The Pressure of Urban Sprawl on Agricultural Land in the Emerging System of Bucharest Municipality

The development of Romania’s main economic centres has led to the territorial expansion of urban areas. Analysing land use transformation is very important in understanding the mechanisms that generate such systemic changes. The Corine Land Cover database, provided by Copernicus Land Monitoring Services (CLMS), from 1990-2018, was processed using the open-source software package QGIS, a process that started with the reprojection of the data into the national coordinate reference system Pulkovo 1942(58)/Stereo 70, EPSG: 3844. The methodology used was able to highlight the transformations that have occurred in land use. Our results show that the quantitative and land use changes due to socioeconomic pressures caused by the transition to a different type of economy can be highlighted. Urban sprawl has led to significant changes in agricultural land use, with land being used mainly for residential, industrial or transport infrastructure development.