Flavia–Luana MARIAN¹, Ioan–Aurel IRIMUȘ¹ & Constantin-Sorin ZAHARIA^2
1”Babeş-Bolyai” University, Faculty of Geography, 5-7 Clinicilor Street, 400006, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, e-mail: luana.magut@gmail.com; irimus@geografie.ubbcluj.ro,
²S.c. GEOPROIECT s.r.l., 11 Ștefan cel Mare Street, 430113, Baia Mare, Romania, e-mail: geobaiamare@yahoo.com

QUALITATIVE LANDSLIDE RISK ESTIMATION IN THE BAIA MARE DEPRESSION, ROMANIA


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Landslide risk maps enable regional and local authorities to have a basis for territorial planning and building regulations. In Maramureș County, the need for such a cartographic product has also been expressed by the Inspectorate for Emergency Situations. In answering this issue, the present study aims at identifying the main built-up areas and road sectors exposed to landslide risk from the Baia Mare Depression, an area of 600 km² from the southern half of the Maramureș County. This territory is affected by landslides of various ages which are associated with Pannonian sediments overlaid by quaternary deposits, affecting the stability of roads and buildings. The main areas with high landslide susceptibility were identified in order to perform a qualitative landslide risk assessment which relied on the heuristic method described in the Romanian legislation and the method developed by the Australian Geomechanics Society, at regional scale. As a result, 15% of the built-up area and 21% of the total road length were included in the high risk area. Previously mapped landslides and qualitative descriptions of damages associated to recent events were used to validate the results.