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A CHALLENGING ATTEMPT - CROSS-BORDER HARMONIZATION OF GEOLOGICAL DATA IN THE WESTERN PART OF ROMANIA

Valentina Cetean

Abstract

As an effect of globalization on natural resources demand, the need for an increasingly detailed knowledge of the geological structure of a territory and of the characteristics of these resources have also emerged. This has been the context when the administrative boundaries and the specific national policies and legislation have differentiated the current knowledge of a geological unit. For the authors of this paper, the western part of Romania is the most recent case studies where the harmonization of Romanian geological data with those of neighbouring countries represented a real challenging attempt, in two of the ongoing European projects: DTP1-099-3.2 DARLINGe - Danube Region Leading Geothermal Energy, respectively GeoE.171.009 - GeoConnect?d - Cross-border, cross-thematic multiscale framework for combining geological models and data for resource appraisal and policy support (contract 731166-GeoERA-H2020-LCE-2016-2017/H2020-LCE-2016-ERA). Two main causes are responsible for this situation: 1) lack of scientific synthesis for the natural resources of interest (as mineral ones or renewable energy) from Western Romania - the research done so far from public funds being published in a small number or only for specific perimeters - and 2) limited or no access to data from private projects or researches of resources that are still considered strategic. Oil and gas industry is of the most important, but the geothermal energy sources has also became part of the economic dimension of EU?s security, with potential to limit the Union's dependence on the imported gas, and thus with features as strategic resource. Repeated delay in adopting of an updated and coherent national strategy in the mining field has also induced the slow operation of the directional development programs and the non-existence of a legal body specialized in the processing of information from national geological database. Up to now, some of the responsibilities have been taken over and met by the NAMR - National Agency for Mineral Resources (being, however, a regulator and control body) and by the IGR - Geological Institute of Romania, as R&D unit. Neither the NAMR nor IGR do not legally fulfil the role of a Geological Survey similar to those existing in most European countries; this fact leads to important postponing of the geological data harmonization process and of the extension of the European databases to which Romania has agreed.

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