This year is a special one. We are recording the highest extreme temperatures in almost every month. A wet spring, a dry, hot summer and now flooding. The climate change that is affecting us is a harbinger of something we don’t know. What can we do about it?

Water shapes the climate

The circulation of heat, air and water are the three basic processes that shape the Earth’s climate. We have the same amount of water on our planet all the time. It moves around, changing states of matter and locations. It is a basic resource needed for life and development and should be available to all. Extreme phenomena and environmental pollution limit our ability to use this resource.

The key role of wetlands in the water cycle

One of the key needs formulated at the first Wetlands Pact, held in 2022, is the recognition of the need to protect and restore wetlands as a key action for climate change adaptation and mitigation, and to halt the extinction of species. It is already time to start implementing adequate measures in various sectors of state policy. After all, wetlands play a key role in nature’s water cycle. They naturally retain resources, which mitigates the effects of floods and droughts. They are a source of drinking water and a habitat for many organisms. They are used by humans and non-humans.

What are the rivers bitching about?

This was the question we posed during the Healthy Rivers debate at this Pact, noting that a river is a wetland. A riverbed is often the lowest point of a drainage basin, the area from which water flows into it. Water from precipitation enters the river through various routes – underground recharge and surface runoff.

Maintaining river channels in a simplified form, which are equally effective in draining excess water from the land during heavy rainfall and in drought conditions, results in the rapid appearance of very low water levels in rivers (lows) or even the drying up of small watercourses. The straightening of river channels and their embankment effectively reduces the retention capacity of watercourses and their valleys. Faster water flowing down the riverbeds lowers river bottoms and thus riverside groundwater tables. The flow of water in a river is also a derivative of the situation in the catchment (not only the landform, but also landscape development) and the quantitative state of groundwater. Urbanization of river catchments – resulting in the sealing of a significant part of their surface – promotes faster surface runoff and reduced natural retention. This makes floods more violent and lows more severe in such catchments.

The power of natural ecosystems

Therefore, it is important to strive for the most natural shapes of river channels and allow the river to spill into the undeveloped valley so that the water can remain in the landscape longer. So that it can feed underground resources and minimize the effects of drought, so that it can spill out in front of the city, reducing the consequences of flooding. It is also important that the path of the raindrops be as long as possible. So that the river is constantly fed by groundwater, so that water is retained in forests, on a patchwork of agricultural land or even in absorption basins in cities. By retaining water in the landscape, we are talking about natural retention – something that nature developed, and we got rid of it because we started building cities, developing industry or agriculture, forgetting that we depend on ecosystems that hold water.

So why isn’t this basic knowledge being put into practice?

This is a question that may be answered by the project submitted to this year’s Citizens’ Budget of the City of Cracow – on ul. Powiśle 11, at the foot of Wawel Castle, in the vicinity of the Vistula River, a River Education Center can be created – a place for education and dialogue that will offer knowledge about rivers, that will bring people closer to the river through understanding it.

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Healthy River Foundation Archive

Each of us is from the river

The operation of the River Education Center will focus on improving awareness of, among other things. about the interdependence between the river and the city and residents. It will be a center of knowledge and experience, using modern educational tools, organizing attractive events on/by the river with a cyclical offer of workshops tailored to the rhythm of the river and the seasons. The River Education Center will be a place for meetings, exchange of ideas, views during ongoing activities to improve the condition of Polish rivers.

Communication in crisis

Understanding rivers – their needs and our impact on them – seems crucial to not only avoid and reduce the negative consequences of extreme events, but also to more easily manage an emergency situation like the one we have now. So that people not only want to respect the space belonging to the river during floods, but also be aware that they live in flood risk zones, so that understandable messages reach them, so that journalists provide reliable information, so that services can more easily carry out their duties.

Vistula River event

On the day the Vistula flood wave passed through Krakow, September 15, 2024, residents were safe. The water level was oscillating around the warning level. Therefore, in full awareness of the increasingly dire situation in Lower Silesia, the now-empty building on ul. Powiśle 11 was opened to show the residents of Krakow a substitute for what the Center could be. The event Come on the Vistula, the river brings people together promoted the project to create a River Education Center.

Wodne Sprawy 44 2024 Projekt Wisla
pic. Healthy River Foundation Archive

During the event, visitors to Powiśle 11 could learn, among other things. what a river is and why it needs space, why rivers flood and how we can deal with floods, what governmental and non-governmental organizations are doing to keep rivers clean and healthy. During the event, which lasted several hours, there was no shortage of IMGW or Water Police personnel who addressed the current hydrological situation and safety conditions. The site was also visited by firefighters from volunteer fire departments who are involved in water education.

Filled with play zones, creativity and discussions involving experts and river lovers, the space of the Powiśle 11 building showed the potential of a place that could have such a character permanently. Krakow residents can contribute to this by casting their vote until September 27 this year through the project’s website.

The event was organized by the Healthy River Foundation, which supports the project substantively. Its author is a resident of Krakow, president of this foundation, and author of this text.


Photo. main: Healthy River Foundation Archive

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