Quantitative Assessment of Changes in Topography of Town Caused by Human Impact, Krakow City Centre, Southern Poland

Adam Łajczak,Grzegorz Wałek,Roksana Zarychta

doi:10.3390/rs13122286

Adam Łajczak, Grzegorz Wałek + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13122286

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Abstract

For the area of historic centre of Krakow (area 9.29 km2), southern Poland, base maps were prepared showing hypsometry and distribution of landforms in historical variant (ca. 1000 AD) and current variant, based on published data mainly from archaeological and geoengineering research carried out for the last 60 years, and including geographic information system (GIS) tools. The aim of the work is to establish changes in undulation of the area studied within the landforms (Vistula riverbed, Holocene alluvial plain, Pleistocene terrace, limestone hills) over the last millennium. Topographic parameters calculated on the basis of the base maps (local relative height, mean slope, limit of areas without aspect and with N, E, S and W aspects) were considered. These changes were linked with dominating trends of the altitude increase due to the development of large area embankments and of convex landforms. The assessment of changes of land undulation includes four authorial methods of quantitative determination of topography changes. Until the beginning of the 19th century land flattening occurred in most of the area of the town centre. Then the increase of local relative heights started to predominate which resulted in changes of other topographic parameters. Differentiated changes, both positive and negative, in the area undulation with altitude increase were determined.

Highlights

Published: 10 June 2021Recently, more and more attention has been given to anthropogenic changes of towns topography, especially in the case of centrally located districts with long development history
Changes of topographic parameters were referred to 5 m altitude intervals, the limit of which significantly changed between the variants (A) and (B) up to the altitude of 215 m a.s.l., especially in the altitude intervals 195–200 m a.s.l. (−4.28 km2 ) and
To answer the question whether the changes in town topography lead to the increase or to the decrease in land undulation it is necessary to consider: duration of the process, limit of the area studied, its location within town boundaries, original morphology of the area, and methods applied in calculation of topographic parameters

Summary

Introduction

More and more attention has been given to anthropogenic changes of towns topography, especially in the case of centrally located districts with long development history. These changes are associated with wetland drainage, river regulation, spatially uneven distribution of cultural deposits, earthwork, mining, development of convex landforms [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]. The research on topography changes of large cities based on i.e., satellite images are limited to current situation [21,22]

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