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Land degradation due to erosion in public perception. Case study: Secaşul Mare river basin settlements (Transylvanian Depression, Romania)

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Abstract

According to the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR 1990–1999), the risk indicates potential losses due to particular natural phenomenon, and these could be reduced by improving of prevention and education. People perceive these losses differently depending on phenomenon occurrence, severity, and impact in time. Starting from this idea, this research presents public perception on land degradation through erosion in a small area from the central part of Romania (south-west of Transylvanian Depression). The research was based on a questionnaire consisting of 16 questions. The items were structured by issues: awareness assessment regarding hazard and risk phenomena, assessment of type of property and land use, assessment of knowledge and information on the possible production of negative effects by natural phenomena, and evaluation of land owners’ attitudes towards the occurrence of erosion on their land. Results reveal that the public perception on erosion is weak. This process is perceived as insignificant due to lack of phenomenon knowledge and especially because of scarcity preoccupation in land’s quality monitoring. Even though the owned lands are affected by erosion forms, the owners are not aware of the phenomenon that generates them. Material damages caused by erosion, loss of soil quality, and land fertility decrease are less perceived because the economic losses fill only at long term. This perception leads to underestimating erosion risk compared to other natural phenomena and to a passive attitude towards this particular phenomenon.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all respondents for their answers and to Ann Mayo (Weatherford College, Weatherford, Texas, USA) for linguistic corrections. This work was co-financed by the European Social Fund through Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007–2013, POSDRU 89/1.5/S/63258. We are also very grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments, which improved the quality of this paper.

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  1. Department of Environmental Sciences—Faculty of Sciences, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Dr. Ion Raţiu street No. 5-7, 550012, Sibiu, Romania

    Marioara Costea & Ioan Tăuşan

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  1. Marioara Costea
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  2. Ioan Tăuşan
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Correspondence to Marioara Costea.

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Costea, M., Tăuşan, I. Land degradation due to erosion in public perception. Case study: Secaşul Mare river basin settlements (Transylvanian Depression, Romania). Environ Monit Assess 188, 219 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5200-z

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