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Natural values

Szigetköz - Hungary


Szigetköz is the largest extension flood area of almost natural status left in the entire Upper Danube Valley in Hungary. The area of present Szigetköz sank in the Pliocene and became a vast flat basin, which was covered with a thick bed of gravels by the primeval rivers meandering here (Proto-Rába, Proto-Nyitra etc.) Entering into the Carpathian Basin the inclination of the Danube decreases, the flow gets slower and thus losing energy the river is unable to carry on its alluvium and makes deposits.

The landscape was characterized by continuously changing dead branches, beds changing their location, deteriorating and building islands and alluvial cones. The vegetation of the area settled on this animated scene trying to tie, to stabilize these islands and riverbanks with the roots of the plants. Man living here was always moving their settlements to a momentarily unflooded hill.

After the river regularization villages moved to the side free from flood, the flow of the main branch gathered speed, therefore the bed became deeper and distant dead branches received fresh water less and less often and siltation began. At the end of the twentieth century, the river barrage at Gab?íkovo accelerated this process, and the Szigetköz began drying out. The water replenishment system emerged in 1995 tries to counteract this unfavourable change. The still traceable exuberance of plant and animal communities were shaped by the combined effects of several environmental factors. The profusion of species of communities associated with water is still enriched by the fact that species belonging both to Alpine and Pannonian flora can be found in the area. Until the last centuries the mostly impenetrable vegetation of flood plains often served as a resort or a place of refuge for quite a few plants which remained here after the ice-age. Fauna of Szigetköz is also very interesting.