Zsuzsanna LADÁNYI, János RAKONCZAI & Áron József DEÁK
Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics, University of Szeged, POB 653, Szeged H-6701, Hungary
zsuzsi@ geo.u-szeged.hu, J.Rakonczai@geo.u-szeged.hu, aron@geo.u-szeged.hu

A HUNGARIAN LANDSCAPE UNDER STRONG NATURAL AND HUMAN IMPACT IN THE LAST CENTURY


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Many places in the world show spectacular landscape changes caused by the consequences of climate change and anthropogenic effects in the last decades. Most of them are due to the rapid alteration of natural water-cycle. In Hungary the Danube-Tisza Interfluve has been facing to a continuous groundwater table sinking process since the 1980s. The problem of the hydrological regime is emphasised in the Hungarian  environmental and nature conservation strategies. In the dry year of 2003, the groundwater table decrease has almost reached the amount of the total annual Hungarian water-use, which can be observed not only in the degradation of natural areas, but it also became a social and economic problem. Moreover, the climate scenarios for the Carpathian Basin predict warmer summers and the further decrease of precipitation, which can play role in the further degradation of  environmental and climate sensitive landscapes.
This paper presents one of the most affected part of the Danube-Tisza Interfluve (Illancs microregion). It shows its land-cover changes in the last century, analyses the causes and consequences of water shortage, shows the state of its natural areas and examines the socio-economical relations of the problem. The question to be answered in the region is how the natural, environmental, social and economic processes can be reconcile with each other considering the potential innovations and investments. The success of these projects is doubtful without the comprehensive evaluation of historical and actual processes in the landscape which is aimed to be done in this paper