Head:
Address:
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Institute of Water and River Basin Management
- Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resources Management -
Kaiserstrasse 12
76131 Karlsruhe
Phone: +49 (0)721 - 608-44418
Email: wasserbau∂iwg.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.
The institute has a long portfolio in engineering and water management projects, which benefits the education of engineering, provides relevance for the scientific activities and inspires fundamental research. This was accomplished thanks to an excellent infrastructure which includes the world renown Theodor-Rehbock hydraulics laboratory and modern numerical means.
The group aims at continuing the tradition of excellence in hydraulic engineering and water resources management brought by its former directors for more than 100 years: Prof. Franz Nestmann (1994-2021), Prof. Peter Larsen (1983-1994), Prof. Emil Mosonyi (1965-1982), Prof. Heinrich Wittmann (1934-1965) and Prof. Theodor Rehbock (1899-1933).

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.

This talk explores the connectivity of river networks in a human-built hydro-environment.
The seminar video is online now
Link to the seminar PDF file
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.
1st Webinar: Assessment of sedimentation in Enguri Reservoir
The seminar video is online now.
Link to the seminar PDF file
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”.
More information about the program and registration can be found here
On the initiative of the Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute (BAW), experts in the field of experimental hydraulics have been meeting regularly for international expert workshops since 2015. This year's meeting took place on April 3rd and 4th in Karlsruhe. The organizers were the BAW and the IWG at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).
Read the current press release here (in german)