Living Ems (DBU)

The main aim of the project "Living Ems" is to improve the bad ecologic situation at the river Ems. The investigation area is located in north-west Germany, between Dörpen and the river barrier Gandersum. Within this area, there is a high conflict between the interests of ecology and economy. Caused by the transfer of large-scale cruise ships from Papenburg (shipyard: Meyer) to the North Sea. To manage the transfer, the river Ems needs to be consistently dredged and retained. Because of this, the water quality is poor and typical structures and vegetation of the estuary got lost. Mainly within the summer months the river Ems provides almost no habitats for fishes and many other species, yet the river Ems also holds potential for a positive ecological development, e. g. by offering nature protected areas. To resolve this conflict between ecology and economy satisfactorily for all participants, WWF, BUND, NABU and the TU Berlin initiated the project "Living Ems".

In cooperation with the Lenné3D GmbH, the TU Berlin works on the subproject "Visualization". At first, the current state of parts of the river Ems, demonstrating selected ecological deficits, characteristics and values, will be visualized in 3D. Later, various possible renaturation scenarios developed within other subprojects, will be visualized, too. The visualization is done with Biosphere3D, an open source programme especially designed for landscape visualization. For the final pictures, different perspectives, e. g. walkers’ and canoeists’ eye view, are used. Because of the visual comparison between the current state and different renaturation scenarios the rendered pictures and films serve as an instrument for communication on workshops and for stakeholders. Irrespective of individual states of knowledge of the actual situation at the river Ems these visualizations offer a basis for a dialogue between all the parties involved.

http://www.wwf.de/regionen/ems/