Everything about The Donauinsel totally explained
The
Donauinsel (
Danube Island) is an island of 21.1
kilometres length which is only 70-210 metres broad, accompanying the river
Danube along most of its way through the town area of
Vienna,
Austria's capital, on the left escorted by the newly excavated Neue Donau (literally New Danube), practically an elongate (swimming) lake, technically a diluvian bed.
Recreation and festival venue
To most visitors, the island is known as a recreational area with bars, restaurants and nightclubs, a wealth of sports opportunities from
rollerblading,
cycling and
swimming to
canoeing and one
beach that in its beginning felt so exotic that it was soon nicknamed the "Copa Cagrana" (a humoristic allusion to
Rio de Janeiro's
Copacabana:
Kagran is the part of the 22nd District of Vienna next to that one beach). In the southern and northern parts of the island there are extensive (and free)
nude beaches.
The
Donauinselfest is an internationally well-known annual open air festival, and Europe's biggest event of this kind, expected to soon hit the 3-million-visitors mark. It takes place at the end of June (Friday through Sunday) -
except for 2008 (Sept. 5th-7th), due to Austria (& Switzerland) hosting the European Football Championship.
Reliable flood protection
The main purpose of the island however is to be part of Vienna's highly sophisticated flood protection system. As the mighty river Danube crosses the town (before major extensions: passed nearby), this had constantly been a concern for hundreds of years. First remarkable measures were taken 1870-1875: A central bed, 280 m, was dug out, and an inundation area of 450 m was created at the river's left bank.
In 1970, a new plan was conceived and soon realised: digging an additional diluvian bed to replace the former inundation area, and throwing up the dugout in the remaining strip of land between the straightened bed (as it exists since the 19th century river training) and the newly created one, now being called Neue Donau (New Danube). As an addendum, the thus created island should eventually be used for recreation. The flood control system is designed to protect from flash floods bringing up to 14,000 million m3 per second (which in Vienna's history was recorded once, in 1501; the heavy 2002 flood braught 10,000 million m3 per second). It includes the
Danube Canal's historic
Nußdorf watergate, locks on either end of New Danube, a groundwater level control system integrated into the right bank flood levee (granting appropriate conditions for the large park area
Prater, once part of a wide alluvial forest zone), and the new Freudenau river plant's sluice.
The works were started in March 1972 and finished in 1988, the river plant was added from 1992 to 1998.
References and other external links
Further Information
Get more info on 'Donauinsel'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://donauinsel.totallyexplained.com">Donauinsel Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
