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FLASH FLOOD IMPACT ON THE CULTURAL HERITAGE IN MOLDOVA REGION, ROMANIA. CASE STUDY: JIJIA VALLEY

Marina Iosub

Abstract

At a global scale, climate change generates extreme events which are more and more dangerous for society. Extreme hydrological and geomorphological phenomena are one of the most common causes of human life loss and material damage as a result of the manifestation of natural hazards around human communities. Floods sometimes cause irreversible damage or completely destroy areas with cultural heritage sites. In Europe, floods are affecting annually a great number of cultural heritage sites or buildings, which lead the European Council to create a Directive to assess and manage flood risk. In Romania, the floods from the mid-late 2000?s have had the most devastating impact in the last 100 years, causing material damage of billions of euros. On a regional scale, Moldova, located in the Eastern part of Romania, is framed in two large hydrographic basins (Siret and Prut). The region has been frequently affected by severe floods from 2005 to 2010, occurring on both of the aforementioned drainage basins, and manifested in all 6 constituent counties. Moldova region is of great historical importance, considering the cultural heritage due to a large number of Cucuteni sites, which is a Neolithic archaeological culture dating from 5500 B.C. and 2750 B.C. Also, in the study area, more heritage sites can be identified, such as: Precucuteni, Horodi?tea-Erbiceni/Godine?ti and historical artefacts that are from Bonze and Iron Ages. A large number of these sites are located in the nearby vicinity of the river floodplain and can be included into high vulnerability category. This study aims to use hydrological flood risk maps, to generate information concerning the risk posed to cultural and historical heritage sites from Jijia River Valley, situated in Boto?ani and Ia?i counties, in the North-Eastern part of Romania. Creating hydrological risk maps and identifying heritage sites that are vulnerable to floods, can lead to preventive site protection decisions and improved management plans.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2019/2.2/s11.103

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