Zakole Wawerskie // Climate Lab Case Study

Intro

” The ZAKOLE project is dedicated to a wetland located almost in the very heart of Warsaw. Zakole Wawerskie combines picturesque, mostly inaccessible mires with vast meadows. The area is inhabited by an array of various creatures, such as beavers, birds, frogs, mosquitoes, reeds and grasses, as well as humans. ” (zakole.pl)

LOCATION / CONTEXT

Zakole Wawerskie is located in Warsaw, Poland.

Located close to the heart of the polish capital, Zakole Wawerskie is in the immediate vicinity of the Trasa Siekierkowska and Trakt Lubelski routes, and has approximatelly 55 hectares of land. Zakole Wawerskie is generally a wild wetland, and includes alder carr, waterlog, reed beds, peat bogs, and meadows.

Zakole Wawerskie is also a home for wildlife, with approximately 130 different species of birds, 6 species of frogs – all under the strict protection of animal species, as well as number of other mammals and invertebrates (darekk.com/zakole-wawerskie). There are also 12 registered species of dragonflies in the area (wazki.pl/warszawa_zakole_wawerskie).

As Zakole Wawerskie is close the main highway, the sound of the city accompanies the wild green area. The wetland sits on a former oxbow of the Vistula river, and used to flood before the Miedzeszyn embankment was build in the 1920s (the red line on the map above indicates the extends of flood before the embankment was built). Currently, the land has a number of of brooks and canals, and is located up to 1 km away from the river.

The area is not very popular as only few poeple know about this place, and some of the land owners find this place unorganised, not useful, and even dangerous (cafx.dk/post/carrying-things-together).

ECOLOGICAL ISSUES

Currently, only small part of Zakole Wawerskie is under some sort of protection, called Zespół przyrodniczo-krajobrazowy, however this is not a legal protection, as parts of the land are private. In response to that, there is a number of petitions addressed to the President and the City Council of Warsaw to provide real legal protection to Zakole Wawerskie, as it is a unique urban refuge of wildlife and biodiversity. It is also one of the most valuable natural and strategic area in the capital in the context of climate change (naszademokracja.pl/petitions).

Majority of Zakole Wawerskie area has a number of landlords. Due to the private land ownership, the future of this place is uncertain. The buildings that penetrate deeper and deeper into the meadows, drain and fill the land, and consequently destabilize the water conditions. This is a threat for the peat bog, which is a place of life for many rare and protected species of plants, animals and fungus. The petitions therefore also include the appeal to buy the land from landlords in order to protect the nature.

Furthermore, it is important to mention that the wetlands also improve the quality of life in the city. An extremly imporant function of Zakole Wawerskie is that it cools the city and alleviates the climate locally. It also collects and retains rainwater, mitigating the effects of long periods without rainfall. What is more, the peat bogs also store carbon, which have been naturally caught from the atmosphere over the thousands of years and are kept underground. If the pet bog would completly dried out, this would cause the release of carbon into the atmosphere, which is equal of the carbon emission of 91,000 cars running continuously for a year (naszademokracja.pl/petitions).

But the problem is not only the legal issues of obtaining the land from private owners. For the past few years, Zakole Wawerskie is in danger. When the highway was built in the 2000s directly alongside the land, it caused in reducing the Zakole Wawerskie area.

Another problem are activities of private investors, who are often dumping debris, or build ie. golf fields in the immediate vicinity of Zakole Wawerskie. These activities are often illigal and occure quite often as there is no action against it (Murat, 2012).