Colloque International OH2 « Origines et Histoire de l’Hydrologie », Dijon, 9-11 mai 2001 International Symposium OH2 ‘Origins and History of Hydrology’, Dijon, May, 9-11, 2001

The history of the development of the hydrology in

L’histoire du développement de l’hydrologie en Roumanie

Petru SERBAN Elisabeta CSERWID Dr. Ing., National Company “Apele Romane” Str. Edgar Quinet n°6, sect. 1, cod. 70106 Bucuresti (Romania) [email protected] [email protected]

Abstract In the first part of the work it is presented information about hydrology activity on the Romanian territory. The year of the beginning of a systematical knowledge of the waters in Romania, is 1838, when it was established the first hydrometrical station at Orsova on the River. Before this date there were information referring to the country’s waters even from the Middle Age period. Further it is described the evolution of the and hydrometrical network; the evolution of the legislative activities in the water field, beginning with the year 1770; the way of organization in hydrological field in different steps; some studies and works referring to the determination of the characteristic elements of the hydrological regime. In the end of the paper it is presented some representatives achievements of the Romanian hydrologists referring to the synthesis and regionalisations in hydrology as well as at the improvement of the hydrological forecasting methods in the basins with hydraulic works.

Résumé Dans la première partie de l’ouvrage, sont présentées les premières informations sur l’activité hydrologique sur le territoire de Roumanie. L’année du début des connaissances systématiques des eaux en Roumanie est 1838, quand a été fondée la première station hydrométrique, à Orsova, sur le Danube. Avant cette date, les informations concernant l’hydrologie dataient du Moyen Âge. Ensuite, on décrit l’évolution du réseau d’observations et des mesures hydrométriques ; l’évolution de l’activité législative dans le domaine des eaux, commencent avec l’année 1770 ; la manière d’organiser l’activité hydrologique en différentes étapes ; quelques études et ouvrages concernant la détermination des éléments caractéristiques pour le régime hydrologique.

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À la fin de l’ouvrage, on présente quelques réalisations des hydrologistes roumains concernant les synthèses et les régionalismes en hydrologie, et aussi l’amélioration des méthodes de prévision hydrologique dans les bassins comportant des travaux hydrotechniques.

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1. The beginning of the knowledge of the country’s rivers

The year of the beginning of knowledge of the Romanian’s rivers based on hydrometrical measures, is 1838, year in which was established the hydrometrical station Orsova on Danube River.

The first information about the Romanian rivers dated from the Vth Century, before Christ and was related by the historian Herodot. The first cartographic attempts are dated from the year 1532 for Transylvania (Honterus) and from the year 1584 for the Valachia and Moldavia (Costolda). In the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, when it began to appear original works written by the , we meet also, in these works, information regarding the country waters.

In his work — “The Chronicle of the Moldavia” — Grigore Ureche is referring at two special hydrometeorological phenomena: at the flooding of 1504 and at the unusual drought of 1585. Miron Costin wrote down in his “Chronicle of Moldavia” about the drought from the years 1660-1661. The scientist and the prince Dimitrie Cantemir has wrote out in 1716 the work “Descriptio Moldavia” which contains a map with over 800 names of rivers and villages and a special chapter concerning “The waters of Moladavia”.

From the XVIIIth Century have begun to appear more significant flooded control works. The first important diversion channel was made in time of prince Alexandru Ipsilante, in 1775, when the floods of Dambovita River was deviated to Arges River through a channel presented on the map by Rigas Velesinliul Tesaliofal, printed in Viena, in 1797. The canalization of the Bega River has begun in 1728 and on Crasna River in the year 1774.

To the end of the XVIIIth Century the high interest of the big Europeans powers for the Romanian regions, determined the appearance of some bibliographical works in which appeared some hydrographical elements. For instance: “Histoire de la Moldavie et de la Valachie (1777)” by the French writer Jean Louis Carré; “Mémoires historiques et géographiques sur la Valachie” (1778) by the general von Bauer; “Mémoires sur l’État ancien et actuel de la Moldavie” (1787) by d’Hauterive.

2 © Université de Bourgogne Colloque International OH2 « Origines et Histoire de l’Hydrologie », Dijon, 9-11 mai 2001 International Symposium OH2 ‘Origins and History of Hydrology’, Dijon, May, 9-11, 2001

At the beginning of the XIXth Century have appeared new maps referring to the Romanian regions, which comprise the hydrographical network representation for example, the map made between 1828-1834 and printed in the year 1835, by the Russian Military Academy.

2. The evolution of the hydrometrical network

The development of the knowledge about Romanian waters was determined for the Danube River, of the interest of the great Europeans powers for navigation on the river; for Banat, Transilvania and Bucovina, of the Austrian  Hungarian administration which had seriously preoccupations regarding the use and the control of waters and for Valachia and Moldavia of the fight for independence and creation of the national and unitary Romanian state. On Danube River, after the hydrometrical station Orsova, it was made, in the year 1854, the hydrometrical station Drencova and in the year 1874 the stations Bazias, Braila and Galati.

The first measurements regarding the flow of the water at the mouse of the branch Sulina were made in the year 1857 under the commend of engineer Hartley, the leader of the Technical Department of the Danube European Commission. For the knowledge of the levels of , the Geographical Institute of Romanian Army, has fixed at Constanta, in 1895, a medimarometru, which was in function, till the year 1905. On the inland waters, the first hydrometrical stations were developed in Transilvania and Banat beginning with the year 1853. In the year 1900, there were in these regions, 42 hydrometrical stations. The most ancients of them, which work also in now days, are Radna (1853); Savarsin (1859) and Arad (1861) on Mures River; Sighetul Marmatiei (1868) on Upper Tisa River; Satu- Mare (1868) on somes River and Lugoj (1874) on Timis River.

The database of these stations was printed till the year 1916 in the yearbooks published in Hungarian language in Budapesta. For the rivers from Bucovina, have also appeared yearbooks printed in German language in Viena. In Moldavia and Valachia, the first hydrometrical stations, on bigger inland waters, worked from the year 1900. The hydrographical map published beginning with the 25th of September 1900, comprised the levels of the Danube River, their tendency, and the state of ice and level on the inland rivers. In the year 1925 had worked 150 hydrometrical stations with observations of the water level. After the year 1925, as a necessity of the knowledge of the discharges and their variations in time, for hydropower reasons, has begun the systematically measurement of the discharges on the inland rivers.

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Till the year 1933 were made almost three hundred discharges measurements using the current meter.

The evolution of the hydrometrical station is presented in the Table no.1. It is observed that the number of the hydrometrical stations increased till the year 1989 to 1 100 stations, after which decreased to 970 in now days. Regarding the beginning of the groundwater knowledge based on hydrometrical data it has to be mention the appearance, between the years 1895-1914, of some valuable studies: “Studies upon groundwater hydrology”(1895) by Matei Draghicaenu; “The investigation of Baragan” (1895 and 1896) by C. Alimanisteanu, which was based on numerously observations and measurements of groundwater.

After the year 1953 began a systematical activity of groundwater knowledge. In present the network of hydrogeological wells comprises 3 700 wells for phreatic aquifer and 780 for confined aquifer. Beginning with the year 1954 was organized the evaporimetric network of the country, on the base of which was obtained the data necessary for the water balance in the water management activity. In present this network has 71 evaporimeter stations.

In the period 1961-1965 were organized the first experimental and representative basins which have allowed to be obtain good data for studies the runoff process and sediment transport and the regime and dynamic of groundwater. The activity of knowledge of water quality began in the year 1953, when were established 101 control sections. In present there are 320 sampling and analyzing cross-section with monthly frequency and 70 cross-section with daily frequency.

2.1. The evolution of the legislative and internal organization

The first legislative trials in water field are dated from the second half of the XVIIIth Century. So, in the work: “Behavior guide” by the prince Ipsilanti, from the year 1770, are mentioned the rights of Romanian people of fishing and making water wills. At 1817, through the Caragea’s norms from Valachia “the peasants are stopped to make in the river bed works which can produce flooding or decrease the water volume”, and in the norms wrote by Calimachi, in Moldovia it is described that: “the big and small rivers and their banks, lagoons and sea share are public goods given to the stakeholders only to use it”.

Regarding the legislative framework (Annex 1) the first water law was elaborated in the year 1924 which contents elements of measurement, the evidence and the water structures works. The Water Law no. 107/1996 accords a

4 © Université de Bourgogne Colloque International OH2 « Origines et Histoire de l’Hydrologie », Dijon, 9-11 mai 2001 International Symposium OH2 ‘Origins and History of Hydrology’, Dijon, May, 9-11, 2001 special attention to the water resources knowledge. This knowledge activity is a special chapter of the law. In the organizing field, the first “Department of measurement of the height of Danube waters” was organized in the year 1879 by the general inspector C. Aninosianu, who ordered the setting of staff gauges and the daily riding of the water level in the ports.

The administration of the hydrometrical stations on Danube River and inland rivers was made at the beginning, of the Hydraulic Department from General Division of harbors and water communication ways. Later, the administration of these stations was took over of the General Department of the Land Reclamation from the Ministry of Agriculture till the 1st of June 1926, when they passed to the Hydrographical Department from “The General Department of the Ministry of Public Works”. The hydrographical department collected the hydrometrical observations from all over the country, taking into account the special instructions, about the water level observations. In 1951 was made the Hydrometeorological General Division which put the basis of the modern hydrological and meteorological development in Romania and in the framework of which was founded the Meteorological Institute and Hydrological Division also. In the year 1956 was made the Water State Committee which comprises the Hydrometeorological Department also.

A further step in the development of the hydrology and meteorology in Romania was made of the creation, in 1971, of the Meteorological and Hydrological Institute which coordinated the whole operationally and research activity from these fields. In the year 1990, through the founding of the Waters Authority “Apele Romane”, the National Meteorological and Hydrological Institute was included in the Water Authority till 1998, when was founded the National Company “The National Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Water Management “.

2.2. The contribution of the Romanian researchers to the hydrology development

The Romanian hydrologists have brought their contribution in the synthesis and regionalisation field. There were elaborated, for the Romanian territory synthesis and regionalisations of some usual hydrological characteristics, i.e.: average runoff: the distribution of the runoff volume during the year and the spatial variability of the annual runoff; maxim flow (the source and frequency of the floods, maxim discharges, flood hydrographic and maxim rainfall); minim runoff (drought phoneme and minim discharges and volume); average sediment load and the dependence of the suspended sediment load of the water discharge.

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In the same time there were elaborated synthesis and regionalisations of the parameters of VIDRA model, which permit the transfer of the model from the basins studied from the hydrographic point of view to unstudied basins. The series of the works of hydrological synthesis was opened in 1952 through the work: “The average runoff of the rivers”. In the year 1963 and 1967 appeared the works “The ” and “The Danube River between Bazias and Ceatal ”. In the year 1971 was printed the work: “The Romanian Rivers” which brought together the principal scientifically and practical contributions, obtained by the Romanian hydrologists in the period between 1960-1970. The principal results regarding the hydrology of Black Sea were published in the year 1974 in the monograph untitled “The Black Sea”. The most important work from this field is “Hydrological Synthesis and regionalisations” printed by the Technical Publishing House in the year 1994, work which obtained the Romanian Academy Price. The book is a fruitful of the obtained experience regarding the synthesis and hydrological regionalisations, at the international level and in special at the level of the Romanian Hydrological Service.

Concerning the problems of usual hydrometrical methods, the accent was put on the elaboration of the criteria of the rationalizations of the hydrometric programs and on the elaboration of simple, efficient methods. Of the rationalizations, we can mention the method of the discharge measurements, relative simultaneous at the one of the standard station and at 1-2 cross-sections on the nearly analogue rivers, named satellite cross-section. After a few years, the database of the classical network are amplified through their transmission in the satellite cross-sections on the base of the systematically correlation obtained. Of the elaboration of the simple, efficient methods we can mention the method of the developed measurement activity of the suspended sediment load only in the period in which the water discharges exceeded a critical discharge, which for Romanian rivers is, in general, bigger than the average multi-annual discharge. At the base of the method are the conclusions of the analysis effectuated on the longer period for discharges bigger than the average multi-annual discharges, which show that more than 90 % of total suspended sediment volume are flowed.

In the hydrological forecast field, were elaborated mathematical models tested for the principal Romanian river basins. Also there were elaborated mathematical models for the flow forecasting in the rivers with hydraulics works. The principal obtained results in the mathematical modeling field in hydrology are presented in the book “Dynamic Hydrology” printed in the year 1989 at the Technical Publishing House. The book received the Romanian Academy Price. * * *

A natural consequence of the Romanian hydrology development is the increasing of the participation of the Romanian researches at the international

6 © Université de Bourgogne Colloque International OH2 « Origines et Histoire de l’Hydrologie », Dijon, 9-11 mai 2001 International Symposium OH2 ‘Origins and History of Hydrology’, Dijon, May, 9-11, 2001 projects and programs initiated of the international organizations, the working out of the projects, the organization of the scientifically meetings in Romania, the participation at the international meetings, i.e.: the action of intercomparison of the mathematical models, the participation at the elaboration of some works published by UNESCO and WMO and so on.

The entire activity of research with scientifically and methodological character was reflected in the series of specialty publications among we can mention: the series “Studies” – of surface and groundwater hydrology (no.1 published in 1961); “The Romanian hydrological Bibliography” (initiated in 1934), the Revue in foreign languages “Meteorology and Hydrology” (no.1 appeared in 1977), yearbooks, monographic works and so on.

Annex no.1

THE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK

1770 – The behavior Guide of the Ipsilanti Principe. 1924 – The Law of the Waters Regime. 1953 – The Decree 143 regarding the rational use and the protection of the water. 1974 – The Water Law. 1979 – The Decree no.414 – The admissible limit values of the priority pollutants substances discharged in the water. 1988 – Standard 4706 – The Surface Waters. Categories and technical conditions of the water quality. 1989 – The Law regarding the rational water use, the protection and assurance of the water quality (Law no 5). 1990 – HG 1001 – the establishment of a unitary system of payments for produces and services of water management. 1991 – Standard 1342 – The quality of the potable water. 1994 – HG 138 – Penalties and contravention in water management field. 1995 – The Law of the disasters (Law no. 124). 1995 – The Law of the Environmental Protection (Law no. 137). 1996 – The Water Law (Law no.107). 1997 – HG 101 – The sanitary protection zones. 1997 – HG – 730 (NTPA 001) – the establishment of the admissible limits of the pollutants discharged in the water resources. 1997 – Order 645 MAPPM, MS, MLPAT (NTPA 002) – the establishment of the admissible limits of the pollutants discharged in the sewerage. 1999 – HG 638 – The floods control.

7 © Université de Bourgogne Colloque International OH2 « Origines et Histoire de l’Hydrologie », Dijon, 9-11 mai 2001 International Symposium OH2 ‘Origins and History of Hydrology’, Dijon, May, 9-11, 2001

2000 – HG 472 - Regarding some measurements of the water resources quality protection. 2000 – HG 1212 - Regarding the Basin Committee.

Table no.1

The evolution of the volume of the principle hydrological observations on the inland rivers between the years 1838-2000

Nr parameters number crt measurement of YEARS

1944 1952 1838 1975 1933 1955 1965 1980 1951 1953 1990 1925 2000 1960 1970 1. the water level hydrometric 1

stations 125 597 850 250 620 759 925 270 664 150 954 642 766 1 007 2. the discharge hydrometric stations 357 810 356 604 883 163 316 987 946 417 683

measurements 0 300 5 140 3 312 5 382 7 289 8 369 1 079 4 623 7 421 50 000 85 000 88 830 8 2 3. suspended hydrometric 11 sediment stations 90 28 250 193 280 453 497 157 discharge 175 measurements 121 932 224 2 620 2 143 2 790 4 983 5 467 2 071 2 578 4. physical hydrometric chemical stations 45 196 240 189 254 101 267 299 biological 168 5. water hydrometric temperature stations 21 420 248 474 526 151 829 787 384

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