Zoran Cvorovic's research while affiliated with University of Belgrade and other places

Riverbank erosion and lateral channel migration are important geomorphological processes which cause various landscape, socio-economic, and environmental consequences. Although those processes are present on the territory of Serbia, there is no available data about the soil loss caused by riverbank erosion for the entire country. In this study, the spatial and temporal dynamics of the riverbank erosion for the largest internal rivers in Serbia (Velika Morava, Zapadna Morava, Južna Morava, Pek, Mlava, Veliki Timok, Kolubara) was assessed using remote sensing and GIS. The aim of this paper is to determine the total and average soil loss over large-scale periods (1923-2020), comparing data from the available sources (aerial photographs, satellite images, and different scale paper maps). Results indicated that lateral migration caused significant problems through land loss (approximately 2,561 ha), especially arable land, and land use changes in river basins, but also economic loss due to the reduction of agricultural production. Total and average soil loss was calculated for five most representative meanders on all studied rivers, and on the basis of the obtained values, certain regularities about further development and dynamics of riverbank movement are presented. A better understanding of river channel migration in this area will be of a great importance for practical issues such as predicting channel migration rates for river engineering and planning purposes, soil and water management and land use changes, environment protection.

Despite the fact that the torrential floods and forest fires in this century caused enormous damage to Serbia, there are no cadasters of torrential streams for the most parts of the country, and there were no forest fires susceptibility zonation, whose indirect consequences include the intensification of torrential flooding. Therefore, it is necessary to approach to solving these problems at a higher level, taking into account the synergistic effects of these disasters. In the catchment area of the Jošanička river, not only in this century, floods and forest fires have represented a very significant factors of the environmental change. For taking appropriate measures and reducing the possible consequences of these disasters in the near future, it is necessary to determinate the most vulnerable areas, using various susceptibility indexes, GIS and remote sensing, but also to show how would eventual occurrence of forest fires in such areas result in increased flash flood vulnerability. Part of the Jošanička river basin is situated in National Park "Kopaonik", and the Jošanička spa, which could be, by its characteristics, one of the leaders of spa tourism in Serbia, is located in basin which further increases the need for protection of this territory from these hazards.

The fluvial process is characterized by an intense meandering riverbed. The aim of this study was to perform a reconstruction of the lateral migration of a 15 km length of an active meandering river during the period 1930–2016. River morphological changes were analyzed and quantified from cadastral maps and aerial photographs as well as by geodetic survey and GIS. Hydrological characteristics and extreme hydrological events were evaluated in relation to bank erosion rate. The rate of bank erosion was markedly different from the long-term studied meanders, just like in the short-term period. During the 87 years of observation (from 1930 to 2016), the length of the Kolubara River was enlarged by 3.44 km. The average migration rate of the Kolubara River for monitored meanders in the period 1930–2010 was 1.9 m·year−1, while in the period 2010–2016, the average migration rate was 3.3 m·year−1. The rate of bank erosion was more intensive across the entire short-term period than during the longer period, and the maximum annual rate of bank erosion during the period 2010–2016 varied between 0.3 and 11.5 m. It is very likely that in the period from 2010, frequent discharge variations and rapid change of its extreme values caused more intensive bank erosion. These research results will be valuable for river channel management, engineering (soft and hard engineering), and planning purposes (predicting changes in river channel form) in the Kolubara River Basin.

Zapadna Morava River basin covers a surface of 15850 km2, which is approximately 18% of the territory of the Republic of Serbia. In its basin, 38 active surface stations are registered. The goal of this paper is the trend analysis of the mean annual river discharges in the Zapadna Morava River basin and their noticing in a longer series of time, as well as determining their intensity. Fifty years period of time (1965 - 2014) is taken for a time series. Because there is no empirical data for mean annual discharge values for all stations for the given period, the number of the hydrological stations, which are processed in this paper, is reduced to 21. Mann-Kendall test has been used for noticing the trend, Sen test has been used for estimating the curves inclinations of the linear trend, while Pettitt’s test has been used for determining the turning point of change. Also, classification of the years by water richness has been performed in this paper in order to determine wet and dry periods. For the needs of identification of medium watery, wet and dry years, the combined method has been used on the data examples from representative stations in the basin. Based on the processed data and the obtained results, it has been established that the most rivers in the basin of the Zapadna Morava River have a slightly decreasing trend of the flow values, whereby the change of the trend is not significant. On the most rivers, the change period has begun in the early eighties of the past century. On a large number of profiles, the watery period was appearing in the beginning of eighties, while the dry season is characteristic for the period from 1990 to 1994.