Balázs BENYHE & Tímea KISS
University of Szeged, Department of Physical Geography and Geoinformatics (6722, Szeged, Egyetem u. 2-6, Hungary), e-mail: blarance@gmail.com, kisstimi@geo.u-szeged.hu

MORPHOMETRIC ANALYSIS OF AGRICULTURAL LANDFORMS IN LOWLAND PLOUGHED-FIELDS USING HIGH RESOLUTION DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS

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Geomorphological processes and micro-relief landforms within the Hungarian flat lowlands are rarely studied in detail. This study aims to identify the morphometric characteristics of agricultural landforms developed by ploughing and ridges along drainage and irrigation canals (canal-ridges) based on a digital elevation model. The study found that the average height and width of canal-ridges is 0.44 m and 17 m approximately, and in several cases they block routes of runoff. Considerably larger ridges were formed along the main canals with a height of 0.8-1.4 m and a width of 25-50 m. In addition, many of the canal-sections lie on elevated surfaces and therefore they do not perform their drainage function. Symmetry analysis highlighted that most of the canals has ridges with different sizes, therefore orientation of canal sections to slope direction can be a major runoff modifying factor. Micro-landforms developed by ploughing are considerably lower (0.05-0.2 m) than canal-ridges but still have water retention function especially on the flattest plots.