Fluctuations of floods of the River Morava (Czech Republic) in the 1691–2009 period: interactions of natural and anthropogenic factors

Figures & data

Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of the River Morava catchment in the territory of the Czech Republic, indicating the section of the river studied and the hydrological stations used in the study.

Table 1  Selected characteristics of the hydrological stations used for the study on the River Morava (Q _a : long-term mean annual discharge, 1931–1980)

Station	River log (km)	Catchment area (km^2)	Water stages from (year)	Discharges from (year)	Qa (m^3 s^-1)
Olomouc	232.3	3324	1882	1920	27.1
Kroměříž	193.7	7014	1881	1916	51.3
Spytihněv	170.6	7891	1950	1953	55.4
Strážnice	134.3	9147	1886	1920	59.6

Table 2  Proportion (%) of individual categories of land use in the River Morava catchment (from its source to the Dyje mouth) in the four selected periods

Category	1836–1841	1952–1956	1988–1995	2002–2006
Arable land	46.7	52.6	45.7	41.5
Permanent grassland	21.3	8.3	8.6	11.5
Orchard	0.2	0.4	0.8	1.0
Vineyard, hop-garden	0.4	0.2	0.4	0.3
Forest	28.4	33.2	36.1	37.3
Water area	0.1	0.1	0.3	0.4
Built-up area	2.9	5.1	7.4	7.4
Recreational area	0.0	0.0	0.4	0.3
Other area	0.0	0.2	0.3	0.3

Fig. 2 Changes in land use of the River Morava catchment (from its source to the Dyje mouth) between the years 1836–1841 and 2002–2006.

Fig. 3 The section of the River Morava between Uherské Hradiště (Hradisch) and Rohatec (Rohatez) on the Norbert von Linck map, 1719 (Source: MZA – D22). The river was of anabranching character with several meandering channels in many places.

Table 3  Reservoirs on the tributaries of the River Morava (Broža et al., 2005)

Reservoir	River, stream	Built in	Purpose	Volume of reservoir (10^6 m^3)
Bystřička	Bystřička	1908–1912	Flood protection	4.96
Luhačovice	Luhačovický potokBrook	1913–1914, 1922–1930	Flood protection	2.70
Plumlov	Hloučela	1922–1933	Flood protection	5.57
Fryšták	Fryštácký potok Brook	1935–1938	Water source	2.95
Horní Bečva	Rožnovská Bečva	1933–1944	Flood protection	0.68
Bojkovice	Kolelačný potok Brook	1963–1966	Water source	0.97
Ludkovice	Ludkovický potok Brook	1965–1968	Water source	0.69
Nemilka	Nemilka	1967–1970	Water source	1.55
Opatovice	Malá Haná	1969–1972	Water source	9.87
Slušovice	Dřevnice	1972–1976	Water source	9.95
Karolinka	Stanovnice	1977–1985	Water source	7.65
Dlouhé Stráně (upper + lower)	Divoká Desná	1978–1996	Pumped storagePower station	2.72 + 3.41

Fig. 4 Variation of floods exceeding the two-year peak discharge Q ₂ at four hydrological stations on the River Morava in the period 1916–2009 with respect to their N-year return period and their occurrence in the summer (1: May–October) and the winter (2: November–April) hydrological half-years (* denotes the half-years in which there occurred more than one flood with Q_k ≥ Q ₂; ↓ denotes the beginnings of the series of peak discharges).

Fig. 5 Comparison of relative frequencies for the concurrent occurrence of floods with Q ₂, Q ₅, Q ₁₀, Q ₂₀ for station couples on the middle Morava (OLOM: Olomouc; KROM: Kroměříž; SPYT: Spytihněv; STRA: Strážnice), and/or on the Bečva (TEPL: Teplice nad Bečvou), always for the common longest period of measurements at the given couple of stations (see Table 1). Figures at each couple indicate percentage of all common floods with Q_k ≥ Q ₂ in relation to the station downstream.

Fig. 6 Fluctuations of relative annual peak water stages at selected hydrological stations on the middle Morava in the years 1881–1920 and frequency of floods per year of the summer (1) and winter (2) types.

Table 4  List of floods recorded in documentary evidence for the middle Morava in the 16th–17th centuries

The 16th century

1501; after 20 April 1522; December 1538; after 17 November 1543; winter 1548/49; 1555; January 1565; March 1565; 1567; after 6 January 1570; after 22 October 1583; July 1591; March 1595; March 1598; summer–autumn 1598; before 24 June 1600

The 17th century

Before 25 October 1603; August 1604; August 1605; August 1609; 1632; July 1652; 1656; August 1672; 1690; April 1695; March 1697; January 1698; March 1698; July 1698; 1699; January 1700

Fig. 7 Decadal frequencies of floods on the middle Morava according to documentary evidence in the period 1691–1880 and differentiation of flood types (1: summer, 2: winter, 3: unclear).

Fig. 8 Decadal frequencies of the occurrence of floods on the middle Morava in the years 1691–2009 according to systematic instrumental measurements and documentary sources and differentiation of flood types (1: summer, 2: winter, 3: unclear).

Fig. 9 Component scores of the first principal component PC1 calculated using PCA for 26 winter floods on the River Morava at Kroměříž in the days D – 4 to D – 1 for the period 1881–2003 (L: low; H: high). Explained variance of the SLP field: D – 4: 37.0%; D – 3: 37.1%; D – 2: 34.6%; and D – 1: 29.0%. The black dot shows the position of the Morava catchment.

Fig. 10 Component scores of the first principal component PC1 calculated using PCA for 26 summer floods on the River Morava at Kroměříž in the days D – 2 to D – 1 for the period 1881–2003 (L: low; H: high). Explained variance of the SLP field: D – 2: 36.7%; and D – 1: 35.6%. The black dot shows the position of the River Morava catchment.

Fig. 11 Temperature and precipitation fluctuations over the past 318 years: (a) annual Central European temperatures, 1691–2008; (b) annual Brno temperatures, 1799–2008; (c) summer Brno precipitation totals, 1691–2008; and (d) annual Brno precipitation totals, 1803–2008. Values are expressed as deviations from the corresponding 1961–1990 means and smoothed by Gaussian filter over 30 years.

Broža , V. , Satrapa , L. , Sakař , K. , Bláha , J. , Báča , V. , Vít , P. , Maníček , J. , Bíza , P. , Jílek , M. , Kopřivová , J. and Vinklát , P. D. 2005 . Přehrady Čech, Moravy a Slezska (Water Reservoirs of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, in Czech) , 555 Liberec : Knihy .

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