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"Former floodplains in many European countries increasingly suffer from serious floods due to intensified human activity. These floods have caused safety and ecological problems as well as they have resulted in economic losses in agricultural used watersheds. In this context, the influence of the management practice of forest transformation in forested areas on soil hydraulic properties is presented and discussed as a means of preventing such disasters at a reasonable cost and during a foreseeable period.""It is concluded that for the approximate duration of one century the practice of forest transformation does not contribute to flood prevention through enhanced infiltration capacity or water retention."
The experiments were carried out in the respective study area on four different plots, each representing a different stage of forest transformation.
The transformation of pure forest pine stands into mixed pine stands affects parameters such as infiltration capacity and water capacity of the soil and can therefore lead to increased surface runoff for about one century after the transformation took place (increased soil erosion). This means, of course, that the recent forest conversion is not likely to increase water retaining.It is also noted that study areas such as this need to be studied over a long period of time, as such short analyses are insufficient to detect ecological changes affecting whole landscapes.
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Wahl, N. A., Wöllecke, B., Bens, O., & Hüttl, R. F. (2005). Can forest transformation help reducing floods in forested watersheds? Certain aspects on soil hydraulics and organic matter properties. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C, 30(8-10), 611-621.
This study was carried out in the forest area of “Kahlenberg”, which is located about 50 km northeast of Berlin.