vectorial format: slope angle, slope elevation and slope aspect. After the factors that determine instability were identified for each type of mechanism, susceptibility maps were drawn. In the resulting landslide-susceptibility map a model for the validation is presented (based on the determination and calculation of a set of landslides not included in the susceptibility analysis). The landslide-susceptibility maps of the Bălăciţa Piedmont are preventive tools intended to minimize risks in the threatened areas, especially near the settlements that are located on the left slope of the Jiu river and witness the reactivation of old landslides.

Keywords: , , , ,
Full article 10.5775/fg.2020.127.dDates:
Received: 05-03-2020 Accepted: 03-08-2020 Printed: 30-12-2020 Online: 01-03-2021
Affiliations:
  • 1 Geography Department, Faculty of Sciences, University of Craiova, Romania
  • 2 National Agency for Natural Protected Areas, Dolj Territorial Service, Craiova, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • * mihaela.licurici@edu.ucv.ro
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the University of Craiova that facilitated this research and provided technical support. Special gratitude goes towards Bilașco Ș. for the useful suggestions offered during statistical processing in the GIS environment and to the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.
Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume X |
Human and economic geography

Indicators of the Human Pressure on the Environment in the Bălăciţa Piedmont

1, 1, 1,*, 1

Abstract: The Bălăciţa Piedmont represents the western subdivision of the Getic Piedmont, being located in south-western Romania. The unit under study is an early inhabited space and, at the same time, an area of active development of numerous geodynamic phenomena. The man-induced changes had significant influences upon the environment and especially upon the relief, the increased vulnerability of the terrains to the dangerous geomorphologic phenomena being one of the most important problems that the local communities have to face nowadays. The present study aims to assess the human influence upon the emergence of environmental unbalances and especially the human actions that influence the risk geomorphologic processes. A relevant means in the process of evaluating the type and dimension of the human intervention within a given territorial unit concerns the computation of certain synthetic indicators that characterize the degree of landscape transformation. The assessment has been realized through the analysis of statistical data at the level of the administrative-territorial units that overlap the Bălăciţa Piedmont. The general research regards an interval of thirty years (1977 – 2007), while the focus was laid upon the transition period (1992, 2002, and 2007).

Keywords: , , , , ,
Full article 10.5775/fg.2067-4635.2011.013.dDates:
Received: 20-06-2011 Accepted: 02-09-2011 Printed: 01-12-2011 Online: 25-08-2011
Affiliations:
  • 1 Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Geography, University of Craiova, 13 A.I. Cuza Street, Craiova, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • * sboengiu@central.ucv.ro
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to kindly acknowledge the county and regional institutions that supplied important information from their statistical database, respectively Oltenia Regional Statistics Office, as well as Dolj and Mehedinţi County Offices for Cadastre and Land Registration. We also thank the members of the "Centre for Environmental Research and Sustainable Use of the Resources", from the Geography Department, University of Craiova, who offered the equipments required by the quantitative and qualitative field analysis. The National Council of Scientific Research in Higher Education supported the entire research, in the framework of the RFFI Grant No. 973/2008. The authors would also like to thank the referees for their useful suggestions.
Copyright: © 2011 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume X |
Environment, Geomorphology

Human-Induced Environmental Changes and Floodplain Restoration Necessity along the Danube, on the Drobeta-Turnu Severin – Bechet Sector

1,*

Abstract: The present paper aims at analysing the human-induced transformations that took place in the Drobeta-Turnu Severin – Bechet sector of the Danube Floodplain during the last two centuries. The research started from the need to obtain a real and comprehensive database concerning the extension, the nature and the characteristics of the topographic-hydrographical, edaphic and biologic structures appeared or modified under human influence, their relation with the changes occurred at the level of the land use and their present functionality. Special attention was paid to the latter transformations occurred after 1989. The primary types of topographical and hydrographical changes resulted from the geomorphic human activity in the Danube Floodplain are analysed in relation with the land use within this unit. The analysis of the environmental transformations in the floodplain sector started from cartographic and statistical materials that are relevant for the 19th-21st centuries. For the post-communist period, the valorisation of the Corine Land Cover database allowed for a more detailed analysis of the land use dynamics. The data thus obtained was checked and updated with field observations and measurements, which are mandatory given the fact that the cartographic database shows deficiencies and it is partially outdated.

Keywords: , , ,
Full article 10.5775/fg.2067-4635.2011.027.dDates:
Received: 12-12-2010 Accepted: 30-06-2011 Printed: 01-12-2011 Online: 24-08-2011
Affiliations:
  • 1 Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Geography, University of Craiova, 13 Al. I. Cuza Street, Postal Code 200 585, Craiova, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • * mihaela_licurici@yahoo.com
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The author would like to kindly acknowledge all persons that supported this research by means of their knowledge, equipment or simply by their presence in this wide case study area. Special gratitude goes towards the researcher Lucian Badea, from the Geography Institute of the Romanian Academy, for his previous substantial works on the Danube Valley and for his first papers on the morphological changes within the Danube riverbed and floodplain. Further gratitude is to be given to the researchers from the Oltenia Museum, for their ambitious researches conducted in the area during the last ten years and for their advices. The information provided in the field of biology and history helped significantly the geographical research. I would also like to thank the reviewers for the constructive criticism and useful suggestions.
Copyright: © 2011 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume IX |
Geomorphology

The Analysis of the Relief Fragmentation Features within the Bălăciţa Piedmont

1,*, 1, 1, 1

Abstract: Within the Bălăciţa Piedmont there are to be distinguished two areas with specific features, which correspond to the Danube catchment and to the Jiu drainage area. Both in the case of the drainage density, as well as in that of the relief energy, the distribution of the value classes correlated with the two catchments underlines major differences, but also certain resemblances, situation which is explained by the evolution time, the base level, the flow direction in relation with the structure and the lithological and climatic homogeneity.
The analysis of the data enabled the quantification of the relief energy and of the drainage density within the Bălăciţa Piedmont, as well as the correlation of the two parameters in report to the main catchments. The computation and representation methods for the two indicators of the relief fragmentation (i.e. the depth and the density) allowed for a quantitative interpretation (the identification of five value classes), as well as for a spatial interpretation (the grouping of the values depending on the two collecting rivers: the Danube and the Jiu). The aggregation of the influence factors on the two main drainage areas is mostly due to the fact that the Danube catchment extended its area in the detriment of the Jiu catchment, the three more important tributaries (the Blahniţa, the Drincea and the Desnăţui) catching sectors within the upper course of the tributaries of the Jiu.
The analysis of the relief fragmentation within the Bălăciţa Piedmont shows that this unit is on different evolution stages. The complexity of the fragmentation is closely connected to the maturity degree of the valleys and to the morphogenetic complexes imposed by the paleogeographical evolution.

Keywords: , , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 01-11-2010 Online: 21-11-2010
Affiliations:
  • 1 Department of Geography, University of Craiova, 13 A.I. Cuza Street, Craiova, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • * sboengiu@central.ucv.ro
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to kindly acknowledge all persons and institutions that supported this research by means of their knowledge, equipment or financial funds. We mention that this study benefited by material and logistic support from the project "Vulnerability of slopes and landslides in the Bălăciţa Piedmont. The use of G.I.S. and the achievement of digital maps of vulnerability", CNCSIS code 2005/2008. Special gratitude goes towards the researchers that previously studied this piedmont unit and to the useful suggestions offered by the reviewers.
Copyright: © 2010 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.
Volume IX |
Human and economic geography

Social Vulnerability and Risks Associated to the Balkan Endemic Nephropathy in Mehedinţi County

1,*, 1,*, 1,*

Abstract: The Balkan Endemic Nephropathy (BEN), commonly known as “the dry kidney disease”, was observed for the first time in 1957 in Ergheviţa village from Mehedinţi County. Although, the phenomenon was mainly studied by doctors for a period of approximately 50 years, the number of cases increased, but the actual cause of the disease was not discovered yet.
Among the mainly incriminated elements, there is to be mentioned the underground water that crosses through the coal deposit located in the Huşnicioara mines.
It is important to notice the fact that this disease affects only the rural space, most of the effective areas of the disease being concentrated around the urban centres like Drobeta Turnu-Severin, Baia de Aramă, Strehaia and Vânju Mare. The respective rural communities are considered to be truly vulnerable to the poor quality of underground waters. Given the fact that new cases of nephropathy are continuously discovered, one of the hypothesis is that the risk induced by the pollution of underground water layers is significant and that the human communities are highly vulnerable to this element.
The present study identifies the actual status regarding the symptoms and the extension of the disease, as well as the economical-social circumstances that favour the occurrence of the cases, representing a strong signal concerning the human communities vulnerable to the pollution of a natural resource that is indispensable to human life – water.

Keywords: , , , , ,
Full article Dates:
Printed: 01-11-2010 Online: 21-11-2010
Affiliations:
  • 1 Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Geography, University of Craiova, 13 Al. I. Cuza Street, Craiova, Romania
Corresponding author:
  • * mihaela_licurici@yahoo.com
  • * oana_ionus@yahoo.com
  • * cristiana_oana@yahoo.com
Citation:
APA 6 | Harvard 2008 | Turabian 6 | MLA 7
RIS | BibTeX
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to kindly acknowledge the county and local institutions that supplied important information from their statistical database, respectively the Mehedinţi County Statistics Office, the Mehedinţi County Public Health Office and the Renamed Medical II Dyalisis and Nephrology Centre, Drobeta Turnu-Severin. Further gratitude goes towards all persons that were willing to participate in the social survey in 2009. The National Council of Scientific Research in Higher Education supported the research in the framework of the RFFI Grant No. 973/2008, the project entitled "Vulnerabilitatea versanţilor la alunecări de teren în Piemontul Bălăciţei. Utilizarea SIG şi realizarea hărtilor digitale ale vulnerabilităţii (Slopes vulnerability to landslides within Balaciţa Piedmont. GIS utilization and achievement of vulnerability digital maps)".
Copyright: © 2010 The Author(s). Published by Forum geografic.
Provided under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License.
Open Access article.

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