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The geomorphological mapping in Poland is not being restricted to the registration and the location of landforms of a defined origin (as some other geomorphological maps do it). On the basis of the mapping the chief problem of geomorphology may be solved, i.e. to recognize the geomorphological development of a particular region as well as to recognize the further development tendencies. These are based on and related with other elements of the geographical environment undergoing changes in the course of development. We must, therefore, reconstruct the reliefs development in relation to the geological structure as well as the clima-tic, botanical and soil conditions which prevailed in different periods of their development.

The construction of the geomorphological map of Poland allows the development of the relief to be easily read. To meet this reąuirement the principle of a chronological and a genetical classification of landforms has been introduced both in the field investigations and in the Office of the map.

The investigation of forms cannot be limited to the determination of their origin. It must allow the conditions under which the particular forms have been created to be determined. I am of the opinion we cannot seperate neither origin from age nor process from time.

The introduction of a chronological and a genetical classification into the content of the geomorphological map of Poland permits

1.    the reader to be orientated in the location and the mutual relation of forms of different origin and age;

2.    the history of the reliefs development to be inferred from the map and the further development’s tendencies to be foreseen. In the list of landforms which have been examined and mapped during the geomorphological survey of Poland the forms so far observed are grouped according to their origin and age: forms which came into existence during the Pa-laeogene, the Neogene (in the Miocene, in the Pliooene), in the Pleistocene (in the particular glacial and interglacial periods) and in recent time (Lower and Upper Holocene) due to the destructive and constructive action of both the internal and the external agents. Their origin may be due to any of the following kind of processes: tectonic, denudational, fluvial, fluvio-glacial, glacial, karstic, suffosional, nivation processes, buried ice forms, aeolian, lacustrine, marinę, organie processes and man.

THE PRINCIPLES OF THE POLISH GEOMORPHOLOGICAL MAP’S

CONSTRUCTION

Forms of known origin and age which have been examined in detail were plotted against contours (on a scalę of 1 : 50,000) by means of co-loured patches and signes. Colours have been chosen to indicate both the origin (agent and process) and the geological age of particular forms. By these means the destructive or constructive action of agents responsible for the relief formation in a specific period can be recognized:

agent + age + process

For instance: Signs in red colour mean different forms which have been created by the destructive action of flowing water and denudational processes in recent time.