Free Essay: Transformation of Water Bodies (In Vienna), And the Impact It Has Had on Vienna

Lakes, as well as other water bodies that cover the surface, include many kilometers of the mainland region and establish a vital element of water cycles in the region and the world. These water bodies are multifaceted, dynamic schemes, linked to the water cycle via both inflows and discharges on both beneath the surface and the surface as well as through fluctuations of evaporation (Zitek, 2). Relations with the local setting also comprises of chemical elements and minerals that are transported from the area of the catchment to the lake through underground and surface inflows. Lakes are of different sizes, which range from small water bodies of around a thousand meters of volume, and others that cover approximately 374,000 kilometers squared to 780,000. Speaking of water bodies, Vienna is a city of the fortunate situation: water supply is sufficient to cover even considerable increases in nature, and excellent water quality is provided from high alpine sources. This paper discusses the transformation of water bodies in Vienna.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Vienna is situated in one of the highly prosperous regions of Europe. The circumstance creates the background of all environmental and socio-economic aspects related to the town and the aquatic habitats. A few decades ago, large public housing complexes and single housing had grown into regions to the north as well as northeast of Danube River. The two is situated amid the eastern limit of the European Alps, which is created by a chain of small mountains and a wide geological basin towards the east and south. Constructed areas inhabit around 14,000 ha, while the green regions occupy approximately 2,000 ha and communicating and traffic corridor regions sum to about 6,000 ha (Iwona, Jiri & Pascal, 196). Before the regulation of the Danube in Vienna, the Lobau was among the numerous islands in the natural river corridor. Arguments on how to deal with the threat of the floods of Danube took more than two centuries. Back up plans began in the late 1860s, and leveling of the river path and cutting of the core river arms and wanders, was completed by the year 1880. Immediately, the regulation began deepening the bed of the river (Grubler, 187). Some oxbows and former side-channels form habitats for a multitude of aquatic plants in the current world, a majority of them called for in the Red Lists as species in danger.

In the year 1954, a flood destroyed the flood protection dams and flooded that that of northern and southeastern regions of Vienna, and it appeared to be with a 100-year return period. The flood made the people look for ultimate systems that could protect the environment from floods, which included the New Danube flood relief channel parallel to the main river bed, as well as the Danube Island which was franked between these two rivers (Walling & Arthur,195). There began intensive biological research in 1985 which was carried out by a team of Viennese limnologists, who were in alliance with engineers and architects to determine an Eco hydrological approach. The survey, which comprised of all water surfaces in Vienna, was an effective information base for the scheduling team.

The Danube flooding lasted between the 1st to 9th February 1862, making the town unfamiliar and not safe for over a week. It led to the destruction of 4000 homes and loss of lives. As an urban calamity, the flooding was not the only event in Vienna, but it marked history in the place. The 1862 flood was part of a long continuum of urban disasters influenced by the magnificent Danube, which runs via the city heading to the Black Sea from the Alps (Deborah & Hannu, 157). The town and the river co-existed for years, and severed floods had troubled Vienna since it appeared from a Roman camp into an old-fashioned town. For instance, during the 1340s, floods took place almost annually, in tandem with a plague and an earthquake, wiping at around one-third of the city populace. Consequently, the Viennese had preserved for years with the hazard of floods, and a number of the populates had personal memories of the most recent major flooding of the Danube, which killed 74 people and only took place 32 years beforehand in 1830.

Nonetheless, the flood of 1862 was vital since it occurred at a moment when a Rapid City development fundamentally transformed not just the function of the river in city life but also outlooks and ideas that are connected with nature (Wohl, 117). The reliance on the Danube as a source of materials and a way of disposing of waste was dismissed in the nineteenth century. At the same moment, it turned out to be more significant to take control of the great rive as the town.

The natural disaster had a vast impact on the town. In Brigittenau only, around 1,500 individuals had to be banished by 5th of February, 1862. The following day, between 2000 and 3000 homeless individuals required accommodation and they went to lodgings in local inns and other service centers. Later, there was an estimation that approximately 4,000 people had to vacate their homes due to the flood. One of the major problems was lack of food and water. Areas that were flooded were isolated, and they could only be accessed over waterways. This resulted in an increased sense of doubt (Berlan-Darque, 124). During the early stages of the catastrophe, this uncertainty was the main theme for cartoons and jokes. There is very little information that talks about surviving on the flood. For instance, the authorities did not circulate numbers of victims or info on injured or displaced individuals. Citizens mainly accessed news through daily newspapers, which published reports on damage in Vienna and other towns jointly with exact amounts of the water level in diverse regions of the Danube. There were dispersed and fragmented reports, increasing in number only after the threat was beginning to pass (Harper and Welschot, 87). The early facts about the number of people who evacuated and reports on victims appeared only after the 5th of February, 1862. Humorous magazines were produced and disseminated, as well as delayed reaction to the catastrophe, so that majority of the jokes and cartoons were printed when water was already beginning to lessen.

Figaro was one of the people who published cartoons. He came up with a comic featuring a high-class male who had a servant, informing him that 'Your Grace, the water is here,' which was when the danger of flood was still very high. The master, however, does not believe the words of the servant, because the news had never reported of this flood issues. He states that it ought to be the wrong water, and thus, it is none of their business (Kampa, Eleftheria, & Wenke, 19). The notion of the rising jeopardy that was quicker than printed literature was also debated in other humorous demonstrations. It was a bright outlook that in a condition of emergency, it was more vital to depend on the authority of experience of living than that of messages. This idea refers to the reality that the media and other city writings were critical for the middle classes in measuring the city and positioning themselves in the city life.

Nonetheless, since info on the catastrophe was controlled in the civic realm, the power of writings was domineered and the figure was transformed into a basis of information and action. It is ridiculous and absurd to have visionless belief in scripts, the function of disasters in creating an analogical procedure and shaping skills and knowledge (Musco, 80). The question of knowledge was central for Viennese humor on the flood in 1862 and it was ultimately interlinked with issues of power and authority. The violence caused by the flood appeared to be hushed by the ruling classes, which insinuates that there is no remaining info on the number of victims.

On 5th February 1862, Die Presse took this into account by writing that apparently no human lives had been lost since there were no official announcements disseminated to the citizens, accurate figures about the issues were missing. Although there was silence amid the official sources of information regarding the dead victims, some dispersed info on the events that occurred in February 1862 can be seen in the newspapers. Die Presse; compared to Wiener Zeitung, who only gave little facts of the catastrophe; he published more detailed information of the flood. On the 6th of February, 1862, it reported on the case of Joseph Staber the carpenter, and that of his foster kid who was rescued with a daily worker, Maria Schelliobor, near the left bank on the Danube Canal (Ecohydrology & Hydrobiology, 108). However, the litter that Maria used to rescue the child fell over, and even though the carpenter and the woman found rescue, the child died. The following day, more horrifying stories were reported: a sunken man was found treading in the water in his bed in Britenau home number 100. Another story is that of an employee who died while passing a yard covered in water, in Leopoldstadt. Either way, despite these memorable details, no lists of fatalities were ever printed. The information that was missing was contradictory and made people confused. So, the 1862 flood took the lives of people although the amount of deceased was never offered to the audience.

Previous investigation has shown that the publicity of the press in the late 1850s and early 1860s in Vienna was not just heavily censored, but it was also consciously operated in an attempt to protect the recognized public order. The following year, a new law was formed, offering more freedom of the press and making sure that a fast growth of funny periodicals took place in Vienna.

The transformation of the physical environment in the year that the flood occurred, and even before, was a source of inquisitiveness and terror. As Die Presse was reporting on the disorder and the misery of the damaged areas on February 5, 1862, there were people who were seeking help on rooftops where they found a way of escaping. In the water, there were sights of dead animals and objects. There were many cries for help in the dark streets, as the street lights had gone out. There is a long tradition of Viennese pictures of floods, which all display how water all of a sudden occupies spaces and transforms them into strange sceneries. A suggestion was made that horror and humor both have the familiarisation of the conversant. More so, particularly after Fred, humor has been linked more to emotional states of anxiety compared to pleasure. The sudden invasion of the flood over the town, which resulted in people losing control over their daily environment, was a situation that led to profound structural vagueness.

The radical setting of neo-absolutism that began after the suppression of the 1848 revolt molded both the progress of the disaster and how people interpreted it. What is more vital, Leopoldstadr, Neubau, and Brigittenau regions endured the most damage, while bourgeious areas and the noble urban center had their means of evading the damage. This depicts a hierarchy in social space, as the low-class regions are usually the most affected by natural disasters compared to the wealthy privileged areas of the society (Iwona, Jiri & Pascal, 196). There had been various measures for years to control the portion of the Danube Canal, which took place between Stephansplatz and Leopoldstadt city. Nevertheless, the more massive streams and waterways running near the increasing poor centers were less regulated until the 1869-75 when the Danube regulation concentrated them in one riverbed. According to humorous stories, the disaster affected not only the relationship of the populace to their environment but their fellow humans as well. As the environment was abruptly transformed, public relations, entrenched in space, were rapidly upset.

The revolution of 1848, which had...