**3. Study area**

Romania is a state located in the Southeast of Central Europe, on the lower Danube, north of the Balkan Peninsula, and on the northwestern shore of the Black Sea. The population, at the level of 2019, is estimated at 19.4 million citizens. On its territory are the southern and central parts of the Carpathian Mountains and the lower Danube basin. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Serbia to the southwest, Hungary to the northwest, Ukraine to the northeast, the Republic of Moldova to the east, and the Black Sea to the southeast (**Figure 5**).

**Figure 5.** *Romania—Study area.*

According to the National Institute of Statistics, Romania's forest fund covers an area of 6,529,000 hectares, representing 27.3% of the country's territory. The total volume of forest stands is estimated at over 1340 million m3 .

The multifunctional character of forests is given by their multiple roles: ecological, economic, and social. From a socioeconomic point of view, forest exploitation generates resources, especially wood, but it also plays an important role in the regeneration of water resources and air quality. Their use is multiple starting from the energy role (about half of the renewable energy consumed in the EU is produced from wood mass), for timber, paper industry, wood fiber panels, etc. The relationship between man and the forest is complex, and the dependence is obviously mutual.

The territory of Romania represents a point of intersection between different biogeographic regions: Arctic, Alpine, Western and Central European, Pannonian, Pontic, Balkan, sub-Mediterranean, and even Colchian and Turanic-Iranian. This high level of diversity of ecological conditions/systems also determines a great diversity of flora and fauna, estimated at 3700 species of plants and over 33,000 species of animals. A large number of these species (over 220 plants and over 1000 animals) are endemic species, adapted to local conditions and are found only in Romania.

Important areas of natural, virgin, and quasi-virgin forests are preserved in Romania. However, these areas are rapidly narrowing, currently occupying only about 280,000 hectares, that is, less than half of the existing area 20–25 years ago. These forests are located in a proportion of 99% in mountain regions (in karst areas, in hard-to-reach regions, on steep slopes and screes) and only in a proportion of 1% in the hill and plain regions (hard-to-reach areas of the Danube Delta or compact forest massifs located at a considerable distance from localities). Most of them are located in the area of beech and spruce and mixtures of spruce, fir, and beech. Currently, parts of the virgin and quasi-virgin forests of unique value, including for the biodiversity of natural ecosystems, are included in officially protected areas.

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**Figure 6.**

*2018, in Romania.*

*Use of Fractal Analysis in the Evaluation of Deforested Areas in Romania*

prevention and quantification of the deforested areas.

The division of the property regime of the national forestry fund after the 1990s, the great dynamics of the laws in the forestry field, the lack of a coherent policy in this field, and the desire for quick financial gains generated significant deforestation of the forests at the national level. The lack of precise statistics of the deforested surfaces and the quantities of wood exploited has generated at the level of some groups of researchers or environmental organizations of solutions for the

Economic pressure and extreme environmental factors have led to the reduction of forest areas worldwide. Romania has also registered a marked dynamics of the

The division of forest fund ownership, inadequate or poorly applied legislation, poor monitoring of the way the wood is exploited, and the occurrence of natural phenomena that have affected the forest (wind blows, biological attacks, etc.) led to the reduction of forest areas and especially to a strong fragmentation of them.

Finding methods that determine the most precisely deforested areas, the density of the existing forest, and its territorial fragmentation is of great importance for sustainable management of the national forestry fund but also within a sustainable development of the environment (protection against landslides, floods, air quality,

The analysis was performed according to the types of relief units and their degree of forest cover. Thus, it is found that socioeconomic and natural factors of the last decades have generated a decrease of the compaction of the forest areas (**Figure 6**). The most affected unit of relief is that of the Carpathian Mountains and of the Mehedinți Plateau. All the relief units have suffered over time decreases of

The tested and analyzed method may also indicate the technical way of extracting the wood from the logging. A selective extraction of valuable and mature trees or a

*Evolution of the compaction of the areas occupied by the forest, at the level of relief units, between 2001 and* 

the compaction of the forest surface following the deforestation.

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91621*

national forestry fund in the last decades.

groundwater resources, etc.).

**4. Results**

#### *Use of Fractal Analysis in the Evaluation of Deforested Areas in Romania DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.91621*

The division of the property regime of the national forestry fund after the 1990s, the great dynamics of the laws in the forestry field, the lack of a coherent policy in this field, and the desire for quick financial gains generated significant deforestation of the forests at the national level. The lack of precise statistics of the deforested surfaces and the quantities of wood exploited has generated at the level of some groups of researchers or environmental organizations of solutions for the prevention and quantification of the deforested areas.
