POSSIBLE EVALUATION AND MONITORING OF AGRICULTURAL POTENTIAL ON BORDER AREAS

The cross-border co-operation projects - as parts of the European territorial co-operation objective are implemented through operational programmes focusing on the European Union's internal borders, covering primarily the following areas:- The development of cross-border economic, social, environmental activities through joint strategies for sustainable territorial development; - Strengthening of transnational co-operation through actions related to Community priorities and promoting integrated territorial development; - Reinforcement of effectiveness of regional policy by promoting inter-regional cooperation, through exchange of experience at appropriate territorial level. The eligible border area for this possible programme covers the South-Eastern part of Hungary and the Western part of Romania, implying Csongrad County in Hungary and Timis County in Romania, exhibit fairly similar economic and social situation in general. The differences in the national regulations, funding mechanisms and rates hinder a more active co-operation in this field. Given that the potential exists, we consider it would be useful to implement a small scale project of pilot nature - for the beginning, which then could be mainstreamed and applied on a much wider basis. The area is rich in various natural values. With regard to the major economic sectors, agriculture and food industry play a key role in the economy of the entire area. As a result of the availability of a wide range of natural resources, the Romanian side of the area is characterized by a more diversified (and industrialized) economic structure. Geospatial Information related to efficient mathematical support can provide data at different spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions for agriculture and crop assessment, crop health, change detection, environment analysis, irrigated landscape mapping, yield determination and soils analysis. Once data has been collected it can be implemented into a mapping environment such as GIS (Geographic Information Systems) for management and control of agricultural resources. Imagery acquired by airborne or satellite sensors provides an important source of information for mapping and monitoring the natural and manmade features on the land surface.