Hochwasser

As you may or may not have gathered, the beginning of June saw a rather wet time for central and eastern Europe. Weeks of unseasonal rain swelled rivers to bursting in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and many other countries. For inhabitants of many towns, cities and villages, this was a stressful, expensive and for a few even deadly time. I say this as I don't want to make light of all the damage done by the floods in the rest of this post, but as many know, the natural world in excess can be beautiful as well as dangerous.

The swirling floodwaters

The reason that allowed me as an inhabitant of Vienna to spend my time gawking and the high waters rather than worrying for my house is Vienna's rather effective flood defence system. In the 70s a whole second channel for the Danube was dug out, the material excavated from this was then used to build an island separating the new and old channels. The new channel, Neue Donau or new Danube, is usually sealed off from the Danube proper by large gates, making it still water and incidentally the only bit of the Danube that is even remotely blue. Together with the 20+ km Danube island, the new Danube spends most of its time being a much loved recreational area of Vienna, affording opportunities to swim, jog, relax, bike, eat pizza or whatever your heart desires, all in easy reach of the main city but somehow a million miles away.

When the floodwaters appear, the gates are opened and the second channel comes into use. With an almost doubled cross section, the Danube can handle much faster and more voluminous flows without breaking its banks. The gates were indeed opened during the most recent flooding, and like a number of Viennese I went out to take a look at our favourite recreational destination being used for its most important purpose! The danube islan and new danube are without a doubt one of the most effective and thoughtful pieces of town planning I know of, and a great example to the world's cities of how to improve and protect yourself at the same time!

The photos I took of this undeniably rather impressive phenomenon can be found as usual by clicking on a link.

Der Tom

BONUS FINNISH FACT: The finnish word for 'world', 'maailma', is an ancient compound of the words for 'earth'/'ground' (maa) and the word for 'air' (ilma)