Ecological accompanying planning ARA Niederglatt
Realized:
2020
performed by:
Naturnetz Mittelland
The Niederglatt wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) cleans the wastewater from the communities of Bachs, Dielsdorf, Neerach, Niederglatt, Niederhasli, Oberglatt, Regensberg, Rümlang and Steinmaur. Major expansion and reconstruction work is necessary to ensure that the purified water can continue to be returned to the adjacent Glatt in sufficient quality in the future. At the same time, the area surrounding the plant is to be redesigned, taking ecological aspects into account.
Open spaces that are not used by the WWTP are to be consciously preserved and ecologically enhanced. The newly created natural areas are to be made accessible to interested members of the public and school classes in the future. A tour of the ARA Niederglatt site will highlight the issue of nutrients that occur in the sewage treatment plant and in nature and that affect them in different ways.
In a first major step, community service workers from the Naturnetz association created the open space above the rainwater treatment and emergency basins as a ruderal area in 2018-20. This dry and fallow raw soil area was created with wall gravel. Among other things, the area is intended to convey what a floodplain could look like after the water has receded. For this purpose, ecologically valuable small structures made of boulders and dead wood were created on the ruderal area. The ruderal area was then sown with a ruderal flora mixture and planted with native and site-appropriate wild perennials. This created a colorful and easy-care area, which has served as a habitat for many insects such as butterflies and wild bees for the second year. At the same time, several visible technical structures (flood protection wall, shafts) on this area were clad with dry stone walls made of sandstone and thus concealed. A nutrient-poor small body of water and a wild bee hotel complement the ecological infrastructure on the newly created ruderal area.
Since the area described is located outside the Niederglatt wastewater treatment plant, it has been made accessible to the public with a path and informative signs.
The Nature Network is already looking forward to many more opportunities to improve nature in the residential area and would like to thank the management of the Niederglatt wastewater treatment plant for their courage and decision to improve the area for the future, taking ecological aspects into account.