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The Formation of Social and Economic Peripheries in Hungary after the Change of Regime
179-187Views:149The Hungarian industrial revolution started in the second half of the 19th century, which caused the revaluation of the geographical peripheries in Hungary. After the Trianon Treaty the rural areas of Hungary lost their foreign markets and became the "country of three million beggars". The socialist industrialization of the systems of Rákosi and Kádár absorbed the surplus of rural labour, but the industrialization meant the redistributive exploitation of the agricultural areas and the further impoverishment. After the political transition in 1989, the rural Hungary could not be the "pantry of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance", and the final crisis of the Hungarian agricultural sales finalized the deformation of the three-quarters of Hungary, the major part of the rural areas in Hungary. In the recent decades the brain drain worked in the Hungarian peripheries, the disinvestment and the pauperization increased. The emerging of the new latifundia and the monoculture commodity production operate independently, separated from the Hungarian rural people in the sense of ownerships and production. As the result of these negative processes, significant part of the society in the peripheral areas declassed. In this hopeless situation awareness only a conscious regional policy and above all, a very well-considered education is only able to offer a chance for break.
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Active point bar development and river bank erosion in the incising channel of the lower Tisza river, Hungary
13-28Views:209The development of point-bars and bank erosion are critical near-bank processes, as they indicate the sediment and hydraulic regime of a river system, thus, they refer to the equilibrium conditions of a channel. However, throughout history, rivers have been modified for various benefits which change the development of point-bars and the rate of bank erosion. In the Lower Tisza River (Hungary), river regulations influenced the channel and floodplain development, altering the natural fluvial processes. The aim of the research was to determine the rate of near-bank processes and to make trajectory for future river evolution to support future engineering works. The bank erosion and point-bar development at human-influenced and freely meandering sections of the Tisza River were monitored since 2011. Behind a collapsed revetment, the bank erosion rate was 0.6 m/y, while at a freely meandering section it was 2.3 m/y. The studied point-bars are located in revetted and freely meandering sections. Their surface eroded within the period. These intensive erosional processes refer to an incising meandering channel, which must be considered during future planning of in-channel structures (e.g. revetments, bridges), thus, geomorphic methods must be considered in any river engineering scheme.
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Climate change: Hungary’s perception and how we adopt renewables against it
58-65Views:16The aim of the research is to present the effects of climate change in Hungary, the public opinion on climate change and the related social acceptance of renewable energy sources and the reasons for their adaptation. Previous surveys have shown that the Hungarian population is aware of the dangers of climate change, yet they are less willing to act against either climate change or pollution. Global climate change threatens peripheral regions more than central regions, as several studies have shown. Hungary has so far successfully met its climate targets but is still far from reaching the 2050 climate neutrality target. The financial and economic situation of the Hungarian population does not currently allow them to widely adopt the opportunities offered by renewable energy sources, but those who can afford to invest in the technologies do so primarily for the financial savings, not to fight climate change.
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Is desertification a problem in Hungary?
242-247Views:204The term of “desertification” refers to a land degradation processes of arid, semiarid and sub-humid areas. Although the concept originates from Sub-Saharan Africa, desertification threatens also the area of Hungary. The greatest desertification risk is in the central part of the country, in the Danube-Tisza Interfluve where drought has always been a huge problem for the local society. Aridification processes are mainly due to climate change. Temperature increase and precipitation decrease as well as the increase of the frequency and amplitude of extreme events contribute to the acceleration of desertification risk. Severe or moderate droughts occur in Hungary nearly every year. Drought frequency has increased, primarily in the last decades. Main findings of several research projects of MEDALUS II and III EU Framework projects (experiments on the effects of climate change on vegetation, soils and ground water level) are summarized in the paper.
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Analysis of landscape geographic impacts of potential climate change in Hungary
41-50Views:148Change of climate can be a remarkable turning point in the 21st century history of mankind. An important task of landscape geographic research is forecasting environmental, nature protection, land use demands and helping mitigation of disadvantageous processes from the aspect of society. ALADIN and REMO numeric climate models predict strong warming and lack of summer precipitation for the area of Hungary for the period between 2021 and 2100. There is a predicted growth in frequency of extreme weather events (heat waves, droughts hailstorms). Changes have been forecasted using data presented in table 1. For analyses of complex landscape geographic impacts of climate change the area of Hungary have been divided into 18 mesoregions with 5.000-10.000 km2 area each (figure 1). The main aspect of choosing the regions was that they should have homogeneous physical, geographic and land use endowments and, for this reason, they should react to climate change the same way. Relationships between landscape forming factors and meteorological elements examined by us have been taken into consideration. Results of analyses of impacts of the meteorological factors on the changes of relief through the mass movements are presented in this paper. Changes of landscape sensibility of mesoregions to mass movements have been presented in the last chapter for the periods between 2021-2050 and 2071-2100 according to numeric climate models.
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Challenges of municipal waste management in Hungary
78-85Views:35Aims, tasks and priorities of medium term development plans of national waste management were defined in the National Waste Management Plan, which was made for the period of 2003–2008 in Hungary. Supporting of the European Union is indispensable for carrying out of plan. The most important areas are related to the developing projects of municipal solid waste treatment (increasing the capacity of landfills, accomplishment of the infrastructure of selective waste collection, building of new composting plants). The national environmental policy does not focus sufficiently on the prevention of waste production. Due to the high expenses of investment and operation the energetic recovery and the incineration of municipal solid waste do not compete with the deposition. We inclined to think that the waste management of Hungary will be deposition-orientated until 2015. The main problems to the next years will be the lack of reprocessing industry of plastic and glass packaging waste. The high number of to-be-recultivated landfills and the attainability of necessary financial sources are also serious problems. There are many questions. What is the future in national waste management? How can we reduce the quantity of dumped waste? What are challenges of national waste management on the short and long term?
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The Hungarian footwear industry in global production networks: the case study of Berkemann Hungary
188-193Views:257The highly internationalized, labour-intensive footwear industry showed two spectacular declines and significant restructuring in Hungary after the change of regime. In accordance with the approach the authors investigate, this phenomenon is associated with the integration ways and circumstances of the industry into global production networks. Sector-level assessment of the processes – including the changing geographical patterns of footwear industry which also indicate features of path-dependence – was performed in several previous works of the authors. On the basis of significant empirical fieldwork, recent study focuses on the current situation of an extraordinary foreign owned large company representing the challenges and development perspectives Hungarian footwear industry has to face with.
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Spatial and temporal pattern of soil pH and Eh and their impact on solute iron content in a wetland (Transdanubia, Hungary)
34-45Views:42Land mosaics have direct and indirect influence on chemical reaction and redox condition of soils. The present paper deals with the relationship between some environmental factors (such as soil and vegetation patterns, micro-relief, water regime, temperature and incident solar radiation) and the pH, Eh of soils and solute iron in a headwater wetland in Transdanubia, Hungary. Measurements have been taken in four different patches and along their boundaries: sedge (Carex vulpina, Carex riparia, three patches and two species), horsetail (Equisetum arvense), common nettle (Urtica dioica). The spatial pattern of the studied parameters are influenced by the water regime, micro-topography, climatic conditions and by direct and indirect effects of vegetation. The indirect effect can be the shading, which has influence on soil temperature and on the incident solar radiation (PAR). Root respiration and excretion of organic acids appear as direct effects.. There have been measured individual pH and Eh characteristic in the studied patches. Soil Eh, pH and solute iron have shown seasonal dynamics. Higher redox potentials (increasingly oxidative conditions) and higher pH values were measured between late autumn and early spring. The increasing physiological activity of plants causes lower pH and Eh and it leads to higher spatial differences. Although temperature is an essential determining factor for Eh and pH, but our results suggest it rather has indirect effects through plants on wetlands.
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Late Renaissance Garden Art in the Carpathian Basin
1-19Views:232The aim of the article was to find, scientifically define and locate the most frequent occurrences of the Late Renaissance garden units of the Carpathian Basin. This article - as partial result of a research work entitled "Castle Garden Inventory in the Carpathian Basin" and conducted by teachers and students of the Faculty of Landscape Architecture and Urbanism of Szent István University, Budapest - aims to identify through historical research, on-site visits and assessments the current status of 148 Late Renaissance residency gardens located in seven different countries of the Carpathian Basin (Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Croatia and Slovenia). Based on the archival and literary sources as well as the field studies carried out, we defined the spatial distribution of Late Renaissance residential gardens, we delineated six very characteristic Late Renaissance garden units and we defined the most typical Late Renaissance garden features for the region. At the same time, we explored and documented still existing values of garden history at some locations from the Renaissance era.
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Preliminary analysis of red mud spill based on aerial imagery, Hungary
47-57Views:129One of the largest industrial spills in Europe occurred in the village of Kolontár (Hungary) on October 4, 2010. The primary objective of the hyperspectral remote sensing mission was to monitor that is necessary in order to estimate the environmental damage, the precise size of the polluted area, the rating of substance concentration in the mud, and the overall condition of the flooded district as soon as possible. The secondary objective was to provide geodetic data necessary for the high-resolution visual information from the data of an additional Lidar survey, and for the coherent modeling of the event. For quick assessment and remediation purposes, it was deemed important to estimate the thickness of the red mud, particularly the areas where it was deposited in a thick layer. The results showed that some of the existing tools can be easily modified and implemented to get the most out of the available advanced remote sensing data.
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UAS photogrammetry and object-based image analysis (GEOBIA): erosion monitoring at the Kazár badland, Hungary
169-178Views:191A remarkable badland valley is situated near Kazár, NE-Hungary, where rhyolite tuff outcrops as greyish white cliffs and white barren patches. The landform is shaped by gully and rill erosion processes. We performed a preliminary state UAS survey and created a digital surface model and ortophotograph. The flight was operated with manual control in order to perform a more optimal coverage of the aerial images. The overhanging forests induced overexposed photographs due to the higher contrast with the bare tuff surface. The multiresolution segmentation method allowed us to classify the ortophotograph and separate the tuff surface and the vegetation. The applied methods and final datasets in combination with the subsequent surveys will be used for detecting the recent erosional processes of the Kazár badland.
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The utilization strucutre of thermal water wells and its unexploited capacities in Hungary
36-52Views:64In order to mitigate Hungary’s vulnerability in energy supply and accomplish the renewable energy production targets, it is essential to discover exploitable alternative opportunities for energy production and step up the utilization of the available capacities. The purpose of this publication is to map up the utilization structure of the existing Hungarian thermal water wells, describe its changes over the past 16 years, reveal the associated reasons and define the unutilized well capacities that may contribute to increasing the exploitation of geothermal heat by municipalities. The studies have been conducted in view of the Cadaster of Thermal Water Wells of Hungary compiled in 1994, the well cadasters kept by the regional water management directorates, as well as the data of the digital thermal water cadaster of 2010. The calculations performed for the evaluation of data have been based on the ratios and respective utilization areas of the existing wells. In the past 150 years, nearly 1500 thermal water wells have been drilled for use by a broad range of economic operations. The principal goals of constructing thermal water wells encompass the use of water in balneology, water and heat supply to the agriculture, hydrocarbon research and the satisfaction of municipal water demands. In 1994, 26% of the facilities was operated as baths, 21% was used by agriculture, while 13% and 12% served communal and waterworks supply, respectively. Then in 2010, 31% of thermal water wells was continued to be used for the water supply of bathing establishments, followed by 20% for agricultural use, 19% for utilization by waterworks, 11% for observation purposes and 10% for communal use. During the 16 years between 1994 and 2010, the priorities of utilization often changed, new demands emerged in addition to the former utilization goals of thermal water wells. The economic landscape and changes in consumer habits have transformed the group of consumers, which is the reason why most of the resources have remained untapped. In 2010, 13% of all the thermal water wells were closed in, but could potentially be utilized; these capacities could be deployed for the satisfaction of the heat demands of municipal public institutions.
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Heavy metal concentracions in the soils and vegetation of the Béke-cave watershed (Aggtelek-karst, Hungary)
51-58Views:188Our research took place on karstic area in Aggtelek National Park in Hungary. The heavy metal content of soils with three different texture and in the plants of the natural vegetation (oak- , hornbeam-, corn leaves, greenery) were studied. Ratio of total (acid soluble) metal contents and bioavailable metal contents of the soils were calculated. Based on these results we determined the mobility of the metals in different soils. Used the metal contents of the soils and the vegetation we set up a sequence of the mobility of the metals between the soil and the most frequent plant species.
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The effect of aridification on dry and wet habitats of Illancs microregion, SW Great Hungarian Plain, Hungary
11-22Views:74By the beginning of the 21st century, investigations aiming landscape history and landscape changes became especially important in the environmental research. The decreasing number of natural areas called the attention of the world to the rapid changes in the landscape caused by human activities and climate change. Certain places are facing with increased problems caused by the sensitiveness of landscapes. In Hungary, in the Danube–Tisza Interfluve a continuous groundwater-table sinking process was observed, as a result of anthropogenic effects of the last century and the consequences of climate change. On the highest part of this mesoregion (e. g. Illancs microregion), the decrease of the groundwater-level has reached 7 metres compared with the 1970s which affected significantly the nature and the local inhabitants as well. This study aimed to investigate the effect of this aridification process on dry and wet habitats of Illancs microregion. It reveals the ongoing processes in the landscape, referring to the previously affecting factors. In case of dry habitats, fragmentation and invasive species play important role as threatening factors. Wet habitats are significantly decreasing, shift of the vegetation zones can be observed. The stands are degraded, their steppification is dominant and can be observed only in the deepest parts of the depressions.
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Large scale wind climatological examinations of wind energy utilization
86-90Views:37The aim of this article is to describe the particular field of climatology which analyzes air movement characteristics regarding utilization of wind for energy generation. The article describes features of wind energy potential available in Hungary compared to wind conditions in other areas of the northern quarter sphere in order to assist the wind energy use development in Hungary. Information on wind climate gives a solid basis for financial and economic decisions of stakeholders in the field of wind energy utilization.
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Bedload transport measurements on the Maros river, Hungary
37-41Views:163Sediment transport is a vital component in hydrological and fluvial geomorphological studies, however, the temporal and spatial changes in sediment fluxes, and the efficiency of bedload samplers are rarely analysed, as bedload measurements are quite difficult. The aim of the present study is to measure the bedload transport of the sand-bedded Maros River (Hungary) at low stages using the Helley-Smith bedload sampler. In order to understand the variability in the bedload transport, the water stage and discharge across the channel section were also measured. The variability of the bedload was caused by an active in-channel bar and translational sediment pulses. The created bedload transport rating curve could be applied just below 300 m3/s water discharge thus further measurements are needed to evaluate the bedload transport of higher discharges.
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Geoinformatic background of geothermal energy utilization and its applications in East Hungary
145-152Views:167Powerful geothermal energy utilisation requires geoinformatic tools from potential surveying through the designing and setting of geothermal systems to certain operational tasks. However, practical data processing strongly depends on the elaboration of basic data and information, the type of the geothermal energy harvesting system and the character of the calculation demonstrated by case studies from East Hungary, in addition the usability of the resulted maps are also presented. Besides their usability for investors these maps could be refined in the location of the development before hydraulic/heat transport modelling.
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Studying the accuracy of orthophotos on the example of various terrain models in study areas in Hungary
31-39Views:135Depending on the orientation data, the accuracy of the applied terrain models and the field content of the orthophotos data of different accuracy can be obtained in the course of analysing orthophotos. Considering the factors influencing accuracy, differences resulted by the application of different elevation models are studied in this paper in two study areas in Hungary. Primary aim of this study is to determine the magnitude of differences between the co-ordinates of reference points digitized from orthophotos and that of points measure.
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The appearance of renewable energy sources in the settlement development documents of local authorities in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County
42-49Views:127In recent decades, several new trends can be observed in the field of energy management, one of which is the increase of the role of renewable energy sources. As a result of this fact, local authorities in Hungary have also devoted increasing attention to this question in recent years. The first step of their interventions is the drawing up of the appropriate development documents, relying on which specific steps/investments can also take place later. In the spirit of the above, the objective of the present paper is to analyse the development documents of local authorities in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County. The most important findings of the study could be summarised as follows. Firstly the Integrated Settlement Development Strategies prepared for the period 2014 to 2020 dealt with the topic of renewable energy sources in much more detail than earlier documents. Secondly from the various renewable energy sources, the development document devoted most attention to solar and geothermal energy and thirdly the appearance of renewable energy sources in the development documents shows a close link with the size of the settlements.
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Climate as a risk factor for tourism
113-125Views:135Weather and climate risk factors for tourism are surveyed and illustrated with regard to the expected climate changes in Hungary. These changes are not at all advantageous and which affect the business in question both directly and indirectly. These are the summer resort tourism (characterised by bioclimatic indices). Green tourism is the next one to characterise, including skiing, mountain climbing and eco-tourism, as well. Here both day-to-day weather extremes and long-lasting effects on the biota (e.g. drought, or inundation for plain-area eco-tourism). Last, but not least the urban (cultural- and shopping-) tourism is presented, since the large towns exhibit their special climate and different risks. The paper intends to specify these meteorological factors and effects also in terms of the different types of touristic activities. The general statements on the effect of weather and climate on tourism are illustrated by a few individual parameters and also by the so called Physiologically Equivalent Temperature. Annual and diurnal course of this parameter are presented, together with various trends in this variable at different sites and in different (hot and cold) extremities of the occurring values. Other examples, helping the tourism industry are presented in various climate conditions of the country. They include high precipitation and high relative humidity information. The paper also lists the possible adaptation measures to extreme events and also their likely changes in time.
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The developement of red mud flood environmental information system and the methodology for the spatial analysis of the degraded area
1-11Views:174The red mud disaster occurred on 4th October 2010 in Hungary has raised the necessity of rapid intervention and drew attention to the long-term monitoring of such threat. Both the condition assessment and the change monitoring indispensably required the prompt and detailed spatial survey of the impact area. It was conducted by several research groups - independently - with different recent surveying methods. The high spatial resolution multispectral aerial photogrammetry is the spatially detailed (high resolution) and accurate type of remote sensing. The hyperspectral remote sensing provides more information about material quality of pollutants, with less spatial details and lower spatial accuracy, while LIDAR ensures the three-dimensional shape and terrain models. The article focuses on the high spatial resolution, multispectral electrooptical method and the evaluation methodology of the deriving high spatial resolution ortho image map, presenting the derived environmental information database.
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Comparison of soil moisture indices and field measurements in hilly agricultural lands of SW Hungary
50-57Views:252The retention of surface runoff and the preservation of soil moisture are among the most important water-related ecosystem services. In addition to field monitoring, advanced remote sensing techniques have been devised to reveal soil moisture dynamics on agricultural land. In our study we compare two soil moisture indices, TWI and SAVI, in three agricultural areas with different land use types. The SAVI has been found suitable to point out spatial variation on the moisture conditions of the vadose zone.
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Land use changes and their effect on floodplain aggradation along the Middle-Tisza River, Hungary
1-10Views:65Land-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.
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Comparative analysis of Landsat TM, ETM+, OLI and EO-1 ALI satellite images at the Tisza-tó area, Hungary
53-62Views:296Satellite images are important information sources of land cover analysis or land cover change monitoring. We used the sensors of four different spacecraft: TM, ETM+, OLI and ALI. We classified the study area using the Maximum Likelihood algorithm and used segmentation techniques for training area selection. We validated the results of all sensors to reveal which one produced the most accurate data. According to our study Landsat 8’s OLI performed the best (96.9%) followed by TM on Landsat 5 (96.2%) and ALI on EO-1 (94.8%) while Landsat 7’s ETM+ had the worst accuracy (86.3%).
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Landscape shape index, as a potencial indicator of urban development in Hungary
78-88Views:349The study of settlement shape, morphology and structure is a classic topic of urban geography. Since the 1960s multiple shape indices have been developed. Urban patterns were then compared with geometric forms or, alternatively their temporal changes were tracked and analysed. In the current study we adapted the landscape shape index (LSI) to analyse the historical shape development of eight Hungarian cities. The LSI is capable to demonstrate the functional and mutual relationship between the developed area and their immediate physical and natural environment. Over the past 230 years the land area of the studied cities has increased manifold for several reasons: on average, an areal increase of 10.4 to 24.5 was observed for the eight settlements, while their perimeter increased by 8.8 to 30.3 times. Simultaneously with their size growth, the studied cities are characterized by an increasingly fragmented and dissected ground plans. Consequently, due to the longer border between the developed areas and the adjacent natural zones, urban areas have become increasingly sensitive to environmental effects over the past century, while mutual ecological and environmental interactions has also considerably increased between the adjoining zones. In general, cities of hilly and low-mountain areas had the highest LSIs, whereas cities located on relatively flat grounds had comparatively low LSIs. We also investigated the rank correlation of the historical change of LSI of the studied settlements. Cities of high positive correlations (> 0.9) were classified into two major categories. Miskolc, Pécs, Szeged and Kecskemét belonged to the group of higher LSIs, whereas Székesfehérvár and Nyíregyháza fell into the class of medium LSIs and the third category included Debrecen and Győr, cities of low (< 0.9) LSIs. Based on the temporal trends of the LSIs, our results provide applicable information for decision makers in order to monitor, manage and track their investments, city management policies and infrastructural development strategies.