REFERENCE PERSON

Michael Mirtl

WORKING TEAM

Johannes Peterseil, Tomas Dirnböck, Andrea Stocker-Kiss

The Umweltbundesamt (Environment Agency Austria) is the national environment agency of Austria. As such, it is the expert organisation of the federal government in Austria for environmental protection, assessment and control that deals with all environmental issues and applies an interdisciplinary approach to environmental media. The Umweltbundesamt Austria currently employs more than 450 experts from all environmentally relevant disciplines to allow an integrative approach to environmental protection and natural resource management issues. The Umweltbundesamt, in close collaboration with the Environment Ministry, provides expert advice and policy support on EU proposals for environmental directives and regulations and their implementation and application, as well as on draft laws and ordinances at the national level. The Umweltbundesamt is the major Austrian specialist institution for many international and supranational issues of environmental concern (European Environment Agency, UNEP, OECD and ECE).
The Agency participates in the European Topic Centres (ETCs) for Air and Climate Change, Water, Terrestrial Environment and Waste and Material Flows, and provides the National Reference Centres of the EEA regarding many areas, including Biodiversity, Nature Protection and Landcover. Moreover, the Agency is Austrian NFP for several international information exchange networks, such as the European Environmental Information and Observation Network (EIONET) and UNEP/INFOTERRA. As Austrian member of the Network of Excellence in Long-term Ecological Research (ALTER-net),  the Agency is particularly responsible for data, information and knowledge management systems. The Umweltbundesamt GmbH is leading projects such as “Climate Change Impacts and Adaptation in the European Alps”, a EEA funded initiative, and strongly active regarding the Water Framework Directive (WFD) (Council Directive 2000/60/EC).

The Umweltbundesamt is providing the long-term data, existing infrastructure of LTER Zöbelboden, and the expertise of the scientific LTER-Team. LTER Zöbelboden exists since 1992 as part of the UNECE international cooperation project “Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects”. Today it is the best-known karst catchment in Austria and suited to serve as a study area for climate change effects on solute transport and dynamic. LTER Zöbelboden is a core site of LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) Austria, LTER Europe and the EU infrastructure of highly instrumented sites (EXPEER). LTER Zöbelboden, which is included in EnvEurope project, is part of the LTSER platform Eisenwurzen, which is also managed by the Umweltbundesamt.

External Assistance

• WasserCluster Lunz – WCL (Reference person Peter Chifflard)
• Federal Research and Training Centre for Forests, Natural Hazards and Landscape - BFW (Reference person Michael Englisch)

They manage 3 LTER sites included in EnvEurope project: WasserCluster Lunz under the management of WCL  and Achenkirch-Mühleggerköpfl and Hochwechsel under the responsibility of BFW.