HYDROGEOLOGICAL DROUGHTS EVALUATION IN NORTH EASTERN PART OF ROMANIA Daniel BOICU 1 , Ionuț MINEA 1 , Constantin RUSU 1,2 , Ionuț JORA 3 ABSTRACT. Lack of rainfall in short time scales mainly affects soil moisture, whereas long-term rainfall deficit often affects streamflow and groundwater. The evolution of drought phenomena at all natural levels are analyzed selectively using different parameters. The evaluation of hydrogeological droughts was made for 7 hydrogeological wells developed on north-eastern part of Romania in the period between 1983 to 2018. Hydrogeological droughts were analyzed using groundwater level duration curve (GLDC) and extracting the corresponding groundwater levels of the 90-percentile (GL90). The results show that the climatic conditions from the year 2012 have a major impact of hydrogeological droughts for entire regions. Also was observed an increase of hydrogeological droughts intensity for the groundwater level situated near the surface (1- 2 m) with effects on high variation of groundwater level and implications on management of water resources in the region. Keywords: groundwater level, hydrogeological drought, indices, north-eastern Romania 1. INTRODUCTION Due to the lack of an efficient observation system hydrogeological droughts are rarely analyzed in general studies that evaluate the impact of this natural phenomenon on the environment. Most often the decrease of groundwater level it was rather associated with the over-exploitation of groundwater, rather than as a result of climatic variations (Khalaj et al., 2019). On the other hand, the lack of data that objectively reflects the evolution of this phenomenon underground, has led to the indirect analysis of hydrogeological droughts through a series of variables such as: base flow and recession indices (Tallaksen, van Lannen 2004, Beck et al., 2013). In the last decades studies have appeared that directly analyze the hydrogeological droughts from the perspective of the impact brought on the way of the groundwater resources management (Lloyd, 2007) and the effect of climate changes on the 1 ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași, Romania, Faculty of Geography and Geology, e-mail: boicu.d.daniel@gmail.com 2 Romanian Academy, Iasi Branch 3 Prut-Bârlad Water Administration Branch How to cite: Boicu, D., Minea, I., Rusu, C., Jora, I. (2020) Hydrogeological Droughts Evaluation in North Eastern Part of Romania. 2020 ”Air and Water – Components of the Environment” Conference Proceedings, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, p. 127-134, DOI: 10.24193/AWC2020_12. DOI: 10.24193/AWC2020_12