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Environmental History of the Viennese Danube 1500 - 1890

Projektleitung Haidvogl Gertrud
Orgeinheit Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management
Laufzeit 15.05.2010 bis- 14.10.2012
Research project (§ 26 & § 27)
Programm keines
Geldgeber Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
Kompetenzfelder 
  • Wasser - Atmosphäre - Umwelt
  • Lebensraum und Landschaft
  • Ressourcen und gesellschaftliche Dynamik
  • Forschungscluster "Landschaft & Entwicklung"
  • Forschungscluster "Globaler Wandel"

Abstract

This project aims to produce the first integrated, interdisciplinary environmental history of the Viennese Danube from Early Modern times to the end of the 19th century. As environmental history, it is situated on the interface of several scholarly fields and strives to bridge approaches. Social and natural dynamics are equally important, the project focuses on their interaction. The project consists of three thematic subprojects. We will study how humans perceived of riverine landscapes, which strategies guided land use along the river’s course, how the river shaped patterns of supply and disposal of materials for the city, how the population of Vienna was affected by catastrophic floods, and how the river itself was changed and changed its characteristics over the roughly 400 years investigated. The subprojects are connected via two cross-cutting issues. One is the critical reflection of sources and their usability for environmental history. Secondly, we shall establish a concept-based synthesis to integrate the results, adequately dealing with the complexity of interactions within and around the city over time. Thematic integration is fostered by five overarching research questions. We will focus on the changing role of the river Danube from 1500 to 1920, on the functions of the river for the city and its surroundings, on the interventions humans undertook to secure these functions and to protect humans and infrastructures from the rivers threats, on the long-term legacies of these human interventions into the riverine landscape, and, linking centre and periphery on the effects of the urban development of Vienna on selected regions along the Austrian Danube. The project breaks new ground as it broadens our knowledge of the role of rivers for an urban society in the time before industrialisation. It aims to widen the temporal scope of existing approaches to study e.g. energy supply or land use by systematically assembling historical sources from the 16th century onwards and making them available for the study of the river’s role in urban development. An array of methods will be combined and adapted, such as historical GIS, historical material flow analysis. The application and further development of these methods for their use in environmental history is a major achievement in itself. Our study will produce a multitude of results related to hydromorphology, urban metabolism or cultural representation, historical source reflection and concept-based synthesis. The results will be synthesized in scholarly papers.

Publikationen

Mitarbeiter*innen

Gertrud Haidvogl

Priv.-Doz. Mag.Dr.phil. Gertrud Haidvogl
gertrud.haidvogl@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81204

BOKU Project Leader

15.05.2010 - 14.10.2012

Stephan Brabec

Mag.Dipl.-Ing. Stephan Brabec

Project Staff

15.05.2010 - 14.10.2012

Severin Hohensinner

Dipl.-Ing.Dr.nat.techn. Severin Hohensinner
severin.hohensinner@boku.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 47654-81203

Project Staff

15.05.2010 - 14.10.2012

Externe Partner

Alpen Adria University Klagenfurt, IFF Vienna, Institute of Social Ecoloy, Centre for Envrionmental History

Univ. Prof. Dr. Verena Winiwarter

coordinator