TADEUSZ BEDNARCZYK¹, ARTHUR RADECKI-PAWLIK¹,
PRZEMYSŁAW BARAN² & EWA SŁOWIK-OPOKA¹

Abstract The Łososina River is one of the Polish Carpathian mountain streams that crosses the south of the Beskid Wyspowy Mountains. It is mostly gravel-bed, it is flashy, experiences frequent flooding and often causes trouble for the local communities as far as spring floods are concerned. At the mouth of the Łososina River there is one of the biggest Polish Carpathian artificial lakes—the Żywiecki Water Reservoir (ŻWR). Since the Łososina River transports mostly gravel as the bed load to the ŻWR, in the early seventies it was partly canalized, especially in places where it passes the inhabited areas. The situation of the Łososina River before and after the engineering works is compared. Features such as changes in cross-section geometry, slope, granulometry and bed load transport balance were compared using archives and present-day studies. For the purpose of the study, old engineering projects and reports were used to find out the difference in the Łososina River behaviour.