CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE REDUCTION OF MARSHES IN SOUTHERN OLTENIA

Remus PRĂVĂLIE

ABSTRACT: The past three decades saw a significant decline of the area covered by marshes in southern Oltenia, the main reason being human intervention in order to expand agricultural areas. The present study aims to analyze the spatio-temporal evolution of swampland, while seeking to capture the main negative environmental consequences, too. Several sets of data have been used in order to quantify the spatio-temporal evolution, that is data obtained through satellite images, from the Corine Land Cover database and by means of cartographic mapping. The results obtained showed that in the past three decades the marshes in the analyzed area have shrunk by more than 50%, primarily replaced by the expanding agricultural areas, with primarily ecological negative consequences.

Keywords: swampland, environment, southern Oltenia, human impact

Full article here