The Mohoș peatland is used as environmental archives of deposition for major (Al, Ca, Mg, Fe, and Mn) and minor elements (Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sr, and Zn). The intense mining activity of Cu-rich pyrite and polymetallic sulfide ore from Bălan districts during the past centuries with a strong pollution impact was the reason why the Mohoș peatland, located in the vicinity of a mining area, was selected for this study. The mineralogical and chemical compositions of the peat have been determined by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and x-ray diffraction (XRD). The identification of the main processes affecting the concentrations of the elements in peat was statistically evaluated by principal component analysis (PCA), and the identification of the main groups was determined by hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA). Our results revealed that the source of chemical and mineralogical peat samples is mainly geogenic with most of the elements being accumulated following the disintegration of parental material and through volcanic activity. For Pb, Zn, Ni, Al, and Sr, the concentrations were influenced by both natural processes and anthropogenic activities, such as mining, burning of fossil fuels, traffic activities, and metallurgy. Copper was influenced by anthropogenic activities. The distribution maps of trace elements were built only for the area in which the samples were taken.

Land use is paramount to sustainable development, and in the past, important changes happened under the influence of various factors. Revealing these changes in a meaningful manner, not just as total statistics but also as fluxes and at a spatial level, allows us to detect and associate them with the factors involved. We show a study case in Iași County, Romania, using a raster approach to change detection for a land-use-type database that extends to the 1920s. The database was created from topographic, remote sensing, and field data collected between 1920 and 2006, with five intervals between 1960, 1980, 1990, and 2000, starting from CORINE Land Cover data. These periods mark the socio-political and natural changes in the study area. The change detection results are well matched with the identified drivers and their spatial distribution. The fluctuations between land-use types provide a good way to create drivers’ associations. Our analysis can be easily applied to any other concerned areas and could be used as base references for any legislative intention to determine land-use-type changes because it can be learned from past conversions with regard to failures or examples of good practice.

Land use is paramount to sustainable development, and in the past, important changes happened under the influence of various factors. Revealing these changes in a meaningful manner, not just as total statistics but also as fluxes and at a spatial level, allows us to detect and associate them with the factors involved. We show a study case in Iași County, Romania, using a raster approach to change detection for a land-use-type database that extends to the 1920s. The database was created from topographic, remote sensing, and field data collected between 1920 and 2006, with five intervals between 1960, 1980, 1990, and 2000, starting from CORINE Land Cover data. These periods mark the socio-political and natural changes in the study area. The change detection results are well matched with the identified drivers and their spatial distribution. The fluctuations between land-use types provide a good way to create drivers’ associations. Our analysis can be easily applied to any other concerned areas and could be used as base references for any legislative intention to determine land-use-type changes because it can be learned from past conversions with regard to failures or examples of good practice.

CORINE Land Cover (CLC) is one of the most used land databases intended for pan-European-scale analysis. Despite periodic updates, the data suffer from generalization, subjectivity, and inconsistent local knowledge, leading to a distorted representation of reality. In this study, we raise awareness of the use of CLC data in local analysis, for which it was never intended. Our study investigates whether incorporating auxiliary spatial data and local geographical knowledge can yield a higher-accuracy CLC product, without departing from the official CLC definitions and standards. We critically remapped polygon by polygon the 1990, 2000, and 2006 CLC layers, for Iași County (NE Romania), using topographic maps (1972–1989), aerial imagery (1978–2008), and satellite data (1980–2006), and compared it to the original CLC, through change detection analysis. The new maps revealed several issues imposed by (a) generalization—cartographical omissions among settlements, due to the application of a 25 ha minimum mapping unit and a 100 m minimum mapping width; (b) confusions between land cover and land-use classes, such as pasture and wetlands, especially under varying climatic conditions, or imposed by landforms, where we suggest the use of complementary data, such as a Digital Elevation Model (DEM); and (c) the inconsistencies of mapping between successive CLC editions. Our results indicate that the CLC should not be used for downscaling analysis. Therefore, the authors advocate integrating multiple temporal remote sensing layers to achieve a more accurate assessment of land cover classes, thereby compensating for the data’s top-down character. Based on these findings, we propose an error classification approach to serve as a reference for risk mitigation in downscaled spatial analysis. We emphasize the need for CLC data users to validate their data against ground truth to mitigate analytical uncertainties.

Comprehensive studies that characterize the variation in land use patterns for small comunities across transitional societies are lacking. This paper examines how the political-economic changes in eastern Romania has affected a representative commune from Iași county. According to the results of this analysis, the land reform applied after 1989 presents an increase in land fragmentation and the developement of settlements on the other side of the agricultural and foret landscapes we can observe a renaturation of land use to pastures and forests development. Our analyis on land use can provide a basis for land assessment at small scale and give some aspects for a policy response at a larger scale. DOI: 10.15551/lsgdc.v45i0.05