Assessing the combined hazards of drought, soil erosion and local flooding on agricultural land: a Czech case study

Abstract

Present-day agriculture faces multiple challenges, including ongoing climate change that is at many locations combined with soil degradation. The deterioration of soil properties through unsustainable agricultural practices and changing climate could lead to a fall in productivity beyond the point of no return with devastating effects on ecosystem services in large areas. Identifying areas with the highest hazard levels should therefore be a top priority. The key hazards for agricultural land in the Czech Republic considered in this study include the occurrence of water stress in the topsoil layer during both the first and second half of the growing season, the proportion of fast-drying soils, the risk of sheet and ephemeral gully erosion and the risk of local floods originating primarily from agricultural land. The results clearly marked regions where primary attention should be given to reduce the level of the hazards and/or to increase cropping capacity. These regions were found to be concentrated in the southeastern and northwestern lowland areas. Typical areas with the highest hazard levels were identified: regions with low precipitation and a high proportion of soils with a degraded or naturally occurring low water-holding capacity, and those with steeper than average slopes and terrain configurations in relatively large catchment areas that have urbanized countryside landscapes located at their lower elevations. Despite some limitations, the methods presented in this paper can be applied generally as the first step in developing strategies for efficient reduction of hazard levels.

Projected shift of Köppen–Geiger zones in the central Europe: A first insight into the implications for ecosystems and the society

“…This would further increase sensitivity of regions with already high risk of drought as shown by Trnka et al . ().…”

“…The regions with high occurrence of the Cfa-and Csalike years could be thus more threatened by both phenomena in the future. This would further increase sensitivity of regions with already high risk of drought as shown by Trnka et al (2016b).…”

May–July precipitation reconstruction from oak tree‐rings for Bohemia (Czech Republic) since AD 1040

“…The urgency of drought risk related to recent global warming and increased drought risk in the future has been pointed out in strong terms by Trnka et al . (, ). These authors demonstrated that conditions at 45% of central European meteorological stations became significantly drier during the 1961–2014 period.…”

“…In contrast, there also appears the danger of droughts; the widespread European drought in 2003 serves as an example (Beniston, 2004;Ciais et al, 2005). The urgency of drought risk related to recent global warming and increased drought risk in the future has been pointed out in strong terms by Trnka et al (2016aTrnka et al ( , 2016b. These authors demonstrated that conditions at 45% of central European meteorological stations became significantly drier during the 1961-2014 period.…”

Comparison of Methods for the Assessment of Fire Danger in the Czech Republic

“…Data on forest fire occurrence were obtained from the Fire Rescue Service. Indices and fire events were analyzed across the Jihomoravský region, which is considered the warmest and driest region of the Czech Republic (Trnka et al, 2016). Fig.…”