354
L. E. Paveluc et al.
basin of the Siret River is the most inhabited in Romania, and for this reason, the
problem of water resources and its quality is stringent.
Fresh-water, both quantitatively and qualitatively, internationally and implicitly
nationally, is extremely low. This is why the food crisis is acute. Most optimistic
opinions lead to the idea that it is necessary to obtain an additional quantity of water
from desalination. For the mainland regions of the continents, intensive new sources
of water are sought, especially by extracting a surplus of groundwater (underground
and deep water). Unfortunately, the underground waters in Romania are used in
extremely low proportion (up to 6%) and therefore the water resources for the populated regions are reduced. The cause is the high costs of deep-water exploitation.
Global climate change inevitably leads to imbalances. Although the amount of
water generated by precipitation has increased, the periods of drought are longer
than those with precipitations [39, 41, 58–60]. The cause is the torrential rains when
impressive amounts of water accumulate in a few hours [42, 45, 46, 50–53, 57]. These
inconveniences have led to accelerating studies on the evolution of the surface and
groundwater resources, and at the same time creating an avoidance or loss mitigation
model [54–56]. The literature is extremely rich in analysis of water resources for
rivers [1, 13–15, 18, 23, 24, 37, 38, 47, 48, 50–53, 65, 69–71], lakes [2, 16, 20, 26–28,
34, 43–56, 64, 66, 68] and groundwater [13, 14, 31–33, 35, 40, 50–53, 61–63], but
especially for the problems caused by the pollution and quality mitigation [3–10, 12,
17, 19, 21, 22, 25, 30].
11.2 Study Area
Among the inner water courses, the Siret River is the most important tributary of
the Danube River on the territory of Romania. The Siret springs from the Padurosi
Carpathians (from the current territory of Ukraine), specifically from Mount Lungul
(1382 m), entering Romania in Varcauti, about 5 km NE from the town of Siret, and
after a total of 726 km (559 km in Romania), flows into the Danube, near the city of
Galati (at Sendreni) [41] (Fig. 11.1).
The Siret River is the most important hydrographic artery in Romania because it
has the highest multiannual average flow: 220 m
3 /s. The hydrographic basin, which
covers the territory of Ukraine and Romania, has a total surface area of 42,890 km
2 ,
from which 44,871 km
2 in Romania. It springs from the Ukrainian Carpathians,
where its upper basin can be identified, and then flows across Romania between the
Eastern Carpathians to the west and the Moldavian Plateau to the east [39, 41, 42].
It has the most complex hydrographic network: 1013 rivers, which measure
15,157 km, which means 19.2% of Romania’s total. The forest stock includes
15.882 km
2 , which represents 37% of the hydrographic area and 25% of the entire
forest stock in Romania [39]. The Siret River Basin has the following mathematical
L. E. Paveluc et al.
basin of the Siret River is the most inhabited in Romania, and for this reason, the
problem of water resources and its quality is stringent.
Fresh-water, both quantitatively and qualitatively, internationally and implicitly
nationally, is extremely low. This is why the food crisis is acute. Most optimistic
opinions lead to the idea that it is necessary to obtain an additional quantity of water
from desalination. For the mainland regions of the continents, intensive new sources
of water are sought, especially by extracting a surplus of groundwater (underground
and deep water). Unfortunately, the underground waters in Romania are used in
extremely low proportion (up to 6%) and therefore the water resources for the populated regions are reduced. The cause is the high costs of deep-water exploitation.
Global climate change inevitably leads to imbalances. Although the amount of
water generated by precipitation has increased, the periods of drought are longer
than those with precipitations [39, 41, 58–60]. The cause is the torrential rains when
impressive amounts of water accumulate in a few hours [42, 45, 46, 50–53, 57]. These
inconveniences have led to accelerating studies on the evolution of the surface and
groundwater resources, and at the same time creating an avoidance or loss mitigation
model [54–56]. The literature is extremely rich in analysis of water resources for
rivers [1, 13–15, 18, 23, 24, 37, 38, 47, 48, 50–53, 65, 69–71], lakes [2, 16, 20, 26–28,
34, 43–56, 64, 66, 68] and groundwater [13, 14, 31–33, 35, 40, 50–53, 61–63], but
especially for the problems caused by the pollution and quality mitigation [3–10, 12,
17, 19, 21, 22, 25, 30].
11.2 Study Area
Among the inner water courses, the Siret River is the most important tributary of
the Danube River on the territory of Romania. The Siret springs from the Padurosi
Carpathians (from the current territory of Ukraine), specifically from Mount Lungul
(1382 m), entering Romania in Varcauti, about 5 km NE from the town of Siret, and
after a total of 726 km (559 km in Romania), flows into the Danube, near the city of
Galati (at Sendreni) [41] (Fig. 11.1).
The Siret River is the most important hydrographic artery in Romania because it
has the highest multiannual average flow: 220 m
3 /s. The hydrographic basin, which
covers the territory of Ukraine and Romania, has a total surface area of 42,890 km
2 ,
from which 44,871 km
2 in Romania. It springs from the Ukrainian Carpathians,
where its upper basin can be identified, and then flows across Romania between the
Eastern Carpathians to the west and the Moldavian Plateau to the east [39, 41, 42].
It has the most complex hydrographic network: 1013 rivers, which measure
15,157 km, which means 19.2% of Romania’s total. The forest stock includes
15.882 km
2 , which represents 37% of the hydrographic area and 25% of the entire
forest stock in Romania [39]. The Siret River Basin has the following mathematical