Country Report Slovakia - Natural and socio-economic conditions

Preface

Executive Summary

Introduction

Introduction
Natural and socio-economic conditions
Networking
Mapping
Recognised needs for sustainable development

Country Report - Hungary

Country Report - Yugoslavia

Natural and socio-economic conditions

The Slovak Republic is geographically situated in Carpathian ring with a total land area of approximately 49,000 km2. Surface water runoff in Slovakia flows to the north to the Baltic Sea (i.e. the Poprad River watershed which is approximately 2,080 km2 and to the south to the Black Sea (i.e. the rest of the watershed at approximately 47,000 km2 that flow to the Danube River).

An area of 19,791 km2 from the Danube river basin is the Tisa river basin area, which covers 42,1% of the Slovak Danube river basin. This area is situated in Prešov county, Košice county and partially to Banská Bystrica county. It is predominantly hilly area with the highest mountain peak in Slovakia - Gerlachovský Štit - in the High Tatras mountain range at an elevation of 2,655 m above sea level. The lowland part lies on the south, as the north edges of the Pannonian Basin. The lowest point in Slovakia is the village of Streda nad Bodrogom located in the eastern Slovak lowland (96 m above sea level) in the Bodrog river basin.

The most significant river basins in Slovakia, as part of the Tisa river basin, consist of: Bodrog, Hornád, Bodva, Slaná.

Slovakia is situated in a mild climate zone with four distinct seasons. January is the coldest month and July the warmest month of the year. The average rainfall in Slovakia reaches 700 mm. Rainfall averages from 450 mm in the south-western part of Slovakia to 1,500 mm in the mountainous areas of the High Tatras. Twenty percent (%) of the total annual precipitation is snowfall. The highest volume of rainfall occurs in January and February and the least from May to July. Slovakia receives an average of 34.3 billion m3 of rainfall annually. Approximately 33% of water in Slovakia (11,3 billion m3) discharges to the Baltic and Black Seas while 23 billion m3 remain in Slovakia. The remaining water provides a small hydrological cycle that interacts with the natural ecosystem by precipitation, evaporation, evapo-transpiration, groundwater recharge, etc. Water in the landscape is evaporated and eventually returns to the land in the form of precipitation or rainfall. The water that flows to the Black Sea and Baltic Sea also returns to the land as a part of the larger global hydrologic cycle. It too evaporates and then, above the land, collides with water vapour and returns as rain and comes back to the natural ecosystem. Here it supplies water to the land, recharging streams and rivers. This means that all stream, creek, and river water in Slovakia originates in rainfall. In addition, the creek and river water network is related to the natural hydrologic characteristics in small local watersheds and micro-watersheds. The total length of creeks and rivers in the Tisa watershed on Slovakian territory is around 18,000 km.

The Slovak part of the Tisa river basin area is home to 1,661,493 inhabitants (1998 census). The rural population dominates over urban population (79% and 21%, respectively). Population density is 162 inhabitants/km2.

This part of the Slovak republic is the most under-developed, with very high unemployment rates (up to 30%).

Slovakia is a relatively poorly developed industrial-agricultural country with human settlements (i.e. cities, towns and villages) distributed and divided along river valleys. From an historical point of view, these settlements naturally developed due to the dependence on natural resources in the area (e.g. agricultural soil, water and timber). From these resources, the most significant is water. The size of human settlements in Slovakia usually coincided with the size of nearby water bodies and the sufficiency of water. With the arrival of the Communist regime after World War II, the focus was converted to centralisation of economic and social methods. Under this regime, development occurred disproportionately. The centralised system preferred to focus on the state capital, regional, and district cities and politically designated central towns and villages. This resulted in a decline in the population in rural towns and villages. Consequently, the industrialisation of typical forestry and agriculture altered the landscape structure and this was reflected in the management of individual watershed areas. In forestry and agriculture management, industrialisation (or centralisation) resulted in the decrease of locally managed forests and agricultural lands. This caused rampant clear-cutting in forests and created large-scale, mono-structural agricultural fields in the landscape. The existing, original agricultural method formed a patchwork of historical Slovak terraced fields approximately 8 to 20 hectares each. Socialist agricultural methods significantly altered this old structure into vast large-scale ploughed fields covering hundreds of hectares in an area. This centralised method drained existing wetlands, destroyed hedgerows, clear cut forests, altered the agriculture landscape to increase soil runoff to the streams and rivers, and dramatically altered the Slovak landscape in general.

The water management projects implemented by the centralised government included canalisation (straightening) of rivers and streams and the building of large dams for flood protection. More than 8,000 km of streams were canalised. In urban areas, canalisation, laying of concrete and building developments affected the landscape's surface. Built infrastructure (i.e. pavements, roads, highways and parking lots) created impervious landscape surfaces that significantly reduced rainfall accumulation in areas that had had enough water before. Currently, drinking water sources for towns and cities are distributed through a vast network of piping several tens of kilometres in distance.

Networking

Mapping

Recognised needs for sustainable development