Austrian Ecological Corridors - final version. Valued by the experts of the federal provinces. Prepared in the framework of the LE project "Habitat connectivity to safeguard biodiversity in Austria".

In spring 2019, the NP Thayatal GmbH commissioned the Büro für Wildökologie und Forstwirtschaft e.U. (Office for Wildlife Ecology and Forestry) to prepare a wildcat corridor plan in the Wald- & Weinviertel in Austria and the districts of South Bohemia and South Moravia in the Czech Republic as part of the Interreg project MaGICLandscapes. For the study area in Austria and the Czech Republic, the habitat potential of the European wildcat is to be estimated in the form of a habitat model. Based on the habitat model, a corridor analysis will show the possible distribution routes of the cat. As a further step, a strategy and action plan will be developed to provide a basis for improving and expanding migration corridors and thus dispersal opportunities for the wildcat along the green infrastructure. Within the framework of the MaGICLandscapes project, the research results serve as a basis for the planning, construction and management of green infrastructure. For the National Park Thayatal, they serve as input for the further procedure in wildcat management and are taken into account in the wildcat population support concept. See further information: https://lebensraumvernetzung.at/publikationen/Leitner-2020-Wildkatzenkorridorplan-Endbericht-2021-04-19-web.pdf

Ausgewählte Wildtierquerungshilfen über die hochrangige Infrastruktur der ÖBB. Es sind im Viewing Service Wildtierquerungshilfen größer der Kategorie C verfügbar (=Querungsbreite der Bauwerke ist größer als 15 Meter). Bauwerke der Kategorie D und kleiner (>15m Querungsbreite) sind in diesem Viewing Service nicht verfügbar. Die Standorte der Querungsbauwerke stammen aus den GIS Datenbanken der ÖBB INFRA AG und wurden aus einer Kombination aus Vor-Ort Begehungen und der Vermessung via Satellitenbildern kategorisiert. Die Kategorisierung der Bauwerke erfolgte nach FRITZ Völk 2001: WILDQUERUNGSHILFEN ÜBER VERKEHRSTRÄGER – GRUNDLAGEN FÜR DIMENSIONIERUNG UND STANDORTSWAHL IN ÖSTERREICH • Kategorie A (Richtbreite 80 Meter – Mindestbreite 50 Meter) • Kategorie B (Richtbreite 50 Meter – Mindestbreite 30 Meter) • Kategorie C (Richtbreite 25 Meter – Mindestbreite 15 Meter) KEIN DOWNLOAD verfügbar. Anfragen bezüglich der Bereitstellung des Datensatzes als Download bitte direkt an die angeführten Kontakte.

LRVA-2022: Guideline for assessing the permeability of corridors. This guide provides assistance for the assessment of potential disturbance sources and conflicts of objectives within ecological corridors and should subsequently lead to a standardisation of expert assessments in the field of nature conservation. The guide contains the most important definitions, such as the minimum widths of ecological corridors or which objects represent an absolute barrier within a corridor. The guidelines were agreed upon and approved by renowned experts in the field of ecological corridors who have joined together in the Coordination Platform for Ecological Corridors in Austria.

The specific designation of supra-regional migration corridors for larger, preferably forest-bound wildlife is intended to ensure, improve and, if necessary, restore the functionality of a statewide biotope and habitat network. For further information see: http://www.ooe-umweltanwaltschaft.at/xbcr/SID-B49D7CBE-852A8EF6/wildtierkorridore_ooe_2012.pdf

Expert designation of habitat corridors at local, regional and supraregional level. Client for the Pinzgau: Salzburg Provincial Government Department of Spatial Planning and Department of Nature Conservation, Salzburg Hunting Association, Pinzgau Regional Planning. Client for the Lungau, Pongau, Tennengau and Flachgau: Department of Spatial Planning and Department of Nature Conservation, Salzburg Hunting Association. Regional and supra-regional green corridors were included in the regional programs of the Pinzgau and decreed.

The project contributes significantly to a successful and long-term implementa-tion and safeguarding of habitat connectivity in Austria. In addition to the net-working function of habitat corridors, the aspect of how habitat corridors can also be used or adapted for the protection and improvement of insect diversity in Austria was addressed for the first time. Work package 1 is dedicated to the analysis of habitat features and landscape structures with regard to their qualitative (diversity) and quantitative (abun-dance) suitability for insects. The extrapolation of the results of work package 1 implemented in work pack-age 2 provides a first area-wide overview of the structural connectivity of habi-tat corridors in Austria and their suitability for the dispersal and protection of insect diversity. Work package 3 is dedicated to the development of a guideline for assessing the permeability of existing habitat corridors. With the definition of the most important indicators for the assessment of planned measures within the corri-dors, a standardised set of rules for nature conservation assessments is availa-ble for the first time, on which the leading experts in the field of habitat connec-tivity have agreed. Awareness-raising measures are an essential prerequisite for achieving the broadest possible acceptance of habitat connectivity among regional actors (e.g. farmers and landowners). This is the focus of work package 4. For a sustainable protection of the habitat corridors, it is essential to make the habitat corridors visible in an official national document. This issue is addressed in work package 5 by the implementation of a process that allows a widely auto-mated production of specific maps on the topic of habitat connectivity embed-ded in the Austrian forest development plan. A further milestone is the establishment of the “Coordination Platform for Habi-tat Connectivity in Austria” in work package 6, which consists of the most im-portant experts in the field of habitat connectivity in Austria. The objectives of the coordination platform are the regular exchange of experience, a unified and coherent representation of the actors in habitat connectivity and the promotion of the protection of habitat corridors in Austria.

LRVA-2022: Generated standard map representation of the special topic maps for ecological corridors in Austria for the forest development plan. The maps are automatically updated as soon as the data basis (=modification of ecological corridors or modification forest mask from the Federal Forest Research Centre /BFW) changes. Details see also end report available: https://docs.umweltbundesamt.at/s/AzZrHid6q9wkDDM. QGIS-Modell for the maps generation available here: https://docs.umweltbundesamt.at/s/CjTNNLzPEKbNWyX

LRVA-2022: Evaluation of ecological corridor axes with regard to the permeability of sections of the ecological corridor. On the one hand, the landscape structure is assessed with regard to its permeability (LC structure index) and on the other hand, the landscape elements equipment of the ecological corridor segment (LE equipment index) is considered. The combination of these two indicators results in the combined ecological corridore index, which gives a good overview of ecological corridor areas with low permeability.