Welcome to the Danish pilot area!

Tude Å, Slagelse commune, Zealand

The delta area of the river Tude leads to the ancient viking fortress of Trelleborg (built around 980 AD by the king Harald Blåtand). The river has originally been the water way to the fortress, flowing in a shallow valley through meadows, marshes and grasslands. 

Tude Å is the main migrating route for a large portion of Zealand’s trout (Salmon
trutta) population on their way to the spawning grounds. The wet meadows and marshes hold also a huge botanical and ornithological potential. In the 1960's however, they have been drained and are in intensive agricultural use and the river has been straightened to ensure draining of the arable land.  

The inappropriate land use patterns have also transformed also the landscape in Tude Å valley. Trees and bushes have grown uncontrolled and covered many of the open spaces, including the view from the fortress to the sea. The ongoing wetland restoration project along Tude Å will greatly influence and change the appearance and use of the landscape. It is very important to be able to value these changes, both the landscape aesthetic change and the down-to-earth economic change. Within the LIFEscape project, Slagelse municipality will develop tools for an economic analysis with focus on the citizens' view of the landscape and economic values within the project area. An essential part of this analysis will be the development of a questionnaire, which is to be distributed to the people who live in and use the area. 

The participative landscape planning process will include joint preparation of a detailed spatial plan, including plans for access, paths systems and presentation of the features in the area. The plan will describe the needed physical alterations and elements, and the cumulative effect of these elements. An important part of the spatial plan is to visualise the project objective. A visualisation of the project's influence on the landscape will have a motivating effect, not only on the project group but especially on the residents and users of the area. The visualisation will help communicate the project objective and facilitate the involvement of the local community. 

As part of the practical project the original cultural landscape with clear, grazed fields will be restored. This requires the clearing of trees where necessary. This will open the landscape and provide free overview of the project area from the viking fortress. The clearing of trees will be done sustainably, the trees will be removed from the area and put to use elsewhere. 

Grazing is an important part of the management of the open land. This requires fencing of the grazed areas. Bird watching towers will be established in the area. From these the visitors can behold the simple beauty of the landscape as well as the rich bird- and wildlife in the stream valley. The towers will be connected to other project elements via a network of paths. From these paths the public can enjoy nature at close range, on a family picnic trip or while jogging.

Slagelse municipality is very experienced when it comes to public participation. The residents and users of the project area have already been involved at this early stage and the municipality continuously informs them of the process and progress of the project. This creates a solid foundation for trust, cooperation and exchange of ideas between the individual citizen and the municipality. 

Project LIFEscape is part of a larger hydro-engineering project for restoration and conservation of landscape surrounding the Trelleborg fortress. You can read more about it here.