Historical gully erosion with loess areas of SE Poland – Natural conditions and human impact

Abstract

Gullies constitute one of the most characteristic elements of loess relief in SE Poland. Particularly dense net of permanent gullies – in some places more than 10 km?km-2 – appears in areas of specific conditions of abiotic environment which favour gully erosion. However, it is generally believed that these conditions were not a natural landscape (Bork 1989, Schmitt et al. 2006, Vanwalleghem et al. 2003). Only after the devastation of the natural plant cover of mixed and deciduous forests, resulting from agricultural expansion, the erosion began to develop dynamically. The purpose of this article was to determine the influence of natural factors and human activity on the processes of gully erosion (density of permanent gullies). The existing gully systems were examined and the achieved results give an idea about the processes taking place in the past.