Assembling River Perspectives: Using a Jigsaw Puzzle to Co-Create a Traveling Exhibition about the Danube River

Authors

  • Gabriela Costea Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries image/svg+xml
  • Pippa de Kinder Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries image/svg+xml
  • Habil Martin Pusch Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries image/svg+xml

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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58981/denvky08

Published

2026-03-22

Issue

Water & Heritage for Sustainable Development

Section

methodologies and case studies

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Gabriela Costea, Pippa de Kinder, Habil Martin Pusch

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Assembling River Perspectives: Using a Jigsaw Puzzle to Co-Create a Traveling Exhibition about the Danube River. (2026). Blue Papers. https://doi.org/10.58981/denvky08

Keywords:

Danube, exhibition concept, participatory approach, citizen engagement, multicultural context

Abstract

Protecting and restoring rivers and floodplains, which are affected by many different human activities, requires the active participation of stakeholders and citizens. To support this, a co-creation approach was  developed  to gather citizens’ suggestions for conceptualizing a traveling exhibition on the Danube River that would provide environmental education about river and floodplain management. Because we aimed to reach citizens from a variety of cultural backgrounds in several countries, we developed a poster-sized interactive and collaborative wooden jigsaw puzzle of the Danube basin. This was used as an intuitive and integrative platform for interactions among citizens and stakeholders while they assembled the 88 pieces of the puzzle, to which they added Post-it® Notes with ideas for a future traveling exhibition to each puzzle piece. The Puzzle Wall was presented at 10 sites, mostly within the Danube basin, where 527 responses were collected from over 300 participants. This large-format puzzle map proved a successful engagement tool that motivated participants to share their insights and express their preferences, hence taking collective responsibility for addressing critical challenges in Danube River management.

Author Biographies

  • Gabriela Costea, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries

    Gabriela Costea is a research associate at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin. Along with experience as a museum curator, she has extensive expertise in terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. She has been involved for several years in scientific and awareness-raising activities concerning the ecology and benefits of aquatic ecosystems and wetland conservation, as well as in educational and social activities related to Danube River management.

  • Pippa de Kinder, Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries

    Pippa De Kinder is an Erasmus+ trainee at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin. She studied biology, specializing in ecology and biodiversity, at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and studied landscape architecture at the KASK School of Arts in Ghent and ENSP in Versailles. With an interdisciplinary background, she approaches ecological challenges from both scientific and creative perspectives. Her research interests encompass fieldwork and data analysis in freshwater ecology, climate adaptation, sustainable urban landscape design and educational projects, including citizen science initiatives that connect science with society.   

  • Habil Martin Pusch , Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries

    Habil Martin Pusch is a senior researcher at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) in Berlin. After his dissertation on the metabolism of organic matter in the hyporheic zone of a stream, he has been working on benthic invertebrates, the metabolism of matter in lowland rivers, on hydropower and environmental flows, on the Monitoring and assessment of river and lakes under the EU Water Framework Directive, and recently focuses on the integrative management of rivers, and floodplains by optimizing their ecosystem services.   

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