by Eva Manzenreiter and Franka Pouwels, BOKU
On the 17th of June, the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Danube Day (officially held June 29th) was hosted by schlossORTH National Park Centre. Themed “Keep the Danube clean!” the event combined three projects - DANUBE4all, DanubeSediment_Q2 and WILDislands - and offered 10 stations with various experiments, displays and information for school children. It was a beautiful day filled with sun, perfect circumstances for a trip to the national park, for us and for the school classes.
We at BOKU were very happy to have the opportunity to share a stand with the WILDisland project. At the WILDisland station kids discovered the changes of the riverbanks once the embankment is removed and the species which find new homes in these revitalized Danube sections.
Photos courtesy of Franc Kovacs/Donau-Auen National Park
As the Danube4all project also takes place in the Donau-Auen National Park and aims to improve the river dynamics and sediment regime of this section, we demonstrated how to study sediment composition and the transport in the Danube. Focused on what a disturbed sediment regime looks like and what are the consequences. This is also the main aim of the new project DanubeSediment_Q2, which is dedicated to the integrated transnational management of sediment in the Danube River basin.
The children were enthusiastic to see how these experiments were done and participated in a sediment sieving process, learning the steps of how to study sediment and the important data it can tell us. Being hands-on working with the sediments brought out smiles! It was a joyful experience, one in which we have expanded the knowledge about sediment and hopefully also have inspired some children to look more at the sediments and the Danube!
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