Land-use changes and their effect on overbank sediment accumulation were investigated on the
floodplain of Middle-Tisza River. Military survey maps (1783, 1860, 1883 and 1890) and aerial
photos (1950, 1965, 1980 and 2000) were used to evaluate land-use changes and to calculate the
vegetational roughness of the area. To determinate the ...rate of overbank sedimentation sediment
samples were collected from a pit, the grain-size, content of organic matter, heavy metal content (Pb,
Cu, Zn, Ni and Cd) and pH were measured. Until 1950 meadows and pastures were typical on the
floodplain, gallery-forest was along the river, the oxbow-lake and the artificial levee. Notable landuse changes were detected in the second half of the 20th century, as the aerial photo taken in 1965
shows extensive forestry in the area. These land-use changes affected the average vegetational
roughness, as it has been doubled since the disappearance of grasslands. Land-use changes highly
affect the aggradation, as the increased roughness decreases the flood velocity on the floodplain,
causing accelerated aggradation. Using Pb marker horizons and grain-size changes the studied
sediment profile was compared to dated profiles (Braun et al. 2003), thus, the sediment accumulation
rate could be determined for the periods of 1858-1965 and 1965-2005. According to our
measurements the accumulation rate was doubled since 1965, very likely in connection with the
doubled vegetational roughness.

The soils of the big cities, owing to the various anthropogenic activities, can be contaminated by
heavy metals. The surroundings of the roads with heavy traffic as significant metal emitter source can
be contaminated by heavy metals. The hobby gardens and the vegetable gardens directly along roads
can be potential risky for people sin...ce unknown amount of heavy metals can be accumulated into
organization of local residents due to consumption of vegetables and fruits grown in their own garden.
Most metals are well-known to have toxic characters but we have known little what extent these
metals exert influence on people living directly along road with busy traffic. During our research,
metal contamination has been investigated in the gardens near the roads with heavy traffic in Szeged
by measuring of metal contents in soil and plants samples. Enrichment factor has been calculated with
the help of control soil samples far from roads having heavily traffic. Besides determination of the
metal content of soil and plant samples, soil properties basically influencing on metal mobility has
been examined in order to characterize the buffering capacity of the studied soils. The health risk
quotients have also been determined to evaluate human health risk of the contaminated soils.

The river regulations of the 19th century have affected each of our rivers to a different degree. In the
case of the River Bodrog it was stronger than the average. In our paper a section of the river between
Bodroghalász and Szegi was examined, the extent and intensity of river channel changes was
intended to be determined. The applie...d series of maps and aerial photos was georeferred and the river
channel was vectorized. The morphometric parameters of the channel were measured and the changes
were evaluated using the created database. From methodological aspect we concluded that the 9
variables can be grouped into 3 factors therefore most of the indexes can be substituted. We measured
the changes of length and lateral shift of the channel using GIS methods. Three development periods
were identified based on our results. In the first period the development of the river was characterized
by natural processes. Then, the development of the river altered owing to the antropogenic impacts. In
this transient phase the average shifting of the channel was 7.43 m/y. In the third term this value
reduces to 0.2 m/y as the river is getting to reach the equilibrium stage.

The study aims to introduce a new method and approach for measuring the diversity of connectivity
with the help of the landscape geometrization, in order to create a new variable useful in landscape
metrics and to decrease the costs of landscape planning if its main goal is the enhancement of
connectivity. Using induction we identify t...he landscape elements with geometric elements,
calculating the theoretical maximum line, section, intersection point (node) number and compare
these values of the idealistic landscape to the values of the real landscape.