Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Natural risk assessment and mitigation of cultural heritage sites in North‐eastern Romania (Valea Oii river basin)

2018; Wiley; Volume: 51; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/area.12433

1475-4762

Ionuţ Cristi Nicu,

Flood Risk Assessment and Management

The number of geomorphological processes increases every year around the world. Irrespective of having natural or anthropic causes (gully erosion, landslides), they irreversibly affect the agricultural lands, lakes and ponds (by increasing the sedimentation rate), and cultural heritage. The main objective of this study is to identify and analyse areas susceptible to landslides and the cultural heritage that is in danger in the Valea Oii catchment, North‐eastern Romania. The development of gullies has been observed for 111 years, first in geomorphological annotations and geographical sketches and second in precise monitoring using the total station and GPS . The average gully head advance is 5.46 m/year for the period 1894–2005. In the case of landslides, the results of monitoring have allowed the implementation of a predictive model relying on the available GIS spatial data. The predictive model was validated by overlaying the existing landslides over the susceptibility map. It can be extremely useful in identifying the areas susceptible to landslides threatening cultural and natural heritage, developing anti‐erosion methods, monitoring and creating a sustainable management plan to protect historical monuments. A significant portion of the latter is included in the Romanian List of Historical Monuments. From 47 registered monuments, 27 are located in areas with high and very high susceptibility to landslides. A series of anti‐erosion measures, involving development projects and re‐greening of sites (planting trees), have already been employed in the case of two of the gullies that are affecting archaeological and palaeontological sites.