Transformacja układu korytowego dolnej Skawy
Transformation of the lower Skawa river channel pattern

Summary/Abstract: The present-day channel patterns of Carpathian rivers are a result of intensified human activity, which mainly involved narrowing of channels and setting regulatory routes. The processes of erosion and redeposition, that intensify with high water levels, often lead to the creation of certain sections in the river channel, which divert from the single channel pattern arrangement stabilized by man. The aim of this work is to establish the scale, source and direction of transformations of the lower Skawa river channel in the period betweenthe 19th and the 21st century. With the establishment of the factors involved in the transformation of a braided channel existing in the 19th century into a single channel in the 20th century, we are able to identify the determinants in the segmental renaturalisation of the currently existing river channel. Our analysis was based on cartographic materials, which allowed for the comparison of the river channel in the 19th and the 20th century. The basic source with regardto the former period was the second military mapping survey of Austria-Hungary createdin the years 1806–1896. As a representation of the current channel state we used a Google Satellite photo from 2012. The results of measurements preformed on the cartographic materials were used as input data in the process of classification of the channel pattern and mid-channel formations. The Skawa river channel was classified using the method developed by Brice (1975). The analysis led to a conclusion that the change of the Skawa river channel pattern was a result of its adjustment. The present-day river channel develops braided channel segments in places where the regulatory route has been damaged.

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