Satu Mare - Geography

Geography

Satu Mare is situated in Satu Mare County, in northwest Romania, on the Someş River, 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from the border with Hungary and 27 kilometres (17 mi) from the border with Ukraine. The city is located at an altitude of 126 metres (413 ft) on the Lower Someş alluvial plain, spreading out from the Administrative Palace at 25 October Square. The boundaries of the municipality contain an area of 150.3 square kilometres (58.0 sq mi).

From a geomorphologic point of view, the city is located on the Someş Meadow on both sides of the river, which narrows in the vicinity of the city and widens upstream and downstream from it; flooded during heavy rainfall, the field has various geographical configurations at the edge of the city (sand banks, valleys, micro-depressions).

The formation of the current terrain of the city, dating from the late Pliocene in the Tertiary period, is linked to the clogging of the Pannonian Sea. Layers of soil were created from deposits of sand, loess and gravel, and generally have a thickness of 16 metres (52 ft)–18 metres (59 ft). Over this base, decaying vegetation gave rise to podsolic soils, which led to favorable conditions for crops (cereals, vegetables, fruit trees).

The water network around Satu Mare is composed of the Someş River, Pârâul Sar in the north and the Homorod River in the south. The formation and evolution of the city was closely related to the Someş River, which, in addition to allowing for the settlement of a human community around it, has offered, since the early Middle Ages, the possibility of international trade with coastal regions, a practice that favored milling, fishing and other economic activities.

Because the land slopes gently around the city, the Someş River has created numerous branches and meanders (before 1777, in the perimeter of the city there were 25 meanders downstream and 14 upstream). After systematisation works in 1777, the number of meanders in the city dropped to 9 downstream and 5 upstream, the total length of the river now being at 36.5 kilometres (22.7 mi) within the city. Systematisation performed up to the mid-19th century configured the existing Someş riverbed; embankments were built 17.3 kilometres (10.7 mi) long on the right bank and 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) on the left. In 1970, the embankments were raised by 2 metres (6.6 ft)–3 metres (9.8 ft), protecting 52,000 hectares within the city limits and restoring nearly 800 ha of agricultural land that had previously been flooded.