Do Water Management and Climate-Adapted Management of Wetlands Interfere in Practice? Lessons from the Biebrza Valley, Poland - Wetlands and Water Framework Directive: Protection, Management and Climate Change - page 53

Fig. 4.1 Study area — catchment of the Biebrza river: water bodies and environmental

conservation

Hydrological features of the Biebrza Valley as well as recorded dynamics of oods

allow to conclude that inundation remains an important yet frequent phenomenon
(Grygoruk et al. 2013a ; Ignar et al. 2011 ). Among the most valuable and important
water-dependent ecosystems in the catchment of Biebrza there are eutrophic ox-
bow lakes, fens of the type Caricion davallianae (concentrated both in the Biebrza
Valley and in the random locations in the fresh glacial landscape in the north-
western part of the catchment), bogs, riparian Alder forests Ribeso nigri-alnetum,
reedbelts and riparian sedge communities Magnocaricion (Wassen et al. 2006 ).
Water bodies belonging to the catchment of Biebrza river are managed by
different authorities, of which the most important are Regional Water Management
Authority in Warsaw (in Polish: Regionalny Zarz

fl

d Gospodarki Wodnej; RZGW),
Voivodeship Board of Land Reclamation and Hydrotechnics

ą

in Bia ł ystok