View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Springer - Publisher Connector Water Hist (2013) 5:145–172 DOI 10.1007/s12685-013-0074-2 Changes in water and land: the reconstructed Viennese riverscape from 1500 to the present Severin Hohensinner • Bernhard Lager • Christoph Sonnlechner • Gertrud Haidvogl • Sylvia Gierlinger • Martin Schmid • Fridolin Krausmann • Verena Winiwarter Received: 12 September 2012 / Accepted: 23 March 2013 Ó The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Medieval Vienna was situated at the main arm of the swiftly flowing alpine Danube. From the fourteenth century onwards, the river gradually moved away from the city. This marked the beginning of 500 years of human intervention to prevent further displacement of the river and to preserve the waterway as a vital supply line. Archival research and the GIS-based reconstruction of the past riverscape allow a new view about the co-evolution of the city and the river. Following major channel changes in 1565/1566, repeated attempts to force the main arm into the old river bed were undertaken. By the early seventeenth century, the Viennese had accepted the new situation. Resources were S. Hohensinner (&) Á B. Lager Á G. Haidvogl Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management (IHG), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna (BOKU), Max-Emanuel-Str. 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria e-mail:
[email protected] B. Lager e-mail:
[email protected] G. Haidvogl e-mail:
[email protected] C. Sonnlechner Municipal and Provincial Archives of Vienna, Rathaus, 1082 Vienna, Austria e-mail:
[email protected] S.