Towards the issue of ecosystem services of small watercourses in the Czech Republic

Th e issue of ecosystem services represents a hot topic especially in connection with quantitative expression of their values and research of functions, which the landscape provides to a human society. Th e question of ecosystem values research is solved with a focus on the river landscape, defi ned as the ecosystem along watercourses whose functioning is directly conditioned by the presence of the hydrographical network. Since it is a very attractive area for the implementation of human needs, there is oft en what is seen as a confl ict between activities of human society and the eff ects of natural processes. Catchment areas of small watercourses or their parts which are specifi c in terms of mutually diff erent intensity of anthropogenic pressure on the landscape were selected as the model sites. Th e main aim of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the value of landscape ecosystem services – either usage of existing methodologies for ecosystem valuation, the rate of small watercourse degradation and changes in their natural parameters (morphology of the river channel and riparian zones)