Geomorphology of medium‐high mountains under changing human impact, from managed slopes to nature restoration: a study from the Sudetes, SW Poland

Abstract

AbstractIn the last few hundred years, medium‐high mountain geomorphic systems of the East Sudetes, central Europe, have evolved under varying human impacts and have shown distinctive behaviours, depending on the nature and intensity of human activities. The general trend within this period has been from initial disturbance brought about by the spread of agriculture, through managed rural landscapes in the 19th and early 20th century, to gradual restoration of natural conditions observed in the last few tens of years, concurrent with considerable population decline in the mountain valleys. Accelerated soil erosion was successfully mitigated by the introduction of agricultural terraces in the 19th century, and most sediment could have been stored within the slopes. The current phase of nature restoration is understood as a return to general slope stability, weak coupling between slopes and channels, and limited sediment transfer across and out of mountainous drainage basins, which typified most of the Holocene prior to human colonization. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.