The goal of the Weser ecological master plan is to pave the way for improvement, development and restoration of natural habitat conditions in the Fulda, Werra and Weser river catchment areas.

In 1991, a technical committee of the Deutscher Verband Wasserwirtschaft und Kulturbau (DVWK; German Water Management and Agricultural Development Association) carried out a characterization of the Weser’s river basin’s floodplains. A comprehensive floodplain development program was then elaborated on the basis of the relationship between the resource use conflicts that were identified and the remaining areas that were still worth protecting. The work realized for this project was supported by the realization of plans for representative model areas along selected stretches of the Weser, Werra and Fulda.

The conclusions reached by this study provided the basis for the elaboration of far reaching planning paradigms for the Weser catchment area and its ecologically sound rehabilitation. Moreover, the heuristic lessons learned from the project have proven to be transferable to water ecosystems whose hydromorphology is similar to that of the Weser.

The multivolume project documentation contains a comprehensive survey of general guidelines, provides a précis of the resource use conflicts to which the Werra, Fulda, and Upper and Middle Weser are subject, and describes the development options for the Weser catchment area’s water bodies and floodplains.