The influence of landscape changes on erosion and runoff

The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the influence of land use changes on erosion and runoff conditions. For the purpose of the evaluation, two catchments with different areas and pedological characteristics were selected (the catchment of the river Luha and the catchment of the Hubenov reservoir). In these catchments, a comparison of 26 selected land covers was conducted. The individual land covers were evaluated first in four seasons of the 1950s and 1990s, second according to the today's status of landscape by means of a detailed yearly evaluation conducted between 2002 and 2013, and third according to a land cover conceptual design. Analyses of not only land cover, but also geomorphological, pedological and hydrological conditions were carried out for both of the catchments by means of geographic information system (GIS) tools. The quantification of soil loss was performed by means of two methods – the method USLE with the use of ArcGIS program and the soil loss model WEPP. The crucial factor of the runoff evaluation of the preset end profiles with respect to the formation of concentrated runoffs and their catchment areas was the hydrological model DesQ-MAXQ. The selected land cover scenarios of the river Luha were then exposed to the conditions of a real rainfall that occurred in 2009 and that resulted in floods in the area. Furthermore, a rainfall-runoff model was created for this catchment area in HEC-HMS; the land cover scenarios were again subjected to the above-mentioned real rainfall. The land use changes of the catchment area of the reservoir Hubenov were assessed also with respect to the concentration of substances in the profiles studied