ABSTRACT
C. CISMARU, I. BARTHA, I. COJOCARU, N. MARCOIE and V. GABOR Land Reclamation Department, Technical University "Gh. Asachi" of lasi, Romania
Abstract In order to combat damages produced in agriculture by meteorological droughts its parameters, respectively intensity, frequency, duration have been analysed as local elements, and the extension area as well as the vulnerability, expressed by damages as elements of characterisation at regional scale. Intensity of droughts has been expressed by humidity index, proposed by Soroceanu, and by aridity index, defined by Palfai. There has been analysed and analytically expressed the correlation between of the intensity of droughts and their duration. Using data from 15 meteorological stations, relatively uniform distributed on the territory, the average intensity of droughts in the subzone Galati - Tecuci (the "nucleus" of the droughts) have been correlated with their manifestation area. The agricultural damages due to drought have been established by simulation of the hydric regime dynamics of soil (assisted by ISAREG programme, for a representative soil - leached chernozem - and for three representative cultures (corn, sugar-beet and alfalfa). There is a close relationship between the relative damages of agricultural production and the two annual indexes of the intensity of droughts. Finally, there has been established a relationship which permits the estimation of the loss of production depending on the intensity of droughts in their nucleus, respectively in the south-eastern part of the region. Keywords: agricultural droughts, drought duration, drought impacts, drought indices, drought intensity
1 Introduction
Drought has negative influences on economy, environment and, even, on social climate. Eastern part of Romania is characterised by a temperate climate with continental aspects, having an irregular distribution of rainfalls. That is due to general
Water and the Environment: Innovative Issues in Irrigation and Drainage. Edited by Luis S. Pereira and John W. Gowing. Published in 1998 by E & FN Spon. ISBN 0 419 23710 0
athmospherical circulation of currents, but also Carpathians, at the western part of the zone, are an obstacle in front of clouds brought by Atlantic currents. Although, the zone is opened to east, permiting the advance of steppe climate from the eastern part of Europe.
