Construction of LandsWhen Draining a Swamp Is a Bad Idea: A Case for Restoring Wetlands in ZurichJuliet Ishak, Ayça Kapicioglu, and Airas Sanchez Keller

The quality of the river ecosystems in Switzerland has severely decreased since the times of industrialisation. Looking at the fauna currently inhabiting the waters of the Canton of Zurich, we can see that many fish species which used to migrate up and down the river now have, if not disappeared, then notably decreased in population size. Many fish species like the trout depend on a free trajectory along the river, on slowly flowing river parts, and wetlands to spawn, all of which have been extensively changed by the canalisation and construction of rivers in Europe.

Continuing with our investigation, we would like to take a step away from looking at entire river ecosystems, and focus on a different kind of ecosystem connected to the waterscape: wetlands. These ecosystem are more contained and can be seen as a case study of how we humans have inflicted upon and totally changed natural waterscape systems.

5 percent of Europe’s ground was once covered in wetlands. Nowadays, it is merely 1.5 percent. Most of the wetlands close to settlements have been drained in the last two centuries.
Looking at Switzerland, the situation is even worse. According to BAFU, since 1800, more than 90 percent of all wetland coverage has been drained and destroyed. Luckily, in 1987, nature protection organisations were able to convince the state to put all remaining wetlands of importance under protection, in order to preserve what is left. Looking at the maps above, we can see that the development in the last 150 years has been drastic.

The current trends in Furttal show that there are overlaps in interests of different stakeholders in the valley. With our proposal we would like to expand these overlaps and create an interrelated network which would be beneficiary for all. The focus will be placed on establishing a connectivity of the region through partial restoration of the previous wetlands and the revitalization of Furtbach and its tributaries. Since the restoration of wetlands is a long-term process, the project is planned to be developed in different stages.