Research

The aim of this project is to assess the impact of summer low flows on the remobilization of pollutants from river sediments. The analyses are carried out for eastern Austria, where agricultural input and the predicted risk of climate warming on low flow and water temperature are particularly high. The innovative combination of data-based models with laboratory experiments and water quality monitoring allows an overall assessment of the sediment-related risk of quality impairment along the water network. The added value of the derived information is presented for three selected catchments and discussed with stakeholders with regard to water management relevance. From this, recommendations for future climate scenarios will be developed.

The City of Salzburg is currently preparing a new spatial development concept (REK-NEU). Based on a baseline survey, a methodology for the creation of planning recommendation maps is being developed within the framework of the project "Planning recommendation maps and measures for climate change adaptation in the city of Salzburg". The central research questions are: Which method can be used to create a "planning recommendation map urban climate" and which target areas and measures support the implementation of climate change adaptation?

Forests provide multiple services and have various effects on the habitat for humans, animals and plants. The current Austrian Forest Act is based on the principle of multifunctional forestry and specifies the protective, beneficial, recreational and welfare effects of forests. Climate change is increasingly affecting forest stocks and forestry faces major challenges in adapting to climate change. The recreational effect of the forest provides an important service for the general society and tourism. As the forest is undergoing major changes in the course of climate change, partly through active management towards a climate-smart forest, partly through altered natural succession due to changing site conditions (active and passive climate change adaptation), all effects and services of the forest are affected. Various forest monitoring systems map this change. However, to date there is no data collection system in Austria to record the recreational effect of climate-smart forests and to make their change measurable in the future. The aim of this project is to develop a concept for the extension of the Austrian forest monitoring systems to include the recreational effect of the forest and to test it. The result of the project is a coordinated and first-time monitoring system as a basis for future periodic surveys. Within the framework of the project, a nationwide population survey on the recreational effect of forest areas is planned in order to collect attitudes, knowledge, behaviour, perception and relationship of the population to the forest. In addition, expert interviews with landowners will be conducted and combined with the data from the population survey in order to also be able to analyse the view of forest managers on the recreational effect and to identify possible synergies and/or conflicts of interest at an early stage. In the final project phase, the indicators for recording the recreational effect of climate-smart forests will be linked to existing forest monitoring systems in order to collect them regularly in the future.