Dichotomic, hierarchical patterns of reception, thinking and action are the blockades of sustainable development. They led society into a crisis of the societal relations to nature. To newly form these relations we have to analyze the different connections and interactions between nature and culture again. And we have to do this cooperatively: natural and social scientists as well as practioners, who contribute their experience, observations and knowledge from everyday life and work as well as from experiments. The project's region of investigation (the mouth of the river Mulde between the cities of Dessau, Bitterfeld and Wittenberg) offers a well reported history of the nature-culture-relationship and shows strong symptoms of the present crisis ...