Marioara COSTEA

Abstract: The Sebeş basin represents a morphohydrographical entity, covering a surface of 1,289 square km, at the contact of the Southern Carpathian Mountains with the Transylvania Depression. The combined action of both the internal and the external factors determined a distinctive evolution of the relief within the basin, which is subordinated to the two morphostructural units. The background of the current geomorphologic processes in the Sebeş basin represents the consequence of the association among rock types, geological structure and modelling agent. The natural modelling processes are powerful and doubled by the man-induced processes, as a consequence of man’s intervention in the riverbeds, but also in the interfluve surfaces and slopes through the activities specific to the hydroenergetical, forest and agricultural use. The man-induced impact, through the location of the settlements, lines of communication, economic units and moreover, the land use and the change of its destination, determine an obvious differentiation of the slopes stability status. In order to evaluate the man-induced impact in the erosion of the slopes and their susceptibility to various processes, we have taken into consideration the permanent correlation of the geomorphologic indices with the forests’ extension degree for the topographical surface, the compactness and the consistency of the forest layers or the dispersion and fragile character of the vegetal layer in pastoral areas. There can be also added the dispersion or the concentration degree of the settlements, the pastoral economy and the hydroenergetical exploitation, specific to the mountainous area and the predominant agricultural and industrial use in the depression and plateau areas.

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