Ionut Savulescu

University of Bucharest | Unibuc · Faculty of Geography

Soil erosion is one of the major threats to soil sustainability and a global environmental issue causing serious losses of the fertile upper layer of soil, affecting land productivity. Among natural processes and human activity factors, the highest sensitivity of soil loss rate is related to climate changes, as well as land cover/land use transform...

Computer modeling of sporadic and isolated patches of mountain permafrost distribution is difficult to implement without overestimating it. The main challenge is to determine the very areas where the criteria for permafrost maintenance are met. This paper aims to modeling the permafrost distribution in the Southern Carpathians (SC), a typical margi...

Insect and disease outbreaks in forests are biotic disturbances that can profoundly alter ecosystem dynamics. In many parts of the world, these disturbance regimes are intensifying as the climate changes and shifts the distribution of species and biomes. As a result, key forest ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, regulation of water f...

Sesquipedalian mud and burnt bricks (second to third century AD) were excavated from the Roman city of Romula located in the Lower Danube Region (Olt county, Romania). Along with local soils, bricks are investigated by petrographic analysis, X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), electr...

Forest habitat fragmentation is one of the global environmental issues of concern as a result of forest management practices and socioeconomic drivers. In this context, a constant evaluation of natural habitat conditions still remains a challenge in order to achieve a general image of the environmental state of a protected area for proper sustainab...

Forests have become increasingly stressed by climate change, including in Romania over recent decades, but their response to climate dynamics has not yet been analysed in this country. This study aims to investigate, for the first time, recent ecological changes in forests across Romania, in relation to climate dynamics that affected the country fr...

Dam construction is one of the major human pressures impacting fluvial processes, including topography and hydro-sedimentary flows, as a result of the change in flow regime from fluvial to fluvial-lacustrine. This article investigates geomorphic changes at Iron Gates I, the largest reservoir on the Danube River, completed in 1972 for hydropower and...

Cost-suitability land modeling is one of the mandatory conditions for the proposal of new transport development projects, in order to achieve optimal costs of design and construction. In the present study, we intend to present a model for assessing land suitability for current and proposed transport infrastructure along the Orient-East Med TEN-T Co...

Pottery vessels made of kaolin clay from the Roman Period (2nd, 3rd centuries CE) found in Romula (Reșca village, Olt County, Romania) from Dacia Inferior (Malvensis) were investigated by petrographic, X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, thermal analysis, electron microscopy, and mechanical tests. Our results are compared with available data on...

Obtaining and ceramic material for bricks, replica of Roman ones.

While agricultural systems are a major pillar in global food security, their productivity is currently threatened by many environmental issues triggered by anthropogenic climate change and human activities, such as land degradation. However, the planetary spatial footprint of land degradation processes on arable lands, which can be considered a maj...

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the main air quality pollutants of concern in many urban and industrial areas worldwide, and particularly in the European region, where in 2017 almost 20 countries exceeded the NO2 annual limit values imposed by the European Commission Directive 2008/50/EC (EEA, 2019). NO2 pollution monitoring and regulation is a ne...

Monitoring uncontained built-up area expansion remains a complex challenge for the development and implementation of a sustainable planning system. In this regard, proper planning requires accurate monitoring tools and up-to-date information on rapid territorial transformations. The purpose of the study was to assess built-up area expansion, compar...

Land degradation is a major environmental issue affecting numerous countries worldwide, including certain European states. An in-depth understanding of this complex process’s spatial pattern requires multicriteria approaches such as MEDALUS (Mediterranean Desertification and Land Use) model, which can be extremely useful in identifying lands that a...

Strong winds may uproot and break trees and represent a major natural disturbance for European forests. Wind disturbances have intensified over the last decades globally and are expected to further rise in view of the effects of climate change. Despite the importance of such natural disturbances, there are currently no spatially explicit databases...

Strong winds may uproot and break trees and represent a major natural disturbance for European forests. Wind disturbances have intensified over the last decades globally and are expected to further rise in view of the effects of climate change. Despite the importance of such natural disturbances, there are currently no spatially explicit databases...

Strong winds may uproot and break trees and represent one of the major natural disturbances for European forests. Wind disturbances have intensified over the last decades globally and are expected to further rise in view of the climate change effects. Despite the importance of such natural disturbances, there are currently no spatially-explicit dat...

This paper focuses on the environmental conflicts induced by insufficient continuous snow cover on the ski areas in Romania. The case study aims envisions the area of Southern Carpathians, Latoriței Mountains, belonging to the group of Parâng Mountains. The area chosen to develop and improve the artificial snow system was conducted for in the propo...

The agricultural mountain landscape in the Romanian Carpathians follows the same change trend in other European mountains, from variety and individuality to simplification and uniformization. Our paper proposes two complementary case studies from the Southern Carpathians—Poiana Mărului and Fundata, representative areas for the entire Carpathian eco...

Strong winds may uproot and break trees and represent one of the major natural disturbances for European forests. Wind disturbances have intensified over the last decades globally and are expected to further rise in view of the climate change effects. Despite the importance of such natural disturbances, there are currently no spatially-explicit dat...

Romania is a Carpathian country that experiences an increasing number of wildfire events. The production of a reliable model for the zonation of the monthly forest fire susceptibility degrees with a National scale coverage was the target of the SIAFIM project. Our approach is oriented towards the integration of complementary satellite imagery in th...

The paper explores the dynamics of the forest cover change in the Iezer Mountains, part of Southern Carpathians, in the context of the forest ownership recovery and deforestation processes, combined with the effects of biotic and abiotic disturbances. The aim of the study is to map and evaluate the typology and the spatial extension of changes in t...

Land degradation, a current environmental threat of global proportions, is a complex issue which needs an interdisciplinary approach in order to tackle a given territory's sensitivity to the process. This study aims to spatially analyse the land degradation sensitivity in south-western Romania, a region currently known for this type of environmenta...

Land degradation, a current environmental threat of global proportions, is a complex issue which needs an interdisciplinary approach in order to tackle a given territory's sensitivity to the process. This study aims to spatially analyse the land degradation sensitivity in south-western Romania, a region currently known for this type of environmenta...

This project is based on an action that is agreed with the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) Department C - Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and is based on Intelligent Transport Systems. Romanian TEN-T network is seriously affected by natural risks such as landslides, torrential erosion, rock falls, avalanches, floods and heavy snow....

In this article, we processed Sentinel-2 images in order to obtain high accuracy land cover maps for two complementary study areas. The first is represented by the Romanian Subcarpathians, a hilly highly fragmented area with heterogeneous land cover pattern and the second by Romanian Carpathians, a mountain area with homogenous structure of vegetat...

This project is based on an action that is agreed with the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA) Department C - Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and is based on Intelligent Transport Systems. Romanian TEN-T network is seriously affected by natural risks such as landslides, torrential erosion, rock falls, avalanches, floods and heavy snow....

Mapping landscape change at detailed scales is an interesting task when the focus is not only the land cover change. The paper proposes the integration of a diachronic imagery set in a GIS application in order to obtain precise maps of the key qualitative changes along a representative sector of the Danube River Defile where the Iron Gates emerged...

Regional monograph of Prahova County, Romania, is developed in an encyclopedic format with latest GIS data processing techniques, digital modelling and cartography. All the results of the scientific investigations are validated by fieldwork. It contains 688 pages with 272 figures. It is a portrait of one of the most developing administrative region...

Mapping landscape change at detailed scales is an interesting task when the focus is not only the land cover change. The paper proposes the integration of a diachronic imagery set in a GIS application in order to obtain precise maps of the key qualitative changes along a representative sector of the Danube River Defile where the Iron Gates emerged...

The town of Predeal is the highest altitude urban settlement in the Romanian Carpathians (975–1060 m) and is a famous regional skiing resort. Recent urban extension of the settlement on to areas previously covered by landslides represents a key issue and potential hazard for future urban development. In order to provide data for the urban planning...

The first volume of a dictionary (A-Î), dedicated to geography students and researchers (668 pages) is adapted to the study of remote sensing, image analysis and photogrammetry. It is not limited to explanation as it shows basic case studies of image processing. The book is rich in examples and imagery samples, provided on a separate CD.

Railway mainline improvement along critical sectors with high gradients and affected by natural hazards is a tough objective to be achieved by engineering projects. The present paper analyses a typical section of the Romanian railway network, where an old technical solution (within 8 km of rail there are eight curve sectors, 170-250 m in radius eac...

Hazard analysis requires heavy computation and specialized software. Web processing services can offer complex solutions that can be accessed through a light client (web or desktop). This paper presents a web processing service (both WPS and Esri Geoprocessing Service) for landslides hazard assessment. The web processing service was build with Esri...

Windthrow problem is a difficult task for the forest managers in the Romanian Carpathians and especially in Iezer Mountains. The last windthrow, in July 2005, affected about 370 ha within the study area and left unprotected large slopes with important declivities (20–30°). In our study, we try to propose a tool for forest management, in order to co...

Please click here to download the map associated with this article.This paper focuses on one of the representative areas of the Southern Carpathians, the Iezer Mountains (2470 m a.s.l.), specifically the Rausor catchment which has integrated digital data from various available sources in order to map the evolution of forested area limits and featur...

Please click here to download the map associated with this article.The paper proposes a new type of geomorphic map, a selective fusion of geomorphic data with land engineering and transport infrastructure features at the detailed scale of 1:5,000. The map focuses on the interaction between landforms, morphodynamics and transport infrastructure, hav...

Please click here to download the map associated with this article.The evaluation of landslide susceptibility requires understanding of the spatial distribution of the factors that control slope instability. It is known that the behaviour of landslides is difficult to evaluate because of the various factors that trigger mass movements. The methodol...

The Carpathian and Subcarpathian towns in Romania developed under different geographical and historical conditions. Their built-up areas cover mainly slopes and sometimes terraces and higher floodplains. Some towns are old (mainly since the 14–16th centuries) but there are also newer settlements (since the 19th and even the last century). Mass move...

Mapping landslides and building landslides inventory have received a special attention from a wide range of specialist. In building a landslide inventory an important step is the spatial delineation of the landslides body, followed by the landslides classification according with an international used classification system and the identification of...

The Bucegi Mountains are situated in the Curvature Carpathians close to the metropolitan area of Bucharest. Tourism has been promoted on the Bucegi Plateau since the 1930s with the establishment then of several hotels and chalets. During the communist period after World War II, the area targeted mass tourism with the creation of a large network of...

The Iezer Mountains are part of the Southern Carpathians in Romania; the elevation range spans over 1800 m, with the highest peak at 2470 m. In recent years, the vegetation in this montane landscape has undergone various changes. The aim of the present analysis is to test whether the evolution of vegetation zones can be modeled using remote sensing...

The Iezer Mountains are part of the Southern Carpathians in Romania; the elevation range spans over 1800 m, with the highest peak at 2470 m. In recent years, the vegetation in this montane landscape has undergone various changes. The aim of the present analysis is to test whether the evolution of vegetation zones can be modeled using remote sensing...

The evolution of Bucharest during the last 40 years showed spectacular changes, as a result of the socialist urban policy. The paper investigates the leading transformation of the urban structures, comparing declassified intelligence imagery (2002) CORONA KH 7 (0.60-1.20 m spatial resolution) from 1966 and IKONOS pansharpened image from 2002 (1 m s...

The Bucegi Mountains represent one of the most dynamic touristic area in the Romanian Carpathians. This remote sensing based analysis focuses on the use of two Landsat TM and ETM+ summer mosaics downloaded from the GLCF (Global Land Cover Facility) database and covering the period between 1989 / 1990 and 2000. After applying radiometric and topogra...