Moldavian Plateau

Schimbările climatice induse de oameni sunt o certitudine, cu incertitudini în ceea ce privește nivelul de variabilitate climatică. Această variabilitate va influența procesele de hazard natural, iar incertitudinea privind schimbările climatice este transferată și modelării hazardelor naturale. Incertitudinea este înmulțită și mai mult de faptul că oamenii continuă să modifice suprafața terenului, influențând astfel hazardele naturale, în special în cazul alunecărilor de teren.

Natural hazards are the most significant threats in rural areas of Romania, while landslides, floods and bank river erosion are the geomorphological processes that impose the greatest risk in the Moldavian Plateau. We have identified 189 of disappeared, displaced and partially affected villages (in the area between Siret and Prut Rivers), using old cartographic materials as primary tool, and overlapping them with the present situation: ortophoto imagery and LiDAR derived high-resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs).

Today, as in the past, people living in hilly and mountainous regions have had to face the consequences of mass movement processes. Archaeological remains are important elements of cultural heritage, which can be significantly affected by landslides in different environmental settings and landscape evolution phases. In the Eastern Carpathians lowlands, landslides have shaped a landscape with inaccessible escarpments tens of metres high, providing ancient populations with naturally defensive sites at which to build their fortified settlements.