The cross-border area between Austria and Slovakia at the Danube still hosts some remarkably valuable natural areas, despite their deterioration by river embankment, straightening of the river, the backwater of the river upstream of Gabcikovo dams, and many more problems.
The Slovak and Austrian partners of the DANUBEPARKS Network (BROZ, State Nature Conservancy Slovakia, Donau-Auen National Park) are preparing a cross-border concept for joint and coordinated management and revitalization of this area. The goal is to bring back and keep again natural dynamics wherever possible.
BROZ has now published a study that contributes significantly to this concept: The plans for the revitalisation of the Danube distributary in the Devín area suggests concrete solutions for the renaturalization of the hydrology in the area.
As a first step towards implementation, a meeting was held on July 21st in Bratislava, with participants from BROZ, State Nature Conservancy, the Regional Environmental Office, the mayor of Devín, the Slovak Water Management Enterprise and the Bratislava Drinking Water Company. Next steps to follow will be the detailled technical planning and achievement of the necessary permissions were. The next bilateral meetings with the relevant authorities were fixed already. These are important steps for an implementation, that we hope can start soon!