Geography

RELIEF

Nature has been particularly generous with the land of Romania, a country whose relief is not only varied but also harmoniously distributed. There are three major, well-differentiated relief steps: the highest is represented by the Carpathian Mountains, the middle by the Sub-Carpathians, the hills and the tablelands, and the low one by the plains, the river meadows and the Danube Delta.

The main characteristic feature of the relief components is their proportional distribution, in the form of an amphitheatre. The mountains stretching in the shape of an arch in the central part cover 31% of the country's area, the hills and the tablelands which descend from them occupy 36%, and the plains, extending towards the southern and western borders, take up 33%. Encircling like a crown the Transylvanian Tableland (400-600 m altitude), the Carpathian Mountains rise up to 2,500 m (the highest elevation in the country is Moldoveanu Peak in the Fagaras massif -2,544 m), being in their turn surrounded by a belt of hills and elevations which rise no higher than 1,000 m. To the east and south the Carpathians are continued by the Sub-Carpathians with a similar genesis, but having lower altitudes (1,000-500 m), and to the west by the Western Hills, which do not rise beyond

300-400 m. To the east and south-east lie two plateaux - the Moldavian Tableland and the Dobrudja Tableland, with altitudes of 400-600 m. The Romanian relief is characterized by the large number of interior depressions in the mountainous and

Sub-Carpathian zones, which have always sheltered important population agglomerations.

The lower altitude and the more marked fragmentation of the Carpathians and

Sub-Carpathians, compared to the Alps, for instance, as also the large number of valleys and passes, made possible permanent relations between the inhabitants on either side of the mountains. At present, 12 railway lines and 30 roads cross

the mountains. The plains - formerly sea and lake bottoms - cover the southern and western parts of the country and are low and extremely flat. Between the Carpathians and the Danube lies the Romanian Plain, the principal granary of the country, and to the west stretches the Western Plain, which is crossed by many rivers. The multi-tiered relief disposition brings about differences in the climate, the soil, the vegetation and the fauna and, implicitly, the human settlements.

CLIMATE

Romania has a temperate-continental climate of transitional type, specific to Central

Europe, with four clearly defined seasons. Local differences are caused by altitude and by slight oceanic (to the west), Mediterranean (to the south-west) and continental (to the east) influences. In wintertime the mean temperature falls below -3º C and in summertime it ranges between 22º C and 24º C. The mean annual temperature is 11º C in the south and 8º C in the north of the country. The absolute minimum temperature ever registered was -38.5º C at Bot in the Brasov Depression, and the absolute maximum temperature was + 44.5º C (in the Baragan Plain). The average annual rainfall slightly decreases from west to east; mean annual rainfalls total 637 mm, with higher values in the mountain areas (1,400 - 1,000 mm/year) and lower values in the Baragan Plain (500 mm/year), Dobrudja and the Danube Delta (400 mm/year). The temperature and rainfall show local variations, depending on the relief, elevation and exposure to the circulation of air masses. Rainfalls are most abundant in May-June and scanty in February. In SW regions, where a Mediterranean influence is felt, the rainfall grows in autumn. Winds are not particularly strong, except in winter, when easterly winds affect mostly the east and southeast of the country. About 40% of the days in a year are calm and windless. In the last few years and especially in 1998 and 1999, Romania has been affected by extreme climatic phenomena, often compared to the El Niño phenomenon. The northern half of the country was ravaged by devastating rains (140 litres per square metre in two hours, in the Retezat Mountains, an unprecedented situation in the history of meteorological records), followed by catastrophic landslides and floods, which caused heavy destruction and the loss of human lives (28 in 1998). The southern part of the territory was afflicted by long droughts and extremely high temperatures (35-40ºC), the result being the desertification of large portions of land. The effects of such phenomena were worsened also by the ecological disequilibria determined in the last decade by the destruction of forests, orchards and vineyards on slopes and terraces, the respective land being left idle, as well as by pollution.

VEGETATION

The tiered vegetation is determined by the physical features, as well as by the soil and weather. The forests of Central Europe, which in ancient times and during the Middle Ages used to cover almost the entire area of today Romania, except for its south-east, gradually made room for farming land. Currently forests account for 28% of the country's area. The plains and hilly areas are covered by deciduous trees; prevalent up to an elevation of 600-700 m are the various varieties of oak, lime-tree, sycamore maple, ash, replaced then by beech, which in its turns makes room, at 1,200 m, for coniferous trees (fir, spurce fir, etc.) At 1,800 m begin the alpine pastures and lawns, with grassy species and bushes of juniper, bilberry, etc., which are the turf of sheep flocks. The forests (covering 6,688,500 ha) consist of beech (around 2 million ha), coniferous trees (1.9 million ha), hornbeam, elm, ash, lime and other species

(1.3 million ha), and oak and evergreen oak (ca. 1.1 million ha). Over 400,000 ha are affected by defoliation as a consequence of pollution and the greenhouse effect.

WILDLIFE

Romania's fauna, grouped by the vegetation tiers, was and still is one of the richest and most varied in Europe. Specific of the alpine zone are the chamois and the mountain eagle. Forests covering hills and mountains shelter deer, brown bears, lynx, wild cats, martens, capercaillies, hazel hens and pheasants. The deciduous forests are home to wolves, wild boars, does, and badgers, whereas the forest-steppe is the realm of hares, foxes, and a large number of birds, rodents and reptiles. From among the animals that became extinct in the last centuries, the bison has been reintroduced in reservations in the Carpathians. The Danube, the Danube Delta and the Razelm group of lagoon-lakes are the main fishing zones, teeming with carp, sheat fish, pike, zander, as well as migratory fish coming from the Black Sea during the reproductive period, such as the caviar-producing sturgeon or the Danube mackerel. There is then the littoral platform of the Black Sea which abunds in horse mackerel, anchovy, black goby, plaice, grey mullet and the blue mackerel that comes from the Mediterranean, etc. In mountain rivers there is trout and huek (a species becoming extinct).

RIVERS

The network of rivers in Romania is radial-shaped, with most of the rivers springing from the Carpathian Mountains and being collected directly or through tributaries (such as the Tisza) by the Danube. The main waterway is the Danube, which flows along 1,075 km of Romanian territory.

The other major rivers are: the Mures (761 km on Romania's territory), the main river in Transylvania, the Prut (742 km on Romania's territory), which traces in border with the Republic of Moldova, the Olt (615 km), the Siret (559 km on Romania's territory), the Ialomita (417 km), the Somes (376 km on Romania's territory), and the Arges (350 km). The rivers display relatively big variations in their level in spring and sometimes at the beginning of summer. Romania's water resources total ca. 40,300 million cu.m./year, of which surface waters -34,450 mil.cu.m. and underground waters -5,850 mil.cu.m.

The flow of the Danube alone accounts for 20,000 mil.cu.m. The hydropower potential of the Romanian rivers stand at about 84,000 Gwh/year.

LAKES

Lakes of various forms, sizes and origins are to be found in all relief tiers. There are around 3,500 lakes (2,000 of them natural) but their water only covers 1.1% of the country's area. Only some 310 of them have an area exceeding 1 sq.km.

More important are the lagoons and the Black Sea coast lakes (Razim 415 sq.km., Sinoe 171 sq.km.). The 200 glacial lakes are mostly spread in the SouthernCarpathians (Lake Bucura, 10.8 ha, is the largest of them). Out of the man-made lakes, the most important storage lakes for power generation are those on the Danube, at the Iron Gates II (400 sq.km.) and Iron Gates I (100 sq.km. - but with a water volume of

2,400 million cu.m., or three times as that of Iron Gates II), and also the storage lakes of Stanca-Costesti (59 sq.km.) on the Prut, and Izvorul Muntelui on the Bicaz river (31 sq.km.).

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Concerns for the protection of the natural environment were quite obvious in the late 19th century, at a time of transition from admiration of the beauty of nature to action to protect it and prevent abusive exploitation of its riches. The first law for environmental protection (the Law on the Protection of Nature Monuments) was passed in 1930 and, one year later, the Commission for the Protection of Nature Monuments was established and still function under the Romanian Academy. That law was followed by many other regulations, but a general law was enacted as late as 1973: the Law on Environmental Protection. At present there are about 630 protected zones across Romania, covering 1,200,000 ha (5.3% of the country's area). They include three biosphere reserves, 14 national parks and 613 scientific nature-conservation reserves. The Retezat National Park (f. 1935 in the Southern Carpathians), the Rodna National Park (f. 1990 in the Eastern Carpathians) and the Danube Delta (f. 1938) have been included by UNESCO, as biosphere reserves, on its of protected nature monuments.