Conference minutes and results - South

DANUBEPARKS STEP 2.0 & NEWADA Duo
Cross sectorial Conference on
River Morphology and Ecological River Management
16th – 17th October 2014, Hainburg (Austria)
Minutes, Outputs & Results
DANUBEPARKS STEP 2.0 & NEWADA Duo
Cross sectorial Conference on
River Morphology and Ecological River Management
16th – 17th October 2014, Hainburg (Austria)
Minutes, Outputs & Results
This cross-sectorial workshop brought together 40 experts from 8 Danube countries,
representing the nature conservation as well as the inland waterway sector at the
Danube river. Following the moderation by H. Gilkarov (via donau), first, introduction
speeches in the afternoon session on 16th October prepared the floor for the
conference:
In their welcome speeches, C. Manzano (Donau-Auen National Park) and H.-P.
Hasenbichler (via donau) underlined the need for an integrative approach for the
Danube river management and stressed the long and successful tradition of this
cooperation in Austria. The success of this cooperation was stressed by some slides
and a look out of the window showing best-practice river restoration projects
implemented jointly by via donau and Donau-Auen National Park.
The EU Strategy for the Danube Region is a relatively new framework for crosssectorial cooperation in the Danube region. M. Simoner and F. Ballnus, in their
function as Priority Area coordinators, stressed in their joint speech the multifunctionality of the Danube and highlighted co-existence and co-operation as the
two key factors for the positive development of all aspects. Both welcomed this
workshop as a concrete contribution to an integrative approach, which can become
reality only by joint activities and projects of the different stakeholders.
Project manager B. Kéri (via donau) presented the NEWADA duo project, its work
packages and the project objectives, and J. Muskatirovic (Plovput) added the
approach of waterway administration to combine the navigation requirements with
the very dynamic frame conditions (in the Serbian section) and the objective to
preserve river dynamics, and illustrated this with examples of detailed numerical
modelling.
Project manager G. Frank (Donau-Auen National Park) presented the
DANUBEPARKS STEP 2.0 project and highlighted possible fields of cooperation like
sharing expertise between the two projects or shared events. Finally, the WILDisland
initiative towards the establishment of the Danube Wild Island Habitat Corridor has
been presented as a concrete example of a Danube-wide joint campaign between
waterway and nature conservation sector.
In the cross-fertilization Workshop I, three working groups were defined, each group
showing a more or less balanced representations of sectors, projects and countries.
All three groups had two moderators – each from NEWADA duo and
DANUBEPARKS STEP 2.0. Many thanks to V. Gencheva (NEWADA duo), J.
Kneifel (NEWADA duo), T. Parrag (DANUBEPARKS), S. Polhorsky (NEWADA
duo), V. Rozac (DANUBEPARKS) and B. Tóth (DANUBEPARKS) for their inspiring
moderation.
To ensure a structured discussion, all groups were invited to focus on the following
questions:
-
example of “conflicts” or solved discrepancies in the cross-sectoral work in
your country
-
ideas how to improve co-operation between the two sectors in your country
-
ideas for a joint action/project in your section
-
expectations on Danube-wide projects for improving the cooperation
-
expectations on the WILDisLAND initiative (as well as open
questions/doubts)
Numerous ideas on these fields were elaborated in the working groups and are
summarized in the flip chart protocols and in a word document.
Please find all presentations attached to this
www.danubeparks.org and www.newada-duo.eu !
email
as
well
Please find all protocols of the cross-fertilization Workshop I in Annex B!
as
download
on
On 17th October, at the field trip in small rubber boats all participants experienced
one of the last free-flowing sections in the Upper Danube and got first-hand
information on cross-sectorial river engineering projects, waterway maintenance work
and National Park management. A small Study visit handbook summarized some of
the key messages of the field trip, having a focus on integrative river engineering,
river dynamics and restoration as well as the WILDisland initiative.
Representatives of the National Park and via donau presented the Danube section
between Wildungsmauer and Hainburg.
The following aspects were presented:
-) cooperation between ecology and navigation / integrative approach to projects and
preservation
-) view of pontoon excavator (for maintenance of the navigation fairway)
-) sediment management,
-) tour of the pilot project Witzelsdorf (by boat) – groynes optimization and riverbank
restoration > since the end of the works in 2009, a natural riverbank
-) tour of the Schwalbeninsel (by boat) – as an example of a„wild island“
-) stopover at the Pilot Project Bad Deutsch Altenburg –
-) visit of the LIFE project “Uferrückbau Hainburg” (by boat) - cooperation DonauAuen National Park and via donau – since the end of the works in 2006, a natural
riverbank of high ecological value
In the afternoon session on 17th October, in the frame of the Cross-Fertilization
Workshop II, the participants worked in two working tables:
A) Towards the implementation of joint activities: here the focus was on the
elaboration of joint cross-sectorial actions and possible follow-up
activities/projects (moderation: T. Hartl & M. Simoner/via donau)
B) Further development of the WILDisland inititative (moderation: J.
Muskatirovic/Plovput & I. Vasic/Vojvodinasume)
Table A) has built up on the first results of Cross-Fertilization Workshop I and
identified numerous possible actions and ideas for joint future activities and projects.
General agreement has been on the need for intensified co-operation between the
responsible waterway management authorities and the national park authorities on
national and regional level. One concrete proposal was to convene national
workshops between these actors in order to identify potential activities and projects,
which take into account the necessities of navigation (e.g. improvement of navigation
conditions via structural river engineering measures) as well as of environment (e.g.
wild islands concept). It has also become clear that the intensified dialogue will lead
to a better mutual understanding of the requirements which in turn is the precondition
for integrated solutions: One needs to know the “red lines” of the respective partner in
order to identify the potential for common solutions.
Several concrete activities have been proposed which are documented in the
respective flip-chart protocols:
Flip-chart protocols table A, group 1 (1-5) and group 2 (again 1-5)
Table B) started a detailed discussion on the WILDisland initiative.
Basically, there was joint understanding between the sectors to go on with this
concept. (For general information about this concept see presentation on the first day
by G. Frank, available as download).
Numerous open question has been raised (e.g. which islands are qualified for this
concept (stable islands vs. very dynamic sandbars) and several to-do´s were defined
(e.g. sharpen a joint understanding on wilderness/non-intervention management;
details on the implementation (self-commitment vs. legally binding)).
A first draft of the islands mapped for this concept (based on Google Earth) was
presented in printed version as base for discussion. Some participants stressed, that
this first concept is already cleared by their institutions by excluding islands for
different reasons (e.g. economically, infrastructure, huge number of visitors for
recreation), and the same process is needed from navigation sector.
It was underlined by some participants to start with the “easy” islands and, parallel to
this first step, to develop more complex follow-up actions/a joint follow-up project. In
this context, the idea to define “pilot islands” to discuss, to plan and to model complex
questions has been raised. Generally, a “short win” as a first step (until project end
Oct. 2014) by self-commitment vs. a long-term concept for more complex actions was
discussed.
As concrete outputs the participants agreed to go on…
-
jointly with the elaboration of a more detailed concept as base for discussion
with more detailed discussions on national level
In the final conclusions, B. Mandl, ICPDR, highlighted the need of such crosssectorial actions and presented existing frameworks as anchor and support for joint
ideas
In the final statements the project manager B. Kéri & G. Frank stressed the positive
atmosphere of the workshop, but also “existing red lines” for each sector and some
existing conflicts as well as needs for further cross-over consultation and discussion.
Based on the willingness and the interest of both sectors to go on with the integrative
process, consequently, NEWADA duo offered a follow-up cross-sectorial project
meeting in April/May (most probably between 8-10 April, 13-15 May or between 2222 May in Austria).
ANNEX A Outcomes of the 3 working groups of the Cross-fertilization Workshop I,
presented differently by moderation cards, as doc-file and as flip-chart protocols
Results of group 1
Results of group 2
1. Conflicts, example of solving conflicts.
Conflicts: Dredging, building new structures
Austrian examples
1. Rip-rap removement.
2. Hainburg project: Good example for joint thinking and for field research for learning.
Baja: Side arm restoration
2. How to improve cooperation?
- Forums, find concrete project ideas to solve different problems in one projects - find the
ballance
3. Idea for joint actions
- Reconstruction of old structures.
- Removing rip-raps
4. What do you expect from danube wide projects.
- Working and thinking together.
- Solve the problems of all interests - find the ballance.
- Less effects to ecology coming from navigation
- Changing regulation structures based on nature conservation needs.
5. WildisLand
- Declaration of ecological importance of gravelbanks, and islands signed by waterway and
environmental authorities.
- Creating new Islands considering navigation needs
Results of group 3 (flip chart 1-5)
ANNEX B: examples of presentation of the cross-sectorial conference in different
media