Space for Rivers – River Exploration II

The Biologists Roberta Bottarin and Peter Hecher will take us on the second river exploration, building our awareness for the river as an ecosystem and the benefits of a natural riverscape. The program of 25.05. begins at 6 pm with a tour of the exhibition Space for Rivers (at the ex hydro-electric power station Rendlstain) with the artist and is followed by the river exploration, starting at 6.30 pm.

In the frame of Herwig Turk’s exhibition Space for Rivers, which explores the connections between humans and the riverscape, this event will go into detail about the ecological implications of this relationship. The draining of wetlands, straightening of rivers, power plants and other interventions affect the dynamics and minimize the services that a functioning river ecosystem provides for society. Much seems to be irretrievably lost because there is no more space for restoration and renaturation and there is barely access to the riverbanks. However, the former floodplains and meanders of the rivers still have an effect, they are still partly present as geological formations and as groundwater streams and also form the routes on which groundwater organisms migrate.

What must it be worth to our society to recover at least a part of it and what space do the rivers need?