Identifying and understanding of processes in river landscapes based on innovative geodata

The project “FlussAu:WOW!” aims to assess and evaluate crucial functions and processes of riverine landscapes particularly considering the floodplain area. Emphasis is placed on the investigations of integrative parameters, which reflect the ecological status of the river floodplains – comparable to landscape metrics in terrestrial ecosystem analyses. In combination with biological data it will be investigated, if this set of parameters provide a spatial and functional comprehensive methodological approach. High-resolution geodata („LiSA“ – Landinformationssystem Austria), which recently have been, generated in the framework of GMES (Global Monitoring for Environment and Security) form the central database for these analyses. Thus a further goal of the research project is to evaluate the potential of this complemented data set e.g. for applied tasks of river basin management and scientific investigations of spatial attributes of river landscapes in two test areas. Together with high school students the basics and requirements of geodata for ecological river management will be developed and transferred in a field protocol with professional guidance. The protocol will be practically applied at test areas in the course of student`s field mapping. The results will be incorporated into qualitative causal models. The students then will perform simulations with the help of these models and develop different river landscape scenarios. Thus the students‘ understanding of environmental processes in river landscapes should be advanced. Against the background of changing social demands and human uses this should lead to a more sustainable and environmentally conscious management of aquatic resources. An evaluation of the effectiveness of different methods of collaboration between scientists and high school students will be conducted during the whole project.