Assessment of the Impact of Population Reduction on Grasslands with a New “Tool”: A Case Study on the “Mountainous Banat” Area of Romania

Luminiţa L. Cojocariu, Loredana Copăcean (), Adrian Ursu, Veronica Sărăţeanu (), Cosmin A. Popescu, Marinel N. Horablaga, Despina-Maria Bordean, Adina Horablaga and Cristian Bostan
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Luminiţa L. Cojocariu: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania
Loredana Copăcean: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania
Adrian Ursu: Faculty of Geography and Geology, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, 700506 Iași, Romania
Veronica Sărăţeanu: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania
Cosmin A. Popescu: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania
Marinel N. Horablaga: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania
Despina-Maria Bordean: Faculty of Food Engineering, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania
Adina Horablaga: Faculty of Agriculture, University of Life Sciences “King Mihai I” from Timisoara, 300645 Timisoara, Romania
Cristian Bostan: Agricultural Research and Development Station Lovrin, 307250 Lovrin, Romania

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 2, 1-30

Abstract: The landscapes and, implicitly, the surfaces of secondary grasslands in the mountain areas have been intensively modified and transformed by humans. In this context, this paper analyses the spatial and temporal changes of grassland surfaces following the impact of human population reduction. Thus, the study proposes the implementation of the Grassland Anthropic Impact Index (GAII) as a “measurement tool” to functionally link the two components, grassland surface and human population. The spatiotemporal analyses are based on Corine Land Cover data and demographic data, processed via Geographic Information Systems (GIS) methods and the Land Change Modeler (LCM) tool. The research shows that over a period of 28 years, the population, which was continuously decreasing, caused a series of transformations to the grasslands over an area of 33343 ha. The influence of the reduction in the number of inhabitants was also demonstrated by the direction of the changes produced in the grassland surfaces: in the better populated areas, the grasslands expanded over lands with other uses, and in the sparsely populated areas, they were abandoned. GAII values generally increase with the decrease of the population in the target area, meaning that for an inhabitant (potential user) a greater grassland surface is reported, resulting in a greater responsibility for the management of this resource on a space and time scale. Following the evaluation of the trend of the last 28 years, it was observed that the depopulation of mountain areas can be seen as a threat to grassland ecosystems, either through the transition to other categories of use, or through abandonment. The implications of these phenomena are much broader: they produce chain reactions and affect other components of the regional geosystem.

Keywords: Corine Land Cover; grasslands; agricultural land abandonment; human population; mountain landscapes; anthropogenic changes; risk assessment; Grassland Anthropic Impact Index; remote sensing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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