Floodplains like the Lobau near Vienna are key riverine landscapes. They provide a wide range of ecological and socio-economic goods and services, including flood retention, groundwater recharge, bioproduction, aesthetic and recreational values. Today, however, these ecosystems are highly degraded throughout Europe.  Regulation of the Danube in 1875 changed the hydrology and associated ecosystem processes. The Lobau now represents a groundwater-fed and back-flooded floodplain lake system which, although degraded, still harbours an extraordinary diverse mosaic of aquatic, semi-aquatic and terrestrial environments. Beyond its significance for supporting a high biodiversity, the Lobau plays a central role in the landscape water balance and for recreation, especially due to its proximity to Vienna For the management of the Lobau, multiple objectives and management options have been discussed over the last 30 years. A future sustainable and adaptive management scheme, defined as ecosystem-based management of human activities, must integrate the partly competing ecological and socio-economic aspects. Clearly, satisfying one objective often yields dissatisfaction in the others. The complex nature of the multiple management objectives urgently requires an integrative approach to answer and solve the following central questions:

(i) What are the long-term effects of the human-induced hydrogeomorphic alterations in the Lobau? What motivation drives the alterations in riverine landscapes (risk minimisation and human benefits)?