D-BAUG - Departement Bau, Umwelt und Geomatik - ETH Zürich

Field Trip
In particular, measures taken and developed, especially
the implementation of protective measures, were brought
home to our students.This included setting up sanctuaries
in spring water catchment areas and constructing an elaborate
monitoring system which, by means of specially
developed sensors, measures the water quality parameters
constantly online in very short intervals (e.g. of a minute).
Needless to say, this guarantees a closing monitoring of
the quality of the water. Such measures ensure an optimal
management of the spring water and an excellent water
quality for its consumers.
Our visit concluded with a tour of the water reservoir, Neusiedl
am Steinfeld, which is considered to be one of the largest
closed water reservoirs in Europe. It is mostly used to
balance out the partly high fluctuating spring water delivery
and to optimise water supply to the city of Vienna via
the first mountain spring water line. A total of 600 million
litres of water can be stored in four vaults which suffice to
meet the water supply demand for 1.5 days. By means of a
pipeline network stretching over 3300 kilometres, drinking
water is delivered to over 100,000 house connections
in the urban area.
16 ▪ D-BAUG Annual Report 2009
This excursion provided our students with an excellent
overview of the technical and financial complexities that
have been involved in building both the mountain spring
water lines and the adjacent facilities since 1873 when the
first HQL went into operation. All the students thoroughly
enjoyed the excursion and express their thanks to D-BAUG
for financing the study trip.
Fig. 3: Route of drinking water from the karstic springs to the Austrian capital via the I. and II. Viennese pipeline network.