The Evolution of Gravel-Bed Rivers during the Post-Regulation Period in the Polish Carpathians

Abstract

This study provides a conceptual model of the functioning of gravel-bed rivers during the post-regulation period in Poland and forecasts their subsequent evolution. The main difference between fluvial processes during the pre-regulation and post-regulation period is that they are limited to a zone that is currently several times narrower and trapped in a deep-cut channel. During the river post-regulation period, the construction of additional river training works was significantly limited in river channels. Moreover, all forms of economic activity were significantly reduced in the channel free migration zone, particularly bed gravel extraction operations. As a result of these changes, a limited recovery of the functioning and hydromorphology of the river channel occurred via a return to conditions in effect prior to river regulation. In recovering sections of river, the channel gradually broadens, and its sinuosity and number of threads increase. The overall process can be called spontaneous renaturalization, which yields a characteristic post-regulation river channel. The conceptual model was developed on the basis of the evolution of the gravel-bed river, the Raba River, during the post-regulation period in the Polish Carpathian Mountains.