Author(s): Adam Lajczak
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Dam; Overbank deposition; River regulation; Suspended sediment; Vistula river
Abstract: The aim of the work is a quantitative evaluation of modern changes in the size of deposition of the suspended material within the Vistula river drainage basin impacted by the man. The “input–output” method has been used to estimate the amount of deposition of the material within the interembankment zone of the river and in the dams over the years 1946-1995. The results have been compared with the tempo of sediment thickness increasing outside the river channel since the beginning of the 20 th century, which estimation has been based on repeated leveling taken by the State Hydrological Survey in successive gauging stations in the river across the interembankment zone, and the tempo of decrease of the volume of dams. In the years since the beginning of the Vistula regulation in the 1850s, two periods with very rapid changes of the size of suspended material transport and deposition in this river were distinguished and these changes are assumed as the fastest in the whole Holocene. After the period of the increase of material transport and deposition in the Vistula which lasted for about 80 years (until 1930) a decrease of the size of suspended material transport and deposition started; this trend is still observed. The size of suspended material transport and deposition in the Vistula in the second half of the 19 th century and first years of the20 th century is assumed as the largest in the whole Holocene. The distinguished in the literature short period with the increased size of clastic material transport in rivers due to earth works in the drainage basin followed by transport decrease influenced by technical building up of the area, may be assumed as analogue of changes in the Vistula due to its regulation.
Year: 2004