Regional determinants of the evolution of Lublin relief

Abstract

The aim of the study is to identify natural and anthropogenic determinants of evolution of the relief within the boundaries of contemporary Lublin city. The area covers fragments of three Lublin Upland mesoregions: Nałęczów Plateau, Łuszczów Plateau and Bełżyce Plateau. The Nałęczów Plateau covered by loess is characterised by „loess relief” and a dense network of dry valleys. Upland plantation, slope denudation surfaces, and karst forms prevail in the other mesoregions. The loess relief is relatively young: it evolved during Vistulian and the Holocene under the infl uence of aeolian and denudation processes. In turn, the upland planation surfaces and slope denudation surfaces formed in the Pliocene and Eopleistocene. The network of river and dry valleys was formed and transformed in the Pleistocene. The directions of the axes of these valleys are dependent of Paleogene and Cretaceous stone and fault cracks. Human activity was an important morphogenetic factor as well. The development of settlement and agriculture from the Middle Ages to the present determined the emergence of anthropogenic, erosion, and accumulation landforms.. Therefore, the direct determinants of the emergence and evolution of the Lublin relief included the structure and texture of surface rocks, tectonic movements, changing climatic conditions, and anthropogenic activity.