ASSESSMENT OF ECOSYSTEM SERVICES TROUGH HABITAT DIVERSITY WITHIN A PERI-URBAN RIVER AREA-BEGA RIVER IN THE EASTERN PART OF TIMIȘOARA

Over the past centuries, wet areas have faced major threats and surface reductions due to urbanization, pollution and hydrotechnical arrangements. Concrete dams took the place of riparian forests and marshes especially in the urban, peri-urban and even rural areas as a flood control method. Even though in the past two or more decades in the Western part of the E.U. and U.S.A. the general trend was to restore riverbeds from concrete to their natural state, in Romania the trend has followed the opposite direction with repercussions on biodiversity, water quality and difficult invasive species control. In the summer of 2021 we have botanically surveyed the Bega river in the eastern part of Timișoara in order to investigate the benefits that this naturalized state brings to the city and European biodiversity conservation efforts. Our survey led to the identification of key species for conservation and favorable habitat conservation status, resulted from habitat mapping of the area. We identified seven main habitat types: 92A0, 3150 (Natura2000); G5.1, X25 (EUNIS) and R5307, R5309, R5310 (Romanian system). Our study aims to bring attention to such sites and their importance as biodiversity holders in urban landscapes and as ecosystem service provides and to further reconsideration of the methods used in their future development.