Studies on riverbed evolution on the Nida river at the Pinczow and Wislica gauging station

The long-term evolution of the river beds of Nida River in Pińczów and Wiślica gauging station as well as an analysis of the causes of significant cases of lowering of the bottom of stream beds are presented in the paper. The intensity of river bed evolution as a stochastic process is described with the use of a statistical model. The analysis of the intensity of the process of river bed erosion was conducted under the assumption that the observed long-term trend of the lowest annual water levels reflect the elevation of the river bottom in the same years. The recorded observations at the Pińczów and Wiślica gauging stations on the Nida River, covering over 70-year period of time, are analyzed. Observations of the variability in the studied bottom levels over the decades allow concluding that the great transformation of riverbeds occurred there. The observations and calculations show that in Pińczów multistream or meandering river bed changed into straight channel and the process of shallowing of the river bed appeared. At the Wiślica gauging station the process of riverbed erosion with the variable intensity was observed. The research shows that the causes of these changes observed in Pińczów and Wiślica are not natural, but rather of human activity.