Sunday 13 March 2016

Erasmus+ teaching mobility in Košice (Slovakia) and Barcelona (Spain)



During the March 2016, members of Czech-Rivers group, Václav Škarpich and Tomáš Galia was participating to Erasmus+ teaching mobility. Václav Škarpich visited Institute of Geography, Faculty of Science, Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (Slovakia) where he presented some basic results of research. Main focus was oriented to Carpathian gravel-bed streams and problems of (dis)connectivity and channel changes of Olše, Morávka, Ostravice and Bečva Rivers. Other part of mobility was oriented to teaching and education of students of UPJŠ in Košice where the main activity was focused to identification of river channel patterns in fluvial systems and its application to water management (especially in Czech and Slovak rivers). Tomáš Galia visited Department of Physical Geogaphy and Regional Geographical Analysis, Faculty of Geography and History, the University of Barcelona. He had a teaching lesson for undergraduate students about interactions of geomorphology, geology and hydrology at the watershed scale and he showed some examples from the Morávka River. He participated the prescribed fire management in forested mountains (mainly pines and oaks) near Girona (Catalonia).   

Prescribed fire
Václav Škarpich with colleagues from UPJŠ in Košice visited some localities. The main focus of field visit was connected with contemporary state of rivers in Eastern Slovakia, namely Olšava, Torysa and Bodva River basins. Olšava River is a 50 km long stream with the basin area 340 km². In river reach of the Košice Basin is it strongly meandering stream with numerous meanders.  In terms of tributaries, there are developed left-hand tributaries, while the right-hand tributaries, as a result of parallel flow path with an adjacent Torysa River, are undeveloped. Olšava River is mouthing to the Hornád River southeast of Košice. Within the Olšava River basin, the Geyser of Herlany was visited. Geyser of Herlany is mentioned in World Heritage Tentative List of UNESCO. It is a specific type of geyser, which is different from typical geysers by its situation in a volcanic mountain which is now inactive, and by its artificial activation through a well which was 404,5 meters deep and its low temperature thermal water. Torysa River source is in the Levoča Mountains and mouth into the Hornád River near Nižná Hutka village, southeast of Košice. It is 129 km long stream and river basin area is 1349 km². The upstream part, channel is characterized by anabranching channel pattern with amount of transported sediment material and downstream part near Košice town as meandering channel pattern. Bodva River is 113 km long (in Slovakia is 48 km long reach)and basin area is 890 km². Its source is in the Slovak Ore Mts. The Bodva flows on the eastern edge of a karstic rock system, therefore it has an unsymmetrical drainage pattern. Up to Medzev, where the river reaches the karst region, and on its left side the Bodva River has a typical treelike river system.

Geyser of Herlany

Veľký prameň Spring in Jasov (Bodva River basin)

Hájský Stream - Hájské Waterfalls (Bodva River basin)

Blatný Stream (Bodva River basin)