IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/espost/328338.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Great transitions in Donaumoos land reclamation (Bavaria, Germany) since the late 18th century – a palaeohydrological and historical perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Zielhofer, Christoph
  • Kaniecki, Marie
  • Köhler, Anne
  • Seeburg, Vera
  • Rollo, Arnela
  • Bergmann, Laura
  • Berg, Stefanie
  • Stammel, Barbara
  • Gudermann, Rita
  • Fletcher, William J.
  • Werban, Ulrike
  • Linstädter, Anja
  • Mehler, Natascha

Abstract

. Systematic human intervention in wetlands has been taking place in central Europe for several centuries. The Donaumoos fen in Upper Bavaria, Germany, has been cultivated since 1788, resulting in the permanent loss of its natural state. The adjacent Danube River was straightened during the same period. This study presents a quantitative reconstruction over a 235-year-long time frame of the development of the natural Donaumoos fen and Danube River into a human-dominated landscape (anthroposphere). The selected quantitative proxies for the change in the socio-ecological system are the Donaumoos drainage ditch lengths and changes in Danube surface water area traced through the analysis of old maps. A multi-temporal series of old maps from 1788 to 2023 are used to document land reclamation in the Donaumoos and hydro-engineering activities in the Danube floodplain. A comparison of the quantitative data on the development of drainage ditch lengths with the state of research from written sources leads to the discovery of potential great transitions in floodplain and peatland changes and associated human drivers as well as consequences for society in the region. One phase of great transition with far-reaching human interventions spanned 1788 to 1794 and a second phase ran from 1907 to 1959. However, the phases of substantial transitions with river straightening, land reclamation and colonization were embedded in multi-decadal intervals of setbacks and socio-ecological stagnation. Regarding the future, an updated economic and ecological understanding of resources is difficult to implement for the Donaumoos because socio-ecological path dependencies present challenges for the sustainable development of the Donaumoos, in particular, the ongoing and self-reinforcing mechanism of peat subsidence in parallel with the ongoing pressure for drainage under continued agricultural use of the former fen.

Suggested Citation

  • Zielhofer, Christoph & Kaniecki, Marie & Köhler, Anne & Seeburg, Vera & Rollo, Arnela & Bergmann, Laura & Berg, Stefanie & Stammel, Barbara & Gudermann, Rita & Fletcher, William J. & Werban, Ulrike & , 2025. "Great transitions in Donaumoos land reclamation (Bavaria, Germany) since the late 18th century – a palaeohydrological and historical perspective," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 74(1), pages 105-124.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:328338
    DOI: 10.5194/egqsj-74-105-2025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/328338/1/egqsj-74-105-2025.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5194/egqsj-74-105-2025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anke Günther & Alexandra Barthelmes & Vytas Huth & Hans Joosten & Gerald Jurasinski & Franziska Koebsch & John Couwenberg, 2020. "Prompt rewetting of drained peatlands reduces climate warming despite methane emissions," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-5, December.
    2. Michael Manton & Evaldas Makrickas & Piotr Banaszuk & Aleksander Kołos & Andrzej Kamocki & Mateusz Grygoruk & Marta Stachowicz & Leonas Jarašius & Nerijus Zableckis & Jūratė Sendžikaitė & Jan Peters &, 2021. "Assessment and Spatial Planning for Peatland Conservation and Restoration: Europe’s Trans-Border Neman River Basin as a Case Study," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-27, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrey Sirin & Maria Medvedeva & Vladimir Korotkov & Victor Itkin & Tatiana Minayeva & Danil Ilyasov & Gennady Suvorov & Hans Joosten, 2021. "Addressing Peatland Rewetting in Russian Federation Climate Reporting," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-17, November.
    2. Ershen Zhang & Zhipeng Wang & Guojun Chen & Guoen Wang & Yajuan Zhou & Pengliang Hu & Haijuan Zhao, 2023. "Spatial-Temporal Evolution Patterns and Influencing Factors of Hotels in Yellow River Basin from 2012 to 2022," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-27, March.
    3. Sommer, Pia & Lakner, Sebastian & Nordt, Anke & Tanneberger, Franziska & Wegmann, Johannes, 2024. "Deriving a justified budget for peatland rewetting – Applying the German coal phase-out as a blueprint," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    4. Alex C Valach & Kuno Kasak & Kyle S Hemes & Tyler L Anthony & Iryna Dronova & Sophie Taddeo & Whendee L Silver & Daphne Szutu & Joseph Verfaillie & Dennis D Baldocchi, 2021. "Productive wetlands restored for carbon sequestration quickly become net CO 2 sinks with site-level factors driving uptake variability," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Daiva Juknelienė & Vaiva Kazanavičiūtė & Jolanta Valčiukienė & Virginija Atkocevičienė & Gintautas Mozgeris, 2021. "Spatiotemporal Patterns of Land-Use Changes in Lithuania," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-24, June.
    6. Willenbockel, Dirk, 2024. "Peatland restoration in Germany: A dynamic general equilibrium analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    7. Robert Czubaszek & Agnieszka Wysocka-Czubaszek & Wendelin Wichtmann & Piotr Banaszuk, 2021. "Specific Methane Yield of Wetland Biomass in Dry and Wet Fermentation Technologies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-20, December.
    8. Sommer, Pia & Lakner, Sebastian & Nordt, Anke & Tanneberger, Franziska & Wegmann, Johannes, 2022. "Der Kohleausstieg als politisches Modell für die Moorwiedervernässung? Eine Aufstellung der Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede," 62nd Annual Conference, Stuttgart, Germany, September 7-9, 2022 329599, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA).
    9. Bialozyt, Ronald B. & Roß-Nickoll, Martina & Ottermanns, Richard & Jetzkowitz, Jens, 2025. "The different ways to operationalise the social in applied models and simulations of sustainability science: A contribution for the enhancement of good modelling practices," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 500(C).
    10. Jens Leifeld & Sonja M. Paul & Miriam Gross-Schmölders & Yuqiao Wang & Chloé Wüst-Galley, 2025. "Crediting peatland rewetting for carbon farming: some considerations amidst optimism," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 1-19, February.
    11. Michael Manton & Charles Ruffner & Gintautas Kibirkštis & Gediminas Brazaitis & Vitas Marozas & Rūtilė Pukienė & Ekaterina Makrickiene & Per Angelstam, 2022. "Fire Occurrence in Hemi-Boreal Forests: Exploring Natural and Cultural Scots Pine Fire Regimes Using Dendrochronology in Lithuania," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-25, February.
    12. Niemi, Jari & Mattila, Tuomas & Seppälä, Jyri, 2024. "Rewetting on agricultural peatlands can offer cost effective greenhouse gas reduction at the national level," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    13. Sommer, Pia & Frank, Leonard, 2024. "Peatland rewetting as drainage exnovation – A transition governance perspective," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    14. Tudor Racoviceanu & Constantin Cazacu & Mihai Adamescu & Relu Giucă & Magdalena Bucur & Mariia Fedoriak & Per Angelstam, 2023. "Agricultural Intensification Reduces the Portfolio of Wetland Ecosystem Services: European Danube River Lowlands as a Global Biodiversity Hotspot," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-22, March.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:espost:328338. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/zbwkide.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.