Land use/cover changes along the Romanian Danube Valley Gheorghe KUCSICSA, Dan BĂLTEANU, Elena-Ana POPOVICI, Nicoleta DAMIAN Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy, 12 Dimitrie Racovita, Bucharest, Romania
[email protected] 1. Introduction region’s sustainable development makes this approach impera- tive now. Current land use in the Danube Valley is the outcome Looking at the current situation of the Danube Valley, one finds of the territory’s geological and historical evolution, major it strongly affected by human activity, by the diversification and changes being dated to the latter half of the 20th century. They increase of man’s pressure, as well as by the extreme manifesta- were produced by the action of natural factors (climate, the evo- tions of climatic and hydrological factors. Therefore, securing lution of the Danube and its main tributaries, etc.), but primarily the area’s sustainable development means necessarily to proceed by human action which played an essential role in shaping the with analysing past and present land use changes, simulate present-day landscape (Fig. 1). future changes, identify underlying factors, management policies Old cartographic documents, topographic maps and CORINE and estimate consequences. Land Cover database is an important documentary source, which The Danube River, basically the Pan European Transporta- help us reconstitute and analyse historical land use changes, tion Corridor VII, is one of the most important communication as well as construct a land cover account. These results may water ways in Europa. In view of it, the Danube is a “River be a starting point for new interdisciplinary studies and the of European Expansion” and a promoter of the European simulation of future land use changes under different demand Union’internal development (Bălteanu et al.