Milan Lehotský

Slovak Academy of Sciences | SAV · Department of Physical Geography, Geomorphology and Natural Hazards

The Little Carpathians form the most distant, southwestern promontory of the Western Carpathians, wedged between the Záhorská and Podunajská lowlands. They represent mountains individualized and internally differentiated by multidirectional geomorphological lines arranged in a geomorphological grid typical for horst morphostructures. The Little Car...

The Danube Plain (Podunajská rovina) hosts the largest fluvial system in Slovakia. In the past the territory of the Danube Plain has operated as a dynamic fluvial system (inland delta) with its own anastomosing, migrating, meandering and braided river channel patterns and the development of several fluvial terraces, levees, abandoned channels and a...

Slovakia is a small landlocked country in Central Europe. Its position is characterized by the intersection of major Eurasian tectonic and climatic domains, which predetermines general features of the Slovak landscape and the occurrence of specific landforms. The first work on the landscape, history and people of Slovakia, “Notitia Hungariae Novae...

The Low Tatra Mts. is the most extensive high mountain range of the Western Carpathians. It is approximately 80 km long, 15–30 km wide, covers approximately 1,240 km2 and culminates in Mt. Ďumbier (2,043 m a.s.l.). As a geomorphological unit of the Inner Western Carpathians, the Low Tatra belong to the Fatra–Tatra region. In terms of the geological...

The Belá River represents a reference braided-wandering river system to observe natural, or semi-natural, forms and processes in the mountain environment. In this chapter, human impact and spatio-temporal bio-morphological evolution of the Belá River from the second half of the twentieth century are described. For the high-energy Belá River, new gr...

The central part of Ondavská vrchovina upland represents a medium-altitude and moderately dissected relief with narrow elongated valleys. The Topľa and Ondava rivers are the main axis of flysch valleys and their flat bottoms are modelled by dynamic river processes acting upon thin layers of Quaternary sediments. They bear a record of all historical...

The territory Slovakia of reveals exceptionally high diversity of landforms. Geomorphological history of the Western Carpathians can be traced back to the Early/Middle Miocene (10 and 20 Ma) and of the Panonian Basin to the Late Miocene, respectively. The development the Western Carpathians went on in phases, through interaction of tectonic movemen...

A. Grešková, M. Lehotský: The bankfull stage and its importance for the recognition and management of river channel morphology. Geografický ča-sopis, 58, 2006, 4, 1 fig., 1 tab., 35 refs. The paper is devoted to explanation of some theoretical and methodological aspects of the bankfull concept. The present world fluvial geomorphology is focused on...

Mountain stream gravel is very often legally and illegally mined and gravel is removed from river beds sometimes on the very large scale which is disastrous for fluvial situation of rivers, for river ecology and river engineering works done for flood protection such as river revetments, bridges and all hydraulic structures. This situation makes a b...

The article presents the postflood period coarse sediment connectivity (CSC) assessment approach on the basis of the holistic ideas of the interpretation of the long-term CSC in river channels. Seven sets of remote sensing data (1949–2009) were used as the basic information sources to study the CSC along the braided-wandering Belá River by using th...

This paper presents the template for high-resolution mapping of a river landscape by Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology with the following five steps: (i) reconnaissance of the mapped site; (ii) pre-flight field work; (iii) flight mission; (iv) quality check and processing of aerial data; and (v) operations above the processed layers and land...

The paper aims to the identification of the recent channel planform evolution of the braided-wandering Belá River using multitemporal data analyses of channel parameters in GIS (river active zone width, channel number, island number and mid-channel bar number) within consecutive 100-m-long channel segments (227 in total) for seven time horizons (19...

The Gabčíkovo-Nagymaros waterworks construction on Danube river in Slovakia (1977−1992) was followed with major ecological consequences. The water level and flow velocity was decreased in the original by-passed channel in order to keep high water level for shipping in the bypass canal. The decrease in discharge and lowering flow velocity resulted i...

The bank erosion area, rate of bank retreat and overall geomorphological and financial effects of channel migration due to recent flood events (over the time span 1987–2009) are identified using remotely sensed data and GIS. A 39 km-long reach of the meandering, gravel bed Topľa River (Flysch Slovak Carpathians) was selected as the study area. Base...

The effect of longitudinal zonation patterns and macroinvertebrate responses to changes in habitat characteristics have been given a lot of attention. But studies of changes in macroinvertebrate assemblages along small upland undisturbed watercourses are still lacking. The aim of the study is to analyse variability in macroinvertebrate communities...

Changes in the morphological pattern of the gravel-bed Belá River, Slovak Carpathians, were investigated to infer about the impact of flood events and environmental changes on the evolutionary trend of the river since the mid-twentieth century. The post-flood period serial geomorphic analysis (POPSEGA) approach coupled with GIS analysis was used to...

The article is focused on the evaluation of accumulation volume changes in 9 water reservoirs near Banská Štiavnica (Slovakia) by comparing historical maps and using modern bathymetric surveying technologies. The mining region of Banská Štiavnica has been inscribed into the UNESCO List of the World and Cultural Heritage in 1993. Accumulation and tr...

One of the key factors affecting the behaviour of a river channel is extreme discharge, which increases the energy of the stream. It leads to the intensification of erosion and deposition processes in the channel and floodplain. The aim of this paper is to identify bank erosion, geomorphological effects of channel migration in the riparian zone of...

The natural capacity for morphological adjustments of the high-energy braided rivers in laterally-unconfined settings have significant natural capacity for adjustment in both vertical and lateral dimensions. Thalweg shifting induces recurrent reworking of bedload in these dynamic systems. The Belá River situated in the north of Slovakia has been an...

The typical morphological response of the meandering rivers to large floods is the lateral shift of their channel which triggers the formation of a new morphological structure from the initial destruction by erosion over deposition of new sediments and stabilization of vegetation. The article deals with the effect of extreme flood events on lateral...

Throughout the Europe, reductions in the extent of braided river reaches have occurred since the end of the 19th century and throughout the 20th century. This is a particular study priority of present braided rivers, because they are unique natural entities and rich ecosystems. Understanding the temporal and spatial connectivity that has char-acter...

Response of the Danube River Floodplain to Flood Events During 2002-2007 Period The relationship between floods and their geomorphic effect is discussed in this article. Almost every flood event is registered in overbank alluvia. We investigated sediment structures and textures as a response to three flood events occurred during 2002-2007 period on...

The mining region of Banská Štiavnica (Slovakia) has been inscribed into the UNESCO List of the World and Cultural Heritage in 1993. One of its special features is the system of artificial water reservoirs (locally referred to as "tajchy") communicating via trenches built in early 18th century. The system was a water source, which drove the mining...

The relationship between floods and their geomorphic effect is discussed in this article. Almost every flood event is registered in overbank alluvia. We investigated sediment structures and textures as responses to three flood events in 2002 and 2007 in the Danube River floodplain in Bratislava. The floods led to sedimentation mainly in the neighbo...

This article is focused on the analysis and evaluation of the changes of the bottom of the Bakomi reservoir, the total volume of the reservoir, ecosystems, as well as changes in the riparian zone of the Bakomi reservoir (situated in the central Slovakia). Changes of the water component of the reservoir were subject to the deposition by erosion-sedi...

The paper concentrates on comparison and evaluation of ecosystem changes in the littoral, sublittoral zone and profundal zone as well as the riparian zone of the Belianska water reservoir. The changes in stratification and ecological zonation of the water component of the reservoir are conditioned by silting, the result of erosive and sedimentation...

The aim of this study is to outline the geomorphic/sedimentary responses of three Slovak river systems of different character (a non-channelized meandering gravel-bed river, a mixed-bedrock headwater river, and a channelized section of a large alluvial river) to extreme flood events. Lateral channel shifts and the spatial variability of channel lan...

The by-passed reach of the old Danube channel gives a very good example of the human impact on a river system. Decreasing discharge and the disconnectivity in sediment fluxes condition the granulomet- ric change in the vertical accretion stratigraphy which by the negative feedback due to vegetation suc- cession initiates changes in land cover struc...

A staircase-like longitudinal profile of the Topl'a headwater stream channel is analysed and the resultant parameters of step heights, wavelengths, relative steepness and vertical sinuosity are compared with well-established values published in other studies. While the mean step height and wavelength do not show significant differences, the relativ...

Understanding and recognition how rivers behave is crucial in assessment of ecological conditions of streams and important for river restoration purposes. In our paper geomorphological structure of river channel of small streams in terms of River Morphology Hierarchical Classification-RHMC (Lehotský & Grešková 2003, 2004; Lehotský 2004) is analyzed...

A geomorphological network - a network of valleys and inter-valley ndges develops in changing morphostructural and morphoclimatic conditions. It is transforming. A new network replaces the old one. Thanks to the gradual character of this process it is possible to identify several generations of networks in relief. Their analysis may bring some valu...

In addition to the morphostructures and climatic conditions, landform evolution on the territory of Slovakia has been heavily influenced by the history of human settlement. Human impact on geomorphic processes has a longer history in the sub-Carpathian lowlands (embracing millennia) than in the Carpathian mountains (measured in centuries). In addit...

The aim of the study is to analyse land cover changes in the riparian zone of not forested landscape based on comparison of its spatial structure in two different economic and/ or political time horizons (1987 and 2003) and to interpret the trend of development on three hierarchical level: the national level (all Slovak streams), the level of a seg...

The present time is characterized by impacts of climate change on natural landscapes as well as on human activities. Increasing magnitude and frequency of flood events results in morphological and morphodynamic changes of river channels. It is a challenge for the fluvial geomorphology to highlight the morphological response to these events, because...

The recent period is characterized by impacts of climate change. Increasing magnitude and frequency of flood events results in morphological and morphodynamical changes of river channels. It is a challenge for the fluvial geomorphology to highlight the morphological response to these events, because the knowledge of the morphological-sedimentologic...

Research of braided rivers in fluvial geomorphology, particularly the partial themes of interaction between the channel morphology, water flow-stage, sediment transport, bar evolution and vegetation in braided rivers are frequent in specialised literature. These issues can be successfully investigated by a suitable selection of methods for the comp...

The paper deals with the braided-wandering type of channel organization. The river reach of the River Belá (1, 7 km long) situated in the north of Slovakia has been analysed in order to comprehend its evolutionary trend. Historical maps and aerial photos (1837-2009, nine time horizons) with comparable discharge conditions have been used for the pat...

Comprehension of the development of any type of landscape requires integration of overall and local approaches and awareness of the effects attributable to both socio-economic and natural forces. Application of ideas of aggregate complexity emphasizing the synergy of the functioning system components and a synoptic (situational) approach accepting...

article i nfo Article history: Accepted 4 January 2009 Available online xxxx The paper outlines contemporary geomorphic and sedimentary changes (1949-2007) in the suburban inter- dike reach of the Danube River in Bratislava underpinning requirements of its management. The studied river reach represents the right bank inter-dike area of a tectonical...

The relationship between the river channel parameters - morphological, hydraulic and substrate - and the composition and distribution of macrozoobenthos communities was studied on the 75 m channel reach of the stream (Teplička brook, Strážovské vrchy Mts., Slovakia) located at the altitude of 256 m; with average width 4 m, depth 0.25m, average curr...

The paper contributes to research on riverine landscapes and its aim is to assess their perception by local population, tourists, students of natural sciences (geography and biology) and humanities. It rests on formulation of hypotheses associated with the perception, their confirmation or denial applying subjective (experimental and experience-dep...

Fluvial geomorphology proposes the methodology of cognition and assessment of the riverine landscape and points to the possibilities of exploitation of its results in hydrobiological research. Habitat structure of two reaches of the Drietomica brook (Biele Karpaty Mts, Slovakia) was assesed at level of morphological and morphohydraulic units in the...

The rapid acceleration of global changes in all spheres of human life requires implementation of holistic, integrative approaches. The aim of this paper is to outline the main ideas concerning the complexity theory in general as well as in landscape investigation. A system is said to be complex when the whole cannot be fully understood by analysing...

The mission of protected areas is to protect and conserve the most valuable parts of the landscape. The aim of the paper is to identify and analyse the context between the structure of the protected areas system and sustainable development protected areas dimensions (landscape/ environmental, social/economic, institutional/managerial) in the area s...

This paper attempts to assess the effects of several factors on spatial organisation, regional disparities and development in two marginal districts of eastern Slovakia (Bardejov and Rimavská Sobota) that belong to the group of regions most impacted by transition. The structural analysis method setting up chorems is used to represent and help to un...

The principles of fluvial geomorphology provide a physical template for the landscape perspectives that underpin the ecological integrity of river systems. Two river reaches of the small stream Drietomica about 200 m long in the central part of the Biele Karpaty Mts. were selected for the study. The riverbed habitat structure has been determined un...

In the last two decades, the management of rivers has developed into the form of a multifunctional procedure built upon the holistic base that unites scientific knowledge, engineering interventions, control of pollution, water resource management, fisheries, transports, energy economy and protection of rivers. The paper presents a review of basic g...

Traditionally, geographers and landscape ecologists have focused their attention on terrestrial systems (in Slovakia LANDEP, landscape potencial approach are examples) and rivers have been considered either as elements of landscape pattern as biocorridors or as units that are linked to the terrestrial landscape by flows across boundaries. We presen...

The River Morphology Hierarchical Classification (RMHC) framework with seven taxonomic levels - catchment-drainage network, zone, segment, channel-floodplain unit, river reach, geomorphic unit and morphohydraulic unit - has been presented. The RMHC framework shows good potential as a standardised method for classifying river morphology over a range...

The article deals with new orientation and methodological approaches recently dominating in the field of fluvial geomorphology. The authors, based on theoretical and methodological findings of older and recent studies define the riverine landscape and its geornorphic base - channel-floodplain geosystems, explain their hierarchical structure and bri...

The contribution represents a brief overview of results of landscape-ecological, as well as human-ecological research conducted during recent period in Slovakia. A special interest is given to the regional (sub-national) dimension. The set of 41 indicators, aggregated to 6 groups pursuing six sustainable development (SD) dimensions has been used wi...

We assess the geomorphic response of the Jablonka catchment (163 km 2), western Slovakia, to large-scale land use changes associated with the collectivization of agriculture in the former Czechoslovakia in 1948. A distinct acceleration of fluvial slope processes, as well as marked strengthening of their geomorphic effect, followed collectivization...

The main task of the paper is to present methodology and application of load assessment of water component of the landscape. This procedure should contribute to sound and complex water basin management and to rational water use as well. Three main hydroecological types were set: initiate-source, accumulative-transitory and accumulative one. Each ty...

An assessment of man's activities, and/or solution to technical inputs in landscape are efficient precisely in a pre-project phase. In the territorial planning, the environment is evaluated first of all in a direct relation to technical parameters of a planned intention. The aim of the work is to propose procedures of the knowledge and evaluation o...

Four case studies are presented in different landscape types on the intensity of the erosion-accumulation process and soil degradation state. For an estimation of the soil loss as well as soil gain, the content of Cs-137 in the soil has been investigated. For the purpose of examining the behaviour of degradation processes of the upper solum portion...

A regional system model: the case of Spis in Slovakia. — The methods of chorematics can be used to interpret spatial organisation in the region of Spis in Slovakia, in particular its historical evolution and future prospects in relation to neighbouring centres of development: Spis appears to be a peripheral area which is dominated while at the same...

The methods of chorematics can be used to interpret spatial organisation in the region of Spis in Slovakia, in particular its historical evolution and future prospects in relation to neighbouring centres of development: Spis appears to be a peripheral area which is dominated while at the same time acting as a centre of attraction because of its var...

An space structures graphic modelling approach has been applied in the study of the Gabcikovo Hydropower Plant (GHP) effects on its hinterland. The socioeconomic aspects model of the Gabcikovo hinterland served as a base. Changes in the socioeconomic systems in the hinterland linked with the construction and operation of the GHP and effects that wo...

The contribution is dedicated to the evaluation of the pluvial erosion-accumulation processes in two model territories on ploughed slopes in the region of the Povazske podolie near the vilalges of Horne Srnie and Luborca. On the basis of the Cs-137 method, it was detected that in the course of the last 35-40 years, on the most severely attacked slo...

On the basis of criteria involving mean altitude of the groundwater level under the surface during the vegetation period, the position of contact between gravel sediments and non-gravel sediments of the surficial cover and their physical properties conditioning velocity and altitude of capillary rise, we have identified 7 principal taxons and 20 su...

The article presents a system of evaluating soil units in Slovakia from the viewpoint of their buffering capacity in relation to anthropogenic acidification. By means of the ball method and on the basis of both criteria T (maximum sorption capacity) and V (sorption saturation degree) 7 degrees of soils buffering have been ascertained, and 9 types o...

Includes comments on the ecological impacts of motorway construction in a part of Czechoslovakia. -P.J.Jarvis

Expresses properties of the region in a non-traditional way; going out from detailed partial analyses. Indentifies 5 basic effects, which in a deciding way manifest themselves in the spatial structure of the Vychodoslovenska Nizina Lowland and in their functioning. It represents a non-traditional idiographical approach in investigating the spatial...

An attempt to work up, and to apply, a method to evaluate the landscape for agricultural utilization and development prognosis. -from Author