OPTIMUM AGRICULTURAL LAND USE IN THE HILLY AREA OF EASTERN ROMANIA. CASE STUDY: PERESCHIV CATCHMENT - Carpathian Journal of Earth And Environmental Sciences

The Pereschiv catchment is a typical rural and poorly developed area from eastern Romania, where over 90% of active population has been involved only in the primary sector. The local subsistence agricultural pattern is based on crop production and defined by very low yields. Degradation of the land quality strongly connected with the improper human impact resulted in significant soil erosion and gulling rates. Under such background and using GIS techniques, the main objective of this study is to establish an appropriate methodology to identify the best land use pattern, based on the natural conditions, so that land planning and land treatment investments to be at minimum level. Thus, the expected outcome is to automatically create an optimum land use map by comparing the present land use map with the evaluation score calculated for each land use type. The obtained results show that the current land uses do not match the maximum favorability due to the natural conditions for over half of the study area. The geomorphologic and pedologic conditions indicate that forestland, pastures and meadows should have to extend against the arable land, which it is recommended to be halved. The pastures slightly extend from 21.6% to 28.3%, while the forestland should increase more than three times from 12.2% at present to 37.1%. Generally, in the Pereschiv upper basin, the people are recommended to shift towards large-scale livestock, an activity which currently supports only their domestic purposes. In the middle and lower catchment, livestock has to extend too, and alternate with crop farming on relatively large areas, but higher than today. In terms of sustained investments, vineyard and the orchard can achieve very good results.