Abstract
The soil, regarded as a natural resource, but also as a determinant element of the living standards of rural communities, manly agricultural, may be influenced, directly and indirectly, by the modality of land organizing and use. Starting from this consideration, through this study, the spatial and temporal evolution of land use is being pursued, particularly that of forest areas and wooded grasslands. The goal is to notice the changes that have occurred over a 30-year period and the manner how these changes are reflected on the soil features. The researches presented in this paper have been taking place in the north-eastern hilly area of Timiş County, that area having entirely a rural character. For realizing this study satellite images, topographical and cadastral maps, from different time periods, national and international databases, data from specialty literature were used. To all these we should add direct observations in the field, topographic surveys and information collected from local authorities. The processing of cartographic materials and data and scientific information has been realized with Geographical Information Systems specific applications. The obtained result has been expressed in the form of thematic maps, in graphic form or as statistical analysis. At the level of the analyzed area, the obvious changes in the land use, registered over time, are caused by a number of factors, such as: the organization form, from communist to capitalist policies, leaving agricultural land as fallow ground, reduction in livestock, changing land use etc. All these changes have caused the extension of the wooded grasslands, reduction of arable land, installing inferior forest vegetation in qualitative and quantitative terms etc. As a result, the soil, one of the most important natural resources, is degraded qualitatively, underexploited, and on the other hand, its role as a direct and indirect food producer for local communities is significantly reduced.
Highlights
The soil, considered as „the heart of terrestrial ecosystems” (Brady and Weil, 2008), regarded as a natural resource, and as a determinant element of the living standards of rural communities, manly agricultural, may be influenced, directly and indirectly, by the modality of land organizing and land use
The goal is to notice the changes that have occurred over a 30-year period and the manner how these changes are reflected on the soil features
The total surface of the researched area is 5,767 ha, of which 86.79% comes from agricultural land (30.34% arable land, 43.22% grasslands and 10.28% hayfields), and the forest covers 10.53% from the entire space (Tab. 2)
Summary
The soil, considered as „the heart of terrestrial ecosystems” (Brady and Weil, 2008), regarded as a natural resource, and as a determinant element of the living standards of rural communities, manly agricultural, may be influenced, directly and indirectly, by the modality of land organizing and land use. Under current technical conditions, monitoring the changes on land use and its organization, with global implications for the entire territorial system, may be done by remote sensing methods and techniques. This means „remote” data acquisition, data processing and obtaining results in a short time, but the most important, the possibility of comparing satellite images from different time periods. Considering its practical applicability, the analysis of land use changes by remote sensing and GIS techniques and methods is used in pedological and pratological research, with remarkable results (Wang et al, 2003; He et al, 2005; Fu et al, 2007; Wang et al, 2011). The goal is to notice the changes that have occurred over a 30-year period (between 1986 and 2016) and the manner how these changes are reflected on the soil features
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