The smaller-region, Békés-Bihar situates in the north-eastern part of Békés County, bordering with Fekete-Körös and Kettős-Körös rivers from the South, highway no. 47 from the West, the county-border from the North, and Romania from the East. It got the name after considering its historical advancement.
The smaller-region includes 600 square kilometers of the area of the county. Its centre is Sarkad, having a population of 11,000 persons. Besides the town, a dozen of villages belong to the smaller-region, which has formed a historical unity for centuries independent of the changes of the administrative system. This unity can be observed well in the religious traditions: the Calvinist Church has become determinant against Catholicism being characteristic of the southern territories of the county. According to historians, it was definitely because of the heyducks; from the 17th century on, the centre of the region bore the title of ’heyduck town’. Dominance of Hungarian, Calvinist inhabitance is typical of this area. (In some villages, there is a greater or smaller Roma minority, and we must point to Méhkerék, which is almost completely inhabited by Romanians). Villages of the region have become border-land places by the Trianon Peace Treaty, contracted after the World War I. They have belonged to Békés County only since the 1950’s, still preserving the features of the Biharian landscape.

But what are these features, what are the geographical characteristics of the smaller-region? The area belongs to the Berettyó-Körös country. It is the land of Körös rivers, Fekete-Körös and Kettős-Körös, and the Kis-Sárrét and Nagy-Sárrét, a typical plain land, developed by accreation. The homogenous geographical physiognomy of the smaller-region has been determined by sedimentation. The land is regarded as a perfect plain; however, its surface is really diversified; its height above sea-level is 80-85 meters. Areas forming a plain got thick sand-, clay or clay-bearing silt-layers by the continuous sedimentation. Seat stones were also made of this thick sediment-layer. The determinant grounds are hard, difficult to cultivate, unfavorable in water-conditions (being prone to alkalisation) and are of poor quality. Mostly acidic, sediment and meadowy grounds are typical of the area, which was originally a heavily watered.

The smaller-region is still abundant in surface waters compared to other areas of the region, and it has a significant subsurface water-supply, too. However, it has some disadvantages as well: the places, which are the most seriously threatened ones by drainage, locate in this part of the county. Geological bores indicate usable but unused thermal water in some places, and also significant water-supplies. Water conditions of the area are determinately affected by the rivers springs outside in Romania, thus they cannot be regulated in the smaller-region.
Discharge is uneven due to the difference of the Romanian and Hungarian hydrographical offices and due to the ad hoc watering as well. Besides the discharge of the rivers, the analogously uneven fall also affects the subsurface waters of the area significantly: in wet periods, these waters can rise up to one meter under the surface, or even above it, as the drainages in 1999 and 2000 demonstrate, while in dry periods, they drop under 6 meters.
The lay of rivers are complex and dense. In some cases, the built channels are also affected by conservational actions outside the country. The hydrographical features of the two Körös rivers (The Fekete- and Sebes-Körös) only hypothetically plays a role in it. The discharges of both are very low, exclusive of floods, thus they do not mean usable supply.

Natural conditions of the smaller-region are really disadvantageous. North-Eastern Békés is lacking in good quality grounds characteristic of other areas in the county. Saliferous bleaks and steppe-like lands do not provide opportunities of effective agrarian production, only conditions for extensive cultivation. Only climature seems advantageous, but the extreme weather phenomena (like draught, drainage, hard frost) cause serious losses in agriculture. However, extra heat in ... –time, high number of sunny hours and temperature are considered as positive features. Agricultural scientist demonstrated that the agricultural activity is essentially determined by the quality of grounds. And these is extreamly disadvantageous for the development of agriculture and small-industry mainly built on the previous.