The role of natural heritage for the sustainable future of the Danube region

The Danube River is known for its rich biodiversity resulting from the coupled evolution of specific natural and cultural characteristics. The Danube delta, for instance, is the largest remaining natural wetland in Europe. It is inhabited by 5,000 animal and plant species, many of which are endangered or close to extinction. Preserving and restoring this natural heritage often gets in conflict with traditional societal practices and future requirements. So far, compromise solutions are often lacking. At the same time legacies from the distant and recent past contribute to present environmental problems such as pollution or hydromorphological alterations. This paper presents examples for the long-term history of both natural heritage and environmental legacies, and discusses approaches to biodiversity conservation against the background of climate change

Von der Flusslandschaft zum Fließgewässer

Diese Dissertation behandelt die Entwicklung österreichischer Flusslandschaften im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. In diesen Zeitraum fielen die Intensivierung und Zentralisierung der energiewirtschaftlichen Nutzung und die umfassenden, systematischen Regulierungen bzw. Hochwassersicherungen, die eine risikominimierte, dauerhafte Bewirtschaftung und Besiedlung des natürlichen Überflutungsraums ermöglichten. Beide Maßnahmen führten zu einer grundlegenden Änderung der natürlichen Gewässercharakteristika und zur Umwandlung der ehemals ausgedehnten Gewässerlandschaften mit ihren regelmäßig überfluteten Auenzonen zu den kanalisierten Fließgewässern der Gegenwart. Teilweise wurden die Auenzonen bereits seit dem Hochmittelalter kolonisiert, wobei lange Zeit die Land- und Forstwirtschaft im Vordergrund standen. Gebäude oder dauerhafte Siedlungen wurden bis ins 19. Jahrhundert nur dann errichtet, wenn eine gewässergebundene Gewerbenutzung vorlag (v. a. Energiegewinnung). In den letzten zwei Jahrhunderten führte die demographische Entwicklung zu einer steigenden Bedeutung der Überflutungsräume für die Ausdehnung von Siedlungen. Dies erforderte den systematischen Ausbau von Ufersicherungen und Hochwasserschutzdämmen. Zur Realisierung dieser Baumaßnahmen trugen die Verbesserungen des Know-hows im Hochwasserschutz und Änderungen der gesetzlichen und organisatorischen Grundlagen wesentlich bei. Anhand der Möll, der Traisen und der Donau werden unterschiedliche Aspekte der traditionellen Nutzung der Gewässer bzw. des Gewässerumlands im 19. Jahrhundert und die zunehmende Besiedlung und dadurch verursachte Änderung der Landnutzung im Zusammenhang mit dem Ausbau des Hochwasserschutzes dargestellt. Abschließend wurde die Verwendung historischer Datengrundlagen zur Rekonstruktion eines „natürlichen“ Gewässerreferenzzustandes beleuchtet. Die Möglichkeiten und Limits historischer Beiträge werden anhand einer Analyse von historischem Quellenmaterial aufgezeigt.This thesis deals with the development of Austrian riverine landscapes in the 19th and 20th centuries. The period covers expanding hydropower use as well as systematic river channelization and flood protection, enabling a risk-minimized establishment of permanent settlements in natural floodplains. This fundamentally altered natural river characteristics, transforming the formerly extensive riverine landscapes with regularly flooded zones into today’s channelized running waters. Some floodplains were already colonized in the later Middle Ages, and agriculture and forestry were the dominant land uses for centuries. Up until the 19th century, buildings were erected almost only for commercial hydropower production. Over the last 200 years the demographic development required considerably larger land surfaces for settlements, especially around urban centres. Floodplains were particular target areas. The expansion of municipalities towards the rivers demanded systematic river regulations and flood protection dykes. Engineering advances and an altered legal and organizational framework contributed substantially to their implementation. Case studies of the Moell, the Traisen and the Danube underline different aspects of the traditional use of rivers and floodplains in the 19th century. The focus is on land use/cover and changes induced by the expansion of settlements, channelization and flood protection. Finally, the use of historical data to reconstruct “reference conditions” of the rivers was examined. Based on the analysis of printed and archival sources, the possibilities and limits of historical contributions to reconstruct reference conditions were examined

Manual for the application of the new European Fish Index - EFI+. A fish-based method to assess the ecological status of European running waters in support of the Water Framework Directive.

This manual describes the new European Fish Index – EFI+ - and its application software. The EFI+ software and manual have been developed within the EFI+ project. The EFI+ project was funded by the European Commission (EC) under the 6th Framework Programme, “Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development”, Key Action 1: Sustainable Management and Quality of Water of the European Commission (Specific Targeted Research Project FP6-2005-SSP-5-A, Task 4: Ecological status assessment – filling the gaps). In the year 2000, the EC adopted a new legislation, the Water Framework Directive (WFD). This new legislation, now implemented in 27 EU member countries, aims for good ecological conditions in all surface waters. Fishes are, for the first time, part of a European-wide monitoring network designed to assess the ecological status of running waters. Between 2001 and 2004 the EC funded the FAME project developed, evaluated and implemented new standardised fish-based methods to assess the ecological status of running waters in Europe (FP5, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Management. Key Action 1: Sustainable Management and Quality of Water, EVK1-CT-2001-00094, http://fame.boku.ac.at).The main output of the FAME project was the European Fish Index (EFI), the first standardised fish-based assessment method applicable across a wide range of European rivers. The EFI employs a number of environmental descriptors to predict biological reference conditions and then quantifies the deviation of the fish community structure from these reference conditions on a statistical basis. The EFI was developed mainly based on data from Western and Northern Europe and was calibrated against estimates of human pressures and impacts. Although a wide range of river types was included in the development of the EFI, some river types, e.g. very large rivers, were underrepresented. The EFI has now been tested by European countries within their national monitoring programmes and has been evaluated for use for reporting under the WFD. During this evaluation process a number of limitations were observed in the performance of the index. Therefore, the overall objective of the EFI+ project was to overcome the existing limitations of the EFI by developing a new, more accurate and pan-European fish index. The scientific and technological objectives were to (1) evaluate the applicability of the existing EFI and make necessary improvements in Central-Eastern Europe and Mediterranean ecoregions; (2) extend the scope of the existing EFI to cover large rivers; (3) analyse relationships between hydromorphological pressures (including continuity disruption) and fish assemblages to increase the accuracy of the EFI; (4) adapt the existing software to the requirements of the EFI+ to allow calculation of the ecological status for running waters. This manual is divided in two parts. Part I introduces the concepts and methods on which the EFI+ is based. This section gives an overview of the development of the new European Fish Index and its achievements to fulfil the objectives of the Water Framework Directive in terms of using fishes as indicators for assessing the ecological status of running waters. Part II is the instruction manual to the web-based software. It details the fish assemblage and environmental data required and the process for obtaining scores and classification of the ecological status of a sampling site (or set of sampling sites) using the EFI+ online software

Co-creative Innovation for Sustainability: Creating Robustness in a Rapidly

Vienna is an exceptional river city because it is situated at the upper section of the Danube. Upper river sections are characterized by steep slopes, swift currents and high sediment dynamics, creating a dangerous neighbourhood for humans and their infrastructure. Between 1715 and 1783 alone, newspapers in the United Kingdom reported 14 times on Viennese bridges over the Danube damaged by ice floes and the ensuing floods, the situation obviously being bad enough to be newsworthy (Winiwarter in Costlow et al., 2017)