Spatial dynamics and changes in northeastern Romania's orchard landscape over the last century

Globally, land use/ land cover has suffered significant changes during the last years, some countries being more negatively impacted than others and a good example are countries from the former Soviet Union, including Romania. This paper aims to highlight the evolution of the orchard landscape in a region with a centuries-long tradition in this field in North-East Romania. The analysis will focus on the transitions of orchard landscapes based on literature and cartographic materials, either historical or modern, and on outlining the tendencies that have been seen throughout the past decades. The results show that although fruit growing has been mentioned as a basic activity in this region since the 15th-16th centuries, the peak was reached during the communist period. The new practices in this field are showing a transition regarding the location of the orchards according to the slope. If the orchards from the 80's were located in the largest proportion on slopes of 10-15% or even 15-20%, today, the orchards are located in areas with reduced slopes of 1-3% and 3 -5%, areas, that previously served as agricultural land. These changes are exposing the slopes to ongoing geomorphological processes, situation that can be seen in former areas with orchards, where nowadays there can be identified active landslides. It was left to ponder whether this evolution results in degeneration or sustainability in light of the current circumstance.