Extinct Ponds: Potential for Increasing Landscape Retention Capacity?

Authors: Vaclav David, Tereza Davidova

Abstract:

The restoration of extinct ponds is considered as one of ways to gain new retention capacities for water which is getting much more important issue with respect to expected impacts of a climate change. However, there are also other pressures on the landscape which must be all taken into consideration when making a decision on the possible restoration of extinct ponds. The research presented here focuses besides others on the restoration of former ponds which could be important for both the flood protection and drought impacts prevention. The first step of the methodology development for the assessment of such areas is the assessment of their present state. In this paper, the results of land use types assessment for 22 localities are presented. These results confirm the assumption that the most present land use type in such areas is the permanent grassland. However, the spectra of land use types present in extinct pond areas is very diverse and include besides others also airport areas and industry.

Keywords: Extinct pond, land use change, sustainable water resources management, pond restoration.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI): doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1087191

References:

[1] J. Biggs, P. Williams, M. Whitfield,P. Nicolet, and A. Weatherby, “15 years of pond assessment in Britain: results and lessons learned from the work of Pond Conservation.” Aquat.Conserv.:Mar. Freshwat. Ecosyst., vol. 15, pp. 693-714, 2005.
[2] V. David, K. Vrána, and T.Davidová, “Možnostivyužitíplochbývalýchvodníchnádrží (Future use possibilities of the extinct ponds areas),” in Voda a krajina 2012 (Water and Landscape 2012), Prague, 2012, pp. 37-42
[3] EEA, CLC2006 technical guidelines, EEA Technical report 17/2007. European Environmental Agency, Copenhagen, 2007, 66 pp.
[4] J. Loman, and B. Lardner, “Does pond quality limit frogs Ranaarvalis and Ranatemporaria in agricultural landscapes? A field experiment.” Journal of Applied Ecology, vol. 43, pp. 690-700, 2006
[5] C. Neill, M. O. Bezerra, R. McHorney,and C. B. O’Dea, “Distribution, species composition and management implications of seed banks in southern New England coastal plain ponds.” Biological Conservation, vol. 142, pp. 1350-1361, 2009.
[6] B. Oertli,D. A. Joye, E. Castella,R. Juge, and D. Cambin, andJ.- B. Lachavanne, “Does size matter? The relationship between pond area and biodiversity.” Biological Conservation, vol. 104, pp. 59-70, 2002.
[7] J. Persson, and H. B. Wittgren, “How hydrological and hydraulic conditions affect performance of ponds.”Ecological Engineering, vol. 21, pp. 259-269, 2003.
[8] P. Passy, J. Garnier, G. Billen,C. Fesneau, and J. Tournebize, “Restoration of ponds in rural landscapes: Modelling the effect on nitrate contamination of surface water (the Seine River Basin, France).” Science of the Total Environment, vol. 430, pp. 280-290, 2012.
[9] N. Curado, T. Hartel, and J. W. Arntzen, “Amphibian pond loss as a function of landscape change – A case study over three decades in an agricultural area of northern France.” Biological Conservation, vol. 144, pp. 1610-1618, 2011.
[10] J. Pokorny, and V. Hauser, “The restoration of fish ponds in agricultural landscapes.” Ecological Engineering, vol. 18, pp. 555-574, 2002.
[11] C. J. Richardson, N. E. Flanagan, M. Ho, and J. W. Pahl, “Integrated stream and wetland restoration: A watershed approach to improved water quality on the landscape.” Ecological Engineering, vol. 37, pp. 25- 39, 2011.
[12] G. Tixier, M. Lafont, L. Grapentine, Q. Rochfort, and J. Marsalek, “Ecological risk assessment of urban stormwater ponds: Literature review and proposal of a new conceptual approach providing ecological quality goals and the associated bioassessment tools.” Ecological Indicators, vol. 11, pp. 1497-1506, 2011.
[13] P. Trojacek, “New land parcel identification system for agricultural subsidies in the Czech Republic,” in Geoinformation for European-wide Integration, T. Benes (ed.), Millpress, Rotterdam: 2003, pp. 557-559.
[14] K. Vrana, and J. Beran, Rybníkyaúčelovénádrže. Prague: Czech Technical University in Prague, 2008, 150 p.