Assessment of the impact of climate and ecosystem changes on drought conditions: case study from Romania

摘要

In the last two decades, increasing aridization has occurred under the drought conditions that have affected certain regions in southern Romania. The study area corresponds to the Oltenia region, where nine very severe drought years were recorded during the last 20 years. The Motru-Rovinari coal basin is located in this region and was chosen as an example to demonstrate the modifications due to human intervention which have affected the land surface. Updated representations of the topography, as well as of the land cover and land use have been obtained from analysis of remotely sensed data and cartographic documents. Analysing the meteorological and hydrological factors, a natural aridization tendency, associated with the climate variability at the regional scale, has been observed. The main conclusion is that in order to increase ecosystems' resistance to long drought effects, stress elements such as anthropogenic activity must be decreased.