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Poly bridge alpine meadows8/31/2023 Three main types of water meadows are distinguished: simple dam systems, more elaborate catchworks, and highly developed bedworks. Of these, bedworks were technically and organizationally the most complex they were also the most costly in construction and maintenance. Most water meadows were abandoned in the twentieth century in many places, however, their traces can still be recognized in the landscape. They are both an interesting part of European agrarian and landscape heritage and a carrier of regional identity. In recent years, a number of water meadows have been restored, for ecological, water management, tourism, and heritage purposes. Today, ecologists, landscape historians, and, to a lesser degree, water managers are paying more attention to water meadows. Traces of former water meadows have been rediscovered, mapped, restored, or reconstructed. They are valued as heritage and in some regions serve as a resource in small-scale tourism. They also have ecological potential and offer possibilities to local water management. Water meadows were created by flooding meadows. There seem to have been two main reasons for irrigation of meadows. The first was to have an earlier harvest in the spring. At the end of the winter period, animal fodder became scarce (hence, the hunger gap) with flooding, which kept temperature at a constant and relatively high level, spring grass could start to grow and animals could begin to graze weeks earlier. The second reason for water meadows was its role in gaining higher productivity. When hay was harvested, meadows normally continuously lost organic material and minerals however, irrigation kept conditions wet during summer and meadows-to which silt and lime were sometimes added-were kept productive (Williamson and Cook 2007, pp. The chemical effect of flooding is more complicated.ĭutch research from the end of the nineteenth century shows that the harvest from water meadows was more constant than that from regular meadows, particularly in dry years (Thissen and Meijer 1991). The Swedish authors Emanuelsson and Möller ( 1990) have stressed that it can act as a sink to phosphorus and nitrogen, thereby reducing the need for artificial fertilizers. Flooding may also have had the effect of diminishing the numbers of mice and grubs (Ewald and Klaus 2010, p.Įnglish research has confirmed the effect on phosphorus but has found no evidence for that on nitrate (Cook et al. Some authors note additional reasons for the use of water meadows and make clear that regional differences were present. Whereas in temperate parts of Europe, flooding was used to avoid frost, in the North of Sweden winter irrigation was used to create an ice crust on a wet meadow, which prevented bushes and trees from springing up (Emanuelsson and Möller 1990, p. In parts of the Alps, the amount of rainfall affected the use of water meadows. Drainage channels, waale, in South Tirol were concentrated in the driest places (Hallmann and Peters 1995) in the Mediterranean, a long tradition of irrigation made productive agriculture possible in dry regions (Emanuelsson 2009, p. Most Mediterranean irrigation systems are primarily applied to the production of food crops and are not considered here-in this chapter, we focus on the use of irrigation in meadows. In recent years, the growing interest in water meadows has led to much local research as well as to a number of survey studies. Notably, the Swiss geographer Leibundgut (Leibundgut and Kohn 2014a, b Leibundgut and Vonderstrass 2016) describes meadow irrigation as an element of a larger group of activities under the banner of traditional irrigation, focusing on Central Europe.
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