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The River Liesing is Vienna´s third largest river after Danube and Wienfluss. Its catchment basin is 115 km²; the whole river length is 30 km, with 52 km² and 18 km of it in Vienna. The Liesing is famous for her fast rising, heavy floods. Heavy flood events in the past led to a regulation system such as lowering and stretching of the riverbed. Meanders have been cut off and refilled and high bed drops interrupted the flow. Loss of wildlife, disturbance of the ecosystem and bad water quality in the new channel were of no interest at that time.

A pilot project funded by LIFE-environment with the objective to achieve “maximum ecological potential” for the Liesing River resulted in: for a length of 5.5 km, a concrete channel located in an urban area was re-designed into a semi-natural type-specific river, which also meets the relevant flood protection requirements.

Revitalisation activities include construction measures to restore the river continuity by re-building bed drops, restoration of semi-natural morphological conditions by integrating bays and shallow water zones, restoration of former meanders, construction of a semi-natural river bed with a gravel substrate, and the restoration of the river’s natural transport capacity.