Wikienfk5 - User contributions [en]

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:36:08Z

Barbara: /* Points of success and limitations */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context I European Water Directive===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.
____
====Cultural/social/political context II LIFE-Environment ====

The specific objective of LIFE-Environment is to contribute to the development of innovative techniques and methods by co-financing projects. 4 areas are eligible for funding through the European Union:
• land-use development and planning;
• water management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of economic activities;
• waste management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of products through an integrated product policy.
LIFE is divided into LIFE-Nature, LIFE-Environment and LIFE-Third Countries. 47% of the total budget of the LIFE programme (€ 640 million) is spent for LIFE-environment.

The successful proposal for co-funding by the LIFE programme was an important basis for the project.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

Semi-natural riverbanks extend the green belt of Vienna
A comprehensive habitat, offering different flow velocity has been created
The area as a whole became an inviting area for users
Citizens participation played a crucial role in the project
Public Relations work accompanied the project, there were no major disputes despite major changes and a working period of more than 3 years

BUT:
The space between the river and the accompanying street and buildings is still rather small, which gives neither the user much space nor does it offer a habitat without disturbance for animals. More space for the river in case of high water would have improved flood protection.

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks
DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/life/environment.htm

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:35:50Z

Barbara: /* Analysis of design/planning process */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context I European Water Directive===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.
____
====Cultural/social/political context II LIFE-Environment ====

The specific objective of LIFE-Environment is to contribute to the development of innovative techniques and methods by co-financing projects. 4 areas are eligible for funding through the European Union:
• land-use development and planning;
• water management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of economic activities;
• waste management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of products through an integrated product policy.
LIFE is divided into LIFE-Nature, LIFE-Environment and LIFE-Third Countries. 47% of the total budget of the LIFE programme (€ 640 million) is spent for LIFE-environment.

The successful proposal for co-funding by the LIFE programme was an important basis for the project.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks
DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/life/environment.htm

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:34:41Z

Barbara: /* Cultural/social/political context */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context I European Water Directive===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.
____
====Cultural/social/political context II LIFE-Environment ====

The specific objective of LIFE-Environment is to contribute to the development of innovative techniques and methods by co-financing projects. 4 areas are eligible for funding through the European Union:
• land-use development and planning;
• water management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of economic activities;
• waste management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of products through an integrated product policy.
LIFE is divided into LIFE-Nature, LIFE-Environment and LIFE-Third Countries. 47% of the total budget of the LIFE programme (€ 640 million) is spent for LIFE-environment.

The successful proposal for co-funding by the LIFE programme was an important basis for the project.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Semi-natural riverbanks extend the green belt of Vienna
A comprehensive habitat, offering different flow velocity has been created
The area as a whole became an inviting area for users
Citizens participation played a crucial role in the project
Public Relations work accompanied the project, there were no major disputes despite major changes and a working period of more than 3 years

BUT:
The space between the river and the accompanying street and buildings is still rather small, which gives neither the user much space nor does it offer a habitat without disturbance for animals. More space for the river in case of high water would have improved flood protection.

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks
DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/life/environment.htm

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:34:13Z

Barbara: /* LIFE-Environment */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.
____
====Cultural/social/political context II LIFE-Environment ====

The specific objective of LIFE-Environment is to contribute to the development of innovative techniques and methods by co-financing projects. 4 areas are eligible for funding through the European Union:
• land-use development and planning;
• water management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of economic activities;
• waste management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of products through an integrated product policy.
LIFE is divided into LIFE-Nature, LIFE-Environment and LIFE-Third Countries. 47% of the total budget of the LIFE programme (€ 640 million) is spent for LIFE-environment.

The successful proposal for co-funding by the LIFE programme was an important basis for the project.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Semi-natural riverbanks extend the green belt of Vienna
A comprehensive habitat, offering different flow velocity has been created
The area as a whole became an inviting area for users
Citizens participation played a crucial role in the project
Public Relations work accompanied the project, there were no major disputes despite major changes and a working period of more than 3 years

BUT:
The space between the river and the accompanying street and buildings is still rather small, which gives neither the user much space nor does it offer a habitat without disturbance for animals. More space for the river in case of high water would have improved flood protection.

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks
DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/life/environment.htm

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:33:07Z

Barbara: /* LIFE-Environment */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.
____
==== LIFE-Environment ====

The specific objective of LIFE-Environment is to contribute to the development of innovative techniques and methods by co-financing projects. 4 areas are eligible for funding through the European Union:
• land-use development and planning;
• water management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of economic activities;
• waste management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of products through an integrated product policy.
LIFE is divided into LIFE-Nature, LIFE-Environment and LIFE-Third Countries. 47% of the total budget of the LIFE programme (€ 640 million) is spent for LIFE-environment.

The successful proposal for co-funding by the LIFE programme was an important basis for the project.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Semi-natural riverbanks extend the green belt of Vienna
A comprehensive habitat, offering different flow velocity has been created
The area as a whole became an inviting area for users
Citizens participation played a crucial role in the project
Public Relations work accompanied the project, there were no major disputes despite major changes and a working period of more than 3 years

BUT:
The space between the river and the accompanying street and buildings is still rather small, which gives neither the user much space nor does it offer a habitat without disturbance for animals. More space for the river in case of high water would have improved flood protection.

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks
DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/life/environment.htm

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:32:36Z

Barbara: /* Cultural/social/political context */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.
____
== LIFE-Environment ==

The specific objective of LIFE-Environment is to contribute to the development of innovative techniques and methods by co-financing projects. 4 areas are eligible for funding through the European Union:
• land-use development and planning;
• water management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of economic activities;
• waste management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of products through an integrated product policy.
LIFE is divided into LIFE-Nature, LIFE-Environment and LIFE-Third Countries. 47% of the total budget of the LIFE programme (€ 640 million) is spent for LIFE-environment.

The successful proposal for co-funding by the LIFE programme was an important basis for the project.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Semi-natural riverbanks extend the green belt of Vienna
A comprehensive habitat, offering different flow velocity has been created
The area as a whole became an inviting area for users
Citizens participation played a crucial role in the project
Public Relations work accompanied the project, there were no major disputes despite major changes and a working period of more than 3 years

BUT:
The space between the river and the accompanying street and buildings is still rather small, which gives neither the user much space nor does it offer a habitat without disturbance for animals. More space for the river in case of high water would have improved flood protection.

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks
DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/life/environment.htm

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:31:36Z

Barbara: /* Cultural/social/political context */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.
____
The specific objective of LIFE-Environment is to contribute to the development of innovative techniques and methods by co-financing projects. 4 areas are eligible for funding through the European Union:
• land-use development and planning;
• water management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of economic activities;
• waste management;
• reduction of the environmental impact of products through an integrated product policy.
LIFE is divided into LIFE-Nature, LIFE-Environment and LIFE-Third Countries. 47% of the total budget of the LIFE programme (€ 640 million) is spent for LIFE-environment.

The successful proposal for co-funding by the LIFE programme was an important basis for the project.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Semi-natural riverbanks extend the green belt of Vienna
A comprehensive habitat, offering different flow velocity has been created
The area as a whole became an inviting area for users
Citizens participation played a crucial role in the project
Public Relations work accompanied the project, there were no major disputes despite major changes and a working period of more than 3 years

BUT:
The space between the river and the accompanying street and buildings is still rather small, which gives neither the user much space nor does it offer a habitat without disturbance for animals. More space for the river in case of high water would have improved flood protection.

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks
DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/life/environment.htm

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:30:46Z

Barbara: /* References */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Semi-natural riverbanks extend the green belt of Vienna
A comprehensive habitat, offering different flow velocity has been created
The area as a whole became an inviting area for users
Citizens participation played a crucial role in the project
Public Relations work accompanied the project, there were no major disputes despite major changes and a working period of more than 3 years

BUT:
The space between the river and the accompanying street and buildings is still rather small, which gives neither the user much space nor does it offer a habitat without disturbance for animals. More space for the river in case of high water would have improved flood protection.

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks
DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/life/life/environment.htm

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:27:17Z

Barbara: /* Analysis of design/planning process */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Semi-natural riverbanks extend the green belt of Vienna
A comprehensive habitat, offering different flow velocity has been created
The area as a whole became an inviting area for users
Citizens participation played a crucial role in the project
Public Relations work accompanied the project, there were no major disputes despite major changes and a working period of more than 3 years

BUT:
The space between the river and the accompanying street and buildings is still rather small, which gives neither the user much space nor does it offer a habitat without disturbance for animals. More space for the river in case of high water would have improved flood protection.

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

File:B-a.jpg

2008-11-25T13:24:04Z

Barbara:

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:23:40Z

Barbara: /* Analysis of design/planning process */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

[[Image:b-a.jpg]]

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:22:20Z

Barbara: /* Spatial analysis of area/project/plan */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

Copyright of pictures.www.life-liesingbach.at/web site closed after project end

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:21:20Z

Barbara: /* Spatial analysis of area/project/plan */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]

After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was divided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.

[[Image:2.jpg]]

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:20:54Z

Barbara: /* Spatial analysis of area/project/plan */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
[[Image:1.jpg]]
After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was dicided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.
[[Image:2.jpg]]

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

File:2.jpg

2008-11-25T13:19:44Z

Barbara:

File:1.jpg

2008-11-25T13:19:08Z

Barbara:

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:18:32Z

Barbara: /* Spatial analysis of area/project/plan */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was dicided into 4 project areas which were renewed one after the other.
[[Image:1.jpg]]
[[Image:2.jpg]]

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:17:40Z

Barbara: /* Spatial analysis of area/project/plan */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

The project started with the need of the canal system which run below the river bed to be renewed. It was clear, that this needed major financial input from the city of Vienna and it was decided to build a new wastewater treatment plant in the area next to river liesing. It was then decided to apply for additional funding from the EU in order to provide the necessary funding for an appealing and natural design of the river banks and the area close to the river. The application to the LIFE programm was sucessful.
After an ecological assessment of the actual sitution the area was dicided into 4 project areas which were renewed one ofter the other.

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:09:21Z

Barbara: /* Future development directions */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
There are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situation is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project better known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:08:25Z

Barbara: /* Analysis of use/users */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural area to a housing area lead to new user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a cycling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
there are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situytion is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project netter known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:06:34Z

Barbara: /* Landscape and/or urban context */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were started, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural areato a housing area lead to ne user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a ccling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
there are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situytion is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project netter known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:05:29Z

Barbara: /* Author's perspective */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
I choose this example personally because I know the area very well, I liked it when I was a child myself and I like to go there today with my family.
My approach is also to present a sucessful project which involves so many parts of the broad spectrum of landscape architecture specialist knowledge - from water managamenent, over design of the area around the river to project management including EU funding and public participation to actually politics - making such a big project happen at all.

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were atarted, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural areato a housing area lead to ne user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a ccling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
there are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situytion is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project netter known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-25T13:01:02Z

Barbara: /* Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Liesing River''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Vienna''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===

The river liesing project is not only a project about the revitalisation and about improving the habitats of a small river in a European capital, it is also a good example on how to fund such a big construction. It is a project with various landscape architecture offices involved and public participation played an important role, it was co-funded by the European Union. The river Liesing project includes various aspects of the profession landscape architecture, it is regarded as a sucessful project, although it is a pity that not the whole river within Vienna was subject to revitalisation, but only a certain part, where the reconstruction of the canal system below the river bed was necessary.

=== Author's perspective ===
* What theoretical or professional perspective do you bring to the case study?

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were atarted, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

[[Image:xy.jpg|thumb|400px]]
The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural areato a housing area lead to ne user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a ccling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]

=== Future development directions ===
there are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situytion is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project netter known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

File:Xy.jpg

2008-11-19T11:41:19Z

Barbara:

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-19T11:35:22Z

Barbara: /* Analysis of use/users */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''River Liesing''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===
*Please summarise:- e.g. Design Innovation? Planning Exemplar? Theoretical Insights? Lessons learned from its failure? [It doesn’t have to have been successful]

* Think about it from the view of another educator/student in a different country. Why should I use this case study in my teaching/education?

=== Author's perspective ===
* What theoretical or professional perspective do you bring to the case study?

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were atarted, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural areato a housing area lead to ne user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a ccling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]
[[Image:xy.jpg]]

=== Future development directions ===
there are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situytion is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project netter known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-19T11:34:38Z

Barbara: /* Analysis of use/users */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''River Liesing''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===
*Please summarise:- e.g. Design Innovation? Planning Exemplar? Theoretical Insights? Lessons learned from its failure? [It doesn’t have to have been successful]

* Think about it from the view of another educator/student in a different country. Why should I use this case study in my teaching/education?

=== Author's perspective ===
* What theoretical or professional perspective do you bring to the case study?

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were atarted, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is/was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural areato a housing area lead to ne user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a ccling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.
[http://www.wien.gv.at/ma42/parks/unterlaa.htm]
[[Image:Example.jpg]]

=== Future development directions ===
there are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situytion is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project netter known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-19T11:29:07Z

Barbara: /* Future development directions */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''River Liesing''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===
*Please summarise:- e.g. Design Innovation? Planning Exemplar? Theoretical Insights? Lessons learned from its failure? [It doesn’t have to have been successful]

* Think about it from the view of another educator/student in a different country. Why should I use this case study in my teaching/education?

=== Author's perspective ===
* What theoretical or professional perspective do you bring to the case study?

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were atarted, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is7was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural areato a housing area lead to ne user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a ccling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.

=== Future development directions ===
there are plans to rebuild all 23 km the river is running on City of Vienna area, but up until today no plans were published. After the end of the LIFE project the actual situytion is that there is less public relations work, less activity in the area. Before the construction phase little events were organised to include the habitants and to make the project netter known. It seems with the end of EU funding and finishing the aim to rebuild the canal below the river bed, the project is in a sleeping phase.

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-19T11:25:42Z

Barbara: /* Analysis of use/users */

'''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'''
{| align="right" width="300pt" style="background:Gainsboro; color:black"
|-
| '''Name''' ||style="background:Lavender"| ''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Place''' || style="background:Lavender"|''River Liesing''
|-
| '''Country''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Austria''
|-
| '''Topic''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive''
|-
| '''Author(s)''' || style="background:Lavender"|''Barbara Birli''
|-
| '''Completion''' || style="background:Lavender"|''2005''
|-
| '''Client''' || style="background:Lavender"|''City of Vienna''
|-
| '''Project costs''' || style="background:Lavender"|''about 50 Millionen Euro ''
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| [[Image:Liesing_projectimage.jpg|300px]]
|-
| ||style="background:Lavender"|
|-
| colspan="3" align="center" style="background:silver"| <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.204998" lon="16.246719" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250">
</googlemap>
|}

=== Rationale: Why is this case study interesting? ===
*Please summarise:- e.g. Design Innovation? Planning Exemplar? Theoretical Insights? Lessons learned from its failure? [It doesn’t have to have been successful]

* Think about it from the view of another educator/student in a different country. Why should I use this case study in my teaching/education?

=== Author's perspective ===
* What theoretical or professional perspective do you bring to the case study?

=== Landscape and/or urban context===
*Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Illustration:
Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

The river Liesing is located in the South of Vienna. It has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall, this lead despite the strict regulation in a concrete river bed to the river bursting its banks.
In Vienna river Lising has shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion earlier, but after a havy regulation in the 50ies followed by an even stricter regulation in the 70ies it was forced in the staight river bed, which lead to a low biodiversity and to the river running quickly.
After housing development in the areas around the river, mainly in the 90ies, first attempts to rearrange the surrounding and to adapt it to the new user needs were atarted, after two major fluds in the 90ies, and the implementation of the European Water Directive the City of Vienna decided for the revitalisation of a 5,5 km area of the river to be completely renewed and revitalised.

=== Cultural/social/political context===
The Policy background of this project is the implementation of the European Water Directive [[1]]
The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

=== History ===
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

==== The specific aims of the projects were: ====

[[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|300px|left|Please add subtitle here]]
*Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
*Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
*Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
*Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
*International exchange of project results.

After valuation of the actual state, a project structure has been developed by the landscape architecture office Knoll and the City of Vienna, Departments 30 and 45.

The area has been divided into 4 sections, the following landscape architecture offices in Vienna were comissioned to design the areas according to the master plan by office Knoll

=== Spatial analysis of area/project/plan===
*What are the main structural features?
*How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of program/function ===
* What are the main functional characteristics?
* How have they been expressed or incorporated?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of design/planning process ===
* How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
*Were there any important consultations/collaborations?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Analysis of use/users ===
* How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
* Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

The area around River Liesing used to be an acricultural area in the City of Vienna, the area is7was part of the Vienna Green Belt. Despite all efforts of the department responsible to protect the green belt of Vienna more and more plots are offered to building activities as the area is affordable and since the construction of a new main road in the South of Vienna (S1) very well connected to the road system.
This change from an agricultural areato a housing area lead to ne user groups on the river banks. Mainly families with children sometimes elder persons are seen in the area, cycling and running are the most common sports done in the are since a ccling path has been constructed in the early 90ies.
In context of the LIFE project also childrens playgrounds have been built, one, the best known is a water playground, where children can build with mud and water in an area designed to be a pirates place.
There are few user problems in this area, as the area is big and although there is a good number of users on sunny weekends not overrun, mainly due to the fact, that it is hard to reach it using public transport and the housing areas around are not densly build.

Ecological aspects are crucial in this project, it was the aim of the project to improve/ build habitats. So water animals and all kind of macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species have to be added as "users" in this context as well.

=== Future development directions ===
* How is the area/project/plan evolving?
* Are there any future goals?
Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

=== Peer reviews or critique ===

Among the scientific monitoring activities of this project is the study MONITORING RESULTS OF REVITALISATION MEASURES
ON AN URBAN LOWLAND RIVER (LIESINGBACH, VIENNA, AUSTRIA) by Panek K., Korner I., Lang H., Markut T., Petz R., Petz W., Siegl W. published at the 4th ECRR Conference on River Restoration Italy, Venice S. Servolo Island 16-21 June 2008

The main conclusions of their work is: (taken from the abstract)
The ecological monitoring commenced at the end of the year 2004 and ended in
2007. Investigated parameters were river morphology, sediment composition,
vegetation ecology, dragonflies, carabids, ciliates, macrozoobenthos and fish. This
showed that the morphological setting has dramatically improved resulting in an
increased variability in water depth, channel width and bank design. Wet and damp
sites with typical plant species developed. Riparian wood was planted in sections but
it still needs time to provide a considerable river shadowing. The species richness of
carabids increased distinctly reflecting an improvement in habitat heterogeneity. In
particular, ripicol carabids, which were rarely found before the revitalisation, appear
in considerable numbers now. Dragonflies were also nearly missing before, but 15
spp., including endangered and protected taxa, occur frequently now. At least 5 spp.
of these are considered autochthonous. While only some young specimens of four
fish species were found prior to the restoration, 16 species were detected afterwards
and the dominant taxa occurred with all age classes. Even some of the less frequent
species are now obviously spawning within the reconstructed river stretch.

Other monitoring activities were done in context of the LIFE project, which contributed significantly to project funding for public participation and public relations work.

=== Points of success and limitations ===
*What do you see as the main points of success and limitations of the area/project/plan?
Illustration: Summary table

=== What can be generalized from this case study? ===
*Are there any important theoretical insights?
Short statement plus background notes

=== Which research questions does it generate? ===
Short statement plus background notes

=== Image Gallery ===

<gallery caption=" " widths="150px" heights="150px" perrow="5">
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
Image:yourimage.jpg|your image text
</gallery>

=== References ===
Please add literature, documentations and weblinks

----
[[Category:Case Study]]
[[Category:Water management and Urban water]]
[[Category:Austria]]
[[Category:Vienna]]
[[Category:Working Group Nature Conservation]]
[[Category:Working Group Urban Water]]

About categories: You can add more categories by copying the tag and filling in your additional categories

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-19T11:15:23Z

Barbara: /* Peer reviews or critique */

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-19T11:09:39Z

Barbara:

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-19T11:08:59Z

Barbara:

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-11T09:34:04Z

Barbara: /* History */

File:Example.jpg

2008-11-11T09:32:39Z

Barbara: Project structure by Office Knoll

Project structure by Office Knoll

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-11T09:30:08Z

Barbara: /* History */

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-11T09:21:31Z

Barbara: /* History */

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-11T09:20:53Z

Barbara: /* History */

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-11T09:19:42Z

Barbara: /* Cultural/social/political context */

1

2008-11-11T09:19:25Z

Barbara: New page: DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

DIRECTIVE 2000/60/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 23 October 2000, Establishing a framework for Community action in the field of water policy

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-11T09:18:35Z

Barbara: /* Cultural/social/political context */

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-11T09:15:06Z

Barbara: /* Landscape and/or urban context */

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-11T09:13:29Z

Barbara: /* Landscape and/or urban context */

Urban Landscape Seminar Case Study List

2008-11-08T13:46:21Z

Barbara: /* Urban ecology and Nature conservation */

''Dear Participants - Please add the title of your case study to the corresponding chapter. You can add your title to several chapters if your case study relates to more than one topic. This title will later on become the link to your case study page. Please consider this title carefully.
''

----

[[Image:Topicmap_urbanlandscapes.jpeg|right|Urban Landscapes Topic Map|300px|none|thumb]]
[[Image:Theme_selection.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Participants localise their case studies (October 29th, plenary session)]]

== Open Space Elements ==
=== Gardens ===
=== Parks ===
*[[Lettenareal]]
''History of a popular park in the heart of Zürich, Switzerland'' by Louis Wenger

* [[Petuelpark]]
''An artistic and cultural project, Munich, Germany'' by Martina Tuda

*[[Mauerpark]]
''Design in mission to bring people together'' by Haris Piplas

=== Squares ===
*[[Smithfield Square]]
''An old horse market in Dublin, Ireland. Redeveloped as a public open space as part of the re-generation of inner city Dublin'' by Eunan O`Donnell

=== Streets ===
=== Sacred Places ===
=== Residential Environments ===
* [[Viikki]]
''An ecological housing area of Viikki in Helsinki, Finland'' by Virpi Vertainen

* [[Riyadh]]
''The Diplomatic Quarter, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia'' by Christoph Dankers

=== Commercial Environments ===
* [[Cihampelas City Walk]]
Cihampelas City Walk in Bandung city, Indonesia by Nino Christian Handoyo

== Urban ecology and Nature conservation ==

* [[Viikki]]
''An ecological housing area of Viikki in Helsinki, Finland'' by Virpi Vertainen

*[[Great War Island]]
''A natural river island located in the central city zone of Belgrade,Serbia'' by Jovana Kovacevic and Daliborka Stojakovic

*[[High Island]]
''15km east from Paris' Center: An educative program about the relation between humans and nature'' by Lolita Voisin, France

*[[Lake Mogan]]
''Conflicts among the stakeholders of Lake Mogan Special Protection Area during the conservation'' by Emel Baylan and Bihter Bingül, Turkey

== Urban redevelopment and revitalisation / Brownfields ==
*[[Lincoln]]
''Planning for expansion: the reinvention of Lincoln, a small town in New Zealand'' by Paul Wilson

* [[Karlsruhe]]
''The contribution of landscape architecture to urban redevelopment and revitalisation: A case study exemplified by the east quarter of Karlsruhe (Germany)'' by Joerg Kappler

== Water Management and Urban Water ==
* [[Hangzhou]]
''Rebuilding the memory of scenery for Westlake (Hangzhou, China)'' by Qinyi Gu

* [[São Paulo Metropolitan Region]]
''Green Infrastructure for the Informal Settlement in the Watershed Area of São Paulo Metropolitan Region (Brazil)'' by Thelma Hisayasu

* [[River Liesing, Vienna]]
''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'' by Barbara Birli

== Urban Design ==

* [[Petuelpark]]
''An artistic and cultural project, Munich, Germany'' by Martina Tuda

== Public Space and Civic Identity ==
=== Participation ===
* [[Paseo del Buen Pastor]]
''A cultural, recreational and open Space (Córdoba, Argentina)'' by Liliana Baldi

* [[Uggledal]]
''Uggledal, Göteborg - Comprehensive Plan, Sweden'' by Andrew Butler

=== Gender mainstreaming ===
*[[MFO Park]]
''Usage of the MFO Park viewed by gender (Zürich,Switzerland)'' by Yvonne Keller

=== Social inclusion ===
* [[Budapest-Józsefváros]]
''Regeneration Program in Budapest - Józsefváros" - renewal of retarded urban district with the involvement of the residents'' by Agnieszka Górniak

* [[Medellin]]
''Social Urbanism: Enhancing community building and social capital through public space. A case study in the city of Medellin, Colombia.'' by Camilo Calderon

=== Public relations ===

=== Civic Identity ===
* [[Petuelpark]]
''An artistic and cultural project, Munich, Germany'' by Martina Tuda

== Green Structure Planning - Strategies and Policies ==
=== Green Belt ===
* [[Schweinfurt]]
''The creation of a green belt as an impulse for urban regeneration in Schweinfurt (Germany)'' by Markus Peter

=== Green Infrastructure ===

* [[São Paulo Metropolitan Region]]
''Green Infrastructure for the Informal Settlement in the Watershed Area of São Paulo Metropolitan Region (Brazil)'' by Thelma Hisayasu

=== Transport / Infrastructure Planning ===
=== Urban Agriculture / Forestery ===
=== A wetland park in countryside for city===
* [[Taizhou]]
''This case is to design a wetland park in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China'' by Jing Bai

=== Regional park ===
* [[Rhein-Main Regional Park]]
''Regional parks as informal tool of spatial planning at the example of Rhein-Main metropolitan area, Germany'' by Nils Pudewills

== City Region ==
=== Peripheral Landscapes ===
*[[Buchrain]]
''Acoustic Problem by the highway in the village Buchrain - Landscape modification (Luzern, Switzerland)'' by Juliana Aschwanden

=== Urban Agriculture / Forestry ===

== History and Conservation ==
*[[Villa D'Este]]
''Villa D'Este Tivoli, Italy'' by Denise Ascione

*[[City Walls of the Historic Peninsula in Istanbul]]
''Urban Landscape Planning Strategies for Recovery of the City Walls in the Historic Peninsula of Istanbul.Italy'' by Harun Ekinoglu

Revitalisation Steps

2008-11-08T13:12:15Z

Barbara: New page: The river lising has been divided in 4 sections on a length of 5.5 km in the area of the City of Vienna. <googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.14238" lon="16.372719" zoom="14"> </googlemap>

The river lising has been divided in 4 sections on a length of 5.5 km in the area of the City of Vienna.
<googlemap version="0.9" lat="48.14238" lon="16.372719" zoom="14">
</googlemap>

Urban Landscape Seminar Case Study List

2008-11-08T13:07:08Z

Barbara: /* Water Management and Urban Water */

''Dear Participants - Please add the title of your case study to the corresponding chapter. You can add your title to several chapters if your case study relates to more than one topic. This title will later on become the link to your case study page. Please consider this title carefully.
''

----

[[Image:Topicmap_urbanlandscapes.jpeg|right|Urban Landscapes Topic Map|300px|none|thumb]]
[[Image:Theme_selection.jpg|300px|right|thumb|Participants localise their case studies (October 29th, plenary session)]]

== Open Space Elements ==
=== Gardens ===
=== Parks ===
*[[Lettenareal]]
''History of a popular park in the heart of Zürich, Switzerland'' by Louis Wenger

* [[Petuelpark]]
''An artistic and cultural project, Munich, Germany'' by Martina Tuda

*[[Mauerpark]]
''Design in mission to bring people together'' by Haris Piplas

=== Squares ===
*[[Smithfield Square]]
''An old horse market in Dublin, Ireland. Redeveloped as a public open space as part of the re-generation of inner city Dublin'' by Eunan O`Donnell

=== Streets ===
=== Sacred Places ===
=== Residential Environments ===
* [[Viikki]]
''An ecological housing area of Viikki in Helsinki, Finland'' by Virpi Vertainen

* [[Riyadh]]
''The Diplomatic Quarter, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia'' by Christoph Dankers

=== Commercial Environments ===
* [[Cihampelas City Walk]]
Cihampelas City Walk in Bandung city, Indonesia by Nino Christian Handoyo

== Urban ecology and Nature conservation ==

* [[Viikki]]
''An ecological housing area of Viikki in Helsinki, Finland'' by Virpi Vertainen

*[[Great War Island]]
''A natural river island located in the central city zone of Belgrade,Serbia'' by Jovana Kovacevic and Daliborka Stojakovic

*[[High Island]]
''15km east from Paris' Center: An educative program about the relation between humans and nature'' by Lolita Voisin, France

*[[Lake Mogan]]
''Conflicts among the stakeholders of Lake Mogan Special Protection Area during the conservation'' by Emel Baylan and Bihter Bingül, Turkey

*[[Vienna Green Structure Plan]]
''by Barbara Birli''

== Urban redevelopment and revitalisation / Brownfields ==
*[[Lincoln]]
''Planning for expansion: the reinvention of Lincoln, a small town in New Zealand'' by Paul Wilson

* [[Karlsruhe]]
''The contribution of landscape architecture to urban redevelopment and revitalisation: A case study exemplified by the east quarter of Karlsruhe (Germany)'' by Joerg Kappler

== Water Management and Urban Water ==
* [[Hangzhou]]
''Rebuilding the memory of scenery for Westlake (Hangzhou, China)'' by Qinyi Gu

* [[São Paulo Metropolitan Region]]
''Green Infrastructure for the Informal Settlement in the Watershed Area of São Paulo Metropolitan Region (Brazil)'' by Thelma Hisayasu

* [[River Liesing, Vienna]]
''Restructuring and renaturalisation of a former 70ies "Concrete bed river" in the City of Vienna according to the European water directive'' by Barbara Birli

== Urban Design ==

* [[Petuelpark]]
''An artistic and cultural project, Munich, Germany'' by Martina Tuda

== Public Space and Civic Identity ==
=== Participation ===
* [[Paseo del Buen Pastor]]
''A cultural, recreational and open Space (Córdoba, Argentina)'' by Liliana Baldi

* [[Uggledal]]
''Uggledal, Göteborg - Comprehensive Plan, Sweden'' by Andrew Butler

=== Gender mainstreaming ===
*[[MFO Park]]
''Usage of the MFO Park viewed by gender (Zürich,Switzerland)'' by Yvonne Keller

=== Social inclusion ===
* [[Budapest-Józsefváros]]
''Regeneration Program in Budapest - Józsefváros" - renewal of retarded urban district with the involvement of the residents'' by Agnieszka Górniak

* [[Medellin]]
''Social Urbanism: Enhancing community building and social capital through public space. A case study in the city of Medellin, Colombia.'' by Camilo Calderon

=== Public relations ===

=== Civic Identity ===
* [[Petuelpark]]
''An artistic and cultural project, Munich, Germany'' by Martina Tuda

== Green Structure Planning - Strategies and Policies ==
=== Green Belt ===
* [[Schweinfurt]]
''The creation of a green belt as an impulse for urban regeneration in Schweinfurt (Germany)'' by Markus Peter

=== Green Infrastructure ===

* [[São Paulo Metropolitan Region]]
''Green Infrastructure for the Informal Settlement in the Watershed Area of São Paulo Metropolitan Region (Brazil)'' by Thelma Hisayasu

=== Transport / Infrastructure Planning ===
=== Urban Agriculture / Forestery ===
=== A wetland park in countryside for city===
* [[Taizhou]]
''This case is to design a wetland park in Taizhou, Zhejiang Province, China'' by Jing Bai

=== Regional park ===
* [[Rhein-Main Regional Park]]
''Regional parks as informal tool of spatial planning at the example of Rhein-Main metropolitan area, Germany'' by Nils Pudewills

== City Region ==
=== Peripheral Landscapes ===
*[[Buchrain]]
''Acoustic Problem by the highway in the village Buchrain - Landscape modification (Luzern, Switzerland)'' by Juliana Aschwanden

=== Urban Agriculture / Forestry ===

== History and Conservation ==
*[[Villa D'Este]]
''Villa D'Este Tivoli, Italy'' by Denise Ascione

*[[City Walls of the Historic Peninsula in Istanbul]]
''Urban Landscape Planning Strategies for Recovery of the City Walls in the Historic Peninsula of Istanbul.Italy'' by Harun Ekinoglu

Brief description of Project Background

2008-11-08T13:02:23Z

Barbara:

Geology:
The river Liesing lies in the south of the City of Vienna, close to the city border, it leads through the small town Schwechat after leaving Vienna and then merges with river Schwechat.
The river Liesing has two souces, the “Dürre Liesing” and the “Reiche Liesing”in the west of Vienna. While the Dürre Liesing arises from a limestone area, the Reiche Liesing arisies from the flysch limbestone area of the Wienerwald, which makes the river grow rapidly in case of heavy rainfall. In Vienna both rivers merge and have shaped the landscape through meanders, deposition of sediments and erosion.

In the 70ies the river was subject to a major revitalisation forcing it in a concrete river bed. Major housing development in the 90ies lead to a change in the sourrounding of the river with the setting up of small playgrounds and cycle roads next to the river.
Despite the heavy flood protection, in 1998 and 2000 after heavy rainfall river Liesing burst its banks.

Taking into account the "Water Directive" the City government of Vienna decided to rebuild the area comissioning various landscape architecture offices.
The aim of the project was to improve the situation at the river Liesing according to the EU Water Directive in order to archive “maximum ecological potential” of a heavily modified water body.

The specific aims of the project "Revitalising River Liesing" were:
• Improvement of the water quality to quality class II according to the saprobic system.
• Re-introduction of a diverse macrozoobenthos and river-specific fish species into the relevant river section.
• Establishment of a string of aquatic ecosystems with restored ecosystem function and structure which may function as aquatic ecological corridor extending far into the urban area.
• Creation of new habitats for priority species (council directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora).
• International exchange of project results.

Brief description of Project Background

2008-11-08T12:56:17Z

Barbara: New page: Geology: The river Liesing lies in the south of the City of Vienna, close to the city border, it leads through the small town Schwechat after leaving Vienna and then merges with river Sc...

Policy Background - European Water Directive

2008-11-08T12:53:03Z

Barbara: New page: The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which: (a) prevents further dete...

The purpose of this Directive is to establish a framework for the protection of inland surface waters, transitional waters, coastal waters and groundwater which:

(a) prevents further deterioration and protects and enhances the status of aquatic ecosystems and, with regard to their water needs, terrestrial ecosystems and wetlands directly depending on the aquatic ecosystems;
(b) promotes sustainable water use based on a long-term protection of available water resources;
(c) aims at enhanced protection and improvement of the aquatic environment, inter alia, through specific measures for the progressive reduction of discharges, emissions and losses of priority substances and the cessation or phasing-out of discharges, emissions and losses of the priority hazardous substances;
(d) ensures the progressive reduction of pollution of groundwater and prevents its further pollution, and
(e) contributes to mitigating the effects of floods and droughts

Government bodies of the EC member states are requested to implement the directive into national law and to identify river basin districts and responsible authorities (Art. 23, Art. 3) until 2003. The basic units of the directive have to be defined until end of 2004 (Art. 5). A monitoring network has to be established and accompanied by public relations work until 2006. In 2008 draft river management plans have to be in a form to be presented to the public. For 2009, the finalised river management plans should include milestones and an implementation plan to achieve the specific objectives (Art. 13, Art 11). Following this timetable it is expected that member states of the European Union will meet the environmental objectives in 2015.

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-08T12:52:02Z

Barbara:

* [[Brief description of Project Background]]

* [[Policy Background - European Water Directive]]

* [[Revitalisation Steps]]

* [[Situation today]]

Short description of Project

2008-11-08T12:51:29Z

Barbara: New page: * Geology * Situation before Revitalisation

* [[Geology]]
* [[Situation before Revitalisation]]

River Liesing, Vienna

2008-11-08T12:48:03Z

Barbara: New page: * Short description of Project * Policy Background - European Water Directive * Revitalisation Steps * Situation today

* [[Short description of Project]]

* [[Policy Background - European Water Directive]]

* [[Revitalisation Steps]]

* [[Situation today]]