Master’s thesis serves as the basis for Dresden district development plans

Claudia Trache

At the end of 2017, the City of Dresden’s project “Dresden – Southeast” was added to the subsidy program “Future City Greenery.” In mid-March of this year, the City Council unanimously agreed on the new areas to receive support, as well as the area development concept. Mariela Weiß’s master’s thesis, “Blue Ribbon Geberbach – Feasibility Study on the Uncovering of the Pipelines of the Prohlis Landgraben in the Dresden districts of Reick and Dobritz” (Blaues Band Geberbach – Machbarkeitsstudie zur Offenlegung der Verrohrung des Prohliser Landgrabens in Dresden- Reick und –Dobritz), provided a significant basis for the development of this project. Weiß wrote her thesis in the winter semester of 2015/16 at the Institute of Landscape Architecture within TU Dresden’s Faculty of Architecture.

Mariela Weiß completed her internship semester at Dresden’s Department of Environment and Municipal Utilities. She also worked there alongside her studies during the 2014/15 winter semester and the 2015 summer semester, dedicating her time to hydraulics and collaborating on a waterways guide on the Geberbach and Prohlis Landgraben streams. “I wanted to get to know the structure and daily operations of a public body,” says Mariela Weiß.

Looking for a Topic with Real-World Relevance

In looking for a topic for her master’s thesis, she wanted to work on something with as much real-world relevance as possible. The right idea came from Katja Schumann, an official responsible for second-class surface waters at the Department of Environment and Municipal Utilities. “For many years we’ve struggled with various problems relating to the Prohlis Landgraben,” Katja Schumann explains. “For one, we would like to improve flood protection because when the water rises, pipeline intakes regularly become clogged, causing flooding. But we would also like to improve the chemical and ecological state of the water pursuant to the Water Framework Directive , as it is currently being consistently rated poorly due to the pipeline. In the future, the Prohlis Landgraben should be more accessible to people, including the in the area of Mügelner Straße, where it runs underground.” Mariela Weiß was already familiar with the area thanks to her work at the Department of Environment and Municipal Utilities. In her thesis, she presented a green space analysis, introduced the connecting green space between Prohlis and Dobritz and recognized potential avenues for the development of the district. “Mariela Weiß has provided excellent results in a relatively short period of time,” said Thomas Pieper, Head of City Renewal, in praise of the thesis. “As a city, we hardly have any capacity to perform such analyses. This master’s thesis is the starting point for further synergy in various city departments. The issue of climate change also plays a role, as well as traffic network and bicycle lane planning.”

The landscaping agency Rehwaldt has expanded on the master’s thesis and produced planning papers. In the coming roughly ten years, the present courses of the Niedersedlitz flood ditches are set to be partially opened and renatured. This will be accompanied by a green space from Prohlis to the Elbe with an integrated bicycle and pedestrian path.

Collaboration between the City of Dresden and TUD

The City of Dresden has also expressed interest in working more closely with the TUD. Concrete plans have already been developed in collaboration with hydrobiologists and hydraulic engineers. “We want to develop a new project together with the Dresden’s Department of Environment and Municipal Utilities and apply for subsidies. The focus lies on long-term monitoring of the biological and hydromorphological data on the Geberbach stream with the involvement of students so that they can learn to work in an interdisciplinary way,” explains Nadine Müller, Research Associate at the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and Technical Hydromechanics. “Furthermore, we want to carry out habitat modeling for the Geberbach. That is a computational method which allows the planning variants to be compared with a view to improving habitat availability. That way we can predict whether the restructuring will actually increase the number of habitats for small organisms in the water.” Over the coming years, additional collaborations are planned, including with sociologists. “In the future, the project ‘Dresden Southeast’ will offer various opportunities for master’s theses and research projects,” says Katja Schumann with certainty.

Mariela Weiß is following the project with interest

Since September 2016, Mariela Weiß has worked in the Department for Waterway Renaturing at Pöyry Deutschland GmbH at its office in Schwerin. She has fulfilled her desire to write a master’s thesis with real-world relevancy. “I am following the development of the project in Dresden with great interest,” she says. For her master’s thesis, she received the recognition of the Chamber of Architects of Saxony in 2016, which exhibited final papers from TU Dresden’s Faculty of Architecture on the occasion of its 25^th anniversary. Of the 24 final papers submitted in the 2015/16 winter semester, the jury awarded three prizes and four recognitions.