Ecosystem Services on River Landscapes: A case study. River Enns from Mandling to Hieflau

To this day, the topic of ecosystem services using the example of river landscapes is a rather unexplored topic in Austria. The current dissertation project: Perception and identification of ecosystem services on river landscapes (Kerstin Böck), which is carried out as part of the Doctoral College for Sustainable Development (DOKNE), aims to close this gap. This diploma thesis sees itself as an integrative part of this project. Qualitative and quantitative surveys with representatives of various stakeholder groups and river users were conducted at the Styrian Enns (Austria). The aim was to analyse the perception of the availability and importance of ecosystem services, as well as to identify the potential for conflict between the individual services. The results of the surveys showed that many of the people surveyed in the study area rated the current availability of basic services of the Enns river landscape higher than that of cultural and regulatory services. Utilities were the least perceived. The importance of the services, as assessed by the respondents, yielded similar results. Conflict potentials were most often mentioned between utilities and basic services, followed by conflicts between utilities and cultural services. It is recommended that affected stakeholders and river users are increasingly involved in decision-making processes in river management, as they have relevant region-specific knowledge. Further studies should be carried out to verify that the results obtained are also transferable to other watercourses.