First and foremost, according to an article very suggestively entitled "Why is it so difficult to assess landslides hazard and risk in Romania?" by Romanian renowned geophysicists from the Geological Institute of Romania, Raluca-Mihaela Maftei, Constantina Filipciuc and George Vina, available at http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/85206845/why-so-difficult-assess-landslides-hazard-risk-romania, landslides constitute a very common geomorphic hazard in Romania, mainly in the hilly regions which occupy around 30% of Romania's territory. But these regions are not the only ones to be affected by this geological phenomenon. Mountains too are affected by this and
according to http://www.naun.org/multimedia/NAUN/geology/ijgeo-10.pdf,
in Romania slopes affected by landslides are located in the Eastern Carpathians.
Unfavorable natural conditions such as: non-uniformity in the slope lithology, high slope gradients, and high rainfall rates combined with engineering works have accelerated local instability by increasing surface runoff and erosion. This has lowered the base level in the adjacent valleys/gullies by 1-2 meters, increasing the slide potential. An example for the eastern part of Romania's Carpathian Mountains is the Zemes landslide, which extends over 1.4 -1.8 kilometers in length, with a width of around 500 meters at the slope base and a total change in elevation of about 350 meters. This and similar slides cover 30-40 percent of the land on both sides of Tazlaul Sarat Valley. They have developed especially on soft or altered rocks. Unfortunately, these recurrent landslides produce an asymmetric shape to the valley, which increases the potential for landslide reactivation because of infiltration of water into the ground.
According to an article on landslide movements in Romania published in the International Journal of Geology in 2007 http://www.naun.org/multimedia/NAUN/geology/ijgeo-10.pdff, most landslides in Romania occur as a result of a combination of poor forest management and intense rainfall.
A study of susceptibility for landslides was carried out in Romania through use of the following methods: historic information concerning landslide occurrence, information about triggering factors, landslides classification, damages caused, field measurements and lab tests undertaken to determine physical properties of rocks, landslides mapping, landslide hazard zonation. Gradually, new methodologies were introduced, such as the Geographical Information System (GIS) for environmental monitoring.
What is Romania doing in order to prevent landslides and alert people?
Well, according to http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/85206845/why-so-difficult-assess-landslides-hazard-risk-romaniahttp://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/85206845/why-so-difficult-assess-landslides-hazard-risk-romania , given the very common occurrence of landslides, the Geological Institute of Romania worked on landslide inventory maps, risk management and assessment (analyzing and reporting systematic risk factors). However, public access to landslide hazard and risk maps is not facilitated, so people tend to largely be uninformed about the risks in their areas with respect to landslides. Moreover, public administration authorities have not identified, delimited or declared which are the high risk zones in their jurisdictions.
But, at the same time people who live in areas prone to landslides, people (over 80% of participants in the study) were aware of the relations between landslides and other phenomena: rainfalls, slope declivity, torrents, etc. as well as human activity: salt and oil exploitation, construction in areas with risk, closed mines, poor forest management; moreover, 70% of them had been suffering because of the direct impact of landslides.
According to the same above mentioned article published in 2012, people's involvement with local authorities tends to be minimal (they don't have any input for administration's plan with respect to the prevention of landslides), but out of their own willingness, they plant trees, fill up the cracks in their houses with cement and make wooden nets.
Thus, more needs to be done in order to prevent landslides from happening, considering the horrific damage they inflict upon communities and entire areas. A report by the European Commission - Institute for the Protection and Security of the Citizen located at http://eusoils.jrc.ec.europa.eu/ESDB_Archive/eusoils_docs/other/eur20558EN.pdf (page 83) outlines conclusions and key lessons learned in dealing with landslides and lists everything that should be done in order to mitigate landslides in an effective way. Quite an informative report and one that Romanian authorities should take a look at!
excellent entry Camelia. Clear, informative, to the point. It is an interesting note that common people realize what an impact resource exploitation have on their lives, yet are powerless to do anything to stop it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Brendan! I really appreciate your comment. I have literally found a ton of information about mass wasting (landslides) in Romania; I had no idea about how prevalent and common this phenomenon it is, and neither was I fully aware of the extensive damage it can cause; it is truly a very common geological phenomenon and one that we can possibly exert more control over than earthquakes, for instance, so I hope administration officials take this seriously and do something to better try to control it and educate people about how destructive landslides, their toll on entire communities both in terms of loss of life and irreversible property damage.
ReplyDeleteCamelia, I really enjoyed reading your post this week.. You did a Great job explaining all aspects of landslides. What I found interesting was that there are things people can do to prevent landslides. I never really thought about that being a possibility because I figured that landslides were something that just happened but now I have found there are things that can be done to prevent these tragedies from happening.
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