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Institute of Geography, Romanian Academy

The Institute of Geography of the Romanian Academy (IGAR) is the main institution of fundamental and applied geographical research in Romania. It carries out research and documentation work, also coordinating Ph.D. activities. The focus of research is the relationships between the components of the physical and biotic environment (relief, water, soil, vegetation and fauna) and of the social and economic milieu, as well as their spatial distribution in connection with global environmental change.

The Institute is engaged in the two main activities. 1) The elaboration and publication of synthesis works on Romania (treatises, atlases and regional studies) and on Central and Eastern Europe and Black Sea countries; 2) The development of research into Physical Geography and Environmental Geography, closely connected to the interests of global international programmes, such as IGBP (International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme), IHDP (International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change) and ISDR (International Strategy for Disaster Reduction).

At present, the Institute of Geography has 3 laboratories (Physical Geography, Human and Regional Geography and Environment & GIS) within which the research activities focus on the study of man-environment relations and global change. The research personnel of the Institute of Geography consist of 15 senior researchers, 20 young researchers and 12 PhD students.

The Institute of Geography was involved in EU FP6 project - Climate Change and Variability: Impact on Central and Eastern Europe (CLAVIER), coordinated by Max-Planck Institute (Hamburg, Germany) www.clavier-eu.org.

IGAR is currently involved in the following EU projects:

South-East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme - Climate Change and Impacts on Water Supply (CC-WaterS); Project coordinator: Viena City Hall, Austria (2009-2012); https://www.ccwaters.eu/.

FP7 – Enabling climate information service for Europe (ECLISE); Project coordinator: Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), The Netherlands (2011 – 2013).

FP7 - People – Marie Curie Initial Training Network - Changing Hydro-meteorological Risks – as Analyzed by a New Generation of European Scientists (CHANGES); Project coordinator: University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and earth Observation, The Netherlands (2011-2015).

The project will essentially be implemented by:

  • PhD Monica Dumitrascu is a Senior Researcher, Deputy Director of the Institute of Geography and expert in environmental change, land use and GIS analysis. Her scientific field of interest is environmental change and the impact of global climate change on landscape, agriculture and environmental degradation. She published over 50 publications on landscape change and environment issues in Romania.
  • PhD Prof. Dan Balteanu is the Director of the Institute of Geography and Chair of the Romanian National Committee on Global Environmental Change. He is senior researcher at the Institute of Geography, PhD supervisor, his research field being environmental change and natural & technological hazards. He published over 15 volumes, and 100 scientific papers, many of them referring to the global change issues.
  • PhD Ines Grigorescu is a scientific researcher in the Institute of Geography, with expertise in studying man-environment relationships and integrated environmental assessment, and environmental change.
  • PhD Mihaela Sima is a senior researcher and head of Environment and GIS Laboratory with expertise in environmental geography, water contamination and natural and technological hazards
  • PhD Ana Popovici is a scientific researcher in the Institute of Geography. Her domains of interest are land use - land cover changes, agriculture and impact on environment and society, GIS and modeling.
  • PhD Carmen-Sofia Dragota, senior researcher with research interest in climate change and variability issues
  • PhD Diana Dogaru, scientific researcher with focus on environmental vulnerability assessment, GIS and modeling
  • PhD Bianca Mitrica, is senior researcher, Head of the Human and Regional Geography laboratory; fields of interest: socio-economic impact assessment
  • PhD Gheorghe Kucsicsa, Research Assistant; research activity: environmental impact assessment, GIS and modeling
  • PhD Candidate Mihaela Nastase with special interest in protected areas

Role in the project:

Within WP5, IGAR team is involved in two tasks Task 5.3 Agriculture and Task 5.6: Disasters early warning. In the Task 5.3 Agriculture IGAR will accomplish a brief historical overview of land property and land relations in Modern Times Romania, land reforms, land use changes and dynamics after the fall of the communist period and land fund in Romania under the transition to the market economy as well as agricultural land use by type and form of property and animal breeding. Concurrently, IGAR is undertaking a country-level analysis on the agri-environmental issues in Romania using GEPIC model; In the Task 5.6 Disasters early warning (Subtask 5.6.2. Invasive Terrestrial Plant Species-ITPS) IGAR team assesses the main environmental driving forces (natural and human-induced) responsible for the introduction and spread of ITPS in the Romanian protected areas (five case-studies, one for each biogeographical region of Romania: Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, Comana Natural Park, Rodna Mountains National Park, Lower Mures Floodplain Natural Park and Macin Mountains National Park) and the related impacts.