The Need for Protecting, Promoting, and Managing a Quaternary Geoheritage Site: Bahluieț Valley at Costești Village (Moldavian Plateau, North-Eastern Romania)

Mihai Niculiță

doi:10.1007/s12371-022-00645-4

Abstract

The Bahluieț Valley at Costești village geosite has recently been studied and proposed as a geoheritage site. Previous investigations of the study area were focused on the Costești-Cier archaeological site, which is currently integrated into the National Archaeological Repertoire. In this archaeological site, different levels of populations have been studied (Eneolithic Cucuteni A, Cucuteni AB, and Horodiștea-Erbiceni Culture populations) as well as an earth wall from La Tene (8th‒10th/eleventh century BC) and a 15th‒seventeenth century AD necropolis. In the area of the present-day Costești village, Bahluieț River leaves the Suceava Plateau area (with altitudes of 350‒550 m a.s.l.) and enters the Jijia Hills (with altitudes of 50 to 200 m a.s.l.), flowing between Ulmiș Hill (306 m a.s.l., at north) and Ruginii Hill (326 m a.s.l., at the south). This valley, which is incised more than 100 m below the plateau level, suddenly becomes broader because of massive Late Pleistocene landslides that covered the former Bahluieț river floodplain and are now fossilized by fluvial deposits. During the Holocene, river incision detached paleochannels and fluvial terraces, while the landslides reactivated through retrogressive mechanisms, creating a complex landslide. A cut-off meander island hosts the Costești-Cier archaeological site, which is currently being actively eroded by the river. In the riverbank of this island, a multi-layered stratigraphy can be seen, consisting of landslide and fluvial deposits, palaeosols, and archaeological remains. The layered deposits, the complex landslide, and the fluvial processes have the potential to become one of the most representative Quaternary sites of the Moldavian Plateau and Romania. By using geomorphosite assessment, geomorphological mapping, optically stimulated luminescence dating, and concepts of geoconservation, I show (i) the importance of the geosite due to the presence of the oldest dated fossil landslide in Romania and to the landslide-fluvial-archaeological relations and (ii) the need for protection at local, regional, and national levels considering the active processes that affect the site. I propose a geoconservation strategy for management and promotion of the geoheritage site.

Highlights

IntroductionFluvial erosion and mass wasting are geomorphologic processes control landform evolution (Korup and Schlunegger 2007; Larsen and Montgomery 2012) and create specific landforms: valleys, channels, and landslides
Fluvial erosion and mass wasting are geomorphologic processes control landform evolution (Korup and Schlunegger 2007; Larsen and Montgomery 2012) and create specific landforms: valleys, channels, and landslides.These processes are geomorphological hazards with adverse effects on human society (Monteleone and Sabatino 2014; Davies 2015).The Moldavian Plateau is a lowland hilly area representative for Romania (Fig. 1), where landslides are a permanent phenomenon, coexisting and having feedbacks with the river incision (Mărgărint and Niculiță 2017)
Sine the evaluation from Niculiță and Mărgărint (2018) of the Bahluieț Valley at Costești geoheritage site, when the Late Pleistocene age was inferred for the fossil landslide, this age was confirmed (Niculiță 2020)

Summary

Introduction

Fluvial erosion and mass wasting are geomorphologic processes control landform evolution (Korup and Schlunegger 2007; Larsen and Montgomery 2012) and create specific landforms: valleys, channels, and landslides. The Moldavian Plateau is a lowland hilly area representative for Romania (Fig. 1), where landslides are a permanent phenomenon, coexisting and having feedbacks with the river incision (Mărgărint and Niculiță 2017). In this area, landsliding initiated from the Holocene (Niculiță et al 2016a) or even the Pleistocene (Niculiță et al 2016b; Niculiță 2020) periods, and reactivated intensively during the Holocene and in recent times (Niculiță et al 2016a; Niculiță et al, 2016b: Niculiță 2020). The geomorphological, paleogeographical, and archaeological heritage was used to argue for the geoheritage status (Niculiță and Mărgărint, 2018) of such ten sites described first by Niculiță et al (2016a)

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