Geographical studies and environment protection research
Volume X | Issue 1
Quantifying Forest Ecosystems Fragmentation in the Subcarpathians between the Râmnicu Sărat and the Buzău Valleys, Romania, Using Landscape Metrics
Abstract: The Romanian Subcarpathian space has been the subject of continuous transformation during the last 2 centuries under the double impact of human activities and disruptive natural factors. Time and spatial dynamics of land use and coverage determined a major impact on the structure and functionality of the Subcarpathian landscape. In the Subcarpathians between the Râmnicu Sărat and the Buzău, the main tendencies in land use changes are highlighted by the decrease of forestry areas and increase of agricultural terrains, especially pastures and orchards, a consequence of the deforestation undertaken to answer local human needs. The fragmentation and the pronounced decrease of forestry ecosystems has been quantified by calculating and analysing landscape metrics, using land use and coverage maps derived from the Corine Land Cover 1990 and 2006 database. In the Subcarpathians between the Râmnicu Sărat and the Buzău, there has been registered a deforestation rate of 10.09% in the analysed period, but also an increase in landscape fragmentation. Thus, the number of forest patches increased by 10.96% and their average size decreased by 13.73%, while the shape remained unchanged. Landscape patches became more isolated, as the value of the average proximity index decreased by 42.07%. The study underlines the necessity of elaborating a strategy of protection and preservation for these ecosystems, aimed at increasing the reforestation rate and decreasing the fragmentation degree. A sustainable planning system of land use must be enforced in order to increase forest productivity and the uniformity degree of the Subcarpathian landscape.
Volume IX | Issue 9
The Rurality between the Râmnicul Sărat and the Buzau Valleys – Definitive Component of the Subcarpathian Landscapes Dynamics
Abstract: Rural space represents a definite element in the structural and functional transformations of Subcarpathian landscapes, analysed through their geodiversity, biodiversity, and cultural patrimony. The present analyse relieves historical and socio-economic land use changes, process, which determined a restructuring of rural landscapes, allowing a classification of environmental critical areas. Elements defining the rurality of the Subcarpathian landscapes between the Ramnicu Sarat and the Buzau valleys were evidenced and characterised in concordance with the new strategic directions of the European Council regarding rural development in 2007 – 2013 period, and with the national legislation in the field, for establishing protection, rehabilitation and valorization strategies for the Subcarpathian rural landscapes. The case study realised in the villages included in the Subcarpathian sector of the Slanic de Buzau valley relieved a spatial and temporal dynamics for the indices of human pressure through different land-uses, allowing the establishment of artificial degrees of rural Subcarpathian landscapes. The data obtained from the CORINE Land Cover model, 1990 and 2006 editions, corroborated with the data rendered in agricultural registers and statistical data from NIS (National Institute of Statistics) relieve spatial dynamics of land-uses in the analysed area, and at the same time, there were identified the areas which induce important modifications in the landscapes structure and functionality.