Setting a standard for rallies around the globeMother Nature rest assured – the OMV ADAC Rallye Deutschland (10 to 13 August) will not disturb you.
Environmental experts who havebeen advising and helping the rally's organisers to comply with the EU HabitatsDirective
since 2001, have hard scientific facts to prove that rally sport and the environment in the Trier, Baumholder and St. Wendel areas coexist in good harmony.
Last year, over ADAC 3,000 helpers made sure that about 60 rally teams and 220,000 spectators did not leave an indelible imprint. This success prompted the German Motor Sport Federation (DMSB) to honour ADAC with its environmental award. And rightly so, since the German WRC event has long been an example for maximum environmental compatibility for WRC rally organisers around the globe.
For the OMV ADAC Rallye, a team including Dr. Karl-Friedrich Ziegahn, agronomist Tilman Kluge and geologist Helmut Rotzalhas an eye on these matters.
From the planning stage of the OMV ADAC Rallye, their expert input covers a wide range of environmental issues down to details such as waste disposal and the installation of mobile WCs in spectator points.
Spectator management is an area of particular relevance from an environmental perspective. Other than waste disposal, crowd management is an important issue. For instance, wooden bridges and steps have proved very useful in certain spots where ditches and road embankments would have been trampled.
Another tough issue is the co-ordination of parking in meadows and on lawns, particularly in rainy conditions. To channel spectator access to such improvised parking, footpaths are mowed.
The 5,000 Euro coming with the DMSB environmental award are also helping both the environment and science.
The money was given as a grant to the Birkenfeld Environmental Campus of the University of Applied Sciences Trier and Prof. Dr. Finken, where Katja Arend, a local from the Trier area, is analysing and interpreting the data from five years of continuous environmental monitoring in her diploma thesis.
Press release OMV ADAC Rallye
