In 2021, the flood hit the Ahr Valley and killed 135 people. In 2022, a third of the country in Pakistan was flooded. More than 15,000 people lost their lives. The south of Brazil was affected at the beginning of 2024. There, entire city districts sank into the raging floods. Hundreds drowned. Finally, in October, the east of Spain was hit: tens of thousands of buildings were damaged and thousands lost their livelihoods.

Due to climate change, catastrophic floods have become a terrible norm around the world. So it's high time to take the danger seriously and prepare for it.

The hydraulic engineer Peter Oberle has been researching how flood risks can be assessed as realistically as possible at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology for over twenty years. He is convinced that the state government in Baden-Württemberg is taking the danger very seriously. Unfortunately, this is not always the case at the local level.

At the invitation of EnBW, the winning group of this year's construction competition was able to visit Machine 5 of the Power Plant Iffezheim on Friday, November 15, 2024, which is currently under revision.

The opportunity to see the Kaplan turbine with a runner diameter of 6.8 meters up close, and to hear detailed explanations about the operation and maintenance of the plant, provided them with a profound understanding of the complexity involved in such facilities.

It's not every day that one gets to witness the inner workings of a power plant, and this experience surely left a lasting impact on the students.

On 18 October, Mário Franca gave a seminar on “Integrating Floating Debris Transport Mechanics into Urban Flood Management“, at the EAWAG, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology , in Dübendorf.

In his presentation, Mário shared share insights from IWU-WB research, including results on the transport of plastics in rivers, the inception of motion of large debris during floods, and the inception of motion and transport of urban litter caused by pluvial floods.

These findings ultimately contribute to better management strategies for urban floodwaters and mitigation of the environmental impacts of plastic pollution.

See the presentation video here

One of the early press releases following the devastating flood in the Ahr Valley in 2021 stated: “Such an event could not have been predicted!” But is that really true?

Historical flood markers along our rivers suggest otherwise. If we have improved knowledge about flood risks, why do we still experience billions in damages and even fatalities, as seen in the Neckar catchment area and Bavaria in June 2024?

In his lecture, Dr.-Ing. Peter Oberle explored the possibilities and limitations of sustainable flood protection and precautionary measures.

On 11.-13.09.2024, Katharina Stickl and Daniel Beetz represented IWU-WB at the 23rd Meeting of Young Professionals of German-speaking Institutes for Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management which was hosted by the Institute for Water Management and Eco-Technologies at Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences this year.

After a welcome barbecue and lab tour on the first evening, the second day provided versatile insights into the work of other YP’s during different talks and gave space for inspiring discussions. Katharina Stickl contributed a talk about Investigations on the low water corridor at the Rhine and Daniel Beetz about Surface flow pattern and bed morphology interaction in the vicinity of hydraulic structures. On the third day, the meeting ended by an excursion to the Pretzien Weir and the Magdeburg Waterway Intersection.

We would like to thank this year’s organizing committee for the great meeting and all participants for the motivating and enriching discussions.

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).

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!

Restoring continuity and connectivity along rivers is essential for river ecosystems and biodiversity.

The speaker will take you on a short journey along a river from its source to its mouth and demonstrate the relevance of various research projects and involved numerical modelling using a number of recent examples.

The seminar video is online now

From June 17th to June 19th, the 10th IAHR International Symposium on Hydraulic Structures took place in Zürich.

Hydraulic structures are and will be a vital part of the infrastructure for human beings as they provide safe irrigation and water supply, protection against natural hazards, energy generation, and many other highly needed services. Given the current global challenges including water scarcity, abundance in the form of floods, need for clean and affordable energy and environmental issues related to watercourses as biodiversity hotspots, hydraulic structures will remain very relevant in the future.

This was demonstrated by more than 180 Participants from all continents taking part,  Frank Seidel represented the IWU-WB.

In July 2021, parts of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were hit by catastrophic flooding caused by the Bernd low-pressure system.

In Belgium, the most affected catchment (the Vesdre River) had experienced repeated summer droughts in the four years (2017-2020) preceding the flood.

This seminar will provide an overview of how a rare hydro-meteorological event combined with unfavourable hydrological conditions in the catchment and a lack of risk awareness and preparedness, which was plausibly exacerbated by the preceding prolonged drought.

The seminar video is online now

The new Institute for Water and Environment (IWU) initiated its activities in January 2024. It was created as a merger of the "Institute of Water and River Basin Management" (IWG) and the "Institute for Hydromechanics" (IfH).

The occasion was celebrated on 17th May 2024 with the participation of all IWU employees in the laboratory building of the former Institute for Hydromechanics.

Christin Kannen defended her doctoral thesis last Friday, April 19, 2024. After years of excellent scientific work, she was awarded her doctorate for her thesis on “Hydromorphology of ecological deep pool habitats”.

Christin's work has made an important contribution to the state of the art in the field of ecohydraulics.

Congratulations to Dr.-Ing. Christin Kannen! We are already looking forward to the next big project she will be embarking on.

On 26 March 2024, Mário Franca was invited to give a presentation in the Kick-off meeting of the MSCA RESCUER project to which the IWU is an Associated Partner.

He presented the main results of two recent publications on Urban Flood Drifters, an essential element to be considered in flood management. More details can be found on the here and here.

Between 19th and 23rd February 2024, with our colleague Andreas Fink (IMK-TRO), and by invitation of the Baden-Württemberg Stiftung, Mário Franca visited universities in Kenya (Nairobi and Kenyatta) and in Uganda (Makerere and Kampala).

We had excellent and promising discussions on research and education collaboration. It was the occasion to meet a former PhD student of the institute, Patrick Murigi, now lecturer at the University of Kenyatta.

On the 20th December 2024, Mario Franca lectured to the students of the University of Gadjah Mada (Indonesia) on Modeling Approaches to Environmental Flows.

The hosts were Prof. Agus Maryono, PhD alumni from KIT, and Dr. Adhy Kurniawan, former PhD colleague of Mario. The lecture can be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/376713986_Modelling_approaches_to_environmental_flows

As part of his visit to KIT, the President of the Landesanstalt für Umwelt Baden-Württemberg  (LUBW), Dr. Ulrich Maurer, at the IWG informed about current topics in water research.

After a general presentation of the water research at KIT by Mario Franca, he, Erwin Zehe and Stephan Fuchs presented the current work and topics of their IWG-departments.

Hydraulic structures, such as dams fulfill many societal functions including water supply, flood mitigation and generation of hydropower.

Their safety is paramount and a failure can be catastrophic.

The design of hydraulic structures must therefore be conducted with the highest technical standards using state-of-the-art measurement approaches.

The seminar video is online now

As team from the Department of Water and River Management from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) together with partners from the Georgian Technical University (GTU) and Tbilisi State University (TSU) we organized a joined workshop with the title “Towards Sustainable Sediment Management of Catchments and Reservoirs”.

The workshop took place from 24.09-28.09.2023 in Postko Esteri in direct vicinity to the Enguri Dam. We (Andreas Kron, Stephan Hilgert and Klajdi Sotiri) presented a global perspective on reservoirs in the context of sediment management, State-of-the-Art sediment detection methods, hydrodynamic modeling approaches and we organized a field trip including a bathymetric and seismic surveys on the Enguri reservoir as well as hydrometric measurements at the Enguri River.

The workshop took place in the frame of the DAMAST-Transfer project and was supported by the DAAD. Further information about the workshop and the project can be found at https://www.damast-caucasus.de/

In July 2023, Michael Ritzmann celebrated 40 years of service at KIT.

On this occasion, Mário Franca presented him with the certificate of thanks signed by Ministerpräsident Winfried Kretschmann.

The entire institute congratulates.

Riverscapes are highly dynamic systems hosting a plethora of physical, ecological, and biochemical processes.

Anthropogenic alterations, such as channelization and hydropower production, together with global warming pose increasing challenges to river scientists and managers for the mitigation of natural hazards but also for the conservation and adaptation of river ecosystems.

The seminar video is online now

Experts from Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria visited the IWG field laboratory in Pfinztal on July 18, 2023 as part of a cross-border exchange on the subject of "flash flood management".

The setup, financed by the state of BW, enables a highly detailed analysis of the hydraulic processes on natural slopes during flash floods.

The knowledge gained serves to improve 2D numerical flow models for determining flood hazard and risk maps.

From 29 May to 1 June, students from KIT participated in the Water Science and Engineering Pfingstexkursion which included visits to the dam and water supply system of Kleine Kinzig, dam and power house of Linach, flood retention basin of Wolterdingen, restoration project of the source of the Danube, water abstraction and treatment plant of Lake Constance, Albbruck-Dogern power plant on the Rhine and Hornberg pump storage scheme (1 GW).

Under expert guidance, the students had the opportunity to visit and discuss thoroughly these large scale projects. The excursion was a success as the students learned in detail about all the phases of relevant projects of water technology.

On 27.04.23 M.Sc. Katrin Trautwein and M.Sc. Christin Kannen presented the profession of an hydraulic engineer as part of Girlsday 2023.

15 girls at the age of 9-16 years could get an insight into the profession of a researcher and hydraulic engineer. Katrin presented the project KaWaTech in Vietnam and Christin reported about a research project on hydromorphological modelling of scour processes.

Afterwards, we had a tour through our lab and the girls could experiment themselves at our morphodynamic flume facility and see the interaction of water and sediment in a river.

Why should we study how plastics are transported in rivers? Dr. Daniel Valero (KIT-IWG) answers this question in Deutschlandfunk radio and talks about some results from our recent investigations.

From Tuesday, May 30th, 2023 to Thursday, June 1st, 2023, the “Water and Environment” department will be offering an excursion on the subject of “Water Resources Management in Baden-Württemberg”.

On March 31, 2023, Prof. Laurent Schmitt from the University of Strasbourg visited the IWG.

His research interest lies in the field of river morphology, river revitalization and alluvial geoarchaeology. In this context he participates in many projects along the Rhine on the French side. The visit to the IWG marked the beginning of a planned intensified cooperation with the IWG.

In connection with his visit, Prof. Schmitt gave a lecture on the topic "Navigation, hydropower, sediment legacies, functional restoration and transboundary management of the Upper Rhine" in the lecture series of the IWG (Seminar@IWG-WB).

A new working group was established by DWA called "Quality Management in the Use of Multidimensional Flow Models."

A new DWA working group was formed on February 15, 2023, at KIT-IWG, comprising of experts from administration, consulting companies, model developers, and users. Dr. Peter Oberle, a member of the DWA Hydraulics Expert Committee, has been appointed as the spokesperson. The aim of the group is to establish standardized procedures that ensure the qualified use of (2D in particular) flow models in water management practice.

On the outdoor laboratory, the hydraulic runoff processes of thin layer surface runoff on natural surfaces are analyzed as part of the "WiPaD" project on behalf of the LUBW.

Based on these investigations, new insights will be gained for the calculation of heavy rain risk maps.

Within the BMBF-funded project KaWaTech Solutions researchers and technicians from KIT-IWG together with KSB AG completed successfully the implementation of a pilot water pumping system based on hydro power and photovoltaic.

It secures the water supply for more then 10.000 people in the Dong Van district and in future will be operated by the local water administration.

The R&D efforts serve as an initial basis for the implementation of similar systems in water scarce areas worldwide.

This year annual colloquium of IAHR Baden-Württemberg YPN was held on November 04th 2022 at the Universität Stuttgart.

Young scientists and professionals from research institutions within Baden-Württemberg have come and shared their works and visions contribute to “Sustainable Water management: Challenges for the next generation” – this year highlight.

Prof. Mário Franca gave his lecture in professional forum, while M.Sc. Dan Trinh’s presentation was one of the two honorable mentions in young professional forum.

The seminar video is online now.

Conference “Monitoring for High Dam Lifetime: Reliable Supply of Water and Electricity in times of Decarbonization” , 15.-17.09.2022, Tbilisi (Georgia).

The conference highlighted the major results and further aims of the DAMAST project that were reached during the co-operation between georgian and german scientists. During the field trip, representatives of the German embassy and the BMBF were able to inform themselves about the research work on site.

During her visit to KIT on September 5, 2022, Regierungspräsidentin Sylvia M. Felder (RP Karlsruhe) informed herself also about ongoing institutes research projects in the field of floods events.

After an introduction of KIT by President Prof. Dr. Holger Hanselka and of Division IV - Natural and Built Environment - by the head Prof. Dr. Johannes Orphal, Dr. Andreas Kron presented the institute with current research topics.

Afterwards, M.Sc. Christin Kannen guided the group through the hydraulic lab and explained various model experiments.

On July 6/7, 2022, after a two-year break from Corona, a Gesinus meeting (GErman-SINoUnsteadySediment transport group) was held again.

As always, with presentations of actual Research projects, interesting technical discussions and opportunities for personal exchange.

Photography by Michael Hils/BfG

The case of the Old Rhine River downstream of the Kembs dams (France/Germany).

The seminar video is online now.

As part of the Tour de PhD, 18 PhD students from Wageningen University came to visit KIT. In the morning, research topics were presented and a discussion was held. Afterwards, guided tours were offered in the Theodor Rehbock Laboratory and in the hydraulic engineering laboratory of the IfH. After lunch the group took a walk across Karlsruhe Castle to the BAW. Here, the BAW laboratories were shown in a guided tour. The day was then concluded with a joint dinner at the Badisches Brauhaus.