  Citation: Niacsu, L.; Bucur, D.; Ionita, I.; Codru, I.-C. Soil Conservation Measures on Degraded Land in the Hilly Region of Eastern Romania: A Case Study from Puriceni-Bahnari Catchment. Water 2022, 14, 525. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14040525 Received: 20 December 2021 Accepted: 6 February 2022 Published: 10 February 2022 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). water Article Soil Conservation Measures on Degraded Land in the Hilly Region of Eastern Romania: A Case Study from Puriceni-Bahnari Catchment Lilian Niacsu 1 , Daniel Bucur 2, * , Ion Ionita 1 and Ionut-Costel Codru 1 1 Department of Geography, Faculty of Geography & Geology, “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Carol I Blvd. 11, 700506 Iasi, Romania; lilianniacsu@yahoo.com (L.N.); ion.ionita72@yahoo.com (I.I.); codruionutcostel@gmail.com (I.-C.C.) 2 Department of Pedotechnics, Faculty of Agriculture, “Ion Ionescu de la Brad” Iasi University of Life Sciences, Mihail Sadoveanu Alley 3, 700490 Iasi, Romania * Correspondence: dbucur@uaiasi.ro; Tel.: +40-232407508 Abstract: Land degradation through erosion processes is probably the most restrictive issue regarding the sustainable agricultural use of land resources in contemporary Romania. The socio-economic changes that occurred in Romanian society after 1990 resulted in a sharp decline in the implementation of conservation practices along with an increase in intensity of land degradation. Consequently, the present paper firstly aims to analyse the actual spread and intensity of land degradation in the Puriceni-Bahnari catchment, representative area in terms soil erosion within Moldavian Plateau of Eastern Romania. Secondly, the achievement of a dedicated project at the level of the entire basin regarding the implementation of land conservation practices is the most suitable solution for the sustainable agricultural use of this fragile natural resource. The results prove the severe degradation state of the agricultural land, with a mean value of annual soil loss of 15.46 t·ha −1 ·yr −1 (13,500 t·yr −1 ). Furthermore, 460 ha of agricultural lands (72.7% of total) falls within the category that exceeds the limit of admissible erosion of 7 t·ha −1 ·yr −1 . As a solution to the existing land use pattern, we designed a map of proposed conservation measures and works on agricultural land for the whole catchment that can be relatively easily implemented and conserve soil and water. The main issues of the proposed land use pattern are: (1) the entire cropland must be reduced and changed to a strip-cropping system; (2) the quality of the pastures should be improved; (3) the forested area must be substantially extended, especially on account of unproductive land, and (4) the agricultural road network must be halved and entirely reshaped. In conclusion, the large-scale implementation of conservation practices on degraded agricultural land is the only rational solution for sustainable development of poor local communities in the hilly areas from eastern Romania. Keywords: land degradation; soil erosion; gully erosion; landslides; conservation practices; sustainable land use 1. Introduction Agricultural land planning represents a set of technical, economical, juridical and social measures that aimed both to rationally use and preserve the land resources [1]. By continuously trying to harmonize the natural offer of land resources with the socio- economic needs of the society, this activity became an essential component of the concept of sustainable development. Worldwide, land degradation through soil erosion enhanced by anthropogenic activity is spreading extremely fast, especially in more fragile geographical environments [2]. In the long term, the depletion of soil resources by erosion may be the most serious threat to humanity [3] due the on-site and off-site impact and its mitigation on the ecosystem and socio-economic services [4]. Usually, the main effect of the erosion on soil is directly related Water 2022, 14, 525. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14040525 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water