The restoration of urban watercourses is becoming increasingly important due to the growing threats of climate change and biodiversity degradation. Watercourses provide natural habitats, ecosystem services, and play a crucial role in climate resilience, but urban use often conflicts the goals of nature protection. Waterside developments even if communicated as restoration projects, often prioritise human needs and don`t improve (or sometimes even damage) the ecologic state of the watercourse.
In this research, tools, methods and design aspects of incorporating recreational functions into watercourse restoration will be discussed, providing a general know-how for similar projects and highlighting the importance of finding opportunities to give space for natural dynamics in urban environments.
The case study aims to identify principles for the successful coexistence of recreational use and waterside habitats through the analysis of the restoration of the watercourse Obere-Argen in Wangen im Allgäu.