Research base for Lowland Hydrology in Michalovce

Head of the base: Ing. Milan Gomboš, PhD.

Research Hydrological Base in Michalovce was established in 1986 as a branch office of the Institute of Hydrology and Hydraulics, Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAS), which was later renamed to the Institute of Hydrology SAS. The original purpose of the base was to quantify the impacts of anthropogenic activities on the water regime of lowland areas. Since the establishment of the base, the research has been performed in the Eastern Slovakian Lowland (ESL). In the last century, complex water-management works were built throughout the lowland such as reservoirs, polders, dikes and drainage and irrigation systems. Gradually, the Research Hydrological Base in Michalovce has focused on examining the hydrological processes in unsaturated zone of heavy soils. Nowadays, ESL is considered to be a natural laboratory for examining hydrological processes which occur in unsaturated zone, within the system atmosphere – plant cover – unsaturated zone – groundwater. 

Main work activities:

• Research of the main components of the water balance in unsaturated zone of soil.
• Quantification of the interactions within the system atmosphere – plant cover – unsaturated zone – groundwater.
• Extremes of hydrological processes in soil.

Basic research:

• Quantification of soil water regime elements in space and time.
• Unique characteristics of heavy soils water regime – conditions for creation and termination of a two-domain soil structure, change of hydrodynamics of a two-domain soil structure.
• The processes of creation, duration and termination of soil drought in lowland areas.
• Application of the state-of-the-art methods to examine soil water regime such as laser diffraction for defining soil texture and restoration of lysimetric research in Slovakia in order to quantify evaporation and other elements of soil water regime.
• Assessment of the impacts of ongoing climate change on the water storage in the 3rd water source – unsaturated soil zone.

Reasearch area:

• Eastern Slovakian Lowland.
• Lowland areas within the altitude 94m to 300m.
• Characteristic soil – heavy soils.