VTEI / List of articles

List of articles from – 3/2022

Extreme multi-annual hydrological droughts in the Elbe river basin

and –

The aim of the study was the evaluation of multi-year hydrological droughts in the Elbe river basin for the Děčín stream gauging station (catchment area 51 104 m2). Average monthly flows from period 1851–2000 are available for the station. For this period, we also compiled a series of average monthly precipitation and temperatures from several data sources. We calculated annual values for precipitation, temperatures and differences in annual precipitation and runoff, then we computed long-term averages and regression linear trends for change over time. The trends are only slightly upward for all three variables, but long-term fluctuations in precipitation are more significant. According to the quantified multi-year average flows and precipitation, we searched for and merged cases from which one continuous drought lasting at least 5 years is generated for both precipitation and runoff. We quantified deficit volumes for individual drought periods. The long-term average flow was chosen as the threshold flow. The hydrological drought 2013–2020 had the longest duration, almost 7 years, of all droughts since 1851 and was also characterized by the largest total deficit volume. When compared to the average annual deficit volume, it is only in fourth place. When comparing the time series of monthly flows, it turned out that cases from different periods have similar patterns and behavior.

The influence of Prague on water quality in the Vltava and the Czech Elbe

–

Paper deals with the development of water quality of the river stretch of Elbe between the confluence Elbe/Vltava and the Hřensko/Schmilka on the frontier Czech Republic/Federal Republic of Germany in the period 1980–2020 and with the influence of Prague City on its pollution. After the significant improvement in the period 1985–2000, the quality of water discharged through the profile Hřensko generally complies with the German level at least. Assessment of the transport budgets shows that Vltava river contributes more to the system only as having higher water discharges. Prague City contributes to the pollution of Vltava and Elbe only by discharge of phosphorus, for the rest of common pollution items it functions only as a non-significant source.

A retrospective view of the Šumperk water supply system from the 1960s to the present

, and –

In the second half of the 20th century, the long-term problem of supplying the town of Šumperk with drinking water was finally solved. New sources of drinking water supplemented the missing capacities in the form of surface abstraction from Divoká Desná within the newly built collec-tive water supply system, together with the use of sources in Rapotín and Olšany. A significant contribution to solving the problem was the recon-struction of the water supply network, water reservoir, and intake facilities, which reduced losses. An important factor that has reduced the water consumption of the population is, of course, the significant increase in water and sewerage prices in the last 20 years, which had an impact on Šumperk as well. The operational and organizational conditions of the town’s drinking water supply were negatively affected by society-wide de-velopment, which ultimately meant an increase in operating losses in the water supply network due to limited funds for the renewal and upgrading of the water supply network. The political changes in 1989 and the following period were reflected not only in the organizational conditions of the town’s drinking water supply, but also in the final consumption and price of drinking water, both in the Šumperk region and across the whole of the Czech Republic. With the example of Šumperk, it is also possible to illustrate the transformation of the water industry after 1989 and possible diffi-culties, new starting points, and challenges for its future development.

Impact of climate change on runoff and development of forest composition in the coming decades in a selected river basin in Slovakia

, and –

Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects changes in forest composition. Therefore, the article deals with changes in forest associations as a result of global climate changes. The aim of the research was estimation of change in forest associations under climate change on the runoff processes in the selected river basin. We used two land use scenarios with forest associations and two global climate change scenarios. Land use scenarios were created for the entire territory of the Slovak Republic by the Technical University of Zvolen. The outputs of the KNMI and MPI regional climate change models (both with A1B emission scenario) were used for this research. As a result of climate change, changes in forest composition can be expected.

The Výrovka river basin as a suitable area for monitoring and comparing hydrological and landscape characteristics

, , , and –

The Výrovka river basin, as a compact area covering 542.5 km2, is very suitable for monitoring hydrological characteristics and comparing them in different landscape types. It is located on the border of the Lower Vltava and Upper and Middle Elbe sub-basins, extending in a range of 175–555 m above sea level, with a total of six landscape types according to the typology of the contemporary landscape of the Czech Republic. Simultane-ously, there is a varied mosaic in terms of geological subsoil and soil types. There have also been major changes in land use in this basin, mainly due to intensive agricultural activity and related watercourse modifications and amelioration. Monitoring activities within the project SS02030027 ”Water systems and water management in the Czech Republic in conditions of climate change” are currently taking place in the Výrovka river basin.

BÍLINA – The story of the purple river

–

Ibra Ibrahimovič (1967) has been photographing his black-and-white series ”Střepy severních Čech” (Pieces of Northern Bohemia) since the early 1990s. He became known to the public as a photographer of the struggle to save the village of Libkovice in 1993, and later in 2003 with an award-winning series about farmer Rajter.
With the support of the Ministry of the Environment and TGM WRI, the book Příběh fialové řeky (The Story of the purple river) was published in 2015, describing through photographs the turbulent fate of the Bílina river, perhaps the only river in our country that is said to have burned due to pollution. Ibra Ibrahimovič takes photographs mainly on black and white film, 6 x 12 cm, and thus tries to follow the pictorial message of Josef Sudek and Josef Koudelka, who recorded the local landscape in a similar way in the 1970s and 1990s.
In his wanderings around the Bílina river, he looks for places that tell of man‘s relationship to this river, as well as those that reflect its turbulent history. His goal is to testify to what this river, which flows in the vicinity of surface lignite mines and chemical plants, looks like today, because from his childhood, he remembers it as a dark sewer stinking of phenols.

SMART WATER

–

”SMART WATER” is a project funded from the Norwegian Financial Mechanisms as part of the REINE programme, running from 2nd August 2021 to 30th June 2022.
The project is coordinated by the non-profit research and training centre METCENAS, o. p. s., its partner being the organisation AVAS, s. r. o., which is responsible for the dissemination and delivery of the results.