Irena MOCANU, Bianca MITRICĂ & Mihaela Rodica PERSU
Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy, 12 D. Racoviţă Str., Bucharest,
mocanitai@yahoo.com, biancadumitrescu78@yahoo.com, persu_mihaela@yahoo.com

CONSEQUENCES OF SETTING UP PHOTOVOLTAIC PARKS - RELATED LAND USE/LAND COVER CHANGES IN GIURGIU COUNTY RURAL AREA (ROMANIA)

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The conceptual framework of sustainable development relies commonly on three main pillars, completed over the past years with a forth one, namely the institutional pillar. Aiming at environmentally sustainable growth, Romania has a suitable location for the installation of photovoltaic systems. The country experiences a very dynamic development in photovoltaic energy production, including photovoltaic industry, and both at central and local government level. The study herein makes an analysis of the territorial effects of implementing and operating photovoltaic parks in the rural area of Giurgiu County in terms of land use changes. The case-studies discussed in this paper reflect the land use/land cover changes of building and operating the six solar parks in the three Giurgiu County rural local territorial units (Izvoarele, Stăneşti and Malu). The analysis on the land use changes induced by the photovoltaic park implantation valorises the information revealed by the interviews applied to the local authorities during the field investigation.