Concentration of time (Tc) is a frequently used parameter in the evaluation of the hydrological response of different sizes hydrographic basin in case of rainfall events. The present study is innovative, because it has created an index that identifies the small‐sized hydrographic basins that are exposed to the risk of flooding. The Moldavian Plain is an area located in the northeast of Romania where the local population is frequently affected by floods and flash floods caused by heavy rainfall events. The main purpose of the current study is to identify the settlements located in the small‐sized hydrographic basins, which are associated with low concentration times and powerful surface runoff. The empirical method was applied in order to calculate the Tc for rainfall water, for each drainage basin, for a time class less than 6 hr. Calculations of the runoff water were also done for a theoretical extreme precipitation event, corresponding to the 1% occurrence probability. A total number of 312 basins were identified that are smaller than 30 km², out of which 112 have Tc of less than 6 hr. These basins, in particular, pose flood risk for 12.4% of the villages and towns in the study area.

The present paper aims to evaluate if the Natura 2000 sites in Romania are placed over dynamic areas from a land cover changes perspective, or if they are placed in areas with low human interest and what the impact of these changes are. The effectiveness of conservation measures was addressed by analyzing the number of land cover changes and their areas in Natura 2000 sites, before and after declaring them as protected areas. Corine Land Cover (CLC) data were used as a tool to identify threats and pressures from each Natura 2000 site, and also assess whether land cover changes are more frequent in sites with a high biodiversity index, compared to those with low diversity, in order to estimate the conservation status. Changes in the land cover during 1990–2018 are characterized by three types of events, from 1990 to 2000 with most changes recorded, followed by a relative period of stability from 2000 to 2012; the most dynamic period is from 2012 to 2018. The main changes are due to deforestation. Only 29.7% ROSCI (Romanian Sites of Community Importance) and 36.5% ROSPA (Romanian Special Protected Areas) sites are characterized by a good degree of conservation without or with low modifications regarding the land cover. The most frequent threats and pressures that were found through CLC changes in the ROSCIs in Romania are related to forestry, grazing, the extent of the urbanized environment and those related to agriculture. The correspondence between Corine Land Cover and Natura 2000 specific threats and pressures emphasizes new guidelines for the Corine Land Cover program; therefore, this correspondence can be a potential tool to get more information for Natura 2000 sites.

During the last 30 years, the Romanian economy has faced different challenges due to structural readjustments, overcoming crisis and globalization. The share of primary and secondary sectors in the gross domestic product have strongly decreased, while the services have taken off. The main objective for this study is to observe how these economic readjustments can be assessed and measured using the Corine Land Cover datasets from 1990, 2000, 2006, 2012 and 2018 (with special observation on the range 2006 and 2018, after Romania was included in European Union). Despite some of the methodological limitations (like the minimum surface change), the Corine Land Cover turned out to be a powerful tool and it allowed us to detect an intense correlation between the socioeconomic and the structural trends in land use, in specific spatial contexts. The artificial surfaces are constantly increasing and this trend is rather visible as a distance function to the major Romanian cities. The most interesting changes occurred in the case of the agricultural polygons. The main trend emphasized by our analysis regards the redeployment of large farms in areas of agronomic and environmental territorial optimum. Such is the case for vineyards (after a decline during 2000–2006) and for annual cultures. All these changes in land-use patterns are too complex to be encompassed by a single methodology, which is why we used different tools, ranging from spatial analysis to geo-economic modeling, in order to detect how the Corine Land Cover datasets might be used for a better understanding of the Romanian economic readjustments.

The expansion of bare sand surfaces indicates a tendency towards desertfication in certain periods as a result of the improper agricultural use of sand soils and of the significant changes in the climate in the past 30 years. The Normalised Sand Index (NSI) is a new index used to identify bare sand areas and their spatio-temporal evolution in SW Romania. Landsat scenes (1988, 2001, 2019), spectral and soil texture analysis (36 samples), covariates (e.g., soil map), and field observations allowed for the validation of the results. The performance of the NSI was compared with indices from the sand index family (e.g., Normalized Differential Sand Areas Index) and supervised classifications (e.g., Maximum Likelihood Classification) based on 47 random control square areas for which the soil texture is known. A statistical analysis of the NSI showed 23.6% (27,310.14 hectares) of bare sands in 1988, followed by an accelerated increase to 47.2% (54,737.73 hectares) in 2001 because of economic and land-use changes, and a lower increase by 2019, which reached 52.5% (60,852.42 hectares) due to reforestation programs. Compared to the NSI, the bare sand areas obtained with the tested indicator were almost 20% higher. The traditional classification shows smaller areas of bare sands but uses a higher complexity of land use classes, while the producer accuracy values are lower than those of the NSI. The new index has achieved a correct spatial delimitation of soils in the interdune-dune and major riverbed-interfluvial areas, but it is limited to the transition Arenosols-Chernozems by humus content and agrotechnical works. The new spectral index favours bare sand monitoring and is a fast and inexpensive method of observing the desertification trend of temperate sandy agroecosystems in the context of climate change.