by Carl Frederik Hupfer, Ivo Alexander Albrecht, Larissa Hürlimann und Rodrigo Nogueira Silva
Our blog examines how the River Sihl in Zürich has been and is being reimagined—from a long-perceived flood risk to a multifunctional urban river that supports biodiversity, recreation, and climate resilience. Historically, Zurich’s expansion into the Sihl’s alluvial fan led to repeated flood events and extensive anthropogenic modification of the river. The updated Sihl concept reflects a clear shift in perspective: rather than treating the river solely as a danger, it is now understood as a valuable ecological corridor and urban open space.
From 2003 onwards, a concept of usage of the SIhl was implemented: The Sihl Concept. The aim of this concept was to balance priorities of different affected actors. Qualifiy of recreation along the banks of the river was improved concurrently with flood protection and ecological well-being
By comparing earlier and updated versions of the Sihl concept, our analysis reveals a growing prioritization of ecological restoration over purely recreational design, especially in central sequences near the main station and Platzspitz. Measures such as fish passages, sediment dynamics, and habitat creation now take precedence, while recreation remains integrated but secondary.
Overall, the Sihl serves as a case study for how central urban rivers can balance flood protection, biodiversity conservation, and public use. How far can such multifunctional design go—and what trade-offs remain unresolved?
To explore the Sihl concept in detail and see how these ideas unfold along the river, dive into the full blog post we produced in the context of the Geography. Matters. module at the Department of Geography in the fall semester of 2025.
https://geography-matters.my.canva.site/urban-waterscapes
About GEO410
This blog post is part of the outcome of an interdisciplinary Master’s-level course in Geography: GEO410 Geography. Matters. The course aims to bring together diverse geographic research perspectives to engage with some of the most pressing societal and environmental challenges of our time. As the only compulsory module of the Geography MSc program, the course encourages students to think across sub-disciplines of geography and to explore how geographic research can meaningfully contribute to debates around sustainability, justice, and environmental change.
Beyond conducting interdisciplinary research as a team, a central aim of the course was to experiment with creative and accessible forms of science communication. Rather than producing a purely academic output, students translated their research insights into blogposts, intended for a wider, non-specialist audience. The contributions thus showcase not only rigorous scientific work by highly motivated students, but also the importance of communicating research beyond the university and engaging broader publics in conversations about geography, sustainability and the future of our shared environments.
The students in the course GEO410 were supervised by Andreas Vieli, Christian Berndt and Sofia van Moorsel as lecturers and by Nikolas Klaudy as teaching assistant.
Beitragsbild: Ralph Zueblin auf Pixabay