Donauinsel

In the north and south of the island, there are two large naturist bathing areas The Donauinselfest is an annual open-air music festival held on the Donauinsel.

While the northern and southern parts of the island are designed to maintain a more natural environment, the middle third has been developed in a park-like manner with landscaped features.

The island also serves as a nature reserve, providing a habitat for rare bird, amphibian and fish species, as well as deer, hares and beavers.

As the river Danube crosses the city (before major extensions: passed nearby), this has been a constant concern over hundreds of years.

In 1970, a new plan was conceived and soon executed: digging an additional channel to replace the former inundation area, and using the spoil to build up the remaining strip of land between the straightened bed from the 19th century flood defense schemes and the newly created one.

It includes the Danube Canal's Nußdorf weir, locks at either end of New Danube, a groundwater level control system integrated into the right bank flood levee (which creates appropriate conditions for the large park area Prater, once part of a wide alluvial forest zone), and the new Freudenau river plant's sluice.