To put it simply: blue water drains right before our eyes into the seas, through concreted streams in villages and river arteries in cities, which accelerate the runoff of rainwater together with undrained forest roads, runoff from large fields and extensive vineyards, but mostly from paved, impermeable surfaces of streets, sidewalks, squares and roads in cities. Green water is trapped in the soil, in all biomass, in trees, shrubs and plants. It evaporates and becomes part of the water cycle.
In the small village of Ábelová with 200 inhabitants, located in the Lučenec district in the Krupinská planina mountains, members of the Slovak consortium of the European SystR project met this week. For the second year, they continue with the model preparation of a strategic plan for increasing the systemic resilience of the rural landscape in the Novohradské podzámčie microregion. According to hydrologists, this area is rich in water that leaks out unnecessarily and that local residents can use for the development of the region. According to them, the economy of each country, the livelihoods of the people who live there and the ecosystems that create the conditions for life are based on water.
„Through the cooperation of the People and Water organization (it has 30 years of experience with water retention measures and the creation of water resources) with the Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, the municipality of Ábelová, the Union of Regional Associations of Owners of Non-State Forests of Slovakia, the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region, a representative of the Land Association of the Compossessorate and Urbariat Šalková – Ing. Bc. Ivan Uhrík, PhD. – a direct participant of the European project SMURF2 and other interested parties, we have achieved to the fact that in the microregion of Novohradské podzámčie, almost 10% of rainwater unnecessarily drains from the territory during each intense extreme rainfall. This represents a volume of approximately 1.25 million m³ of water. The quantification of ecosystem services of this amount of water, as well as the region’s cooperation on climate resilience, will be the subject of research on the project,“ the authors informed.
Representatives of forest owners were also present in Ábelová on Thursday. Chairman of the Union of Regional Associations of Non-State Forest Owners of Slovakia Ing. Milan Ovseník, representative of this organization in the project Ing. Bc. Ivan Uhrík, PhD. and expert in forest management Ing. Peter Zima, member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Owners of Community and Private Forests of the Banská Bystrica Region. Ing. Bc. Ivan Uhrík, PhD. as the chairman of the Land Association of the Compossessorate and Urbariat Šalková – a member of the European project for forests SMURF2 due to the incorporation of the policies of the SMURF2 project and the submission of a solution related to the management and sustainability of forest resources – water retention measures in forest stands within the SystR project in the cadastral area of the village of Ábelová and in the microregion of Novohradské podzámčie.
„I think that today most people can see that there is not so little water, but suddenly there is a lot of it and then there is none. Therefore, let’s look for ways to preserve it in the country. Thanks to our cooperation, we managed to achieve that the first systemic measures for water retention were included in the program statement of the current government. In it, the government pledged to approve a national project to retain water from springs in streams.
But the experience from the past is such that more is described than done. However, two days ago, it was announced that more than 220 million euros are going to the agricultural sector, of which 27 million euros are intended for water retention in the country. If we look at the measures to be implemented within this support, they are rational from our point of view,“ said Ing. Milan Ovseník in his speech.
Ing. Peter Zima together with Ing. Bc. Ivan Uhrík, PhD. presented a proposal for water retention measures in the forests in the Ábelová locality within the framework of the SMURF 2 project policies, from which we select: „Due to the fact that there are no watercourses (streams) in the locality, only occasional in terrain grooves, which would drain rainwater from forest stands and it can be assumed, that the runoff of rainwater from forest stands is across-the-board, the construction of forestry technical measures, the construction of dams, is unfeasible and ineffective. There is no road network built in the locality, so even the stabilization of sloping roads by building drainage indents and creating infiltration pits is not a feasible measure.
For a given locality, the only possible biological measure for water retention is the creation and cultivation of forests with a differentiated age, species, genetic and spatial structure as close as possible to natural forests, characteristic of the conditions of the site. When cultivating forest stands (clearing and thinning), we recommend supporting tree species corresponding to the given habitat. In the thinned parts (staking below 0.7 full strain) due to the synergistic action of harmful agents and subsequent remediation harvesting (individual), we propose to carry out cluster underplanting (up to 0.03 ha).„
And some background information: The EU Horizon SystR (Systemic Resilience) project is an initiative that aims to accelerate systemic solutions to climate change in individual European countries and the EU as a whole by moving away from fragmented, disparate approaches. Taking into account the local specificities and strengths in each region, this project seeks to create Regional Adaptation Councils over the next four years, which will align multi-level governance and adapt climate risk solutions by removing siloed structures and co-planning.
The SystR project aims to highlight how integrated and locally tailored approaches can strengthen systemic resilience across Europe through six pilot sites that will design and demonstrate solutions. Three of these locations represent different environments: Ábelova in the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region in Slovakia represents the countryside, the city of Rome in Italy represents an urban area, and the French island of Guadeloupe represents the coastal region. According to the sample sites, the solutions will be replicated in the following locations: rural area of Strasbourg, France; Aigaleo (Athens metropolitan area); and coastal Galicia in Spain.
You can find out more about the current efforts of the SystR project actors in the LES & Letokruhy magazine. In the editorial office, we will continue to be interested in what results and solutions they have gradually reached.
Jozef Marko
Magazine Editor
Zdroj: https://www.lesmedium.sk/aktualne/tyzdnovka-aky-je-rozdiel-medzi-modrou-a-zelenou-vodou-a-preco-je-dolezite-systemove-zadrziavanie-dazdovej-vody-v-krajine-v-abelovej-sa-do-neho-zapajaju-aj-lesomajitelia-a-lesnici
