ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Historical Land Use, Actual Vegetation,
and the Hemeroby Levels in Ecological Evaluation
of an Urban River Valley in Perspective
of Its Rehabilitation Plan
Marcin Kiedrzyński1, Edyta Kiedrzyńska2,3, Piotr Witosławski4,
Magdalena Urbaniak2,3, Józef K. Kurowski1
1Department of Geobotany and Plant Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection,
University of Łódź, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Łódź, Poland
2European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology
of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Łódź, Poland
3Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection,
University of Łódź, Poland
4Faculty of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, City Council of Łódź, Poland
University of Łódź, Banacha 12/16, 90-237 Łódź, Poland
2European Regional Centre for Ecohydrology
of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Łódź, Poland
3Department of Applied Ecology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection,
University of Łódź, Poland
4Faculty of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, City Council of Łódź, Poland
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2014;23(1):109–117
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
The rehabilitation of landscapes along river valleys play an ever more important role in urban management.
The first step is evaluation of natural conditions of green areas. We propose a validation method based
on analysis of land use changes in the last 200 years, actual vegetation mapping, and the hemeroby concept.
The field study was conducted in the Sokołówka River valley in Łódź city (Central Poland). All analyses were
performed using the GIS software. The results show that after World War II, during urbanization and industrialization
of Łódź, a surprising increase in the forest cover and a decline of agricultural areas have been
observed in the study area. The current naturalization of the landscape should be used for rehabilitation projects.
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