Habitat Reconstruction in the forests of the Körös Valley, Hungary

NWRM

Application scale

Field Scale

Installation date

1999

Lifespan

100

Age

Performance timescale

Immediate

Area (ha)

400

Area subject to Land use change or Management/Practice change (ha)

Size

38,7999992370605

Size unit

Design capacity description

Maximum quantity of water derived from the river depends on the water level. During a year there is cc 180 days for water supply. During this period cc 2 million m3 water arrives into the area

Constraints

The high cost of a previous attempt to pump water for the area proved prohibitively expensive and made it clear that only gravitational supply can provide sustainable solution.

Favourable preconditions

This is a state owned forest, that consists of one forest body. Also it is inside a temporary flood storage reservoir in a band of the River Fekete-Körös. The isolation of the area and lack of the risk of flooding further areas made it an easy case from the water directorate's point of view
The landscape relief that has the former river branches in the territory

Design contractual arrangement

Arrangement type	Responsibility	Role	Comments	Name
Other			The use of the funds were approved by the owner, but it was the element of the normal protocol.	No specific contractual arrangement
Other			During the first period of the operation there were several attempts to create a standalone water governance protocol for the regional water directorate to use, but an adaptive method that is based on the event by event communication between the forestry and the water authority became working the solution.	No detailed protocol about the operation of the water supply

Design consultation activity

Activity stage	Key issues	Name	Comments
Design phase		There were consultation with the private land owners of the area	There were no details provided

Design land use change

No data

Design authority

Authority type	Role	Name	Comments
Forest owners	Initiation of the measure	DALERD Rt (South-Alfí¶ld Forestry Ltd.	The organisation has a key role in initiating, design and application as well
Regional / sub-national water authority	Determination of design details of the measure	Kí¶rí¶svidéki Vízí¼gy Igazgatí³ság	Details that belong to the design of the dyke crossing of the water supply channels. It also has role in the operation of the locks.
Other	Determination of design details of the measure	íllami Erdészeti Szolgálat Kecskeméti Igazgatí³ság	Regional Forestry Directorate, it approves the forestry management plans in its district
Other	Financing	íllami Privatizácií³s és Vagyonkezelési Ügyní¶kség - íPV Rt.	Formally owner of state forestries

Key lessons

Surface water supply is an effective way of recharging groundwater storage capacity of forest soil in order to reduce droughts risk by enhancing the natural inter-seasonal allocation of water.

The key difference of this application compared to an area with generally the same problems is the possibility to sort out the transaction costs that emerge from in an area with multi-party ownership.

If the suitable complex knowledge happens to be at the right place, no further incentive is needed to take advantage of an upcoming possibility. †“ It highlights the fundamental need of education about the complex nature of the water-land use-ecosystem nexus.

Success factor(s)

Success factor type	Success factor role	Comments
Attitude of relevant stakeholders	main factor	The main success factor was the forestry management's unequivocal understanding of the structural problem what threatens the sustainable operation: the lack of inundations. They grasped the first occasion to finance and negotiate such a development. The financial consolidation/restructuring process of the state forestry organizations provided financial sources that were used to improve fundamental production conditions.

Financing

Financing type	Comments
National funds	Reorganization subsidy from the owner the (the state owned) National Privatization and Asset Management Ltd. (Regional Forestry Organizations were formed into state owned joint stock companies. Transfer from the (that time existed) national Forest Regeneration Fund

Barrier

Barrier type	Barrier role	Comments
Existing institutional framework	main barrier	Implementation required the reconciliation of forestry and water management interests. The main issues were: - Should the forestry pay for the water (resource)? It was resolved as ecological water supply - No water inlet at the front side of the flood waves because of flood safety reasons. - The forestry resign to demand compensation for damages what the water that remains out in its territory can cause.

Driver

Driver type	Driver role	Comments
Organisation committed to it	main driver

Policy description

River regulation works of the 19th and 20th century resulted in degraded living conditions for the river valley forests (declining groundwater levels, lack of inundations). A 12 year long dry period in the 1980-1990 pushed the remaining forests into critical status. The insufficient available water quantity had to increase.

Part of wider plan

Policy target

Target purpose
Groundwater Recharge
Increase Water Storage

Policy pressure

No data

Policy area

No data

Policy impact

No data

Policy wider plan

No data

Policy requirement directive

No data

Direct benefits information

Biomass production
Wildlife management, the area provides higher animal carrying capacity
Assimilation of nutrient load of incoming water

Ancillary benefits information

Amenities: This area is the Forest School of the nearby Gyula town, education and recreation facilities for school programs with regional importance. Total education activity 3-4 thousand education day per year (counted like workload in the person month). 3-6 visitor nights.

Costs investment

810000

Costs investment information

Planner's estimation of the development cost in 2014 prices of the same work volume, 200-300 million HUF (650.000 - 970.000€)

Costs operation maintenance

No significant operation or maintenance cost were identified

Costs total

810000

Costs total information

Planner's estimation of the development cost in 2014 prices of the same work volume, 200-300 million HUF (650.000 - 970.000€)

Ecosystem improved biodiversity

Ecosystem provisioning services

Ecosystem impact climate regulation

No information available

Retained water

2000000

Retained water unit

m3/year

Information on increased water storage

Previously it was zero

Information on runoff reduction

No outflow from the area

Water quality overall improvements

Positive impact-WQ improvement

Information on Water quality overall improvements

The forest assimilate the nutrient overloaded water from the near-by fishery

Soil quality overall soil improvements

N/A info

Information on Soil quality overall soil improvements

N/A info

National Id

Hungary_01

Site name

River Fekete-Körös, Town Gyula,

Summary

The fragments of floodplain forests (Fraxino - pannonicae -Ulmetum) along the River Körös were cut from the river by dykes during the river regulation works in the 19th century. The deteriorated groundwater conditions were worsened in a drought period during the 1980-1990’s that triggered action of the forestry service. Restoration of the river connection and the floodplain watercourse network provide surface water supply from the backwater of flood waves to the 2000 ha forest. The result of the habitat reconstruction work is a 38.8 km long water-flow and a water surface of 15.7 hectares, cc 400 hectares of the forest has a direct positive ecological impact.
The water supply of the floodplain channel network has another source as well. A smaller volume comes from a fishery. In case of this second source the nutrient content of the fishery is assimilated in the forest as an additional service. Previously this load were let back into the river directly.

NUTS Code

Dél-Alföld

RBD code

HU1000

Transboundary

Data provider

Gábor Ungvári, REKK

Longitude

21.389736

Latitude

46.698664

EEA core metadata

Contents

cs-hu-01-final_version.pdf