SUPERVISOR: Gertrud HAIDVOGL

PROJECT ASSIGNED TO: Christian ZIMMERMANN

Within the past 200 years, the Danube has transformed through anthropogenic effects from an anabranching river to a channelized and "industrialized river," with significant effects on near-river settlements and societies as well as on the biosphere (Haidvogl 2008; Hein et al. 2024; Schmid 2022). During this long-ranging period, covering multiple political and administrative systems within the current Austrian borders, various regulatory and protective constructions, as well as hydropower plants, arose in the former floodplain of the Danube River, drastically changing its appearance (Jungwirth 2014).

One major goal of this thesis is to examine the reasons for this extensive construction process, identify the main drivers, and understand how they changed through different construction phases. In terms of river regulation, a significant research gap exists for the 20th century, except for the city and near-city area of Vienna (ZUG 2019; Hohensinner 2013a; Hohensinner 2020). To argue about a possible period during which the "industrialization" occurred, a material demand analysis of water construction measures such as different types of dikes, dams, and hydropower plants is necessary (Schmid 2023). Historic maps from various Austrian archives, as well as written sources, provide information about the type, position, size, and construction date of regulatory measures. These will be used to recreate the construction process of historic water-related structures along the Danube via GIS (Hohensinner 2013b; Haidvogl 2022; K.k. tech. Dep. 1909). While doing this, a close look at developments in technology and adaption in construction types, as well as the materials used, is obligatory to calculate a realistic material demand at multiple points in time. Through this method, combined with a historic political, economic, administrative, and technological framework, it is expected to identify several time periods of main construction activities with changing driving forces.

 

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The second aim focuses on the consequences of the large regulatory project. How did the occurrence and effects of extreme events like droughts and floods change during the regulation process (Haidvogl 2018)? Here, a particular focus on the "levee effect" is anticipated (Di Baldassarre et al. 2013). Engineering measures, such as the construction of dams and dikes, may have emboldened communities. Feeling "protected" by these structures, villages and cities expanded and "colonized" former floodplains, leading to the so-called levee effect (Di Baldassarre et al. 2013; Schmid 2022). Through case studies centered around catastrophic flood events like 1954, I aim to show how villages or cities coped with the consequences of their expansion when flood protection measures failed. In addition, it is also expected that the accumulated potential damage value in the case of extreme floods increased steadily, which might become a significant issue in future disastrous events (Eberstaller 2013).

 

References

Di Baldassarre, Guiliano [et al.]: Socio-hydrology: conceptualising human-flood interactions. In: Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 17/8 (2013), 3295-3303.

Eberstaller, Jürgen [et al.]: TP 7: Raumordnung und Hochwasserschutz am Beispiel der Traisen Siedlungsentwicklung und Schadensanalyse. 2013.

Haidvogl Gertrud: Von der Flusslandschaft zum Fließgewässer. Die Entwicklung ausgewählter österreichischer Flüsse im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Kolonisierung des Überflutungsraums. Vienna 2008.

Haidvogl, Gertrud [et al.]: Historische Landnutzung und Siedlungsentwicklung in Flussauen und Hochwasserschutz: Das Beispiel der Traisen und St. Pöltens 1870–2000. In: Österreichische Wasserwirtschaft 70 (2018), 305-315. 

Haidvogl, Gertrud; Hohensinner, Severin: Die Vermessung von Flusslandschaften in Raum und Zeit. In: Laussegger, Armin (ed.): Marchfeld Geheimnisse. Mensch. Kultur. Natur. Schallaburg 2022, 204-205.

Hein, Thomas [et al.]: Neue Wege in der interdisziplinären Fließgewässerforschung – Vorstellung des FWF-Doktoratsprogramms „Industrialisierte Flusslandschaften“ im Rahmen der Doktoratsschule HR21 an der BOKU Wien. In: Österreichische Wasser- und Abfallwirtschaft 76 (2024), 327-334.

Hohensinner, Severin [et al.]: Changes in water and land: the reconstructed Viennese riverscape from 1500 to the present. Water History 5/2 (2013a), 145-172.

Hohensinner, Severin [et al.]: Two steps back, one step forward: reconstructing the dynamic Danube riverscape under human influence in Vienna. In: Water History 5/2 (2013b), 121-143.

Hohensinner, Severin; Hahmann, Andreas: Historische Wasserbauten an der Wiener Donau und ihren Zubringern (= Materialien zur Umweltgeschichte Österreichs vol. 2). Vienna ²2020.

Jungwirth, Mathias [et al.] (ed.): Österreichs Donau. Landschaft – Fisch – Geschichte. Vienna 2014.

K. k. technischen Department der oberösterr[eichischen] Statthalterei in Linz a. D.: Die Donau in Oberösterreich. Geschichtliche Darstellung der Regulierungsarbeiten zur Ausbildung ihrer Fahrrinne (= Deutsch-Oesterreichisch-Ungarischer Verband für Binnenschiffahrt. Verbandsschriften Neue Folge vol. 43). Groß-Lichterfelde 1909.

Mohilla, Peter; Michlmayr, Franz: Donauatlas Wien: Geschichte der Donauregulierung auf Karten und Plänen aus vier Jahrhunderten. Vienna 1996.

Schmid, Martin: Kolonisierung von Natur. Ein interdisziplinäres Konzept und seine Erprobung in der Umweltgeschichte der Donau In: Fata, Márta (ed.): Melioration und Migration Wasser und Gesellschaft in Mittel- und Ostmitteleuropa vom 17. bis Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart 2022, 109-132.

Schmid, Martin: Der industrialisierte Fluss. Umwelthistorische Narrative zur Donau. In: Holzer, Anton [et al.] (eds.): Der montierte Fluss. Donaunarrative in Text, Film und Fotografie (= Schriftenreihe des Instituts für donauschwäbische Geschichte und Landeskunde). Stuttgart 2023, 17-33.

ZUG – Zentrum für Umweltgeschichte (ed.): Wasser Stadt Wien. Eine Umweltgeschichte. Vienna 2019.