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CONSIDERATIONS ON THE REHABILITATION OF SMALL HYDROTECHNICAL FACILITIES AFFECTED BY CLIMATE CHANGES AND SOCIAL ANTHROPOGENIC CHANGES

Petru Cercel

Abstract

In the eastern area of Romania, a hill area and a plateau, there is a very large number of small dams. These were an average age of about 40 years and were made from local materials. In the period between their implementation and 1989, these accumulations were centrally managed by local governments. Generally, these accumulations were used for irrigation, fish farming, and in secondary, they had the role of mitigating the flood waves. The fact that the accumulations were exploited by the local administrations allowed, according to the funds, administration according to the norms in force at that time. Immediately after the political changes that took place in 1989 these small accumulations and their associated dams have passed from the administration of the local authorities to the administration of private investors. Financial burdens in the early 1990s have made many of the investors who have taken over these accumulations and their associated dams not exploit them in accordance with the rules in force or even abandon these hydro technical works. Along with the political changes in 1989 the agricultural land was taken over by the old owners and their cultivation was done on small plots, which were usually perpendicular to the watercourse. This has led to erosion of soils and the clogging of water storage tanks. Over these facts overlapped major deforestations that have had a knock-on effect on changing land use and climate change that have made floods and flood volumes entering such a low accumulation significantly rising. This paper presents a theoretical study and a model for calculating how such a small accumulation can be rehabilitated.

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