Advancing freshwater restoration

My Focus and Approach

• My journey:
  I grew up in Upper Austria and came to Vienna for my studies. The interest for nature was inspired and supported by my parents, with their hiking and cross-country skiing activities. In the final years at school and early years at the University, I spent far more hours with my dog in the Bohemian forests than at rivers. The decision to choose the water and not the forest sector, was only given, by my angling activities. In 2016, I was in Norway with my family for a nine-month research visits. Snorkeling and working with the Wild Atlantic Salmon was for sure one of the highlights of my journey. 
• My Education:
  
  • After all the necessary school stops, I came to BOKU University at a time, where the access to knowledge was a privilege of the Universities, with their libraries and lectures. I studied landscape architecture and environmental engineering but from my master thesis on, followed by the dissertation and the habilitation, there was always the interest to study the “impact of dynamic processes on instream biota” which is now labeled under the subject “Ecohydraulics” at our University.
• The big change:
  I grew up at a river in the Northern Part of Upper Austria, the Gr. Mühl river. A river system in an old weathered landscape, with very small sediment supply compared to the catchment size. The river is naturally very stable, but was, and luckily still is, full of fish. Then, I came to University and heard about morpho- and sedimentdynamics in rivers and their important role for river ecosystems – and I thought, “hey, what´s that….” – That was the big change.
• Favourite part of the work I do:
  Being at the river, reading the habitats and landscapes in the short and long-terms perspective – compare what was already seen around the globe; - Getting inspired by nature. No KI can event touch this multiple impressions. That´s the basis for all the paper work and ideas for new projects, which follow later in the office.
• The biggest barrier and what I am trying to do about it:
  To improve something which was and still is very important, and which already did some major positive changes in handling European freshwater systems; - “The European Water Framework Directive”. Without the consideration of processes in the assessment, the deficit analysis and the implementation of mitigation strategies, the Directive will fail or improvements will be stopped on a certain level. Thus, river dynamics, driven by natural and anthropogenic modified coarse and fine sediment regimes need to be incorporated into the Directive. There is the strong need to step beyond the static assessment and classification of river systems with the goal – “As simple as possible but as complex as needed”.

My Journey