All three D-A-CH countries (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) have impact mitigation regulations in place to counterbalance the unavoidable impairments of nature and landscape resulting from infrastructure projects. Despite the long standing experiences, no systematic evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of compensation measures exists and their long term management remains a major challenge. To this adds a growing uncertainty due to the effects of climate and landscape change.
The proposed interactive session will build on the transnational research project "Compensation areas in transition" which is being carried out by an interdisciplinary and international project team from practice and science in the D-A-CH countries. The project aims for a presentation of the status quo and the development of recommendations for a future-proof compensation planning.
In the first part of the session outcomes of the project will we presented from different perspectives. Subsequently, the second part will aim for a discussion of challenges and pathways towards the future with an expert panel and the audience. The suggested outline includes: 1. Comparison of the legal standards, 2. Implementation of compensation measures for infrastructure development – current state, tools and lessons learnt, 3. Challenges from climate and landscape change, 4. Panel discussion with practitioners and scientists. The goal of the interactive session is thus to inform practice across countries with regard to how the planning, safeguarding, maintenance and monitoring of compensation areas and measures can be improved in the future.