Department Urban Water Management

Our research focuses on solution-oriented engineering of the urban water system using an interdisciplinary approach. In view of urbanization and climate change, we incorporate aspects of ecology, society and the economy. Ultimately, we study fundamental aspects of infrastructure and water and pollutant flows to transition towards a more sustainable and resilient urban water management. To achieve this, we investigate precipitation, surface runoff, hydraulic loading in sewers, and pollution sources to inform how existing infrastructure can be optimized or where alternative concepts are required, such as circular and integrated water management,  blue-green infrastructure, and data-driven approaches. Our work leads naturally to the investigation of climate change adaptation including abating urban heat and floods, limiting biodiversity loss and facilitating water reuse. Understanding processes during in-sewer transport is also important to study environmental and human health risk through wastewater-based epidemiology.

With our interdisciplinary research and our commitment to open science and transferring new insights into practice, we contribute to the sustainable development goals, especially SDG 6 and SDG 11. If you want to collaborate with us or do your Bachelor, Master or PhD thesis in a lively, inspiring and respectful environment, you can find more details on the group websites:

• Infrastructure transition
• Urban floods & hydro-informatics
• Wastewater-based epidemiology
• Multifunctional blue-green design
• Intelligent network operations
• Stormwater quality and reuse
• Systems transformation