News

The current heatwave shows how quickly human-altered rivers can come under pressure. Regulated stretches of water and sections with low residual flow are especially affected by overheating. Restoration measures can help make water bodies more resilient.

After two and a half years of construction, the Lafnitz Neudau pilot measure is complete: more flood protection and a revitalized river for the region.

On June 24, 2026, the IRIS pilot measure on the Pielach was officially opened with numerous guests – for a thriving river and improved flood protection.

As part of a field day, students planted around 1,000 trees along the Enns River in Styria.

From Hard-Engineered Banks to New Habitats: The Danube Near Ottensheim Through the Years

Around 30 international students from TU Graz got a firsthand look at the IRIS pilot measure on the Styrian Enns River.

After more than two years of regular exchange with the LIFE Ebro Resilience project in Spain, the time had finally come to pay them a visit.

Living Rivers visits LIFE IRIS: Two days, three rivers, and valuable knowledge exchange on river restoration in practice.

How do we give rivers and floodplains back their space? That was exactly the question experts discussed at the Austrian Floodplain Strategy networking meeting in Lienz.

The Austrian Film “Zurück zum Ursprung” (Back to the Roots) shows how the Pielach will gradually return to being a lively and healthy river in the future.

LIFE IRIS visits LIFE Living Rivers in Slovakia: An exciting exchange on river restoration

In April, a Spanish film crew visited the Lafnitz River near Rudersdorf as part of the Spanish documentary series “El Escarabajo Verde.” The entire episode is now available to watch online.

Kick off in the Marktau: IRIS expands the Danube tributary near Ottensheim – more habitat for animals and plants and improved flood protection.

International exchange for healthy and lively rivers: LIFE-IP NATURA.SI visits IRIS

During an excursion to the LIFE IRIS project on the river Leitha in Gattendorf, participants gained exciting insights into the revitalisation project.

Drei Stunden voller Ideen, Diskussionen und Visionen. In einem inspirierenden Workshop haben wir die Kommunikationsstrategien für 2025 erarbeitet.

A new 300-page book about the Isel portrays the last glacial river in the Eastern Alps that is not used by power plants. This work by Susanna and Andreas Muhar, which was presented on 20 November 2024, also incorporates the results of the IRIS project.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the restoration measures on the Lafnitz took place in Rudersdorf on 28 November. The measures are intended to improve flood protection and the ecological quality of the river.

The final symposium of the DRAVA LIFE project in Varaždin provided an ideal opportunity to exchange ideas and learn from other restoration projects.

The IRIS project is a pioneering river management initiative that employs innovative strategies and concepts, taking into account the entire river catchment area. Therefore, it serves as a crucial element in achieving the ambitious goals of Austria’s Nature Restoration Law.

Our new bulletin summarizes the most important findings from the IRIS project.

From 17-19 April 2024, a major international conference on free-flowing rivers took place in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands.

As part of the LIFE IP IRIS project, measures to enhance flood protection and ecological quality are being implemented in various rivers across Austria. To assess the impacts of these measures, various indicators are selected. These indicators are then analyzed before and after the implementation of the measures and subsequently compared.

The 6th IRIS networking meeting took place on June 9th and 10th 2021 in Neustift an der Lafnitz.

An article by Nadja Straubinger was published on 10th of February 2021 on the planning process in the Pielach project area, which runs from the confluence with the Danube upstream to the confluence with the Nattersbach at river kilometre 59.3

The large-scale River Development and Risk Management concept of the LIFE IRIS project allows for long-term planning in which the different claims of use are coordinated with each other.

After a longer break due to Corona, the IRIS team met in Linz on October 13th and 14th 2020. The occasion was the annual visit of the EU monitoring team, which regularly checks the progress of the IRIS project.

In the article in the Salzburger Nachrichten (issue 13 August 2020), Thomas Prodinger, the person responsible for the project in the Federal State of Salzburg, explains the measures that are planned in Salzburg.

About100 interested people from administration, universities, technical offices and NGOs came to the novum Hauptbahnhof Vienna on 20 November 2019 at the invitation of the Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism for the launch of the first integrated LIFE project in Austria.

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

The first communication workshop on LIFE IRIS took place at the end of May – with an important milestone in the project.