Spatial assessment of the inland excess water presence on subsurface drained areas in the Körös Interfluve (Hungary)

Abstract

Due to extreme meteorological and soil hydrological situations the agricultural production security is highly unpredictable. To release the extent and duration of inland excess water (IEW) inundations or two-phase soil conditions during the period intended for cultivation, subsurface drainage (SD) has been used as a best practice in several countries. SD interventions took place between 1960’s and 1990 in Hungary. After 1989, land ownership conditions changed, thus professional operation and the necessary maintenance of the SD networks designed as a complex system became insignificant. In this paper, our aim was to present the IEW hazard in one of the most equipped areas by SD in Hungary. The occurrence frequency of IEW inundations in drained and non-drained (control) areas in different time intervals were compared. According to our results, we could state that the frequency of IEW on the subsurface drained areas was moderately lower in only a few periods compared to the control areas. IEW hazard of the arable areas at the Körös Interfluve was classified as nonhazarded in 52.7% of the area. Another 38.2% were moderately hazarded, 8.26% of the lands were meanly hazarded and less than 1% were highly hazarded area by IEW.