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Abstract
This study presents an integrated assessment of geomorphological and hydrological risk inRomania’s Moldavian Plateau, combining manual inventories, high-resolution DEM/LiDAR, CorineLU/LC, geology–soils, Sentinel-2, and EGMS InSAR with HEC-RAS modeling and official 1% & 1%CC flood belts. The inventory maps 4,351 landslides, 3,343 gullies, 2,353 rill patches, and 17,681 sheet-erosion polygons – covering 28,900 ha (landslides), 4,661 ha (gullies), 21,500 ha (rill erosion), and 135,152 ha (sheet erosion), showing that areal processes dominate, while gullies and landslides mark acute instability nodes near settlement edges and infrastructure. Plateau-wide, the 1% AEP flood belt occupies 111,549 ha, expanding to 149,184 ha under the climate-corrected 1%CC scenario (+33.7%). Affected settlements increase from 398 to 451; intersected households from 10,514 to 14,112; and the estimated exposed population (excluding municipalities) from 27,350 to 36,700 (+34%). A HEC-RAS case study on the Suceava River (Mihoveni–Ițcani, Q2008 = 1,710 m³/s) indicates that levees shrink inundation footprints but raise depths and WSE (12.66→13.09 m; 285.93→286.86 m), highlighting trade-offs between footprint reduction and hydraulic load. The results support conservation agriculture on >8.5° slopes, grade-control and drainage where gullies approach settlements, targeted slope stabilization, and strict floodplain zoning paired with carefully engineered defenses.
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