Sevastel MIRCEA¹, Nicolae PETRESCU² & Augustina TRONAC^1
1University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine Bucharest, 59 Mărăști Bdv., Sector 1, Bucharest, Romania, e-mail: smircea@usamv.ro, augustina.tronac@yahoo.com
²Valahia University of Târgoviște, Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Food Science, 2 Carol I Str., 130024, Târgoviște, Dâmbovița, Romania, e-mail: n_petrescu06@yahoo.com

SOME ASPECTS CONCERNING GULLY EROSION PROCESS IN SMALL TORRENTIAL WATERSHEDS AND ITS IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT

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Romanian agricultural lands are currently affected by a network of about 22,500 km of gullies that are located in about 5,600 torrential watersheds, each year being lost from agricultural lands a surface of more than 2,300 hectares due to gulling. In the studied area soil losses locally reach by about 30-45 tons/ha/year, as against to the natural regenerative capacity of the soil, which is about 5-6 tons/ha/year, only. The paper aims to present the state and risk indicators concerning gully erosion impact on environment in some agricultural torrential watersheds, case-study being carried out on 11 small torrential agricultural watersheds, all of them having developed gullies on the valley’s talwegs. These indicators were established for one of the most affected area by water erosion in Romania, namely the hilly region of Sub-Carpathians Curvature, Buzău County, and they can be used for the soil erosion modeling. In the meantime, it is presented the adapted conceptual model DPSIR (Driving Forces-Pressures-State-Impact-Responses) for causes-effects analyze of soil erosion process. Due to lack or very little use of such a conceptual model on soil erosion issues, the DPSIR model is intended to be promoted and used in our country on a larger scale within environmental impact assessment studies concerning soil erosion in torrential watersheds. These systematic analyses allow us to learn from the past and could help us to develop strategies and undertake rapid and most appropriate anti-erosion measures in order to prevent land and soil degradation by water erosion. Based on the values of above mentioned indicators, a general evaluation of the gully erosion impact has been done for the studied area, resulting a moderate to high intensity of gully erosion process as well as a major impact on environment.