Depending on the relief, the technological process for lignite extraction from Husnicioara open pit uses 2 or 3 excavation steps of the mine waste deposits that lie over the coal strata (I+IV); first, the mining waste is deposited in the outer spoil tip and then in the inner tip, followed by coal excavation on another step. So far, the mining activities have affected 3.5 sqkm, including part of the Lungă and Lacului Valleys, and Faţa Lacului and Pădurea Dumbrava hills. The area of the mining exploitation is an artificial space that functions according to new rules. Consequently, the study attempts to identify the man-made changes of the relief due to the mining activities using field measurements, Landsat satellite images and NDVI index. The results reveal that the lignite exploitation implies the dislocation, relocation and storage of materials, which has caused a significant change of the local geomorphological context, leading to the construction of some anthropic structures such as cavities and prominent relief forms.

The eastern part of Europe is very poorly represented in the Global Network for Isotopes in Precipitation (GNIP) database, mainly because the monitoring of the stable isotopes in precipitation started only recently compared with other regions. In this respect, the main objective of this article is to fill the gap in the GNIP database over the eastern part of Europe and show the temporal variability and potential drivers of an extended network of δ¹⁸O values in precipitation collected from 27 locations in Romania and the Republic of Moldova. We also present the first high-resolution map of the spatio-temporal distribution of δ¹⁸O values in precipitation in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, according to an observational dataset. According to our results, the stations from western and northern Romania tend to have LMWL_S with higher values than those from southwestern Romania. The monthly variation of the δ¹⁸O and δ²H showed a clearly interannual variation, with distinct seasonal differences, following the seasonal temperatures. The analysis of the spatial distribution of stable isotopes in precipitation water was made on the basis of both observational data and modeled data. This allowed us to study the origin of the air moisture and the interaction with regional and local patterns and to analyze the link between the spatial δ¹⁸O variations and the large-scale circulation patterns on a seasonal scale.

Geographical studies and environment protection research

The Danube floodplain, the Calafat - Turnu Măgurele sector, through its main features (topographic and climatic characteristics, land use and soil type) and human activities, constitutes an area exposed to soil erosion. The main objective of the present research is to map soil erosion susceptibility using the GIS techniques for the computation and representation of areas, which are exposed to soil erosion correlated with the field data for the validation. Analyzing the entire model, the relatively simple methodology, the database consistence, the comparability of the results with the existent soil erosion values at national and local scale, we can say that the model was applied with success in the studied area (areas and classes of water erosion susceptibility: very low, low, moderate, high - Ciupercenii Noi, Desa, Măceşu de Jos, Grojdibodu, Orlea, very high - Rast, Negoi, Catane, Bistreţ, Goicea; areas and classes of wind erosion susceptibility: very low, low, moderate - Ciupercenii Noi, Dăbuleni, Ianca, high - Calafat, Poiana Mare, Desa, Goicea, Piscu Vechi, very high - Poiana Mare, Rast, Negoi, Bistreţ, Gighera, Orlea. The soil erosion susceptibility map can be useful for planning erosion control measures and for selecting suitable sites for runoff plot experiments

The global climate change imposes new strategies of prevention and protection against the effects of urban flooding. The main goal of this paper is the identification of areas exposed to flooding risk in the Craiova city, and the study was structured in two sections. In the first part we aimed to identify the changes of the hydrography in the Craiova city from the beginning of its urban expansion and the hydrotechnical works realized for flooding protection from the 19th century until now. The reconstruction of the hydrography was based on the cartographic documents elaborated since the second half of the nineteenth century and on the previous research concerning the city’s design, water supply and sewage system. In the second part we realized a Bluespots map comprised of the areas and the buildings possibly exposed to the risk of flooding during heavy rainfall periods. The Bluespots map was automatically obtained with the Cloudburst extension of ArcGIS, being based on DEM data and the cadastral map of the city, after a method firstly applied by the Danish government to assess flood risk areas due to Cloudburst phenomena in Copenhagen.