24 EVOLUTION OF LAND USE CATEGORIES AND THE EROSION DEGRADATION STATE OF THE AGRICULTURAL LANDS IN THE SUCEAVA COUNTY Simona-Gabriela CIOCAN, Simina-Mirela RĂILEANU, Daniel BUCUR “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Iasi, 3 Mihail Sadoveanu Alley, Iasi, Romania Corresponding author email: simonagabriela_ciocan@yahoo.com Abstract The paper aims to bring in the foreground the long-term negative effects of soil erosion on the slope agricultural land in Suceava County. Located in the northeastern part of Romania, Suceava County occupies an area of 8553.5 km 2 (about 3.6% of the country`s surface), being the second largest county in the country, after Timis County. Related to the country`s largest geographical units, the territory of the county overlaps partially with the Eastern Carpathians and the Suceava Plateau. The relief characterized by a wide variety of forms (mountains, intramontane depressions, hills, plateaus, terraced valleys and river meadows) and the characteristics of the climatic, hydrographic, geological and pedological elements, correlated with the inappropriate exploitation of the land slopes, have determined over time the emergence of the erosion process on agricultural land. In 1990, Suceava County had an agricultural area of 349,502 ha, out of which 182,486 ha of arable land, 91,465 ha of pastureland, 69,960 ha of meadows and 5,491 ha of orchards. Compared to 1990, the total agricultural area increased to 354,820 ha, where 180,451 ha represent arable land, 2,913 ha orchards, 93,052 ha pastures and 78,404 ha of meadows. Between 1990 and 2017, the total agricultural area has increased by 5,318 ha, but the arable land and orchards were reduced by approximately 2,500 ha each, pastures and meadows increased by about 1,500 and, respectively 8,000 ha. More than half of the agricultural area is located on land with a slope of more than 5%. The lack of measures to prevent and combat erosion has led to a decrease in soil fertility, and in some cases to irreversible removing of the large area of land from the agricultural circuit. Key words: soil erosion, slope land, land use categories, eroded land. INTRODUCTION The geographic position of Suceava County in the NE of Romania, with specific climate conditions, more severe than in the rest of the territory (low temperatures, abundant precipitation, high frequency and intensity of the wind) and higher forms of relief that are dominant in the area, represent factors that determine a relatively high degree of soil erosion (Savu P., 1999). Suceava County occupies an area of 855,350 ha, out of which 354,820 ha (41.48%) represent agricultural land, and more than half of them are situated on slopes with a slope of more than 5%. In these conditions, an accelerated soil erosion process is noticed, determined also by the intervention of the human factor on the environment, by massive deforestation, excessive grazing and the cultivation of land with large slopes without taking soil protection measures (Ungureanu Irina, 1998). MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was conducted using existing data from specialized state institutions such as the Suceava Agriculture and Rural Development Department, the Suceava Agricultural Payments and Intervention Agency and the National Land Improvement Agency Suceava regarding the evolution of the land use categories and surfaces degraded by erosion during the period 1998-2017. Also from the national database (BDUST- Databased of the Agricultural soil-land units) conducted through the County soil-land Monitoring System for agriculture, data on land degradation by sheet erosion and gully erosion processes were extracted together with the data regarding the lands affected by landslides for the 65 territorial-administrative pedologically mapped units of Suceava County. These studies were carried out at the scale of 1: 10000 or 1: 5000 by the County Office of Pedology and Agrochemistry Suceava. Scientifc Papers. Series A. Agronomy, Vol. LXII, No. 1, 2019 ISSN 2285-5785; ISSN CD-ROM 2285-5793; ISSN Online 2285-5807; ISSN-L 2285-5785