Botár Imre - Károlyi Zsigmond: A Tisza szabályozása II. rész (1879-1944) (Vízügyi Történeti Füzetek 4. 1971)
Összefoglalás és a további perspektívák. A Tisza-völgy jelene és jövője - Idegennyelvű kivonatok
serult floods with increasingly high peaks have repeatedly destroyed the primitive dikes. Faults and failures have endangered first of all the Lower-Tisza Region especially the city of Szeged. The flood-disaster in 1879 at Szeged, which completely destroyed the city of 60,000 inhabitants (Figs. 1—4) had given a shock not only to the public opinion of the country but also to that of Europe, and at last it forced a revision of the entire governmental policy and brought about the necessary turning-point in the history of the Tisza regulation. The incompetent management was replaced and reorganized and the legal and material situation of the associations was also settled: the systematic and co-ordinated work was controlled by governmental technical supervision and accomplishing tasks were ensured by subsidies granted to the associations. For developing crose-cuts a national dredger fleet was organized, and for observing the hydrological effects of the regulation works and for flood forecasting the Hydrographical Department (1886), later the Hydrographical Institute the predecessor of the present Research Institute for Water Resources Development was established. Work was started at the most endangered stretch near Szeged: constrictions were mitigated by digging the high banks or relocating the dikes (Figs. 1, 5), and dikes were strengthened in accordance with the increasing flood level. After the extremely high flood of the year 1888 compulsory crosssection dimensions were specified for all associations (Fig. 11). All these works were carried out and completed between 1891 —1919 by the new water administration service reorganized by Jenő Kvassay (Fig. 8), in the framework of long-range work programmes which can be regarded as forerunners of the present day's "long-range development plans". The development of the dike cross-sections is shown in Fig. 11, while the increases in slopes obtained by 112 cross-cuts by means of which the flooded periods in the marginal land decreased to 1 /4 — ma y De seen in Fig. 15. Along with the dike development, structures in the dikes (first of ail sluices and pumping stations) were also modernized by the consolidated associations after their activities were extended (from the 1880's on) to cover land drainage problems as well. The success of flood control works is shown by the fact that no dike breaches occurred from the year 1895 in the dikes constructed according to standard specifications and they were able also to withstand the highest ever recorded flood of the Tisza in 1970 (Figs. 18—19). Further development in river training at the beginning of this century is characterized by low-water bed regulation and river-bed protection works and the construction of the riverbarrage at Bö'kény (the first reinforced concrete gate) as the first engineering structure of the Körös River canalization works. The Tisza-canalization works started at the middle of our century may be regarded as a fulfilment of the Tisza Basin control: the beginning of complex water management.
