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.
On July 15, 2025, we gathered for our annual outing.
We started with a presentation of the Grötzingen fish pass by M. Eng. Martin Gerschitzka, Project Engineer (Engineering office Dr.-Ing. R.-J. Gebler GmbH) . Then, we visited Miguel Pavel’s atelier, where we took our group photo. Afterwards, Mr. Ludwig (Construction company Grötz) presented a construction site for bank erosion control, followed by a weir with fish pass and turbine introduced by Mr. Fleißner, former electrical engineer and co-owner of the hydropower plant. Finally, we observed renaturation works and a weir to be modified.
After a short lab visit, we enjoyed a delightful barbecue!
Can’t wait for our next expedition !
From 7 to 11 July, Rotterdam hosted the International Conference on Urban Climate. The conference brings together researchers, practitioners and policymakers working on improving the quality of urban areas. The theme was "Heritage as an Urban Climate Challenge" and considered the impact of the existing built environment on climate resilience.
From IWU-WB, Harro Jongen attended and presented recent work on the impact of the location and timing of energy flux observations at complex urban sites. He also presented a summary of his PhD thesis work entitled: Bridging balances: water and energy in the urban climate. Additionally, he convened a session on extreme precipitation and urban flooding. The last contribution was a poster on attributing evaporation fluxes to the different surfaces in the city, which was awarded the third prize!
From June 10 to June 13, 2025, our students once again had the opportunity to explore various hydraulic engineering and water management facilities as part of the Pentecost excursion. They were able to connect their theoretical knowledge from their studies with valuable practical insights. Accompanied by Victor Dupuis and Yesheng Lu from the Chair of Environmental Fluid Mechanics, as well as Prof. Mário Franca and Daniel Beetz from the Chair of Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management, 17 students experienced impressive days in southern Baden-Württemberg.
The technical excursion destinations included the Kleine Kinzig dam, Elz river revitalization, Lake Constance water supply, the Center of Fishery Research of Baden-Württemberg, the Albbruck-Dogern hydropower plant, the Hornberg Basin of the Wehr pumped storage power plant, and the Wolterdingen flood retention basin.
The program was rounded off with “non-technical” evening activities such as shared dinners, free time in Überlingen – some used the opportunity to swim in Lake Constance – and a guided tour of the Badische Staatsbrauerei Rothaus brewery.
We would especially like to thank all operators and stakeholders who made these exciting visits possible, as well as all sponsors and the Verein zu Förderung der Ausbildung und Forschung in der Hydromechanik e. V. for their generous financial support.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary celebration of the Intergovernmental Hydrological Programme (IHP, PIH) by UNESCO, Karl Matthias Wantzen's work has been recognized as " long-standing contribution to the Intergovernmental Hydrologial Programme". The price trophy was delivered by Mr. Abou Amani (director IHP), Mrs Lidia Brito (UNESCO Assistant Director General for natural sciences) and Prof. Helmut Habersack (BOKU Vienna, Chairperson of the IHP Council). Especially the 12-year UNESCO Chair (Fleuves et Patrimoine / River Culture) work, including concept-development of the River Culture Concept, the editing of the 900 page book "River Culture - life as a dance to the rhythm of the waters" and the engagement for Global South-Global North cooperation on Ecohydrology were recognized.
KM Wantzen holds the EUCOR Excellence Chair on Water and Sustainability, which is a joint professorship from the University of Strasbourg and KIT (IWU). During the event, he delivered a keynote on River Culture as an approach to rediscover and facilitate the implementation of ecohydrological NbSs All presentations will soon be online on https://www.unesco.org/en/ihp/50y?hub=68140
On 12–13 June, Dr. Jiangtao Yang presented his experimental research on the physical degradation of large wood in rivers at GESINUS 2025, held at Universität der Bundeswehr München, Munich.
In his presentation, he demonstrated possible wood debarking patterns under varying conditions such as flow velocity and water depth, and discussed how these parameters influence the debarking rate.
During the seminar, it was also a great opportunity to visit the hydraulic laboratory at Universität der Bundeswehr München and learn about their ongoing research on the deposition mechanisms of debris flows and soil seepage processes under freeze–thaw cycles.
The SimHydro Conference 2025 took place from June 2nd to 4th on the Sophia Tech campus of the Université Côte d'Azur. It addressed the question "Which data for water and models?".
Fabian Knepper represented IWU-WB and gave an oral presentation on the results and conclusions from the international survey on the state of QA/QM in flow modeling conducted by the IWU-WB.
