Ewa Kaznowska

Abstract

The Białowieża National Park is located in northeastern Poland, in the Narewka RiverBasin upstream of the Narewka gauge profile. Discharge records at this gauge were investigatedand streamflow drought parameters, such as minimum and average discharges occurring duringthe drought, drought durations and deficit volumes were determined. These parameters definehydrological droughts and can serve in an indirect way to assess the degree of deformation offorest site types. The investigations covered the extremely dry 2003–2005 period, during whichhydrological droughts occurred in each year. In order to check whether these droughts weremore intense than those observed previously, characteristics were compared with those correspondingto the earlier period 1951–2002. The characteristics of intensity, minimum and averagestreamflow drought in the recent years were not found to have been more extreme than in thelast multi-decade period. However, the streamflow droughts of 2003 and 2004 were extremelyprotracted, lasting 134 and 67 days. The drought of 2003 was in the nature of a “disaster”, thoughwas still not an event more extreme than any noted in past records.

Keywords: streamflow drought, hydrological drought, Białowieża Forest

Andrzej Ciepielowski, Faculty of Engineering and Environmental Science, Warsaw Agricultural University, Ul. Nowoursynowska 159, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
Ewa Kaznowska, Faculty of Engineering and Environmental Science, Warsaw Agricultural University, Ul. Nowoursynowska 159, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland