Modelling of material loss in the Trkmanka Catchment

Ass. Prof. Vít Voženílek
Department of Geography, Palacky University
tř. Svobody 26, 771 46 Olomouc, Czech Republic
VITEK@ RISC.UPOL.CZ

INTRODUCTION

The human impact on the landscape is growing and changing natural processes. If we recognise relationships between human activities and responses of landscape we can eliminate degrading activities and then helps to natural equilibrium of landscape. The project The Response of Fluvial Systems to Large Scale Land Use Changes investigated The Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Israel) - Palacky University in Olomouc (Czech Republic) - Geographical Institute in Bratislava (Slovakia) was Submitted to the Office of the Science Advisor U.S. Agency for International Development.

The main goal is: To investigate how do fluvial systems answer to changes in land use during last 120 years. The additional goals are:

The results will find large using. Farmers for soil protection, water management authorities for flood controlling, urbanists for planning, ecologists for environment management etc. At the end there will be able to say how people modify fluvial system behaviour by changes of land use. It means to say for example that the changes of woods into vineyards at the slopes with angle from 5 to 20 deg. will bring 20 times more sediments per year (than before the change) and in 5 years the material will fill the water channels. The floods will come!

Area under investigation

The area under investigation is the Trkmanka Catchment. The Trkmanka River is situated in the SE part of the Czech Republic (in Moravia, to the SE from Brno), it is the left tributary of the Dyje River (Danube Basin), its length is 42.3 km and the long-term average discharge is 0.5 m3/s-1. The catchment area is 377 km2. Geologically and geomorphologically is situated at the boundary between Outer Western Carpathians and Pannonian Basin (Vienna Basin). The NW part is built by Outer Flysh of Paleogene age (clays, marls, claystones, sandstones and conglomerates), the SE part - Vienna Basin, a part of tectonic depression filled by Neogene marine and lactustrine deposits (sands and clays). The whole catchment is divided by faults into block. The highest point is 438 m a.s.l., the lowest (at the confluence) 158 m a.s.l.

Methodology

There were used three time horizons of investigation:

1877 - extensive farming

1953 - before collectivisation

1995 - present - industrial farming in market society

 

Fig.1 Project schedule

References

  1. Voženílek, V. (1994): Computer Models in Geography. Acta UPO, Fac. rer. nat. 118, Geographica-Geologica 33, s. 59-64.
  1. Voženílek, V. (1994): Creating Tin-based Digital Terrain Models from Elevation of Topographic Maps. Acta UPO, Fac.rer.nat. 118, Geographica-Geologica 33, s. 65-82.
  1. Voženílek, V. (1994): From Topographic Map to Terrain and Hydrological Digital Data: an ARC/INFO Approach. Acta UPO, Fac.rer.nat. 118, Geographica-Geologica 33, s. 83-92.