THE VARIABILITY OF RAINFALL REGIME, INDUCED BY CLIMATE CHANGES, IN DOLJ COUNTY AND IT IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT
MIREA ADRIAN, MIREA MAGDALENA MARI
ABSTRACT. – The Variability of Rainfall Regime, Induced by Climate Changes, in Dolj County and Its Impact on the Environment. Climate change is now widely recognized as an actual fact: temperatures are rising, rainfall patterns are changing, glaciers and snow melts, and average global sea level rises. We expect these changes to continue and extreme weather conditions that lead to risks like floods and droughts to become more frequent and increase their intensity. Drought and phenomena associated with it, namely aridization (lowering excessive groundwater level) and desertification (reduced area of ground covered by vegetation and a considerable depletion and soil erosion) represents, after pollution, the second largest problem facing humanity, currently affecting all regions of the globe. In Dolj County, the area between Calafat-Poiana Mare-Sadova-Bechet- Dăbuleni and the Danube, covering about 104 600 hectares, represents the most typical aspect of semi-arid zone with accents of aridity and even desertification in Romania, the phenomenon being favored by the presence of sandy soils. In Dolj County, there may be seen an important manifestation of climate change on the rainfall regime: increasing linear trend especially in the northern part of the county compared to the extreme south of the country, where atmospheric circulation interaction with local relief conditions,often causes diminishing rainfall..
Keywords: Climate change, drought, rainfall, floods, aridity.