Open AccessAdaptive Water Management-land Use Practice for Improving Ecosystem Services – a Hungarian Modelling Case Study
Author(s) -
Zsolt Kozma,
Zsolt Jolánkai,
Máté Krisztián Kardos,
Bálint Muzelák,
L. Koncsos
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
periodica polytechnica. civil engineering/periodica polytechnica. civil engineering (online)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.406
H-Index - 19
eISSN - 1587-3773
pISSN - 0553-6626
DOI - 10.3311/ppci.18369
Subject(s) - provisioning , wetland , ecosystem services , riparian zone , environmental resource management , psychological resilience , adaptive management , resilience (materials science) , environmental science , land use , ecosystem , water resource management , environmental planning , ecology , computer science , psychology , telecommunications , physics , habitat , psychotherapist , biology , thermodynamics
During the 20th century in the Hungarian lowlands the emphasis was put on maximizing provisioning ecosystem services (ES), which caused the weakening of regulating and other services. With the growing environmental pressures, it is crucial to apply a more adaptive landscape management. This, however, leads to territorial conflicts, as large areas with water-tolerant land cover (i.e., wetlands, meadows, riparian forests) are needed to buffer extreme hydrological events.We present some findings of the WateRisk project, a research that focused on the possible solutions of these conflicts. In a scenario-based case study, we analyze the outlined issue for the Szamos-Kraszna Interfluve, a 510 km2 lowland catchment heavily affected by excess water. Scenarios were evaluated with an integrated methodology that focuses on the water budget and the total values of ES. The efficiency of the drainage network was found to be minor/moderate as it provided only -1–5% reduction in the spatial extents of inundations, and it contributed only ~20% to the elimination of water coverage. Furthermore, comparing the present (defense-focused) and the alternative (water retention focused) scenarios, the latter turned out to provide higher monetary value for the summed individual and social benefits of ES. This underlines the need for extensive adaptive measures in both water management and landscape planning to create resilience and the ability to cope with contemporary environmental challenges.