Danube Delta: A lost paradise

The landscapes of the Danube Delta. The deltaic landscape covers a total area of 684 000 km2 of Terra. Every delta has its own specific landscape features determined by its evolution under certain hydrological, climatic, oceanographically, tectonic conditions, but all deltas have common features, among which the most characteristic are: water abundance, great biodiversity and very active dynamic processes. The Danube Delta is included in the temperate deltaic landscape category and it may be divided into several types and subtypes. The landscape of the fluvial delta is marked by the alternation of willow and poplar riverside coppices, well grown, with reed plots marshes, garle, sahales and channels. Other subdivisions are: the landscape of the high fluvial delta with rich riverside coppices, but with small marshes and less extended reed plots; the landscape of the low fluvial delta with reed plots and marshes, where the galleries of gârle, shales and of channels enclosed by riverside coppices meander. The landscape of the marine delta with 2 subtypes: the landscape of the low marine delta with extended reed plots, big marshes and very few riverside coppices and the landscape of the high marine fields. The latter is very diverse: the marine silvosttepe forests on the Letea and Caraorman fields, the high dunes fields, the salted regions represent distinct facets of the marine delta landscape. The landscape of the Chilia, Tulcea, Sulina and Sfântu Gheorghe branches is characterized by the huge amount of flowing water, by meanders, diffluences, and riverside coppices. According to the morphology of each branch and to the extension and intensity of human pressure, there occur individual features as well. The landscapes of the Chilia and Sfântu Gheorghe secondary deltas are identical in spite of the dimension differences. The branches ramifications and the dominant presence of the thicket swamps, including the more or less closed riverside coppices, are typical of this landscape. The landscape of lagoons is marked by the wide extension of water mirrors, enclosed by reed plots or cliffs (Capul Dolojan, Capul Iancine). The landscape of the deltaic and lagoonal shore is complex, owing to the combination of deltaic and marine elements. The present morfodynamic process demand the differentiation of several kinds: the landscapes of the shores developed on dune marine fields (Sulina, Sfântu Gheorghe, Chituc), the landscape developed on deltaic or lagoonal barriers which are withdrawing in rotation inside the delta (Sud Sulina, Cîsla Vadanii, Periteasca Edighiol), the landscape of the shores developed on shell barriers (Ciotic Perisor), the landscape of the Sacalin barrier island, the greatest and the most complex in the north-west of the Black Sea. The landscape of polders revamped for agriculture (Sireasa, Pardina, Rusca, Carasuhat, Dunavatu, Sud Sulina), is marked by the monotony specific to cereals and industrial crops grown fields.