Anthropogenic Geomorphology

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József Szabó

· Lóránt Dávid

· Dénes Lóczy

Editors

Anthropogenic

Geomorphology

A Guide to Man-Made Landforms

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Editors József Szabó

Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics University of Debrecen Egyetem ter. 1 Debrecen 4010 Hungary [email protected] Dénes Lóczy

Department of Environmental Geography and Landscape Conservation

Institute of Environmental Sciences University of Pécs Ifjúság útja 6 7624 Pécs Hungary [email protected] Lóránt Dávid

Department of Tourism and Regional Development

Károly Róbert College Mátrai út 36

Gyöngyös 3200 Hungary

[email protected]

This book is based on the monograph “Antropogén geomorfológia” published in Hungarian by the University of Debrecen, Hungary, in 2006.

Translated by Zoltán Baros, Dénes Lóczy and Péter Rózsa Technical editor: Zoltán Baros

ISBN 978-90-481-3057-3 e-ISBN 978-90-481-3058-0 DOI 10.1007/978-90-481-3058-0

Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010920469 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper

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Foreword

Anthropogenic geomorphology is the study of the role of humans in creating landforms and modifying the operation of geomorphological processes such as weathering, erosion, transport and deposition. As the human population rises, new lands and resources are exploited, and new technologies are adopted, the impact of humans grows ever greater. Some landforms are produced by direct anthropogenic actions. These tend to be relatively obvious in form and are frequently created delib-erately and knowingly. They include landforms produced by construction (e.g. spoil tips from mines), excavation (e.g. mining and quarrying), hydrological interference (e.g. the building of dams), farming (including cultivation, grazing and horticulture) and military activities (e.g. craters).

On the other hand, landforms produced by indirect anthropogenic actions are often more difficult to recognise, because they tend to involve the acceleration of natural processes rather than the operation of new ones. They result from envi-ronmental changes brought about inadvertently by human actions. By removing or modifying land cover – through cutting, bulldozing, burning and grazing – humans have accelerated rates of erosion and sedimentation. Sometimes the results of inad-vertent actions are spectacular, as for example when major gully systems develop following deforestation, extreme floods are generated by impermeable urban sur-faces, subsidence features open up when groundwater is mined, lakes become desiccated as a result of inter-basin water transfers, and mass movements like land-slides are triggered by loading of slopes. Rates of rock weathering may be modified because of the acidification of precipitation caused by accelerated sulphate and nitrate emissions or because of accelerated salinisation in areas of irrigation and vegetation clearance.

There are situations where, through a lack of understanding of the operation of geomorphological systems, humans have deliberately and directly altered land-forms and processes and thereby have caused a series of events which were neither anticipated nor desired. There are, for example, many records of attempts to reduce coastal erosion by using imposing and expensive hard engineering solutions, which, far from solving erosion problems, only exacerbated them. This has profound implications for land management.

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vi Foreword

Finally, the possibility that the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may cause enhanced global warming in coming decades has many implications for anthropogenic geomorphology.

This valuable book provides an overview of impacts from most types of human activity, demonstrates the value of a historical approach, and although it has a special emphasis on Hungarian research, provides examples from all over the world. Oxford University, UK Andrew Goudie

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Acknowledgements

The authors and editors wish to express their gratitude to Professors Béla Kleb (Budapest) and György Hahn (Miskolc), who read and corrected the Hungarian ver-sion of this volume, for their constructive comments. The financial support received from the Hungarian Office for Research and Technology and Pro Renovanda Cultura Hungariae Foundation is also gratefully acknowledged.

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Contributors

Zoltán Baros Institute of Agroinformatics and Rural Development, Károly Róbert

College, Mátrai út 36, 3200 Gyöngyös, Hungary, [email protected]

Péter Csima Department of Landscape Protection and Reclamation, Corvinus

University of Budapest, Villányi út 35–43, 1118 Budapest, Hungary, [email protected]

Péter Csorba Department of Landscape Protection and Environmental

Geography, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary, [email protected]

Lóránt Dávid Department of Tourism and Regional Development, Károly Róbert

College, Mátrai út 36, 3200 Gyöngyös, Hungary, [email protected]

Zoltán Ilyés Department for Cultural and Visual Anthropology, University of

Miskolc, 3515 Miskolc-Egyetemváros, Hungary, [email protected]

Zoltán Karancsi Department of Geography and Ecotourism, Institute of Applied

Science, Faculty of Education, University of Szeged, Boldogasszony sgt. 6, 6725 Szeged, Hungary, [email protected]

Attila Kerényi Department of Landscape Protection and Environmental

Geography, University of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary, [email protected]

Zsuzsanna Lontai-Szilágyi Tourism Department, Ministry of Local Government,

József A. u. 2–4, 1051 Budapest, Hungary, [email protected]

Dénes Lóczy Department of Environmental Geography and Landscape

Conservation, Institute of Environmental Sciences, University of Pécs, Ifjúság útja 6, 7624 Pécs, Hungary, [email protected]

József Lóki Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, University

of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary, [email protected]

Balázs Nagy Department of Physical Geography, Eötvös Loránd University,

Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, 1117 Budapest, Hungary, [email protected]

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xii Contributors

Péter Rózsa Department of Mineralogy and Geology, University of Debrecen,

Egyetem tér 1, 4032 Debrecen, Hungary, [email protected]

László Süt˝o Department of Tourism and Geography, College of Nyíregyháza,

Sóstói út. 31/b, 4401 Nyíregyháza, Hungary, [email protected]

József Szabó Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, University

of Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1, 4010 Debrecen, Hungary, [email protected]

Csaba Tóth Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, University