Bird's eye view!
The best perspective for surveying complex terrain is undoubtedly the bird's eye view. To this end, project partners from viadonau sent a drone on an important surveying mission to Paradeis Island, near Orth, at the Upper Danube demonstration site, during August.
As one of three project sites demonstrating nature-based solutions and an important ecological stepping stone, Paradeis Island is being revitalized by viadonau together with Danubeparks - Network of Protected Areas as part of our DANUBE4all HORIZON project.
Drone images of the island, shore zones and side arms were taken to provide an important planning basis in support of terrain modelling. The images build upon a solid data basis already established by viadonau's hydrographic experts. This knowledge base includes data on the waters surrounding the island and the upstream groyne field, which were collected by boat with the help of a multibeam echo sounder.
This latest survey expands the overall data situation, providing precise topographical data on the area of future measures, which is an indispensable treasure trove for the optimal planning of our upcoming renaturation measures.
Images courtesy of viadonau
Stakeholder Planning Visit
Images courtesy of viadonau
On September 18th representatives of the DANUBEPARKS Association, the LIFE WILDisland project, the National Park Donau-Auen management, the Austrian Federal Forests (Österreichische Bundesforste - ÖBf), viadonau and the engineering company RIOCOM visited two project sites of on-going restoration projects in the Donau-Auen National Park, namely the Paradeis island complex (DANUBE4all project) and the Schwalbeninsel island complex (LIFE WILDisland).
The visit aimed to once again introduce the project measures and provide restoration measures to ÖBf on site, discuss the future access to the construction sites, and locate potential storage sites for the extracted embankment stones. The two revitalization projects are intrinsically connected since they both involve embankment removal and river re-dynamization and belong to the overall WILDisland concept for island conservation and non-intervention management.
ÖBf is an important stakeholder in the area, since the lands encompassed within the National Park are distributed among five different landowners. The largest share is held and managed by the Austrian Federal Forests (ÖBf), who together with the Donau-Auen National Park GmbH and the Forestry Office of the City of Vienna (MA 49), manage this important, protected area.
