Go-ahead for Pilot Project Bad Deutsch-Altenburg

Pressemeldungen, via donau

via donau welcomes the latest decision, allowing a quick start of the pilot project at Bad Deutsch Altenburg. “We have obtained all the necessary permits and have met all requirements for the commencement of the construction work. The positive assessment of our project by the competent authorities shows that our approach of integrative planning was the right way to go”, said via donau Managing Director Hans-Peter Hasenbichler.

The Pilot Project Bad Deutsch-Altenburg was developed jointly by acknowledged experts from the fields of ecology, navigation and river engineering.

On a length of about three kilometres, the project provides for comprehensive measures to renaturalise the Danube, one of them being the reconnection of the partly silted-up Johler side arm to the main river. However, the most important measure will be the testing of a procedure, which has been developed in Austria and which is intended to prevent the further deepening of the Danube.

“As the procedure for the addition of coarse gravel has already proved successful in model calculations and hydraulic engineering experiments carried out at the Vienna University of Technology, its implementation in a spatially restricted field test marks the next logical step. This is what we understand by “gentle, gradual implementation”, and this is something we owe the Danube“. The project is endorsed by numerous scientists, environmental organisations, such as the WWF, and the Danube Floodplain National Park itself. A participation model will enable stakeholders from environmental NGOs to accompany the implementation of the project.

The beginning of the construction work will depend on ecological and navigation-related aspects.

Source: via donau
Photo credits: Nationalpark Donau-Auen/Kovacs