DANUBE4all is an EU project with the main task of developing a comprehensive action plan for the renaturation of river stretches in the Danube River Basin (DRB). To this end, a collaborative stakeholder process is being developed that actively incorporates the interests of citizens. The action plan is intended to contribute to the improvement of the ecological status, biodiversity and river connectivity of the Danube ecosystems and thus supports the EU mission OCEAN ‘Mission Healthy Oceans, Seas, Coastal and Inland Waters’.
The development and implementation of innovative and socially relevant nature-based solutions has a wide range of positive effects. In addition to the improved connectivity of rivers, possible scenarios for floodplains, reducing the risk of floods and droughts, and other socio-economically effective measures are an important focus. Renaturation projects on the Danube are being promoted with the goal of improving the continuity of sediments and positively influencing habitats/biota. These include the Danube National Park east of Vienna, a section of the river in Hungary and a measure on the Danube delta.
Nature-based solutions must be developed in collaboration with the affected population and supported by them in order to be effective in the long term. Renaturation processes tend to unfold slowly and require continuous attention and active support in order to be successful. Accordingly, the intensive involvement of citizens along the Danube is an important component that makes renaturation possible in the first place. A special work package supports interaction with citizens through the activation of citizen science. Citizen scientists are particularly involved in the development, implementation, evaluation and scaling of nature-based solutions, a citizen science method toolbox, and the development of communication measures.
In particular, DANUBE4all serves the following research fields:
common nase, © Robert Togel (Images courtesy of viadonau)
In view of increasing extreme weather events, including periods of drought and consequent water shortages, the protection and knowledge of springs in the Großes Walsertal Biosphere Reserve is becoming increasingly important. In addition to their essential role in water supply, springs are often small but important habitats for many endangered organisms. The pressure to utilise and develop existing springs has increased significantly due to climate change. In order to obtain a comprehensive overview of the existing springs in the valley, the KLAR! Biosphärenpark Großes Walsertal is launching a citizen science project.
Life Science AG, which has already successfully carried out a citizen science project to record spring habitats in the Black Forest biosphere area, will now transfer this project to the conditions in the Großes Walsertal. The tried-and-tested mapping and evaluation method records not only the location but also characteristics such as spring size, temperature, cultural-historical significance, flora and fauna as well as potential human influences. As an alternative to analogue recording, the Qfield app is also being adapted so that walks in the Großes Walsertal can quickly become small research trips.
As a model region for sustainable development, the biosphere reserve bears a special responsibility for the long-term protection of natural springs. We are committed to securing the supply of drinking water and simultaneously protecting the habitat for rare species. At the same time, we must ensure that the springs are utilised in the most environmentally friendly way possible to supply humans and animals.
As a first step, spring locations are to be recorded and mapped across the valley. In order to realise this as comprehensively as possible, we need the help of motivated people in the Großes Walsertal. The necessary knowledge and tools for the survey will be provided on Saturday, 12th October 2024, from 10:00 to 16:00 in a joint workshop at the Biosphärenpark.Haus. After the course, including a short excursion, all participants will know about these sensitive habitats and will be able to locate and document spring sites and make initial determinations regarding the type of spring. They will also gain an insight into the fauna specific to springs and learn what conclusions can be drawn from the existing spring fauna.
If you are interested, please register in advance with our Klar! manager Lukas Ellensohn at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. He will send you all further details about the programme.
Together we can limit the spread of invasive species and protect the biodiversity of our mountain regions!
Our Citizen Science project is dedicated to monitoring invasive alien species (IAS) in the mountain regions of the Karawanken Geopark. Invasive species are plants or animals introduced by human activity into regions where they do not originally occur, often through intercontinental trade. While most introduced species rely on human support to survive, some can adapt and thrive independently. A subset of these become invasive, posing significant threats to native ecosystems.
Invasive alien species spread rapidly because they produce large quantities of seeds, grow quickly, and have few natural enemies in their new environment. This allows them to colonize new areas swiftly and displace native species. They can also affect water supplies, agriculture, and human health.
Mountain regions are less affected by invasive plants, but the risk is increasing due to climate change and human land use. These species are often introduced at lower altitudes and spread along corridors such as roads, hiking trails, and watercourses to higher altitudes. Seeds and spores can stick to tires, shoes, and tools, facilitating their spread. Intentionally introduced plants, such as seed mixtures for roadsides or ski slopes and ornamental plants, also contribute to their spread.
Once invasive species appear in mountainous regions, they are difficult to control due to the challenging terrain. To take appropriate measures, it is essential to monitor the populations of these species in the Geopark.
The Karawanken UNESCO Global Geopark covers an area of 1,067 km² and includes five Slovenian and nine Austrian municipalities. This cross-border area is a unique natural and cultural experience region characterized by its outstanding geological heritage. The aim of the Geopark is to preserve the geological and natural resources as well as the cultural heritage of its members. By raising awareness, providing information, and education about the Geopark and its network at European and global levels, it contributes to strengthening its position as an important geopark. The Geopark also promotes economic use through sustainable tourism and supports cross-border cooperation for the sustainable development of the region.
Further information about the Karawanken Geopark can be found on the Geopark homepage.
Image 3: Overview map Karawanken UNESCO Global Geopark © Urosh Grabner
We invite all interested citizens to join our project and help protect the unique mountain ecosystems of the Karawanken Geopark. You can actively contribute by photographing foreign plants in the Karawanken Geopark and uploading them to iNaturalist.
Using the iNaturalist app, you can photograph any animal or plant. The app identifies the species using artificial intelligence, and the iNaturalist community can confirm or improve your discovery, enhancing the quality of observations over time.
Information about the five most common species in the Karawanken Geopark, their impact, and recognition tips can be found in our project journal on iNaturalist.
Video 1: What is iNaturalist?
No participant data is analyzed in this project. By joining, participants agree to iNaturalist's terms of use. Users control what data is visible to others when creating iNaturalist data, and settings can be managed in account details on the platform.
This project is co-funded by the INTERREG Central Europe project HUMANITA - Human-Nature Interactions and Impacts of Tourism Activities on Protected Areas, supported by the Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE Program 2021-2027 with co-financing from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The project's total budget is EUR 2,396,346.70, with EUR 1,917,077.36 funded by ERDF.
For questions or more information, please contact:
Project Management, FH Kärnten: Lilia Schmalzl (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
Project Management EVTZ Geopark Karawanken: Urosh Grabner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
As a follow-up project to "Heavy Metal City-Zen", we are once again inviting Viennese community gardens, garden projects or similar garden initiatives to take part in this project and conduct research together with us.
The aim of this project is to scientifically assess the potential risk of heavy metal contamination of crops in Viennese city gardens and to investigate the extent of soil contamination with microplastics.
We will make the results of the study and additional information on soil health available on our City-Zen soil research platform, which we are developing as part of the project.
Urban gardening has become increasingly popular over the last two decades. However, gardeners are often concerned about their crops being contaminated by pollutants such as heavy metals.
Plant availability of heavy metals is strongly influenced by the soil properties and the plants being cultivated. Through appropriate soil management, it is possible to reduce the potential transfer of heavy metals to plants.
We want to test whether the heavy metal content in plants grown in one variant (e.g. a mix with compost) differs from those plants grown in a control variant (untreated urban soil).
We need you for this! Become a Citizen Scientist by conducting a "pot experiment" with radishes in your urban garden. Plant and soil samples will be collected from these tests and an analysis for heavy metals will then be carried out in our laboratory.
Participation in the project will benefit the entire community of the garden. Together we can generate the following information about the garden's location:
Further information on the project can be found on the website.
Simply write to us by e-mail if you are interested in taking part: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The project is funded by the Vienna Business Agency. A fund of the city of Vienna.
The results of the "Heavy Metal City Zen" project can be found in our blogpost (in German) and on our project website.
Market garden centres work according to so-called bio-intensive methods. This means utilising the maximum possible natural yield potential on the land. This yield potential results from the respective location, the climatic conditions (temperature, precipitation, wind, etc.), the production methods and, to a large extent, the soil itself. Beside the type of soil and texture, the thickness of the individual soil layers, the condition of the soil in terms of soil fertility and soil health is of enormous importance for market gardeners. While the term soil fertility refers more to the function of productivity (mineral, physical and biological aspects), the term soil health is defined more systemically and expanded to include other soil functions. In addition to the productivity function, the water storage function, the habitat function for plants and soil organisms and their diversity, the nutrient management function and the climate function as a carbon store are relevant for market garden centres. In order to run a market garden successfully and sustainably, the soil condition in terms of its fertility and health must not only be maintained, but even improved in the course of cultivation. The goal in every market garden is therefore not only sustainable soil management, but also regenerative soil management. In this project, soil data such as aggregate stability, soil structure, temperature, moisture, infiltration, degree of mulch cover and compaction data are collected according to scientific principles. Data such as the degree of mulch coverage is collected directly from the gardeners, as we collect the data at 14-day intervals. The respective test facilities and test questions were customised together with the respective farm, as we attach great importance to practical questions.
For this project, participation is closed.
What can we do to protect our wetlands and floodplains in Europe? What does the water management need to implement measure for the benefit of both the environment and the human society?
The Horizon Europe project Restore4Life aims at offering an online system that supports the restoration of wetlands in Europe. One important aspect is the development of easily applicable and meaningful methods to assess the state and functionality of wetlands before and after the restoration. This enables us to see whether the measures are sustainable for the future of the wetlands, for the climate and for us.
The integrity of wetlands can be assessed via a multitude of factors. Biodiversity indicates the health of the ecosystem, plant biomass shows how much carbon can be stored. In order to assess these data across Europe, we need methods which can be used also by non-experts. Together with Citizen Scientists, we want to develop, adapt, test, and optimize such methods so that we can offer them to other countries willing to implement restoration activities. We especially invite school classes to participate in our project.
The opportunities for joining the project are manifold: you can determine bird species via their songs, estimate the diameter and height of trees, evaluate orthophotos and satellite images, and many other things.
Where:
Citizen science-based bumblebee monitoring is a pillar of the Austrian wild bee survey. Most wild bee species can only be distinguished under a microscope. The genus of bumblebees (Bombus) is an exception and can usually be distinguished at species level after a training phase in the field (see Gokcezade et al., 2010), so that not only professionals can help with the observation and recording of bumblebees. Bumblebee monitoring ties in with the already existing reporting platform "naturbeobachtung.at" of the Austrian Society for Nature Conservation.
Through numerous initiatives such as bumblebee identification courses and excursion offers, a citizen science community with very good expertise has been formed in recent years. Since 2014, more than 61,000 observations of all bumblebee species currently occurring in Austria have been reported by over 700 reporters via web and app. In 2021 alone, 12,600 bumblebee observations were received. More than 51,000 reports could be checked, corrected if necessary and confirmed by professionals. Within the framework of the project, the reporting platform is to be expanded to include the option of transect counting (previously non-standardised individual observations) and interested participants are to be motivated, trained and supported.
The aim is to develop a functioning citizen science network in the next two years, which will be used in the long term. We aim to cooperate with other European countries that have established similar projects in order to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis on an international level. In the future, trends for individual populations are to be derived from the data and conservation measures improved.
Society uses a variety of services that natural ecosystems provide, such as clean water, an attractive landscape for recreational purposes, food, or renewable energy sources. Many of these so-called ecosystem services (ESS) are influenced by humans. These include, for example, agricultural activities or the construction of roads. As a consequence, society regulates human actions and thus indirectly the availability of ESS. Examples of such policies are agri-environmental programs or local land use planning.
The Citizen Science project ServeToPe develops methods to better quantify the demand for ESS and their availability in a landscape. ServeToPe thus aims to contribute to more sustainable management of ESS and more targeted policies that focus on people's needs. ServeToPe is thereby based in the biosphere reserve Wienerwald as a case study region.
ServeToPe mainly aims to answer the following research questions.
ServeToPe will reveal mismatches between the demand for ESS and their supply and will propose countermeasures. An example of this could be regional conservation efforts specifically planned for the landscape.
ServeToPe uses a variety of methods to answer the research questions and to involve as many and as diverse citizens as possible. For example, workshops were held in schools or with citizens from the region. All citizens can participate online via a survey (see below). On the project website you can find more information about the methods and the roles of citizens (in German).
Citizens are important research partners in ServeToPe. In particular, they support the visualization and quantification of the demand for ESS and of conflicting goals and trade-offs of between different ESS. A trade-off exists, for example, when several citizens want to use the same area for different purposes resulting in conflicts (e.g. recreational use and food production). You as citizen can therefore make an important contribution to the research project by participating in the following anonymous surveys.
In the main survey you can (1) enter your own activities and uses of ESS in the Wienerwald, (2) enter and locate frequently observed activities and ESS uses, and (3) identify trade-offs and opportunities for improvement. You can also upload pictures for this purpose. The main survey can be filled in only once.
However, you can also participate more regularly and thereby support ServeToPe even more intensively. This is possible via a second short survey, where you can enter and locate observed activities and ESS uses, as well as trade-offs. A picture upload is also possible here. In this short second survey, you can participate repeatedly over the entire duration of the project - i.e. continuously enter your observations. This gives us an even more accurate representation of uses and activities. You as a citizen scientist gain the opportunity to locate multiple uses and activities in areas and therefore identify multiple and more accurate trade-offs and improvements.
The results from the surveys of activities, uses, and trade-offs in the Wienerwald are compiled by the BOKU Vienna and University of Vienna research team and compared with other data on the supply of ESS (see methodology). These results are then published on the ServeToPe website. You can also sign up in our contact form to receive the results via email.
Afterwards, the results are presented to stakeholders from the region (e.g.: Employees of the administration, representatives from agriculture, nature conservation, recreational use, education and regional management) in a workshop. In this workshop, solutions and countermeasures will be developed based on the identified trade-offs and conflicts due to differences in ESS supply and demand.
If you have any questions, please contact Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) without hesitation.
ServeToPe is led by Martin Schönhart (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), from the Institute for Sustainable Economic Development at BOKU University. Furthermore, the project team includes Thomas Wrbka (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) and Florian Danzinger (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) from the Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research at the University of Vienna. In addition, the students of the course " Conservation Related Methodologies of Social, Cultural and Economic Sciences" of the University of Vienna are involved in the project. If you have any questions, please contact Katrin Karner (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) without hesitation.
The ÖPUL-measure Nature Conservation results in farmers usually having an agreement on a fixed mowing date. Due to the ongoing climate change, vegetation development fluctuates more and more especially during spring and early summer. Therefore, it was proposed to expand the flexibility of harvest date requirements. For this purpose, over a hundred farmers all over Austria started to observe the course of panicle development and the blooming of black elderberry. Based on this data, a phenological model is calculated for each region. During a warm year with an early onset of vegetation development, the farms can mow their meadows before the date given by the project confirmation. The new, earlier date is then communicated via www.mahdzeitpunkt.at.
Austrian council for agricultural engineering and rural development
Modeling of the annual vegetation development with the additional inclusion of weather data from GeoSphere Austria. Analysis and handling of meteorological data and phenology data from GeoSphere in cooperation with experts.
Modeling of the annual vegetation development with the additional inclusion of weather data from GeoSphere Austria as well as annual organization and supervision of the observations by the Citizen Scientists.
Monitoring and documentation of the phenology of cock's-foot and elder
DURATION: 01.05.2020 - 30.04.2023
In a first-of-its-kind approach in Europe, pupils in the district of Liezen are researching and documenting the phenological development of invasive neophytes under the influence of climate change. With the help of experts, they develop and test modern, multilingual field research instruments and educational tools, thus laying the foundation for a long-term, nationwide Citizen Science network. The observations are used to make neophyte management in the region more efficient, supported by phenological information. The project results thus not only have educational value, but also tangible ecological benefits.
In C.S.I. PhenoBiota, kindergarten children and pupils from all school levels in the Liezen district explore the exciting phenological world of neophytes together and at eye level with scientists. Equipped with comprehensive, age-appropriate research tools, they observe and document the phenological phases of selected plant species throughout the year, relate them to the climate and learn to draw professional conclusions. What is phenology? A large part of the material in C.S.I. PhenoBiota is developed together with the pupils. For example, a NawiTech research box for kindergarten children is being developed to make the project's main topics accessible to our youngest participants in a playful way and with all their senses. In the Girls only! programming course, schoolgirls develop a simple app.
Pupils observe with the Nature Calendar App © Marco Schupfer
With the help of the already existing nature calendar app and the new neophyte feature, parents, grandparents, siblings and other interested Citizen Scientists should also be encouraged to participate in the project and share their phenological observations. How does the app work (in German)? However, there is also an analogue way to record the phenological phases using observation sheets. Click here to download the sheets (in German). At the end of the project, the collected data will be used to create phenomenal hubs for all participating school classes, with the help of which our young researchers can forecast the annual development of neophytes in their region.
In addition, the pupils have the opportunity to work out and examine their own scientific questions that are of burning interest to them on the topic.
In the project, the young researchers accompany the entire process from the planning, development and implementation of phenological data collection to data evaluation and application of the findings. They also actively help to communicate their results.
Click here to listen to the radio programmes:
In keeping with the theme, our experts also come to schools and provide exciting insights into their professions. Pupils visit researchers in the region and make valuable contacts for the future. Interested students have the opportunity to write pre-scientific Matura papers on the topic and to work closely with our experts.
Excursion with the Naturschutzbund to the Trautenfels nature reserves © Marco Schupfer
To get to know the complex of topics "Neophytes-Phenology-Climate Change" and to explore connections independently through innovative, interdisciplinary teaching methods. Enable and use access to NawiTech researchers in the region, e.g. for projects, internships, excursions, scientific work). Strengthen the role of children with a migration background through special tasks in the project and emphasise and use their competences.
Actively involve parents, grandparents, siblings and other interested Citizen Scientists in the project and get them enthusiastic about joint research.
Group photo of consortium partners © NUP Steirische Eisenwurzen
We invite educational institutions from all school levels and from all over Austria to participate in the project through individual activities and to take a closer look at the fascinating phenological world of neophytes with us. All activities of C.S.I. PhenoBiota can also be implemented with cooperating schools. You are welcome to bring in your own ideas on the project topic and explore them together within the framework of the cooperation grants. Cooperation grants are awarded on a first come, first served basis.
Mit Unterstützung vom Bundesministerium für Klimaschutz, Umwelt, Energie, Mobilität, Innovation und Technologie sowie die Österreichische Forschungsförderungsgesellschaft (FFG) mit dem Förderschwerpunkt Talente regional.