Case study:Marsh protection in Egyek–Pusztakócs

0.00

(0 votes)

To discuss or comment on this case study, please use the discussion page.

Location: 47° 37' 20.50" N, 20° 56' 56.52" E

Edit location

Loading map...

{"format":"googlemaps3","type":"HYBRID","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"limit":50,"offset":0,"link":"all","sort":[""],"order":[],"headers":"show","mainlabel":"","intro":"","outro":"","searchlabel":"... further results","default":"","import-annotation":false,"width":"auto","height":"400px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":14,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[""],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"showtitle":false,"hidenamespace":true,"template":"Location map popup","userparam":"","activeicon":"","pagelabel":false,"ajaxcoordproperty":"","ajaxquery":"","locations":[{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cb\u003EProject Title:\u003C/b\u003E Marsh protection in Egyek\u2013Pusztak\u00f3cs\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cb\u003ECountry:\u003C/b\u003E \u003Ca href=\"/wiki/index.php?title=Hungary\" title=\"Hungary\"\u003EHungary\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cb\u003EProject Status:\u003C/b\u003E Complete\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cb\u003EThemes:\u003C/b\u003E Land use management - agriculture\n\u003C/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cbr /\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"Marsh protection in Egyek\u2013Pusztak\u00f3cs","link":"","lat":47.622362,"lon":20.949034,"icon":"/wiki/images/a/af/Red_marker.png"}]}

Left click to look around in the map, and use the wheel of your mouse to zoom in and out.

Project overview

Edit project overview

Status	Complete
Project web site
Themes	Environmental flows and water resources, Habitat and biodiversity, Land use management - agriculture
Country	Hungary
Main contact forename	János, Judit, János
Main contact surname	Fehér, Gáspár, Tamás
Main contact user ID
Contact organisation	GWP Eastern Europe
Contact organisation web site	http://https://www.gwp.org/en/GWP-CEE/
Partner organisations
Parent multi-site project
This is a parent project encompassing the following projects	No

This case study hasn’t got a picture, you can add one by editing the project overview.

Project summary

Edit project overview to modify the project summary.

Since its foundation in 1973, the Hortobágy National Park has aimed to restore and rehabilitate the Great Plain landscapes that has been transformed for centuries by human activities.

The first habitat rehabilitation programme in Hungary was initiated in the Hortobágy region. The landscape level rehabilitation programme of the Egyek – Pusztakócs marsh system stand out of all similar restorations. The first phase of this programme (1976–1997) involved the rehabilitation of the marshes and meadows after the hydrological reconstruction of the water supply system. The second phase, which is still on going, focuses on the restoration of grasslands and on the management and protection of the already revitalised marshes.

The Egyek–Pusztakócs marsh system that used to be regularly flooded by the river Tisza has been drained gradually since the early 19th century. However, the regulation of the river Tisza, which has occurred since the 1860s terminated the most important source of water supply to the marsh system. The construction of the system to drain inland waters, which started in the 1900s and accelerated between 1930 and 1950, has drained most marshes, and led to the sinking of the ground water table and to the emergence of a general water deficit in the habitats. Canal constructions, done as part of the Egyek area melioration programme in the 1980s, have led to a near-fatal drought, and an almost irreversible degradation of the marsh system.

As a result of river regulation, flood control and drainage works, the sources of natural water supply have almost vanished. The drying was mainly caused by theses changes, and was only exacerbated by the extremely long low-precipitation period between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Most of the natural water catchments of the marshes were ploughed and the connections between the marshes were terminated by filling upof the former natural depressions which connected the marshes.

Parallel to the drying of the area, ploughing broke up an increasing amount of grasslands and meadows, and the proportion of arable lands have gradually increased. In addition to the reduction of wetland habitats, characteristic edge habitats and zonal transitions (e.g. dry grassland-wet meadow-tussock meadow-marsh) have disappeared. In many areas, patches of homogeneous habitats separated by sharp, sudden, non-transitional edges have appeared.

The aim of the rehabilitation was to construct and operate a water supply system that could mimic the flooding that had been characteristic to the area before river regulation, and to achieve a hydrological reconstruction and revitalisation of the marshes. The construction of the water supply system was started with Fekete-rét (1976) and continued with Kis-Jusztus, Bőgő and Meggyes marshes, and was completed in 1997 with Hagymás and Csattag marshes. The canal system has brought the water of river Tisza back to the marshes.

The habitat-level changes following the hydrological reconstruction have caused a regeneration and revitalisation of the marsh habitats. In a few years, the areal extent of marshes has approached the level estimated before human activities had started to transform the area (Fig. 2). Today the marsh system is characterised by a mosaic-like landscape structure, the most im-portant elements of which are the ancient riverbeds running mostly from N to S, the loess covered higher grounds between the marshes, the meadows in the edges of marshes, the alkali grasslands and pastures, and the small pockets of woodlands, tree lines and dry loess grassland fragments.

The overall objective of the project was the large-scale restoration of grasslands and the protection of marshes in the Egyek-Puszakócs area. In particular, the project aimed to reduce the negative effects of grassland fragmentation and the impact of intensive agriculture on natural grasslands and marshes.

Specifically, the project aimed to:

Eliminate goose farms that degrade surrounding grasslands and restore arable land to grasslands;

Develop grazing capacity in the area;

Increase the diversity of marsh habitats using grazing and fire management;

Protect and improve the habitats of Annex I waterfowl and birds of prey.

Grasslands and marshes were expected to reach a favourable conservation status. The successful implementation of the project would also lead to greater public awareness of conservation and of the role of the Natura 2000 network.

Funding - EU CONTRIBUTION 700,302.00 €

Monitoring surveys and results

Edit project overview to modify the Monitoring survey and results.

The success of the hydrological reconstruction was seen by the very rapid changes in the bird fauna. In the years after the reconstruction, rare and valuable species of birds such as the Pied Avocet (Reeurvirostra avosetta), Black-winged Stilt (Himantopus himantopus) and Mediterranean Gull (Larus melanoeephalus) appeared in unprecedented numbers in the marsh system. A decelerating stabilisation process, during which bird assemblages became more characteristic to stagnant waters, followed the initial re-colonisation, and species less typical in Hortobágy marshes disappeared.

Today reed beds, interspersed with stands of Broad-leaved and Narrow-leaved Bulrush, Softstem Bulrush and Common Clubrush, cover most of the marshes. The re-colonisation of the once extensive submersed vegetation has been extremely fast and White Waterlily, Yellow Waterlily, Yellow Floating-heart, Water Chestnut and Floating Fern cover increasingly larger areas.

The marshes see a limited number of fish, whereas the Grass Snake and European Pond Turtle are abundant. Among mammals, the Eurasian Otter is worthy of mentioning, which lives in great numbers in the canals and nearby fishponds.

The project achieved all its aims in spite of unsolved problems regarding land purchase and land swapping. Moreover, several targets were even exceeded:

Two ecological corridors were established by purchasing 11 ha arable land, restoring grasslands on 42 ha arable land and by extensive cultivation of 31 ha arable land;

Buffer zones were established in critical areas by restoring grasslands on 364 ha arable land on 135 parcels adjacent to marshes;

Grassland was restored on an additional 341 ha arable lands, which reduced the proportion of arable land within the protected area from 32% to 14%;

The restoration of two Natura 2000 priority habitat types was carried out on 747 ha, of which 93 ha was loess steppic grasslands (habitat 6250) and 654 ha was alkali steppe grasslands (habitat 1530);

59 ha of arable land were purchased for grassland restoration;

Two goose farms were eliminated from alkali steppes by purchasing 306 ha grasslands and by transforming the area to sheep- or cattle-grazing;

A grazing scheme was established, involving 18 farmers/farming companies on 2580 ha grasslands, which includes 820 ha grasslands not grazed before the project and newly restored grasslands depending on their conservation status;

Grazing on 400 ha was applied on four marshes and fire management was carried out on a 120 ha marsh in order to open up homogeneous reeds.

148 ha arable lands were cultivated extensively (without the use of chemicals) to enhance populations of small mammals and thus strengthen the food base for Annex I bird species.

In short, the project significantly contributed to the improvement of the conservation status of marshes and Pannonic grasslands in the Egyek-Pusztakócs region in Hungary.

Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report (see "Read more" section).

Lessons learnt

This case study hasn’t got any lessons learnt, you can add some by editing the project overview.

Image gallery

Edit Image gallery

The hydrological reconstruction has caused the rapid regeneration of the marshes, with their areal extent increasing to 26-28% (habitat map from 2001) (Source: GWP Eastern Europe, See file in references).

Catchment and subcatchment Select a catchment/subcatchment Edit the catchment and subcatchment details (affects all case studies in this subcatchment) Catchment River basin district Danube River basin Danube Subcatchment River name Sava River Area category more than 10000 km² Area (km2) Maximum altitude category 500 - 1000 m Maximum altitude (m) 833833 m <br />0.833 km <br />83,300 cm <br /> Dominant geology Calcareous Ecoregion Dinaric Western Balkan, Alps Dominant land cover Waterbody ID Other case studies in this subcatchment: Conservation of alluvial, Hainburg River Restoration, INTERREG MED WETNET - Memoradum on Participation in Wetland Conservation in Ljubljansko Barje Nature Park, National Park Danube-Auen, Regelsbrunner Aue, Renaturation of Stržen's riverbed on intermittent Cerknica Lake, The Bulgarian Wetlands Restoration and Pollution Reduction Project, Witzelsdorf Pilot Project Site Edit site Name WFD water body codes WFD (national) typology WFD water body name Pre-project morphology Reference morphology Desired post project morphology Heavily modified water body National/international site designation Local/regional site designations Protected species present Invasive species present Species of interest Dominant hydrology Dominant substrate River corridor land use Average bankfull channel width category Average bankfull channel width (m) Average bankfull channel depth category Average bankfull channel depth (m) Mean discharge category Mean annual discharge (m3/s) Average channel gradient category Average channel gradient Average unit stream power (W/m2) Project background Edit project background Reach length directly affected (m) Project started 2004/09/01 Works started Works completed Project completed 2008/12/31 Total cost category 1000 - 5000 k€ Total cost (k€) 10401,040 k€ <br />1,040,000 € <br /> Benefit to cost ratio Funding sources European Union Cost for project phases Phase cost category cost exact (k€) Lead organisation Contact forename Contact surname Investigation and design Stakeholder engagement and communication Works and works supervision Post-project management and maintenance Monitoring Reasons for river restoration Edit reasons for restoration Mitigation of a pressure Land drainage, Flood risk management Hydromorphology Quantity & dynamics of flow Biology Physico-chemical Other reasons for the project Measures Edit Measures Structural measures Bank/bed modifications Floodplain / River corridor Restoration of riparian marshes, Restored species-rich wet grasslands Planform / Channel pattern Other Non-structural measures Management interventions Social measures (incl. engagement) Other Monitoring Hydromorphological quality elements Edit Hydromorphological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Biological quality elements Edit biological quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Physico-chemical quality elements Edit Physico-chemical quality elements Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Any other monitoring, e.g. social, economic Edit Other responses Element When monitored Type of monitoring Control site used Result Before measures After measures Qualitative Quantitative Monitoring documents Upload monitoring documents Additional documents and videos Upload additional documents Additional links and references Edit links and references Link Description http://www.gwp.org/globalassets/global/gwp-cee files/idmp-cee/idmp-case-studies-final-pdf-small.pdf Link to a document with all the information displayed on this page http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.dspPage&n proj id=2667 Additional information about the project, used to supplement this page Supplementary Information Edit Supplementary Information