Head:
Address:
Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT)
Institute for Water and Environment
- Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management -
Kaiserstrasse 12
76131 Karlsruhe
Phone: +49 (0)721 - 608-44418
Email: wasserbau∂iwu.kit.edu
Visiting address:
The challenges facing water managers and engineers nowadays are manifold, complex, and require cross disciplinary approaches. These challenges include the safety of hydraulic natural and built systems, ageing infrastructures, pollution, guarantee of energy and food security, sustainable development and safety of urban environment, ecological feedbacks and an uncertain future.
Our group develops research towards engineering solutions for the design, the planning and the implementation of sustainable water infrastructures prepared for global change. We investigate the mechanics of flowing water and its interaction with key elements of a river basin such as sediments, dissolved matter, gases, living organisms and people. More specifically, the group is committed to develop research on four main topics: sustainable and secure water for supply, food and energy; adaptive and multi-functional hydraulic systems; healthy rivers; and geophysical processes in rivers and lakes.
Mário Franca was hosted in the podcast from the KIT Climate and Environment Center (KIT-ZKU) where he discussed our research on the transport of plastics in rivers.
Our research on the transport of plastics in rivers was mentioned in the newsletter 2-2024 from the KIT Climate and Environment Center (KIT-ZKU).
The 12th International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, River Flow 2024, was hosted by Liverpool John Moores University from 2–6 September.
Mário J. Franca and Luiz Oliveira represented IWU-WB at the conference. Luiz delivered an oral presentation on the paper titled “Hydrodynamics of an Asymmetrical Compound Channel with Nature-Based Vegetation Distribution”, co-authored by Johannes Janzen, Frederik Folke, Florian Wittmann, Nils P. Huber, Mário J. Franca, and Carlo Gualtieri.
Additionally, Mário J. Franca presented orally the paper “Linking Coarse Sediment Morphometry and Transport: Insights from Field Data and Curvature Flow Attrition”, which results from a research collaboration with Alessandro Cattapan, the lead author, alongside Michael McClain and Paolo Paron, from IHE Delft.
Before the start of the conference, Mário led a master class titled “Mechanics of Plastic Transport in Rivers”, in collaboration with Kryss Waldschlager (Wageningen University and Research) and Daniel Valero (Imperial College London).
Physically-based hydrological models can be understood as an upscaling exercise of hydrodynamic numerical models.
The latter have experienced great development in the past two decades, which together with the accelerated growth of computational power, now enable to tackle catchment and even regional scale hydrological modelling based on such tools.
Link to the seminar PDF file
On July 23, 2024, we gathered for our annual summer excursion. We embarked on a delightful bike ride through the Oberwald, eventually arriving at Wasserwerk Oberwald, the historic water distribution plant of Karlsruhe.
After an enlightening tour and our customary group photo, we continued our journey to the Städtsche Galerie. There, we immersed ourselves in the captivating art exposition, Hydromedia, where international artists showcased experimental artistic methods to raise awareness about water usage, management, and its ecological value.
Returning to the lab, we concluded this intense and fulfilling day with a relaxing barbecue. We are already looking forward to our next excursion!
We were lucky with the weather on yesterday's student excursion to 2 small hydroelectric power plants as part of the lecture on hydropower engineering. The "Sägemühle" at the river Enz (2 Francis turbines, 1 hydroelectric screw) was extensively modernized and expanded a few years ago by the owner (Mr. Dieter Heilig). Besides the increase of efficiency resp. output, the focus was on improving the ecological conditions.
Just before the onward journey to the Upper Neckar, heavy rainfall began, but was replaced by glorious sunshine just in time for our arrival. At the Horb-Mühlen plant (1 Kaplan tube turbine, 1 hydroelectric screw), Mr. Frank Bürkle (E-Werk Stengle) answered questions regarding hydraulic and technical aspects, including the implemented horizontal rake (fish protection) and also gave insights into electricity marketing, network operation and control technology.
