Environmental issues resulting from the excavation of alluvial soil in protected areas, case study in ROSCI 0103 Lunca Buzaului

Abstract

The current study tackles the issue of excavating alluvial deposits in protected areas included in the Natura 2000 network, which was expanded in 2016 to 23% of Romania’s territory. A significant percent of the Natura 2000 areas in Romania directly target or are connected to fluvial elements where machinery for alluvial deposits is used. The Natura 2000 ROSCI 0103 Lunca Buzaului following along the Buzau River had an initial length of 110 km and a surface of 6987 ha; subsequent to the 2016 expansion it now has a length of 140 km and a surface of 9575 ha. In the studied area there are 62 perimeters leased for exploitation with a total area of 594.39 ha (6.2% of the site surface). For data analysis and management both GIS techniques and specific methods for interpreting remote sensing data were used. For this study, the following resources are used: Pleiades panchromatic and multispectral images at 0.5 and 2 m spatial resolution, orthophotos at 2.5 m spatial resolution, Digital Terrain Model (DTM) based on a 20m network. Thematic vectors: ROSCI 0103 limits, road network, geology. Data is processed and interpreted using specific software – ENVI EX for remote sensing data processing and QGIS for the development of the GIS database. Following the assessment, maps were drawn up highlighting the details of exploitations, the risk elements associated with the spatial-temporal evolution. These are key elements in the process of assessing the environmental impact and the risk for the population in affected areas.