A critical landscape in the Vienna-Bratislava Region is the one between the Austrian and Slovak border, which suffers conditions of peri-urbanity although central in the metropolitan region, where we find different types of landscapes, with different responsible bodies and different planning laws and tools implemented.
Any problems concerning the coordination of large scale projects by many institutions and stakeholders can be overcome in a relatively easy manner when the issues at stake are of great interest to all parties involved, cases in point are infrastructures like motorways or green corridors, but less prestigious projects sometimes fail to nurture the same cooperation.
In cross border conditions, whether national, regional or municipal, collaboration among institutions can be often difficult if the planning tools and funding structures do not motivate those parties involved in developing integrated strategies.
A critical landscape in the Vienna-Bratislava Region is the one between the Austrian and Slovak border, which suffers conditions of peri-urbanity although central in the metropolitan region, where we find different types of landscapes, with different responsible bodies and different planning laws and tools implemented.
Its area is crossed by three bio-corridors: the Danube Corridor, the Alps-Carpathians Corridor and one that is in the proposal phase.
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Image 2: The bio-corridors of the Vienna-Bratislava Metropolitan Region. (in blue the Danube Corridor; in green the Alps-Carpatians corridor; in red the proposed bio-corridor) Source: www.projekt-baum.eu
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It is therefore evident that the border between the two countries is completely formed by environmentally protected landscapes which have the potential to reconnect the fragmented territory.
The Danube Corridor within the metropolitan area is composed by the Donau Auen National Park which goes from Vienna until the border with Slovakia, where the natural corridor is continued by the Dunajské Luhy Park.
Both parks are part of a larger system of National Parks that goes from the river source down to Romania, creating an impressive environmental corridor which is also part of an international network of transport related projects, such as the Integrated River Engineering Project which is part of a TEN-T European transportation infrastructure project with the objective of improving waterway conditions along the Danube.
As for the Alps Carpathians bio-corridor, which is recognised as being a major migration route for fauna in Europe, there has been since 2009 an EU funded project, the Alpen Karpaten Korridor, which has involved many institutions on the territory. The aim is to promote projects that would preserve the natural passage, such as green bridges, that show the effort of integrating environmental issues towards the functioning of the metropolitan area.
Both of these corridors have the added value of having fostered cooperation amongst institutions, but due to the nature of their protected landscape they do not intervene in the urban dimension of the metropolitan region.
There is then a proposed bio-corridor in the southern part of the border, which is mainly used for agricultural purposes and energy production especially on the Austrian side, and where many ideas have been developed but not yet implemented.
Of these, one proposed within the KoBra project by a mainly Austrian partnership for the Austrian part of the territory, and one proposed by the City of Bratislava for the Slovak part.
Image 3a and 3b: Austrian and Slovak proposal for the green area along the border
Source: www.projekt-baum.eu
The two proposals are very different as the Austrian one envisages the development of a bio-corridor with agricultural functions that connect the towns along the border, whilst the Slovak proposal recreates river arms in the buffer zone, so as to ‘urbanise’ the land and offer a natural flood protection area.
Although compatible, neither of the proposals show any possible effects incurred on the other side of the border, symptomatic of a lack of collaboration.
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