The lower course of the Zátišský brook on the border of Prague’s Hodkovičky and Modřany will return to its original bed after several decades. The creek restoration project has now obtained a building permit. Renewal costs will reach six million crowns, according to the development company Karlín Group. Part of the stream before its mouth into the Vltava was sunk into the ground in the 1970s due to industrial construction. After the production area ceased to serve its original purpose and gradually fell into disrepair, the way was opened for restoration. The project was designed by the Flera studio for Karlín Group and Horizon Holding, which are building a new district, Zahálka, next to its shores.
In total, the Zátišský stream is over three kilometers long, and a quarter of a kilometer of the lower part of the stream is gradually being restored. The first part is already finished, now a 140-meter-long section will be restored and will be open to the public. A new riverbed will be created for the stream, which will be cleared with clay and reinforced with stone backfill. “We will plant coastal plants on the shores. Biodiversity, aquatic animals such as ducks or kingfishers, will return to the place. Water will also slowly seep into the surrounding areas and the plants will thrive better. The microclimate in the place will also improve,” said architect Tomáš Sklenář from Atelier Flera. According to him, the stream will be about five meters wide at the bottom, but the flow will be slow with shallow water safe for children’s games. The work should end next spring.
According to experts, returning streams from the underground to the original riverbeds is one of the ways to help the missing water return to the landscape. Experts from the Living Water project, for example, recently calculated that if all the “disappeared” watercourses in the Czech Republic could be restored in this way, water in the volume of ten Orlické dams would be retained in the landscape.
