Scholarly record
ANALYSIS OF THE LAND USE AND LAND COVER CHANGE IN THE ROMANIAN SUBCARPATHIAN AREA, IN THE POST- COMMUNISM PERIOD
Abstract
Since 1990, there have been changes regarding land use and land cover in Romania, due to the new socio-economic conditions. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the landscape fragmentation in the Romanian Subcarpathian area, during the post-communism period, determined by anthropic activities in the context of new adopted regulations on agricultural land resources. We made a comparative study between Prahova Subcarpathians and Buzau Subcarpathians, characterized by similar geomorphological patterns but different types of land uses. We used the spatial data from the CORINE Land cover database (CLC 1990 and CLC 2018). The LULC classes were reclassified into 5 classes according to the CLC nomenclature, level 2. The changes regarding landscape configuration and composition were analysed using five landscape metrics (NumP, MPS, TE, MNND, AWMSI). These were calculated through Patch Analyst 4 (Grid) software. The change in each LULC class was determined using the TerrSet Software. The results have shown that in Prahova Subcarpathians, agricultural and forests surfaces have increased with 0.31%, respectively 0.28%, while for semi-natural areas the surfaces decrease with 6.90%. In case of the Buzau Subcarpathians, in post-communism period, the most important changes occurred in the seminatural areas, these have reduced their surfaces with 25.02% in 2018, while agricultural areas and forests increased with 0.55%, respectively 1.85%. The landscape metrics shows a decrease regarding landscape fragmentation and shape complexity of patches in Prahova Subcarpathians, while for the Buzau Subcarpathians, the values show that the fragmentation increased in the same period.
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