Ecosystem Functions of Floodplains
- Floodplains represent a unique environment formed by alluvial sediments, shaped over a long-time horizon along rivers and smaller watercourses.
- Since these are flat and therefore easily accessible areas, often naturally very fertile soils, they perform a number of ecosystem functions and thus provide long-term benefits to human society in the form of ecosystem services.
- Accessibility and attractiveness of floodplain ecosystems in terms of the amount of benefits provided by nature also represent the primary cause of their significant degradation.
- Among the most significant impacts of anthropogenic activities on floodplain ecosystems are urbanization, which increases the share of impermeable surfaces, negatively affecting the soil water retention capacity, hydrological regime, and sediment balance in the catchment.
- Important causes of floodplain degradation also include technical modifications of watercourses, construction of transport infrastructure, building of flood protection embankments, or intensification and changes in land use.
What is our research about?
- Our research focused on identifying and evaluating basic ecosystem functions performed by floodplain ecosystems and on developing a methodological procedure to assess the degree of floodplain disturbance under current conditions.
- An important part of the outputs is also the publicly available "Functional Floodplain" application, which evaluates selected important ecosystem functions provided by floodplains across the entire country.
Functional FLOODPLAIN Web Application
- The application contains detailed spatially localized data for all defined and revised floodplains in the Czech Republic.
- It spatially and tabularly displays the status of selected ecosystem functions as of 2024.
- Based on the evaluated ecosystem functions, it is possible to identify significant sites in terms of functionality and obtain arguments to prevent changes in land use that cause degradation of the ecological stabilization function of the entire floodplain.
The above issue was addressed within the research project:
Importance and Protection of Floodplain Meadows as an Environment for Fulfilling the Ecological Stabilization Function of the Landscape
SS05010134, 2022–2024
The project was carried out by the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CzechGlobe), in cooperation with the Masaryk University (Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, and Institute of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science) and the Palacký University Olomouc (Department of Geoinformatics, Faculty of Science).
The project was co-financed with state support from TA ČR within the Environment for Life program.
During the project, the following key results were achieved:
Methodology for Assessing the Degree of Ecosystem Function Degradation of Floodplains in the Czech Republic (NmetS result)
The methodology also includes the creation of the web map application "Functional FLOODPLAIN – Ecosystem services of floodplains". The methodology was approved by the Ministry of the Environment under reference number MZP/2025/610/1608.
Article “Assessment of the Ecological-Stabilization Function of Floodplain Meadows in the Czech Republic”
(Jost result)
The article published in the journal Ochrana přírody (3/2025) informs readers about the main results of the Functional FLOODPLAIN project and describes the importance and key causes of floodplain degradation in Czechia.
Potential of Czech Floodplains to Perform the Selected Ecosystem Functions
(specialized map with expert content, Nmap result)
- This is a set of thematic maps developed for individual regions of the Czech Republic. The maps show the quality of fulfillment of the following ecosystem functions within the defined floodplains.
- Clicking on the map name opens the map in PDF format. Each map has approximately 40MB! All maps and their seamless content for the entire territory of the country are available in an easier-to-browse web map application.
- The floodplains displayed in the maps and web application represent manually revised delineation of floodplains of significant watercourses in the Czech Republic, developed within the previous TA ČR project "Practical tools for planning and protecting floodplain meadows" (SS01010213).
Download maps by clicking on the function name:
Eco-stabilization function of the floodplain
Transformation of flood flows
Regulation of water quantity and runoff
Climate regulation – evapotranspiration
Climate regulation – carbon sequestration
Habitat creation – ecological value of habitats
Habitat creation – connectivity of habitats
Final Project Workshop
(type of result O – others)
- On Wednesday, 18.09.2024, a workshop was held at the Ministry of the Environment for those interested in applying the newly developed methodology in practice, organized in cooperation with the Climate Change Adaptation Department of the Ministry of the Environment.
- The workshop was attended by approximately 35 participants (both in-person and online), including representatives from the Ministry of the Environment, the Nature Conservation Agency, water management authorities, and several other academic institutions.
- The workshop was designed as an informational seminar (a block of lectures about the details of the new methodology, setting of evaluation indicators, and a supporting map application as key project results).
- The second part of the workshop was devoted to discussion between participants and project implementers, aiming to gather feedback from future users of the results, with the received inputs taken into account in the final configuration of partial project results.