Geography and Environment: Romania

These Web sites provide information, links, databases and search engines concerning geography, climate, agriculture, natural resources, and environment, including geographic names, gazetteers, and historical and present-day maps. For information about maps and other geographical resources at the Library of Congress, consult its Geography and Map Reading Room.

Index to this page:   Gazetteers   Maps--Historical and Current   Climate and Weather   Agriculture   Natural Resources   Environment

Gazetteers

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (TGN) (http://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/tgn/index.html)
A structured, world-coverage vocabulary of 1.3 million names, including vernacular and historical names, coordinates, place types, and descriptive notes, focusing on places important for the study of art and architecture. The TGN includes administrative political entities (e.g., cities, nations) and physical features (e.g., mountains, rivers). A search on Romania yields than 500 records.

JewishGen ShtetlSeeker. Town Search (http://www.jewishgen.org/shtetlseeker/loctown.htm)
Search by town using exact spelling or the Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex system. Search will display the latitude and longitude for each location, the distance/direction from the country's capital city, and links to maps. Gazetteer information from the U.S. Board of Geographic Names was used extensively in Where Once We Walked, a book focusing on shtetls in Eastern Europe used in the mapping function of the search. Part of the JewishGen Web site.

U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). GEONet Names Server (GNS) (http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/index.html)
GNS provides access to NGA's and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names' (US BGN) database of foreign geographic feature names. The database is the official repository of foreign place-name decisions approved by the US BGN. Approximately 20,000 of the database's features are updated monthly. Searches give the name of each location or feature, variant spellings, latitude and longitude, and additional numeric data. Searches may focus on a variety of elements, such as populated place, administrative region, type of area, vegetation, and fresh- and saltwater features. Searches may also be limited to areas demarcated by two lines each of latitude and longitude.

Maps--Historical and Current

Gönczy County Maps, circa 1910 (http://lazarus.elte.hu/hun/maps/1910/vmlista.htm)
Large, colorful maps of the counties of historical Hungary, including Transylvania. In Hungarian and English.

Romania Maps and Views (http://www.aboutromania.com/maps00.html)
Links to a wide variety of maps, e.g., administrative regions, cities, counties, transportation, mountains, and population density. Part of the aboutromania portal compiled by Tatiana Murzin-Bencovski.

University of Texas at Austin. Perry Castañeda Library Map Collection: Romania Maps. (http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/romania.html)
Includes country, city, and thematic maps, as well as links to maps on other Web sites.

Climate and Weather

CNN.com InternationalBWeather (http://weather.edition.cnn.com/weather/intl/forecast.jsp)
Selected geographic location, country, then city for weatherBcurrent conditions and five-day forecast. Search by region, country, or city.

National Geographic (http://www.nationalgeographic.com)
Search on Romania.

Weather Underground: Romania (http://www.wunderground.com/country/RO%5FST.html)
Provides the current weather and forecasts for thousands of locales worldwide.Gives temperature, humidity, dew point, wind, atmospheric pressure, cloud cover, sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset, and moon phase. Data are archived as far back as 1994. For some of the larger cities it provides a link for "Seasonal Weather Averages," average monthly high temperatures, average monthly low temperatures, average monthly precipitation, average monthly wind direction, and average monthly cloud cover.

World Climate (http://www.worldclimate.com)
Provides a range of climate data in an easy-to-use form. Climate data are historical weather averages--showing what the weather was typically like each month, averaged over a range of years. Search by city or town. Spellings of place names follow the standard used in the country of origin when the data were collected; e.g., Bucuresti (not Bucharest), and Tirgoviste (not Targoviste).

Agriculture

AGRICOLA (http://www.nal.usda.gov)
Features AGRICOLA, a database of bibliographic records concerning all aspects of agriculture, presented by the National Agricultural Library (NAL). Includes an online public access catalog and a journal article citation index.

Natural Resources

Danube River Basin (http://www.rivernet.org/danube/danube.htm)
Part of the web site of the European Rivers Network, a non-profit NGO with its headquarters in France. ERN informs on European rivers and associated projects, and links to additional sites. In English, French, and German.

Carpathian Ecoregion Initiative (http://www.carpates.org)
The Carpathian Ecoregion Initiative is a consortium aimed at conserving Carpathian natural resources and supporting local economy and culture. Informs on the Carpathians and provides links. In Czech, English, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, Slovak or Ukrainian.

U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Information Association. International. Romania. (http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/country_energy_data.cfm?fips=RO)
Links to data, forecasts, "Country Analysis Brief" and other analyses for Romania.

U.S. Department of the Interior. United States Geological Survey. Minerals Information. Romania (http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/country/europe.html#ro)
Links to reports on Romania's mineral industries since 1994.

Environment

Central European Environmental Data Request Facility (CEDAR) (http://www.cedar.at/sitemap.htm)
Aimed at supporting international data exchange with the Central and Eastern European environmental community. Includes a searchable database of worldwide environmentally relevant links. Service of the International Society for Environmental Protection, located in Austria.

EarthTrends. The Environmental Information Portal (http://earthtrends.wri.org)
Comprehensive online database focusing on environment, economic, and social trends. Searchable databases include coastal and marine ecosystems, water resources, climate and atmosphere, agriculture, forests and grasslands, energy and resources, environmental governance and institutions, and biodiversity and protected areas. From the World Resources Institute, Washington, D.C.

Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) (http://www.rec.org)
A nonprofit organization headquartered in Szentendre, Hungary, that encourages cooperation among nongovernmental organizations, governments and businesses, supports the free exchange of information, and promotes public participation in environmental decision-making. REC program areas include business and environment, climate change, environmental law, and environmental policy. Links include programs, projects, and publications. Search on Romania.

U.S. Department of Energy. Energy Information Administration. Southeastern Europe (http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/SE_Europe/Background.html)
Official energy statistics from the U.S. Government.