THE EVOLUTION OF THE DANUBE FLOODPLAIN IN OLTENIŢA–CĂLĂRAŞI SECTOR IN THE LAST 150 YEARS
THE EVOLUTION OF THE DANUBE FLOODPLAIN IN OLTENIŢA–CĂLĂRAŞI SECTOR IN THE LAST 150 YEARS

Summary/Abstract: The newest part of the Danube Valley, the floodplain, has been forming by the complex action of the river. This area of land over which the Danube flows its water, can be described by several terms including flooding area, riverbed, and regionally called swamp or Danube Floodplain. The flooding area has been named the Danube Floodplain, regardless whether there are non-flooding portions included in the region. In the past, the Danube Floodplain territory, and therefore the analyzing sector, was occupied by lakes, ponds, swamps, marshes, flooded fields and fluvial grinds with willow, poplar river meadows etc., which had an important role in the meadow operating mechanism. The continuous exchange between the Danube and the floodplain by overflows and remediation has played an essential role in ensuring the transport of sediments, retention and attenuation of the flood wave, balance the hydrologic regime, and moreover in preserving the dynamics of the relief. Olteniţa-Călăraţi Sector worked as natural until 1963, having all the characteristics of a large river floodplain. After 1973, there were embankment works done and the designed floodplain switched to be fully dedicated to agriculture. According to the 1980s map, most of the floodplain was covered by a complex system of irrigation and drainage channels. These actions have had dramatic effects, in reducing the amount of silt carried by the Danube, to the deterioration of the dynamic equilibrium between the river and floodplain.

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