Romanian Danube River Floodplain Functionality Assessment

Abstract

The floodplain of the Lower Danube was formed by the complex action of erosion and river accumulation, under the influence of the ascension trend of the river riverbed during the Holocene and the oscillation of the water levels and discharges. Almost full embankment and the construction of non-submersible dams have affected both the hydro-geomorphological system and the local and regional topo-climates, which is a pronounced phenomenon in the conditions of global climate changes. All these alterations have led to a significant transformation of the ecosystems. Transforming these ecosystems of the Lower Danube floodplain into dry land ecosystems has reduced their ecological, recreational, aesthetic and educational functions to only one function: the economic one. The natural capital of the Lower Danube floodplain has a productive capacity that must be known by its functional cells in order to avoid degradation, destruction under anthropogenic impact and to favor the sustainable use of its support capacity. Ensuring sustainable socio-economic development in the Lower Danube floodplain area is also based on knowledge of ecological sustainability, ecosystem integrity, environmental sustainability, ecological, and regional ecosystem balance. The ecological and economic resizing program of the managed areas of the Lower Danube floodplain was designed and launched to assist the Romanian Government in the long-term strategic planning process, to achieve the objectives of the Water Framework Directive and to effectively implement prevention, protection and mitigation of floods, mentioned in the National Strategy for Flood Risk Management. In this sense, a thorough and complex study, based on LiDAR measurements, hydraulic modeling and economic assessment, was conducted to evaluate the functionality of the floodplain as a whole and within agricultural units to determine the equipotential areas for flood-free future and sustainable development of the region. Thus, there were identified three types of areas: the first type represents the areas with only agricultural potential, the second type are, the areas with potential to be ecologically restored (to establish the natural flow of energy and circulation of matter) and the third one is a combination of the first two.