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Volume X |

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

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measurements, which are mandatory given the fact that the cartographic database shows deficiencies and it is partially outdated.