Barbara Czajka

Floods at the northern foothills of the Tatra Mountains — A Polish-Swiss research project

The present paper introduces the topical area of the Polish-Swiss research project FLORIST (Flood risk on the northern foothills of the Tatra Mountains), informs on its objectives, and reports on initial results. The Tatra Mountains are the area of the highest precipitation in Poland and largely contribute to flood generation. The project is focused around four competence clusters: observation-based climatology, model-based climate change projections and impact assessment, dendrogeomorphology, and impact of large wood debris on fluvial processes. The knowledge generated in the FLORIST project is likely to have impact on understanding and interpretation of flood risk on the northern foothills of the Tatra Mountains, in the past, present, and future. It can help solving important practical problems related to flood risk reduction strategies and flood preparedness.

Decadal variability of floods in the northern foreland of the Tatra Mountains

Floods in the northern foreland of the Tatra Mountains considerably contribute to the total flood damage in Poland. Therefore, the question whether the magnitude and frequency of floods have changed in this region is of high interest. This study aims at investigating the inter-decadal variability of magnitude, frequency and seasonality of floods since the mid-twentieth century, to better understand regional changes. The analysis was accomplished in a multi-temporal approach whereby trends are fitted to every possible combination of start and end years in a record. Detected trends were explained by estimating correlations between the investigated flood parameters and different large-scale climate indices for the northern hemisphere, and by trends found in intense precipitation indices, number of days with snow cover, cyclonic circulation types, temperature and moisture conditions. Catchment and channel changes that occurred in the region over the past decades were also considered. Results show that rivers in the area exhibit considerable inter-decadal variability of flows. The magnitude and direction of short-term trends are heavily influenced by this inter-decadal variability; however, certain patterns are apparent. More extreme, although perhaps less frequent floods are now likely to occur, with a shift in the seasonality, decreasing flood magnitudes in winter and increasing during autumn and spring. The identification of the factors contributing to the occurrence of flood events and their potential changes is valuable to enhance the flood management in the region and to improve the resilience of the population in this mountainous area.

Flash floods in the Tatra Mountain streams: Frequency and triggers

Flash floods represent a frequently recurring natural phenomenon in the Tatra Mountains. On the northern slopes of the mountain chain, located in Poland, ongoing and expected future changes in climate are thought to further increase the adverse impacts of flash floods. Despite the repeat occurrence of major floods in the densely populated foothills of the Polish Tatras, the headwaters have been characterized by a surprising lack of data, such that any analysis of process variability or hydrometeorological triggers has been largely hampered so far. In this study, dendrogeomorphic techniques have been employed in four poorly-gauged torrential streams of the northern slope of the Tatra Mountains to reconstruct temporal and spatial patterns of past events. Using more than 1100 increment cores of trees injured by past flash floods, we reconstruct 47 events covering the last 148 years and discuss synoptic situations leading to the triggering of flash floods with the existing meteorological and flow gauge data. Tree-ring analyses have allowed highlighting the seasonality of events, providing new insights about potential hydrometeorological triggers as well as a differentiating flash flood activity between catchments. Results of this study could be useful to design future strategies to deal with flash flood risks at the foothills of the Polish Tatras and in the Vistula River catchment.

The New Features of Landslide Relief Discovered Using Lidar – Case Study from Babia Góra Massif, Western Carpathian Mountains

Abstract Basing on LiDAR data, the re-interpretation of the limit and distribution of the selected landslide forms in 9 test areas were carried out. The forms are located at the slopes of the monoclinal ridge of Babia Góra Mt. (1,725 m a.s.l.) in the flysch Western Carpathians. The earlier knowledge on these landforms is shown in the unpublished map at the scale of 1:5,000 which was prepared basing on geomorphological mapping. Basing on the newest information source, subtle geomorphic signatures of landslides were found, the dynamics of these forms and directions of their further development were determined. Local differentiation of deep-seated landslides was indicated according to the relation between the sandstone layer dip and slope inclination, slope length, and altitude of the location of headwaters. An attention was paid to polycyclic relief of the highest located landslide forms, which contain the elements of glacial and nival morphology, and some are modelled by debris flows.

Development of Tourist Infrastructure on Babia Góra Mt. (Western Carpathians) in Conditions where There is Risk Due to Slope Processes

The aim of the paper is to evaluate the sustainability of the location of all elements of tourist infrastructure on the slopes of Babia Gora Mt. in the Western Beskidy Mountains taking into account local relief and a range of geomorphologic processes. For more than 130 years, local tourist facilities remained unthreatened by slope processes with the exception of very limited sections of the northern slope. A deep-seated landslide reactivated in the mid 19th century affected a small section of that slope that is outside of regular tourist traffic while another landslide, a shallow one that remains active, has been damaging a single marked tourist trail. Debris flows observed locally on the northern slope are not typical of contemporary relief dynamics across Babia Gora Mt. and therefore cannot be regarded as a universal threat to local tourist infrastructure. In addition, snow avalanches that reach short stretches of tourist trails on the northern slope have not damaged them. The current hazard status of the tourist infrastructure on Babia Gora Mt. is clearly better than it would have been if certain heavy development plans had been carried out in geomorphologically vulnerable areas.

The Use of Digital Terrain Model in the Study of Distribution of Cultural Landscape Elements based on the Example of Silesia Beskid

Abstract Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and maps based on it, are very valuable tool in investigations of distribution of cultural landscape elements. Connection DTM with a digital land cover maps, clearly illustrate factors determinate location of various landscape elements. The paper presents the applicability of Digital Terrain Model to detect the influence of topographic attributes on landscape elements distribution and to determinate the landscape’s structure in the different altitudinal zones. Presented results, are the effect of the first phase of cultural landscape elements distribution research and they are starting point to look for other factors which could effect on structure of the landscape. Abstrakt Numeryczny model terenu i jego mapy pochodne stanowią bardzo cenne narzędzie badania rozmieszczenia elementów krajobrazu kulturowego. W połączeniu z cyfrową mapą pokrycia terenu, pozwalają na czytelne zobrazowanie czynników warunkujących lokalizację poszczególnych elementów krajobrazu oraz określenie ich znaczenia. W pracy przedstawiono możliwości zastosowania numerycznego modelu terenu do określenia wpływu wybranych atrybutów topograficznych na rozmieszczenie elementów krajobrazu kulturowego oraz do określenia jego struktury w poszczególnych strefach wysokościowych. Zwrócono uwagę, iż uzyskane za pomocą numerycznego modelu terenu wyniki są efektem jednego z etapów badania uwarunkowań rozmieszczenia elementów krajobrazu kulturowego i stanowią bazę wyjściową do poszukiwania innych czynników, które mogły wpływać na jego strukturę.