Wood pastures in Central Slovakia – collapse of a traditional land use form

Wood pastures with pollard trees have been a common land-use type across Europe. The trees, besides having positive environmental effects on livestock, served as important source of fodder and wood. Pollarded wood pastures were hence a multifunctional, state of the art, highly productive farming ecosystems. Despite relatively drastic treatment, the trees regenerated quite well, and grew to relatively high-age. When pollarding lapses for longer period the wood pasture may confusingly resemble an ancient forest. Using aerial photographs of Slovakia from 1949–1950 we have identified 950 individual wood pasture localities with total area of 265.5 km2 within the Self-Governing Region of Banská Bystrica. Majority of identified wood pasture habitats were actively managed in the first half of the 20th century. Nowadays, less than 2.5% has preserved its original structure, the rest has been abandoned (92.8%) or actively transformed into different land-use form. We conducted a field survey in order to identify historical pollarding within the Gavurky protected area, one of the last and best preserved wood pastures in Slovakia. By evaluating habitual features, we were able to confirm historical pollarding for more than 80% of present veteran trees. We provide framework for identification of pollarding in historical wood pasture localities, applicable in the conditions of long-term management cessation

Managing floodplains using nature‐based solutions to support multiple ecosystem functions and services

Floodplains include unique environments shaped over a long time horizon along rivers and smaller streams and formed by alluvial sediments. As floodplains are flat, often with highly fertile and well-accessible land, they have become the intrinsic focus of human society—while providing a variety of goods and ecosystem services. Intensive land use of floodplains is degrading their natural values and significantly reducing their ecosystem functions and services. A significant part of these key services is related with the ability of floodplains to retain water and nutrients, which can be understood as a flood control and a water-retention function. Although these ecosystems serve a number of other basic functions, the importance of floodplains as a place for water retention during extreme discharges caused by intense rainfall or snowmelt and the supply of water in times of drought are essential under conditions of global change. In order to increase the ability of floodplains to perform these functions, it is increasingly required to preserve the connectivity of rivers with surrounding floodplains and adapt human activities to maintain and restore river ecosystems. This article reviews the recent understanding of floodplain delineation, the most common causes of disturbance, the ecosystem functions being performed, discussing in turn the measures being considered to mitigate the frequency and magnitude of hydrologic extremes resulting from ongoing environmental changes

Dynamics of development and variability of surface degradation in the subalpine and alpine zones (an example from the Velká Fatra Mts., Slovakia)

In the last five centuries, the inappropriate management of the Vel’ká Fatra Mts. sub-alpine and alpine areas has led to the development of different forms of surface destruction. For evaluation of the dynamics and variability of surface degradation the territory of the Hornojelenská valley was chosen. It is a significant avalanche area. It has clearly been destroyed by avalanches, water erosion and cryogenic erosion as well as anthropo-zoogenic processes. The forms of destruction were mapped on a scale of 1:200 based on the aerial photographs and satellite images taken in 1961, 2003, 2009 and 2012. The total area of degradative morphogenetic forms (DMF) in 1961 was 5.5780 ha, 4.0650 ha in 2003, 4.5752 ha in 2009 and 4.9431 ha in 2012. The DMF reached its peak in 1961. In the mid-1960s, there were ambitions to reforest the highest areas of the study area that led to the decrease of DMF and the development of vegetation. The present exogenous geomorphologic processes are causing a gradual increase of the total destructed area

Managing floodplains using nature-based solutions to support multiple ecosystem functions and services

Floodplains include unique environments shaped over a long time horizon along rivers and smaller streams and formed by alluvial sediments. As floodplains are flat, often with highly fertile and well-accessible land, they have become the intrinsic focus of human society while providing a variety of goods and ecosystem services. Intensive land use of floodplains is degrading their natural values and significantly reducing their ecosystem functions and services. A significant part of these key services is related with the ability of floodplains to retain water and nutrients, which can be understood as a flood control and a water-retention function. Although these ecosystems serve a number of other basic functions, the importance of floodplains as a place for water retention during extreme discharges caused by intense rainfall or snowmelt and the supply of water in times of drought are essential under conditions of global change. In order to increase the ability of floodplains to perform these functions, it is increasingly required to preserve the connectivity of rivers with surrounding floodplains and adapt human activities to maintain and restore river ecosystems. This article reviews the recent understanding of floodplain delineation, the most common causes of disturbance, the ecosystem functions being performed, discussing in turn the measures being considered to mitigate the frequency and magnitude of hydrologic extremes resulting from ongoing environmental changes

Urbanization—Its Hidden Impact on Water Losses: Prądnik River Basin, Lesser Poland

Urban development causes multiple water losses. Some of them may be ignored but some could have a huge influence on the whole catchment, including soil drought. As urban sprawl rises, space for unaffected infiltration and retention is increasingly limited. The objective of this study was to backcast and to estimate water-retention loss due to urbanization during the period of 1990–2018. We used landcover data, meteorological and hydrological data and data on soil water-holding capacity. Water-retention loss was expressed as soil water retention capacity loss, net precipitation loss and total sum of precipitation loss. Historical change in urban extension has led to large impacts on the hydrological cycle of the study area. Progressive urban development caused water-retention losses which range from 3.380 to 14.182 millions of cubic meters—depending on the methodology used. Hydrological analysis showed the lack of a significant trend (decrease trend) of low flow which is caused by the high percentage of natural land use in the upper part of catchment. Our results show that backcasting of water retention change using CLC data (a) brings new and plausible data on retention loss, (b) is possible to replicate and (c) data used are common and easy-to-get

Are we losing water storage capacity mostly due to climate change – Analysis of the landscape hydric potential in selected catchments in East-Central Europe

Are we losing water mostly due to climate change? This study delves into that question. The main innovation of this research lies in developing a methodology that forecasts future shifts in water resources through the use of nondimensional indicators, such as Landscape Hydric Potential (LHP), caused by climate change scenarios, land use and land cover (LULC) projections, and a combination of both factors. The LHP method draws upon a range of indicators that shape the geosphere at the catchment scale, namely: hydrogeological conditions, soil conditions, climatic conditions, geomorphological conditions, and LULC. The analysis was carried out for 33 catchments located in the Upper Vistula River Basin in East-Central Europe. The study was conducted in the following stages. First, LHP values were calculated for the present conditions. Subsequently, an analysis of anticipated changes in LULC and in climate were conducted for the near and far future. Lastly, simulations were performed to project how LHP might evolve, considering potential changes in climate and LULC over time. The results have shown that under current climatic conditions, mountainous catchments are characterized by higher LHP values than catchments located in highlands or plains. Agricultural areas are projected to experience the largest changes in LULC. Climatic water balance indicate minimal changes, irrespective of time horizon. Our studies conclude that changes in predicted LULC could have a more significant impact on LHP values than the projected climate change

Distribution of Wood Pastures in Slovakia—Constraints and Potentials for Restoration of Multifunctional Traditional Land Use Form

Wood pastures represent specific ecosystems across Europe with diverse ecological, agricultural, and socioeconomic roles. Land-use changes and the cessation of traditional management in conjunction with socioeconomic changes led to shifts in their spatiotemporal distribution. Despite a recent increase in scientific interest, data on historical patterns of wood pastures in many European locations remain insufficient. This study presents wood-pasture habitat continuity and analyzes changes in their distribution over space and time in selected parts of Slovakia. Simultaneously, we analyzed the relation of wood pastures to selected environmental and landscape features. To achieve this, we examined the historical distribution of wood pastures using aerial imagery from the 1950s. We thoroughly examined an area of 16,209 km2 to identify preserved wood pastures. To identify the present conditions and the spatial distribution of wood-pasture habitats, we compared the historical data with recent ortophotomaps. Based on landscape–ecological analyses of historical distribution, we determined prevailing environmental conditions of wood-pasture locations. The findings reveal that over 90% of wood pastures from the first half of the 20th century have now been lost or encroached and preserved in the form of a closed-canopy forest. In most of the encroached sites, we identified the presence of vital core veteran trees. For the identification of wood pastures and further analyses of the environmental variables, the ArcGIS 10.3 program was used; the R software was used for all statistical evaluations. The results show that the studied wood pastures were not established randomly, but were rather set within a certain landscape context, characterized by elevation, soil quality, and distance from settlements

Altitude on Cartographic Materials and Its Correction According to New Measurement Techniques

Determining the correct height of mountain peaks is vital for tourism, but it is also important as a reference point for devices equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System), e.g., watches or car navigation systems. The peak altitude data are part of geographic and geodetic information. As more modern technologies and equipment become available, their precisions should increase. However, verification of peak heights is usually only conducted for the highest, well-known mountains—lower peaks or mountain passes are rarely verified. Therefore, this study focuses on an investigation of 12 altitude points on a section of the longest and most famous touristic trail in Poland (the Main Beskid Trail), located in the Orava–Żywiec Beskids Mts (Mountains). The aim of this research is to measure and verify the heights of the 12 selected mountain peaks, in addition to evaluating the chosen methods based on the quality of the obtained data and determining their suitability and opportunities for use in further research. Measurements were obtained at the most specific height points—on the 12 highest points of the summits. This study compares two modern measurement techniques: the global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and light detection and ranging (LiDAR). The obtained results were later compared with those widely used on the internet and in printed materials (period covered: 1884–2015). This analysis demonstrates that lesser-known objects are rarely the subject of remeasurement and significant altitude errors may occur, primarily because the heights originated from a source in the past when modern methods were not available. Our findings indicate that the heights of the peaks presented in cartographic materials are inaccurate. The assumed heights should be corrected by direct measurements using modern techniques