Assessing and mapping the agricultural potential of landscapes. Case study: Southeastern part of the Republic of Moldova

In the context of EU sustainable farming practices, the ensuring that agricultural activities are aligned with the natural capacities and ecological processes of the land become increasingly important. It highlights the necessity to identify areas that are most friendly to sustainable agricultural activity. As part of the transboundary research project The impact of European agricultural policies on land use: Romania's experience and lessons for the Republic of Moldova in a European perspective – MapLURoMd, this study aims to create a synthetic map for the key study area based on erosion potential of the relief, types of soil and lithology. As a result, an agricultural potential map will be generated that characterizes landscape units according to their relative suitability for agricultural use. This map will be compared with existing land-use data (CORINE 2023) and orthophoto (2016) to evaluate the alignment between landscape suitability and current agricultural practices. The results of this spatial analyse of landscape conditions using GIS technologies in the Southeastern part of the Republic of Moldova will provide valuable insights to inform Moldova's agricultural policy, particularly in the context of optimizing land use in rural areas.