From Konstanz via Schaffhausen up to Eglisau, the river Rhine forms a unique lake and river landscape. Although this has not been a natural landscape for many years, valuable areas have remained unspoiled. Thus, at the confluence of the river Thur and the Rhine there is a species-rich oak forest with a vital stock of the endangered middle-spotted woodpecker.

The nearby small town of Rheinau is of historical significance in relation to nature and heritage protection. A power plant was built in Rheinau in the 1950s. It was originally planned to make the Rhine navigable as far as Lake Constance. The project would not even make way for the Rhine Falls. However, widespread resistance to the project formed and, in 1954, the people of Switzerland rejected the project in a referendum on the "Rheinau Initiative”.

An article on nature and heritage protection was later introduced into the Swiss Constitution and work started on the development of a Federal Inventory of Landscapes and Natural Monuments of National Importance.