Transformations of Land Amelioration Systems in the Catchment of the Rów Wyskoc River in the Context of their Use to Counteract the Effects of Drought

The regulation of water relations is an important environmental role of permanent greeneries . The valleys used as permanent grasslands often also function as polders or dry flood-control reservoirs. The land amelioration systems realized in the 1970s and 1980s, for economic reasons do not perform the functions they were planned to. This is because their exploitation has been abandoned and the systems still drain the land in an uncontrolled way, i.e. without the regulation of water level assumed in the original project and without limitation of excessive outflow and excessive irrigation in post-drought periods. Their presence leads to an excessive drying of the valley and, as a consequence, to the changes in the mode of land use, from mown meadows to arable land. The aim of the study reported in this paper was to evaluate the functioning of the hitherto existing amelioration systems in the context of their possible use for alleviation of the effects of drought. The current state of amelioration ditches in the area of three amelioration systems established in the areas near the villages Racot, Wyskoć and Rogaczewo, in the catchment area of the Rów Wyskoć river, was examined in field study. Moreover, the analysis of cartographic materials in GIS environment was performed. As a result, the digital maps of the amelioration objects were made. The digital maps were compared with the maps from the 1970s and 1980s when the objects were open for operation.