The potential for land use change to reduce flood risk in mid-sized catchments in the Myjava region of Slovakia

Abstract

Abstract:The effects of land use management practices on surface runoff are evident on a local scale, but evidence of their impact on the scale of a watershed is limited. This study focuses on an analysis of the impact of land use changes on the flood regime in the Myjava River basin, which is located in Western Slovakia. The Myjava River basin has an area of 641.32 km 2 and is typified by the formation of fast runoff processes, intensive soil erosion, and muddy floods. The main factors responsible for these problems with flooding and soil erosion are the basin's location, geology, pedology, agricultural land use, and cropping practices. The GIS-based, spatially distributed WetSpa rainfall-runoff model was used to simulate mean daily discharges in the outlet of the basin as well as the individual components of the water balance. The model was calibrated based on the period between 1997 and 2012 with outstanding results (an NS coefficient of 0.702). Various components of runoff (e.g., surface, interflow and groundwater) and several elements of the hydrological balance (evapotranspiration and soil moisture) were simulated under various land use scenarios. Six land use scenarios ('crop', 'grass', 'forest', 'slope', 'elevation' and 'optimal') were developed. The first three scenarios exhibited the ability of the WetSpa model to simulate runoff under changed land use conditions and enabled a better adjustment of the land use parameters of the model. Three other "more realistic" land use scenarios, which were based on the distribution of land use classes (arable land, grass and forest) regarding permissible slopes in the catchment, confirmed the possibility of reducing surface runoff and maximum discharges with applicable changes in land use and land management. These scenarios represent practical, realistic and realizable land use management solutions and they could be economically implemented to mitigate soil erosion processes and enhance the flood protection measures in the Myjava River basin. 95

Monitoring Changes in the Morphology and Storage of a Small Water Reservoir: A Case Study from Vrbovce, Slovakia

“…This means that, especially during intensive rainfall events, a large amount of the precipitation is formed into surface runoff with a strong potential to erode, detach and transport soil particles (Stankoviansky, 2003). This is even more pronounced with the expected increase in the occurrence and intensity of extreme precipitation events in the region (Vasilaki et al, 2017) and might further be aggravated if the way the land is used in the reservoir's watershed is changed (Rončák et al, 2017). The fact that the area is poor in groundwater resources but rather rich in agricultural activities has resulted in a large number of small water reservoirs for irrigation being built in the region.…”

The impact of climate change on the hydropower potential: A case study from Topľa River basin

“…In Slovakia, few researches deal with different hydrologically -distributed models, which have been used to simulate runoff processes under climate change conditions. Good examples of such models include: WetSpa (Valent et al 2016;Rončák et al, 2016;2017). This article builds on previously published papers and uses several older outputs of global and regional models, climate change scenarios, and various conceptual or distributed hydrological models in Slovakia (see, e.g., Štefunková et al 2013;Hlavčová et al, 2015).…”