Ried (Vorarlberg)
The Ried (also: Riet ) is a landscape that is mostly in the Austrian state of Vorarlberg and partly in the Swiss canton of St. Gallen and in the Principality of Liechtenstein .
These are wetlands, mostly on spongy soils with layers of peat meters thick, whose peculiar vegetations form characteristic biotopes. The constant excess of water from precipitation or from escaping soil water and the mostly high groundwater level keep the soil low in oxygen and prevent the complete breakdown of the plant residues. As a result, the layers deposited as peat were and are still being created. The reed therefore grows continuously upwards through the accumulation of peat. Agricultural use in Vorarlberg is often limited to one-time mowing and the extraction of litter . The drainage of reed areas is usually prohibited.
In the reed there are not only agricultural areas but also some protected areas for rare bird species such as B. the corncrake . Parts of the area are protected areas of European rank according to Natura 2000 .
location
The following communities have a share in the Ried in the lower Rhine Valley : Lauterach , Hard , Fußach , Höchst , Gaißau , Lustenau , and on the Swiss side Au SG and Berneck SG . Because of this location, the Ried is seen by many as the green lung of the Vorarlberger Unterland .
In the upper Rhine valley and in the Walgau there are larger and partially protected reed areas, e.g. B. in the municipalities of Feldkirch , Frastanz , Ruggell , Rüthi and others, which, like in the lower Rhine Valley, form a more or less uniform biotope regardless of the state border.
Traffic planning
The need for protection of the area in the lower Rhine valley became known in the course of the discussion about the construction of the Bodensee expressway (S18), which is to lead through this area. However, the S18 route ordinance was repealed by the Austrian Constitutional Court because the environmental protection requirements of the Federal Roads Act were not formally complied with during the route determination procedure. The European Court of Justice declared the previously designated Natura 2000 areas to be too small, but left the S18 route ordinance in place, as the route determination procedure was initiated in 1994 before Austria joined the EU and EU law was therefore not applicable to the road project.