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    STUDIA GEOGRAPHIA - Issue no. 2 / 2011  
         
  Article:   WINDTHROWS AND SNOW BREAKS IN THE FORESTS OF THE MORPHOHYDROGRAPHIC GURGHIU BASIN.

Authors:  IOAN-AUREL IRIMUȘ.
 
       
         
  Abstract:  

Our study is based on an analysis of the windthrows and the snow breaks which have affected the spruce and fir forests (Picea abies and Abies Alba) and which represent yet an important risk in Gurghiu basin, considering the climatic conditions (the abundance of solid precipitations and the wind intensity) and the cycles of appearance of this phenomenon. Windthrows and snow breaks affect mostly the pure spruce forests; the mixed forests - spruce and beeches - are not so affected because of their driving roots. The most devastating windthrows affecting the forests of the Gurghiu Basin had happened in 1915, 1967, 1975, 1987, 2004, 2007 and 2010. The damages have been considerable: several hundred thousand of cubic meters of wood for event. We must consider some aspects that reflect the gravity of this phenomenon: the environmental impact, the high cost of wood, the extra costs for planting new trees, the time required for the forest regeneration. Moreover, the risk reduction induced by the windthrows and the snow breaks should be performed by implementing several measures: planting trees in mixed brushes of spruce and beech, reducing the wood exploitation, the prevention of the phenomenon by using probabilistic methods for anticipation of its occurrence. The methodology includes a quantitative analysis of damages occurred during these events, an analysis of territorial dynamics of the phenomenon, a predictive approach by estimating the real risk and the measures which could be taken to reduce windthrows risk.

Keywords: windthrows, snow breaks, spruce, fir, risk, probabilistic analysis.

 
         
     
         
         
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