From left to right: Dr. Gheorghe Kucsicsa, Dr. Monica Dumitrascu, Dr. Miahela Sima, Dr. Ana Ursanu and Dr. Ines Grigorescu.
The team from the Institute of Geography of the Romanian Academy (IGAR), led by Dr. Mihaela Sima, is represented by an interdisciplinary team of geographers, with expertise in environmental, physical and human geography: Dr. Gheorghe Kucsicsa, Dr. Monica Dumitrascu, Dr. Ana Ursanu and Dr. Ines Grigorescu.
The IGAR team has expertise in GIS and spatial data analysis and has developed studies that integrate natural and socio-economic components of the environment. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding land use/land cover changes, land management, human impact on the environment, climate change adaptation in various fields, communities’ vulnerabilities to natural hazards, spatial analyses on the urban-rural interactions and synergies.
Within the Europe-LAND project, IGAR is coordinating WP3, which aims to explore the drivers and awareness behind land-use decisions related to climate change and biodiversity at various levels (national, regional or local) using participatory approaches as well as to analyse how policy instruments and incentives support climate change adaptation and sustainable land management. IGAR also leads a task on modelling future land use/land cover patterns in Romania using the CLUE-S model , analysing various land use scenarios for the perspective of the year 2050, considering climate change and biodiversity conservation as driving factors.
IGAR is running an interesting case study in Romania, focused on Braila County, aiming to understand the conditions of local land use decisions, land management practices, the typologies of agricultural farms and their climate adaptation potential.
Please see the IGAR website for further details on the research fields and current projects www.geoinst.ro.