Fieldtrips

This day trip takes you upstream along the Danube into the UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site of the Wachau – one of the last free-flowing sections of the Danube in Austria. Accompanied and guided by experts, you will visit the large-scale bypass channel in Altenwörth as well as two fascinating LIFE projects. These examples will serve to illustrate and discuss dynamic river restoration and habitat enhancement measures of ecological significance on site.

• LIFE Project Traisen: Austria’s largest river restoration project has transformed the lower course of the Traisen River near the Altenwörth Danube power plant into a diverse floodplain landscape. Between 2009 and 2019, a completely new, near-natural river course with a variety of shoreline habitats was created. Many animal and plant species have already colonized the area, including numerous endangered species that have found a new home here. The river landscape will now continue to develop naturally and undisturbed
• LIFE Project Wachau:More than 100 years ago, the regulation of the Danube led to the construction of longitudinal embankments, floodplain areas and side-arm systems were cut off. In addition, important shoreline structures such as gravel banks and shallow shores disappeared. As part of the project, the main channel of the Danube was restructured: gravel dredged from the navigation channel was used to create gravel banks and islands near the shore. The former side arms at Grimsing, Aggsbach, Rührsdorf, and Rossatzbach were reconnected to the Danube. New secondary channels were created to ensure continuous year-round flow from the main river. The newly established gravel structures and side arms provide vital spawning, nursery, and refuge habitats for Danube fish species, as well as breeding sites for wetland and waterbirds. The surrounding floodplain areas also benefit from the restored water flow in the side arms.
• VERBUND Fish Passage Altenwörth: With a construction period of two years and a total length of 12.5 kilometers, the new bypass channel at the Altenwörth Danube hydropower plant is the longest of its kind in Lower Austria. In total, €14.5 million has been invested over the past two years to improve river connectivity and biodiversity in the area surrounding the Altenwörth and Greifenstein hydropower plants—€11.5 million of which was dedicated solely to the fish migration aid.

Departure by Bus: Friday, 5.9.2025, 8:00

Meeting Point: BOKU University

Duration: 8 hours

Price: starting at € 90, including Lunch

“LIFE-Boat 4 Sturgeon” is a unique floating hatchery recently established on the shores of Danube Island in Vienna, Austria. It serves to house and breed broodstock and rear juvenile sturgeons. Alongside additional hatchery sites on the Körös River in Hungary and a hatchery container on the banks of the Mur River in Slovenia, the project aims to help save Danube sturgeon populations.

The EU LIFE project seeks to establish a living gene bank, preserve the remaining four sturgeon species in the Danube River Basin, and strengthen wild populations by releasing juvenile fish from the hatcheries back into their natural habitats.

Come on board, take a guided tour led by scientists involved in the project, and gain insight into one of the largest biodiversity and species conservation programs in Austria.

Facts and Figures: The former stone transport ship MS Negrelli—now known as LIFE-Boat 4 Sturgeon—was converted into a floating rearing station for the project. It is 66 meters long and 10 meters wide, and contains several tanks for broodstock and juvenile fish. By 2030, approximately 1.6 million juvenile sturgeons are expected to be raised on board and released into various sections of the Danube.

Meeting time & date : Friday, 5.9.2025, 10:00

Meeting Point: Donauinsel – Inselinfo, Informationszentrum, the site is easily accessible by public transport: Tube line U1, Station „Donauinsel“, 5 minutes footwalk to „Inselinfo“ where the Life-Boat is located.

Duration: 2 hours

Price: starting at € 20; Note: all earnings of this trip will be donated to the project.

Guided Wetlands Paddle Tour in Danube National Park. The tour starts in Stopfenreuth. From there, the route runs along the Danube, through a side arm, past restoration sites and the mouth of the March into the Danube to Hainburg. The Stopfenreuther Au is considered the “birthplace” of the national park. In December 1984, the construction of the Danube power plant in Hainburg was prevented here by the sit-in of the floodplain and the Donau-Auen National Park was founded in 1996.

In the easternmost part of the National Park, in the Stopfenreuth – Hainburg area, you have the opportunity to experience the floodplain landscape both in tributaries and on the Danube. In this section, side waters that have been cut off in recent years have been reconnected to the river and the hard bank obstructions on the Danube have been removed.

The original character of the floodplain landscape with its wide gravel banks, willow groves and steep banks is impressively evident. Depending on the water level, the ranger team will decide which side arm of the Danube to navigate.

Note: A certain level of physical fitness is required for this tour, as you will be paddling continuously to move the boat forward. A minimum number of 6 participants is therefore required.

Equipment for excursions: We generally recommend comfortable leisure or sports clothing suitable for the weather and sturdy footwear. For boat excursions, rubber boots or, in summer, water-suitable, non-slip sandals have proven their worth. Also make sure you wear sun protection and a hat. It can get chilly on the water – don’t forget a vest or wind and rain protection. Insect repellent can be useful, and it is also important to take food and sufficient drinks with you.

Departure by Bus: Friday, 5.9.2025, 8:00

Meeting Point: BOKU University

Duration: 7 hours

Price: starting at € 90, including Lunch

This 2-Day-Overnight-Trip (Thursday afternoon – Saturday evening) crosses the entire country of Austria, heading into the mountainous west, where alpine hydropower takes advantage of favorable topographical conditions. We will visit the largest hydropeaking retention basin in Europe, an innovative fish lift, river widening measures on the Inn River, one of the largest hydropeaking-diversion power plants, the high alpine reservoirs of Vermunt and Silvretta, as well as two outstanding pumped-storage hydropower plants (Kopswerk II & Obervermuntwerk II).

Day 1 – Friday, September 5, 2025

• TIWAG: Visiting Center and Hydropowerplant Silz, Hydropeaking Retention Basin Silz: Facilities, monitoring, R&D and management of the powerplant. TIWAG has implemented a mitigation measure in connection with the power plant expansion in Kühtai. With a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters, the Hydropeaking Retention Basin Sliz is the largest facility of its kind in Europe. Planning principles and results from the first year of operation will be presented and discussed. Read more
• River Restoration Stams–Rietz: At the Inn river between Stams and Rietz (Tyrol, Austria), the river was widened up to 75 meters over a length of 3 km. This restoration project included the removal of bank protection and the creation of a dead branch and a side channel. This measure re-established diverse aquatic as well as terrestrial habitats, where the dwarf bulrush (Typha minima) was reintroduced. Find out more.
• Fish Lift Runserau: Based on a literature review, the solution “fishlift Runserau” was implemented as the optimal solution from both an ecological and technical-economic point of view. A conventional entrance facility leads fish into the fishlift. Building the lift higher than the maximum headwater allows a combination with a declined bypass, in order to release fish at a suitable location 600 m upstream of the weir. Find out more here and here.
• GKI Diversion HPP & Mitigation Measures: Storage HPPs enable flexible energy production, but this can result in sudden increases or decreases in flow in the receiving waters, affecting biota in that river stretch. Mitigation includes buffering the flow (impoundments or retention basins) or diverting the flow to a larger catchment. This is exemplified by the hydropeaking diversion HPP GKI, which consists of a weir at Ovella creating a 416,000 m³ impoundment and a 23 km headrace tunnel leading to the hydropower plant (HPP) with two 37.5 m³/s Francis turbines. We will visit the weir at Ovella, the vertical slot fishway (82 pools), and river widenings in the residual flow stretch (Ried-Frauns / Maria Stein). Find out more here & here.
• Silvretta High Alpine Road & Reservoirs Vermunt and Silvretta
  The Silvretta-Hochalpenstraße is one of the most beautiful and popular mountain roads in the Alps, with 34 hairpin bends. The road passes directly by the Vermunt and Silvretta reservoirs with the spectacular mountain backdrop of the Silvretta.

Day 2 – Saturday, September 6, 2025

• Pumped-Storage HPP Kopswerk II (illwerke vkv):
  • The pumped-storage plant Kops II was designed in 2003 for the successful integration of volatile renewable energy sources such as photovoltaics and wind energy, especially in Germany.
  • Since its commissioning in 2008, Kops II has been the largest plant of illwerke vkw and provides peak load and balancing energy with a total capacity of 525 MW in turbine mode and 480 MW in pump mode.
  • Kops II operates three highly flexible ternary machinery sets, each consisting of a three-stage storage pump, a hydraulic clutch, a motor-generator, and a six-nozzled Pelton turbine. To ensure balancing energy in a range between 0% and 100% in both turbine and pump mode, the principle of the “hydraulic short circuit” is used.
  • Kops II was built parallel to the existing storage plant Kops I, which has an additional 288 MW of turbine capacity, and fits perfectly into the existing hydropower plant scheme “Upper Ill – Lüner reservoir,” located in Vorarlberg, the westernmost part of Austria.
  • No additional water resources were needed to implement Kops II, as the plant uses the existing Kops Reservoir as the upper reservoir and an existing balancing reservoir as the lower reservoir. With a storage volume of 43 hm³ in the upper reservoir and a head of over 800 m, it provides an equivalent energy storage of 127 GWh.
• Obervermuntwerk 1: The pumped-storage power plant of illwerke vkw is located directly adjacent to the spectacular Silvretta High Alpine Road. The power plant is situated in Austria’s westernmost federal state, Vorarlberg, at an elevation of 1,743 meters above sea level on the shore of Lake Vermunt. It is part of the Obere Ill-Lünersee power plant group.
• Reservoirs in the Piz-Buin/Silvretta Region: We are visiting three high-alpine reservoirs near the Silvretta High Alpine Road: the Silvretta Reservoir, the Vermunt Reservoir, and the Kops Reservoir.
• Lunch: After lunch (provided by illwerke vkw), we will travel in the afternoon toward Vienna, with possible stops at Innsbruck main trainstation and Salzburg airport. We will arrive in Vienna at the main train station.

Departure: Thursday, 4.9.2025, 17:00 (right after the closing ceremony), Meeting Point: BOKU University

Return: Saturday, 6.9.2025, arrival in the late evening at Vienna main trainstation

Price: € 530 including Hotel accommodation for 2 nights and meals

Return-Flight Home: Not that you can also book your plane home form airport Salzburg or your train from main station Innsbruck. The Bus can drop you off on the way home at airport Salzburg or main trainstation Innsbruck, Munich airport is accessible from Innsbruck by public Transport. The bus will arrive at main trainstation Innsbruck at about 15:45 and at airport Salzburg at about 18:30. The trip ends in Vienna, we will arrive in Vienna late on Saturday evening at the main trainstation. We reccommend to stay overnight in Vienna and book a flight back on Sunday.