Floodplains represent a global hotspot of sensitive socioenvironmental changes and early human forcing mechanisms. In this review, we focus on the environmental conditions of preindustrial floodplains in Central Europe and the fluvial societies that operated there. Due to their high land-use capacity and the simultaneous necessity of land reclamation and risk minimisation, societies have radically restructured the Central European floodplains. According to the current scientific consensus, up to 95% of Central European floodplains have been extensively restructured or destroyed. Therefore, question arises as to whether or when it is justified to understand Central European floodplains as a ‘Fluvial Anthroposphere’. The case studies available to date show that human-induced impacts on floodplain morphologies and environments and the formation of specific fluvial societies reveal fundamental changes in the medieval and preindustrial modern periods. We aim to contribute to disentangling the questions of when and why humans became a significant controlling factor in Central European floodplain formation, and how humans in interaction with natural processes and other chains of effects have modified floodplains. As a conclusion, we superimpose emerging fields of research concerning the onset of the Fluvial Anthroposphere and provide 10 specific thematic objectives for future multidisciplinary work.

Large river water basins play a critical role in the economic, health, and biodiversity conditions of a region. In some basins, such as the Zambezi River Basin, extreme weather events introduce cycles of drought and heavy rainfall that can have extreme impacts on local communities vulnerable to environmental shifts. Annual flood pulse dynamics drive ecological dynamics in the system. In the dry season, water dependent wildlife in northern Botswana concentrates along the Chobe River- Floodplains. Elephant concentration, in particular, is matched to surface water quality declines. These flood pulse events have been linked to diarrheal disease outbreaks in the local population, the magnitude of which is associated positively with flood height. Modeling these interactions can advance our ability to predict events and develop mitigation and prevention actions. However, many challenges hinder this development including availability of data in regions that lack resources and the difficulties in create models for such large basins that account for overland water movement. This thesis presents work focused on addressing these challenges. Chapter 2 reports the development of a freely available Large Basin Data Portal (LBDP) that can be used to identify and create critical inputs for hydrodynamic models. This portal was used to create a hydrological model of the Upper Zambezi River Basin model (Chapter 3), a hydrodynamic model of the one of the three subbasins of the Zambezi River. The model was used to calculate downstream river discharges entering the Chobe-Zambezi Floodplains based on upstream rain events. The Upper Zambezi River Basin model was integrated with another more detailed model of the Chobe- Zambezi Floodplains (Chapter 4) that is designed to model the Chobe River and flood water movement in the floodplains. The models were created using the set of MIKE modeling software. The models were used to study various scenarios including water reductions that might occur due to climate change or drought and water increase that might be associated with extreme weather events. / Doctor of Philosophy / River water plays a key role in the livelihood of people and wildlife especially in region of the world suffering chronic economic challenges. The areas surrounding the Zambezi River in Africa is home to one of the most diverse ecological systems in the world. Extreme weather conditions bring cycles of drought and flooding especially in the Upper Zambezi region where wildlife, including the largest population of African elephants in the world, move closer to the Chobe River, a tributary of the Zambezi River, seeking water in the dry seasons. This research is focused on building a set of tools and models to enable studying the linkage between these events and aid in predicting the extent of the floods in the Chobe River Floodplain system based on rainfall in the Angolan high lands and other landscape features. Understanding how these dynamics are linked and the outcome in the downstream system provides a lead time for potential action.

Au Mali, pendant la saison sèche se pose la question de l’effet attractif exercé par les cultures de saison sèche sur les rongeurs ravageurs; lequel serait d'autant plus marqué sur le gradient latitudinal d’aridité soudano-sahélien GECS (1100 mm à 200 mm). Ces hypothèses sont testées chez le genre Arvicanthis (A.ansorgei,A.niloticus). Les résultats de la prospection cytogénétique antérieure 1994-1999 & une prospection élargie 2009-2014, révèle des changements récents des aires de distribution des 2 espèces; suggérant un rôle fort de leur adaptation chronobiologique dans le déterminisme de leur distribution. Cette approche horizontale suivie d'une approche verticale (2009-2016) compare 4 indicateurs de l'effet attractif des CSS vs les MNC dans les 5 régions climatiques du GECS (Sikasso, Koulikoro, Ségou, Mopti, Gao). Les densités de populations des 2 espèces sont plus élevées dans les CSS vs les MNC ; et cet effet attractif des CSS augmente avec l’aridité dans l'aire d'A.niloticus. Le ratio de "stratèges migrateurs" au sein des populations démontre l’effet tampon des CSS et confirme la fréquence de ces épisodes. L’étude du régime alimentaire confirme leur régime phytophage. En milieu naturel, l’aridité induit une baisse de la consommation de plantes compensées par celle d'Arthropodes non orthoptères; et la diversité des plantes consommées diminue avec l’aridité chez A.ansorgei vs augmente avec l’aridité chez A.niloticus. L'effet tampon des CSS "neutralise" les différences interspécifiques et chez les 2 espèces, dans les CSS, la diversité des adventices consommés diminue au détriment des plantes cultivées en particulier le riz.et la consommation en Orthoptères augmente / In Mali, during the dry season, there is the issue of the attractive effect of dry season crops on rodent pests, which would be all the more marked in the latitudinal gradient of Sudan-Sahel aridity GECS (1100 mm to 200 mm). These hypotheses are tested in the genus Arvicanthis (A.ansorgei, A. niloticus). The results of the previous cytogenetic survey 1994-1999 and an expanded survey 2009-2014 reveal recent changes in the distribution areas of both species; suggesting a strong role of their chronobiological adaptation in the determinism of their distribution. This horizontal approach followed by a vertical approach (2009-2016) compares four indicators of the attractiveness of the CSS vs. the MNC in the five climatic regions of GECS (Sikasso, Koulikoro, Ségou, Mopti, Gao). The population densities of both species are higher in the CSS vs. the MNC; and this attractiveness of the CSS increases with aridity in the area of A. niloticus. The ratio of "migratory strategists" within populations demonstrates the buffering effect of the CSS and confirms the frequency of these episodes. The diet study confirms their phytophagous diet. In a natural environment, aridity induces a decrease in the consumption of plants compensated by that of non-orthopterous Arthropods; and the diversity of plants consumed decreases with aridity in A.ansorgei vs increases with aridity in A. niloticus. The buffering effect of CSS "neutralizes" inter-specific differences, and in both species, in the CSS, the diversity of weeds consumed decreases to the detriment of crops, especially rice and the consumption in the Orthoptera increases.

Throughout arid and semi-arid inland Australia, many extensive floodplains occur in association with rivers which are amongst the most hydrologically variable in the world. As rainfall in these areas is characteristically low and patchy, conditions in Australia's 'dryland' floodplains fluctuate unpredictably between extended periods of drought and huge floods that transform vast areas into wetlands, often for months at a time. Vegetation in these floodplains is commonly dominated by short grass and forb associations and patches of open succulent shrubland which are attributed with high ecological and socio-economic values due to their provision of habitat to a diverse array of terrestrial and aquatic fauna and their productive native pasture growth. In temperate and tropical floodplains, a substantial number of studies have shown that plant community composition and structure is determined primarily by flow and alterations to flow in these areas, through water extraction or river regulation, have resulted in many changes to the vegetation including loss of biodiversity and mass invasions of exotic species. Despite increasing pressure for water resource development in 'dryland' regions, relatively little is known regarding the effects of highly variable flows on the vegetation dynamics of arid floodplains, particularly in Australia. This thesis addresses this knowledge gap by examining the role of flow in the vegetation dynamics of a large arid floodplain in central Australia: the Cooper Creek floodplain. The effects of flow on plant community dynamics, from an organism level to that of the landscape, are examined across a range of spatial and temporal scales. Results are presented from a two year temporal vegetation survey during which time two flood pulse events of differing sizes occurred. A large-scale spatial survey was also conducted to determine the effects of flood history on spatial variation in plant community composition and structure. The composition of the soil seed bank and its contribution to vegetation dynamics were additionally investigated through a series of germination trials. Amongst common arid floodplain plants, life history traits that enable persistence under variable hydrological conditions were also considered via several experiments aimed at determining the effects of flow on the outcomes of various life history stages including germination, growth and dispersal. Throughout the study, results are presented for plant groups that were predefined on the basis of life form, life span and taxonomic divisions within these categories. Plant community composition and structure in the Cooper Creek floodplain exhibits significant shifts both temporally, in response to flood pulse wetting and drying, and spatially, in response to flood history. Flood pulse inundation has the potential to influence each life history stage across the range of plant groups present and the outcomes of these appear to be determined by hydrological attributes such as flood pulse timing, duration and rate of drawdown. Vegetation consequently exhibits gradual zonation on a gradient of flood frequency along which plant groups occur at predictable locations depending on their life history traits and recent hydrological conditions. A substantial proportion of species display ruderal life history traits including large, persistent soil seed banks and rapid life cycles which enable escape in time from the stresses associated with flooding and drought. These species, mostly comprising annual monocots and forbs, are widespread throughout the landscape and their presence in the extant vegetation is related primarily to the time since the last flood pulse event and the hydrological attributes of this. Perennial species, particularly shrubs, do not appear to rely similarly on the soil seed bank for recruitment and their distribution in the floodplain vegetation is likely to be determined more by their ability to tolerate either flooding or drought. Overall, this study demonstrates that flow, despite its variability, has an overriding influence on vegetation dynamics in the arid floodplain of the Cooper Creek. The spatial and temporal variability of flow maintains a heterogeneous mosaic of plant communities of differing composition and structure. Given this close relationship between flow and vegetation dynamics, anthropogenic alterations to flow are likely to result in changes to the vegetation including homogenisation of plant communities across the floodplain landscape and eventual loss of biodiversity.

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo proporcionar una base de conocimiento sólida para la restauración ecológica de ríos, basada en la respuesta de comunidades acuáticas a cambios en la conectividad hídrica, factores medioambientales y presión antrópica. La conectividad hídrica lateral resultó ser el factor principal que estructura hábitats y comunidades acuáticas en el Ebro; mientras que la turbidez, salinidad y concentración de nutrientes fueron factores secundarios. La combinación de estos factores establece un marco ecológico que permite realizar predicciones acerca de los patrones taxonómicos y funcionales con más probabilidades de ocurrir en la llanura del Ebro. La posibilidad de que se creen nuevos humedales de forma natural en el Ebro es muy baja, mientras los que quedan están amenazados por una baja renovación del agua. El objetivo de la restauración ecológica debe por tanto consistir en re-establecer un amplio rango de condiciones hídricas, de acuerdo con el potencial sostenible del ecosistema. / The present study aims to provide a solid background for river-floodplain restoration based in the response of aquatic communities, to changes in hydrological connectivity, environmental factors and human pressure across the floodplain of a Mediterranean river.The lateral hydrological connectivity was found to be the key factor structuring the habitats and aquatic communities of the Middle Ebro floodplain, while turbidity, salinity and nutrient status were secondary drivers. These factors created a template for the aquatic community development that enabled predictions about the taxonomic and functional patterns in those aquatic communities more likely to occur under particular conditions. In the Middle Ebro River, there are very few possibilities of new wetlands creation, while the diversity and functionality of the remaining ones are threatened by the limited hydrological connectivity. The objective of floodplains restoration should thus consist in re-establishing a wide range of wetland types in accordance with the river-floodplain potential of sustainability.

At the beginning of my thesis, the risk of floods in the territory of the Czech Republic is generally characterized which is followed by basic legal documents governing flood protection. The characteristics of the territory on which this thesis focuses is presented in the next section, which is describes in detail the administrative district of the municipality with extended powers (MEP) of Týn nad Vltavou, the basic description of its hydrological basin and waterways and, of course, the flood profile of the individual municipalities. The following section explains the term of flood, classification of floods and a detailed description of flood risks within detail the administrative district of the MEP of Týn nad Vltavou emphasizing the risk of formation a special flood. This is followed a list of complex activities and measures aimed at preventing and eliminating the threats to the health, lives and property of the citizens, society and the environment during floods. It also discusses planning in the field of flood protection and the classification of flood plans. Emphasis is placed on the documentation of flood protection of the administrative district of the MEP of Týn nad Vltavou that is associated with the activities of flood protection authorities. The section discusses in detail their activities during floods as well as when there are no floods. The function of flood committee of the MEP Týn nad Vltavou is mentioned detailing the description of activities of its individual members. The objectives of this thesis were aimed at finding out about the level of prepared flood protection documentation processed, analysing the activities of flood protection authorities and examining their knowledge about the issue of flooding. All the objectives were directed to the administrative district of the MEP Týn nad Vltavou and its flood protection authorities. Through a sociological survey among the flood protection authorities of the administrative district of the MEP Týn nad Vltavou that was conducted in the form of an anonymous questionnaire testing their knowledge in the field of flood protection. The results obtained were subjected to statistical evaluation, which, together with graphical representation, is of part of the thesis.

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A Amazônia exibe uma variedade de cenários que se complementam. Parte desse ecossistema sofre anualmente severas alterações em seu ciclo hidrológico, fazendo com que vastos trechos de floresta sejam inundados. Esse fenômeno, entretanto, é extremamente importante para a manutenção de ciclos naturais. Neste contexto, compreender a dinâmica das áreas alagáveis amazônicas é importante para antecipar o efeito de ações não sustentáveis. Sob esta motivação, este trabalho estuda um modelo de escoamento em áreas alagáveis amazônicas, baseado nas equações de Navier-Stokes, além de ferramentas que possam ser aplicadas ao modelo, favorecendo uma nova abordagem do problema. Para a discretização das equações é utilizado o Método dos Volumes Finitos, sendo o Método do Gradiente Conjugado a técnica escolhida para resolver os sistemas lineares associados. Como técnica de resolução numérica das equações, empregou-se o Método Marker and Cell, procedimento explícito para solução das equações de Navier-Stokes. Por fim, as técnicas são aplicadas a simulações preliminares utilizando a estrutura de dados Autonomous Leaves Graph, que tem recursos adaptativos para manipulação da malha que representa o domínio do problema / Amazon exhibits a variety of scenarios that complement each other. Yearly, part of this ecosystem suffers severe changes in its hydrological cycle, causing flood through vast stretches of the forest. This phenomenon, however, is extremely important for the maintenance of natural cycles. In this context, understanding the Amazonian floodplains dynamics is important to anticipate the effect of unsustainable actions. Under this motivation, this work presents a study of an Amazonian floodplains flow model, based on Navier-Stokes equations, besides other tools that can be applied to the model, thus leading to a new approach to the problem. To discretize the model equations the Finite Volume Method was employed. To solve the associated linear systems the Conjugate Gradient Method technique was chosen. For numerical solution of the equations, the Marker and Cell Method, a explicit solution procedure for Navier-Stokes equations, was employed. All these techniques are applied to preliminary simulations using the Autonomous Leaves Graph algorithm which has adaptive features to manipulate the domain grid problem

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro / A Amazônia exibe uma variedade de cenários que se complementam. Parte desse ecossistema sofre anualmente severas alterações em seu ciclo hidrológico, fazendo com que vastos trechos de floresta sejam inundados. Esse fenômeno, entretanto, é extremamente importante para a manutenção de ciclos naturais. Neste contexto, compreender a dinâmica das áreas alagáveis amazônicas é importante para antecipar o efeito de ações não sustentáveis. Sob esta motivação, este trabalho estuda um modelo de escoamento em áreas alagáveis amazônicas, baseado nas equações de Navier-Stokes, além de ferramentas que possam ser aplicadas ao modelo, favorecendo uma nova abordagem do problema. Para a discretização das equações é utilizado o Método dos Volumes Finitos, sendo o Método do Gradiente Conjugado a técnica escolhida para resolver os sistemas lineares associados. Como técnica de resolução numérica das equações, empregou-se o Método Marker and Cell, procedimento explícito para solução das equações de Navier-Stokes. Por fim, as técnicas são aplicadas a simulações preliminares utilizando a estrutura de dados Autonomous Leaves Graph, que tem recursos adaptativos para manipulação da malha que representa o domínio do problema / Amazon exhibits a variety of scenarios that complement each other. Yearly, part of this ecosystem suffers severe changes in its hydrological cycle, causing flood through vast stretches of the forest. This phenomenon, however, is extremely important for the maintenance of natural cycles. In this context, understanding the Amazonian floodplains dynamics is important to anticipate the effect of unsustainable actions. Under this motivation, this work presents a study of an Amazonian floodplains flow model, based on Navier-Stokes equations, besides other tools that can be applied to the model, thus leading to a new approach to the problem. To discretize the model equations the Finite Volume Method was employed. To solve the associated linear systems the Conjugate Gradient Method technique was chosen. For numerical solution of the equations, the Marker and Cell Method, a explicit solution procedure for Navier-Stokes equations, was employed. All these techniques are applied to preliminary simulations using the Autonomous Leaves Graph algorithm which has adaptive features to manipulate the domain grid problem

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T16:21:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Camila Leite Pereira.pdf: 1087738 bytes, checksum: 510e1b512e1fe3b15b02211035e90619 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-03-26 / The synchrony concept can be defined like the degree that different biologics systems show similar temporal evolution. Synchronies fluctuations in species are attributed to influence of ambient factors or individuals dispersion (distance of ambient). Thus, the objective this study was measured the ichthyofauna similarity among six environment of Parana River floodplain in responses to these different mechanisms. The biotic (ichthyofauna abundance) and abiotic (limnology gradients) dates was provided by NUPELIA. The statistical analyses supported in multivariate analyses applied in abundance matrices of fish species, limnology variables and connectivity distance among habitats. In such case the ichthyofauna dynamic varied asynchronous over time and space on the periods of 1987 to 19988 and 2006 to 2008. The period of greatest assemblage significant synchronies corresponded to intermediary period. The main reason of this synchrony was explain by the fluviometric quota, since the dynamic of this variable affected similarly the species abundance among locations. Altogether this study confirmed the theoretical support of Niche as a mechanism of assemblage synchrony in stable ecosystems. The neutral process wasn t a good model to explain the assemblage similarity between locations. / O conceito de sincronia pode ser definido como o grau em que diferentes sistemas biológicos mostram evoluções temporais similares. Flutuações sincrônicas nas espécies são atribuídas à influência de fatores ambientais ou dispersão de indivíduos (distância entre ambientes). Nesse contexto o objetivo deste estudo foi quantificar a similaridade da ictiofauna entre seis ambientes da planície de inundação do rio Paraná, em respostas a estes diferentes mecanismos. Os dados bióticos (abundância da ictiofauna) e abióticos (variáveis limnológicas) foram gentilmente cedidos pelo NUPELIA. Através de análises multivariadas aplicadas à matrizes de abundância de espécies de peixes, variáveis limnológicas e distância de conectividade entre ambientes, verificou-se que em dois períodos (1987 a 1988 e 2006 a 2008) a dinâmica da ictiofauna variou de forma assincrônica entre ambientes. O período de maiores sincronias significativas na assembléia correspondeu ao período intermediário avaliado. O principal motivo desta sincronicidade foi explicado pela cota fluviométrica, já que a dinâmica dessa variável entre os ambientes afetou de forma similar a abundância das espécies. De modo geral este estudo confirmou as bases teóricas do nicho de Hutchinson, em detrimento aos processos neutros, como mecanismo de sincronia da assembléia em ecossistemas estáveis.

Thesis describes the system of masonry structures in floodareas. It is based on liteature review of floods, mapping mansonry load during floods, dyinig after the passage of the flood wave solutions and water impermeability construction to prevent degradation and destruction. The main part is the design of the wall, which connectes hydrophobic individual elements of construction to provide resistence during floods. The diploma thesis includes practical verification of the functionality of a complete proposal to ensure the smallest possible water absorption caúitaly of the structure.