CORDERO CORDERO DE DE DIOS DIOS

In addition to the 62-kilometer Greenbelt round route for pedestrians, more than a dozens of other small and local hiking trails are planned for citizens, with the length from 0.3 to 18 kilometers, and half of the trails lie in the urban forest. Each of these hiking routes follows a specific topic, which is normally historical background or cultural landscape related, and doesn’t limited in the range of Greenbelt itself, but rather stretches into city districts or links to destinations outside Frankfurt. Each route has its own

The Hiking Route of Springs (Quellenwanderweg) is a 6 km trail between Seckenbach and Bergen-Enkheim in the north-east of Greenbelt (Fig 6.3.1). The location of this route is one of the most fragmented area in Greenbelt that constantly being cut by built areas. However, these areas also provide with people who works in this huge agricultural district. The trail starts and ends in the residential area and only half of the route lies inside the boundary of Greenbelt, where the height is about 200 meters above sea level thus has a great view over the center city. This small hill area Lohrberg and Berger Hang is special in the geographic structure for it contains spring layers, which contribute to the springs, wells and water mills with a history behind them. The Hiking Route of Spring is thus planned to connect this cultural valuable sites together.

Fig 6.3. 1 The Hiking Route of Spring. Upper left: The location in Greenbelt; Lower left: The logo of the route; Right: The site plan of the route, grey area is out of the Greenbelt. Base map from Umweltamt brochure and re-draw by author.

The route contains 20 stations and the first five stations lie inside the built area of Seckbach. The starting point Station 1 named The Old Born and located in an unnoticed corner a green space near a playground of the quite residential area. The German word Born, which is normally translated as spring, describes a spring fossil which everyone could cover their requirements. The station 2 “Draisborngraben” presents part of an underground spring course which could be located following the sound of spring in quiet time. This spring runs continuously to “the Seckbacher Mühlbach”, the station 5, a stream drove the Seckbach water mill until the end of the 19th _{century. The medieval-looking house was built behind}

the millstones and now became a testimony of the water mills. This stream is created by the confluence of several springs and has a length of approximately 1 km including the pipeline. The stream was once buried under concrete and only until recently got relocated to its old bed in the natural conservation project. After a short open flow course, the Seckbacher Mühlbach disappears into the underground pipe. Since 1990, the stream ends in the nature reserve Seckbacher Ried and feeds this 7 ha wetland all year long. On the crossroad of station 2, a sideway off the main route leads to station 3 and 4, which is

respectively a former pumping station and an old spring site which had large amount of water but now only left with an area of wetland.

Since the station 6, the route enters the range of Greenbelt and begins to climb up steadily. The station 6 is the outflow of the Pfingstlohr down from the Lohrberg, and presents as a trickle flows by the street side. The Pfingstgetrieschen Spring, the station 7 that lies little off the main route, lies on the slope of the Lohrberg in a former leisure gardens/ small gardens, which was recently purchased by the City Frankfurt from the funds of Nature Conservation Law. In this way, the spring source area which was intensively used before could now be better protected. Both springs, the Pfingstlohr and Pfingstgetrieschen, run down to feed the Seckbacher Mühlbach.

The former main collection water tank of the Seckbacher waterworks dated in 1897 is the 8th

station located in the Pfingstlohr street. The concrete main tank has a capacity of 300 cubic meters and collected water of the strong springs include the Draisborn, Wüst and Pfingstlohr as drinking water source for the west of Seckbach. Since 1903, this pipeline network was connected into the Frankfurt system and the tank was able to supply both west and east part when necessary. The Klingenborn and Klingelbach, station 9 and 10, are both springs origin from the higer layer of Lohrberg. They run down the hill and was collected for drinking purpose until 1953, and later become the source water of the Seckbacher Ried wetland. The rest two sites inside the Greenbelt related to Judenborn, a spring with large amount and leaks out of the ground.

The rest 8 sites all locate in the Enkheim district at the east foot of the Lohrberg. These springs related stations are almost identical with that in Seckbach, but the route is about twice long. All together 5 springs and one well can be found within the area which were once critical as drinking water supply but now lose their provisioning functions. Some of them are now buried underground and hard to relocate. Besides, similar as in Seckbach, a historical mill and its driven stream, the Enkheimer Mühlbach of station 14, locates also near the Lohrberg hill and once served for the area.

The Hiking Route of Springs aims at the recollection of the water sources sites that largely interweaved with local histories. Along the route, 11 springs, 2 wells, 3 streams, 2 water facilities and 2 traditional water mills are connected to tell the stories lasts since hundreds of years. The abundant water sources used to promote prosperous towns, now their remains still provide with cultural, recreational and educational value.

6.3.2 The undertaken functions

The route belongs to the Lohrberg area in the north-east part, where the capacity of general Ecosystem Services presents as medium level of the whole Greenbelt. The route itself is too small to be analyzed, however, the performance of its surrounding area could be used as reference (Fig 6.3.2). As a

capacity due to the extensive pasture tradition and ornamental lawn in the Lohrpark. The regulating services basically show limited capacity due to the agriculture dominated ecosystem, with the exception of the nature reserve Seckbacher Ried wetland. Many springs of the district finally converge here into this reed wetland, which thus keeps in a moist status and provides valuable habitats for species. The center of the Lohrberg area shows strong competitiveness in cultural services, which may contribute to the Lohrpark and the nearby Apple House.

Fig 6.3. 2 The performance of the surrounding area of the Hiking Route of Springs, by author.

Based on the result from urban level, the Hiking Route of Springs seems to have chosen a less favorable place and dives deeply into the built area instead. Without the awareness of its historical background, this route seems less attractive. By contrast, the Greenbelt round routes for pedestrians and cyclists, show as continuous and dash lines in black color, have made better selection of the landscapes

directly goes through Enkheim, and only overlapped with the Spring Hiking Route in the Lohrpark, which is the most favorable place in its circumference.

The local level functions of the route center in the cultural aspect, especially the historical heritage value. However, the expression forms of the heritage information are relatively deficient. Besides the 6- page German brochure which gives a detailed introduction of the site location and background histories, the only clues are the information board along the route (Fig 6.3.3-upper). Some of the boards are hidden deeply unnoticed, while others maybe humdrum for children or normal passers-by to be interested into the story line. This status leads to the fact that, despite the lavish heritage or educational value and the ample provision from planners’ perspective, the acceptance and attractiveness of this value from users’ side is considerably low.

From the recreational usage of this route, the flaw is also obvious, that the monotony in sight and complexity in route are sometimes unfriendly to hikers (Fig 6.3.3-lower). Between many of the 20 stations are only walking without objects, except a few places have specific sight of landscape of unique local residential buildings. 65% of the trails are inside built areas, where the roads are narrow and mix- used with limited space for pedestrians; while some part of the route include crossing main road. Furthermore, the guide system for the route is poor and people who are not familiar with the district can easily got lost.