Potential possibilities of water retention in agricultural loess catchments

Abstract

The growing water deficit and the increased demand for water, as well as economic problems and inadequate spatial planning in many regions indicate a necessity of developing more effective rules of programming and realisation of works concerning the water management in small catchments. The paper presents a sample analysis of the possibilities of increasing water retention in the agricultural loess catchments with periodic streams. The scope of the study included the determination of physical parameters of selected sub-catchments (geometry, soil cover, land use, etc.) and of the sources of threat to water resources, resulting from construction and geomorphological conditions. Pre-design assumptions of dammings were developed, taking into account anti-erosion protective measures, and treatments increasing the landscape retention of water were proposed. Creating surface retention objects should be an important source of water in simplified agroecosystems, especially in regions, where productivity to a great extent depends on natural weather conditions. Proper management of the fourth-order loess basin of the Ciemiȩga River (area of about 150 km2, the presence of 50 lateral valleys) could give a temporary reservoir retention reaching 500 thousand m3. Farmers should be encouraged to seek "own water sources" (including the accumulation of water within wasteland), using appropriate economic instruments (tax reliefs for the documented volume of retained water, e.g. in small retention reservoirs).