Implications of Relief Configuration in the Socioeconomic System. Case Study: Mara Basin, Maramureș Land, Romania

Silviu BUMBAK1, Marin ILIEȘ2
1 Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, Cluj-Napoca, ROMANIA
2 Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Geography, Sighetu Marmației Branch, ROMANIA
E-mail: silviubmk@gmail.com, marin_ilies@yahoo.com
Pages: 31-38

Abstract. Mara Basin in the Maramureș Land, a natural space for water management, is engrafted on a complex relief structure, presenting specific features and landforms that are morphologically conditioned by structure and tectonics. Being bordered in the west and south by the edges of an imposing residual volcanic relief, constituted by the Igniș-Gutâi and Văratec Mountains, the relief structure emphasizes a double petrographic zoning, with strong asymmetric markers as against the rest of Maramureș Land’s physical characteristics. The drainage is ensured by the Mara and Cosău rivers, vectors of energy and matter in the territorial system. Over centuries, their primary denudation function has been doubled by the implementation of a rural habitation network, organized into a socioeconomic matrix (agro-pastoral), with multiple secular and archetypal elements. The current study highlights the bearings and influences of relief’s physical characteristics upon the socioeconomic development of the communities in Mara Basin by assuming a scientific approach that integrates elements of geospatial analysis performed at a scale of 1:50.000, with an accent on the essential physical characteristics, stressing the favourable and restrictive aspects of the territory with an impact upon the socioeconomic development.

K e y w o r d s: landforms, river basin, socioeconomic matrix, agro-pastoral society, settlement structure, archetypal elements