USING GIS IN ASSESSING THE TRENDS IN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN MIDDLE AND UPPER BASIN OF THE RIVER BEGA
LOREDANA COPĂCEAN1, MIHAI VALENTIN HERBEI1, SILVICA
ONCIA1
1Banat University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Calea Aradului Street, no. 119, 300645 Timisoara, Romania, lorecopacean@yahoo.com
Abstract: The number of inhabitants and their distribution in a given area
varies within very large limits of tolerance, both in time and space, regardless
of geographic region considered. The natural and anthropogenic frame of the area
studied in this paper, namely the upper and middle basin of the river Bega, was
described on the basis of existing scientific literature, supplemented by
produce maps to work with, such as digital elevation model generated with using
Global Mapper software, model used to delimitate the analyzed area; the map of
communal territories included in the investigated area was prepared by
extracting them from the administrative-territorial map of Timis county, overall
population density map and the map of population density developments, compiled
from data of population censuses in each communal area, obtained by processing
using GIS software. The purpose of this study is to highlight trends in the
evolution of the population and to identify areas at risk of depopulation, which
means, on the one hand knowledge of the number of inhabitants and for variations
in this indicator, on the other hand density analysis population synthetic
indicator used to highlight differences in the land surfaces occupied by humans.
The upper and middle basin of the river Bega is characterized by a variety of
natural and socio-economic conditions, resulting in major differences in the
evolution of the number of inhabitants and their spatial distribution. In
the period considered (1880 - 2011), the most populous census occurred in 1910,
since then a definitely downward trend in this indicator can be observed, until
the current period, in some cases "losses " were very large (village Bara,
Balinţ, Ohaba Lungă, etc). The downward trend in the number of inhabitants has
direct implications on the overall density of the population, over time, this
indicator registered a continued reduction in most cases and time periods
considered. Estimates on future population numbers are difficult to achieve
because some variables can not be predicted or quantified, such as political
decisions, migrations and general demographic balance values.
Key-words: assessment, population density, depopulation
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