IUCB Project

This project aims to analyze the climate change effects on maize crop productivity dynamics (Zea mays L.) in the Romanian Plain and Dobrogea, in the post socialist period (after 1990). More specifically, the proposed methodology is based on the solution of Thiessen–Voronoi agro-climatic polygons as a concrete method to uniformly group and analyze climate (climatic water balance, precipitation and reference evapotranspiration) and agricultural data that are recorded over the same period of time, but which are spatially distributed differently (climatic data measured at punctual weather stations, unlike agricultural data, recorded in spatially continuous administrative units). Essentially, the project investigates for the first time the impact of climatic water balance (and of its constituting parameters, precipitation and reference evapotranspiration) on maize yields in these major regions of Romania and provides a detailed spatiotemporal analysis of climatic water balance change impact (agricultural and economic) on maize production across these extensive areas of the country.