USING GIS IN ASSESSING THE TRENDS IN THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN MIDDLE AND UPPER BASIN OF THE RIVER BEGA

The number of inhabitants and their distribution in a given area varies within very large limits of tolerance, both in time and space, regardless of geographic region considered. The natural and anthropogenic frame of the area studied in this paper, namely the upper and middle basin of the river Bega, was described on the basis of existing scientific literature, supplemented by produce maps to work with, such as digital elevation model generated with using Global Mapper software, model used to delimitate the analyzed area; the map of communal territories included in the investigated area was prepared by extracting them from the administrative-territorial map of Timis county, overall population density map and the map of population density developments, compiled from data of population censuses in each communal area, obtained by processing using GIS software. The purpose of this study is to highlight trends in the evolution of the population and to identify areas at risk of depopulation, which means, on the one hand knowledge of the number of inhabitants and for variations in this indicator, on the other hand density analysis population synthetic indicator used to highlight differences in the land surfaces occupied by humans. The upper and middle basin of the river Bega is characterized by a variety of natural and socio-economic conditions, resulting in major differences in the evolution of the number of inhabitants and their spatial distribution. In the period considered (1880 - 2011), the most populous census occurred in 1910, since then a definitely downward trend in this indicator can be observed, until the current period, in some cases "losses " were very large (village Bara, Balin , Ohaba Lung , etc). The downward trend in the number of inhabitants has direct implications on the overall density of the population, over time, this indicator registered a continued reduction in most cases and time periods considered. Estimates on future population numbers are difficult to achieve because some variables can not be predicted or quantified, such as political decisions, migrations and general demographic balance values.