The Bâsca ( ro, Bɨs'ca), also called ''Bâsca Mare'' in its upper course, and ''Bâsca Roziliei'' in its lower course, is a left

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drai ...

of the river

Buzău The city of Buzău (formerly spelled ''Buzeu'' or ''Buzĕu''; ) is the county seat of Buzău County, Romania, in the historical region of Muntenia. It lies near the right bank of the Buzău River, between the south-eastern curvature of the Carp ...

, in

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

. It discharges into the Buzău near

Nehoiu Nehoiu () is a town in Buzău County, Muntenia, Romania, with a population of 11,631. Wood processing is the local main economic activity. The town has a lumbermill since the early 20th century. It officially became a town in 1989, as a result of ...

Geographic position

Positioned in the external region of the curvature of

Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

(subunit of

Eastern Carpathians Divisions of the Carpathians are a categorization of the Carpathian mountains system. Below is a detailed overview of the major subdivisions and ranges of the Carpathian Mountains. The Carpathians are a "subsystem" of a bigger Alps-Himalaya Sy ...

), the Bâsca

drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, ...

has an area of . Its length is . It lies at an average altitude of 1,081 m between the Lăcăuți Peak (1,777 m altitude) and the confluence with the Buzău River (385 m altitude).

Geology

From the geological point of view, the Bâsca River Catchment overlaps the orogenic unit of the Eastern Carpathians, where the external Paleogene

flysch Flysch () is a sequence of sedimentary rock layers that progress from deep-water and turbidity flow deposits to shallow-water shales and sandstones. It is deposited when a deep basin forms rapidly on the continental side of a mountain building epi ...

is predominant, including:

sandstones Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) b ...

(Tarcău sandstones Facies), marl, conglomerates. This area is characterised by tectonic uplift and by severe seismicity related to the Vrancea Epicentral Area, being affected by deep-seated

landslides Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of environments, ...

(Ielenicz, 1984). Lithology is dominated by the presence of the hardest and hard rocks, covering 96.7% of the catchment surface.

Climate

The

climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...

of the Bâsca Catchment is temperate-continental.

Föhn A Foehn or Föhn (, , ), is a type of dry, relatively warm, downslope wind that occurs in the leeward, lee (downwind side) of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped m ...

phenomena moderate the characteristics parameters of climatic elements, e.g. average multiannual atmospheric temperature between 1.2 °C at the Lăcăuți meteorological station between 1961 and 2000, see Table, and 2.4 °C at the Penteleu station (1988–2007), combined with precipitations of 664.3 mm at Penteleu and 830.1 mm at Lăcăuți.

Hydrography

Major river tributaries

The following rivers are tributaries to the river Bâsca (from source to mouth): : – left: Țiganu, Delușor (Holom), Ghiurca Mare, Slobod, Pătac, Bâsculița, Izvorul Ascuns, Izvorul Stâncos, Cernat, Milei,

Bâsca Mică The Bâsca Mică is a left tributary of the river Bâsca in Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, ...

, Varlaam, Tigva, Fulgeriș, Tainița, Gotiș, Hânsaru; : – right: Râșdaș, Reghin, Poplița, Saroș, Dârnăul Mic, Dârnăul Mare, Cireș, Ioviz, Surducul Mare, Cocean, Copăcelu, Piciorul Milei, Bratu, Tega, Păltiniș.

Reservoirs

On the Bâsca River the project "Hydropower

Siriu Siriu is a commune in Buzău County, Muntenia, Romania, in the valley of the river Buzău. It is composed of five villages: Cașoca, Colțu Pietrii, Gura Siriului, Lunca Jariștei (the commune centre) and Mușcelușa. Geography Location Siriu ...

– Surduc Development", has been developed (being now in construction stage). This project includes a permanent water reservoir "Cireșu" on the upper part of the Bâsca River and an underground derivation "Surduc – Nehoiașu", from Cireșu Accumulation and Bâsca River towards the "CHE Nehoiașu II" hydroelectric power station.

Hydrology

The most common risk hydric phenomena affecting the catchment area are floods and

flooding A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrolog ...

. Associated to these are processes of river channel dynamics, landslides and falls. The frequency analysis of the maximum monthly discharge indicates that the month with the highest flood potential is July, followed by June. In July were recorded the highest floods. Among them, remarkable for their socio-economic consequences where those from 1969, 1975, 2002. The annual maximum flow of the Bâsca River varied between 39.4 m³/s (year 1986) and 960 m³/s (year

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

, 2 Jul). Exceptionally floods were recorded in the years: 1975 (960 m³/s), 1969 (697 m³/s), 1991 (530 m³/s) and 1985 (515 m³/s). Multiannual average flow at this station is about 12 m³/s. Damaging effects caused by floods and flooding have determined property damage, such as flooded homes (e.g. on 20 July 2002, the Păltiniș inundated homes in the area of the confluence with the Bâsca), landslides and

slope In mathematics, the slope or gradient of a line is a number that describes both the ''direction'' and the ''steepness'' of the line. Slope is often denoted by the letter ''m''; there is no clear answer to the question why the letter ''m'' is use ...

destabilization of versants; destruction of undermining and hydrotechnical works, affecting sections of the roads and humans casualties.

Demographic and socio-economic features

* from a demographic point of view, the Bâsca River Catchment is situated in a human

area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

with low density (8.35

inhabitants Domicile is relevant to an individual's "personal law," which includes the law that governs a person's status and their property. It is independent of a person's nationality. Although a domicile may change from time to time, a person has only one ...

/km²). In this catchment they are two communes: Comandău (1,042 inhabitants) and

Gura Teghii Gura Teghii is a commune in Buzău County, Muntenia, Romania, located in the north-westernmost part of the county in its mountain region, near the limit of Covasna County, Covasna and Vrancea County, Vrancea counties, in the Carpathians, Curvature ...

(3,884 inhabitants) and two villages appertaining to the town of

: Bâsca Roziliei (1,428 inhabitants) and Vinețișu (206 inhabitants);The inhabitants number are according to The National Institute of Statistic, Romanian census data, 2002. * localities situated in the upper part: Comandău commune and lower part of the Bâsca River Catchment: Vadu Oii (on the

), Varlaam (at confluence of the Bâsca or ''Bâsca Mare'' with the Bâsca Mică), Gura Teghii, Nemertea, Furtunești, Păltiniș and Bâsca Roziliei; * the economical areas of activities of local it is focused on tree cutting from the forest and primary processed seasonal activity of pastoral and harvest of therapeutical herbs.

References

Maps

* Harta Siriu – Trasee Montane
/sup> * geo-spatial.org, accessed 2010
/sup> {{Portal bar, Romania Rivers of Romania Rivers of Buzău County