Human Impacts on Water Regime

Abstract

River water regime is continuously in motion and in interaction with many natural and human-induced factors. Human interventions, especially over the last two centuries, caused the natural water regime in most rivers to become substantially and irreparably disturbed. River training, floodplain reduction by construction of levees, building of numerous hydrotechnical structures, especially dams and hydroelectric power plants, and other large structures along the Drava River, as well as in its catchment in Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary, have greatly influenced its water regime. This section plays an important role because 167 km of the Drava River course represents the boundary between Croatia and Hungary. At the end of 19th century, major regulation works were executed along the whole Drava River course. The last massive intervention on the Drava River in Croatia and Hungary was carried out at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. The changes in water regime along the lowland part of the Drava River from the boundary between Slovenia and Croatia to its confluence with the Danube River are examined in this chapter. The findings of hydromorphological and sediment transport regime analyses are also presented.