Land Use in the Sub-Carpathian Area of the Cricovul Sărat Basin. Environmental Impact Assessment

Cristian BRAGHINĂ1, Monica-Adriana OPREA1, Constantin-Răzvan OPREA1
1 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography, Interdisciplinary Centre of Advanced Research on Territorial Dynamics, Bucharest, ROMANIA
E-mail: cristibraghina@yahoo.com, oprea_monadria@yahoo.com, opreaconstrazvan@yahoo.com
Pages: 21-30

Abstract. The paper aims at analyzing the state of the environment in the administrative territorial units overlapping the Sub-Carpathian region of the Cricovul Sărat watershed. The study area, which lies in the Curvature Sub-Carpathians, covers 595 sq km and includes 19 administrative territorial units, out of which the Cislău commune belongs to Buzău County whereas the other 18 are administratively included within Prahova County borders. In order to accomplish our goal, we analyzed the dynamics of agricultural land use between 1990 and 2012. We analysed the evolution of the entire agricultural area, but we also took into account arable land, pastures, vineyards and orchards. We found that agricultural land and the areas covered by vineyards and orchards decreased, while the pastures extended significantly. Another research direction was the assessment of environmental condition through a number of indices, such as: the human pressure index, the naturality index, and the environmental transformation index. The data employed was provided by the National Institute of Statistics. The human pressure index mirrored by the use of agricultural land shows a moderately balanced and a slightly unbalanced landscape for the entire territory. On the whole, the naturalness index points at a landscape with a less affected ecological balance. The moderate anthropogenic influence over the entire region is shown by the environmental transformation index.

K e y w o r d s: hills, agricultural land use, the human pressure indexes, the naturality index, environmental transformation index