Hydric potential of selected river basins in Slovakia

Landscape attributes affect the quantity, quality, distribution and accessibility of water resources. Except for fixed and hardly impacted environmental characteristics affecting the hydric potential of the landscape, it is possible by optimal land use planning and management to modify its ability to infiltrate and detain precipitation. The use of landscape characteristics as an efficient tool in river basin management can improve disturbed conditions in catchments. In this paper, we have focused on the evaluation of the hydric potential of six river basins in Slovakia. Assessing the most relevant landscape attributes in relation to the protection of water resources, we have identified areas with various landscape hydric potentials (LHPs), which should be taken into consideration when developing a river basin management plan. The spatial distribution of LHP categories undermines the customary view that the landscape's ability to infiltrate and retain water is affected by only some of the physical–geographic attributes (frequently presented as hydrogeological bedrock and soil characteristics). The LHP distribution in model catchments is explained through specific combinations of factors having the greatest influence.