Assessing the rural social vulnerability associated with groundwater resources in Eastern Romania

Abstract

In recent decades in the eastern part of Romania, has faced a growing frequency of extreme hydrological phenomena associated with droughts and floods. This trend has highlighted the social and economic vulnerability of rural communities. This study aims to identify the vulnerability of 279 Local Administrative Units (LAU) from Eastern Romania in terms of vulnerability related to groundwater distribution and availability. The vulnerability assessment was performed based on 27 social, economic, and groundwater variables, which were classified by the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) methodology into three main components. The PCA analysis was performed using the same database using packages from SPSS and the Python programming language to facilitate the calculation of a modified Social-Groundwater Vulnerability Index (SoGwVI_m). The mapping results based on two methods were classified into five categories, ranging from low to high. revealed keen differences (3 %). The results highlight that 117 LAUs (covering 42 % of the entire region based on SPSS) and 109 LAUs (covering 39 % according to Python) are included in the high and medium-high vulnerability categories, mainly in the southern and eastern part of the region. The study results highlight the impact of climate change on water resources, emphasizing the need for urgent government actions and investments to mitigate rural vulnerability.