Summary:

The River Vistula features various stages in the development of training measures that started in the 19th c. and aimed to convert it into a waterway. This study focuses on a foreland stretch between the towns of Skoczów and Puławy where the channel, originally meandering, sinuous or braided, has been shortened, narrowed and deepened as a result of engineering projects (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). Big differences were identified in the reshaping of the channel studied following the training measures, resulting in a reduced flood risk along those reaches where the channel depth was increased the most and in a considerable increase of this risk below Zawichost, where the measures were carried out last. The one morphological effect of the engineering that has the greatest impact on the discharge regimen is the increased channel compactness, especially along the originally meandering reaches (Fig. 3). The bank height along the deepened channel reaches increased by 3.5 metres on average since the project started. The changes in the channel morphology are conducive to faster flow rates (Tab. 1), which means that the bankfull discharge increases fast along the considerably deepened channel reaches with built-up banks. This rate is much slower along reaches with less deepening, while the long aggrading reach below Zawichost recorded virtually no increase of the bankfull discharge (Fig. 4). Between the beginning of the river training project and 1990s, the profiles of the bankfull discharge increase and of the vertical channel modifications are mirror images of each other (Fig. 5). The post-engineering reshaping of the Vistula channel studied has produced a great variety of the duration of inter-embankment flooding and a change in the number of events when the zone alongside the river is subject to inundation (Fig. 6). The inter-embankment zones along the least deepened channel reaches remain submerged several times longer, and those of the aggrading channel even several dozen times longer, than those zones where the channel depth has increased the most. The duration of bankfull water stages tends to shorten along the entire channel studied, with the exception of the final reach, regardless of the long-term discharge fluctuation, a trend that has begun at different times and has different intensities (Fig. 7). The changes in the flood risk mentioned above coincide with hydrological effects resulting from the narrowing of the flooding zone (inter-embankment zone) and from the erection of dams on the Vistula itself and on its mountain tributaries. The river engineering also resulted in a greater concentration of flood waves, as expressed by an increasing trend in the maximum flood water stages observed during the 20th c. This remains at odds with a manifested opinion claiming a reduced flood risk in the foreland Vistula valley. This effect, however, can be partly compensated for by effective flood control operation of dam-retained lakes. Another way to flatten the Vistula flood waves could be to assign certain areas of the floodplain outside the embankments as flood storage.