Climate Variability and Change—Hydrological Impacts (Proceedings of the Fifth FRIEND World
Conference held at Havana, Cuba, November 2006), IAHS Publ. 308, 2006, 573–578.
Interaction
between surface and groundwater in the flooding of riparian wetlands: Biebrza
wetlands case study
TOMASZ OKRUSZKO, JAROSŁAW CHORMAŃSKI & DOROTA ŚWIĄTEK
Department of Hydraulic Engineering and Environmental Restoration, Warsaw Agricultural University, Nowoursynowska 159, 02-776 Warsaw, Poland
t.okruszko@levis.sggw.pl
Abstract
The
Biebrza Wetlands is located in a marginal-ice valley in north-eastern Poland
and covers some 195 000 hectares in area. The most characteristic feature of
the Biebrza River is flooding, which appears there almost every year. In the
period 1999–2002, investigation of the flooding phenomena was carried out in
order to understand the main processes involved in the inundation of the river
valley and to combine them with characteristic vegetation patterns. The
investigation used Landsat images, a hydrodynamic 1-D model of river and flood
plain flow, and chemical analysis of flood waters. It was shown that river
water is responsible for inundation of part of the valley only. Other parts of
the valley were inundated by groundwater seepage or in situ snow melt. These observations agree with qualitative
descriptions of water sources for the particular plant communities.
Key words Biebrza wetlands; flooding; RS; hydrological
models