Landscape ecological and landscape typological investigations on the Tetves catchment

Abstract

As the importance of nature and environmental protection has become an important issue recently, the question of natural resources came into limelight as well. The fundamental interests of nature and environmental protection are not obvious for everyone, although the protection of natural resources is strongly connected with serious economical interests. The regulations of the protection and of sustainable use of soil, water and mineral resources are permanent problems, caused by conflicts with economic interests and with efforts to make quick profit or by simple negligence. To save these values it is essential to know the area very well and for land use and landscape planning the exact knowledge of natural resources is of primary importance. Most precious natural resources of Hungary are the soil and, because of its turistical attraction, the landscape itself. The situation is the same in case of the study area, the catchment of the Tetves stream: the main incomes of population are agriculture and tourism, the latter mainly because of the touristic attraction of the Lake Balaton. The methods of physical geography and its synthetizing attitude are highly suitable for a complex investigation of the environment and for the protection of natural resources. The landscape in its entity and the protection of its values can not be investigated successfully without applying the methods of physical geography and landscape ecology. As a consequence of this, landscape protection, nature protection, landscape planning and land use planning have to supported also by physico-geographical and landscape ecological research.
Landscape types of the Tetves catchment are as follows:
I. Floodplain landscape types:
Floodplain under permanent influence of water, with original riparian vegetation; Alluvial plain (valley bottom) with fluvisol, meadow or pasture; Alluvial plain (valley bottom) with fluvisol, arable land; Alluvial plain (valley bottom) with fluvisol, forest; Alluvial plain (valley bottom) with fluvisol, vineyard or orchard; Alluvial plain (valley bottom) with arenosol, vineyard or orchard.
II. Hilly landscape types:
Hilly area with cambisol, forest; Hilly area with eroded cambisol, forest; Footslope with cambisol, arable land; Hilly area with eroded cambisol, arable land; Hilly area with eroded cambisol, vineyard or orchard; Hilly area with cambisol, vineyard or orchard.
These categories were applied on the map of landscape types.
1. Habitats of the Tetves catchment were identified on the basis of the Universal National System for Habitat Classification. Habitats were classified according to their unaffectedness applying the following categories: nearly natural habitats; nearly natural disturbed and weedy habitats; and agricultural, sylvicultural and other habitats. On the northern part of the catchment, which belongs to the Somogy Shore Plain, the numbers of the habitats of the above mentioned categories are 2; 1; 6 respectively. In the southern part belonging to the Western Outer Somogy these numbers are 5; 3 and 13. We pointed out that in spite of the predominance of the agricultural, sylvicultural and other habitats, the Tetves catchment, being a diverse landscape, has considerable ecological value, and is therefore one of the main natural resources of the area.
Using the map of landscape types presented in this paper together with the habitat map showing the natural value of the area, our knowledge about the region will be more complete. Regularly updated maps applied for any particular problem can be effective tools for sustainable landscape architecture and land use planning.