The first networking meeting of Life IP IRIS Austria took place from 20 to 21 May 2019 in Lienz.

At the beginning, a – unfortunately rainy – local inspection was carried out in the IRIS pilot area Isel. Walter Hopfgartner from the Lienz Building District Authority and Klaus Michor from the office Revital- Integrative Naturraumplanung explained the history and function of the river widenings that had already been created in the 1960s. These were built after the catastrophic flood events of 1965/66 to control the bedload balance. Over time, they became ecological hotspots.

Afterwards, representatives of the six Austrian River Engineering Administrations, that are partners in the IRIS-project, and the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism exchanged experiences in the preparation of GE-RM planning processes and the tenders and assignments required for them. A specialist lecture from Tyrol on the currently ongoing GE-RM planning process at the Vils River provided concrete insights into the versatile tasks involved in an integrative planning process.

Finally, Wolfgang Klien from the Tyrolean Building District Authority in Reutte reported on the successful LIFE project “Life-Lech”.