Since the middle sixties, statistical analyses have been conducted in Poland on the description and identification of a hydrograph of a typical flood wave1' in rivers according to the concept of Strupczewski (1964). These works have been enlarged by studies on relationships between basic elements of high waters: culmination flow (Qmax), wave volume (V), rising time (ts) and duration of high water (T). (Ciepielowski, Czechowicz, 1984; Ciepielowski, 1987; 1994; Ciepielowski et al., 2001). In this paper I attempt to summarize these studies and to draw conclusions of a pure (on the mechanisms of floods) and applied (on using flood hydrographs in designing sluice and overflow devices in small retention reservoirs) character.
Apart from their basic role as fish farming reservoirs, carp ponds have an important influence on water circulation and thus on water resources in the catchment basin. The positive influence of carp ponds as storage reservoirs results from the rearing cycle which corresponds with the hydrological cycle and consists in limiting high water-flows in the summer and increasing low water-flows in the autumn. After the maximum precipitation shifted in the late 1960s from summer months to autumn months, a dramatically low water level occurred in the summer. This highly disturbed the catchment basins’ hydrological balance as well as the ponds’ water management. The influence of the changing meteorological conditions on individual components of the water balance are presented as a result of many years’ research (1957-1997) conducted at the Institute of Ichtyobiology and Aquaculture of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gołysz.