Vízügyi Közlemények, 2004 (86. évfolyam)

1-2. füzet - Orlóci István: A közösségi vízgazdálkodás felé

64 Orlóci István requires consequently the close co-operation of ecologists (who are familiar with the given sites), of engineers with expertise in potamology, and of all directly interested parties (stakeholders). The key for making good decisions is found in the development of information techniques and systems. Instead of the growth of management regulations one should support the information of all interested parties. One should establish an inventory type information system, which contains data and information on all natural, economic and social features of the rivers, regardless of the structure of institutions and interest parties. The basis of water management, integrated into landscape development, is to have an appropriate knowledge of the effective mechanisms by which water unites natural and socio-economic systems and their processes (Figure 3). The geographic extent of a landscape rarely coincides with the catchment basin area and the economic and administrative districts of human activities substantially differ from the above two ones. Consequently all plans should be made for each of the mentioned four area units in a unifying, harmonising way and be evaluated for each. Of the two large groups of the activities which affect the processes of landscape development the land- and soil uses are affecting all components of the continental hydrological cycle right at the launching these processes (e.g. at the site of precipitation and infiltration). The impact of river training works and water uses from the river is narrower and more partial. Nevertheless, flood inundations, channel regulations and irrigation water uses have substantial impact on the development of the landscape. In the lowland regions of Hungary the thousand year long land use activities and the century long water regulation activities (together the "civilisation" activities) have not only basically changed the landscape, but put very restrictive constrains to its development. The water system of Hungary (Figure 4) was formed 10-15 thousand years ago, after the glacial and has been partially changed only in the Holocene. The natural character of the Charpatian basin is a transitional zone of the continent and it is formed by very special landscape mosaics. Due to the climate-confrontation zone character of this basin (Figure 6.) continental, Mediterranean, Atlantic, and boreal plant and animal species can be found here, although their habitats have been ever increasingly altered by human activities (Figure 5). The changes of the landscape are illustrated by figures 7 and 8. The water household, soil and vegetation of the Hungarian lowlands have approached in an extremely varying manner the present state of a "culture landscape", that can be sustained only by man made action. The water system of Hungary is formed, in addition to Danube, by four larger rivers (Dráva, Tisza, Maros, Hármas-Körös) by about twenty medium-to-small rivers and many thousands of creeks and canals (Figure 9. and 10, Table VI). Only seven smaller rivers (or rather larger creeks) have their full catchment area within the country borders of Hungary. Thus the neighbouring upstream countries influence the water regime and water quality of the rest of the water system. The relationship between shallow and confined ground-waters and phenomenon of excess inland waters are all unique features of the low lands of