Original scientific paper
The history of the river Krka regulation and its eco-historical aspects
Mirela Slukan-Altić
Abstract
Due to great oscillations in the water level of the River Krka and its
tributaries, as well as the mountain character of its source branches, the economic evaluation of the area surrounding the river, particularly in its upper part, has been very limited for centuries. Excessive humidity and overfl owing in winter occur in turns with chronic and regular shortage of water in summer. It is due to these unfavourable
hydrological conditions that there has been a constant need of regulation of the Upper Krka and its tributaries, as well as land conservation and reclamation of the fertile soil in the karst fi elds surrounding it. Conversely, the Lower Krka, characterised by numerous waterfalls, due to a permanent growth of gypsum barriers
at times of low water levels in summer, has suffered from a chronic shortage of water and permanent lake forming due to a poor water fl ow, which is, in economic terms, no less detrimental than the excess of water in the Upper Krka.
Based upon the archive sources the author gives a survey of the oldest hydroregulation interventions on the River Krka whose aim was to improve the viability of the cultivable areas surrounding the River Krka, as well as the use of the river itself, particularly its hydropotentials for propelling a number of water-mills which once
made an important ecenomic basis of the River Krka Valley. The ambivalence refl ected in the attitide towards the original ambience nature of the river on one hand, and the need for it to be harnessed on the other – which has continued to present one of the basic dillemas when it comes to river managing – is clearly refelected in the oldest records addressing the issue of its regulation.
Keywords
the River Krka; karst; the history of hydroregulation; land conservation and reclamation in the 18th to 20th centuries; eco-history
Hrčak ID:
112442
URI
Publication date:
14.5.2010.
Visits: 2.272 *