2.1. Research area
The Smugawka and Mszanka catchments were chosen as the research area.
These streams are tributaries of the Raba River, located in southern
Poland (Fig. 1), which is classified as the Carpathian megaregion in the
Western Carpathians province (Kondracki 2011). The research area
consists of mountainous terrain used for agriculture and forestry, with
above-average water resources due to higher atmospheric precipitation,
which reaches 1100 mm per year (Woś 1999).