The relationship between the morphological status of the urban stream and the floodplain biodiversity – case study of the Leskava Stream in Brno
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| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Description | Morphological parameters of the river channel represent a partial indicator of the overall river network status which primarily reflects the nature and intensity of anthropogenic activities in the floodplain landscape besides the local natural conditions. Although the morphological characteristics of water-courses are usually considered only as supporting indicators useable in the biological assessment, it could be one of the key assumptions for the biodiversity status of river landscape. Therefore we can assume a greater importance of the watercourses with relatively good ecological potential at least in an intensively exploited landscape of large cities and their surroundings. As working hypothesis, the fact that the favourable morphological status of the stream can encourage the formation and diversity of natural habitats in the floodplain area was stated. Optimal locations for the study of this dependence are located primarily in suburban areas or urban areas where the river channels have enough space for their natural or near-natural development. Hydromorfological status, as a partial indicator of the overall status of surface water bodies, (related to the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC) was evaluated using the national Methodology of hydroecological monitoring – HEM (Langhammer, 2014). This methodology has been applied in evaluating the quality of the morphological status of the small urban stream (the Leskava Stream) which flows through the southwestern part of Brno. In the floodplain area all the habi-tats were mapped and their naturalness and biodiversity value were determined according to the Bio-tope Valuation Method (BVM) (Seják et al., 2003). The contribution presents the preliminary analysis of the interactions between the stream and its sur-rounding, pointing to the importance of maintaining or restoring of near-natural state of the river net-work, not only within the suburban areas. Furthermore, the results may be used to identify the main drivers of relationships between the studied characteristics in the small urban stream catchment. |