Die Wiesenbewässerung in Mitteleuropa 1937. Anmerkungen zu einer Karte von C. Troll.

Zur Erinnerung an den 90. Geburtstag von Carl Troll (24.12.1899 - 21.07.1975)

Abstract

This map of pasture irrigation was compiled over the period 1939-1946 in the context of a research program directed by C.Troll. Ways of questioning previously discussed with A. Ruhl and W.Hartke in Berlin were incorporated in the work of L.Waibel's agrarian geography research team at the University of Bonn when C.Troll took up the chair. The idea of the unpublished review work which integrated the approaches is closely connected with the landscape ecology conceived by C.Troll in 1939. In this, Troll thought that he had found an approach which allowed for a functional analysis of physical as well as anthropogeographical aspects of the landscape. An anthropogenic doctrine of forces based on the community of men responsible for economic cycles should be added to a doctrine of physical-geographical or ecological forces. In contrast to many of his colleagues at that time, who stood for the concept of an integrated regional geography, Troll saw a primary research task in general geography, and sought to contribute with his work to problems of general agrarian geography. Significant results of these comparative agro-ecological investigations are to be seen in the distinction of humidifying, fertilizing and warming irrigation, as well as in their spatial distribution and seasonally varying importance. Hindsight must not ignore the reference to considerable amounts of harmful substances in soils of the Siegerland and other regions in Germany even before World War II, which were found to be the result of irrigation with industrial waste water. Troll suggested the systematic mapping of plant associations in order to facilitate a survey of the extent of this anthropogenic influence.