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The Great Hungarian Plain covers an area of \u200b\u200bapproximately 100,000 km\u00b2, spread across seven countries: Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, and Hungary. Hungary alone accounts for more than half of the plain’s total area. PHOTO: CC BY-SA 3.0, https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=2295902<\/p><\/div>\n
From social pillar to ecological aid<\/h5>\n
The country is famous both for its steppe landscapes and its spa culture,<\/strong> particularly widespread in the capital, Budapest. For centuries, hot waters rising from underground have fed a system of public baths that represent a social and cultural cornerstone. Today, however, these same waters are taking on a new role: contributing to the regeneration of terrestrial ecosystems.<\/strong><\/p>\n In the south of the country, in the Homokh\u00e1ts\u00e1g<\/strong> region, groundwater levels have dropped dramatically in recent decades. Increasingly hot and dry summers,<\/strong> combined with the historical canalization of rivers and streams, have interrupted the natural flooding processes that for centuries ensured the recharge of soil water reserves. Without these dynamics, the landscape has lost a key ecosystem function: the ability to retain and redistribute water.<\/p>\n The consequences<\/strong> are typical of desertification processes: soils breaking down, loss of organic matter, and a collapse in microbial and plant biodiversity. Rainfall, increasingly erratic, is no longer able to infiltrate effectively. Even intense downpours are of little use, as water quickly runs off depleted soils that can no longer retain it.<\/p>\n