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U. Pont, M. Rössler, C. Kubista, A. Mahdavi:
"CURBIS - Critical Urban Biodiversity Issues";
Report for FFG - Programm Stadt der Zukunft; Report No. Einreichung, 2017; 70 pages.

The present contribution intends to deliver an important contribution to a better understanding between the built environment, and the human and animal inhabitants of the built environment (such as bats, birds, insects, ...). This relation is characterized by benefits, dangers, and tensions. On the one hand, there exist plans to integrate healthy, "natural" environments into urban surroundings as a courtesy to human users who consider "nature in the city" as a pleasant experience. Such an integration requires the consideration of not only species of Flora, but from Fauna as well. On the other hand, it is a challenging task to
upkeep an ecological balance between the different means of inhabitants and to find possibilities to maintain this balance. The maintenance and upkeep of buildings (preservation
from damage), as well as thermal retrofit concepts, often come with reductive tendencies toward habitable spaces for animals. Given this context, it is clear that a single-view
approach toward these issues will not bring solutions. Rather, experts from different fields are required to tackle the mentioned issues together in an integrative approach. This
exploratory project addresses three important issues / fields of development regarding the complex relationship between animals and "green" human settlements: Modul 1 thereby focuses on bird window collisions. To address this issue, elaborate monitoring methods are required. Current methods regularly show two weak points: On the one hand, so called "tunnel experiments", which per se deliver highly convenient results, are criticized because they are considered far away from "real" impact situations. Field studies
under real conditions, on the other hand, are both intensive on personal, time, and cost, but limited to thepower of explanation. Such manual monitoring methods share their low
efficiency with the existing approaches toward (semi-)automated impact detection. This research and development gap shall be bridged in CURBIS. Modul 2 Creating a guideline for policy makers, builder and architects to prevent "traps" for bats and birds in buildings as they can occur due to building construction type and assembly parts. From facade claddings it is known that they can become traps for bats. For example every year hundreds of Great Noctule bats (Nyctalus noctula) slip through cracks of a
building on the Wienerberg, but due to the very smooth surface material they have no possibility to get out again. If these animals are not discovered in time and freed, they perish
miserably. This case is unfortunately not an isolated one in Europe and thus shows the urgency of such an evaluation. As also birds can be trapped by such structures they will be
considered in the guideline as well. While some structures on buildings can become traps for animals, others can lead to an improvement of living conditions in cities. An often discussed
issue is the suitability of green roofs as foraging sites for bats. Therefore a project plan for future studies will be developed with which the suitability of these structures as foraging sites for bats in the urban area of Vienna can be estimated. The aim is to develop a project plan which includes a detailed assessment of the workload, the factors to be considered and the costs incurred. Modul 3 focusses on the link between building construction knowledge (design, retrofit) and animal "tenants": Thereby both the prevention of settlement of unwanted inhabitants (large pigeon populations) and opening opportunities for welcomed inhabitants (such as kestrels, who might help to control the pigeon´s population) will be examined.
Possibilities and interlinks to the building construction detailing will be established, and a guideline or checklist for these aspects will be created.

The exploratory project is connected closely to the Innovation lab "GrünStattGrau", and considers the interfaces to the R & D processes established in this lab. While the exploratory
project can exist as a standalone project, it is well prepared to be integrated into the wider view of the innovation lab.

Der vorliegende Forschungsantrag möchte einen wesentlichen Entwicklungsbeitrag zum besseren Verständnis zwischen gebauter Umwelt, menschlichen Nutzern und Wildtieren leisten. Hierbei handelt es sich um ein komplexes Spannungsfeld: Auf der einen Seite existieren Bestrebungen nach einer gesunden urbanen Umgebung, welche eine ausreichende "Naturnähe" aufweist und damit ausreichend Platz nicht nur für die Flora, sondern eben auch für die Fauna lassen muss. Auf der anderen Seite ist es schwierig in
innerstädtischen Gebieten eine ausreichende ökologische Balance zu bewahren, hier sind Maßnahmen gefragt, die diese ökologische Balance erhalten helfen. Dazu kommt der Aspekt der Bauwerkserhaltung und -ertüchtigung, welche zum Teil in Widerspruch mit den Lebensräumen verschiedener Wildtiere steht. Die Gesamtmaterie ist hoch komplex und erfordert die Zusammenarbeit von Spezialisten verschiedenster Disziplinen, da singuläre Sichtweisen hier erfahrungsgemäß keinen wesentlichen Beitrag zu leisten vermögen. Diese Sondierung widmet sich drei mit einander verbundenen Teilaspekten bzw. Entwicklungsgebieten des komplexen Spannungsfelds zwischen menschlichen Gebäudenutzern, tierischen Stadtbewohnern und der gebauten (und teilweise begrünten) Umwelt, welche nachstehend beschrieben werden sollen. Davor zeigt Abbildung 1 das Verhältnis dieses Spannungsfeldes im Rahmen der Bemühungen des Innovationslabors GrünStattGrau, welches als thematisch-inhaltlicher Rahmen für diese Entwicklungen
fungiert.

Wildtiere in der Stadt, Vogelanprall, Sensorik/Detektion, Biodiversität, Fledermäuse, Gebäudebrüter