Information from STEP05: http://www.wien.gv.at/stadtentwicklung/studien/pdf/b007575c.pdf
Vienna is rightly referred to as the green city.
The statistics on the area of Vienna clearly confirm this: With a total of 41,500 hectares of land, the city of Vienna has some 15,700 hectares of green landscape, some 2,220 hectares of municipal and federal gardens,and some 2,000 hectares of waters.
This gives the people of Vienna and their guests about 20,000 hectares – or 48 % of the city’s area – of open space and recreational areas. In addition, there are green spaces that are part of residential units as well as large private gardens. This means that a relatively large share of the urban area is unsealed and covered by vegetation or water.
However, these green spaces are not equally distributed throughout the city: There are large green areas in the so called cottage districts, i.e., residential zones with low building density and a high share of green space that belong to the individually-owned plots of land. In contrast, larger parks are lacking in the comparatively densely built-up urban areas where housing units are small, the proportion of green space to built-up space is lower and the population is predominantly low-income.
Vienna is situated at the intersection of two major and vastly different European landforms, i.e., the Alpine region and the Pannonian lowlands. The western part of the urban area has developed at the eastern edge of the Alpine region.The gravel terraces of the Vienna basin dominate the southern parts, while the Danube gorge at the so-called Vienna Gate (Wiener Pforte), the Danube, and the Marchfeld plain are the dominant features of the northeastern parts of Vienna.
The capital cities of the two Danube countries Austria and Slovakia – Vienna and Bratislava – are embedded in these major landscapes between the Vienna Woods and the Carpathian mountains. They are connected by the Danube, the National Park, the sweeping cultivated landscape of the Marchfeld, and a common history.
Landscapes of the Urban Region
The landscapes of the urban region vary widely and their different characteristics are typical of the “Viennese Landscapes”. They have many different geographic and climatic features, with divergent landscapes, problems and potentials.
These are:
- The Vienna Woods
- The terraced landscape in the south of Vienna
- The Danube region
- The Donau Auen National Park
- The Danube and the New Danube
- Marchfeld
- The Bisamberg region
Green and Open Spaces in the Built-up Urban Areas
In contrast to the landscapes of the urban region, the green spaces within the built-up urban areas do not dominate the landscape, but form part of the urban structure and must fulfill many different functions.
The green spaces of the built-up urban area encompass green stretches separating city parts, historic parks and their buildings, parks (local parks and very small parks in certain residential areas), green and open spaces (semi-public or private) belonging to housing units, sports and playground areas, large green areas surrounding hospitals and nursing homes (“health parks”), squares, pedestrian zones, street areas (broad avenues), waters, cemeteries, and micro-spaces used for cultivation.
The “open urban spaces” – squares and pedestrian zones as well as public streets – can be regarded as a supplementary to the green spaces, even if public streets today are used almost entirely by motorized traffic.
Elements of the Scheme
In a development geared towards sustainability, the maintenance and further development of the landscapes and the green and open spaces represents an integral component of economic locational development and is a basis of the long term preservation of the quality of life.
The model “Green Spaces of Urban Regions” is based on these principles and defines the borders between the overarching landscapes and built-up urban areas. Outside of this border, no building or settlement is permitted for the following 10 to 15 years (settlement border). This also documents the equality of the landscapes Bisamberg, cultivated land in Marchfeld, the National Park Donau Auen in the Danube region, and the terraced landscape in the south of Vienna with respect to the landscape area of Vienna Woods and its protection. The Vienna Woods are protected by the “Green Belt” agreement of 1905 as well as by the classification as protected under the Vienna Building Code, which is the equivalent of a building ban and by the Nature Conservation Act. These definitions are binding for the planning period of STEP 05.
In addition, the scheme also defines those areas, which are already protected by zoning. These comprise parks, urban gardens, historic gardens and their buildings, cemeteries, sports areas, green stretches separating parts of the city and others. In contrast to the urban landscapes these green spaces inside built-up urban areas are generally not “shaped by the landscape”, but they satisfy a number of functions for the inhabitants of the city in addition to their ecological and climatic functions such as offering space for recreational, social and cultural purposes; moreover, they serve as points of orientation and help to separate the city into smaller areas
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