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Methods to Assess Large Wood Dynamics and the Associated Flood Hazard in Polish Carpathian Watercourses of Different Size

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Flood Risk in the Upper Vistula Basin

Part of the book series: GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences ((GEPS))

Abstract

Applicability, advantages and limitations of a range of methods applied to determine large wood dynamics in Kamienica Stream and the Czarny Dunajec River, Polish Carpathians, are discussed. Results of a 6-year-long monitoring suggest an increased rate of wood recruitment to Kamienica Stream caused by recent bark beetle infestation of the spruce forests in the valley. However, both monitoring of wood transport and wood inventories indicate that the mobility of large wood in the stream is low and can increase only during major floods. Thus flood hazard to downstream valley reaches potentially resulting from the considerable amounts of large wood stored in the upper stream reach is limited. In the Czarny Dunajec, wood inventories, a tracking experiment with logs tagged with radio transmitters, and numerical modelling indicated high potential for wood transport in the narrow river reaches formed by channelization or channel incision, and high potential for wood deposition in the wide, multi-thread channel. Vegetative regeneration of living willow wood considerably reduces its remobilization by subsequent floods. Efficient transport of large wood along narrow river reaches implicates that during floods substantial amounts of wood may be delivered from distant sources to the channel sections located downstream of the narrow reaches. Wide, multi-thread reaches operate as natural wood traps, considerably limiting further transfer of wood to vulnerable sites/reaches.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the project FLORIST (Flood risk on the northern foothills of the Tatra Mountains) supported by a grant from the Swiss Government through the Swiss Contribution to the enlarged European Union (PSPB No. 153/2010). We thank Dieter Rickenmann for his critical comments on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, al. Mickiewicza 33, 31-120, Kraków, Poland

    Paweł Mikuś & Bartłomiej Wyżga

  2. Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia, ul. Będzińska 60, 41-200, Sosnowiec, Poland

    Paweł Mikuś, Bartłomiej Wyżga & Ryszard J. Kaczka

  3. Dendrolab.ch, Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 1+3, 3012, Bern, Switzerland

    Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva & Markus Stoffel

  4. Climatic Change and Climate Impacts, Institute for Environmental Sciences, University of Geneva, Boulevard Carl Vogt 66, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

    Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva & Markus Stoffel

  5. Department of Earth Sciences, rue des Maraîchers 13, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland

    Markus Stoffel

  6. Institute of Geography, Pedagogical University of Cracow, ul. Podchorążych 2, 30-084, Kraków, Poland

    Joanna Zawiejska

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  1. Paweł Mikuś
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  2. Bartłomiej Wyżga
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  3. Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva
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Correspondence to Paweł Mikuś .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Climate and Water Resource, Inst. for Agric. and Forest Environ, Poznań, Wielkopolskie, Poland

    Zbigniew W. Kundzewicz

  2. Inst of Geological Sci, University of Berne, Geneva, Bern, Switzerland

    Markus Stoffel

  3. Depat of Climatology, Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Silesia in Katowice, Katowice, Poland

    Tadeusz Niedźwiedź

  4. Polish Academy of Sciences, Institute of Nature Conservation, Cracow, Poland

    Bartłomiej Wyżga

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Mikuś, P., Wyżga, B., Ruiz-Villanueva, V., Zawiejska, J., Kaczka, R.J., Stoffel, M. (2016). Methods to Assess Large Wood Dynamics and the Associated Flood Hazard in Polish Carpathian Watercourses of Different Size. In: Kundzewicz, Z., Stoffel, M., Niedźwiedź, T., Wyżga, B. (eds) Flood Risk in the Upper Vistula Basin. GeoPlanet: Earth and Planetary Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41923-7_5

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