Implications of Relief Configuration in the Socioeconomic System. The Case of Mara Basin, Maramures Land, Romania

Mara Basin in the Maramures Land, a natural space for water management, is engrafted on a complex relief structure, presenting specific features and landforms that are morphologically conditioned by structure and tectonics. Being bordered in the west and south by the edges of an imposing residual volcanic relief, constituted by the Ignis-Gutâi and Varatec Mountains, the relief structure emphasizes a double petrographic zoning, with strong asymmetric markers as against the rest of Maramures Land's physical characteristics. The drainage is ensured by the Mara and Cosau rivers, vectors of energy and matter in the territorial system. Over centuries, their primary denudation function has been doubled by the implementation of a rural habitation network, organized into a socioeconomic matrix (agro-pastoral), with multiple secular and archetypal elements. The current study highlights the bearings and influences of relief's physical characteristics upon the socioeconomic development of the communities in Mara Basin by assuming a scientific approach that integrates elements of geospatial analysis performed at a scale of 1:50.000, with an accent on the essential physical characteristics, stressing the favourable and restrictive aspects of the territory with an impact upon the socioeconomic development.