Mariusz Szymanowski

University of Wrocław | WROC ·  Instytut Geografii i Rozwoju Regionalnego

An important issue from the forest fire protection system perspective is forecasting fires and maintaining a high readiness of firefighting units at a low cost. In Poland, the level of fire protection is defined by the degree of forest fire risk, based on forecasts made for 1 March to 30 September, i.e., the risk period (the so-called fire season)....

We consider the case of a mountain catchment representative of southwest Spits-bergen to investigate the spatial and temporal variation in temperature of the near-surface ground. We set up 20 thermistor strings distributed in different parts of the catchment, combine the measured data with land surface temperature (LST) retrieved from Landsat image...

One of the necessary conditions for sustainable development is maintaining and developing environmental resources. The paper presents and discusses the idea that the field woods in the cities’ agricultural periphery, understood as habitats and not only a collection of trees, should be preserved and managed as a formal element of urban green infrast...

Alternaria is a human/animal allergen and plant/animal pathogen. Cereal harvesting emits a large amount of Alternaria spores into the atmosphere. However, estimating the peak spore periods and source areas from large areas is often a challenge because of insufficient observation stations. The purpose of this study was to examine, using remote sensi...

Pożary lasów w Polsce stanowią poważne zaburzenie ekosystemów leśnych, generujące duże straty przyrodnicze, społeczne oraz ekonomiczne. Z tego względu bardzo istotna jest identyfikacja i kwantyfikacja czynników mogących wpływać na występowanie pożarów w środowisku leśnym. W niniejszej pracy postawiono hipotezę, że struktura krajobrazu leśnego wpły...

There is still a lack of knowledge on the effect of urban environmental factors on bryophyte species distribution and richness. The goal of this study was to fill that gap. We assumed the hypothesis that the urban heat island is the most important factor affecting epiphytic bryophyte species in urban space. The survey was based on a network of 500...

We review DTM-based measures that can be applied to study the main drainage divides of mountain ranges. Both measures proposed in the past and new or modified approaches are presented, in order to show an ensemble of tools and jointly discuss their information potential and problematic issues. The first group focuses on the main drainage divide (MD...

The assessment of the suitability of existing buildings for implementation of green roofs is an important research issue, especially in the context of Urban Heat Island (UHI), the negative impacts of which are locally exacerbated by the global warming. The studies carried out so far have covered a variety of buildings and have taken into account a...

This article presents a review of the literature on the condition of forest stands in Poland, taking into account research on European forests. The most important meteorological, biological, geological-soil and anthropogenic factors influencing the condition of forest stands are presented. The methods and spatial distribution of research areas in P...

Out-migration and the resulting depopulation are currently one of the distinct problems worldwide. The aim of this research was to evaluate the influence of environmental factors on depopulation. We considered natural agents with long-term, constant, or gradually changing impacts and discussed the possibility of decoupling the role of the environme...

This article explores the value of madograms to characterize the geomorphology of frontal belts of mountain ranges. Madograms are a geostatistical, variogram-related concept, allowing for the analysis of altitude variability as a function of distance. After simple idealized digital elevation models were tested to reveal characteristic madogram shap...

Forest fires, due to climate change, are a growing threat to human life, health, and property, especially in temperate climates. Unfortunately, the impact of individual factors on forest fires varies, depending on the geographical region and its natural and socio-economic conditions. The latter are rarely introduced into fire warning systems, which...

The drainage basin of the upper Nysa Szalona river in the West and Middle Sudetes shows polygenetic topography considered representative for the low-to medium-altitude mountain belt of Central Europe. It consists of mountain ridges and massifs, uplands and intramontane basins, with total relief energy up to 400 m. Geology is diverse and includes pr...

The range of D. reticulatus is discontinuous in Europe, with a gap between the Western and Eastern European populations. Recent studies have shown, however, a decrease in the gap as a consequence of D. reticulatus spreading to new areas. This study aims to analyze the dynamic of local-scale changes in the D. reticulatus range in Lower Silesia, SW P...

Distinguishing between mountain fronts of various origins is an issue of considerable scientific and practical importance. Whereas morphometry is often applied to fault-generated fronts and a range of indices has been proposed to assess their activity, comparative studies of fault-generated and fault-line escarpments seem very rare. In this paper w...

Mountain fronts may have more than one origin and not all of them are necessarily fault-controlled. Their occurrence may also reflect the presence of significant lithological boundary and result from differential erosion. In this study we apply various geomorphometric and geostatistical measures to two mountain fronts in SW Poland in order to check...

Reptiles undergo worldwide decline driven mostly by habitat change. Detailed recognition of factors underlying spatial structure and habitat utilization is therefore a prerequisite of effective conservation of this group. While the body of data on spatial ecology of reptiles is rapidly growing, studies on social factors remain still underrepresente...

Almost all forest wildfires in Poland are the result of either direct or indirect human activity. According to the classification by the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), the most common causes are arson (both by adults and minors), neglect (including burning vegetation, waste incineration or dropping cigarette butts) and accidents (...

Warunki przyrodnicze wpływają na podatność środowiska leśnego na wystąpienie pożarów. Jednak czynnikiem inicjującym zapłon jest w olbrzymiej większości szeroko pojęta działalność człowieka, podczas gdy jedynie kilka procent pożarów lasów jest spowodowane przyczynami naturalnymi, takimi jak wyładowania atmosferyczne. Na podstawie danych pochodzącyc...

W artykule przedstawiono rozwój i zakres badań dotyczących klimatu miasta i atmosfery miejskiej we Wrocła-wiu, prowadzonych przez pracowników Uniwersytetu Wrocławskiego, głównie Zakładu Klimatologii i Ochrony Atmosfery (ZKiOA). Opisano główne wątki badawcze realizowane w ośrodku, tj. badania cech mezoklimatu i bioklimatu, miejskiej war-stwy granicz...

This paper presents the occurrence of 25 moss species on trunks of alien trees in Wrocław (without city forests), their species diversity, frequency, coverage in the plots, and preferences to the host-tree species. In general, 36% of the trees colonised by bryophytes in the city were of non-indigenous origin (11 taxa), and the most frequently occup...

Although global warming decreases winter snow storage and snow-melt peak discharges in the majority of basins in warm regions, there exist specific catchments in cold regions where climate change increases the risk of snow-melt floods in winters and earlier-than-usual springs. The volume of water contained in a snowpack is quantified by snow water...

Pożary lasów są jednym z głównych zaburzeń ekosystemów, stanowiąc zarazem element naturalnych przemian siedlisk przyrodniczych. Jednak zdecydowana większość incydentów pożarowych jest skutkiem działalności człowieka. Rozwój społeczno ekonomiczny powoduje zwiększoną antropopresję na środowiska leśne i wzrost liczby pożarów, co przekłada się na wzros...

We explore the assumption that uplift drives erosion and hence, more dissected (eroded) terrains may indicate areas subject to more intense uplift than others, especially if other factors such as elevation and geology can be demonstrated as inconsistent with the spatial pattern of dissection. Geomorphometry and statistics are employed to recognize...

In this paper, we quantify the changes in precipitation distribution in south-western Poland between the periods 1891–1930 and 1981–2010. The average monthly precipitation totals available for 368 and 245 stations, respectively, are spatially interpolated and processed to calculate maps of differences and pluvial continentality indices for both per...

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model has been used to assess the role of parameterisation applied for the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and surface layer, microphysics and radiation on modelled surface air temperature and wind speed. The best model—measurements agreement, in terms of bias and index of agreement statistics, is found for...

The article concerns the thermal state of permafrost active layer in unglaciated areas of high latitudes (Brattegg valley, SW Spitsbergen). The basic material are data from a network of thermistors located in adrainage basin, including its highest elevations. Measured data were used to search for terrain determinants of ground thermics, expressed b...

To estimate the Lyme borreliosis (LB) risk for forest workers, totally 646 blood samples were tested for IgG and IgM anti-Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. (anti-B.b.) antibody occurrence using ELISA tests confirmed with western blot. To clarify the varied LB risk, additionally, the data from the Forest Data Bank determining the detailed forest habitat typ...

A new method for estimating snow water equivalent (SWE) in a small river basin is proposed, and the results of its verification and validation are reported. The numerical HS maps are produced for the selected subareas of the basin using the automated procedure based on processing aerial images acquired by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Since it is...

The aim of this paper is to comprehensively evaluate the abiotic factors that influence changes in the annual growth rates of selected species of tundra plants (Saxifraga oppositifolia L. and Salix polaris Wahlenb.). The study was conducted in the area of the Fuglebergsletta coastal plain, in the vicinity of the Polish Polar Station (Wedel Jarlsber...

Techniki geoinformatyczne umożliwiają integrację informacji przestrzennej z informacją branżową oraz wnioskowanie na temat przestrzennych zależności w wielu dziedzinach nauki. W przypadku badań faunistycznych metody i narzędzia GIS mogą pomagać w skutecznym zarządzaniu gatunkami chronionymi. Uzupełnione o wiedzę ekspercką, techniki te mogą w znaczą...

Numerical modeling of wind velocity above complex terrain has become a subject of numerous contemporary studies. Regardless of the methodical approach (dynamic or diagnostic), it can be observed that information about surface roughness is indispensable to achieve realistic results. In this context, the current state of GIS and remote sensing develo...

Cloud cover is a significant meteorological parameter influencing the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground surface, and therefore affecting the formation of photochemical pollutants, most of all tropospheric ozone (O3). Because cloud amount and type in meteorological models are resolved by microphysics schemes, adjusting this parameterizat...

In this work, we present the results of high-resolution dynamical downscaling of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, for the area of Poland, with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The model is configured using three nested domains, with spatial resolution of 45 km × 45 km, 15 km × 15 km and 5 km × 5 km. The...

The article presents methodological considerations on the spatial interpolation of Ewert’s index of continentality for Poland. The primary objective was to perform spatial interpolation and generate maps of the index combined with selection of an optimal interpolation method and validation of the use of the decision tree proposed by Szymanowski et...

This paper presents the application of the high-resolution WRF model data for the automatic classification of the atmospheric circulation types and the evaluation of the model results for daily rainfall and air temperatures. The WRF model evaluation is performed by comparison with measurements and gridded data (E-OBS). The study is focused on the a...

Our study examines the role of auxiliary variables in the process of spatial modelling and mapping of climatological elements, with air temperature in Poland used as an example. The multivariable algorithms are the most frequently applied for spatialization of air temperature, and their results in many studies are proved to be better in comparison...

Powiat kłodzki jest najsilniej wyludnionym regionem w Sudetach. Bazując na przed- i powojennych spisach ludności przedstawiono maksymalną wielkość depopulacji, jaka nastąpiła w poszczególnych miejscowościach Ziemi Kłodzkiej w okresie od 1867 do 2002 r. Przedyskutowano także jej przestrzenne zróżnicowanie, uwzględniając przy tym występowanie klaster...

Based on the digital elevation models, high-resolution orthophotomap, meteorological and population data collected in 2016 in the post-mining area in Opole Voivoideship, Poland, we checked the impact of microscale habitat variables on the distribution of smooth snake Coronella austriaca. The following methods were used: image supervised classificat...

Our study examines the role of auxiliary variables in the process of spatial modelling and mapping of climatological elements, with air temperature in Poland used as an example. The multivariable algorithms are the most frequently applied for spatialization of air temperature, and their results in many studies are proved to be better in comparison...

Cloud cover is a significant meteorological parameter influencing the amount of solar radiation reaching the ground surface, and therefore affecting the formation of photochemical pollutants, most of all tropospheric ozone (O3). Because cloud amount and type in meteorological models are resolved by microphysics schemes, adjusting this parameterizat...

This paper presents the application of the high-resolution WRF model data for the automatic classification of the atmospheric circulation types and the evaluation of the model results for daily rainfall and air temperatures. The WRF model evaluation is performed by comparison with measurements and gridded data (E-OBS). The study is focused on the a...

In this work, we present the results of high-resolution dynamical downscaling of air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, for the area of Poland, with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The model is configured using three nested domains, with spatial resolution of 45 km × 45 km, 15 km × 15 km and 5 km × 5 km. The...

Numerical modeling of wind velocity above complex terrain has become a subject of numerous contemporary studies. Regardless of the methodical approach (dynamic or diagnostic), it can be observed that information about surface roughness is indispensable to achieve realistic results. In this context, the current state of GIS and remote sensing develo...

Rozmieszczenie gadów ma na ogół nieregularny charakter, a czynniki warunkujące taki wzorzec rozmieszczenia wciąż są słabo rozpoznane. Celem niniejszej pracy jest próba oceny czy i na ile warunki siedliskowe determinują rozkład przestrzenny populacji gniewosza plamistego Coronella austriaca oraz możliwości predykcji rzeczywistego rozmieszczenia osob...

The article presents methodological considerations on the spatial interpolation of Ewert’s index of continentality for Poland. The primary objective was to perform spatial interpolation and generate maps of the index combined with selection of an optimal interpolation method and validation of the use of the decision tree proposed by Szymanowski et...

In frame of the project no. LIDER/012/223/L-5/13/NCBR/2014, financed by the National Centre for Research and Development of Poland, we elaborated a fully automated approach for estimating snow depth in real time in the field. The procedure uses oblique aerial photographs taken by the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The geotagged images of snow-cover...

The HydroProg system, built at the University of Wrocław, Poland, has been designed for computing predictions of river stages in real time, based on the multimodelling approach. This experimental system is working on the upper Nysa Kłodzka basin (SW Poland) above the gauge in Bardo town, with the catchment area of 1744 square kilometres. Nowadays t...

In this paper, direct and indirect geomorphic consequences of wind-related tree uprooting are examined, using an extensive dataset from the mountain range of the Sudetes, Poland. The role of local conditions in influencing the geomorphic efficacy of tree uprooting is examined, as well as issues of upscaling individual observations from experimental...

In this work we use the FRAME model to assess the changes in sulphur and nitrogen deposition for the 2000–2030 period in the Poland-Saxony transboundary area. The results show that the sulphur and oxidised nitrogen deposition was significantly decreased (by 60 and 45 % respectively). This resulted in significant reduction of the ecosystems affected...

In cities located in concave landforms, urban heat island (UHI) is an element of a complicated thermal structure and occurs due to the common impact of urban built-up areas and orography-induced processes like katabatic flows or air temperature inversions. Kraków, Poland (760,000 inhabitants) is located in a large valley of the river Vistula. In th...

The objective of this paper is to present the concept of a novel system, known as HydroProg, that aims to issue flood warnings in real time on the basis of numerous hydrological predictions computed using various models. The core infrastructure of the system is hosted by the University of Wrocław, Poland. A newly-established computational centre pr...

W opracowaniu przedstawiono wyniki badań dotyczące przyszłych zmian klimatu w regionie granicznym Polska-Saksonia, a także zmian zanieczyszczeń powietrza i przekroczeń ładunków krytycznych do roku 2100. Na podstawie trzech różnych scenariuszy (A1B, RCP2.6 i RCP8.5) określono potencjalny zakres zmian warunków klimatycznych oraz zanieczyszczeń powiet...

Im Rahmen des regionalen Klimaprojektes KLAPS werden Klimawandel, Luftverschmutzung und ökologische Belastungsgrenzen im polnisch-sächsischen Grenzraum untersucht. Mit dem vorliegenden Bericht liegt eine umfassende Analyse über die zukünftig mögliche klimatische und lufthygienische Entwicklung bis zum Jahr 2100 vor. Aufbauend auf den projizierten K...

In this study, we show how the climatological suitability of wine grapes cultivation of the transboundary region of Poland, Germany and the Czech Republic has changed over the 1971–2010 period. Strong, positive and statistically significant trend in sum of active temperatures (SAT) and growing degree days (GDD) is observed. The trend is more pronou...

The results of the application and evaluation of the r.sun model for calculation of the total solar radiation for the Wedel Jarlsberg Land (SW Spitsbergen) are presented. Linke Turbidity Factor (LTF), which is the obligatory parameter for direct and diffused radiation calculations with the r.sun model, is derived here with the empirical formula and...

The relationship between climate data and tick questing activity is crucial for estimation of the spatial and temporal distribution of the risk of ticks and tick-borne diseases. This study establishes correlations between selected meteorological variables provided by the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) and the questing activity of Ixod...

A novel system for computing predictions of river stages in real time, based on the concept of multimodelling, has been recently designed and built at the University of Wrocław, Poland. The system, known as HydroProg, has been launched in August 2013, and its first experimental basin is the upper Nysa Kłodzka basin (SW Poland) above the outlet in t...

In dem EU-Projekt KLAPS – Klimawandel, Luftverschmutzung und Belastungsgrenzen von Ökosystemen im polnisch-sächsischen Grenzraum – werden gemeinsam mit polnischen Partnern die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf die Bevölkerung, den Tourismus, die Ausbreitung und Verfrachtung von Luftschadstoffen und die Veränderung von Belastungsgrenzwerten (Critica...

Opracowanie jest podsumowaniem pierwszej części projektu UE KLAPS: Zmiany klimatu, zanieczyszczenia powietrza i przekroczenia ładunków krytycznych w regionie granicznym Polska-Saksonia, realizowanego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Współpracy Transgranicznej Polska-Saksonia 2007-2013 przez Urząd Krajowy ds. Środowiska, Rolnictwa i Geologii w Dreźnie...

The aim of this study was to identify typical and specific features of land surface temperature (LST) distribution in the city of Krakow and its surroundings with the use of Landsat/ETM+ data. The paper contains a detailed description of the study area and technical properties of the Landsat program and data, as well as a complete methodology of LS...

Real-time hydrological forecasting requires the highest quality of both hydrologic and meteorological data collected in a given river basin. Large outliers may lead to inaccurate predictions, with substantial departures between observations and prognoses considered even in short term. Although we need the correctness of both riverflow and rainfall...

Urban areas are among the roughest landscapes in the Earth and its aerodynamical properties are responsible for a lot of processes and phenomena of urban climate, such as surface drag and pollutant dispersion. These properties can be quantitatively expressed by various parameters, with zero plane displacement height (z d) and roughness length (z 0)...

A Geographically Weighted Regression ? Kriging (GWRK) algorithm, based on the local Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR), is applied for spatial prediction of air temperature in Poland. Hengl's decision tree for selecting a suitable prediction model is extended for varying spatial relationships between the air temperature and environmental pred...

Pilularia globulifera is a subatlantic European fern threatened with extinction. In Poland, it reaches the eastern border of its continuous range. Up to the end of the 20th century, it was observed here in 21 stands; only 2 of them existed by the second half of the century, so the species was categorized as critically endangered. Five new locations...

The main aim of the paper is to perform the spatial interpolation of the annual mean air temperature in Poland using geographically weighted regression residual kriging. The interpolation has been done for a set of data for year 1996, covering 250 meteorological stations from Poland and its surroundings. Global and local regression models have been...

Land Use Regression (LUR) models are applied to derive spatial information on NOx air concentration for Poland, with 1km x 1km grid resolution for years 2005 and 2008. The LUR results are cross validated with the leave one out approach and compared with the output of the FRAME atmospheric transport model. The LUR and FRAME modelled spatial patterns...

Geographically weighted regression (GWR) and Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) models have been applied to derive the spatial structure of urban heat island (UHI) in Wrocław, SW Poland and compared. It was found that GWR is better suited for spatial modeling of UHI than MLR, as it takes into account non-stationarity of the spatial process. Both loca...

The study addresses the issue of potential usefulness of remotely sensed data and their derivatives for urban heat island (UHI) modeling. The methodology is illustrated with examples of selected UHI cases in Wrocław, a mid-sized city in SW Poland. Three cases of UHI (early summer, autumn and winter) are analyzed with equivalent remotely sensed data...

Geographically weighted regression algorithm (GWR) has been applied to derive the spatial structure of urban heat island (UHI) in the city of Wrocław, SW Poland. Seven UHI cases, measured during various meteorological conditions and characteristic of different seasons, were selected for analysis. GWR results were compared with global regression mod...

The r.sun model was applied to assess the spatial and temporal changes in incoming total (beam + diffused) real sky radiation. Presented approach accounts for aerosol, precipitable water content and cloudiness effects on attenuation of solar radiation. The results are compared with the measurements gathered at Polish Polar Station, showing good agr...