PATTERNS OF STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONING OF RIVERBED AND FLOODPLAIN LANDSCAPES OF THE CHEREMOSH RIVER

Abstract

The landscape approach in the study of riverbeds and floodplains is important both scientifically and as a component of planning the management of their quality, the management of river basins. The article is devoted to the identification of natural changes in the structure and functioning of the landscapes of the river and floodplain of the Cheremosh River within the foothill section of the current, which are caused by human activity. The study methodology included a comprehensive analysis of data on changes in the structure of the riverbed and floodplain in plan, on changes in vertical position, as well as an analysis of the nature of the channel process in natural and anthropogenically changed conditions. Used map dates for the period 1863–1977, as well as data from space images for the period of the beginning of the 21st century. Hydrological observations were also used. Parts of information relevant for the description of natural and anthropogenically changed states of landscapes of the riverbed and floodplain are allocated. Methods of expeditionary research are applied, in particular, to identify the process of anthropogenic incision of the river. Processing and presentation of information about the riverbed, floodplain, river valley, their homogeneous areas was carried out using GIS technologies. Identification of river landscapes is carried out on the basis of the application of the methodology of Yu. S. Yushchenko. Five homogeneous sections of the channel and floodplain of the river have been identified. Cheremosh. They are the hydromorphological basis of the corresponding units of the young river landscape.Parts Cheremosh River in the foothills of the Carpathians is characterized by typical features of channel and floodplain processes for such sections of rivers. These are areas of developed alluvial plains and free development of the “flow-river bad-floodplain system”. The main regularity is the development of a branched channel, which is transformed with distance from the mountains due to the processes of hydraulic sorting of sediments and the corresponding self-regulation. At the same time, the river landscape is formed in accordance with such changes and in connection with the action of local conditions of the river valley.To the main anthropogenic factors of changes in the natural state of landscapes r. Cheremosh includes systems of engineering structures (primarily dikes) and removal of riverbed alluvium. The effect of these factors is analyzed by their hydromorphological consequences within the natural units of the river landscape and in general throughout the site. Important consequences are changes in the channel process associated with the anthropogenic incision of the river, as well as changes in the structure of the young river landscape, which affect the nature of the functioning of the flow-river bad-floodplain system and the nature of ecosystems.