Using Fractal Analysis in Modeling the Dynamics of Forest Areas and Economic Impact Assessment: Maramureș County, Romania, as a Case Study

Abstract

Abstract:This study uses fractal analysis to quantify the spatial changes of forest resources caused by an increase of deforested areas. The method introduced contributes to the evaluation of forest resources being under significant pressure from anthropogenic activities. The pressure on the forest resources has been analyzed for Maramures , County, one of the most deforested counties in Romania. In order to evaluate this, the deforested areas were calculated for the period of 2001-2014, by using the Global Forest Change 2000-2014 database. The Fractal Fragmentation Index (FFI) and Fixed Grid 2D Lacunarity (FG2DL) were used to quantify the degree of fragmentation and dispersion of the forested areas, and thereby the extent to which a forest area is affected by deforestation. The process of quantifying the pressure on forested areas included the creation of a database for the period of 2000-2014 containing economic activities (turnover) related to woody recourses, important indicators of forest exploitation. Taken together, the results obtained indicate a dramatic increase in deforested areas (over 19,122 ha in total for the period of analysis), in Maramures , County.

Assessment of Textural Differentiations in Forest Resources in Romania Using Fractal Analysis

“…Our results add new insights to forest cover change as compared to previous studies based on fractal analysis [3,11,13,[36][37][38]. The findings of this study clearly confirmed the hypothesis that fractal analysis can provide an interesting new way of quantifying the degree of fragmentation and organization of forest areas characterized by deforestation and reforestation.…”

“…In previous studies, fractal analysis of forest areas was determined by using the Fractal Fragmentation Index [13,36] or Minkowski Dimension and Pyramid Dimension [33]. Until now, the dilation method was used to evaluate the quality of the commune or urban built-up areas [44] and we clarified the importance of utilizing the dilation method in understanding the textural organization of forest areas and the effects generated by deforestation and reforestation.…”

“…In the recent decades, the deforestation rate in Romania has rapidly intensified in the Carpathians and Subcarpathians through a surge in the demand from the wood industry, timber export growth and manufacturing of wood [3,13]. The natural forest cover in Romania is under threat due to the high population growth rate [14].…”

Using Multitemporal Landsat ETM+ Imagery to Determine a Sustainable Exploitation Patterns of the Forest Resources in the Moldo-Transylvanian Carpathians - Romania

“…Analysis of the deforestation patterns from satellite images through fractal analysis is expected to facilitate the development of a method, together with other well-known fractal methods and may provide valuable complementary information to currently available methodologies in the field of forestry research. The results of deforestation patterns in Moldo-Transylvanian Carpathians, based on Landsat ETM+ analysis [31,46], was performed for the period 2000-2014 using fractal indexes: FFI, ΛT-o-W and different fractal dimensions. Computation with the ImageJ program allowed for the determination of fractal dimensions for deforested areas and the maps generated from four case studies showed different spatiotemporal deforestation patterns of forests from the mountain area of Moldo-Transylvanian Carpathians.…”

Analysis of Anthropic Pressure Indices in the Metropolitan Area of Braşov, Processed/Highlighted by Means of GIS

“…Over the past years the Metropolitan Areas met with issues regarding urban population growth, uses of land, change of land coverage (Cîmpianu and Ema 2013), habitat fragmentation, deforestation , Draghici et al 2017) and loss of natural vegetation (Grigorescu and Geacu, 2017, Geacu et all. 2012, Ionus et al 2011.…”