Vienna

The Danube Island Project - Danube Island & The New Danube

 

The constant threat of floods inspired studies that centred on improving the flood protection infrastructure to protect the city from future damage.  Citizens of Vienna proposed a project that involved the construction of a flood bypass canal called the ‘New Danube’ and would use the material excavated from the canal to create a flood free island called Danube Island. 

 

Creating this island between the waterway and the existing riverbed would allow for the diversion of water through the New Danube during flood periods and the discharge would be regulated through the implementation of weirs.  These inlet structures were located “at the upstream end of the New Danube and two weirs maintain the water level in the New Danube”. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The New Danube would also serve to improve the water quality of the river.  Features on the canal and island “include opportunities for surface water circulation… and banks on the island and canal were designed with the natural habitat to ensure band filtration and avoid plant species that had contributed to nutrient reduction”.  Construction of the canal and island began in 1972 and was completed in 1988.  The “length of the New Danube and the Danube Island is 21.1 km, with a channel width of about 150 meters and a varying width of the island of 70 to 210 meters”.