Agriculture and land use optimization in a riverine landscape respecting non-production functions
Sarapatka, B.(Palacky Univ., Olomouc (Czech Republic) | Mekotova, J.Palacky Univ., Olomouc (Czech Republic) | Sterba, O.Palacky Univ., Olomouc (Czech Republic))
Rivers and their surrounding landscape have long drawn our attention. There, we find water, soil, a favourable climate, the richest vegetation, natural communication and transport routes, etc. That is why life and agriculture are concentrated along rivers in all types of countrysides. This paper describes the problems of the Czech riverine landscape ecosystem as a structural and functional unit consisting of the river and all those parts which were either created or conditioned by the river as well as all the living components of these abiotic units of the entire system. Attention is devoted to changes in riverine landscapes during the 20th century not only in land use but also in the water regime and the possible contamination of fluvisols. These land use changes preferred the production function but during our investigation of more than 4000 km of Moravian rivers and the surrounding landscape we also described many non-productive functions, including the effect of flood protection. During our research we described the landscape disfunction caused by a too large degradation and disturbance to the landscapes ecological continuum. Our ecological optimization of these sites and also of agricultural production on 63 thousand hectares includes these principal procurations: namely a reduction in arable land and increase in floodplain forest and meadows initstead. These principal changes in the landscapes exploitation concern the area next to the river so that a continuous _green belt_ of ecologically appropriate patches will originate along the river. In this paper the legislative possibilities for the realization of this project with sodding and afforestation (the growing of energy forests) are also described.
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