Workshop excursions

Tracing the green-blue infrastructure of Krakow

As a city rich in history and culture, Krakow also harbours remarkable examples of sustainable water management and engineering. During the 3rd Water Management and Flood Protection Congress, participants will have the opportunity to experience a unique technical tour of Krakow’s green oases. The planned tour, combining modern developments with the city’s history, will provide an unforgettable experience and valuable knowledge.

The first point of our journey will be Axentowicz Square, where participants will have the opportunity to see innovative approaches to counteracting the effects of i.e. urban heat islands. The misting jets and rain garden featured in the square not only aesthetically enhance the space, but also support the microclimate, providing natural cooling on hot days.

We will then proceed to Wisława Szymborska Park, where the involvement of residents in civic budget projects has helped to transform a former parking area into an oasis of green biodiversity. Water features, such as streams and reservoirs, not only add variety to the landscape but also support the local microclimate and rainwater retention.

The next stop will be Krupnicza Street, where the revitalisation of the urban space combined with the use of rain gardens and rainwater tanks reflects an advanced approach to climate change adaptation. It is an ideal place to see how shared spaces can harmoniously combine communicative and ecological functions.
It is impossible to omit the Main Square, the central point of Krakow, where projects from the civic budget supporting urban greenery are implemented with the concern of preserving the historical values of the place (sustainable management of public space can support both culture and ecology).
At the end of our tour, we will visit the Barbakan and the surrounding Planty Park, which not only protects a historic part of the city, but also plays a role in protecting biodiversity and supporting the microclimate in the heart of Krakow.

Cruise on the Vistula

On the second day of the 3rd Water Management and Flood Protection Congress, participants will have the opportunity to take part in a cruise on the Vistula on board the comfortable ship Horyzont. The planned tour, combining modern developments with the city’s history, will provide an unforgettable experience and valuable knowledge.

The route of the one-hour cruise includes a departure from the marina in the direction of the Jubilat department store and the Dębnicki Bridge, built in the years 1887-1888. The ship will then sail towards Wawel Castle and Zakole Wisły (Vistula River bend), where in 1938 intensive works were carried out to rebuild the Vistula riverbed under Wawel Castle forced by numerous floods. The promontory at Dębniki piled up water that repeatedly poured into the city, on top of which it washed up the bank on the Wawel side. The Vistula bend was profiled, the headland shortened, and a while earlier the Rożnowski Villa standing on it was demolished because there would no longer be room for it. There, the ship will turn around and tour participants will be able to see the Vistula Boulevards built between 1907 and 1913, which are historic hydrotechnical structures with a flood control function in Krakow along the Vistula, originally also intended to serve as auxiliary harbour wharves. They mainly consist of retaining walls (an upper, high wall, and a lower wall that captures the riverbed and forms the loading quay). In the line of the upper walls there are brick field stairs for pedestrians and cobbled ramps for vehicular traffic; the railway sidings on the lower level do not survive.
Then the ship will sail successively under the Grunwaldzki Bridge, past the Pauline Monastery in Krakow Na Skałce, the FORUM Hotel, under the Piłsudski Bridge, along the Father Laetus Bernatek foot and cycle bridge, Powstańców Śląskich Bridge, the new railway bridge in Zabłocie (railway line no. 91 Kraków-Medyka), the Kotlarski Bridge and the railway bridge in Dąbie (railway line no. 100 Kraków Mydlniki – Kraków Bieżanów), heading for the Dąbie water level. From there, it will head to the marina again.