Water Engineering

Value of water engineering interventions in the past and in the present in well-chosen watercourses taking account to the EU Water Framework Directive implemented in 2004

Background

Water courses change constantly. These changes may occur naturally or as a result of human intervention. Man has been ‘correcting’ rivers and brooks for centuries. The intensity and extent of these interventions has grown ever greater since the start of the industrial era. Whole water courses have been straightened, hundreds of kilometres of rivers have been dammed for the generation of hydroelectric power and sluices have been installed to render them navigable. However, there has been a fundamental change in thinking in relation to waterways in recent times. Fewer interventions, the deconstruction of river buildings and the demand for a more nature-based focus are the prevailing concepts in modern waterway management and engineering. This change in emphasis was strengthened by the implementation of the EU’s Water Framework Directive in 2004, which requires a fundamental improvement in the state of Europe’s water courses. Compliance with this means that many severely altered waterways should be freed entirely from the engineering structures and measures that have been put in place over the years.

Objectives

The purpose of the study is to identify examples of where it may in fact be desirable to retain and actively protect certain old water engineering structures, because they are unique and possess an inherent cultural-historical value. It will be necessary, therefore, to determine how it might come about that these structures become worthwhile cultural-historical objects. Particular emphasis will be placed on the identification of the population and of the engineer with the respective objects. What were the wishes and expectations of the people at the time of construction of the water engineering structures? What conflicts arose? To what extent has the significance of the hydraulic structures changed in the intervening period? A knowledge of the respect and appreciation local populations had for rivers in the past is of particular importance when attempting to understand today's cultural-historical significance of water courses. Only through such an understanding can there be an appreciation of the need to preserve certain altered rivers and their constructions at a time when the prevailing aims are to free them of their ‘corsets.’ These questions will be examined in this study using as examples the Upper Rhine and the Swiss Linthwerk.

Method

The method employed in study will involve the analysis of various written sources.

Sommer 2006 - Sommer 2010

Eigenfinanzierung

Jürgen Schafranietz

Prof. Dr. Werner Konold