ABSTRACT
Leipzig is blessed with one of the biggest floodplain (alluvial) forests in Europe, the Leipziger Auwald, located in the heart of the city. The Leipziger Auwald is the Green Backbone of Leipzig-very important for the climate, environmental and flood protection, and the enhancement of the urban residential environment. When the wall fell in 1989 and East and West Germany were united a great exodus of young people from the east to the west started. Today Leipzig has changed from a shrinking to a growing city. In some surveys, Leipzig is rated as the most livable city in Germany. Leipzig is today a city of 600,000 inhabitants, 90,000 more than before the unification. Leipzig covers a total area of about 298 square kilometers. A 25 square kilometer large section of the Leipziger Auwald was granted landscape protection already in 1959, when this was East Germany.
