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IUCB Project

PROJECT TITLE

The impact of climate change on maize crop productivity in Southern and South-Eastern Romania

RESEARCH PROJECT DESCRIPTION

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.

THE PROJECT’S OBJECTIVES

Acquiring agro-climatic data for the longest possible time period after 1990;
Statistically processing the data by means of the appropriate methodological instruments;
Estimating the statistical relationship between climatic variation and maize yield dynamics after 1990;
Estimating the economic effects generated by maize yield dynamics amid climate change;
Raising awareness on the importance of an interdisciplinary analysis of this environmental issue in Romania’s scientific/political spheres by disseminating the study’s results.

PROJECT MANAGER AND HOST INSTITUTION

Name and surname: Prăvălie Remus
E-mail address: pravalie_remus@yahoo.com
Institution name: University of Bucharest, The Research Institute of the University of Bucharest
Institution address: Bd. M. Kogălniceanu, 36–46, 050107, 5th District, Bucharest, Romania