Anthropogenic Impact on River Architecture and Soil Development during last over 150 years; Case Study od Middle Elbe Floodplain
Abstract
The paper deals with the question of human impact on the middle Elbe River architecture during last two hundred years. The work included maps analyses (1841-2006), historical Elbe canalisation documentation analyses (1907) as well as the description and comparison of soil cover at different transects in surroundings of Kostelec nad Labem (2013).
Between 1841 and 2006 there was gradual, almost exclusively anthropogenic river course straightening in order to make the middle Elbe navigable and to eliminate the consequences of flood events. Due to this anthropogenic influence the different natural oxbow lakes were gradually filled in and disappeared and new anthropogenically created ones appeared.
The landscape mosaic changed dramatically: meadows started to be ploughed, small fields were turned into large fields, forest and urban areas expanded. These factors changed soil properties significantly: fluvic soil properties are vanishing, soil moisture regime is highly affected.