Auenrevitalisierung – Potenzial und Grenzen am Beispiel der Lobau, Nationalpark Donau-Auen | Floodplain revitalization: potential and limitations as seen in the Lobau, Donau-Auen National Park

What is now Vienna’s Lobau floodplain is a remnant of a much larger, dynamic floodplain region on the left bank of the Danube. Efforts to regulate the river’s flow in the late 19th century resulted in an almost complete separation of the area from the main channel, and the resultant hydrological and ecological deficits call for sustainable revitalization measures for the Lobau that preserve the area’s high natural value and support a stronger hydrological dynamic closer to its original character, without sacrificing essential current forms of use like flood protection and drinking water production.In the following, various already completed and planned remedial measures for the Upper and Lower Lobau are presented, and their effects on the area in question, their potential but also their limitations with regard to restoring the dynamic of the floodplains and lastingly reversing local processes are discussed. The revitalization project for the Upper and Lower Lobau pursues a conservation-based approach that is above all intended to compensate for hydrological deficits in the extremely degraded Upper Lobau and safeguard the status quo there. Initial research results are promising, confirming positive effects on water quality and habitats in the Upper Lobau. Given the increased water levels, the efforts planned for the Lower Lobau will at least generate a certain dynamic in its upper range (moderate floodplain revitalization). However, a far-reaching reversal of the processes currently at work in the Lower Lobau will require large-scale revitalization efforts that secure a dynamic linking of the area to the Danube, including periodic high flow-through rates; these in turn will support morphological redistribution processes, initiating broad-scale and lasting habitat changes.