Located in Eastern Europe, Moldova is bordered on the west and southwest by Romania and on the north, south, and east by Ukraine.

The heaviest rainfall occurs in early summer and again in October; heavy showers and thunderstorms are common.

Geologically, Moldova lies primarily on the deep sedimentary rock that gives way to harder crystalline outcroppings only in the north.

These hills, which have an average altitude of 240 meters (787 ft) and a maximum altitude of 320 meters (1,050 ft), are divided into the Northern Moldovan Plateau and the Dniester Plateau, and continue further occupying the northern part of the Chernivtsi oblast in Ukraine.

In contrast to the region to the north and south, which is more slant, this area is referred to as plain, although it has relief very different from that of flatland, and vegetation different from that of the steppe.

To the south-east, the southern part of the Codri Plateau, which averages 150–200 meters (492–656 ft), max 250 meters (820 ft), and has numerous ravines and gullies, gradually merges into the Southern Moldovan Plain, continued by in Ukraine by the Budjak Plain.

Moldova's main river, the Dniester, is navigable throughout almost the entire country, and in warmer winters it does not freeze over.

In the 19th century, Moldova witnessed a sharp decrease in the forested areas, sacrificed for agriculture due to rich soil.

As a result, Moldova's soil and groundwater were contaminated by lingering chemicals, some of which (including DDT) have been banned in the West.

[9] In the early 1990s, use of pesticides in Moldova averaged approximately twenty times that of other former Soviet republics and Western nations.

Also, poor farming methods, such as destroying forests to plant vineyards, have contributed to the extensive soil erosion to which the country's rugged topography is already prone.