Increasing anthropogenic disturbance in urban areas and the expansion of built-up zones into surrounding rural landscapes represent one of the most significant spatial and ecological challenges of recent decades. Urban expansion influences not only land use patterns but also the ecological integrity and naturalness of the landscape. In the present study, anthropogenic landscape change trends and changes in land cover categories were investigated within the current administrative boundaries of Nyíregyháza, a county seat located in northeastern Hungary. Using data from the CORINE Land Cover program (1990, 2000, 2012, 2018) and historical military surveys (1819–1869), landscape development trends within the municipality were examined over the past one and a half centuries. Particular attention was focused on examining changes in the extent of built-up areas, which are among the most concerning from a landscape ecological perspective. By comparing the results with data from other Hungarian cities (Debrecen and Szeged), a significant increase—nearly 20%—in built-up areas was identified. The proportion of built-up areas in relation to the total municipal administrative area increased in all the periods studied, even in those where the population was decreasing. This indicates that even in municipalities experiencing demographic decline, internal population redistribution may lead to the spatial growth of certain neighborhoods, which are the primary contributors to the expansion of built-up urban areas. Finally, based on CORINE Land Cover data, the ecological conditions of Nyíregyháza were assessed, and a hemeroby map of the municipality was created, reflecting landscape changes that occurred between 1990 and 2018. It was found that over a 28-year period, the total area of the most ecologically problematic meta- and polyhemerobic categories increased by 6%, in parallel with the growth of built-up areas.

River regulation and embankment construction have fundamentally altered the hydrological relationships and sediment accumulation dynamics of floodplains worldwide. This study examines the accumulation conditions in the Upper Tisza (Hungary) floodplain, focusing on the different surface development conditions of oxbow lakes and fossil natural levees following human intervention. During the study, we integrated high resolution LIDAR terrain models with detailed sedimentological analyses (grain size composition, pH, EC, OC, CaCO₃). We used multivariate statistical methods (principal component and cluster analysis) to separate soil formation processes and sediment accumulation. Based on our results, we identified sharp sedimentological boundaries indicating artificial meander cutting (1852). We demonstrated that the cut meanders function as sediment traps, where the accumulation of fine grained sediments is significantly faster (>0.34 cm/year) than on the higher elevation natural levees (0.1 cm/year). Statistical analysis identified five distinct sedimentation environments, successfully separating recent soil levels from river sediments. These results provide an important basis for the complex management of floodplains, such as flood protection, water retention, and habitat management planning.

Floodplain oxbow lakes and natural levees preserve sedimentary archives that can provide information on long-term changes in depositional environments. This study investigates three oxbow lake–natural levee pairs of different ages along the Upper Tisza River using 258 sediment records. Grain size composition, pH, electrical conductivity, CaCO₃-equivalent values, and organic carbon were characterized. Spearman correlation analysis was used to examine relationships among the measured properties, while principal component analysis (PCA) was performed using pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, and isometric log-ratio-transformed grain-size data. The profiles showed pronounced vertical and between-site heterogeneity, indicating that geomorphological position alone does not determine sediment properties. PCA identified four major sedimentological and geochemical gradients, whereas cluster analysis distinguished four broad sediment groups with distinct sedimentological and geochemical characteristics. These multivariate statistical analyses revealed relative vertical zonation and sedimentological and geochemical changes associated with oxbow-lake infilling and natural-levee development. Long-term mean sediment accumulation rates were estimated separately from the multivariate analyses using sediment thickness, documented channel-cutoff ages, and, where applicable, stratigraphic correlations. Time-averaged post-cutoff oxbow-lake sediment accumulation rates were approximately 10.2 cm yr⁻¹ for GYM1, 4.56 cm yr⁻¹ for GYM2, and ≤4.62 cm yr⁻¹ for GYM3. For the natural levees, no accumulation rate was estimated for GYF1 because of the absence of an independent chronological marker, whereas tentative correlation of buried paleosol horizons in GYF2 and GYF3 with dated paleosols on the Bereg Plain suggests conditional long-term mean accretion rates of approximately 0.042–0.090 cm yr⁻¹ for GYF2 and 0.032–0.069 cm yr⁻¹ for GYF3, respectively. Integrating vertical sedimentological and geochemical records with multivariate statistical analyses and independent chronological and stratigraphic constraints therefore provides a framework for reconstructing relative depositional succession and estimating long-term sediment accumulation during floodplain evolution.