An Environmental History of the Danube

An Environmental History of the Danube

An Environmental History of the Danube
Fabian Starlinger / Irene Pallua / Verena Winiwarter
Intern: Fabian Starlinger
Report of the Rio+20 internship at the Institute of Social Ecology, Alpen-Adria-Universitaet
(Klagenfurt, Wien Graz)
Period: 01-31 August 2012
Supervision: Verena Winiwarter, Irene Pallua
Project context:
Title: Ausstellung Ardagger - Konzept und Umsetzung zur Ausstellung: "Umwelt Donau: eine
andere Geschichte."
Contracting authority: NÖ Landesarchiv
Team: Verena Winiwarter, Martin Schmid, Ortrun Veichtlbauer, Simone Gingrich, (IFF-SEC)
Gertrud Haidvogl and Severin Hohensinner (Institut für Hydrobiologie und
Gewässermanagement der BOKU); Jakob Calice (Ph.D student at Leeds Metropolitan
University)
Duration: January 2009 – October 2010
Title: ENVIEDAN - Environmental History of the Viennese Danube
Contracting authority: FWF
Team: Verena Winiwarter, Martin Schmid, Christoph Sonnlechner, Simone Gingrich und
Fridolin Krausmann (IFF- SEC) Gertrud Haidvogl and Severin Hohensinner (Institut für
Hydrobiologie und Gewässermanagement, University of Natural Resources and Life
Sciences, Vienna)
Duration: May 2010 - October 2012
During his Rio+20 internship at the Institute of Social Ecology, Alpen-Adria-Universitaet
Klagenfurt, Fabian Starlinger focused on the environmental history of the Danube. He chose
to study two projects. In the first project "Umwelt Donau: Eine andere Geschichte“, scientists
designed and implemented the first environmental history exhibition in Austria, which was
held in the former parsonage in Ardagger (Lower Austria) from May to November 2010. The
second project "ENVIEDAN - Environmental history of the Danube in Vienna 1500-1890" was
sponsored by the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) with the task to create knowledge on
environmental and historical aspects of the development of the Viennese Danube. The
projects focus on a variety of topics, such as trade and transport, construction of power
stations, regulation, navigation on the Danube, waste water management and, not least, the
way society deals with floods.
Fabian Starlinger chose two topics: dealing with floods and the regulation of the Viennese
Danube in the 19th century. His interest in the topics stems from personal experience, as he
lives in St Andrä Wördern close to the Danube and near Vienna.
Flooding past and present
Despite annual floods, people living near the Danube held until the 1950s that it was worth
colonizing the flooded areas despite the risk. The Danube sediment left behind after the
floods made soils fertile. It was relatively easy for people to adjust to “normal flooding”,
because they were used to the impact of floods and used their experience and knowledge of
former floods. Quite often, for instance, floods are announced by a "Gießwind”1. As soon as
signs of a flood were accumulating, the local fire department, which was founded in the
1860s, gave out a warning. From the 19th century onwards, a flood information service also
helped to alert the population. After such a warning, people started to move their furniture
and everyday objects to the first floor. Such behavior is called “passive protection”, it was the
common way for people to act. They let the flood come towards them rather than adopting
preventive measures such as building dams for keeping the flood away. Important buildings
were simply not built near the river. In many households makeshift kitchens were available
on the first floor in order to be prepared for a multi-day flood, animals were brought to the
attic and fed hay.
Only after the biggest flood disaster of the 20th century in 19542, many people decided to
resettle their homes outside the flooded areas. This trend continued and increased in the
1970s when a large part of the population gave up farming in the floodplains. The falling
prices for agricultural products and the resulting financial losses were also responsible for
migration (Calice 2010). After the flood of 1954, many things changed in the way of fighting
against floods, mainly based on the use of fossil fuels: The use of motorized vehicles
increased and changed the fight against the flood. Communication technology got a more
important role. Huge shelters were built. For the first time people believed that new
technological developments would enable them to control the Danube (Calice 2010).
Another disastrous flood occurred in 2002, reaching the extraordinary peak of 15.7 meters in
Ardagger (Calice 2010). Large parts of Machland and other areas in the Danube region were
flooded. The damage caused amounted to millions of euros. Figure 1 shows the extent of
flooding near Ardagger during a more normal flood. The effect of the dam for protection of
the village is clearly visible.
In the wake of the 2002 flood, the belief in technical solutions gave way to a realization of the
limits of technical flood protection, which led to measures of integrated flood management
such as the creation of retention areas, stricter zoning and the installation of warning
systems (BMLFUW, 2006).
1
“Gießwind” is a local term used in the Danube Region for a special kind of wind. Gieß is a word for high water,
Gießwind a wind announcing such a situation. It describes wind blowing from an unusual direction.
2
The flood of 1954 is regarded as one of the biggest floods in the history of the Danube.
Fig. 1: The Machland plain facing the village of Ardagger during a flood in 2009, with the
Danube flowing in the background towards the “Struden” gorge. (Source: Winiwarter and
Schmid 2010, S. 74)
The Great Danube Regulation: A river needs only one bed.
The history of Vienna has always been closely connected to the Danube, which also caused
floods in the city. The riverside location limited the spatial extent of the city, but at the same
time the river favored transport and economic development of the city. In the 19th century
population growth was high and it was necessary to expand the settlement area into the
floodplain of the Danube. This was one of the reasons why the Danube Regulation
Commission of the Habsburg Empire decided to start major flood control works on the
Viennese Danube. The works were carried out between 1870 and 1875. Without the use of
fossil fuels, modern technology and machinery this Danube regulation would not have been
possible. The regulation made new land available for settlement. Construction industry
boomed, especially in the areas which are today the 2nd and 20th districts of Vienna. The new
main branch of the river, which had been dug for flood protection and as a new route for
shipping, was 280 m wide and was considered a veritable engineering feat. Therefore, the
regulation of the Danube served as a flagship project of modern achievements at the World
Exhibition in Vienna in 1872.
Looking at the great regulation obscures the fact that in earlier centuries and especially in the
18th century regulation efforts were common, undertaken in order to create a lasting, straight
river (see Thiel 1904). The main hydraulic works of the 18th century consisted of structures
parallel to the banks or the direction of flow and of fixtures in the riverbed from the shore.
They were meant to prevent changes in the river course and river-caused erosion.
As a result of the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the political situation
in Europe changed completely. This event favored the development of the Danube into an
international transport route and had a bearing on the plans for regulation of the Danube. At
the Congress of Vienna, each riparian state promised to keep its part of the river in good
shape and - if necessary – to improve the waterway by structural measures. In 1850, an
imperial and royal construction authority for technical and administrative management was
founded and the Danube Regulation Commission was installed (1867). The two bodies
decided to develop further measures to strengthen the Danube as a transport route and to
improve flood protection. Various alternatives were examined. From an economic and urban
planning point of view, it would have been better to keep the river as close as possible to the
center of the city. But opponents of that plan were afraid that it would destroy the Prater
recreation area (Gierlinger 2012). Finally, the Commission decided to bring the course of the
Danube as close as possible to the Nordwestbahnhof to combine rail and ship transport
infrastructure (Veichtlbauer 2010, Hohensinner 2012). This decision and the regulation in
general have influenced Vienna’s development up to the present day.
Summary/Outlook
Both projects provide excellent insights into the environmental history of the Danube. They
show that human activities, such as flood protection, have changed the river’s course over
the last centuries. Measures were undertaken to promote the Danube as a transport and
traffic route. After these interventions, there are only few parts of the Danube which can still
be described as nature reserves. These comprise two regions which are important for
tourism and environmental protection alike: the Wachau and the National Park “Donauauen”
southeast of Vienna.
These two regions have another point common: they are the only areas at the Danube in
Austria where it would still be possible to build hydroelectric power plants. A power plant in
these areas would have a significant negative impact on plants and animals in the
“Donauauen” as well as on tourism in the Wachau. Politicians should be careful with regard
to any kind of intervention in the river, such as the construction of power stations or
regulation for flood control. Power generation and flood control are important – after his
internship Fabian Starlinger thinks it is as important to ask what we can learn from an
historical perspective about the costs of new interventions and pathways for a more
sustainable development.
Environmental histories such as the history of the Danube have a great potential to inform
politics and the public about the long-term consequences of interventions in the natural
system. Working even closer with people living in floodplains and with interest groups
representing different visions of the Danube’s future, the messages of environmental
historians could play a more important role for sustainable development.
Bibliography
BMLFUW, 2006. Hochwasserschutz in Österreich. (Flood protection in Austria), Bundesministerium für Land- und
Forstwirtschaft, Umwelt und Wasserwirtschaft. Wien.
Calice, J. 2010. Die normale, die katastrophale und die karnevaleske Donau. Der alltägliche Umgang mit
Hochwässern im Machland des 20 Jahrhunderts. In: Winiwarter, V. and Schmid, M.( Hrsg) Umwelt Donau: Eine
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