Kaszkád

Kaszkád is a Hungarian noun meaning a cascade—a sequence of interconnected stages, elements, or processes arranged one after another. The term is borrowed from the French cascade, which in turn derives from Italian cascata and ultimately denotes a falling or tumbling succession. In Hungarian usage, kaszkád describes both literal waterfalls and more abstract concepts that unfold in a staged progression.

In geography and hydrology, kaszkád refers to a system of watercourses or reservoirs arranged in a chain along a river. Such cascades are often engineered for hydroelectric power generation, flood control, or irrigation, where the output of one stage becomes the input of the next.

In science and engineering, the word is applied to hierarchical or sequential designs. Examples include cascade networks or cascaded filters in signal processing, where data pass through successive processing blocks; and cascade control systems in process engineering, in which outer and inner control loops operate in a staged manner to improve stability and response.

In computer science and artificial intelligence, kaszkád describes architectures and algorithms that rely on sequential processing, such as cascade classifiers in computer vision, where a succession of classifiers progressively filters candidates to improve speed and accuracy.

Metaphorically, kaszkád is used to describe cascade effects in systems theory, economics, and social dynamics—where a small initial change propagates through a chain of reactions, potentially amplifying or altering the entire system.

Related terms include kaszkádos, kaszkádrendszer, and cascade as used in technical disciplines.