Assessment of Long-Term Changes in the Szigetköz Floodplain of the Danube River

Abstract

The Szigetköz floodplain is located along the Hungarian side of the lower Alpine foothills zone of the Danube, from Bratislava to Gönyű. During the last decades, it has been monitored with particular intensity, because of the impacts of the operation of the Gabčikovo hydropower station. The study describes the natural system, the functioning of an ecosystem before human intervention, and provides a historical review concerning river regulations and land use, as well as the modification of hydrological and geo-morphological processes resulting in deprived habitat conditions and the alteration of the river-floodplain ecosystem.