Transformation of Vienna Through Water Bodies in the 19th Century Essay

The Medieval Vienna was located in the primary section of the fast flowing alpine Danube which branded out across the northeastern part of the city. The river is located across central and eastern Europe with its origin from Germany. It is interesting to however note that since the beginning of the fourteenth century, and the following years, the river slowly moved away from the city and ultimately marked the start of the human distraction of the next five centuries that saw the river being displaced and other measures to try to maintain the river as a critical supply area for the city (Hohensinner et al.,05). One of the things that make the Vienna city to stand out from the other medieval cities is the fact that its location in the flowing River Danube as opposed to the other cities that were located at the coast or the mouth of the river. It is interesting to note that in the fourteenth century, the movement of the rivers from the city had the authorities concerned and ultimately, intervening on behalf of the citizens. The paper analyses the displacement of the river in a scientific method, as opposed to the previous historical accounts of the situation.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The events that occurred in the 19th century are many. In the Habsburg Empire, the Danube River offered almost the only main natural channel. For several decades, the authorities conducted a regulation of the river from 1830s-1840s. In 1817, the first steamship came to place in the Danube, which resulted in forming the Danube Steamship company in 1829, by John Andrews and Joseph Pritchard. Sooner than later, the company possessed 200 river beds and 51 steamships. 1851 is when the firm transported 21 tons of goods (Berend, 148). Between 1870 and 1875, they built a novel river bed which was located next to Vienna. The Iron Gate, which appeared to be a threat, blocked the pathway to the Black Sea and necessitated a lot of work to open it, which took decades to complete it. Lastly, between 1830 and 1895 Danube constructed one of the main channels, which made it accessible to traffic from the Black Sea to Vienna and Ulm. At the start of the 19th century, creeks crossing the town were still part of the city space. By various means, their water was used as a source of powering pounders and other waterworks. Rivers were used as transportation means, as cleaning agents in domestic and business contents and as habitations for fish and other water creatures. At a larger scale, there came into focus the use of banks and deltas, other essentials of the city waterscape such as water fields and riparian woodlands. They served purposes of grazing cattle and produced food, or acted as hunting fields for nobility.

In the new Danube today, there has been a reduced loss in the pipe system too. The sewer scheme covers the entire area of the town the treatment of the sewage is according to the up-to-date technology. There has been a long history towards the development phase, and high capital was required to cover the particular budget. Even though the Danube was regulated over the past

100 years, there still exist some water meadows of great sizes currently, the existence of, and the excellent supply of the quality of water in these water bodies are sustained by a combination of both Eco-hydrological and technical intervention as well as ambitious management. However, the threats of floods never cease to exist, and proper planning is a requirement to offer space for the discharges of the surge and at the same time save some portions of the water vegetation from extermination. To achieve this goal, a true political will is needed to come to ecological solutions and a public that has knowledge of environmentally effective resolutions and accepts the associated budget.

The project of transformation of the river was an initiative of the city council of Vienna through the City frameworks strategy in conjunction with the participation of the citizens.

Several studies, both historical and architectural studies have been set as a measure to try and establish some of the reasons that made the river to move away from the city (Hohensinner et al.,07). The transformation of the city can be explained through the study of the historical aspects of the city. The changes that were witnessed before the 19th century and those that took place in 1683 can be said to be against the regulations. Efforts have improved over time and ultimately culminated to the regimentation of the river Danube between 1870 and 1875. Although the regulation that has been set aside by the authorities has often been assumed to be definitive, the measures have eventually turned out to be temporary.

Vienna is situated in one of the highly prosperous regions of Europe. The location has continued to create the background of all environmental and socio-economic aspects related to the town and the aquatic habitats. In the sixteenth century, large public housing complexes and single housing had grown into regions to the north as well as northeast of the Danube River. The two sections of the rivers are situated amid the eastern limit of the European Alps, which is created by a chain of small mountains, Carpathian and Balkan mountain ranges, and a wide geological basin towards the east and south.

Constructed areas total to around 14,000 hectares, while the green regions occupy approximately 2,000 ha and communicating and traffic corridor regions sum to about 6,000 hectares (Iwona, Jiri & Pascal, 196). Before the regulation of the Danube in Vienna, the Lobau was among the numerous islands in the natural river corridor. Arguments on how to deal with the threat of the floods of Danube took more than two centuries. Back up plans began in the late 1860s, and leveling of the river path and cutting of the core river arms and wanders, were completed by the year 1880. Immediately, the regulation began deepening the bed of the river (Grubler, 187). Some oxbows and former side-channels form habitats for a multitude of aquatic plants in the current world, a majority of them called for in the Red Lists as species in danger.

In the year 1854, floods caused by the rising levels of the Danube River destroyed the flood protection dams and flooded that that of northern and southeastern regions of Vienna, and it appeared to be with a 100-year return period. The flood made the people look for ultimate systems that could protect the environment from floods, which included the New Danube flood relief channel parallel to the main river bed, as well as the Danube Island which was flanked between these two rivers (Walling & Arthur,195). The phenomenon was caused by the increased human interaction with the river, destroying its banks and the beds that had previously contained the beds. There began intensive biological research in 1985 which was carried out by a team of

Viennese limnologists were in alliance with engineers and architects to determine an Eco hydrological approach. The survey, which comprised of all water surfaces in Vienna, was an effective information base for the scheduling team.

The town and the river co-existed for years, and catastrophic floods troubled Vienna since it appeared from a Roman camp into an old-fashioned town. For instance, during the 1340s, floods took place almost annually, in tandem with a plague and an earthquake, wiping at around one-third of the city populace. Consequently, the Viennese had preserved for years with the hazard of floods, and a number of the populates had personal memories of the most recent major flooding of the Danube, which killed 74 people and only took place 32 years beforehand in 1830.

Nonetheless, the flood of 1862 was vital since it occurred at a moment when a Rapid City development program fundamentally transformed not just the function of the river in city life but also outlooks and ideas that are connected with nature (Wohl, 117). There had been various measures for years to control the portion of the Danube Canal, which took place between Stephansplatz and Leopoldstadt city. Nevertheless, the more massive streams and waterways running near the increasing poor centers were less regulated until the 1869-75 when the Danube regulation concentrated them in one riverbed. According to humorous stories, the disaster affected not only the relationship of the populace to their environment but their fellow humans as well. As the environment was abruptly transformed, public relations, entrenched in space, were rapidly upset.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Danube River created a complex of essential waterways, Anastomosing side channels, meandering smaller running waters and an uncounted number of Floodplains, pools and water bodies into a river corridor up to several kilometers wide (Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology, 282). Following extremely destructive floods, the regulation of the river began in 1875 and within the limits of the town a single straightened core channel was built that comprised of inundation areas on the left bank. The waterway that heads towards the historical city center, where a former harbor and business region were located, was transformed into a canal with embankments over most of its length. All other channels and floodplain waters were either filled in to provide new development areas or were cut off to become backwaters.

Some of the transformations made in Europe during the 19th century are similar to those made in the rest of Europe. Similar to Vienna, in Europe, engineering of the river, motivated by flood resistance, farming land retrieval, and steering transformed the river of Rhine from a morphological condition of near-natural to a restrained channelized stream, during the 19th century. Sewage system improvement is another comparison between Europe and Vienna.

Between 1970 and 1990, constructors spent 40 billion euros on setting up of new and efficient facilities of sewage treatment (Tockner et al.,1). The financial aspect is another aspect of transformation within these two places. The experiences from history show substantial economic advantage from the river renovations and revitalization procedure for a city. The many improvements and alterations within the two towns have had excellent benefits to the citizens.

Vienna is a city that evolved and can be dated back to the past two thousand years, and whose development can be traced back to two thousand years ago. The evolution of the said structures is evident that it is a development that took place from a definite amount of time. Some of the developments that took place include, the Danube River being canalized, city hall square and the city hall that saw the developments that had taken place for an approximate of a thousand years finalized. The fact that the Danube River was being canalized saw the people have more space to have their housing developments and which ultimately encouraged the people to move in the city leading to the urban growth. The above-stated transformations saw the person having more chances of having their buildings built on a landscape that was not only aesthetically appealing but also one that was advantageous from an economic perspective. The incorporation of the ideas and designs that saw the architecture and the concepts of the designs changed over the above-discussed transformation because of the changes in the water bodies. Buildings such as the City

Hall and the City Hall Square saw them constructed because of these obvious changes. In addition, the construction of the walls saw the project completed, that had begun over a thousand years ago. The transformation of the waters that was inspired by the fact that the people were now involved in activities that were bound to depreciate the water levels of the river such as lumbering and farming indiscriminately. Such measures however inconsequential th...