Cartographic-Historical Analyses of the Medveščak Stream Regulation and Quantum GIS

Abstract

The Medveščak Stream used to be very important for the economic development of Zagreb. Water from the stream and its confluent, the artificial mill canal of Pretoka (Melinski potok) was used for centuries to power mills, bathing areas, manufacture and industrial objects. Due to frequent floods and summer droughts, the stream's unregulated course was problematic, resulting in a need to move it to a new and partly covered basin. Stream regulation caused many objects to close down and change the environment and development of the modern city of Zagreb. By applying Quantum GIS to written historical sources and cadastral plans from different periods (plan sheets of the 1st cadastral survey from 1862 to 1864 on which the entire course of the stream is visible and plan sheets of the 2nd cadastral survey from 1909 to 1913, representing the situation after stream regulation), analyses were done of changes resulting from stream regulation and represented as thematic maps and attribute tables.