Research

Climate change has an impact on the hydrology in the March catchment. Climate change modelling studies for catchments in this region show reduced soil moisture and increasing drought stress in the summer months. The aim of this project is to investigate which ecological measures can be taken to improve water retention in the Lower Austrian March catchment area. The results should support land users, regional policy and administration in adapting to climate change. The study focusses in detail on the following three topics: 1. climate forecasts and extreme precipitation 2. causes of declining water availability and challenges 3. nature-based options for action and their potential

The project "development in flood prone areas: assessment of flood management alternatives" has the goal to develope integrated strategies to reduce flood risk at the federal level to support the implementation of the EU flood risk directive. Previous project have shown the necessity to analyse and to assess the various flood risk management alternatives. There seems to be also the need for an improved communication and cooperation among the various actors in this domain. The instruments should be assesed with respect to legislative and economic criteria and their potential for integrated application to reduce flood risk. The deficits of the instruments should be assessed especially in APSFR regions.

The project "Dialogue Agriculture & Water" is a project of national and supra-regional importance that contributes to the achievement of national environmental protection goals and is intended to support the implementation of the Water Framework Directive, the Austrian Biodiversity Strategy 2030+ and the regional strategy "My Region. My Value" strategy. The overall goal of this project is to make agricultural use compatible with nature and water protection and to create and maintain an appreciative dialog. We want to approach this goal by creating a communication and possibly even cooperation platform between interest groups and stakeholders from the agricultural sector (chambers, farmers) as well as from science (water ecology, hydrology) and environmental and nature conservation (NGOs), which is specifically dedicated to the focus "water". The aim of this cooperation is to jointly discuss and analyze current areas of conflict in the field of agriculture and water protection, and at the same time to identify possible solutions.