ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The river Bünz is situated in the Swiss Plateau. Until the 1920s, it was a meandering river which flooded its banks regularly and its swampy flood plains could not be used for agriculture. Therefore it was decided to canalise the Bünz in a trapezoidal bed. Thus, agricultural land was gained. However, the changes produced a monotonous riverbed with barely any habitats for plants and aquatic organisms. Triggered by the floods in the 1990s and the increasing societal interest in ecological values, it was decided to restore the Bünz. The main vision was to return it to a near natural state on half of its length until 2015. Today, we are on track to achieve this target. The paper reviews and visualises the Bünz project from its initial vision to most recent work. Key elements for success or failure, a) political acceptance b) land acquisition and c) financing, are presented.
