Zones and segments as taxa used in the hierarchical classification of riverine landscapes: a case study of the smrečianka brook, Slovak Republic

A river is a highly complex structure and the constituent of landscape and catchment basin from which it drains water. In the holistic concept, a river is defined in mutual interactions with its surroundings as a spatial system - the riverine landscape. As a product of fluvial processes, the riverine landscape has a regular spatial hierarchical structure, which is determined by the structure of its morphology, substrate, biota, land cover and socioeconomic structures. The aim of this paper is to verify the river landscape hierarchical classification and to identify the so-called higher taxa - zones and segments in the Smrečianka valley. The main data sources were hydrological maps at 1:50 000, topographic maps at 1:10 000 and 1:25 000, GIS database levels, geological maps at 1:50 000, and the boundaries were specified by a field survey