Reconstruction of Nineteenth-Century Channel Patterns of Polish Carpathians Rivers from the Galicia and Bucovina Map (1861–1864)

Karol Witkowski

doi:10.3390/rs13245147

Abstract

Historical maps are often the only source of information allowing for the regional reconstructions of river channel patterns in the past. In the Polish Carpathians, analyses of historical channel patterns were performed mostly in river reaches scale. In this paper, the Galicia and Bucovina map (1861–1864) (the Second military survey of the Habsburg Empire) was used to reconstruct and map the historical channel patterns of seven rivers from the Polish Carpathians. It was found that, in the nineteenth century, rivers in the western part of the study area (Soła, Skawa, Raba, Dunajec) supported a multi-thread channel pattern, whereas rivers in the eastern part (Wisłoka, San, Wisłok) present a mostly single-thread channel pattern. These differences probably result from the higher relief energy and precipitation, lower proportions of forests in the catchments, and more frequent floods favouring high sediment supply to the fluvial system, and thus the formation of multi-thread reaches in the western part of the study area. At the local scale, the most important factor supporting multi-thread channel pattern development was the availability of gravel sediments in the wide valley floor sections. The formation of anabranching reaches with a single mid-channel form was probably associated with the channel avulsion process. There is no clear evidence linking the change in the channel pattern type with an abrupt change in the river channel slope. This study confirms the usefulness of the second military survey map of the Habsburg Empire for the regional reconstruction of river channel pattern types.

Highlights

In river channel research concerning both their historical and contemporary condition, the following parameters are determined: channel pattern, channel width-to-depth ratio, lithology index, and proportion of suspended solids in the transported load [1]
This study aims to: (I) provide new insights concerning the possibility of identifying nineteenth-century channel patterns based on historical maps, (II) verify the value of using morphometric analyses in the classification of channel patterns, and (III) discuss the factors determining the formation of specific types of channel pattern
The channel patterns of the Carpathian rivers differed between the studied rivers and along their courses

Summary

Introduction

In river channel research concerning both their historical and contemporary condition, the following parameters are determined: channel pattern, channel width-to-depth ratio, lithology index, and proportion of suspended solids in the transported load [1]. The classifications of channels are based on the analysis of the dominant processes [2,3], channel–. Floodplain interactions [4], bed material and mobility [5], or channel patterns. According to Meshkova and Carling [6], channel pattern is crucial for the classification of rivers. An important problem in the classification of rivers is the subjectivity and ambiguity of the method. Nardini and Brierley [8] solved this problem by providing automatic typology river reaches based on channel patterns through a synthesis of multi-dimensional information. In this method, only the assessment of input criteria based on expert judgment remains subjective. Mandarino et al [9] propose new GIS tools for active-channel analysis

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion