Vízügyi Közlemények, 1973 (55. évfolyam)

4. füzet - Rövidebb közlemények és beszámolók

1. THE KISKÖRE BARRAGE PROJECT 1.1 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE KISKÖRE BARRAGE PROJECT IN WATER MANAGEMENT By Dégen, Imre Head of the National Water Authority (For the Hungarian text see pp. 7) The valley of the Tisza River occupies a large part of the Great Hungarian Plains, the center of the Carpathian Basin. Here development and improvement work has been carried on for almost 150 years under a vast water management scheme. With the inauguration of the Kisköre Barrage the realization programme of the scheme arrived at an important milestone. On this occasion tribute is paid to the memory of I. Széchenyi, P. Vásárhelyi and their collaborators who have started this ambitious scheme in the last century, as well as to the engineers and thousands of labourers angaged on this scheme up to these days. A special number of the „Hydraulic Engineering" journal of Hungarian water engineers, is devoted to this important project demonstrating not only the creative powers of the present socialist society, but also the great efforts of our forefathers. 1. The significance of water management in the Tisza Valley Water management in the Tisza Valley derives its importance from natural conditions, and from the socio-economic situation, as well as from the dynamic interrelation of these two factors. The waters from the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin are drained by the Tisza River and discharged into the Danube of which it is the largest left-hand tributary. The catchment of the almost 1000 km long river covers an area of 157 thousand sq.km (Fig. 1.1

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1). Of the plain-land part of the catchment 56% is in the territory of Hungary, of which one-half lies in the catchment area of the Tisza River. The Great Hungarian Plain was formed of the alluvium deposited by the rivers discharging from the surrounding mountains into the Pannonian Sea of the Tertiary which was filled by the beginning of the Pleistocene Era. In the absence of a definite slope the rivers meandered across the plains changing their beds frequently. Periodic inundations, together with undrained precipitation water sustained wast marshes. This situation was typical of the Great Hungarian Plains up to the middle of the past century (Fig. 1.1—2). The objectives of the water programme conceived in the 19th century were flood abatement, drainage and the reclamation of new arable lands. However, in the water system formed as a result of regulation work the 17 257