23. Litovelské Pomoraví—Landscape Around Anastomosing River Pattern of Morava

The Morava River, rising on the slopes of the Králický Sněžník Mts. at the border with Poland, enters the vast tectonic depression of Hornomoravský úval after ca. 80 km of its course. Here it begins to deposit much of the sediments that were eroded in the mountainous part of the catchment. On the flat bottom of the Hornomoravský úval Basin, the Morava is branching to numerous wide as well as narrow channels creating the dense network of “arteries” similar to branches of a river in delta at the seashore. Modern fluvial geomorphology recognises this unusual river style to be an anastomosed channel pattern. The present-day channel network consists of the dominant Morava channel, from which numerous side channels are branching fed with water raised in the main channel by weirs. This basic pattern of channels is supplemented by a dense network of smaller, ephemeral channels that are filled with water only during the floods. Anastomosed channels, in many cases intensively meandering, are surrounded by large areas of natural floodplain forests. The landscape interwoven with numerous river arms and covered with fertile soils was ideal for construction of mills and establishing permanent settlements. Medieval economical activities stand at the beginning of change of the natural anastomosed fluvial system to the present-day harmonic cultural riverscape.