Summary of the Main Activities of the Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences

Questionnaire Summary of the main activities of the Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences Period: January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2011 Bratislava April 2012 1 Questionnaire Summary of the main activities of the Institute of Geography, Slovak Academy of Sciences Period: January 1, 2007 - December 31, 2011 I. Formal information on the assessed Organisation: 1. Legal name and address Geografický ústav Slovenskej akadémie vied Institute of Geography of the Slovak Academy of Sciences 2. Executive body of the Organisation and its composition Directoriat name age years in the position director prof. RNDr. Vladimír Ira, CSc. 59 2006 - deputy director RNDr. Anna Grešková, CSc. - 2006 - 2010 deputy director prof. RNDr. Mikuláš Huba, CSc. 58 2010 - 2012 deputy director prof. RNDr. Ján O ťahe ľ, CSc. 62 2012 - scientific secretary Mgr. Daniel Michniak, PhD. 38 2006 - 3. Head of the Scientific Board RNDr. Peter Podolák, CSc. (2007 – 2010) RNDr. Milan Lehotský, CSc. (2010 – ) 2 4. Basic information about the research personnel i. Number of employees with a university degree (PhD students excluded) engaged in research and development and their full time equivalent work capacity (FTE) in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and average number during the assessment period ii. Organisation units/departments and their FTE employees with the university degree engaged in research and development 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 average Research staff No. FTE No. FTE No. FTE No. FTE No. FTE No. FTE organisation in whole 26 20,31 27 20,45 25 19,14 27 17,81 27 19,41 26,40 19,42 Department of Physical Gegraphy, 9 6,78 9 6,83 9 7,00 9 5,91 9 6,54 9,00 6,61 Geomorphology and Natural Hazards Department of Human and Regional 10 7,78 10 7,99 9 7,28 10 7,24 11 7,86 10,00 7,63 Geography Department of Geoinformatics 7 5,75 8 5,63 7 4,86 8 4,66 7 5,01 7,40 5,18 5. Basic information on the funding i. Total salary budget 1 of the Organisation allocated from the institutional resources of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS) in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and average amount for the assessment period Salary budget 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 average total salary budget (milions of EUR ) 0,334 0,352 0,365 0,377 0,355 0,356 6. URL of the Organisation’s web site http://www.geography.sav.sk 1 Objem mzdových prostriedkov bez odvodov do pois ťovní so zapo čítaním sumy miezd pracovníkov THS, ktorú organizácii poskytne ETO Úradu SAV. Rozpo čet v Sk prepo čítajte na eurá pod ľa konverzného kurzu 1€ = 30,126. (Podobne aj v ďalších tabu ľkách.) 3 II. General information on the research and development activity of the Organisation: 1. Mission Statement of the Organisation as presented in its Foundation Charter The Institute is focused on the basic research into the spatial structure of natural and socio- economic systems in interaction, with special regard to the territory of Slovakia. In the sphere of physical geography, research deals with problems of structure, dynamics and human transformation of landscape systems concentrating upon the landscape potential, rational land use, quality of environment, and environmental hazards and risks. The main objective of research in human geography is to analyse spatial organisation of population, settlement and economic activities stressing the population processes, settlement systems, and regional structure studies. Generation of the geoinformation systems, development of cartographic interpretation and remote sensing methods are also among the main work themes of the Institute. The Institute pursued the basic research into sciences about Earth, environmental sciences, social and economic geography and within the construction engineering (spatial planning, environment, geodesy, cartography and cadastre) based on scientific information acquired by the regional research. The Institute provides expert and consultancy services in relevant fields. The Institute provides PhD studies in the sense of the generally binding legal provisions. The Institute secures publication of results reached in the research scientific activities in periodic and non- periodic press and thematic maps. Publishing of periodic and non-periodic press is subject to guidelines issued by the Academy’s Presidium. 2. Summary of R&D activity pursued by the Organisation during the assessed period, from both national and international aspects and its incorporation in the European Research Area (max. 10 pages) Research cluster: Structure and Dynamics of the Natural Landscape, Hazards and Risks The researchers participating in the cluster: J. Beták (until 2010), A. Grešková (until 2010), J. Hanušin (until 2008) , J. Jakál, A. Kidová (since 2010), J. Lacika, M. Lehotský, J. Novotný, P. Skubin čan (since 2010), Ľ. Solín, J. Sládek (since 2010) and J. Urbánek. Research cluster focused on two mutually related research themes: elaboration of the issue of flood risk and hazard and research into morphological and sedimentological properties of the riverine systems and structure of riverine landscape. Flood risk assessment is the result of two combined components: flood hazard and vulnerability. Such assessment is based on the current concept, definitions and methods of flood risk assessment (Skubin čan 2010; AED58). Emphasis in research of flood risk in the period in question was laid on the assessment of the above-mentioned basic components. Research of flood risk and flood hazard involved the assessment of spatial variability of flood hazard in headwater basins of the Slovak Republic and vulnerability of basic settlement units (BSUs) to flooding. Emphasis was laid on: a) Preparation of a strategic framework for the application of flood map-making using the HEC-RAS, HEC-GeoRAS and Arc GIS software on the national spatial level (Solín, Martin čáková 2007, ADFB96). 4 b) Estimate of N-year maximum discharges for headwater basins of the SR by the method of regional frequency analysis (Solín 2007, ADEB17). Four regional frequency curves for the estimated N-year maximum discharges were established. c) Analysis of flood event frequency and analysis of physical-geographical attributes of basins determining spatial variability of flood event frequency (Solín 2008; ADFB 97, 2011, in press). The verification of flood hazard classes derived from the combination of permeability of soil-substrate compound in basins, forestation and flood event frequency showed that the formulation of three regional classes of flood hazard of headwater basins was justified. d) Assessment of effects of land cover (LC) changes in headwater basins in 1990-2006 on flood event frequency (Solin et al. 2011, ADCA14). Two hypotheses were tested: 1) flood event frequency increases with the increasing area of LC changes; 2) higher flood event frequency was presumed in basins where LC changes (urbanization, deforestation and farming) accelerating origins of direct runoff dominated compared to basins where changes (forestation) slowing down origins of direct runoff prevailed. The first hypothesis was not rejected and it was confirmed that the flood event frequency increases with the increasing total area of LC changes in the basin. This tendency is clearly distinguishable in basins with the high level of flood risk. It is less distinct in basins with moderate or low level of flood risk. The second hypothesis was rejected. It means that differences in flood event frequency between the group where LC changes accelerating origins of direct runoff and the group of basins where LC changes slowing down origins of direct runoff prevailed were not significant. As far as the vulnerability assessment is concerned, assessment of economic and social status of population in Basic Settlement Units (BSUs) situated in headwater basis was performed (Solín 2011, ADFB99). The economic status represents the number of single- family houses, social status stands for the population number in a BSU. Vulnerability of family houses to flooding was assessed based on two attributes: material the house was built from and the year of building. Vulnerability of population was judged via four attributes: population age structure, completeness of family, ethnicity, and the category of family house. First of all, the index of susceptibility of family houses to damage, index of population’s susceptibility to harm, and index of population’s capability to cope with the negative consequences of flooding (/-e) were established by combination of the above-mentioned attributes by the method of multi-criterion analysis. Subsequently, the index standing for overall vulnerability of a BSU to flooding was established by summation of dimension-less values of individual indexes. BSUs were then classified into three classes with low, medium and high vulnerability based on overall vulnerability index values. Four research areas of the methodology for river system morphology and riverine landscape structure research: morphological-sedimentological response of floods and wind calamity, comprehensive and non-linear interpretation of the development of riverine landscape and behaviour of fluvial systems (Lehotský et al. 2008, ADFB62), research into the changes of the route of a river channel based on multitemporal analysis of remote sensing data in the GIS and integrated hydrobiological-morphological research of water streams. Simultaneously, a classification and terminology concerning the morphology of underground (cave) water streams and the research method for the perception of riverine landscape were processed. A conceptual model for the procedure of the environmental management of riverine systems was processed. It presents aspects and morphological parameters of the riverine system assessment and of its behaviour, which should be respected by the management. Research of the effects of wind calamity in the High Tatras (2004) on the morphology of the river system of the Studený Brook led to the conclusion that the width of the channel in the particular reach of the stream affected by the morphology increased the movement of the bottom coarse-fraction sediments and revival of old avulsion channels and overall increase of geo- and biodiversity (Lehotský, Grešková 2007, AED42).

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