Historical hydromorphology, historical and present land use and ecosystem services
Abstract
This sup-project aims at investigating historical morphology of the case study rivers and sites on the Drava and Mura as well as historical and present land use and ecosystem services. We will employ historic maps, such as the three military survey maps created in the 18th and 19th century or historic cadastral maps, which recorded among others morphological features of the rivers as well as land use, often in a period with no or only little human interventions. However, historic maps were not yet used to derive natural sediment regimes. As the river morphology depends on sediment transport, the two‐dimensional representation of rivers in their (more) natural state may be a key to estimate natural sediment yields. Dimensions of river geometry (e.g., channel widths) in two-dimensional maps were not yet used to derive the depth distribution and sediment transport for rivers in their historic state. Providing the key to use historic maps for estimating sediment transport would have an immense potential for the sake of restoring rivers and for optimizing the hydromorphological functionality in providing ecosystem services. The investigation of land use and ecosystem services will show how large-scale historic deforestation have affected sediment input to mountain rivers since centuries. It is proven, that this caused fundamental shifts of river morphology but also unfavorable sediment budgets often resulting in aggradations of river beds and more frequent inundations. In the 19th century, such developments intensified human demand to better control sediment input and bed load transport, e.g. by reforestation and the prohibition of grazing on slopes or by triggering the need for river channelization.
keywords Historical fluvial morphology historical land use ecosystem services riverine landscapes
Publikationen
Project staff
Gertrud Haidvogl
Priv.-Doz. Mag. Dr.phil. Gertrud Haidvogl
gertrud.haidvogl@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81204
Project Leader
01.01.2023 - 31.12.2025